Opinion Mike Johnson asked for ‘decorum.’ Republicans ignored him.
The day before President Biden delivered his State of the Union address, House Speaker Mike Johnson, in a closed-door meeting with his Republican caucus, urged his colleagues to observe “decorum” and not to act like hooligans during the speech.
He might as well have asked them not to breathe.
Just minutes into the president’s address, as Biden was talking about the Trump administration’s failures during the covid pandemic, Rep. Derrick Van Orden (R-Wis.) bellowed from the back of the chamber: “Lies!”
When Biden spoke about forcing the wealthiest Americans to “pay your fair share in taxes,” Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), wearing a red Make America Great Again baseball cap autographed on the bill by Donald Trump, shouted out: “Tell Hunter to pay his taxes!”
And when Biden spoke about the bipartisan border security legislation that Republicans killed at Trump’s behest, the Republican side erupted in boos, jeers and screaming at the commander in chief.
The GOP lawmakers’ invited guests in the gallery joined in the general abuse of the president. Biden mentioned crime — and a man started screaming about the withdrawal from Afghanistan. Biden spoke about the more than 30,000 Palestinians reported killed in Gaza — and another heckler shouted: “Says who?”
Adding to the Republicans’ tawdry treatment of this once solemn ritual of democracy, George Santos, the New York congressman expelled in December, could be seen cavorting on the floor (where he still has privileges, despite his ouster), wearing a glittery shirt and shoes, receiving well wishes from his former GOP colleagues. And Rep. Troy Nehls (R-Tex.) served as a human billboard throughout the speech, standing in the chamber wearing a T-shirt that showed Trump’s mug shot with the message “Never Surrender.”
Many others in the House majority took Johnson’s call for “decorum” to the other extreme. They were so determined not to react to Biden that they refused to applaud even the most anodyne, patriotic sentiments.
“Let’s remember who we are. We are the United States of America!” Biden cried.
On the Republican side: crickets.
He called for federal funds to go only for “American products ... built by American workers, creating good-paying American jobs.”
Again, Republicans sat on their hands.
“We all come from somewhere, but we’re all Americans,” Biden offered.
Even this produced almost no applause from Republican lawmakers.
Johnson, in his seat behind Biden, didn’t heed his own instructions. The Louisiana Republican rolled his eyes at Biden, shaking his head, contorting his face into pained expressions and shrinking into his chair.
Many of his rank-and-file Republicans skipped the address entirely or left in the middle: There were 21 empty seats on the Republican side at the start, and 37 at the end, even though several Democrats took over the empty seats on the GOP side. Biden’s opponents exaggerated their boredom, slouching, scrolling their phones and showing their screens to each other. Ralph Norman (R-S.C.) yawned. Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-Minn.) yawned. Victoria Spartz (R-Ind.) yawned. Marc Molinaro (R-N.Y.) yawned.
If Biden’s opponents were hoping that the address would show him to be tired and feeble, the result was nearly the opposite. Biden was feisty and energetic, often shouting as he took the fight to Trump and the Republicans. He plunged right into his speech without waiting for the customary introduction from Johnson. By contrast, his critics — some somnolent, the others cranky — looked as though they needed a nap.
Biden had his usual stumbles over words, but those expecting the senile old man of Republican fantasies instead saw a guy who couldn’t wait to mix it up with his foes. He made a surprised, delighted look when he spied Greene waiting for him on the center aisle as he walked in, and he kept the pin she gave him with the name of a young woman allegedly killed by an illegal immigrant.
He scolded Republicans for rejecting “the toughest set of border security reforms we’ve ever seen,” and though his opponents jeered Biden’s claims about the bill, the man who negotiated the reforms, Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.) could be seen in the audience saying “That’s true.”
That’s when Greene began shouting at Biden to say the name of Laken Riley, the woman who had been killed — and Biden did, angering progressives when he said she had been killed by “an illegal.”
“To her parents, I say, my heart goes out to you,” he said, holding up Greene’s button. “Having lost children myself, I understand.”
Biden went after his “predecessor” no fewer than 13 times, starting with a brutal contrast between Ronald Reagan telling Mikhail Gorbachev to “tear down this wall” and Trump’s recent suggestion that he would tell Vladimir Putin’s regime to “do whatever the hell they want” to NATO members who don’t contribute sufficiently to the alliance.
The president attacked Trump, congressional Republicans or both, for seeking “to bury the truth about Jan. 6,” 2021, for pursuing an abortion ban, for demonizing immigrants as “poison in the blood of our country.” He ridiculed those who opposed the infrastructure bill, saying, “If any of you don’t want that money in your district, just let me know.”
It was a ferocious, and partisan, address. The combative Biden lifted the spirits of Democrats in the chamber, who repeatedly erupted in cheers of “Four more years!” And for Republicans who had apparently believed their own nonsense about Biden’s “dementia,” it caught them off guard.
Biden lingered in the chamber for half an hour after the speech, basking in the adoration of Democratic lawmakers until after 11 p.m. His critics had cleared out long ago. It was past their bedtimes.