We are now three days removed from President Biden's State of the Union address, where
he was repeatedly heckled by Republican lawmakers in the crowd.
And as of today, on Friday, and the speech was Tuesday evening, Republicans still can't
decide amongst themselves whether or not making themselves look like idiotic little misbehaving
children was good for them or bad for them.
There is literally a divide in the Republican party right now about whether or not what
they did during the speech, you know, yelling out these things and interrupting the president
of the United States.
They can't determine if it was good or it wasn't bad.
And we've got some poll numbers that actually answered that question.
I'll get to those in just a moment.
But let's read a couple statements from the Republicans who again, aren't sure what it
is.
You've got half saying it was good, half saying it was bad.
Republican representative Lisa McClain from Michigan said, quote, he started off, I thought
wonderfully, but then you can't stand up there and blatantly lie.
So as much as I wish we had more decorum, okay, you're instigating that behavior.
So it starts with the leader.
Okay?
So McClain clearly says Biden started it.
So we're justified in acting like idiots.
Kevin McCarthy said the president was trying to goad the members and the members are passionate
about it.
But the one thing that the president was saying was something that he knew was not true.
Okay?
So the speaker of the house is cool with Republicans looking like a bunch of petulant children.
Good to know.
Then you have Republican representative Garrett Graves from Louisiana who said, quote, the
office of the President deserves respect, period, agree or disagree.
I got a little uneasy in my seat and pretty frustrated listening to some of the allegations
that are just patently false, but he let it go.
So you got Representative Garrett who says, listen, cool your Jets folks.
I got mad too, but I didn't act like a moron.
Then you have Republican representative, Dave Joyce from Ohio who said, quote, I think it's
important that proper decorum be addressed, not only in the chamber, but everywhere we
go and we should hold ourselves to a higher ground.
That's something we shouldn't engage in, and we should at least show the respect that's
due when owed to the office of the president when he comes to our chamber to speak.
Okay, Dave Joyce is definitely on the, on the side of we looked stupid and we shouldn't
have done that.
We should be embarrassed.
You should have decorum at all times.
He says, but I gotta take issue just real quick with, with these republicans saying
like, but he was blatantly lying and he was saying things they weren't treat.
No, he didn't.
He legitimately did not.
He talked about your plan and your agenda, which Rick Scott the very next day confirmed
is in fact your agenda.
So he didn't lie.
So y'all are lying about him lying to try to make yourselves not look like morons.
But here's
The the thing, McCarthy had already reminded Republicans before the speech even happened
in a meeting that morning.
Quote .
He, he said, um, we have to remember that there's hot mics and there's cameras and we
can't be acting like children.
He literally said, we can't be acting like children, but she acted like kids.
And then McCarthy came out after like that quote I just read.
And he was like, yeah, but it was cool cuz he, he goaded us into it and we were dumb
enough to apparently take the bait.
So Republicans are torn about whether or not it was good.
Like should we keep acting like embarrassing little children who don't know how to behave
themselves in a fancy restaurant?
Or should we maybe act like the grownups?
They don't know.
They literally don't know.
But I'll tell you who do know, who does know?
Excuse me.
Is independent voters who watched the speech according to an analysis of all of the, you
know, rapid reactions that happened during the State of the Union.
Um, a, a group, um, who is it?
Um, Maslansky and Partners.
Uh, they're president Lee Carter.
The, well, let me just read it.
This is what Lee Carter had to say.
A Lansky and Partners, by the way did go through all of the different channels, their snap
reactions that they have, the focus groups they do.
This is what he found.
Uh, Republicans and Democrats gave the speech a grade of B when the Republicans were heckling,
but independent voters put it at a D.
The independents were really turned off by the whole exchange, and that's one of the
themes that you saw for the night.
The way that the Republicans behaved really did turn off a lot of independent voters.
What people were saying over and over again was, there should be some amount of decorum.
You can fight back, you can slap back.
There's a lot of other times and places to do it.
They just didn't like the sort of coliseum feel that was happening last night.
So Democrats liked it because they thought it made Republicans look bad.
Republicans liked it because they thought it made Republicans look like fighters, independents.
The people who believe it or not, actually determine the results of elections.
They were like, this sucks.
We don't like what these Republicans are doing.
So basically they cited with the Democrats, they're like, the Democrats were right.
This makes Republicans look stupid.
So there you have it.
I'm glad to see that Republicans are still confused about do we look dumb or are we dumb
or are we good?
Are we the good guys?
Are we the bad guys?
I don't know.
Well, the independent voters have spoken and they think you're all a bunch of idiots.
And to answer your question, yes, they think you are the bad guys.