Barrasso: The Dismissals, Denials, and Distortions of Biden’s SOTU Address

“From start to finish, it was the angriest, most partisan, most divisive, most vindictive State of the Union that I can recall. President Biden used his most important speech in 50 years to launch a direct attack on half of America… The President showed no respect for the American people, for our institutions, or for the truth.”

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), Chairman of the Senate Republican Conference, spoke on the Senate floor about President Biden’s disastrous and aggressive State of the Union Address. 

Sen. Barrasso’s Remarks:

“I come to the floor to speak about President Biden’s State of the Union speech. The speech is likely a preview of his 2024 acceptance speech at the Democrat Convention this summer in Chicago. From start to finish, it was the angriest, most partisan, most divisive, most vindictive State of the Union that I can recall.

“President Biden used his most important speech in 50 years to launch a direct attack on half of America. He shouted at them. He lied about them. He belittled their concerns. And if people had the gall to disagree with him, he screamed that they were the enemies of democracy. President Biden said all of this to hide his disastrous record of failures.

“Three years ago, President Biden said, ‘without unity, he said, there is only bitterness and fury.’ Last Thursday night, what we saw from President Biden was bitterness and fury. To me, this was an insult to every American.

“The President showed no respect for the American people, for our institutions, or for the truth. Instead, we heard an hour of dismissals, denials, distortions, and deceptive spin. President Biden has only himself to blame. It is his disastrous policies that cause us to be in the mess that we find ourselves.

“President Biden said, ‘the state of our Union is strong and getting stronger.’ Well, that may be his opinion, but it’s not what the American people believe. Prices are up 18% today compared to the day that he took office.

“President Biden also said he needs new laws to secure the border. That’s not true either. President Biden has the power to secure the border, and he knows it. He simply lacks the backbone.

“During his first 100 days, the President took 94 executive actions that threw our border wide open. He stopped building the wall, turned ‘detain and deport’ into ‘catch and release’ – and more than nine million illegal immigrants have poured across our border since Joe Biden became President. That includes hundreds of terrorist suspects, thousands of hardened criminals.

“This is dangerous for our country, Mr. President. Yet Joe Biden can’t say that.

“Since his speech last Thursday, he has spent more time groveling for using the term ‘illegal’ immigrant than apologizing for not knowing the name of Laken Riley. People all across the country remember her as the 22-year-old nursing student who was murdered by an illegal immigrant.

“President Biden also claimed our global alliances are stronger than they ever were. That’s not true. Since Joe Biden became president, America has lost its standing in the world. Our allies don’t trust us. Our enemies don’t fear us.

“By every metric, we are worse off today than we were the day Joe Biden took office. Seven in ten Americans say that our nation is heading in the wrong direction. No amount of scolding or lecturing by the President is going to change that.

“No amount of yelling will cover up President Biden’s endless failures to lower prices. Yelling by President Biden is not going to restore confidence in the American Dream, which his own inflation eroded.

“Angry blame shifting by President Biden is not going to stop the flood or reverse the flood of nine million illegal immigrants and illegal border crossings. Nor will it protect innocent Americans from the illegal immigrant crime.

“Families in my home state in Wyoming and all across America are fed up with the Biden Blame Game. Americans are not imagining that their grocery bills are higher than they ever were before. The bills actually are higher. Americans aren’t imagining that the border is more dangerous than ever before. It is more dangerous.

“And watching President Biden’s speech, it is clear to the people all across Wyoming and to like-minded Americans that the President doesn’t listen.

“Fortunately, Senate Republicans are listening. You heard it last week from the Junior Senator from Alabama. Her response was remarkably positive. Unlike President Biden, she offered a bright vision for the future of our nation.

“The Senator said, ‘together we can reawaken the historic spirit of our great nation,’ and she is right.”

###