McCarthy reacts to Biden’s State of the Union address, Republican heckling

Last night, President Biden took to Capitol Hill to deliver his State of the Union address to Congress, which has been met with mixed reactions from Republican lawmakers, while Democrats have focused more on the heckling from the GOP during the speech.

Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy expressed his support for those GOP lawmakers who interrupted the president during his speech to shout their disagreement with his statements. Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene yelled out that Biden is a “liar” among other things as she and a group of Trump-allied GOP House members continued to heckle Biden throughout the address. Appearing on Fox News this morning, McCarthy appeared to defend the unruly congress members.

“Well, the president was trying to goad the members, and the members are passionate about it,” McCarthy told “Fox and Friends.” McCarthy said. “But the one thing that the president was saying was something that he knew was not true,” the Speaker added, referring to Biden’s mention of a GOP plan to “sunset” Social Security and Medicare, as suggested by Republican Sen. Rick Scott (Fl.) last year. McCarthy claims Biden was wholly incorrect about Republicans wanting to shut down the entitlement programs. “I’ve said it many times before,” McCarthy said. 
“Social Security and Medicare are off the table. He tries to use it for a political ploy.”

Democrats have largely praised Biden’s address to Congress, focusing their attention on Greene and company’s interference. “It just shows again how tone deaf the Republicans have become that even after an election cycle in which they underperformed at a historic level they still have chosen to double down on a strategy that isn’t working for them and instead continue the embrace of immature, childish extremists,” said Democratic strategist Kurt Bardella to The Guardian.