Harris hammers Trump over gas prices amid 'war of choice' |
Harris hammers Trump over gas prices amid ‘war of choice’
Former Vice President Kamala Harris cast blame Wednesday on President Trump for the surge in gas prices amid the U.S. conflict with Iran, which she called a “war of choice.”
“It’s 15 more dollars every time you fill up a tank of gas,” Harris said outside a gas station in Charlotte, N.C., in a video shared on social platform X.
The fluctuation in fuel prices, she said, would also “carry over to how much you’re paying for all the goods that are being transported on those semis.”
“We’ve got a president who is paying more attention to what he thinks is in his best political interest and personal interest, as opposed to what is in the best interest of working people in America,” the former vice president said.
The national average for a gallon of gas dipped slightly Thursday to $4.09, according to AAA. The war in the Middle East and the subsequent blockades of the Strait of Hormuz, a critical oil shipping channel in the Persian Gulf, have roiled global oil prices.
Those prices have cooled some — Brent crude returned to under $100 per barrel Thursday — since Trump announced a two-week ceasefire with Iran last week, but experts have warned that markets are still on edge about potential supply disruptions.
Patrick De Haan, the head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy, wrote in a Monday blog post that motorists should “prepare for another round of price increases.”
“The move toward a full blockade of the Strait of Hormuz is compounding global supply concerns and risks further disrupting flows, which pushed oil prices sharply higher in Sunday night trading,” De Haan said. “As a result, gasoline prices are likely to jump again this week, with diesel expected to follow, until there is a meaningful restoration of shipping through the Strait.”
Gas prices have been inching closer in recent weeks to the record high set in June 2022 amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine, when Harris and former President Biden were still in office.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Wednesday that he was “optimistic” that prices would fall below $3 per gallon sometime between June 20 and Sept. 20.
“It’s bank week here in D.C., so I’ve been meeting with a lot of my Middle Eastern counterparts, the finance ministers, and they all say when the straits are open, they can start pumping again within one week,” Bessent told reporters at the White House press briefing.
Democrats, including Harris, have sought to highlight the issue ahead of the November midterms, as affordability concerns remain on voters’ minds.
The former vice president, who lost to Trump in the 2024 presidential election, has used recent appearances to tout her book, “107 Days,” to rip the president’s foreign policy decisions, furthering speculation that she may be eyeing another bid in 2028.
During her stop in Charlotte, she also criticized Trump’s recent attacks on Pope Leo XIV and his posting of an AI-generated image depicting himself as a Jesus-like figure as “blatantly offensive on every level.”
“They’re suggesting that as president and vice president of the United States, they don’t have a responsibility in terms of moral leadership,” Harris said, according to The Charlotte Observer.
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