Inflation hit another 40-year high on Friday, with the annualized rate rising by 8.6 percent in May. That quickly put an end to the predictions–from a month earlier–that inflation was slowing and was perhaps on its way down.

Joe Biden, likely having scheduled the speech prior to getting the numbers, appeared in Los Angeles to discuss the issue. Things eventually got weird, when the president wasn’t just flatly lying to the American people.

Let’s start with some of his economic claims, including the idea that the current inflationary boom is the fault of Vladimir Putin.

BIDEN: "We've never seen anything like Putin's tax on both food and gas." pic.twitter.com/pKsZ9N8qMq

— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) June 10, 2022

Perhaps Biden doesn’t realize the internet exists, giving us the ability to search past inflation data, but it is completely false to suggest that inflation is a result of Russia invading Ukraine. February’s inflation rate was 7.9 percent. Even if you go back another month, January’s rate was 7.5 percent. December’s was also above 7 percent. While those rates were lower than May’s 8.6 percent, there’s no denying that inflation was already very high and out of control prior to Putin making his move into Eastern Europe.

Not content with lying about that, though, Biden also told a fib about core inflation.

Biden wrongly states that core inflation over the last 2 months has "moderated, has gone down"

Core CPI went from .3% in March to .6% in April, then stayed at .6% in May.

— Jacqui Heinrich (@JacquiHeinrich) June 10, 2022

Of course, the president talked about January 6th and the “MAGA gang.” Apparently, Trump supporters have been downgraded from “Ultra MAGA” — so, sorry about that. I won’t belabor the former topic (I’ve had enough January 6th talk for one day), but it is worth noting just how cowardly Biden is when it comes to taking responsibility for higher prices.

BIDEN: "This is the MAGA gang…They have a fundamentally different view of the role of government and who should pay what." pic.twitter.com/paXLpIUmKr

— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) June 10, 2022

Actually, most Republicans are perfectly fine with people and corporations paying taxes. In fact, the United States has the most progressive tax system in the world, with the upper echelon of earners paying the vast majority of tax revenue. But Republicans also understand that shouting at corporations for simply responding to market forces is not an economic strategy, it’s pathetic.

Despite Biden’s assertions in his speech, gas prices are not up because of greedy oil companies. Shipping costs are not up because of greedy shipping companies. Those prices are up because of the horrible monetary policy of the Biden administration. Spending $2 trillion out of the gate–when the economy was already overheated–was a recipe for disaster, and now the president has stuck you with the bill. In the face of that crisis, instead of being a leader, Biden continues to mumble falsely about Russia and bash oil companies.

Moving on, I promised you some weirdness and there was this from Biden, where he talked about wanting to punch his political opponents… after breathing heavily into the mic.

??? pic.twitter.com/UMRoZ9xrZh

— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) June 10, 2022

That comment came just days after a rabid leftist tried to assassinate Justice Brett Kavanaugh, but as I’ve noted many times, Democrats don’t play by their own rules. Watching Biden in that clip, you could see him trying to process whether he should say what he eventually said. He made the wrong choice.

I’d suggest his handlers get a hold of him, but we are talking about the same people who came up with the idea to blame long-standing inflation on Putin. It’s clear there’s no one with any political sentience actually serving in the administration, and that’s going to cost them bigtime soon enough.