Aside from the Republican response to Biden’s SOTU address, three Democrats will also be responding the address tonight:
BUSINESS INSIDER – Every year after the president’s State of the Union, a member of the opposing party traditionally gives a formal response. This year, Gov. Kim Reynolds of Iowa is set to give the official Republican response to President Joe Biden’s big speech on Tuesday night.
But, unlike in previous years, Biden will get multiple responses from his own party — a highly unusual development that reflects some of the splits within the Democratic caucus. As of Tuesday morning, three Democratic members of Congress from across the ideological spectrum will also give their own speeches after Biden’s State of the Union.
Rep. Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, a member of a group of progressive House lawmakers of color that calls themselves “the Squad,” was the first to announce she would give a State of the Union response on behalf of the Working Families Party.
Fox News reported on Monday that Rep. Colin Allred of Texas would give a State of the Union response on behalf of the Congressional Black Caucus.
Then, on Monday night, the centrist group No Labels announced that “immediately following” the speech, it would host “an unprecedented bipartisan perspective” panel featuring Democratic Rep. Josh Gottheimer of New Jersey and Republican Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania, the two co-chairs of the bipartisan Problem Solvers Caucus in Congress.
Obviously we expect a Republican response, but for three different Democrats to also respond just speaks to how unpopular Joe Biden is within areas of his own party, among its members.
It also speaks to just how divided Democrats are in terms of the hard radical socialist element that has arisen in the party. Yes, I know most of them are socialists. But the AOC types are harder, more active and trying to push out the older, softer socialists. AOC herself was very critical of Pelosi until they had a heart to heart. And you can believe Schumer is worried about having her run against him in the Senate soon.
Tlaib absolutely represents AOC and these more radical socialists, and you can be sure she’ll use her speech to continue to build her coalition within the base.
It’s interesting to me that the CBC has someone responding tonight. I’m not sure what their angle is, but I’m sure Biden won’t be happy about it if it casts him in a bad light.
Today, Pelosi suggested that the people unhappy with Biden don’t understand what he’s done to fix the economy and make it better, so he’s going to tell them:
In other words, Biden is going to lie lie lie. What’s new.