When President Joe Biden gives his State of the Union speech next week, Republican Governor of Arkansas Sarah Huckabee Sanders (R-AR) will provide the Republican response.
On Thursday, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) announced the appointment, to widespread praise from his party. A rising star in the opposition party is often tasked with delivering the party’s answer to the State of the Union to present an alternative policy agenda to the country. On Tuesday night, Biden will face a prominent member of former President Trump’s White House in this year’s annual clash.
Sanders tweeted, “I’m pleased to have the chance to address the country following the State of the Union on Tuesday.” A return to common sense and a dedication to the ideas that created America the land of the free and home of the brave is what Republicans are proposing, and what America needs.
McCarthy later announced that Arizona Republican Juan Ciscomani would provide the GOP’s rebuttal to President Biden’s State of the Union address in Spanish.
Sanders was a trusted advisor to Trump during his 2016 presidential campaign and later served as his press secretary in the White House. She departed Trump’s government in the summer of 2019, campaigned for governor of Arkansas in 2022, and won the office her father, Mike Huckabee, had held.
Sanders wasted no time getting to work after being inaugurated as president last month, issuing an executive order prohibiting the use of “Latinx” in official government papers. She also outlawed the teaching of “Critical Race Theory” in public schools for students in grades K through 12.
Sanders said on “Fox News Sunday” that she doesn’t plan to back Trump for president in 2024, despite their “wonderful connection” and her belief that “the United States would be immeasurably better off if he was in power right now than of Joe Biden.”
Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC), who will provide the Republican answer to President Biden’s first speech to a joint session of Congress in 2021, is among the Republicans who are rejoicing over Sanders’s delivery of the GOP reply this year. Scott said on Twitter, “Let ’em have it, [Sanders]. America is ready for sanity and order to be restored. I eagerly anticipate your presentation of the Republican Party’s plan for continuing to hold President Biden accountable for his presidency’s many shortcomings.
Former Iowa governor and GOP respondent Kim Reynolds tweeted, “[Sanders,] I can’t wait for your Official GOP Response to Biden’s SOTU Address. I am honored to count you as a friend and a colleague among the Governors. Our Republican governors are keeping their word, and that’s only the beginning.
Mike Huckabee joked that he is “TOTALLY impartial” in his tweet praising McCarthy’s “great pick.”