Sen. Ted Cruz blasted President Joe Biden for blaming the current massive spike in oil and gas prices on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, pointing out — accurately — that prices were already well above what they were the day Donald Trump left office.

After he announced a ban on the importation of Russian oil into the U.S. on Tuesday, a reporter asked Biden: “Do you have a message for the American people on gas prices?”

Biden replied, “They’re going to go up.”

Another reporter pressed, “What can you do about it?” to which Biden answered, “Can’t do much right now. Russia’s responsible.”

REPORTER: What can you do about skyrocketing gas prices?

BIDEN: “Can’t do much right now. Russia’s responsible.” pic.twitter.com/UZrBUEsliQ

— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) March 8, 2022

“This is a flat-out lie,” Cruz railed on Twitter.

“Gas prices have increased 48% under Biden—BEFORE RUSSIA INVADED UKRAINE. Biden did that,” adding, “That’s bc Biden: — killed Keystone pipeline. — froze federal leases. — shut down ANWR All, while Biden waived sanctions on Putin’s pipeline.”

This is a flat-out lie.

Gas prices have increased 48% under Biden—BEFORE RUSSIA INVADED UKRAINE.

Biden did that.

That’s bc Biden:

– killed Keystone pipeline.
– froze federal leases.
– shut down ANWR

All, while Biden waived sanctions on Putin’s pipeline. https://t.co/RiBgpX1n9s

— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) March 8, 2022

NBC News reported on Tuesday that the Biden White House made a purposeful decision to blame Russian President Vladimir Putin for rising prices at the pump:

When President Joe Biden called the rising cost of gas in the U.S. “Putin’s price hike” Tuesday — laying the blame for pain at the pump squarely on Russian President Vladimir Putin — it wasn’t a casual aside.  …

His comments while announcing a U.S. ban on Russian oil imports in response to Putin’s assault on Ukraine — which he repeated hours later as he arrived for a veterans event in to Fort Worth, Texas — were part of a deliberate shift by the White House in the president’s messaging strategy about gas prices ahead of the midterm elections, people familiar with the internal deliberations said.

Cruz also ripped Biden’s energy policies in an interview with CNBC on Tuesday after the president announced his Russian oil ban.

“When Joe Biden came in the very first week in office, he shut down the Keystone Pipeline; he destroyed 11,000 high paying jobs, including 8,000 union jobs,’ Cruz said.

“He immediately froze new leases both on federal land onshore and on federal land off-shore. That’s had a dramatic effect; we’re seeing the prices skyrocketing at the pump,” he continued.

“It really is striking; in 2019 the United States became a net energy exporter,” Cruz noted. “We are an oil and gas superpower. And yet under Joe Biden, last year for the first time since then, America stopped being a net energy exporter as our production went down, and the result of Biden’s presidency has been that the enemies of America, countries like Russia, like Iran, like Venezuela, are all getting stronger, getting richer, getting more aggressive; getting more hostile because the president is simultaneously weakening our own ability to produce energy and strengthening their ability to produce energy.

“I gotta say: It’s backward on both fronts,” he added.

“It’s important to understand that the rhetoric of the far left, they don’t actually believe it. It’s not actually about the environment. If the only thing you cared about was the environment, let’s say you didn’t care at all about jobs; you didn’t care about inflation; you didn’t care about gas prices at the pump skyrocketing; you just cared about the environment; on that metric, the Biden administration is a disaster,” Cruz went on.

“Why? When you shut down the Keystone Pipeline, it’s not like the Canadians just leave that gas in the tar sands; instead, they put it on trucks and trains and they ship it south or they put it on ships and they ship it west to China. Both pollute more, produce more CO2,” he noted.

“When you shut down production in the United States it’s not like the rest of the world suddenly ceases driving cars or flying jet airplanes; what happens instead is producers like Russia, producers like the Middle east produce more, and all of that production is dirtier; it pollutes more; and it’s more carbon emissions, more CO2.”