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President Joe Biden’s second State of the Union speech was often incoherent, factually incorrect, and misleading. That made the Republican response from Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders all the more needed. Her remarks, full of love for America and straight talk, can be seen here.

RJC National Chairman Senator Norm Coleman and RJC CEO Matthew Brooks responded to President Biden’s State of the Union speech this way:

Make no mistake: American families are poorer and the United States is weaker under the feckless presidency of Joe Biden.

Soaring inflation has risen a staggering 13% since Joe Biden was elected, pushing hard-working American families to the financial brink, with 4 in 10 Americans saying they are worse off financially since Joe Biden was elected – the highest percentage on record.

On the world stage, from Afghanistan to Iran, from China to Russia, adversaries of the United States are emboldened, and threatening the security of our friends and allies.

Importantly, on issues of primary concern to the Jewish community, such as rising antisemitism, Joe Biden conveniently ignored the fact that, just last week, every single Democrat in the House of Representatives voted to defend notorious antisemite Ilhan Omar and keep her on the critical Foreign Affairs Committee.

Joe Biden has been a creature of Washington, D.C. for 50 years, so it’s no surprise that his State of the Union address was yet another tone-deaf exercise in fact-spinning to fit a grossly out-of-touch narrative that Americans living outside of D.C. are sick and tired of hearing.

With House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and newly elected House Republican leadership, we have an opportunity to turn this country around and deliver on a bright, robust Commitment to America with: “an economy that’s strong, a nation that’s safe, a future that’s built on freedom, and a government that’s accountable.”

In a powerful column last week, Jonathan Tobin reflected on what the vote to oust Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) from the House Foreign Affairs Committee means for the American Jewish community. He writes:

By punishing Omar for her blatant antisemitism, the GOP majority is making an important statement about what is and is not acceptable political discourse in Congress. But by rallying around Omar, as the Democrats have done, her party is sending an even louder message: that one of America’s two major parties now considers its allegiance to intersectional ideology and racial identity politics to outweigh any concerns many of them might still have about normalizing antisemitism on Capitol Hill.

… In giving Omar a pass for antisemitism, Democrats have crossed a line that no party or its supporters can transgress without being rightly accused of enabling Jew-hatred. By rallying around her, either out of party loyalty or hypocritical opposition to cancel culture that they never apply to embattled conservatives, is to make antisemitism a partisan issue. This is a historic development that may make it impossible to ever put the genie of intersectional hate for Jews back in the bottle. It’s also an unforgivable betrayal of their Jewish voters and the principles of tolerance that they claim to uphold.

Stephen Bryen and Shoshana Bryen, writing at Asia Times, raise troubling questions about the massive Chinese spy balloon that traversed a large swath of the US last week. They note:

The administration wants us to agree that a Chinese intrusion into US airspace is not a big deal. And a high-altitude balloon can, indeed, be used for surveillance. But it can also carry weapons – for example, a nuclear EMP (electromagnetic pulse) weapon intended to create a crisis over an American nuclear site.

...[What if] China wasn’t looking for additional surveillance information but was checking out how well America’s continental air defenses actually work. The answer would be, “Not well, apparently.”

Read their full analysis here.

Jim Geraghty at National Review has more on this story here.

Senator Tom Cotton (R-AK) writes at the Wall Street Journal:

Having failed to deter [Russia’s war against Ukraine], Mr. Biden’s timid approach has now prolonged it. Thanks to his failures, some Americans wonder whether we should continue to support Ukraine. But cutting off Ukraine wouldn’t end the war. It would only increase the chances of a Russian victory and harm our interests in deterring wider wars in Europe and Asia.

Sen. Cotton argues that supporting Ukraine will stop Russian aggression in the region, serve as a warning to China, and save American money and lives in the long run. He calls for “a strategy of victory” to “protect our vital national interests.”

Israeli aid delegations head to southern Turkey after deadly quakes

A delegation of dozens of Israeli doctors, medics, rescue operators and psychotrauma specialists took off for southern Turkey on Tuesday afternoon to assist in rescue operations already underway after a devastating earthquake and smaller aftershocks struck the area, killing thousands of people and leaving many more homeless in the heart of winter. Earlier in the day, a larger delegation of roughly 150 people from the Israel Defense Force’s Home Front Command landed in the city of Adana to begin operations there and in surrounding areas.

Republican Congressman slams Biden administration for giving Palestinians money in wake of terror attacks

Congressman Ronny Jackson (R-TX) slammed the Biden administration Friday for giving the Palestinians more aid in the wake of Palestinian terror attacks in Jerusalem that killed seven people… Antony Blinken on Tuesday announced $50 million in new aid to UNRWA, the UN’s Palestinian refugee organization, during a meeting with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah. That brings the total aid that the administration has provided to UNRWA since President Joe Biden took office to $940 million.

Biden gives Iran and Russia green light to continue nuclear work

The Biden administration renewed a series of sanctions waivers that permit Iran and Russia to cooperate on nuclear work at Iranian enrichment sites, according to a non-public notification sent to Congress and obtained by the Washington Free Beacon. Secretary of State Antony Blinken authorized the waivers on Jan. 31, but Congress was not notified of the decision until late on Feb. 3, after the Free Beacon began making inquiries about the exemptions. Senior congressional sources said the Biden administration is trying to sweep the sanctions waivers under the rug amid renewed concerns about Iran and Russia's military alliance.

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