Jennifer Granholm is who the press said Rick Perry was

Fifty million barrels sounds impressive, but for this figure to mean anything, one must first know how many barrels of oil the United States consumes every day. One would think the energy secretary, of all people, would know this number, especially in preparation for a press conference detailing the White House’s strategic reserves announcement. But one would be wrong.

“How many barrels of oil does the U.S. consume per day?” asked a reporter.

Granholm responded, “I don’t have that number in front of me. Sorry.”

As the secretary of the Department of Energy, there were exactly two numbers Granholm needed to know going into her appearance this week before the White House press corps: The average number of barrels the U.S. produces every day and the average number of barrels it consumes every day.

Without knowing either or both of these numbers, how can the White House say with confidence 50 million barrels will help consumers at the pump? How did the White House even pick the number 50 million? The energy secretary can’t say!

“So, some suggest it’s about 18 million, which would suggest you’re releasing less than three days’ worth of supply from the Petroleum Reserve,” said the reporter. “Why is that enough?”

Responded Granholm, “Well, we — what we are doing plus what other countries may be doing, which will be less than what we’re doing because we have the largest amount of strategic petroleum reserves, we believe will be this bridge.”

This doesn’t answer the question.

This is very basic stuff, and the fact that Granholm doesn’t know the consumption figure off the top of her head, especially in the context of explaining the White House’s decision to tap into the strategic reserves, suggests she is every bit as unfit for the job as reporters falsely claimed Rick Perry was.

Remember that?

On Jan. 17, 2017, two days before former President Donald Trump’s inauguration, the New York Times reported incoming Energy Secretary Perry knew “almost nothing about” the agency’s basic duties, including its role in maintaining the nuclear arsenal.

The former governor was characterized as a hapless dimwit, one who found himself in a dangerous and confusing position after agreeing to a job he never fully understood in the first place. The press went wild, as reporters and pundits alike scurried under the blankets, praying for the bad, incompetent men to go away.

The report was complete nonsense. For starters, it relied on a single quote from a Trump campaign aide who was booted from the transition team before Perry was nominated. Secondly, the article’s lone source said later his remarks were badly misrepresented by the New York Times. Also, there are multiple on-the-record examples of Perry discussing the Department of Energy’s nuclear mission, including in 2011 when his presidential campaign outlined a plan to shutter the agency and roll the National Nuclear Security Administration into the Department of Defense.

Lastly, the New York Times article was absurd on its face. It asked readers to believe that Perry, the longest-serving chief executive of oil- and gas-rich Texas, “initially misunderstood” the duties of the office of energy secretary.

Yet, here’s Granholm drawing a blank during a press conference regarding the White House’s strategic reserves announcement on the average number of barrels consumed every day, and the same press that was “petrified” by Perry’s supposed incompetence have exactly nothing to say about it.

Rick Perry could probably tell you the average number of barrels consumed per day.

Then again, he’s not a Democrat serving a Democratic administration, so who cares what the truth is?