Last week, President Trump brushed off the spike in gas prices driven by his war with Iran, calling it “a very inexpensive price to pay.” Voters across the country say those prices are straining their family budgets. Regular gas is averaging close to $4.50 a gallon, roughly 52% higher than when the war started, and diesel is up about 71%. The Congressional Budget Office found the war added 2.3 points to an annualized inflation rate that reached 5.3% in the second quarter.
And the president isn’t promising relief anytime soon. Earlier this month, he predicted Iran would keep fighting until after the midterms and conceded that gas prices likely won’t come down before then.
The Sudden Conversion
This week, the pump finally caught up with Republicans in the races that will decide the Senate. Iowa Senate nominee Ashley Hinson broke with the White House first, Michigan’s Mike Rogers followed within hours, and Ohio Sen. Jon Husted joined them the next day.
Hinson said Iowa families are paying for the war every time they fill up or check out at the grocery store, and called for it to end immediately. Rogers filmed an ad in a grocery store calling for a quick end to the war and a temporary embargo on U.S. diesel exports. Husted told Politico the war should end as soon as possible so gas prices can fall.
It’s a convenient change of heart, and it arrives nearly seven months into a war that Trump originally predicted would last four or five weeks.
The Record
Hinson has voted six times against House resolutions directing the president to halt the war, most recently on September 15. She understood the politics months ago: in June, she acknowledged to a voter that the war could become a “political liability” if it wasn’t wrapped up within a couple of weeks, according to a recording obtained by CBS News. Then she kept voting the same way.
Husted has opposed every war powers resolution that has come to a vote in the Senate. In the very same Politico story, his spokesperson said he won’t support the Democratic war powers resolution now headed to the Senate floor.
Voters Got There First
These candidates are catching up to the public. Only about a quarter of Americans say the war has been worth it, and 71% of voters say the president has no clear strategy to end it. In CNN’s mid-September poll, Trump’s approval sat at 33%, with 73% disapproving of his handling of the war. And nearly half of voters told Reuters/Ipsos that the cost of living will be the single biggest factor in their vote.
That’s why the pivot is happening now. A position discovered 40 days before an election can be dropped just as fast once the votes are counted.
Where the Senate Comes In
The House has now voted three times to end the war, most recently passing a resolution 220-204 on September 15 with seven Republicans joining Democrats. The Senate is where those efforts stall. In June, the Senate narrowly adopted a largely symbolic resolution, and the very next day Republicans blocked Tim Kaine’s measure to restrict the president’s war powers.
Control of the Senate decides which bills reach the floor, which officials testify under oath, and what the next funding bill pays for. Democrats need a net gain of four seats to win the majority. Ohio and Iowa are Republican seats in play, and Michigan is a Democratic seat the party has to hold. In Ohio, recent polling has Sherrod Brown slightly ahead of Husted. In Iowa, Hinson faces Democrat Josh Turek, a race forecasters moved to toss-up on September 22, the same day they shifted Michigan toward Democrats. In Michigan, where gas is averaging $4.84 a gallon, a Michigan State University poll has Abdul El-Sayed leading Rogers 48% to 44%.
On November 3rd, voters will decide which counts for more: what these candidates did, or what they’re saying now.
Every one of these idiots who voted in support of Trump needs to be voted out in November.