BIDEN’S REPORT CARD
Ryan praises president’s ‘strong leadership’ during State of the Union, but Molinaro says speech was ‘divisive’
KINGSTON, N.Y. >> U.S. Rep Pat Ryan called President Biden’s address to the nation Thursday “a grand slam” speech that showcased the president’s “strong leadership,” and his “clear vision” for a “positive, forward-looking view” that people across the country that can get behind.
U.S. Rep. Marc Molinaro, meanwhile, called the State of The Union address “divisive” and said it was more akin to a “campaign speech” designed more toward rallying his base, gaslighting the public and dividing Congress than unifying the nation.
The two Hudson Valley congressmen offered their critique of the president’s third State of the Union address in separate interviews Friday.
“I had hoped that I would hear from the president a unifying speech,” said Molinaro, R-Catskill. But what he heard, he said, was a speech that could have been delivered at a Democratic convention.
“I just felt like last night I was at the Democratic National Convention and the president told half the people they were wrong,” Molinaro said.
“He spoke to the American people, not to the divided politics we’re dealing with right now,” said Ryan, D-Gardiner. “The Republican Party of today is so far to the right that they’re out of touch with where the American people are.”
Ryan said GOP complaints that Biden’s speech was partisan were ironic given that U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Georgia, showed up to the address wearing a red MAGA baseball cap.
On the war between Israel and Hamas, both agreed that a two-state solution is the path to lasting peace and supported Biden’s call for Hamas to release its hostages and surrender.
But Molinaro said part of the blame for the war, and the humanitarian crisis that has followed lies with the Palestinian people, who he said, “have continued to empower Hamas and allowed Hamas to govern.”
Molinaro rejected Biden’s plan for the creation of a tem
porary pier capable of receiving large ships that can bring humanitarian aid on the Gaza coast saying he opposes taking any action in the region that could put American resources or lives at risk.
Ryan said that Biden’s plan is a “further commitment” by the U.S. to do all it can to protect and support the roughly 2 million people who are without
food and aid at a time when Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his government have failed to get humanitarian aid to those who need it most.
The two also disagreed on who is to blame for the failure to adopt any meaningful measures to strengthen the U.S. borders or address the county’s immigration policies.
Molinaro pointed the finger at Biden, who he said shoulders the blame for the influx of migrants illegally crossing the border
saying the president issued 84 executive orders that have emboldened the crisis.
He said the House of Representatives adopted legislation that would tighten security at the border but that Democrats who control the Senate have refused to take it up.
Ryan called that legislation “a very, right-wing extreme immigration bill that has no chance of passing in any bipartisan way in the Senate,” a fact, he said Republican Congress members knew before they
adopted it.
“There are two camps on immigration policy,” Ryan said “One camp says we want to fearmonger and fight and then there’s the other camp that wants to fix it.”
On one issue, though, the two agreed: Democrats and Republicans need to work together to address the issues facing the nation today.
“There are too many in Washington who simply want the problem, they don’t want the solution,” Molinaro said.