Biden blames 'Putin's price hike,' says gas prices shouldn't depend on his committing 'genocide'

President Joe Biden traveled to Iowa Tuesday to announce new efforts to bring down gas prices for Americans as the annual rate of U.S. inflation came in at 8.5% in March.

President Joe Biden traveled to Iowa on Tuesday for his first time as president to announce new efforts to bring down gas prices as the administration faces an 8.5% jump in the consumer price index compared to a year ago, which it attributes mostly to what he called "Putin's Price Hike."

"Your family budget, your ability to fill up your tank, none of it should on hinge on whether a dictator declares war and commits genocide a half a world away," Biden said, appearing to ad lib that Russia's actions in Ukraine amount to "genocide" for the first time. The U.S. government has an internal process for designating whether genocide has occurred, and other Western nations haven't made the determination.

Biden was asked directly last week if he thought the atrocities in Bucha were genocide, as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy claimed, but responded at that time, "No, I think it is a war crime."

But on Tuesday, he said: "Yes, I called it genocide. Because it has become clearer and clearer that Putin is just trying to wipe out the idea of even being able to be a Ukrainian. And the evidence is mounting."