In anticipation of President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address on March 7, several Republican lawmakers shed light on key areas of focus by sharing their expectations and concerns.
Lawmakers told reporters for The Epoch Times and sister media group NTD News that they were concerned about the president attempting to misrepresent what his administration has done for the country and how the crisis at the border should be fixed. Several lawmakers also pointed to the speech as a possible indication of the president’s failing health.
Rep. Ralph Norman (R-S.C.) said he had debated whether to attend but felt an obligation to his constituents to do so. He emphasized the importance of scrutinizing politicians’ records and raised concerns about President Biden’s mental acuity, going so far as to suggest potential elder abuse.
“You can’t take politicians at their word. They gotta take the record,” Mr. Norman said. “What we will hear is more into rhetoric, casting blame, from the open borders to the wars in the Middle East to the crime in the streets to the higher gas prices [and] egg prices ... What he should tell the American people is we’re going to protect the borders.
“He should tell the American people just as the fence is going up around the Capitol to protect Congress and him during the speech. The same fence wall should be up on our borders to stop the needless deaths.”
Speaking to the president’s condition and readiness for office, Mr. Norman said, “He can’t even read a thank you note from a teleprompter ... It’s elder abuse to even have him occupy the office.”
Rep. Lisa McLain (R-Mich.) had similar concerns about the president’s cognitive function, saying that his doctors are likely supporting him to enable the president to keep up his official duties.
Rep. Dusty Johnson (R-S.D.) turned his attention to the border, saying he hopes the president offers some solutions for the pressing border issue, but said he was concerned it would be a continuation of the “blame game.”
“It’s too easy to get here illegally. But it’s too hard to get here legally,” Mr. Johnson said. “And we know that immigration done properly is the secret sauce that has powered American exceptionalism for 247 years. That’s why it’s doubly tragic that our southern border is such a disaster. It does not have to be this way.”
The South Dakota lawmaker went on to say that if the president blames Congress, “Shame on him. I mean, the time for blame is far gone. Let’s actually solve the problem.”
Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) said he expected President Biden to address the border and increasing prices but said he also expected that he would try to bait Republicans into a back-and-forth. He suggested the president has been receiving flack from his own party about recent policy decisions.
Republicans were divided about whether they expected there to be any heckling from the crowd, with some saying they disagreed with the practice altogether. Some others said they would try to refrain from similar outbursts to last year, but didn’t make any promises.
“I will do my best to politely listen and offer my respect to the Office of the President,” Mr. Gaetz said. “The hecklers that Joe Biden seems to be getting most frequently aren’t from the right; they’re from the left. It’s the people showing up in the progressive left. It’s young people saying that Joe Biden made them promises that were unfulfilled.”
Hoping for Repentance
“What I hope is pure repentance, like ‘Wow, with the benefit of hindsight, I really have messed up. You guys told me that if I did this at the border, it was going to be a disaster. The border patrol told me it would be a disaster. I see now that it has been a disaster for the country.’”While Mr. Davidson said he hoped for a change in tone from the president, he was also clear that he didn’t expect to see that.
“I think he‘ll say ’Bidenomics’ is a great success, but everyone knows better. So it would be great if he came out and said, ‘Yeah, my economic policies have been a disaster. It turns out that you can print more money but you can’t guarantee it buys the same amount of stuff. And that’s why we have inflation because it was a policy choice. And we drove a lot of those bad decisions. We’re going to change course.’”
Rep. Tom Emmer (R-Minn.) told reporters he believes President Biden is not sincere about wanting to fix the border and said he is holding the president responsible for the deaths related to fentanyl overdose.
“He is responsible for the 300 on average deaths [a day] from fentanyl abuse and overdose in this country,” Mr. Emmer said, asserting that if the president were serious about fixing the problem, he would “undo the 64 executive orders that he signed since he took office that effectively undid all the great work that Donald Trump and his administration did to seal the border.”
For his part, Rep. Eric Burlison (R-Mo.) expressed a desire for accountability and demanded an apology from President Biden on various fronts, including immigration-related job losses.
“I would like to hear an apology ... I think he owes an apology to all of the family members who have lost someone to fentanyl poisoning,” Mr. Burlison said.
“I think he owes an apology to all the Americans who have lost their job to an illegal immigrant. I think that he owes an apology to all of the people who are displaced from homeless shelters or schools to make room for people who were not even American citizens. He owes America an absolute apology.”
Rep. Monica De La Cruz (R-Texas) said she hoped for a “concrete plan from Biden on securing the border and addressing inflation.”
The Texas Republican went on to express concern about the president’s cognitive ability and anticipated a focus on climate control issues that might not resonate with everyday Americans.
“President Biden has shown over and over that we as Americans should have great concern over his cognitive ability. It is very sad to see a weak leader as the president of the greatest country on this planet,” she said.
“Tonight, we will see how he performs publicly. But I can tell you that with his past actions and how we’ve seen him perform in other venues and other events, we are in a serious crisis when it comes to the cognitive ability of our president.”
