Reynolds largely spoke about domestic matters, but chastised Biden for a “too little, too late” foreign policy approach while applauding Ukraine’s anti-Russian resistance.
In her Republican rebuttal to President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address, Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds said Tuesday night that he is bringing the country back to a time when the Soviet Union was threatening its borders and Americans were suffering from high inflation.
“It feels like President Biden and his party have sent us back in time — to the late ’70s and early ’80s, when runaway inflation was hammering families, a violent crime wave was crashing on our cities, and the Soviet army was trying to redraw the world map,” Reynolds said, drawing an implicit comparison to one-term Democratic President Jimmy Carter.
In her 15-minute speech, Reynolds focused primarily on domestic matters, with the Capitol building in Des Moines acting as a glowing background. She applauded Ukraine’s tenacious resistance, as did Biden, while criticising Russian President Vladimir Putin’s “tyranny.”
Reynolds, who donned a red jacket with twin American and Ukrainian flag pins, didn’t criticise Biden’s handling of Russia’s attack. She did say, though, that he has displayed “weakness on the world stage,” which she believes has empowered Russia. “We shouldn’t dismiss what happened in the lead-up to Putin’s invasion,” Reynolds said, referring to the Biden administration’s decision to ease sanctions on Russia’s Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline to Germany last year. She called Biden’s “approach to foreign policy” “consistently too little, too late.”
Republicans are attempting to highlight Reynolds’ political profile. She is expected to win re-election this year in a key battleground state for the presidential election. Most Iowans approve of her handling of the coronavirus outbreak, according to polling. Reynolds has spoken out against mask regulations in schools, claiming to be a parent advocate. As indicated by Glenn Youngkin’s unexpected victory in the Virginia governor’s race last year, Republicans see this as a winning message.
In her address, Reynolds emphasised the topic, emphasising that despite attacks from “the left” and “the media,” she battled to keep schools open during the pandemic.
She stated, “Republicans feel that parents are important.” “It was true before the pandemic, and it has never been more vital to speak aloud: Parents matter.”
Reynolds gave a visual counterpoint to a piece of history that Democrats like to celebrate: she was Iowa’s first female governor. Two women, Vice President Kamala Harris and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., sat directly behind the president for the first time in a State of the Union address. Reynolds, 62, introduced herself as a governor, “a mom and grandmother of 11 who is concerned about our country’s direction.”
“Kim Reynolds – the first female governor of Iowa — will steal the show with her response to the State of the Union,” Kellyanne Conway, a senior adviser in Donald Trump’s White House, predicted ahead of the speech.
Reynolds is almost certainly going to be on the short list of potential running mates for the Republican presidential contender in 2024. She could be useful in regaining suburban female supporters who turned against the party during Trump’s administration. She described her experience as a “young working mom” working evenings at a grocery shop to empathise with families that are struggling to pay their bills.
“”I saw the pain of inflation on my neighbours’ faces from across the checkout counter,” she remarked. I seen what happens when prices outpace wages.”
As her name becomes more well-known, she will be subjected to increased scrutiny. Democrats see her as a divisive character who has pushed through a GOP agenda that includes tax cuts and steps to make it more difficult to vote early. According to a study taken last year, 88 percent of Republicans approved of her job performance, while approximately the same number of Democrats disapproved. “She’s really following the Republican playbook, where we’re seeing copy-and-paste bills shoved through and passed in the state of Iowa,” Deidre DeJear, a Democratic governor candidate, said.
Biden and congressional Democrats, according to Reynolds, are driving up inflation through excessive spending. “Republican leaders around the country are balancing budgets and cutting taxes,” she explained, “because we believe that money spent on Main Street is better than money spent on bureaucracy.”
Trump’s spending record went unmentioned. During his presidency, the national debt increased by over $8 trillion.
Last year, Reynolds spoke at a rally in Iowa when Trump claimed falsely that he had won the 2020 election. But she didn’t spend any time on his ridiculous claim that the election was rigged, instead focusing on the financial concerns that voters had.
Delivering a reply to the State of the Union address is a two-edged sword. The opposing party’s speakers get to present themselves to a national audience that may have never heard of them before. If all goes well, they may be able to use the attention and notoriety to run for higher office. If they don’t, headlines like “Was that drool coming out of Joe Kennedy’s mouth?” from Politico in January 2018 may follow.
Kennedy, then a Democratic House member from Massachusetts, delivered the Democratic answer to Trump’s State of the Union speech, but it was the odd sheen on his lips that caught viewers’ attention that night, not what he said. Kennedy later stated that it wasn’t drool; it was ChapStick.
Brendan Buck, a former House Republican leadership assistant, said, “It’s crucial to recognise that the risk is equally as big as the reward.” “Those tend to remember people who perform poorly far more than those who perform well.”