Amid fights over Donald Trump, Republicans unite to bash Joe Biden and his 100-day speech

WASHINGTON – Taking a break from infighting over Donald Trump, Republican leaders found something to agree on Wednesday: bashing President Joe Biden and the massive economic program he outlined in his prime-time speech to Congress.

GOP leaders denounced Biden’s plans to spend trillions on COVID-19 and economic relief, and to increase taxes on the wealthy to help pay for them. Republicans also hit Biden’s border polices and accused the new president of spending his first 100 days in thrall to the left wing of the Democratic Party.

“The real-life effects of President Biden’s false advertising campaign have come – pain and uncertainty at home, and dwindling leverage and virtue-signaling abroad,” said Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., fresh off a renewed dispute over Trump during a House Republican conference this week, tweeted dismissively of Biden’s speech: “This whole thing could have just been an email.”

Inside the chamber: Why President Joe Biden’s speech to Congress was unlike any other in modern history

Midterm election foreshadowing

In reacting to Biden’s speech, GOP members offered previews of their election strategy for 2022 as they seek to reclaim control of the House and Senate – a task complicated by divisions over Trump’s non-stop efforts to maintain control of the Republican Party.

McConnell, who has also clashed with Trump over the direction of the party, said before the speech that Biden’s policies are like a car.

“It’s like the most radical Washington Democrats have been handed the keys, and they are trying to speed as far left as they can possibly go before American voters ask for the car back,” McConnell said.

Trump, who has repeatedly attacked McConnell in recent months, did not issue a statement on Biden’s speech. He has an interview Thursday morning on the Fox Business Network.

Other prospective Republican presidential candidates in 2024 weighed in. Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo tweeted that Biden “outlined a radical, socialist agenda for the next 4 years. That should trouble every freedom-loving American.”

Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., who delivered the formal Republican response to Biden, credited Trump and his administration for items ranging from vaccine development to the economic upturn. Accusing Biden of seeking a “partisan wish list,” Scott said: “Three months in, the actions of the president and his party are pulling us further and further apart.” 

Republicans also protested parts of Biden’s foreign policy. McCarthy’s Twitter account claimed “he has made America weaker against our adversaries like Russia, Iran, and China.”

Biden speech moments: A Biden-Cheney fistbump, a sleepy Ted Cruz and John Roberts clapping

Biden addresses gun violence, immigration and COVID relief bill in address to Congress (Photo: AP)

No applause from the GOP

In his speech, Biden said his tax hikes will hit only corporations and the wealthiest Americans who need to pay “their fair share” for necessary investments in jobs, education, health care, help for families and infrastructure – items that are popular with a majority of voters, according to polls.

The president also called for bipartisanship with Republicans – “I’d like to meet those that have ideas that are different” – but added that “doing nothing is not an option.”

Biden supporters who watched the speech said Republicans have no interest in working with the president or the Democratic majorities in Congress. Some pointed out that GOP members sat on their hands as Biden discussed efforts to reduce child poverty and build clean water systems.

McConnell “and his caucus refuse to applaud cutting child poverty in half,” tweeted Ammar Moussa, a spokesman for the Democratic National Committee. “Says everything you need to know about the Republican Party today.”

Democrats also pointed out that Republicans have their own divisions to deal with ahead of next year’s elections.

Trump’s attacks on McConnell and other Republicans threaten to further split the party between those who want to follow Trump’s lead and those who want the GOP to chart a new course without the volatile and divisive ex-president.

Republican unity? Not so much. Donald Trump goes off-script, hits McConnell, Pence, others

Trump is planning to campaign in Republican primaries, targeting GOP members who voted to impeach him over the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol or opposed his efforts to overturn his election loss to Biden.

US House Republican Conference Chairperson Representative Liz Cheney (C) (R-WY) speaks with House Majority Whip James Clyburn (R) (D-SC) on the floor of the US House Chamber ahead of US President Joe Biden addressing a joint session of Congress at the US Capitol in Washington, DC, on April 28, 2021. (Photo: JONATHAN ERNST, POOL)

Cheney takes flak from GOP

Trump-spawned tensions surfaced during a House Republican retreat this week in Orlando, Florida.

Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., who voted to impeach Trump over Jan. 6 and is one of his political targets in next year’s Republican primaries, again said the party needs to move on from its association with Trump.

McCarthy, the House GOP leader, in an apparent poke at Cheney, said the purpose of the retreat was to develop public policy, and if “you’re talking about something else, you’re not being productive.”

For his part, Trump issued a statement lambasting Cheney as a “warmonger” who faces the prospect of electoral defeat next year at the hands of fellow Republicans.

McCarthy, McConnell and others want to keep the party united by keeping the focus on Biden, as they did following the first-year president’s address to Congress.

In a pre-speech tweet, Cheney said Biden “has completely abandoned his promise to unify and commitment to bipartisanship” in favor of “dangerous and divisive policies to appease the far-left.”

Lara Brown, director of the Graduate School of Political Management at George Washington University, said Biden’s speech – and his spending plan – gave Republicans a chance to “demonstrate their party unity.”

The problem, she said, is that the GOP has offered few alternatives on pressing problems.

“The country wants solutions,” Brown said. “They are tired of partisan fighting and obstructionism.” 

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