Slaw's SOTU Report
First of all, like millions of other Americans, I didn’t watch it. Instead I rely on the media to act as a filter to skip over all the boring stuff and deliver up the truly bizarre bits. Then, in this case, I laughed my ass off and went to sleep.
Of course all the drama involved those instances where Biden abandoned the teleprompter and attempted to speak off the cuff. In this case the biggest controversy surrounds the case of Laken Riley, a nursing student in Georgia who was brutally murdered by an illegal immigrant who had been arrested and released numerous times within the United States. Biden has been under pressure from Republicans to speak about the crime and during the SOTU address he apparently delivered.
“Lincoln Riley, an innocent young woman who was killed by an illegal – that’s right.”
As statements go that’s brow raising enough. But it’s what he said next that really takes the cake.
“But how many thousands of people being killed by illegals?"
WHAT?!?
Oh wait, it’s being reported by other media outlets that what he really said is “…how many thousands of people being killed by legals?”
Well, that makes sense. <INSERT FACEPALM EMOJI HERE>
Biden ended up committing two sins against liberal orthodoxy when he strayed off the teleprompter reservation: the use of the term “illegal” rather than “undocumented” or “newcomer” is frowned upon in politer circles. In addition “Say Her Name” is riffing on the “Say His Name: George Floyd” slogan of the2020 protests/riots. (Has anybody asked BLM what they think of the President validating the Republican hijacking of their material?) Biden even had a campaign button to use as a prop for his little digression.
The question arises as to where on earth did he ever get such a thing in the first place?
It turns out that on his way to the podium Little Red Riding Biden met a nice lady in a MAGA hat who gave it to him. Instead of looking for a trash bin, or putting it in his pocket and forgetting about it, or throwing it back in her face, he carried that button all the way up to the podium and then fished it out to hold up to the cameras as he made his comments.
As a reminder to Mr. Biden, people in MAGA hats are voting for the other guy and probably don’t have your best interests at heart. As such you are under no obligation to respond when they tell you to do stuff like “Say her name”. Biden’s use of the loaded term “illegal” instead of Democrat approved terminology like “undocumented” or “newcomer”? Almost certainly because Greene was yelling “She was killed by an illegal” at him.
This sets up a terrible precedent. Anybody who’s watching now knows that if you can get close enough to Biden to give him a prop and then yell at him enough he will probably do something terrible. Imagine if, instead, Greene had been able to press a dessert cup into Biden’s hand.
“Hey Joe, where’s that pudding?”
“I’ve got it right here and…it’s delicious! Maybe not as good as ice cream, but did I ever tell you about the time that I met Bill Cosby?”
Or what if it was a Palestinian flag?
“Hey Joe, what about the genocide in Gaza?”
“I just told Bibi that we need a ceasefire or we’re cutting off matzo shipments to Israel.”
It’s going to be a long campaign season. The Biden team faces the dilemma of keeping him in the basement and ceding the public sphere to Trump or actually putting him on the road and letting him face voters. If the latter occurs interested observers will probably have ample opportunities to laugh or cry at the proceedings. Probably both.