One of Donald Trump’s wealthiest surrogates in Congress struggled to say how and when the administration would rein in spiraling gas prices with traffic in the vital Strait of Hormuz at a standstill thanks to the president’s war with Iran.
“Well, it’ll open eventually. I mean, eventually it’s going to open,” Sen. Rick Scott told CNN’s Kaitlan Collins.
Asked how long that could be, the Florida Republican pivoted to a bizarre justification of the war, which has not been approved by Congress.
“I don’t know,” he said. “How long is it going to take to make sure they don’t have nuclear weapons? How long is it going to take to make sure they don’t have ballistic missiles that can destroy Americans? They’ve been killing us for 47 years. This had to end at some point, and I [don’t] want it on American soil.”
According to U.S. intelligence assessments, Iran was not working on creating intercontinental ballistic missiles when Trump attacked on Feb. 28, launching a wider regional conflict. Upgrading its short- and medium-range weapons program would have taken nearly a decade, the assessments found.
Scott, however, insisted to Collins on Monday that while he wanted oil prices to come down, paying 30 percent more at the pump was worth it.
“I don’t want to die,” he said. “They want to kill us. Let’s be realistic here. The main goal is to destroy their ability to kill us.”
Thirteen U.S. service members have been killed so far in the war.
“The president’s doing the right thing for our safety,” Scott said. “Is there a short-term hurt by gas prices being up? Absolutely. And it hurts everybody, including mostly the poorest families.”
Scott, whose estimated net worth is $515 million, reiterated that he didn’t know how long those families would be struggling to fill up their tanks but repeated that those concerns were secondary because in Iran, “They want to destroy our way of life.”
“Prices will come down,” he said. “The president is doing what he can to get oil prices down.”
As an example, he cited Venezuela, where Trump has been pushing to revive the country’s dormant oil infrastructure after capturing the president, Nicolas Maduro, in a January raid.
According to the Council on Foreign Relations, increasing Venezuela’s oil output will take several years and cost $100 billion.
