Stay up to date with notifications from The Independent

Notifications can be managed in browser preferences.

Marjorie Taylor Greene unapologetic over Biden heckling after State of the Union

Georgia Republican claims president talked ‘about communism and controlling private companies’

Gustaf Kilander
Washington, DC
Thursday 09 February 2023 09:47 GMT
Comments
Marjorie Taylor Greene unapologetic over Biden heckling after state of the union

Your support helps us to tell the story

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.

Your support makes all the difference.

Georgia Republican Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene was unapologetic after heckling President Joe Biden during his State of the Union address before Congress.

Despite standing up and screaming “liar” at Mr Biden during the speech on Tuesday night, Ms Greene later took to Twitter to complain about the president’s supposed “yelling” during the speech.

“I just got back to my office after listening to the State of the Union with Joe Biden,” she said in a video posted on Twitter. “Part of the time we couldn’t really understand what he was saying as he was yelling at people, yelling through the applause, and mumbling through his words.”

“Some of the things we did hear didn’t make any sense,” she claimed. “Joe Biden claimed to care about the border and talked about fentanyl deaths which is the number one cause of young people ages 18 to 45, but yet has no plan to secure the border and frankly we all know he doesn’t care about the border because Joe wanted the border wide open.”

“That’s the whole problem with Joe,” she added.

During his speech on Tuesday night, Mr Biden said, “we now have a record number of personnel working to secure the border, arresting 8,000 human smugglers and seizing over 23,000 pounds of fentanyl in just the last several months.

“Since we launched our new border plan last month, unlawful migration from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela has come down 97 per cent. But America’s border problems won’t be fixed until Congress acts,” he said. “If you won’t pass my comprehensive immigration reform, at least pass my plan to provide the equipment and officers to secure the border. And a pathway to citizenship for Dreamers, those on temporary status, farm workers, and essential workers.”

Ms Greene went on to say: “We also heard him talk about McDonald’s non-compete fees ... I don’t hear anybody at home worrying about these terrible fights between fast food companies.”

She claimed that Mr Biden “talked a lot about communism and controlling private companies”.

“We’re beginning to restore the dignity of work,” Mr Biden said in his address. “For example, 30 million workers had to sign non-compete agreements when they took a job. So a cashier at a burger place can’t cross the street to take the same job at another burger place to make a couple bucks more. Not anymore. We’re banning those agreements so companies have to compete for workers and pay them what they’re worth.”

Ms Greene said Mr Biden “did lie” when he “talked about Republicans and Social Security and Medicare”.

“We have not talked about cutting Social Security and Medicare, Joe Biden has been claiming that we’re going to cut Social Security and Medicare – but we’re not,” Ms Greene said. “So we called him out on the House floor, I called him a ‘liar’ because that’s what Joe Biden is.”

“Instead of making the wealthy pay their fair share, some Republicans want Medicare and Social Security to sunset every five years,” Mr Biden said. “That means if Congress doesn’t vote to keep them, those programs will go away. Other Republicans say if we don’t cut Social Security and Medicare, they’ll let America default on its debt for the first time in our history. I won’t let that happen.”

Holding a large white balloon in the footage, Ms Greene said Mr Biden “should have apologized to America for the Chinese spy balloon that he allowed to traverse across our country, spy on our military bases, spy on our food factories, spy on our cities, spy on our entire country”.

She said Mr Biden didn’t “do a damn thing about it until it left our country”.

“Joe Biden is weak, Joe Biden can’t stand up to China, Joe Biden cannot protect our country, he can’t protect our borders, and Joe Biden doesn’t know anything he’s talking about,” she said. “That’s the state of our union.”

Mr Biden argued: “We’re in the strongest position in decades to compete with China or anyone else in the world. I am committed to work with China where it can advance American interests and benefit the world.”

“But make no mistake: as we made clear last week, if China’s threatens our sovereignty, we will act to protect our country. And we did,” he added. “And let’s be clear: winning the competition with China should unite all of us. We face serious challenges across the world.”

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in