Heckling the president at the State of the Union: Is it a good or bad political move? Thanks to Republicans, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene in particular, that’s one of the big debates of the week.
It’s a sign of how much things have changed that this is a debate. In 2009, when Republican Rep. Joe Wilson shouted “You lie” at then-President Barack Obama during the State of the Nation, he apologized, including making an apology call to the White House. Most Republicans and a few Democrats subsequently voted against a formal rebuke for his “breach of decorum,” but Wilson’s regret was an important part of the story—his campaign website even posted a video of his wife saying that, after the speech, she had asked her husband, “Who’s the nut that hollered out, ‘You lie’ or ‘you liar’?”
By contrast, Greene, who by one count screamed that President Joe Biden was a “liar” nine times during the speech, is very pleased with herself. “I let him know exactly how the people feel. I got more text messages last night and this morning than I did on my—probably winning both elections,” she told reporters on Wednesday. “So, no, I have no regrets.”
RELATED STORY: Marjorie Taylor Greene's State of the Union heckling made her a meme but not a winner
Campaign Action
That’s the measure, right? How many text messages come in from people who already know your phone number? But to Greene, it’s a sign that her base ate it up, and that’s what she wanted. While calling the president a “liar” is supposed to be out of order in the House, it relies on the speaker to enforce that, and Kevin McCarthy knows he squeaked into the speakership in significant part because of Greene’s support. He won’t enforce anything against her, and she knows it, telling reporters, she’s “not one single bit” worried about that, because “I have the speaker’s support, and he has mine.”
McCarthy had said in advance of the State of the Union that Republicans wouldn’t engage in “childish games.” So much for that. After the fact, he suggested he knew Greene’s behavior hadn’t been a winner for Republicans, saying, “We need to be smart, don’t take the bait.”
Greene’s “I have the speaker’s support, and he has mine” offers a reminder that she has power over him, though, and McCarthy also sought to excuse the heckling by her and others.
“The president was trying to goad the members, and the members are passionate about it,” McCarthy said on Fox News on Wednesday, adding the false claim that “the one thing that the president was saying was something that he knew was not true.” In reality, several Republicans currently in the Senate have proposed sunsetting Social Security and Medicare or gutting the programs, just as Biden said.
McCarthy’s various responses show the competing forces he faces: He knows this wasn’t a good look for Republicans with the media or a winner with independent voters—but he cannot afford to alienate the likes of Greene by being too direct about it.
On Fox News, one guest broke the hard news to host Ainsley Earhardt. “The independents were really turned off by the whole exchange, and that’s one of the themes that you saw for the night,” communications consultant Lee Carter said, looking at live opinion data. “The way that the Republicans behaved really did turn off a lot of independent voters.”
”Really? Really?” Earhardt responded.
“It sure did,” Carter answered with a nod and regretful expression.
Concerns about that aren’t exactly driving Fox News coverage, though. Republicans continue to build up the walls of their bubble, telling themselves that only the people inside it matter. That’s the audience for Greene’s performance, and Greene’s audience is what gives her strength with McCarthy. So the Republican move to being the party of heckling is not going to slow down anytime soon.
RELATED STORIES:
GOP shocked, SHOCKED to learn that they want to destroy Social Security and Medicare
Biden baits Republicans into standing up (literally) for Social Security and Medicare
Biden's State of the Union was a thing of beauty
