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Watching Tuesday’s State of the Union address given by President Biden at times felt like we were back in high school with outbursts from some of those in attendance.
It’s customary for a President’s partisan party to applause after almost every other sentence. Yet it was non-customary and alarming to see Republican members of Congress interrupt President Biden’s speech with boo’s and insults calling him a liar.
Before the State of the Union even began, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Green (R-Ga.) walked around the U.S. Capitol with a white balloon claiming it was “just an innocent white balloon”, referring to the Chinese spy balloon that was shot down by U.S. forces over the Atlantic Ocean.
Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy (R-Ca.) released a video before the State of the Union address in which he said he didn’t believe in the “theatrics” of tearing up a speech. He was referencing Nancy Pelosi’s (D-Ca.) tearing up of Trump’s speech after his State of the Union address in 2020.
Reactions to the State of the Union are clearly different
Pelosi’s actions were wrong. As the Democratic leader she should’ve shown more composure.
Yet after re-watching Trump’s 2020 State of the Union address, I couldn’t find another instance of blatant disrespect or outbursts from Democratic Congress members like what happened on Tuesday from Republican Congress members.
President Biden claimed that “some Republicans want Medicare and Social Security to sunset,” which was met by a chorus of boo’s and an outburst from Greene as she stood and shouted “liar”.
While President Biden was speaking, video showed Senator Mike Lee (R-Ut.) confused at Biden’s assertions. Yet video surfaced of Lee showing the Senator saying it is his objective to phase out Social Security as well as Medicare and Medicaid.
It’s one thing to disagree with a President during their speech and not applaud their statements. It’s an entirely different story to have outbursts and shout insults at the President as if you are a hormonal teenager because that’s exactly what we teach them not to do.