DV Journal

President Donald Trump’s whirlwind of “swift and unrelenting” action during his first 90 days in office appears to have congressional Democrats flummoxed.

During Trump’s address to a joint session of Congress Tuesday, some Democrats silently held up protest signs, a few — including Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon — made a scene of walking out in the middle, and cane-waving Rep. Al Green (D-Texas) was expelled when he refused repeated warnings to stop disrupting the event.

And Democrats made the decision not to stand up or applaud for the special guests Trump acknowledged in his remarks. That included a 13-year-old cancer survivor who was made an honorary Secret Service agent, the mother of Laken Riley who was murdered by an illegal immigrant, and Payton McNabb, a young woman who was seriously injured while playing volleyball against a biological male on the opposing women’s team.

“House and Senate Democratic leaders didn’t join the escort committee for the president. Dems turned their back on him when he entered the chamber and didn’t shake his hand,” reported CNN’s Manu Raju. “They didn’t applaud virtually anything. Several walked out in the middle of the speech.”

The refusal of Democrats to join them left many on both sides of the aisle in shock.

“The behavior of Democrats last night was completely disgraceful and demonstrated how severely out of touch they are with the American public. It was the most shameful moment in the history of presidential addresses in that beautiful chamber,” said White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt Wednesday morning.

Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) took his party to task in a post on X/Twitter.

“A sad cavalcade of self-ownership and unhinged petulance. It only makes Trump look more presidential and restrained. We’re becoming the metaphorical car alarms that nobody pays attention to—and it may not be the winning message,” Fetterman wrote.

He’s not the only Democrat denouncing his party’s behavior.

“I agree with him.  It feeds the narrative that the place is filled with unserious dopes,” said Democratic political consultant TJ Rooney.

Dan Turrentine, a longtime Democrat and co-host of the popular Morning Meeting on the 2Way platform said, “It was embarrassing to be a Democrat last night.”

“It was a disgrace that they would not show some humanity for the child, for the man who got into West Point, which is just an amazing accomplishment,” Turrentine said. Like many Democrats, the day after, he worries his party is veering farther from the views of average Americans.

“I think the bottom line is our leadership has no clothes,” Turrentine said. “We need to get our head screwed back on. Hopefully, last night was the bottom of the barrel, and we will start the march back.”

Asked about Fetterman’s criticism, Mark Nevins, a Democratic consultant, told DVJournal, “There was nothing substantive about last night. Not the president, not the cheering Republicans, not the booing Democrats. It was just swamp noise. In the real world outside of Washington, D.C., real people are getting hammered with the increased cost of just about everything and Trump’s agenda is going to make it all even worse. Unless we’re talking about that, we’re wasting time and energy.”

Muhlenberg College political science Professor Christopher Borick said, “I think Fetterman’s analysis has validity. Some of the actions by Democrats in attendance certainly didn’t help their standing. I think the best strategy in that particular setting would have been to remain silent and keep the focus on the president’s behaviors that included name-calling and belittling others in a setting where unification of the country is usually the focus. The Democrats may have played into Trump’s hands.”

Jeff Jubelirer, vice president of Bellevue Communications, agreed.

“The Democrats played into Trump’s hands,” he said. “There’s nothing more satisfying to him than a fight, and he got it. The problem was he had, and has, the bully pulpit, and he’s every bit the bully.

“It’s time to come up with a different approach,” said Jubelirer. “Bringing fired federal workers to the speech who, other than being a government employee, did nothing to deserve their fate? Better move, Democrats. Anyone with a heart can empathize with them…most importantly, the so-called ‘middle America’ folks who aren’t already completely burrowed inside the Trump GOP or Democratic camps. Their stories, as told in first person, are much more impactful than wearing pink, shouting out, or merely holding up signs in protest.”

“I respectfully disagree with Sen. Fetterman’s post,” said Chester County Democratic Chair Charlotte Valyo. “There are several ways to respond to President Trump’s speech, and we can disagree on the best method. But we would all agree that the sad spectacle we saw from the president and his Republican sycophants was more a MAGA rally speech, with all his whining and lying, and less like an honest discussion with the nation about where we are headed. The speech was disrespectful, divisive, and hate-filled. It was unworthy of a presidential speech.”

However, the American people liked the speech, according to some polls taken immediately afterward.

A CBS poll found 76 percent of Americans approved of the speech. And a CNN poll showed 69 percent of Americans had a positive reaction.

Rep. Dan Meuser (R-Pa.) said, “President Trump reaffirmed his commitment to the renewal of the American Dream and made clear that ‘Promises Made, Promises Kept’ is not just a slogan—it’s a reality.”

Freshman Sen. Dave McCormick (R-Pa.) said on X, “Honored to attend my first Joint Session Address by President Trump. His speech made clear he is making huge progress every day on delivering for Americans on securing the border, fixing the economy, and restoring U.S. dominance on the world stage.”

It’s a uniquely American institution. Early each year, the president delivers a much-anticipated State of the Union address. Then it’s (usually) quickly forgotten. How much do you know about this annual tradition? Test your knowledge with this short, fun quiz.

1. What was responsible for starting the custom?

A: The Declaration of Independence

B: The Articles of Confederation

C: The Federalist papers

D: The Constitution

Answer: D. Article II, Section 3 says the president “shall from time to time give to the Congress Information on the State of the Union, and recommend to their Consideration such Measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient.” Though a precise timeline isn’t spelled out, all presidents since George Washington have interpreted that to mean once a year.

2. Who began referring to it as the State of the Union address?

A: George Washington

B: Thomas Jefferson

C: Herbert Hoover

D: Franklin D. Roosevelt

Answer: D. Up until the 1930s, it was simply called the president’s “Annual Message.” FDR christened it with the name we know today.

3.  Only two presidents didn’t deliver an Annual Message or a State of the Union address. Who were they, and why didn’t they observe the custom?

A: William Henry Harrison and James Garfield

B: William McKinley and John F. Kennedy

C: Warren Harding and Harry Truman

D: Zachary Taylor and Abraham Lincoln

Answer: A. Harrison died of illness, and Garfield was assassinated before they could send their first Annual Message.

4. Perhaps because he wasn’t a great public speaker, President Thomas Jefferson broke with his predecessors and sent his Annual Message in writing, not in person. That tradition continued until this president revived the tradition of addressing Congress in person.

A: George Washington

B: Chester Arthur 

C: Rutherford B. Hayes

D: Woodrow Wilson

Answer: D. Woodrow Wilson returned the president’s Annual Message to Capitol Hill in person in 1913.

5. While most addresses are rosy and optimistic, who delivered what’s widely considered the most alarmist State of the Union?

A: Abraham Lincoln, 1861

B: Woodrow Wilson, 1917

C: Franklin Roosevelt, 1941

D: John F. Kennedy, 1961

Answer: D. Speaking to Congress on January 30, just 10 days after taking office, Kennedy’s address came at the height of the Cold War. It contained such troubling warnings as the “hour of national peril” and “we draw nearer the hour of maximum danger.”

6. Which Annual Message/State of the Union addresses set technological records?

A: Calvin Coolidge, 1923

B: Harry Truman, 1947

C: Bill Clinton, 1997

D: All the above

Answer: D. Coolidge had the first speech carried on radio; Truman’s speech was the first broadcast on television; and Clinton’s speech was the first streamed on the internet.

7. Whose address was the longest delivered in person?

A: Millard Fillmore

B: Ulysses S. Grant

C: Bill Clinton

D: George W. Bush

Answer: C. Clinton spoke for one hour, 28 minutes, and 49 seconds in 2000. The longest message was from Jimmy Carter in 1981, whose 33,667-word report was the last sent in writing.

8.  Which president listed his “Four Freedoms” to inspire a nation as war loomed?

A: Abraham Lincoln, 1861

B: Franklin D. Roosevelt, 1941

C: George W. Bush, 2002

D: Teddy Roosevelt, 1905

Answer: B. Roosevelt spelled out his “Four Freedoms” as World War II raged in Europe (and would soon engulf America): The freedom of speech, the freedom of worship, the freedom from want, and the freedom from fear.

9. Which president used his address to reverse his previous political philosophy and declare, “The era of Big Government is over”?

A: Lyndon B. Johnson, 1965

B: Andrew Jackson, 1831

C: George H.W. Bush, 1992

D: Bill Clinton, 1996

Answer: D. After tax hikes and a failed healthcare plan led to the first Republican House majority since 1952, the pragmatic Arkansas governor saw the writing on the wall.

The eyes of the nation will soon be glued to the U.S. House chamber once more for America’s annual spectacle: the State of the Union address. It’s a moment of high drama, a democratic version of European pomp and ceremony.

Congress, some of the Supreme Court and most of the Cabinet are all assembled in one room. The House sergeant at arms calls out, “Mister Speaker, the President of the United States!” There is an explosion of applause so powerful it nearly registers on radar.

And just like other big TV ratings events, the State of the Union address generally draws a lot of eyeballs during TV’s choicest viewing slot, too.

In fact, that nationally televised address is among the biggest perks of the presidency. For one magical night yearly, a stuffy speech transforms into Must See TV.

It wasn’t always that way.

The relatively few Americans who owned televisions were glued to them at 1 p.m. on Monday, Jan. 6, 1947. They knew they were witnessing a first. In a grainy black-and-white transmission that looked like it was beamed from Mars, a short man with thick glasses walked up to a rostrum, shook hands, and then turned to the camera.

Americans were thrilled. This was the first time they could watch a State of the Union address as it was being delivered. True, they had followed it on the radio for more than 20 years. As this new medium was quickly proving, folks would rather see and hear than just listen to a broadcast. They watched in rapt attention as President Harry Truman delivered a long address right before their very eyes.

(There was another first that year; 1947 was also the first time the speech was officially called the State of the Union Address. Franklin Roosevelt began calling it by the name we now know starting in 1935. Before that, it was simply called the president’s “Annual Message.”)

Harry’s big talk was a big hit. And so, for the next two decades soap operas and game shows were interrupted one afternoon every January for the State of the Union.

Then Lyndon Johnson changed things again.

LBJ was a big man, and (not surprising for a politician hailing from Texas, where everything is bigger) he liked doing things in a big way. Puny daytime TV viewership when most Americans were working wasn’t good enough for him. Johnson wanted a big audience. That meant prime time. Starting in 1966, the address was moved to the evening.

Which then led to the televised response from the opposing party. In fact, future president Gerald Ford helped give the GOP’s first-ever State of the Union response.

Now on a programming equal footing with the likes of “All In the Family,” “Bonanza” and “Laugh-In,” the event kept evolving.

More people watching at home meant more applause with a louder volume inside the Capitol. By the early 1980s, Republicans were putting their hands together for President Ronald Reagan with such precision that Democratic Congressman Dennis Eckart wondered what was going on. He peeked at an advance copy of the speech that had been given to his Republican colleagues. It specified lines where GOP members were encouraged to applaud. Outraged Democrats, from Speaker Tip O’Neill on down, stayed silent throughout much of the following year’s address in protest, giving little more than golf claps.

Team Reagan also began the tradition of inviting everyday Americans to attend the speech, starting in 1982. A man named Lenny Skutnik was hailed for having jumped into the icy Potomac River a few weeks earlier to save a woman after an Air Florida plane crash. It proved such a hit that presidents have been doing it ever since.

The address keeps up with the latest technology, too. It was first streamed live on the internet in 1997. The first high-def broadcast came in 2004.

For millions of Americans, watching the State of the Union address is as much a wintertime tradition as watching the Super Bowl.

Though the speech’s audience is significantly smaller. Makes you wonder if a future administration will add a halftime show one day to gin up the ratings.

President Joe Biden took a victory lap at Strath Haven Middle School in Nether Providence Township on Friday after his Thursday night State of the Union speech.

While pundits have described Biden’s speech as “fiery” and “angry,” the 81-year-old Pennsylvania native was more subdued in front of the Delaware County audience. Biden’s local appearance also contrasted with his more focused and on-point performance in Washington, D.C. On Friday, he reverted to form, losing track of his thoughts and misspeaking several times.

Some of Biden’s difficult-to-parse remarks included, “We added more to the national debt than any president in his term in all of history;” and, “Pennsylvania, I have a message for you: Send me to Congress!”

But the Biden-friendly audience, which included many local politicians, cheered and applauded nonetheless, even throwing in a chant of “Four more years!”

Another key difference in his Delco speech was that Biden attacked his likely GOP opponent, Donald Trump, by name rather than referring to him as “my predecessor.”

“Folks, our freedoms really are on the ballot this November. Donald Trump and the MAGA Republicans are trying to take away our freedoms,” Biden said. “That’s not an exaggeration. Well, guess what? We will not let him.”

Biden hopes the U.S. Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade will again spur Democrats to vote.

“Those bragging about overturning Roe v. Wade have no clue about the power of women in America,” said Biden.

Biden touted the U.S. economy as “the envy of the world,” with “15 million new jobs in just three years” and unemployment at a “50-year low” with “800,000 new manufacturing jobs and counting.”

“Wages are up, and inflation is coming down,” he said. “Inflation’s dropped from 9 percent to 3 percent.”

He called for “the wealthy” and corporations to pay more taxes. He would set the corporate tax rate at 21 percent. “No billionaire should pay a lower tax than a teacher, sanitation worker, or nurse.”

He would set the tax rate at 25 percent for billionaires to raise $500,000 billion over the next 10 years, which the government would use to cut the deficit and “provide childcare.”

He said he’s fighting the pharmaceutical industry to lower the price of drugs and mentioned lowering the price of insulin to $35 a month for senior citizens, a move Trump made in his presidency. Biden promised he would lower the price of medications for all Americans.

Biden proposed giving Americans $400 a month tax credit toward their mortgage if it’s their first home or they’re moving to “a larger place.”

“We’re cracking down on big landlords who are price-fixing and driving up rents,” he said, adding Congress should pass his plan to “bring those rents down.”

“We’ve got $359 billion passed for climate change,” said Biden.

“We beat the NRA when I signed the most significant gun safety law in 30 years. Now, we have to beat the NRA again. I’m demanding a ban on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines,” Biden said.

Biden told his Delco audience his goals are the same as they were in 2020: to grow the middle class, to “restore the soul of America,” and to unite the country. Republican critics were quick to respond that his State of the Union speech a day earlier was one of the most partisan and divisive in history.

On the street outside Strath Haven Middle School, pro-Palestinian protesters picketed, chanting “Genocide Joe has got to go,” among other slogans.

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President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address was his opportunity to promote his “successes” and lay out his roadmap. In touting the so-called Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) he wasted no breath, claiming it was a victory for patients due to the law’s new prescription drug price controls. That was one of many “misstatements” as it has been mislabeled and will soon hurt seniors with a raid on Medicare and Americans losing access to drugs that are currently in development.

After this election-year bill was passed, Democrats falsely declared victory over high drug prices. Sadly, too many Republicans were silent. The average American deserves to fully understand the IRA, who it really rewards, and how the law is nothing less than an ideological push aimed at furthering socialized medicine before delivering results.

In recent days culminating in the State of the Union address, the president claimed “historic progress” “on lowering health care costs under his watch, including steps to strengthen Medicare, Medicaid, and the Affordable Care Act (ACA)” and touting the new prescription drug provisions, which will mandate Medicare be able to negotiate drug prices.” His definition of progress is giving seniors fewer choices, innovators fewer incentives, redefining “negotiation” as “extortion,” expanding Obamacare and Medicaid and raiding Medicare for green new deal projects.

What the IRA actually does is not as straightforward as Democrats and aligned groups like AARP and left-wing think tanks would have you believe. The nasty side-effects of price controls on Medicare Part D drugs are impossible to ignore, considering this policy stunts American efforts to cure illnesses, harms drug access, and reduces options for patients relying on carefully designed drug regimens. How badly will this hurt the creation of new and life-changing drugs? A University of Chicago issue brief showed the law would result in a whopping 135 fewer new drugs, impacting the lives of 2.47 million patients. Four innovator-sponsored clinical trials have already been canceled in the first four months. How many of those drugs would have been breakthrough cures? How many would have changed the lives of patients hoping for better treatments?

Biden’s IRA victory lap does little to alleviate the unnecessary burden on Americans who are struggling with their health. America ought to lead the way in creating new and innovative treatments. The IRA even cuts back on the Trump administration’s anti-kickback regulations that limited the power of PBMs and would have lowered drug list prices. And perhaps it was a coincidence that President Biden conveniently forgot to mention that the IRA doles out billions in Medicare savings to giant health insurance companies.

It is truly something. On one hand, the Democrats crafted the IRA as a step toward an EU-style healthcare system. On the other hand, the law also hands taxpayer funding intended for Medicare to their friends in the insurance-PBM industry. Over $270 billion gone from Medicare in the name of socialist price controls, gifted to giant insurance corporations and PBMs. Isn’t that a slap in the face of people relying on Medicare?

All this being said, Biden, his party, big insurers, and supposedly “non-partisan” organizations are hijacking America’s health system for both personal benefit and ideological reasons. In the case of outside parties, they may have supported the IRA to earn a windfall. For the Democrats, moving healthcare closer to what citizens have in London and Toronto is becoming more and more their guiding light. As the IRA will soon prove, socialized medicine, with its rationed care and fewer choices for Americans, will have serious consequences for all Americans.

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The day before President Joe Biden’s first State of the Union speech, Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel and former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich gave the media their thoughts on the state of the country under Biden.

In a word: Terrible.

The two pointed to polls showing Biden’s approval rating below 40 percent. And they touched on the issues Republican candidates will be running on in this fall’s midterm elections: Inflation, the economy, foreign policy, and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, as well as the mismanaged withdrawal from Afghanistan where Americans were left behind.

McDaniel said Republicans will offer upbeat, positive solutions in contrast to what will “not be a unifying speech and will not focus on the issues that the American people really need and are looking to address.”

McDaniel predicted the midterms this November will be “a wake-up call for Democrats.”

Biden ran as a centrist but has shifted to the left, she said.

In addition to the economy and foreign policy, people are concerned about the open border and confusing messaging on COVID.

People “are being slammed with consumer prices rising at the fastest rate in 40 years,” said McDaniel.

She cited a recent RNC poll that found 53 percent of Americans disapprove of the job Biden is doing with 41 percent approval. Biden’s approval among independent voters drops to 37 percent with 55 percent disapproving. On the economy, 49 percent of independents favor the GOP versus 32 percent for Democrats. On crime, 50 percent of independents back Republicans versus 28 percent for Democrats.

Gingrich touted Emerson College’s ‘generic ballot’ poll showing Republicans with a 9 point lead over Democrats in congressional races. He said it reminded him of when former President Bill Clinton decided in 1996 that staying on the left “would not work” and came to the middle in his State of the Union speech and announced the era of big government was over.

“Have they figured out anything from these polling numbers, or are they where Clinton was before the ’94 election when his team just couldn’t believe it?” he asked.

“You have to look at Ukraine in terms of 10 months ago in April of last year, Biden commented on Putin possibly going into Ukraine. So the failure wasn’t this week or last week,” said Gingrich.  The administration “had 10 months to help Ukraine prepare so that attacking (it) would have been crazy.

“Had he been willing to build on the things that Trump was already doing — Trump was already sending javelins, for example, which is a very sophisticated anti-tank weapon — we could have created a porcupine in Ukraine that Putin would have decided he couldn’t attack. But for 10 months, the Biden administration dithered and dathered and kept talking about negotiations, etc. and failed to use that time in a productive way.”

On inflation, Biden “has to say something, because inflation is just too big of an issue not to do something,” Gingrich said. “On oil and gas, this administration is moving in the wrong direction. They just had the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission come out with rules that make it virtually impossible to create liquefied natural gas ports, yet that’s exactly what we need to help wean Western Europe off of Russian gas.”

On education, “When 70 percent of the people in San Francisco vote to recall three members of the school board, clearly there is an issue here that the president should be addressing,” said Gingrich.

“On crime, with every passing week, we learn the damage George Soros has done in electing people who are deeply committed to putting violent criminals back on the street and putting the rest of us in danger.”

In response to a question from the Delaware Valley Journal about whether the GOP plans to call out Democrat’s long-standing opposition to expanding domestic energy production in the U.S., McDaniel said, “Absolutely.

“We’re seeing it in our pockets every day with the cost of gas and that’s directly correlated to Joe Biden shutting down drilling on federal lands, on shutting down the Keystone pipeline. And we’re importing Russian oil when we could be exporting our oil and gas. And so those are things that I think are critical to the American people. They understand it. One anecdote, I have a family member who called me this week and said, ‘I’m about as liberal, Green New Deal Democrat as I can be…I don’t know why we’re funding Russia’s war, and allowing them do to this.’ I think that’s where a lot of Americans are and that will be a big issue for the campaign going forward.”

In response to another press question, Gingrich said he’s optimistic about the Republican’s chances to take not only Congress but to win at the local levels, but said GOP candidates need to run.

“Fill up the slate,” he said. He noted that last year, an unknown truck driver beat the president of the New Jersey Senate with a campaign budget of $2,300, you look just this week we had a dramatic 17 point swing in Jacksonville, Fla. where we picked up a Democratic city council seat and we had an even bigger swing, I think it was 45 points, where we kept a Republican seat with a much greater margin, I look around, I think there are very few genuinely safe Democratic seats this year.”

The governors will also contribute “a ton of success stories” to show “why we will be better,” he said.

In fact, Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds will deliver the Republican response to the State of the Union Speech.

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