evidence: If Your Time is short • When Biden was inaugurated in January 2021, the nationwide average price of gasoline was about $2.46 per gallon. Gasoline prices did exceed $5, but that peak came more than a year later in June 2022. High gasoline prices have been a political challenge for President Joe Biden and Democrats in this midterm election year. During an Oct. 27 visit to Syracuse, New York, Biden flubbed a statistic on gas prices, prompting a swarm of criticism among political commentators and on social media. "Today, the most common price of gas in America is $3.39, down from over $5 when I took office," Biden said in remarks about microchip manufacturing in Syracuse.