Fact check: Republican House leader Kevin McCarthy makes at least 5 false claims in 7-minute Fox News interview
McCarthy uttered inaccurate statements to host Maria Bartiromo about a wide variety of topics — oil prices, inflation, prisoners released in Afghanistan, the behavior of Democratic state legislators, and the content of an elections bill supported by congressional Democrats.
Here is a fact check.
Trying to liken President Joe Biden’s tenure to the 1970s era of former President Jimmy Carter, which was beset by inflation and oil-related challenges, McCarthy claimed that oil prices are now “the highest that we have seen.”
Facts First: McCarthy was wrong. Oil prices under Biden are not even close to the highest we have ever seen. Crude prices peaked in 2008 under Republican President George W. Bush — more than double their level at the time McCarthy’s interview aired Sunday. Crude prices were also higher at various points under Republican President Donald Trump than they were on Sunday.
On the Friday before McCarthy made this claim, the price of benchmark Brent crude fell below $66 a barrel. That is less than half of the all-time high of more than $147 a barrel in 2008. Further, Brent crude was well above $66 a barrel at various points in 2018 and 2019 under Trump, briefly exceeding $84.
At under $63, West Texas Intermediate crude, a US benchmark, was also going Friday for less than half of its 2008 peak and for less than it did on various days under Trump; it briefly topped $75 under Trump. (The prices of both Brent and
