Before Biden Delivers SOTU, Tucker Levels Him Over Bragging About COVID Response: 'COVID Didn't Do Anything'
If you tuned into President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address on Tuesday, you unsurprisingly noticed a lot of horn-tooting. Surprisingly, this was about both the economy and COVID-19 — two interrelated subjects that Biden hasn’t exactly handled well.
Even before he gave the speech, Fox News’ Tucker Carlson noted why Americans should be wary about Biden’s self-promotion when it comes to jobs, unemployment and SARS-CoV-2: “COVID didn’t do anything,” but our government (especially Democrats) certainly did.
Just in case you missed the speech — and you didn’t miss much — here’s some of the rhetoric.
“Two years ago, our economy was reeling,” Biden said.
“As I stand here tonight, we’ve created, with the help of many people in this room, a record 12 million new jobs, more jobs created in two years than any president has ever created in four years,” he continued.
“Two years ago, COVID had shut down our businesses, closed our schools, and robbed us of so much. Today, COVID no longer controls our lives.”
“Two years ago, our economy was reeling.
As I stand here tonight, we have created a record 12 million new jobs, more jobs created in two years than any president has ever created in four years.” – @POTUS #StateOfTheUnionAddress pic.twitter.com/zuFHGhWuOe
— Building Back Together (@BuildingBack_US) February 8, 2023
Elsewhere in the speech, as per the White House pre-release transcript: “And folks, in the midst of the COVID crisis when schools were closed, let’s also recognize how far we’ve come in the fight against the pandemic itself.
“While the virus is not gone, thanks to the resilience of the American people, we have broken COVID’s grip on us,” he continued. “COVID deaths are down nearly 90 percent. We’ve saved millions of lives and opened our country back up.”
And, when Biden wasn’t taking credit where he shouldn’t in his administration’s handling of COVID, he was using the pandemic as an excuse. Here, he says that COVID is responsible for inflation — along with the war in Ukraine, perfidious big oil, greedy capitalists with monocles holding bags of money with dollar signs printed on the side, the second shooter on the grassy knoll, Judge Crater (wherever he is), and presumably you, for noticing inflation. Or at least the first two:
U.S. President Joe Biden in his State of the Union address Tuesday said, “Inflation has been a global problem because the pandemic disrupted our supply chain and Putin’s unfair and brutal war in Ukraine disrupted energy and food supplies.”https://t.co/ZG6WbquGWg#SOTU #VOASOTU pic.twitter.com/Td8ax6vQ4d
— Voice of America (@VOANews) February 8, 2023
As Tucker Carlson said in the run-up to the speech, after reviewing an advance copy of the address, it’s rather remarkable Biden didn’t prostrate himself before the American people and beg for mercy.
“So at this point, are you really going to watch Biden’s speech?” Carlson said. “You should. It’s history, apparently. But if you watch it, be forewarned: Biden is going to brag about how he handled COVID, of all things.”
“He’s not going to fall to his knees and beg for forgiveness. He’s going to boast,” Carlson continued, before reading an advance excerpt from the speech — the “two years ago, COVID had shut down our businesses, closed our schools, and robbed us of so much,” quote, as it so happened.
“COVID did it! Just alone!” Carlson exclaimed, sarcastically. “What an adaptive little virus that is.”
He then continued to the part where Biden says that now, “COVID no longer controls our lives” — and began cracking up.
“COVID didn’t do anything! It’s just a little bug from a Chinese military lab,” Carlson said.
“Our government shut down businesses and the schools. These lockdowns took place because politicians wanted them. And they took place against the advice of people who actually knew better.”
God Bless Tucker Carlson for his #SOTU introduction about how Biden is going to boast about the catostrophic response to COVID… pic.twitter.com/bJYiA0Kn8t
— John Ziegler (@Zigmanfreud) February 8, 2023
Carlson wasn’t the only one who had this reaction, either:
Biden SOTU tonight: “Two years ago, COVID had shut down our businesses, closed our schools, and robbed us of so much. Today, COVID no longer controls our lives.”
It says a lot that Democrats pretend they had no role in the lockdowns and mandates they championed. pic.twitter.com/TNNGuCM0qv
— Michael P Senger (@MichaelPSenger) February 8, 2023
Joe Biden saying that he ended the pandemic is one of the most dishonest statements you’ll ever hear
The pandemic ended because everyone got COVID regardless of how many times they got vaccinated, how often they wore masks or how many pointless restrictions politicians imposed
— Ian Miller (@ianmSC) February 8, 2023
Biden: we beat COVID
Also Biden: but we can’t end the COVID mandates yet@RepThomasMassie from the audience: END THE MANDATE!!!
(Crowd agrees)
Let’s end the charade… support Massie’s bill to end the outdated, anti-science mandates!
— Cliff Maloney (@CliffMaloneyJr) February 8, 2023
However, Carlson may have put it best. No matter how you feel about the origin of the virus, the fact remains that the damage it did to our economy and to our national psyche was primarily through unnecessary lockdowns, which shuttered businesses, closed schools, decimated bank accounts and increased mental health issues in the United States.
All Biden had to do was reopen the country and reap the benefit of the jobs that would come back and the economic growth that would result. He couldn’t even do that correctly.
But on Tuesday, he bragged about things he hadn’t done to beat COVID and blamed the virus for things it wasn’t responsible for. If the president wants to see who’s to blame for those problems, he doesn’t need to look through a microscope. Instead, he and other lockdown-happy politicians should look in the mirror.
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