White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre fielded questions aboard Air Force One Wednesday, unpacking President Biden’s State of the Union address.
When asked if the president was “offended” by the Republicans speaking out during his speech, Jean-Pierre claimed the GOP exhibited behavior that “Americans don’t want.”
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“I think what you saw last night is a president that was very clear on how he sees the next two years. It was a president that talked about the progress that he’s made over the last two years,” Jean-Pierre said. “If you talk about the split screen, right, you saw that from the president, and you saw what the Republicans were all about, which is jeering and, you know, behaving in a way that, again, Americans don’t want.”
GOP lawmakers are furious with the president, who accused them of wanting to hold the economy “hostage” and sunset Social Security and Medicare.
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Biden’s statements were met with raucous boos in the House chamber, and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., was heard shouting “liar!” at the president. Others joined in on social media during and after Biden’s speech.
“That’s not what Americans — they told us very clearly after the midterms what they wanted,” Jean-Pierre said of the heckling. “So we know what approach that the American people want. We’re going with the approach of delivering — continuing to deliver on key important issues. You heard him talk about four of them last night. And so that’s going to be our focus.”
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Biden’s claim that “some Republicans want Medicare and Social Security to sunset” is based on a legislative agenda released by Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., last year.
Scott proposed that “all federal legislation sunsets in 5 years. If a law is worth keeping, Congress can pass it again.”
Though Scott’s proposal was widely rejected by Republicans and denounced by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., Democrats seized on Scott’s proposal and claimed Republicans wanted to sunset Social Security and Medicare entitlements.
The Washington Post and other fact-checkers declared the Democrats’ claim to be “false.”
Fox News Digital’s Chris Pandolfo contributed to this report.