Former Vice President Kamala Harris this week criticized President Donald Trump for raising gas prices because of the US war with Iran.
But four years ago, the then vice president said rising gas prices due to Russian aggression in Ukraine were “the price to pay for democracy.”
“Here in North Carolina and across the country, gas prices are too high,” Harris wrote this week. Social media post. “This is a direct result of Donald Trump’s war of choice on Iran, and the American people are paying the price.”
The Post on Wednesday featured video of Harris making the comments while standing in front of a sign displaying fuel prices at a gas station in North Carolina.
Harris stops in a major presidential primary state, leaving the door open for a 2028 run
Former Vice President Kamala Harris, center, speaks with patrons during a stop at Crave Restaurant before a South Carolina Democratic Party fundraiser, Wednesday, April 15, 2026, in Greenville, SC.
(AP Newsroom)
“We’ve got a president who is more concerned with what he thinks is his best political interest and personal self-interest versus the best interest of working people in America,” Harris declared at the end of the brief video.
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The average price of regular gasoline has reached $4 per gallon since the February 28 attack on Iran by the US and Israel. Iran’s military has been decimated and Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and other top Iranian officials have been killed in a month-and-a-half-long war.
In response, Iran targeted energy facilities in several Persian Gulf states with missile and drone strikes. This has made the Strait of Hormuz almost impassable to commercial shipping, blocking about 20% of the world’s oil supply and sending global fuel prices sharply higher.
Trump’s attack on Iran has given Democrats a political weapon as they focus on affordability and persistent inflation. The issue has also encouraged them to show up at the ballot box in two special congressional elections this month.
Democrats Hit $4 Per Gallon Gas – Blame Trump’s Iran War For ‘Broken Promise’
Gen. Dan Kaine, right, wants to keep some details of the historic rescue secret to protect future missions after President Donald Trump and War Secretary Pete Hegseth, center, vowed two heavy days of bombing in Iran to come.
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.
Current gas prices in the US are at their highest in four years.
Speaking at a news conference in Bucharest, Romania, as gas prices rose in 2022 in the early months of the Russia-Ukraine war, Harris said the US was “committed to everything we’re doing” in support of Ukraine.
“And yes, the president said in the State of the Union, there is a price to pay for democracy – to stand with your friends – and as everyone knows, even in your personal life, to be loyal to those friendships based on shared principles and values, sometimes, it’s hard – often, it’s not easy.”
“But friendship is about shared values,” Harris said. “So that’s what we’re doing.”
Fox Business: Oil prices fall after direct reopening of Hormuz
Republicans blamed then-President Joe Biden’s administration for high gas prices, just as Democrats are now blaming Trump.
But the big difference in the two situations is that the Biden administration came to Ukraine’s aid after Russia launched a massive military offensive while Trump ordered a US attack on Iran.
The White House at the time repeatedly blamed Russian leader Vladimir Putin for record-high gas prices in the U.S., even fueling the “#Putin price hike” and Biden vowing to do everything he could to protect Americans from “pain at the pump.”
But Trump and Republicans capitalized on inflation, using it as a key issue in their sweeping election victories in 2024, when they won back the White House and Senate and regained their House majority.
Fuel prices are displayed on a sign at a gas station in Miami, Fla. on April 13, 2026.
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 nominee, has left the door open for a 2028 White House run.
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The The White House Pushed back against this week’s jab from Harris.
In a statement to Fox News Digital, White House spokesperson Taylor Rogers argued, “No one cares or believes what Kamala Harris says because Americans remember the economic pain caused by the deeply unpopular and expensive Green New Scam of the Biden-Harris administration. Kamala’s anti-energy dominance agenda has caused electricity prices in the country to average more than 3 percent in four years and gas prices to skyrocket by more than 3 percent in just one year.”
Original article source: Harris blames Trump for rising gas prices – once saying they’re ‘the price we pay for democracy’
