After every modern president has delivered his State of the Union addresses, the other party is offered an opportunity to deliver an official televised response. In a handful of instances, these speeches have gone so poorly that there’s been talk of a “curse.”
Nevertheless, one notable Republican has agreed to take on the challenge. Politico reported last week:
Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders will deliver the Republican response to President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address next week. … Sanders, the youngest governor in the U.S., was elected to the governor’s mansion in Little Rock last November and sworn in early last month. She is the daughter of former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee and spent nearly two years as White House press secretary during the Trump administration.
At face value, the GOP’s choice is understandable. The party sees value in creating contrasts with the Democratic president, so officials chose a woman who is half of Biden’s age, and who has extensive experience speaking in support of the Republican agenda.
But there is a credibility problem to consider.
One of the most memorable moments of Sanders’ tenure as the press secretary in Donald Trump’s White House came in May 2017, after she said she’d heard from “countless” FBI employees about how grateful they were that the Republican president had fired former FBI Director James Comey.
When The New York Times’ Michael Shear expressed skepticism about the claim, Sanders insisted her claim was entirely accurate. “Between, like, email, text messages, absolutely. Yes,” she declared from the White House podium. “We’re not going to get into a numbers game. I mean, I have heard from a large number of individuals that work at the FBI that said that they’re very happy with the president’s decision.”
Sanders later testified under oath about the exchange, and she was forced to admit that she’d made it all up — though she characterized her deception as a…
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