President Joe Biden's gaffe on mixing up the Iranian people with those of Ukraine amid Russia's invasion was not lost on social media, or Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla.
"We did not see the soaring oratory of Donald Trump or Barack Obama or Bill Clinton in these remarks: I think at one point, Joe Biden even said that he was going to win the hearts and souls of the Iranian people in Kyiv, which would certainly be breaking news, if true," Gaetz mocked to co-hosts Eric Bolling and Lyndsay Keith on Newsmax's coverage of the State of the Union.
While Biden mostly delivered a 62-minute speech methodically and clearly, he did mix up Ukrainians with Iranians when referring to Vladimir Putin's efforts to take over Ukraine with a massive, full-scale invasion that started just days before his State of the Union address.
"Putin may circle Kyiv with tanks, but he will never gain the hearts and souls of the Iranian people," Biden said in his speech.
Biden also went off script of the prepared remarks by shouting "Go get him!" and pumping his fist after the speech ended. While that might be mistaken for referring to Putin for the Ukrainian army, it could have been a slip up on extolling Congress to "go get them" on his optimistic spending and restructuring of the American economy.
"The fundamental flaw of the speech is that government spending doesn't solve inflation," Gaetz added. "In many cases, it causes it. That's precisely why Joe Manchin wouldn't vote for the very policies Joe Biden seemed to be pushing.
"And so it was almost a rehearsal or a redo of a lot of the policies that Biden couldn't get passed – whether it was on voting, or whether it was on his economic spending agenda. It was a whole lot of regurgitation of failure, from my perspective."
Gaetz noted the irony of a State of the Union address starting with other countries, while the number one priority of inflation was a bit buried behind support for Ukraine against the Russia aggression Biden had allowed to unfold without deterrence.
"It took him quite a bit of time to actually get to the priorities of Americans," Gaetz concluded. "I found it bizarre that we were 32 minutes into the speech before Joe Biden said 'and the rising cost of goods is my number one priority.' Typically, number one priorities make it a little before half an hour into the speech, and I think that that front-loaded focus on Ukraine is unlikely to bring Joe Biden out of the tailspin that he's in."
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Eric Mack ✉
Eric Mack has been a writer and editor at Newsmax since 2016. He is a 1998 Syracuse University journalism graduate and a New York Press Association award-winning writer.
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