Karine Jean-Pierre's '$70 per Gallon' Mistake, and Other Statements of Hers That Proved Wrong (October 19, 2022)

On October 19, 2022, President Biden announced that he would release another 15 million barrels of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, completing the 180 million barrels he had announced earlier that year after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and that the government would refill the reserve by buying oil back when prices fell to about $67 to $72 a barrel [2][3]. At her briefing that afternoon, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre summarized the plan and got the unit wrong, saying the government would buy oil back at “around $70 per gallon.” The plan was $70 a barrel. This short clip shows that moment. Its title takes her words at face value: at $70 a gallon, a 42-gallon barrel would cost $2,940. It was not the only statement from her podium that failed to hold up, and this page also documents fourteen others, each checked against the official transcript and independent sources. Quotes are from official transcripts published by the American Presidency Project.

Key Moments

”Around $70 per gallon [barrel]”

“Today President Biden is taking further action to lower gas prices and promote energy security,” Jean-Pierre began. “He is releasing 15 million barrels of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to be delivered in December. He is directing the Department of Energy to be ready to move forward with additional releases of oil this winter if needed. And he announced that the administration intends to repurchase oil for the SPR when prices are around $70 per gallon [barrel].” The bracketed correction appears in the official transcript; what she said was “per gallon” [1].

”Down by $1.16 per gallon”

Jean-Pierre also credited the president’s actions with falling gas prices: “Gas prices fell at the fastest rate in over a decade this summer. They’ve dropped almost every week since June and are down by $1.16 per gallon on average.” She said the president was also calling on oil and gas companies to pass their savings on to consumers, arguing that industry margins were far above typical levels.

”Oil is trading at around $83 a barrel today”

Reporters pressed her on the buyback, and they used the correct unit. “On restocking the reserve when it hits $70 a barrel, oil is trading at around $83 a barrel today,” one asked. “What makes the President confident you’ll be able to buy back oil at that level?” Jean-Pierre answered that the release “was always meant to be a bridge … to greater supply.” Another reporter asked how long the reserve would be tapped. “The Strategic Petroleum Reserve remains the largest strategic reserve in the world,” she said. “There are more than 400 million barrels of oil in the reserve. … This is why the reserve exists.”

Background: Why the Reserve Was Being Drawn Down

The Strategic Petroleum Reserve is the government’s emergency oil stockpile, stored in underground salt caverns along the Gulf Coast [7]. After Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, Biden ordered 180 million barrels released [1], and gasoline prices peaked at a national average of $5.006 a gallon in the week of June 13, 2022, according to the Energy Information Administration [4]. The buyback plan was meant to refill the reserve at a lower price than the oil had been sold for, and the Energy Department later described its purchases as “a good deal for taxpayers” [6].

Fact Check: The October 19 Briefing

“$70 per gallon.” Wrong. The White House’s own fact sheet said the government would repurchase oil “when prices are at or below about $67-$72 per barrel” [2]. A barrel of crude oil is 42 U.S. gallons [8], so $70 a barrel works out to about $1.67 a gallon of crude, not $70.
Gas prices “down by $1.16 per gallon.” Close. EIA’s weekly average for regular gasoline fell from $5.006 in the week of June 13 to $3.871 in the week of October 17, a drop of about $1.14 [4].
“More than 400 million barrels.” Accurate at the time. EIA data show the reserve held about 405 million barrels on October 14, 2022; it slipped below 400 million by the end of that month [5].

Other Jean-Pierre Statements That Proved Wrong

Jean-Pierre served as White House press secretary from May 2022 until January 20, 2025 [22][23]. These are other statements from her briefings that the record contradicted. Some were factual errors; others were assurances that later events overturned. Each quote is from the official transcript.

”Twenty million people were on unemployment insurance benefits” (June 13, 2022)

Defending the American Rescue Plan against claims that it fueled inflation, she said that when Biden took office, “the economy was at a standstill. Schools were closed. Businesses were shutting down. Twenty million people were on unemployment insurance benefits” [10]. PolitiFact rated the statement False. Unemployment had peaked at about 23 million in April 2020, nine months before Biden took office; by January 2021, the number of unemployed Americans had fallen to 10.2 million, and on the eve of the inauguration fewer than 4.9 million were collecting continuing unemployment benefits, less than a quarter of her figure [11].

Overturning Roe v. Wade was “an unconstitutional action” (August 3, 2022)

Discussing the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, she said: “It was an unconstitu- — unconstitutional action by them” [12]. PolitiFact rated that False: legal scholars said the justices clearly had the authority under the Constitution to rule as they did, even for those who disagree with the decision. The White House told PolitiFact that Jean-Pierre misspoke [13].

”Naming a post office in her memory” (September 30, 2022)

Asked whether President Biden had signed the bill honoring Rep. Jackie Walorski, the Indiana congresswoman he had called for at a White House conference two days earlier, weeks after her death, Jean-Pierre said he “is signing the bill naming a post office in her memory” [32]. The law, H.R. 8656, “designates the clinic of the Department of Veterans Affairs in Mishawaka, Indiana, as the Jackie Walorski VA Clinic” [33]. Two days earlier she had described it correctly, as “renaming a VA clinic in Indiana.” (See our article on the “Where’s Jackie?” briefing.)

”More than 9,000 approved drilling permits remain untapped” (October 19, 2022)

In the same briefing as her “$70 per gallon” slip, she blamed the oil industry for high prices: “oil companies are raking in record profits while more than 9,000 approved drilling permits remain untapped by the oil industry” [1]. In February 2023, the Bureau of Land Management cut its count of approved but unused permits from about 9,000 to fewer than 6,700, citing “a reporting discrepancy resulting from a transition to a new database in mid-2020,” Fox News reported. The White House had cited the 9,000 figure at least 20 times in 2022 [45].

”Brought gas prices down by $1.25” (November 7, 2022)

Asked whether it was time for a pivot after more than a year of promises to bring down costs, she said she disagreed, pointing to the oil reserve: “he tapped into the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, which was a historic action. And because of that, and it has been proven by data, that that action that he took has brought gas prices down by $1.25” [43]. The Treasury Department’s own analysis, published that July, found that the reserve release, together with those of international partners, “lowered the price of gasoline by 17 cents to 42 cents per gallon” [44]. Gas had fallen about $1.21 from its June peak by the week of her briefing, according to EIA, a drop with many causes, not the reserve alone [4].

”The search is clearly complete” (January 12, 2023)

Asked about the classified documents found at Biden’s former office in Washington and his Delaware home, she said: “He did not know — right? — he did not know the records were there. He was surprised that the records were there.” Earlier in the same briefing, she said the lawyers’ search of Biden’s Wilmington home “was completed last night,” adding: “the search is clearly complete” [24]. That evening, a White House lawyer went to the house to hand a document to Justice Department officials, and “five additional pages with classification markings were discovered,” he disclosed two days later; an FBI search of the house on January 20 found six more items with classification markings [26][27]. The special counsel later concluded that the documents at the office were likely kept there by mistake, but found “evidence that President Biden willfully retained and disclosed classified materials after his vice presidency,” including marked documents about Afghanistan found in his Delaware garage [25]. (See our article on her January 2023 answers about the documents.)

”Prior or post?” (February 6, 2023)

Two days after the U.S. shot down a Chinese surveillance balloon, she was asked whether others had been identified under Biden. “I don’t have any specific on any other balloon during … this President’s administration,” she said; in her next answer she acknowledged one, “once that we know of the beginning of this administration’s.” Asked how three earlier flights under President Trump had been discovered, she said the information “was discovered prior to the admin- — administration left,” then, when a reporter asked “Prior or post?”, corrected herself: “Sorry, post.” Moments later she said: “we learned of this, the three prior, during the past administration” [28]. A senior administration official had said the flights were not discovered until after Trump left office [29]. (See our article on that briefing.)

”We will not negotiate” (April 27, 2023)

Asked whether the White House would talk with House Republicans about the debt ceiling only if they sent a “clean bill,” she said: “I mean, I’ve been very clear: Without conditions we’ll — we will not negotiate” [30]. A month earlier she had put it more plainly: “There should be no negotiations. … We should not be negotiating on the debt ceiling” [34]. The standoff ended after “weeks of intense negotiations between the White House and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy,” and on June 3 Biden signed a law that suspended the debt limit and restricted government spending, the AP reported [31]. (See our article on that briefing.)

”The lowest rate it has been in almost two years, since May 2020” (May 3, 2023)

Listing the administration’s inflation statistics on the day of a Federal Reserve rate increase, Jean-Pierre said: “Inflation is at the lowest rate it has been in almost two years, since May 2020” [37]. The Bureau of Labor Statistics had reported that March’s 5.0 percent was “the smallest 12-month increase since the period ending May 2021” [38]. Her other figures that day, including a 45 percent drop in inflation from its peak and the first fall in grocery prices since September 2020, checked out. (See our article on that briefing.)

”We do everything that we can to uphold … the Hatch Act” (June 13, 2023)

Days after the U.S. Office of Special Counsel found that her repeated references to “MAGA Republicans” before the 2022 midterms violated the Hatch Act, Jean-Pierre said the administration does “everything that we can to uphold, certainly, the Hatch Act,” and called the finding “retroactive” [41]. The special counsel’s letter said that “because Ms. Jean-Pierre made the statements while acting in her official capacity, she violated the Hatch Act prohibition against using her official authority or influence for the purpose of interfering with or affecting the result of an election”; it issued a warning rather than seeking discipline, noting that the White House Counsel’s Office had not believed at the time that her remarks were prohibited [42]. (See our article on her Hatch Act briefings.)

”They were not here Friday” (July 7, 2023)

Asked whether the bag of cocaine found in a West Wing vestibule on Sunday, July 2, belonged to the Biden family, Jean-Pierre said the family “were at Camp David. They were not here Friday. They were not here Saturday. They were not here Sunday,” and called the question “incredibly irresponsible” [39]. The White House press pool had reported on Friday, June 30, that “Poolers saw Jill Biden, Baby Beau and Hunter Biden climb into presidential SUV. President Biden followed a few minutes later. Motorcade rolling to Fort McNair as of 6:34p,” before Marine One left for Camp David [40]. Two days earlier she had also said “We have confidence that the Secret Service will get to the bottom of this” [35]; on July 13, the Secret Service closed its investigation “due to a lack of physical evidence” without identifying anyone [36]. (See our article on her cocaine briefings.)

”The elimination of 2,000 Border Patrol agents” (January 17, 2024)

A reporter asked why the White House kept saying House Republicans had voted to cut Border Patrol agents after the Washington Post’s Fact Checker gave the claim Three Pinocchios. “We don’t believe it’s a false claim,” she said, and repeated that a House bill “would have forced the elimination of 2,000 Border Patrol agents” [14]. The Post’s Glenn Kessler had found that the number was “not based on an actual vote on the Homeland Security budget” but was “a White House estimate on the impact of a bill the House passed in 2023 as an opening bid in budget talks,” and that “the House in September passed an appropriations bill that funded an additional 1,795 Border Patrol agents” [15][16].

The Eagle Pass drownings (January 17, 2024)

At the same briefing, a reporter asked whether the White House would amend a statement saying that “Texas officials blocked U.S. Border Patrol from attempting to provide emergency assistance” when a woman and two children drowned near Eagle Pass, Texas. Jean-Pierre stood by it: “Our statement is consistent with DOJ’s filing” [14]. But in that filing, CBS News reported, the Justice Department told the Supreme Court that “the three migrant drownings had already occurred when Border Patrol requested access to Shelby Park to help other migrants,” while saying it was “impossible to say what might have happened” had agents kept their former access. CBS updated its own story to reflect the filing [17].

”It’s still no” on a pardon for Hunter Biden (2024)

At a September 5, 2024, press gaggle aboard Air Force One, asked whether Hunter Biden’s guilty plea changed the president’s thinking about a pardon, she said: “it’s no. It’s still no.” A commutation, she said, was “also no” [18]. On November 7, after the election, she said: “We’ve been asked that question multiple times. Our answer stands, which is no” [19]. On December 1, Biden issued a statement that began: “Today I signed a pardon for my son Hunter” [20]. At her December 6 briefing, a reporter reminded her that she had said in July, “It’s a no. It will be a no. It’s a no,” and asked why that information “turned out not to be true.” She replied that the president “wrestled with this” and that “circumstances have changed” [21].

What Happened Next

The buyback: The Energy Department reported in September 2024 that it had “directly purchased over 50 million barrels of oil for the SPR at an average price of about $76 per barrel,” which it said was “nearly $20 per barrel lower than the $95 average sales price for 2022’s emergency sales” [6]. That average was above the $67-to-$72 range in the original plan.
The reserve’s level: The stockpile fell to about 347 million barrels in July 2023 and was rebuilt to about 395 million by January 2025 [5].
A new release: In March 2026, the Trump administration authorized a 172-million-barrel emergency release as part of a coordinated international effort [9], and by October 2026 the reserve held about 283 million barrels [5] (see our article on the 2023 fight over the reserve).
Jean-Pierre: She left the White House when Biden’s term ended. “Until January 20, I was responsible for speaking on behalf of the president of the United States,” she said in a June 2025 statement [23].