White House hits back at Jeff Bezos, saying it's 'not surprising' he thinks oil and gas companies should 'reap record profits at the expense of the American people'

The White House criticized Jeff Bezos after the billionaire Amazon founder accused President Joe Biden of missing the mark on why gas prices are high.

Biden sent a tweet on Saturday suggesting gas sellers were taking advantage of the war in Ukraine by setting unnecessarily high gas prices.

"My message to the companies running gas stations and setting prices at the pump is simple: this is a time of war and global peril," Biden said. "Bring down the price you are charging at the pump to reflect the cost you're paying for the product. And do it now."

Bezos responded critically to the president, writing in a retweet: "Ouch. Inflation is far too important a problem for the White House to keep making statements like this. It's either straight ahead misdirection or a deep misunderstanding of basic market dynamics."