Ted Cruz hammers Biden for claiming the Russian invasion is solely to blame for high gas prices: 'This is a flat-out lie'

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) ripped into President Joe Biden (D) for attempting to pin all of the blame on higher gas prices on the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Cruz was referring to comments from Biden to reporters on Tuesday saying that gas prices would get worse, but he was powerless to do anything about it.

"They're going to go up," said Biden about gas prices.

"Can't do much right now. Russia's responsible," he added.

Cruz took to Twitter to refute the claim from the president.

"This is a flat-out lie. Gas prices have increased 48% under Biden—BEFORE RUSSIA INVADED UKRAINE. Biden did that," Cruz tweeted.

He went on to list the policies that Biden pursued which have led to higher gas prices prior to the Russian invasion, including his opposition to the Keystone pipeline, freezing federal oil leases, and shutting down drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

Cruz explained his criticism in a guest appearance on CNBC Tuesday morning where he hammered away at Biden's energy policies.

"It really is striking, in 2019 the United States became a net energy exporter, 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," Cruz said.

"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," he continued, "because the president is simultaneously weakening our own ability to produce energy and strengthening their ability to produce energy."

NBC reported that the shift in messaging was purposeful by the White House after taking the blame for gas prices and increasing inflation before the invasion.

Here's Cruz ripping into Biden on CNBC:

Sen. Ted Cruz weighs in on Biden's response to Russia, Ukraine, U.S. oil productionwww.youtube.com