As you’ve probably ascertained by now, assuming you didn’t subject yourself personally to the torture, Joe Biden delivered his first State of the Union last night. And while I’d like to say it was everything I expected it to be, as in boring, repetitive, and tone-deaf, it was actually worse. Whoever actually wrote the president’s speech should probably be relieved of their duties going forward. Any hope that Biden’s performance was going to reset or rescue his collapsing presidency died within the first 20 minutes or so.
Then there were the theatrics, some of which came courtesy of Rep. Lauren Boebert, who could be heard shouting “13 of them” after the president mentioned “flag-draped coffins.” That was obviously a vocal critique of the fact that Biden completely absconded from even mentioning the servicemembers who died during the Afghanistan evacuation due to his incompetence.
Of course, following the heckling, the consternation flowed from the media. How could Boebert engage in such a disgusting breach of decorum?
In a different era, a congresswoman shouting and heckling the president at the SOTU while he was talking about US soldiers Killed In Action — and was about to invoke his own dead son — would be widely condemned across the political spectrum. Starting with her caucus leader.
— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) March 2, 2022
(tweet cowardly deleted)
Let’s start with the fact that Tapper is actually lying in his criticism of Boebert. Joe Biden was not talking about soldiers killed in action. In fact, the entire point of Boebert’s outburst was to point out that the president was expressly ignoring them. What Biden was actually talking about are the burn pits that existed in Iraq. The president has, multiple times, attempted to connect (without evidence) his late son’s cancer to them.
Regardless, it is incredibly rich to see the media complain about Boebert when they cheered Nancy Pelosi ripping up Trump’s SOTU print-out on camera, while he was still behind the podium, mind you. Trump was also heckled and had members get up and walk during his various SOTU speeches. At no point did The Washington Post or Jake Tapper clutch their pearls over it. In short, these partisan hacks can spare us the faux indignation at an act that pales in comparison to those carried out against the former president.
Returning to the key issue, though, it is ridiculous that the media would focus on Boebert when the most disturbing aspect of this ordeal is Biden’s remarks or lack thereof.
As Shapiro notes, while Beau Biden’s death was a tragedy, there is zero evidence connecting his development of cancer years after he left Iraq to the burn pits in Iraq. For Joe Biden to once again use his son’s death as a political tool while ignoring the 13 dead Americans who perished in Afghanistan just months ago is disgusting. It becomes even more so when you consider the botched evacuation of Afghanistan largely happened because of the president’s desire to give a “victory” speech on 9/11.
So while the media can obsess over Boebert’s moment of heckling, I think most Americans understand the real problem. It’s not a lack of decorum during the State of the Union toward a president who has shown none. Rather, it’s Biden’s policies and the results of them, and that includes how he’s harmed US military service members.