Liberals clutch pearls over GOP heckling Biden, didn't care Pelosi ripped up Trump speech

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Nancy Pelosi, who ripped up Trump's State of the Union speech, comments on GOP 'decorum' during SOTU

CNN's Jake Tapper fretted over Republican decorum at President Biden's State of the Union address during an interview with Rep. Nancy Pelosi.

Liberal media pundits and Democratic Party lawmakers denounced Republicans heckling President Joe Biden’s State of the Union Address Tuesday night.

At various moments during his speech, Biden was met with jeers, boos, and accusations of him being a "liar" from various congressional Republicans in the House chamber, particularly when he invoked the fentanyl crisis ravaging American communities.

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., stood out among the vocal dissenters. At multiple points during the speech, the congresswoman could be heard shouting Biden was a "liar," with her most animated outburst occurring his claim that Republicans were looking to "sunset" social security. 

Journalists and commentators from both network and cable news, as well as a couple indignant Democratic Party senatorsm made a point to denounce the heckling as "childish" and "distasteful." One journalist dubbed the hecklers "chaos entrepreneurs."

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CNN's Jake Tapper and former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., discussed the hecklers that interrupted President Biden's State of the Union Address. (Screenshot/CNN)

CNN anchor Jake Tapper complained about the heckling to in-studio guest Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., the former Speaker of the House who tore up former President Donald Trump’s 2020 SOTU speech on camera. While Republicans balked at the time, it delighted liberal media members; one Vox write-up gushed over "Pelosi’s small gesture that cut deepest." Several Democrats also boycotted or walked out of Trump's speech that year and received positive coverage for their gestures.

During CNN’s evening coverage of the speech, Tapper said, "There was heckling like I’ve never really heard at a State of The Union address."

"I think that they were protesting too much," Pelosi fretted.

Mentioning their jeering over Biden’s social security beat, she added, "They knew that they had been identified as putting Medicare and social security on the table and they were trying to dismiss that." She added, "This was sort of showbiz."

"It didn’t bother you though, the lack of decorum?" Tapper asked. 

"No," Pelosi said. "Actually they were – for them – fairly well-behaved from what we see every day of the week in the House of Representatives unfortunately." Tapper laughed and moved on, making no mention of Pelosi’s behavior during Trump’s State of The Union address.

Pelosi's past conduct didn't escape some Republicans' attention.

"Remember when Nancy Pelosi ripped the State of the Union speech? The media and the Democrats hailed her as a hero instead of criticizing her for a lack of respect and decorum. Imagine for a moment a Republican doing this… how much more hypocrisy can we take as a country?" tweeted Arizona Republican Abraham Hamadeh.

During CBS News’ evening coverage of the address, CBS News anchor Norah O’Donnell appeared shocked by the GOP heckling on the House floor. 

"Speaker McCarthy is trying to present a new image, standing on many occasions, but there were a lot of disruptions from the crowd," she said.

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President Joe Biden arrives to deliver the State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress at the Capitol, Tuesday, Feb 7, 2023, in Washington.  (Jacquelyn Martin)

CBS News Chief White House Correspondent Nancy Cordes chimed in, saying, "Norah, we’ve seen Republican hecklers at States of the Union before but this time the speech almost turned into a call and response at some point. And at least four times, the House speaker had to visibly shush members of his party because they were shouting at the President of the United States."

Cordes added, "They called him a liar, they accused him of causing the fentanyl crisis, and on and on."

Later in the coverage, CBS News correspondent Scott McFarlane claimed that the heckling was "jarring" and bothering others in the chamber. He stated, "What you can't see on TV is the crowd in the upper level, these guests, these citizens who came with the members of Congress. It was so jarring. You could see it in their body language, you could see it in their facial expressions."

At another point in the CBS News coverage, anchor John Dickerson described the hecklers as "chaos entrepreneurs" who peddle in these outbursts.

Former Republican congressman-turned-CNN commentator Adam Kinzinger tore into Greene for her outbursts. On Twitter, the former lawmaker wrote, "My fellow Republicans… you really want this as a role model for your kids?  Do you really think the next generation will want to be part of this?  I don’t."

In another tweet, Kinzinger added, "The GOP should lead the censure of @RepMTG for her behavior."

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CNN reported that Senators Dick Durbin, D-Ill., and Joe Manchin, D-W.V., were not pleased with the outbursts. 

After the speech, Durbin described the hecklers as "really unbefitting" of the nature of the address. Manchin called the outbursts "awful childish," "distasteful" and claimed they "might be acceptable in a Third World country."

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., gives a thumbs down during President Joe Biden's State of the Union address during a joint meeting of Congress in the House Chamber of the U.S. Capitol on February 07, 2023 in Washington, DC. The speech marks Biden's first address to the new Republican-controlled House. (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images) (Win McNamee/Getty Images)

MSNBC's Joe Scarborough also castigated his former party as "jackasses" on Wednesday morning. 

Biden's remarks drew accolades in the liberal media, with MSNBC's Joy Reid calling him "brilliant" multiple times, CNN's Wolf Blitzer calling it one of the best speeches he's ever given, and left-wing historian Michael Beschloss gushing Biden was "Mr. Smooth."