President Obama didn’t attack Republican lawmakers with any single insult Tuesday evening during his State of the Union address, but instead carried out “one, long sustained” attack on their entire party, according to CBS News reporter John Dickerson.
“[Obama] sketched a big historic choice,” he said after the president’s speech concluded Tuesday evening. “America can either go the right way or the wrong way. And then he associated the Republicans with every wrong choice.”
“There was not a single insult of the Republicans. It was one, long, sustained — putting them in the basket of deniers of climate change,” he added, “putting them in the basket of helping [the Islamic State] by being reactionary about ISIS — or ISIL’s — victories or strength.”
Dickerson noted that the president suggested Republicans want to “roll back” civil rights gains, and that the GOP is “out of touch” when it comes to the realities of the U.S. economy.
“There was a long list of things that he associated the Republican Party … this was a broader indictment of the Republican Party. And that’s why [Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis.], who said he’d have to keep a poker face, barely moved during much of the speech, and when it was over could barely stir himself to a golf clap,” Dickerson said.
