One year into his presidency, it seems like Joe Biden and the Democrats in Washington, D.C. have sent the country back in time to the late-1970s and early 80s, “when runaway inflation was hammering families, a violent crime wave was crashing our cities, and the Soviet army was trying to redraw the world map,” Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds said Tuesday night, in the official Republican response to Biden’s State of the Union address.
Speaking in front of the Iowa state capitol in Des Moines, Reynolds attacked Biden’s international and domestic record, and she made the case for putting faith in the American people. Dressed in red and wearing an American and Ukrainian flag pin, she spoke about 15 minutes.
When he was elected, Biden promised to make America respected again on the world stage and unite the country. Instead, Reynolds said, “he’s failed on both fronts.”
Internationally, Reynolds said, the “disastrous” Afghanistan withdrawal betrayed American allies and embolden the country’s enemies. Biden did not address the Afghanistan withdrawal in his speech. And while Reynolds said Americans should stand united with the people of Ukraine who are fighting back against a Russian onslaught, she said Americans shouldn’t ignore Biden’s actions in the run-up to the invasion.
“Waiving sanctions on Russian pipelines,” she said. “Eliminating oil production here at home. Focusing on political correctness rather than military readiness. Reacting to world events instead of driving them.”
It is time for America to lead again on the world stage, Reynold said. “But we can’t project strength abroad if we’re weak at home.”
Reynolds accused Biden of ignoring Republican warnings that increased government spending would lead to inflation, and that the administration’s anti-energy policies would lead to soaring gas prices. She said inflation is not a “high-class problem,” but is instead an “everybody problem.”
Biden and Democratic leaders need to step outside the D.C. bubble, and talk to regular Americans about their concerns, and “what keeps them up at night.”
“I can tell you what’s not on that list,” she said. “They won’t tell you that spending trillions more and bankrupting their children is the answer to their problems. They won’t tell you that we should be paying people not to work. And they certainly won’t tell you that we should be giving billions in tax giveaways to millionaires and billionaires in Democratic controlled states like California, New York, and New Jersey.”
Reynolds said Americans are tired of elites who tell others what they can and cannot say, what they can and cannot believe, and they’re tired of hypocritical politicians who tell their citizens to stay home during the Covid-19 pandemic, while they sneak off to Florida for “sun and fun.” Americans are tired of liberal prosecutors letting criminals off easy while crime soars, and they’re fed up with an administration that proposed vaccination requirements for people who want to work, but not for immigrants who cross the border illegally, Reynolds said.
“The American people are left to feel like they’re the enemy”, she said, and they “are waiting for the insanity to stop.”
Reynolds praised Republican governors and red state leaders who are “balancing budgets and cutting taxes,” and who she said listened to science when it came to not requiring masks for kids at schools. School shutdowns have led to learning loss, isolation, and anxiety among America’s kids, she said.
“That’s why Iowa was the first state in the nation to require that schools open their doors,” she said. “I was attacked by the left. I was attacked by the media. But it wasn’t a hard choice.”
Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel called Reynold’s message “optimistic” and “a stark contrast to Biden’s broken promises and Democrats’ divisive agenda.”
“Republican officials like Kim Reynolds have a record of real solutions helping struggling American families, workers, and small businesses,” McDaniel said in a prepared statement.
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