By ANDREW DeMILLO (Associated Press)
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders painted a dystopian portrait of the nation in her rebuttal to President Joe Biden’s State of the Union deal with Tuesday evening, leaning closely into Republican tradition warfare points and accusing Biden of pursuing “woke fantasies.”
Speaking from the governor’s mansion in Little Rock, Sanders sounded rather a lot like her former boss, Donald Trump, as she warned of a nation whose beliefs are underneath assault and whose residents are preventing for his or her freedoms.
“While you reap the consequences of their failures, the Biden administration seems more interested in woke fantasies than the hard reality Americans face every day,” mentioned Sanders, the previous White House press secretary. “Most Americans simply want to live their lives in freedom and peace, but we are under attack in a left-wing culture war we didn’t start and never wanted to fight.”
Sanders, 40, delivered the speech lower than a month after being sworn in as the primary feminine governor of Arkansas. The daughter of former Gov. Mike Huckabee, she can also be the primary Arkansan to ship the response to a president’s State of the Union since Bill Clinton as governor in 1985.
Sanders’ speech was a reintroduction for the previous press secretary, who as Trump’s chief spokesperson scaled again day by day televised briefings after repeatedly sparring with reporters who aggressively questioned her.
She didn’t point out Trump by title throughout Tuesday’s speech, which embraced conservatives’ fights in opposition to the way in which race is taught in public college. She known as Biden’s administration “completely hijacked by the radical left.”
“The dividing line in America is no longer right or left,” she mentioned. “The choice is between normal or crazy.”
Sanders’ speech was a stark distinction to Biden’s deal with, which sought to reassure the nation and urged Congress to work with him on rebuilding the economic system.
With her speech, GOP leaders gave a platform to a determine linked carefully to Trump, who stays influential inside the social gathering at the same time as Republicans query how a lot of a hindrance his quest to return to the White House has change into. The star flip for Sanders additionally places the highlight on the nation’s youngest governor at a time when latest polling means that even many Democrats view the 80-year-old Biden’s age as a legal responsibility.
Sanders highlighted that distinction, citing Biden’s age because the oldest U.S. president.
“It’s time for a new generation of Republican leadership,” she mentioned.
Her speech comes as a Republican subject for 2024 is starting to kind to problem Trump, 76, as he seeks the White House for a 3rd time. The subject contains former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, who served as U.N. ambassador underneath Trump and is anticipated to launch her candidacy subsequent week.
Sanders’ predecessor, former Gov. Asa Hutchinson, can also be contemplating searching for the Republican presidential nomination. Hutchinson has been an outspoken critic of Trump and has mentioned Trump being the GOP’s nominee can be the “worst scenario” for the social gathering.
Sanders, who served roughly two years as White House press secretary, centered closely on her criticism of Biden throughout her profitable bid for governor final 12 months. She ceaselessly railed in opposition to the Democratic president’s COVID-19 pandemic response, immigration insurance policies and different stances.
But because the election, Sanders has principally averted weighing in on Trump, who endorsed her bid for governor and was featured in her marketing campaign supplies. Sanders hasn’t mentioned whether or not she plans to endorse Trump, who’s making a 3rd bid for president.
In her speech Tuesday, Sanders praised her time within the Trump administration and the work they completed. She additionally talked about her analysis final 12 months with thyroid most cancers, and mentioned she is cancer-free after present process surgical procedure.
Sanders additionally embraced the criticism of expertise firms that has change into a rallying cry for Republicans after Trump was suspended from social media websites following the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot. Trump has since been reinstated on Twitter, and Meta final month mentioned the previous president’s Facebook and Instagram accounts can be restored.
In her speech, Sanders complained that “big government colludes with Big Tech to strip away the most American thing there is — your freedom of speech.”
“That’s not normal. It’s crazy, and it’s wrong,” she mentioned.
Sanders portrayed Biden as weak on nationwide safety, saying his “refusal to stand up to China, our most formidable adversary, is dangerous and unacceptable.” The remark got here days after the American army shot down a suspected Chinese spy balloon that drifted by means of U.S. airspace.
Officials have mentioned different Chinese balloons transited the U.S. airspace at the least briefly at a number of factors through the Trump administration however these incursions weren’t detected till after Biden took workplace.
The tradition wars are acquainted territory for Sanders, who signed govt orders inside hours of taking workplace that have been cheered by conservatives. They included a prohibition on instructing essential race principle in public colleges and a ban on most state companies utilizing the gender-neutral time period Latinx.
Sanders has additionally mentioned she’d assist Arkansas enacting a measure much like Florida’s regulation banning instruction on sexual orientation and gender id in kindergarten by means of third grade. Critics have dubbed Florida’s measure the “Don’t Say Gay” regulation.
The president, who’s anticipated to announce within the subsequent few months that he’ll search reelection, faces a tricky political setting and a divided Congress. Polling launched this week by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research confirmed simply 37% of Democrats say they need him to hunt a second time period.
Sanders delivered the speech the day earlier than she’s set to unveil an schooling proposal she’s known as her precedence on this 12 months’s legislative session. Sanders has mentioned the proposal will embody trainer pay raises and a few type of college alternative that may enable public cash to pay for personal education.
“We will educate, not indoctrinate our kids, and put students on a path to success,” she mentioned.
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Source: www.bostonherald.com”