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| James Lankford |
Biden Lashed Out at Republicans
Making one of the first points in his March 7, 2024 State of the Union speech, President Joe Biden lashed out at the Republicans in Congress for defeating what appeared to be an extremely conservative border control bill. The bill was drafted by Independent Senator Kyrsten Sinema, Republican James Lankford, and Democrat Chris Murphy. Murphy agreed to a conservative border bill as a compromise to increase aid to Ukraine. Biden called the bill:
“…a bipartisan bill with the toughest set of border security reforms we’ve ever seen.”
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| Joe Biden, 2024 State of the Union |
“Oh, you don’t think so? Oh, you don’t like that bill, huh, that conservatives got together and said was a good bill? I’ll be darned. That’s amazing.”Biden detailed the bill’s provisions:
“1,500 more security agents and officers, 100 more immigration judges to help tackle a backload of 2 million cases, 4,300 more asylum officers, and new policies so they can resolve cases in 6 months instead of 6 years now.”Anyway, Biden pounded on and on in that vein. In the midst of Biden’s broadside attack, Lankford quietly mouthed:
“That’s true.”Reportedly, former president Donald Trump had told Republicans to oppose the bill, presumably because he wanted to whine about the border during the presidential campaign.
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Heckling and Anti-Heckling in Joe Biden’s February 7, 2023 State of the Union Address
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Poor Lankford
Republicans had, for weeks, been turning against Lankford for helping to write the bill. Back in February, after the bill was roundly defeated, losing votes even from its strongest erstwhile supporters, Lankford commented:
“I’m disappointed we didn’t get it done, ... I don’t know if I feel betrayed, because the issue is still there. It’s not solved.”Burned by his own party’s flip-flopping, Lankford’s pretty much inaudible heckle (it required lip reading) gave his understandable reaction to the betrayal. He and his colleagues had worked hard to write a strict border control bill, and to see his work upended so casually would plague even the most cynical politician.
The Lost Art of Heckling: How to Heckle and Not Sound Like an Idiot
Trying to salvage his evidently wrecked political career, Lankford promptly issued a lengthy statement criticizing every part of Biden’s speech. Too little, too late. The Republicans have abandoned him, and he has become a pariah—for the unforgivable crime of momentary integrity. His brave, honest, whispered heckle expressed, however, an unusual, though achingly brief, display of spine and conscience in the United States of America’s increasingly polarized and dishonest political environment.
And he didn’t need to shout.
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Trying to salvage his evidently wrecked political career, Lankford promptly issued a lengthy statement criticizing every part of Biden’s speech. Too little, too late. The Republicans have abandoned him, and he has become a pariah—for the unforgivable crime of momentary integrity. His brave, honest, whispered heckle expressed, however, an unusual, though achingly brief, display of spine and conscience in the United States of America’s increasingly polarized and dishonest political environment.
And he didn’t need to shout.
by William D. Harpine
Copyright © 2024, William D. Harpine
Images: U.S. Congress, via Wikimedia Commons, public domain;
White House Facebook page, public domain
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