Ross: Only one major boo in State of the Union Address
Mar 2, 2022, 5:58 AM | Updated: 9:56 am
U.S. President Joe Biden delivers the State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress in the U.S. Capitol House Chamber on March 1, 2022, in Washington, DC. (Photo by Saul Loeb - Pool/Getty Images)
(Photo by Saul Loeb - Pool/Getty Images)
As fractious as our politics seem to be – there was substantial agreement during the State of the Union Address.
Especially when President Joe Biden talked about crime:
“We should all agree the answer is not to defund the police. It’s to fund the police. Fund them.”
And he repeated it.
Of course, in the Republican response, Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds still brought it up:
“Liberal prosecutors are letting criminals off easy, and many prominent Democrats still want to defund the police.”
Maybe – but Biden isn’t one of them.
By the way – you’d think that would trigger progressive Democrats, and yet I saw Pramila Jayapal, head of the progressive caucus, hugging the President after his speech – unmasked!
Talk about threading the needle.
On the other big partisan issue – COVID – he said exactly what Republicans have been saying:
“Our schools are open, let’s keep it that way. Our kids need to be in school.”
And he announced there would be free therapeutic anti-COVID pills so that any unvaccinated person who gets sick doesn’t have to pay for an effective treatment.
In the end, the only time he was booed by Republicans was when he congratulated himself for his American Rescue Plan:
“Unlike the $2 trillion tax cut passed in the previous administration that benefitted the top 1% of Americans, the American Rescue Plan” — BOOOO — “helped working people and left no one behind.”
But what made me feel most optimistic was not that the two parties are suddenly best buddies – they’re not. But when the Russian leadership watches this, they’ll see two parties that normally butt heads in complete agreement on supporting Ukraine and isolating Russia.
“Tonight, I say to the Russian oligarchs and the corrupt leaders who built billions of dollars off this violent regime: no more. I mean it.”
Everybody stood, even Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy.
Even when Biden talked about taking away their toys!
“We’re joining with European allies to find and seize their yachts, their luxury apartments, their private jets.”
Republicans applauding wealth confiscation!
And even Governor Reynolds – as critical as her response may have been – was wearing a Ukrainian flag.
If only there was a way to cancel Putin’s Photoshop subscription.
Listen to Seattle’s Morning News with Dave Ross and Colleen O’Brien weekday mornings from 5 – 9 a.m. on KIRO Newsradio, 97.3 FM. Subscribe to the podcast here.
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