White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki has been hit with some flak online after she answered a reporter’s question about a recent White House tweet.
The tweet in question, posted mere days before the United States celebrates Independence Day, boasts that “the cost of a 4 July cookout in 2021 is down $0.16 from last year.”
"Planning a cookout this year? Ketchup on the news. According to the Farm Bureau, the cost of a 4th of July BBQ is down from last year. It’s a fact you must-hear(d) – Hot dog, the Biden economic plan is working. And that’s something we can all relish," the tweet said.
While quite a few netizens appeared unamused by the tweet, Fox News White House correspondent Peter Doocy brought up the matter by asking Psaki whether the White House thinks that “$0.16 off a barbecue has more of an impact on people's lives than gas being a dollar more.”
As she conversed with the journalist, Psaki sought to clarify that the tweet was about “a reduction in some of the costs of key components" of barbecuing.
"I would say, if you don’t like hot dogs, you may not care of the reduction of cost. You don’t have to like hot dogs," Psaki said.
While Doocy remarked that one cannot “buy a hotdog for 16 cents,” Psaki went on to say: “I will say that what we are most focused on is the fact that we created now more than three million jobs since the president took office.”
Her remarks, however, did not appear to sit well with many social media users who were quick to bring up issues such as the price of fuel in the United States today.
The media outlet also notes that the data released by the Bureau of Economic Analysis last month shows “overall food prices rising 0.4 percent since March.”