CNN chief political analyst Gloria Borger suffered from some short-term memory loss while reacting President Biden's Tuesday State of the Union address, claiming that she can't remember the last time a president received a bipartisan standing ovation because certainly former-President Trump never received one.
Leading the discussion was Wolf Blitzer, who declared: "You know, Gloria, as we take a look at this reaction coming in, I think the president should be pretty pleased that Republicans, first of all, were giving him a standing ovation on certain lines as far as Ukraine is concerned. But the reaction from Republicans on the Ukraine portion of his speech was pretty positive."
Borger agreed, but then things got a bit fuzzy. "[W]hen was the last time you saw a bipartisan standing ovation in the United States Congress," she asked her fellow panelists. "I can't remember the—the-- last time. Not in recent history. Certainly not in the last four years or so. So yes."
Such comments not only ignore that there was no such foreign policy crisis to unite around during the Trump years, but that he did receive bipartisan standing ovations multiple times. For example, when talking about similarly non-controversial things like cancer-fighting initiatives and finding cures for AIDS.
Borger also tried to claim that Biden is trying to appeal to Republicans. "And Biden did try and appeal, even on domestic policy, to Republicans. It's not 'defund the police.' It's 'fund the police,'" she touted.
Committing to funding the police is the bare minimum we should expect from politicians. If Republicans are supposed to give Biden credit for that then Biden's presidency is in deep trouble.
This segment was sponsored by Ancestry.
Here is a transcript for the March 1 coverage:
CNN Post Address Analysis
3/1/2022
11:08 PMWOLF BLITZER: You know, Gloria, as we take a look at this reaction coming in, I think the president should be pretty pleased that Republicans, first of all, were giving him a standing ovation on certain lines as far as Ukraine is concerned. But the reaction from Republicans on the Ukraine portion of his speech was pretty positive.
GLORIA BORGER: Well, it was very positive. I mean, when was the last time you saw a bipartisan standing ovation in the United States Congress? I can't remember the—the-- last time. Not in recent history. Certainly not in the last four years or so. So yes. And I think they knew that that was going to occur. And that was why they put it at the top of the speech. Obviously, it's on everyone's mind. Issue number one. But there is a sense in this country the longer this war goes on the more public opinion has been shifting to being to being saying, you know what, we need to care about what goes on in Ukraine. So I don't think they were surprised by it in the White House. But that part of the speech, I think, was really well written. And Biden did try and appeal, even on domestic policy, to Republicans. It's not defund the police. It's fund the police.
