President Joe Biden is making a change before he leaves the presidency that could saddle President-elect Donald Trump’s administration with higher gas prices.
He waited until now to enact new sanctions against Russia that are likely to raise prices at the pump as Trump prepares to take back the White House, and he would not answer questions about his reasons for it.
A reporter asked him at the press conferences why he waited so long to impose the sanctions, and did it right before Trump regained the presidency.
“Mr. President, you talked about gas prices coming down. You made today’s decision about sanctions against Russia. Are you concerned that that decision will perhaps lead to gas prices going up? And can you explain why those sanctions were imposed today and not earlier in the term?” the reporter said.
“The sanctions are imposed today because they will have a profound effect on the growth of the Russian economy and make it more difficult for Putin to conduct his wars,” the president said.
“It is probable that gas prices could increase as much as three, four cents a gallon. But what’s going to have a more profound impact on Russia’s ability to continue to act in the way it’s acting in a conduct of war,” she said.
Reuters’s @JeffMason1: “Mr. President, you talked about gas prices coming down. You made today’s decision about sanctions against Russia. Are you concerned that that decision will perhaps lead to gas prices going up? And can you explain why those sanctions were imposed today and… pic.twitter.com/cN1vGTseyE
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) January 10, 2025
It is not the only last-minute decision that the president has been criticized for.
Fox News hosts expressed concern over President Joe Biden’s decision to commute the sentence of a controversial judge involved in the notorious “kids for cash” scandal.
Michael T. Conahan, a former judge from Luzerne County, Pa., was among the 1,500 individuals who had their sentences commuted by Biden this week. Additionally, the president granted 39 pardons to non-violent offenders.
Conahan, however, has garnered the most attention due to his central role in the “kids for cash” scheme, in which he received kickbacks from private prisons in exchange for sentencing juveniles to detention.
Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro (D) criticized President Biden’s decision regarding Michael Conahan, stating this week at an event that Biden got it “absolutely wrong” in Conahan’s case. According to the White House, Conahan met specific criteria for sentence commutation due to his placement on home confinement during the COVID pandemic. Conahan, who was convicted in 2011, had been sentenced to over 17 years in prison but is now free.
Pittsburgh columnist Salena Zito appeared on Fox News Saturday morning, where she spoke with Will Cain about Michael Conahan’s crime, describing it as a “profound scandal” in Pennsylvania.
Zito highlighted some of the devastating consequences of Conahan’s actions, including the tragic suicide of a young man who was sentenced to a juvenile detention center by Conahan as part of his scheme.
“This had a devastating impact on families,” Zito said.
“Conahan‘s actions destroyed families, including mine, and my son‘s death is a tragic reminder of the consequences of his abuse of power,” Sandy Fonzo, the mother of the young man who took his own life, said in a statement in response to Biden’s action.
“So real consequences for what this individual did, to try and get money off of the lives of children,” Fox co-host Carley Shimkus said on Saturday.
“It’s beyond disgusting,” co-host Kevin Corke added. “And when she said vulgar, that really resonates with a lot of Pennsylvanians, but even if you’re not from the keystone state and you hear about this story — and there have been some stories done on this particular case on some of the major networks, you see these crime stories and they say, here’s who was so callous as to take advantage of the most vulnerable among us.”
He added: “We’re talking about children here. And to do it for money is beyond the pale.”
