Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders (R-AK) slammed President Joe Biden’s record on inflation and accused Democrats of waging a culture war staked to left-wing orthodoxies during the Republican rebuttal to the State of the Union address.
In remarks from Little Rock, Sanders argued that the Biden administration had blundered the response to a national cost of living crisis while failing to protect American freedoms.
“Washington taxes you and lights your hard-earned money on fire. But you get crushed with high gas prices, empty grocery shelves, and our children are taught to hate one another on account of their race,” Sanders said. “Whether Joe Biden believes this madness or is simply too weak to resist it, his administration has been completely hijacked by the radical Left.”
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Sanders said, “Americans want common sense from their leaders, but in Washington, the Biden administration is doubling down on crazy.”
She also criticized the Biden administration’s handling of economic conditions in the country, countering the president’s argument in his speech at the Capitol. Biden on Tuesday promised to invest in an America fragmented by globalization, a pitch popularized by Trump in 2016. Trump has already announced his campaign for reelection in 2024.
Sanders made an impassioned pitch for a new generation of Republican leadership “not to be caretakers of the status quo but to be changemakers for the American people.”
Sanders also took aim at Biden and Democrats over their handling of the border and China.
The speech is often used to introduce a rising star to a national audience. Sanders, the first female governor of Arkansas and youngest governor in the nation, saw her profile rise as the public face of former President Donald Trump’s White House during her two-year tenure as press secretary.
The choice of Sanders as the face of the party at one of the defining political events of the year hints at the tightrope walked by Republicans as they carve out their future in a party reshaped by Trump, sobered by lackluster midterm results.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) invited Sanders to give the response, with McConnell calling her a “powerful advocate for the popular, commonsense conservative principles that will put our country back on a better course.”
“Tonight, Governor Sanders showed that while Washington is filled with chaos and crisis, Republican Governors are delivering on promises made to our constituents,” the Republican Governors Association said in a statement signed by GOP governors. “Americans look to our states for a better form of government – one that prioritizes freedom in education, energy independence, safer communities, and opportunity for all.”
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Sanders’s speech followed Biden’s first State of the Union addressed to a divided Congress, where the president promised investments to restore the “places and people that have been forgotten” by four decades of globalization. Biden on Tuesday laid out the contours of a case to voters for another four years in office, leaning on the notion that he has secured major legislative victories that improve life for middle-class people.
Biden spoke for more than an hour before he mentioned the war in Ukraine, a major international event that has caused price pressures in the United States and globally, causing energy prices to rise and increasing the cost of goods.
Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds delivered the Republican rebuttal to Biden’s first State of the Union last year. Once seen as a possible running mate for former President Donald Trump, Reynolds is the state’s first female governor and chairs the Republican Governors Association.
