WASHINGTON — President Biden’s State of the Union address promised a call for unity, but his repeated pokes at Republicans — complete with glaring falsehoods and several disputed claims — saw the speech descend into a near-shouting match Tuesday night.
The 80-year-old president began his 72-minute speech appearing to follow through on the White House’s “unity” messaging spin — warmly greeting House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and drawing laughs by telling him: “I don’t want to ruin your reputation, but I look forward to working with you.”
By the end of the night, any bipartisan feeling had disappeared as Biden wrongly accused the GOP of trying to abandon America’s seniors, while Republicans in the audience challenged him over issues like illegal immigration, the surge in fentanyl overdoses, and the threat of China — with the president barely mentioning America’s great adversary days after a spy balloon from the Communist aggressor traversed the US last week.
No attack from the president caused more GOP uproar than his insistence that “instead of making the wealthy pay their fair share, some Republicans, some Republicans want Medicare and Social Security to sunset.”
The furious reaction left Biden attempting to calm the heckling by saying, “I’m not saying it’s a majority.”
“Anybody who doubts it, contact my office, I’ll give you a copy of the proposal,” Biden attempted to counter the loud jeers.
“Liar!” shouted Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.).
“I’m glad to see — no, I tell you, I enjoy conversion,” Biden said, trying to play off the awkward and contentious moment.
Biden has repeatedly claimed that the GOP wants to cut Social Security and Medicare — despite McCarthy repeatedly and publicly ruling that out as he and other conservatives push for cuts to discretionary spending and a clawback of unspent pandemic stimulus funds as part of a debt ceiling impasse.
Sen. Steve Daines (R-Mont.) even tweeted during the speech that it was Biden who was cutting into the social safety net by proposing a $3 billion reduction to the enhanced-benefits Medicare Advantage program, writing, “It’s @JoeBiden, NOT Republicans, who is proposing Medicare Advantage cuts…. this is especially cruel.”
The president managed to get the chamber back onside moments later by calling on members of both parties to “Stand up and show them: We will not cut Social Security! We will not cut Medicare!” The members duly obliged with a standing ovation.
The House chamber — packed with senators, cabinet members, Supreme Court justices and other US government leaders — again descended into chaos as Biden talked about surging fentanyl overdoses amid criticism that he has not done enough to counter the scourge of the deadly, largely China-sourced synthetic compound.
“Fentanyl is killing more than 70,000 Americans a year,” Biden said, provoking indignant outbursts.
Greene shouted the drug was from “China.”
“It’s your fault,” an unknown man shouted at Biden. “It’s your fault,” another male voice echoed, though it was unclear if it was the same person.
“So let’s launch a major surge to stop fentanyl production, end the sale and trafficking, with more drug detection machines, inspection of cargo to stop pills and powder at the border,” Biden said — without any direct mention of the source nation of the chemicals.
“If Joe Biden were serious about wanting to crack down on illegal fentanyl distribution, he would start by securing our southern border,” the official House Republican Twitter account reacted in real time.
Biden only mentioned the US-Mexico border five times in his prepared remarks, alternating between taking dubious credit for record-high arrests and seizures of fentanyl and calling on Congress to do more.
“If you don’t pass my comprehensive immigration reform, then at least pass my plan to provide the equipment and officers to secure the border,” he begged.
The president also made no mention of surging crime in America’s cities, despite recognizing the parents of fatal Memphis police beating victim Tyre Nichols and calling for greater reforms in law enforcement.
“I think we need more transparency. I’m always for reform. I think that in any profession there’re bad actors, there’re certainly bad cops, and I think they need to be held accountable,” House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) told NBC News after the speech.
“One of the problems that I’ve heard from different people involved in municipalities is, obviously there’s a shortage of police and police move around a lot and there’s often not a record of police officers who have reputations of using excessive force … [I would support] a database for officers that use excessive force, right, absolutely.”
Biden, who is gearing up for a 2024 re-election campaign despite already being the oldest-ever president, also made little mention of China despite wall-to-wall news coverage last week of Beijing’s large spy balloon, which was allowed to drift over Alaska before crossing from Montana to South Carolina unmolested, before it was finally shot down Saturday off the Atlantic Coast.
“Today we are the strongest position in decades to compete with China or anyone else in the world,” Biden said.
“I’m committed to work with China where we can advance American interests and benefit the world, but make no mistake about it, as we made clear last week, if China threatens our sovereignty, we will act to protect our country, and we did.”
“China’s spying,” remarked Greene, who carried a much smaller white balloon through the halls of Congress earlier in the day to provide a visible reminder of the White House’s inaction.
“Biden: We will act to protect our country against China,” tweeted Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.) in response. “Reality: A Chinese spy balloon just surveilled our land-based nuclear arsenal while crossing the entire mainland United States.”
“A Chinese spy balloon just floated over our country for a week,” added Rep. Ashley Hinson (R-Iowa). “Millions of Americans have TikTok downloaded on their phones. Where is President Biden’s plan to take on the CCP surveillance state?”
“The Biden Administration wasn’t concerned about the Chinese spy balloon until it became a problem for them in the media cycle,” charged Rep. Brian Mast (R-Fla.). “Why does the President care more about what the press thinks than our national security?”
A tweet from McCarthy’s official account noted at the 60-minute mark of the speech that “President Biden hasn’t mentioned China or our border once. But he’s proposed raising taxes three times. Tells you where his priorities lie.”
Biden did indeed call for reinstituting a so-called “billionaire’s tax” on the wealthiest Americans to pay for increased spending on Medicaid, universal pre-K access, affordable housing, and climate change mitigation — despite already signing off on trillions of dollars in spending over his first two years in office.
While the president focused on economics, the Republican response by Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders focused on social issues like critical race theory in schools and censorship of conservatives by Big Tech.
“In the radical left’s America, Washington taxes you and lights your hard-earned money on fire, but you get crushed with high gas prices, empty grocery shelves, and our children are taught to hate one another on account of their race, but not to love one another or our great country,” she said.
“The dividing line in America is no longer between right or left,” she added. “The choice is between normal or crazy.”
