Soon after President Joe Biden was pictured visiting former President Jimmy Carter, he began fielding charges that his administration had resurrected the worst of the Georgia Democrat’s time in office.

Not only were there inflation concerns in the wake of massive government spending, but a ransomware attack on a major fuel pipeline delivered Biden’s opponents their latest Carter-themed salvo as drivers spooked by a potential fuel shortage saw prices quickly rise — before filling stations up and down the East Coast went dry.

“The administration has to look like they're doing something so no one gets on the narrative that they abandoned a company and a pipeline to pirates,” a former senior Trump White House official told the Washington Examiner.

It would be several days before the Biden administration moved to lift a controversial shipping rule used to alleviate fuel shortages in the past, allowing non-U.S. flagged ships to transport fuel between American ports by way of a “temporary and targeted” Jones Act waiver. Past administrations have lifted the rule during natural disasters, using it to supply fuel to Puerto Rico during Hurricane Maria or to the Atlantic coast as Hurricane Sandy battered the Northeast.

Biden delivered remarks on the issue Thursday, seven days into a crisis that has seen gas prices spike to a seven-year high and fuel shortages across the East Coast. He warned that people would not immediately feel the results of a major oil pipeline's return online.

“Don’t panic,” Biden said, speaking from the White House's Roosevelt Room before telling drivers to “not get more gas than you need.” To gas stations, Biden warned: “Do not, I repeat do not, try to take advantage of consumers.”