President Joe Biden certainly did not heed much of my level-headed advice during his first State of the Union address Tuesday night.
In a hyper-partisan, disorganized speech full of awkward transitions, here are a few key takeaways:
Biden’s opening salvo was the best and perhaps only strong part of his address. He claimed the world is united against Vladimir Putin after the Russian president’s violent invasion of Ukraine last week. This elicited easy bipartisan standing ovations from maskless congressmen donning blue and yellow ribbons in honor of Ukraine.
Sooo… COVID conveniently quasi-disappeared from the House floor the day before SOTU? No more masks— we have all been tested, but still have to space out.
But COVID never really existed on the Senate side of the Capitol that has been open for some time. #COVIDtheater
— Rep. Mike Waltz (@michaelgwaltz) March 2, 2022
But Biden eventually jumped from this unifying section to the same cheap, vacuous talking points that helped him plummet to a 37% approval rating.
The president suggested the country was moving into “a new moment in the fight” against COVID-19.
“Thanks to the progress we have made this past year, COVID-19 need no longer control our lives,” he claimed.
But for Americans not trapped in Democrat-run hellholes, COVID never controlled our lives. Progressives, often at the urging of the White House, instead ruined the economy, damaged millions of young people, and triggered mental health and drug abuse crises with their anti-science, inconsistent mandates.
It’s also dismaying for Biden to talk about “one America” after his administration spent the past year telling ordinary Americans they were murderers if they wouldn’t comply with questionable mandates.
The president did not apologize or even mention parents — though Iowa’s Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds did in a strong, heartfelt rebuttal — who’ve seen their children suffer thanks to abuse from rogue teachers unions and others on the left.
Biden instead said emerging from the pandemic is not even a guarantee and pushed vaccinations for all, despite infinitesimal risk from the Omicron variant, with an accompanying major drop in cases and hospitalizations across the nation.
The daily average for new coronavirus cases in the United States is now well under 70,000, down enormously from levels close to 900,000 just five weeks ago.
As Americans continue to face soaring gas, food and other prices that Biden’s Treasury Secretary ignored and his top advisor mocked, inflation hit a 40-year high last month and remains a liability for Democrats.
On this urgent matter, the president made vague proposals that will not provide quick relief.
Instead, Biden audaciously called on Congress to prioritize parts of his failed, radical “Build Back Better” plan.
Joe Biden has no inflation plan. He has price controls, protectionism, and a dead BBB bill. If you're concerned at all about your reduced purchasing power, you were treated only to condescension. https://t.co/tmUeTrfvTr pic.twitter.com/dMsPhdpgPj
— Noah Rothman (@NoahCRothman) March 2, 2022
Republicans should continue hammering Democrats and the administration over price increases, and highlight the out-of-touch nature of a party run by wealthy environmentalists and coastal elites.
Low on actual accomplishments, Biden also defended the so-called “American Rescue Plan,” his $2 trillion COVID-relief legislation that passed a full year ago.
Finally, speaking on the crime wave infesting Democrat-run cities that once sought to demoralize our police officers, Biden argued, “The answer is not to defund the police. The answer is to fund the police,” before quickly pivoting to absurd anti-gun and “voting rights” proposals.
As noted, this was a haphazard, disconnected speech with very little flow that read like a hurried laundry list written by a subpar speechwriting team. It surely won’t move the needle with uncommitted voters.
A.J. Kaufman
A.J. Kaufman is an Alpha News columnist. His work has appeared in the Baltimore Sun, Florida Sun-Sentinel, Indianapolis Star, Israel National News, Orange County Register, St. Cloud Times, Star-Tribune, and across AIM Media Midwest and the Internet. Kaufman previously worked as a school teacher and military historian.
