Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) accused Democrats of political hypocrisy on energy costs, arguing that the same lawmakers now attacking Republicans over high gas prices are the ones who previously called for them to rise.
During an appearance Wednesday on Fox News Channel’s “Hannity,” Cruz was asked by host Sean Hannity to weigh in on the cost of the Green New Deal and Democratic energy proposals. Hannity cited a figure of $212 trillion as the estimated price tag before turning the segment over to the Texas senator.
Cruz used the moment to make a broader case for the Trump administration’s posture toward Iran, describing an ongoing economic blockade as an effort to weaken the regime, before addressing the politics of fuel costs directly.
Putting gas prices ‘into context’
“When it comes to gas prices, listen, people are understandably unhappy about gas prices, but it’s worth putting it into context,” Cruz said, according to Breitbart’s account of the interview. He walked through a timeline: prices at roughly $5 per gallon under former President Joe Biden, a drop to around $3 per gallon nationwide when Trump returned to office, and a current national average of about $4 per gallon.
“So, they are still substantially less than they were under Joe Biden, but they’re not as low as they were the first year of the second Trump term,” Cruz continued.
The senator framed the Democratic focus on gas prices as a single-issue campaign strategy. “To be clear, the Democrats who are campaigning, this is the one issue they have, all of them want gas prices to be higher,” he said. “Remember, these are the same Democrats who said they wanted $10-a-gallon gas.”
Cruz did not name which Democrats made that specific statement during the segment, but he singled out one Texas candidate by name.
Talarico targeted
“You look at James Talarico, the extreme left-winger running in Texas โ he has said that he wants oil and gas to go the way of the cassette tape, that he wants to dismantle capitalism,” Cruz said.
The remark echoes a familiar line of attack from Republicans, who have for years pointed to earlier comments from Democratic candidates and activists about transitioning away from fossil fuels as evidence that the party is out of step with voters who feel pain at the pump. The argument has taken on renewed salience as gasoline costs occupy a central place in campaign messaging on both sides.
Cruz’s broader appearance touched on national security as well, with the senator warning about the consequences of Iran obtaining a nuclear weapon. “If you look at, number one, what would happen if the ayatollah got a nuclear weapon? And I think the odds are unacceptably high that he would use that nuclear weapon and he would use it to murder hundreds of thousands of Americans,” he said. “He would detonate it in New York or Los Angeles.”
He praised President Trump for confronting the threat, describing the current U.S. approach as “an economic blockade that is imposing crushing economic consequences on Iran and that is weakening the regime significantly” rather than a full-scale shooting war. “The active military conflict in Iran is relatively limited,” Cruz said.
Economic claims
Turning back to domestic matters, Cruz offered two statistics he said should anchor the Republican economic argument: “Right now, we have the highest median family income ever recorded in American history. And right now, we have the lowest poverty ever recorded in family history.”
He added that the corporate media would not report those numbers, calling them “objective facts” and “a powerful case to make to the American people.”
The exchange reflects the competing economic narratives heading into the next election cycle. Republicans are arguing that Democratic energy policies would raise costs and that the current administration has already delivered relief relative to the Biden years. Democrats, meanwhile, have seized on elevated prices as evidence that the GOP’s approach has not delivered for working families โ a message Cruz attempted to preempt by tying their positions to past statements favoring higher fuel costs.
Gas prices have long served as one of the most visceral measures of economic conditions for American households, and both parties have used them as a political cudgel depending on who occupies the White House. Cruz’s comments were delivered to a friendly audience on a program whose host framed the stakes in sweeping terms, invoking the Green New Deal’s proposed expansions of government benefits and projecting a multi-trillion-dollar cost.
The senator’s appearance comes as the Trump administration continues to press its maximum-pressure campaign against Tehran, a policy Cruz portrayed as both necessary and deliberately calibrated. Whether voters connect that foreign policy posture to their local gas station receipts remains an open question โ one that both parties will test in the months ahead, with Cruz making clear which side he believes has the stronger story to tell.
Source: www.breitbart.com โ https://www.breitbart.com/clips/2026/10/01/cruz-same-democrats-campaigning-on-gas-prices-said-they-wanted-10-a-gallon-gas/