One of the Republican Party’s propaganda narratives being driven on Fox News these days is that it is Pres. Obama’s fault that gas prices are rising. Actually, it’s even worse — Fox is pushing the idea that the president wants gas prices to rise.

This issue came up during the president’s news conference yesterday in this exchange with Ed Henry, the GOP-Foxbot embedded in the White House press corps:

FOXBOT: Related to Iran and Israel, you have expressed concern about this “loose talk of war,” as you call it, driving up gas prices further. Your critics will say on Capitol Hill that you want gas prices to go higher, because you have said before that will wean the American people off fossil fuels onto renewable fuels. How do you respond to that?

PRES. OBAMA: Ed, just from a political perspective, do you think the president of the United States going into reelection wants gas prices to go up higher? Is that — Is there anybody here [in the White House press corps] who thinks that makes a lot of sense?

It is unlikely that that exchange made it onto the air on Fox News yesterday, which could explain why, in his concession speech last night after losing all the Super Tuesday primaries but one, Newt Gingrich felt free to lie about what the president said:

NEWT GINGRICH: And I thought today, in one of the most shallow and self-serving comments by a president that I’ve heard in a long time, he was candid in his press conference. He said, “You know, I’m really worried about higher gas prices because it will make it harder for me to get re-elected.”

I did not make this up.

Actually, Newt, you did.

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