Jacquelyn Martin/Pool via REUTERS
Walking into a Republican-controlled House for the first time during his presidency, President Joe Biden largely tried to offer a bipartisan olive branch during his State of the Union address Tuesday night. What he got in response from many of the GOP lawmakers seated in the chamber was a slap in the face.
Aside from a few poorly received jabs at the GOP over entitlement programs, Biden seemed to purposefully offer up a speech chock-full of applause bait for Republicans. He chest-thumped about job creation and restoring Made-In-America manufacturing policy. He declared victory over the pandemic—“COVID no longer controls our lives”—and he credited U.S. police officers.
Biden’s first words about Republicans weren’t criticism but praise of their shared legislative accomplishments over the last two years—the $1 trillion infrastructure bill, expansion of health care for veterans, and measures to strengthen the Electoral College.