CNBC anchor Joe Kernen sparred with House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA) on Thursday morning, after Scalise made a number of false claims about inflation and gas prices under the Trump administration vs the Biden administration.
"Prediction markets aren't friendly to the GOP's chances for holding the House," said Kernen. "Do you think there's any way that your party holds on in November to the House?"
"Absolutely," said Scalise. "And look, it's a path that is focused on turnout, number one, and delivery. What we've delivered to finally start turning around this mess that we inherited a year and a half ago. People will remember that two years ago, we were paying almost $6 a gallon for gasoline. Right now it's in the $3s. Obviously we've seen a jump with the Iran conflict, but it's still—"
"When were we paying $6?" Kernen cut in.
"Two and a half years ago," said Scalise. "We're over 30 percent below where we were two years ago ... it's still going to go lower when Iran gets resolved."
"That wasn't the average price," said Kernen. "We are actually above where we were then. Two years ago the average was $3.65."
This comes as the latest war developments have pushed gas prices into such a steep rise that even analysts' computer tracking systems were glitching out on Wednesday.