Feb. 7 (UPI) — Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders took aim at the “radical left” in her Republican response to President Joe Biden‘s State of the Union address on Tuesday night, framing her party as the champion of freedom, of young leadership and of traditional governance.
And, she said, the Democrats are helmed by a weak, old leader and a party that has succumbed to “crazy.”
Sanders, a former White House press secretary during the Trump administration, dove head-first into controversial social issues, while attempting to describe the Biden administration as being “more interested in woke fantasies than the hard reality Americans face every day.”
“Most Americans simply want to live their lives in freedom and peace, but we are under attack in a left-wing culture war we didn’t start and never wanted to fight,” she said. “Every day, we are told we must partake in their rituals, salute their flags and worship their false idols, all while big government colludes with Big Tech to strip away the most American thing there is — your freedom of speech.”
“That’s not normal, it’s crazy and it’s wrong.”
Sanders, the 40-year-old daughter of former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, was inaugurated as the head of Arkansas’ government early this year, which made her the youngest head of a state in the nation.
The GOP selected Sanders last week to present a new and younger Republican face in an attempt to court young voters, which the Democrats have done successfully for decades.
From the governor’s mansion in Little Rock, Ark., she contrasted herself, the youngest-sitting governor, against Biden, the oldest president ever, and accused him of surrendering the nation’s highest office to “a woke mob that can’t even tell you what a woman is.”
“Whether Joe Biden believes this madness or is simply too weak to resist it, his administration has been completely hijacked by the radical left,” she said. “The dividing line in America is no longer between right and left: the choice is between normal or crazy.”
During her roughly 15-minute speech, she touched on executive orders she signed during her first day in office to ban the “indoctrination” of students as well as banning the gender-neutral term “Latinx” from government use as a push back against the left and examples of commonsense governance and new, strong conservative leadership.
“It’s time for a new generation to lead,” she said. “This is our moment. This is our opportunity.”
Sanders did not directly address Biden’s State of the Union address, or delve into issues such as inflation or foreign policy, but accused the president of refusing to stand up to China, to defend the U.S. border, its skies or its citizens.
“He is simply unfit to serve as commander and chief,” she said.
In his own response, former President Donald Trump, who is campaigning to be the GOP nominee for the 2024 presidential election, blamed Biden and “the radical Democrats” for a litany of issues Americans face, including the border crisis, inflation and crime.
He also said Biden had “weaponized” the Justice Department to persecute political opponents, pointing to himself as evidence as he is under criminal investigation concerning a trove of classified documents he took following the end of his tenure at the White House.
He added that Biden was “leading us to the brink of World War III” and that the Democratic Party is “trying to indoctrinate and mutilate our children,” seemingly in reference to inclusivity education in schools and gender-reaffirming medical care for transgender minors — the latter of which he vowed to end in a campaign promise early this month
“The good new is we are going to reverse every single crisis, calamity and disaster that Joe Biden has created,” he said in the 2-minute speech. “I am running for president to end the destruction of our country and to complete the unfinished business of making America great again.”