OAN’s Brooke Mallory
4:19 PM – Monday, February 26, 2024
Speaker Mike Johnson is being urged by former House Freedom Caucus Chair Representative Scott Perry to prevent President Biden from delivering his yearly State of the Union speech next month.
Perry (R-Pa.) stated that Republicans should take advantage of the situation to put more pressure on Biden about the southern border in light of the chaotic migrant crisis during an appearance on Fox Business on Monday.
“We need to use every single point of leverage,” Perry said. “[The president] comes at the invitation of Congress, and Republicans are in control of the House. There’s no reason that we need to invite him to get more propaganda and actually blame the American people for the crisis he’s caused.”
Bipartisan legislation that Biden supported to strengthen border security was rejected by House Republicans when former President Trump, the party’s front-runner for the 2024 presidency, voiced his opposition to the package.
The retired general of the National Guard, Perry, has previously expressed doubts about Biden’s mental “competence” to serve as the nation’s leader.
“It’s abusive … what’s being done, using him to be the president,” he said on February 11th. “And I don’t know that he’s making many decisions. There’s a lot of people around him that I fear are making the decisions.”
The White House has consistently played down worries about the president’s mental competence.
Following a turbulent turn of GOP infighting over former Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and who would succeed him, Johnson was elected in October.
Perry’s proposal would be unprecedented, but this is not the first-time political squabbles have clouded the yearly address.
In an unprecedented action, then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) postponed then-President Trump’s 2019 State of the Union speech due to a partial government shutdown that January. Weeks later, Trump finally made his speech, however, Pelosi did not introduce him.
Since he assumed office in January 2021, Republicans in the chamber have publicly mocked Biden in previous speeches.
Perry is hardly the first person to suggest canceling Biden’s speech this year. In addition, Senator Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) has demanded that the event be canceled in the event that Biden fails to provide a comprehensive budget to Congress.
“If the president is going to be allowed the opportunity to address Congress and the entire nation, he should actually have a plan in place,” she said.
“At a time when Americans are facing skyrocketing inflation and the world is on fire, we deserve more than just empty rhetoric. That’s why, before he delivers his State of the Union, I’m calling on President Biden to put in the work and submit his budget and National Security Strategy,” Ernst continued.
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