President Joe Biden on Tuesday acknowledged that U.S. gas prices may keep rising due to his sanctions on Russian assets, saying that “defending freedom will have costs. “As I said last week, defending freedom will have costs for us as well and here at home. We need to be honest about that,” Biden said at the White House. “But as we do this, I’m going to take robust action to make sure the pain of our sanctions is targeted at [the] Russian economy, not ours,” he continued. Since taking office last year, gas prices have steadily risen across the United States, reaching close to $5 per gallon in some areas. His critics have said that the price influx is, in part, because he shut down the Keystone XL Pipeline and wouldn’t renew drilling leases as the administration has pushed for electric vehicles. The president said that he will try to come …