The job #Spanberger took on Tuesday night can be thankless∶ Fumbling the opposition party’s response to the #SOTU speech is a bipartisan tradition dating back decades. But she completed the task without committing a memorable or meme-able error.
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Spanberger’s speech — & the selection of her to deliver it — signaled how #Democratic leaders want the party to be viewed in Trump’s second term: sober & serious officials who understand voters’ economic plight.
A #moderate who is coming off a landslide election victory in #Virginia, #Spanberger gave a safe speech that struck the political notes #Democrats are aiming to press — that #Trump has hurt the economy & sowed #chaos with his policies.
#Spanberger, 46, is the second #CIA veteran in 2 years chosen to deliver the #Democratic Party’s formal response to Trump. Last year, it was Senator #ElissaSlotkin of #Michigan, a fellow #moderate who also first entered #Congress in 2018 & had also just won a statewide election. While #Slotkin warned last year that #Trump would increase the #CostOfLiving, Spanberger made a broader case that his admin was working against the #WellBeing of the American #people.
#Spanberger called Trump’s #tariffs a “massive tax hike on you & your family,” & argued that congressional #Republicans were making life more #expensive & “making it more difficult to see a #doctor” while driving up the costs of #energy & #housing.
And she said that while Trump’s policies were hurting “regular Americans,” they were helping himself & his allies.
“He’s enriching himself, his family, his friends. The scale of the #corruption is unprecedented,” #Spanberger said, before ticking through details. “There’s the #CoverUp of the #EpsteinFiles, the #crypto scams, cozying up to foreign princes for airplanes & billionaires for ballrooms, putting his name & face on buildings all over our nation’s capital. This is not what our founders envisioned.”
Spanberger’s 12-min speech took up just a fraction of the nearly 2 hours #Trump spent addressing the nation. But she hit several main points #Democrats want to hammer home about the president, including a critique of his #immigration policies.
While Trump vividly described violent crimes committed by undocumented immigrants, #Spanberger recalled the scenes Americans have watched on their screens in recent months of federal agents use of of excessive force in #Minneapolis & other #US cities.
“Every minute spent sowing #fear is a minute not spent investigating murders, crimes against children or the criminals defrauding seniors of their life savings,” #Spanberger said. “Our president told us tonight that we are safer because these agents arrest mothers & detain children. Think about that.”
#Trump #immigration #ICE #StateSponsoredTerrorism #SOTU #USpol
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@Nonilex I like her a lot in theory, and certainly agree with everything she said. In practice she's kind of charmless.
I’ll take zero charm over batshit crazy every day of the week