The 'gas'-lighting has to end: Biden inherited oil woes | What if I were on 'NewsNight' Monday night?

PLUS: Scott Soracco is a "fighting fifty" Democrat filling an empty ballot slot - but he's aiming to win, JD Vance's poll numbers are on (not in) the couch and GA gubernatorial talk.

I've said for years now, the spike in oil and gas prices, and subsequently everything we bought & paid for while Joe Biden wa sin office, was due in large part to one key decision then-President Donald Trump made in 2020. See, then, in April of 2020, while we were all sheltering-in-place and not filling gas tanks, the oil industry was cratering. Many industries were, as you recall, but precious oil had to survive, right? So Trump needled OPEC nations to agree to throttle back production - for two years! (Gift NYT link; enjoy!) That deal lasted through April of 2022, long after his J6 tantrum and exit.

Wouldn't you know, inflation only began cooling a month after that deal expired?

I revisit this because it's time for Democrats to start reminding people of that deal and to pour cold water on the gaslighting the GOP has gotten away with (and still trots out!) that Trump somehow inherited an affordability crisis when in fact, he sparked it!

Once I got that off my chest, I decided to play "pretend," as in "pretend I was on 'NewsNight with Abby Phillip' Monday night as 'cosplay Trump' investment firm CEO Hal Lambert - dressed in Trump suit & tie - played the role of 'Scott Jennings' that night, and needed correcting. Make no mistake: Bakari Sellers, Leigh McGowan and Margaret Donovan, along with Phillip, did a commendable job, but left out a few key barbs I happily supplied in "post-edit."

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Scott Soracco is one of the "Fighting 50" Democratic Georgia candidates who's stepped up to bring voters to the polls for the entire ticket, but hey, it's 2026 - he can actually win State House district 29, so let's hear him out!

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Back pretending I'm on the 'NewsNight' set, "we" weigh in on Trump's sacrilegious AI-generated depiction of him as "Doctor Jesus," and MAGA suddenly having issues with faith leaders weighing in on political discussions when it's A) a Catholic (the Pope) and B) contrarian to their worldview.

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Speaking of 'overt political activity,' JD Vance - spending time in Athens, Georgia, this week, also traveling the globe to shill for Viktor Orban likely doesn't help with his poll numbers - per Harry Enten at CNN.

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In the run-up to the Wednesday night WXIA-TV/NextStar Georgia Democratic gubernatorial debate, I instead hovered over Patricia Murphy's latest AJC op/ed, focusing on Rick Jackson v Burt Jones food fight on the right.