Kevin McCarthy pledged that he and Republicans would not engage in “childish games” Tuesday night. He would not be ripping up the copy of Joe Biden’s State of the Union speech, he said, taking a shot across Nancy Pelosi’s bow who tore the pages of Donald Trump’s speech three years ago. McCarthy and Republican leaders reportedly reminded the party that the “cameras are on” and “mics are hot.” “We’re members of Congress. We have a code of ethics of how we should portray ourselves,” McCarthy added in a CNN interview. McCarthy, finally Speaker of the House after a protracted and painful election in early January, however, sat at the lectern next to Vice President Kamala Harris, watching over a Republican party that had a very different idea of how Tuesday would play out.
Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene, an ally of McCarthy, spent much of the day walking around the Capitol complex with a large white balloon in hand, a jab at the Biden Administration’s handling of the suspected Chinese surveillance balloon in United States’ airspace earlier this week. The balloon didn’t join Greene in the House chamber, where the Georgia firebrand sat in the back of the room, notably apart from Colorado’s Lauren Boebert, who took a swipe at her balloon antics earlier in the day when asked if she was preparing any forms of protest Tuesday. “Well, I won’t be bringing a white helium balloon, if that’s what you’re asking,” Boebert told The Hill.
That kind of GOP infighting defined the start of the evening, particularly when reporters noticed a tense exchange between Utah Republican senator Mitt Romney and George Santos, who apparently got to the chamber early to save a seat by the main aisle where Biden entered the chamber. “He is a sick puppy,” Romney said of Santos after the speech. “He shouldn’t be there,” he said, noting his disappointment in how McCarthy has handled the New York Republican who has been caught in a litany of lies.
“Given the fact that he’s under ethics investigation he should be sitting in the back row and being quiet instead of parading in front of the president,” Romney added. When asked if he was disappointed that Speaker McCarthy had not called on Santos to resign, the Utah Senator bluntly responded, “Yes.”
Just after 9:07 PM on Tuesday night, Biden took the lectern to applause. For weeks, Biden toiled away with a number of his top aides—Mike Donilon, Bruce Reed, Steve Ricchetti, Anita Dunn, Vinay Reddy, being the most influential—crafting the president’s address. The group spent this past weekend cloistered at Camp David, to finetune and polish the prose, according to a White House official. Throughout his roughly hour-long speech, Biden pulled from the same pantry of rhetorical staples that have contoured his political career — the importance of bipartisanship, his working class roots — and sought to highlight the accomplishments of his administration.
McCarthy sat aloof behind him, largely expressionless. He clapped at the obvious areas of agreement. He even laughed at some of Biden’s jokes. For much of Biden’s speech, Republicans responded civilly—until they didn’t. Biden’s declaration that some Republicans were intent on cutting Social Security and Medicare, prompted boos from members of the party. McCarthy shook his head as Biden doubled down, seemingly enjoying pushing Republicans deeper in a corner against the very entitlement cuts that conservatives have long called for. But when one Republican was heard shouting “liar” at the president, McCarthy appeared to shush his own.
McCarthy’s subtle signal to his ranks to simmer down was soon lost. When Biden boasted of his administration’s efforts to curb China’s influence, Greene shouted, “China is spying on us!” in between laughs. Minutes later, Greene invoked China again when the president noted that 700,000 Americans die from Fentanyl overdoses each year. “It is coming from China,” she said. At this point, other Republicans shouted, “Close the border.” And one Republican sunk even lower, heard saying, “It is your fault!”
China was something of a theme of the night. Greene’s balloon aside, McCarthy invited former NBA player turned activist Enes Kanter Freedom, who has been an outspoken critic of human rights abuses in Turkey and China. “I have so much respect for the speaker as both a leader, and a friend. His support for me doesn’t go unappreciated for even a moment, and I hope he can lead by example to others to stand for what is right,” Freedom told Vanity Fair.
To be sure, Democrats also made political statements with their guests. Pelosi invited Sergeant Aquilino Gonnell who served as a Capitol Police officer during the January 6, 2021 insurrection and her husband Paul Pelosi, who had become the subject of right-wing conspiracies after being brutally attacked in his own home. Freshman Democrat Maxwell Frost, a longtime gun activist before he ran for Congress, invited Manuel Oliver, father of Parkland shooting victim Joaquin Oliver.
But the Republicans’ performance Tuesday night was something of a roadmap for the next two years. Grappling with a silver of a majority in the House, McCarthy will have a difficult time wrangling his own fractious caucus, let alone shepherd legislation that survives the House, the Democrat-controlled Senate and Biden’s veto. Meanwhile, as early as this week House Republicans are poised to launch a series of investigations into everything from the border, to the Chinese spy balloon, to Hunter Biden’s laptop and foreign business dealings. And then there’s Santos, who is now officially under investigation by the House’s ethics committee — and is certainly good at taking up a lot of oxygen in the room.
Abigail Tracy
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