Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson recently received criticism for appearing to nod at several statements made by President Biden during his State of the Union Address on Thursday. Throughout the speech, Johnson can be seen nodding as Biden discusses several issues, such as U.S. support for Ukraine and proposals to limit the price of insulin.
Journalist Marcus Baram uploaded the footage to X, formerly known as Twitter, with the caption, “Speaker Mike Johnson seems to agree with Biden’s proposal to cap the cost of insulin, nodding in agreement.” In the video, Biden states, “What to do next, I want to cap the cost $35 a month for every American, everyone,” to which Speaker Johnson seemingly nods in agreement.
Conservatives have spoken out against Johnson for his apparent support of Biden’s rhetoric. For example, Jenna Ellis, a lawyer who formerly represented Donald Trump, wrote, “Why is Speaker Johnson clapping at Biden’s demand of Congress to act on codifying Roe???????”
However, there were other moments during the evening when the House Speaker expressed obvious disdain over Biden’s comments. Ian Miles Cheong posted a video showing Johnson rolling his eyes and shaking his head while the president was speaking. “We are all Mike Johnson,” Cheong stated in his caption.
Conservative social media users have voiced their confusion over Johnson’s stance on Biden’s agenda, pointing out his mixed signals during the State of the Union. “Mike Johnsos did great with the looks of disgust and disagreement for most of Biden’s lies, BUT he messed up with nods of approval when Ukraine was mentioned. That is scary,” one user commented.
“Here’s the thing about Mike Johnson. When I first turned on the State of the Union address, the first thing I noticed was Mike Johnson nodding in approval to Biden saying we need to send more aid to Ukraine. I’m not so sure he’s on our side,” another person said.
Even though Johnson was seen clapping and nodding during Biden’s address, he firmly disavowed the president in a post-State of the Union interview with Fox News. According to Johnson, Biden is demonstrating desperation ahead of the general election, claiming he is the “most unpopular” incumbent president to ever run for reelection.
“Look he’s desperate Sean and that’s obvious. He’s the most unpopular president who has ever run for reelection. A lot of what he’s done is unprecedented. But tonight, instead of taking responsibility for that he tried to lay blame. I mean, for one thing, the border right that’s the number one issue in America. That’s what every American no matter where they live, wants to hear about how is this catastrophe going to be resolved? I think it was 41 minutes into his speech before the commander in chief even made any reference to the border,” Johnson stated.
The speaker further addressed the social media commentary regarding his visible reactions to Biden’s speech, noting that he couldn’t hide his dissatisfaction. “There’s a lot of memes I guess going round tonight about my facial expressions,” he added. “I did not like the speech, I don’t think the American people liked it, and there wasn’t much I could do about that. I guess I didn’t hide that very well.”
Note: The featured image is a screenshot from the embedded video.
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