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Former Vice President Kamala Harris this week blasted President Donald Trump for the surge in gas prices triggered by the U.S. war with Iran.
But four years ago, the then-vice president said that soaring gas prices sparked in part by the Russian invasion of Ukraine were the “price to pay for democracy.”
“Here in North Carolina and around the country, gas prices are too high,” Harris wrote this week in a social media post. “This is a direct result of Donald Trump’s war of choice in Iran, and the American people are paying the price.”
The Wednesday post featured a video of Harris delivering remarks while standing outside in front of a sign displaying fuel prices at a gas station in North Carolina.
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“We’ve got a president who is paying more attention to what he thinks is in his best political interests and personal interests, as opposed to what is in the best interest of working people in America,” Harris declared at the end of the brief video.
The average price of regular gasoline surged to over $4 per gallon following the U.S. and Israeli attacks on Iran, which were launched on Feb. 28. Iran’s military has been decimated, and Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and other top Iranian officials were killed during the month-and-a-half-long war.
In response, Iran targeted energy facilities with missile and drone attacks in a number of Persian Gulf nations. It has also made the Strait of Hormuz nearly impassable to commercial shipping, bringing roughly 20% of the world’s oil supply to a halt and sending global fuel prices sharply higher.
Trump’s attacks on Iran have provided Democrats with political ammunition amid their focus on affordability and persistent inflation. The issue has also boosted them to overperformance at the ballot box in two special congressional elections this month.
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The attacks have also upset some in Trump’s MAGA base, who feel the president has broken his 2024 campaign promise to avoid foreign military entanglements.
The current gas prices in the U.S. are the highest in four years.
Speaking during a press conference in Bucharest, Romania during that gas price surge in 2022 during the early months of the Russia-Ukraine war, Harris said the U.S. was “committed in everything we are doing” in support of Ukraine.
“And yes, the president did say in the State of the Union, there is a price to pay for democracy — got to stand with your friends — and as everybody knows, even in your personal life, being loyal to those friendships based on common principles and values, sometimes, it’s difficult — often, it ain’t easy.”
“But that is what the friendship is about — shared values,” Harris said. “So that’s what we’re doing.”
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Republicans at the time blamed then-President Joe Biden’s administration for the high gas prices, just as Democrats are now blaming Trump.
But a major difference in the two situations is that while Trump ordered the U.S. strikes on Iran, the Biden administration came to Ukraine’s aid after Russian launched a widescale military invasion.
The White House at the time repeatedly blamed Russian leader Vladimir Putin for record-high gas prices in the U.S., even coining the surge the “#PutinPriceHike” and vowing that Biden would do everything he could to shield Americans from “pain at the pump.”
But Trump and Republicans capitalized on inflation, using it as a key issue in the sweeping 2024 election victories, when they won back the White House and Senate and held their House majority.
Democrats are hoping to turn the tables in this year’s midterm elections by spotlighting affordability as they aim to flip the House and Senate.
And Harris, who lost to Trump in the 2024 election after replacing Biden as the Democratic Party’s nominee, has left the door wide open to a 2028 White Houser run.
The White House pushed back against this week’s jab from Harris.
In a statement to Fox News Digital, White House spokeswoman Taylor Rogers argued, “No one cares or believes what Kamala Harris says because Americans remember the economic pain caused by the Biden-Harris administration’s very unpopular and costly Green New Scam. Kamala’s anti-energy dominance agenda sent electricity prices soaring more than 30 percent in just four years, and the average gas price across the country skyrocketed to $5 in just one year.”
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