Former Democrat senator complains Americans ‘got used to’ cheap gas, that’s why they’re blaming Biden

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Political panel grades Biden's handling of Ukraine, Russia conflict

Third Way co-founder Matt Bennett and Independent Women's Forum's Gayle Trotter 'couldn't disagree more' on who's to blame for the Ukraine crisis.

A former Democrat senator downplayed record high gas prices under President Biden and dismissed the majority of the public blaming the president, on Sunday's episode of ABC's "This Week."

Guest host Jonathan Karl started off sharing the results of the network's new poll, which found an "overwhelming" majority of Americans support banning Russian oil after Russia invaded Ukraine, but they also blamed President Biden for skyrocketing gas prices.

 

A sticker of President Biden on a gas pump at an Exxon Station on March 9, 2022, in Lakewood, Colorado. A ban on Russian oil is likely to raise gas prices even more for Americans and turning a trip to the pump political.  (RJ Sangosti/MediaNews Group/The Denver Post via Getty Images)

"Our new poll, had some interesting numbers, first of all, it showed an overwhelming support for the ban on Russian oil, 77% support it, even if it means, the poll question, even if it means higher gas prices here at home. But take a look at this other question we asked, which is, 'Biden's handling of gas prices, do you approve?' Seventy percent disapprove so, in other words, ban Russian oil even if it means higher gas prices, but we're going to blame Biden," Karl said.

Heidi Heitkamp, a former Democrat senator from North Dakota, dismissed the poll’s results as just politics and poor messaging from the White House.

BIDEN CAN ONLY BLAME HIMSELF FOR HIGH GAS PRICES

"You always blame the party in power. And, you know, the administration wasn't aggressive enough in my opinion in pushing back on the red herrings," she argued, citing the Keystone XL Pipeline and inflation as her examples of things Americans falsely blame Biden for.

However, Karl pointed out inflation started rising as soon as Biden took office. 

ABC put up a graphic on screen showing how gas prices have skyrocketed since Feb. 10th's price of $3.46 a gallon, with Karl calling it a "shocking increase" that "doesn’t correspond" to Heitkamp’s argument.

Yet she claimed "the problem" really was Americans' expectations. 

"Can I just say that is an artificially low price you're starting from and when you do inflation adjustment, this isn't the highest price we've had in the last 20 years. In fact, George Herbert Walker Bush under the Bush administration we had gas prices, inflation adjusted over $5," she claimed.

"But we're shocked because we got used to $2 gas, and that's the problem!" she argued, as NewsBusters' Kevin Tober highlighted.

Instead of blaming Biden, Heitkamp urged Americans to blame the Trump administration for government overspending.

"Who drove up inflation? We saw the CBO numbers this week. It was the Trump administration that overspent and drove up inflation so if inflation in prices and housing and in gas is because of deficit spending, that's Trump's fault and so the administration has not been nearly aggressive enough to explain what's actually going on," she said.

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Conservative panelist and Washington Post columnist George Will chided Congress and the Biden administration making inflation worse by digging us further into a hole with massive spending packages.

"Seven-point-nine percent inflation. The week that is announced Congress passes another 1.5 trillion tranche of spending," he said, adding, "Stop, quit adding fuel to the fire."

Consumer prices have continued to rise at a record pace, before Putin invaded Ukraine. In November 2021, reports showed inflation had surged to a 39-year high, and the latest reports show inflation had hit a 40-year high in February.