U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz has made some wildly inaccurate predictions over the years.
Among other boners, the Texas Republican argued the U.S. Supreme Court would rule 5-4 in favor of President Trump’s tariffs and that the COVID-19 pandemic would be declared over the instant Joe Biden was inaugurated as president.
Now Cruz maintains that high gasoline prices won’t have a measurable effect on the November election.
“I don’t think national security decisions should be done based on short-term political considerations,” Cruz told CNBC’s Squawk Box in reference to the U.S. war with Iran. “I don’t think it’s going to impact the midterms materially I’ve seen no data that suggests that this is having a big impact on the midterms.”
To support his claim, Cruz falsely stated gas prices were between $5 and $6 under President Joe Biden and that President Donald Trump slashed pump prices in half after he was inaugurated early last year.
“Now, with the conflict in the Middle East, gas prices have gone up to about 4.50 a gallon, so we’ve given away about half of the decrease we had,” he added.
However, the facts don’t back up Cruz’s recollection of recent history. Average gas prices peaked at just over $4 during the Biden administration, and only fell to $3.22 gallon during the first year Trump was in office, U.S. Energy Information data shows.
Beyond that, plenty of polls suggest that gas prices — now are at their highest level in four years — are weighing on voters’ midterm decisions. The average pump price now stands at $4.42 a gallon.
According to a new national poll by Marquette Law School, 95% of voters say gas prices are up and only 19% approve of how Trump is handling the increase. The poll also shows that approval on handling the economy has plummeted to 30%, and just 22% approve of his handling of inflation and the cost of living.
Beyond that, a recent New York Times/Sienna poll found that a fifth of Trump’s own voters say the Iran war is not worth the cost, and a third are unsure.
Indeed, voters’ frustration over Trump handling of prices and the economy are likely to damage Republican chances of holding onto seats in Congress, Amy Walter, editor of The Cook Political Report, told PBS News.
“You get angry people showing up who are no longer just anti-Trump Democrats, they’re also frustrated independents, really driven in large part by the economy,” Walter said. “And then these same economic woes are what are depressing Republican turnout. So you put that whole math together and that is a really dangerous place” for the GOP.
Perhaps someone at CNBC should have asked Cruz if he was confident enough in his prediction that he’d wager cash on it. We’re guessing he’d say he left his wallet at home.
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