Ted Cruz seen dozing off during Biden joint address. How did other Republicans react?
Sen. Ted Cruz seemed to be struggling to stay awake during President Joe Biden’s joint address to Congress.
Video from the U.S. House of Representatives chamber Wednesday evening showed Cruz, a Texas Republican, dozing off as Biden discussed immigration reform. The clip shows him sleeping then briefly opening his eyes before shutting them again.
Cruz later shared the video, tweeting “#BoringButRadical.”
“For the millions of Americans who found something better to do tonight than listen to Joe Biden outline his socialist vision for our country, I can summarize his speech in three words for you: boring, but radical,” he tweeted after the address.
Meanwhile, other Republicans in the House chamber were seen shaking their heads or otherwise acting displeased while others tweeted their criticisms of the speech during or after Biden’s address.
Rep. Lauren Boebert, a Republican from Colorado, was seen loudly unfurling a space blanket and draping it on her lap during the address. It was similar to those often seen given to migrants at detention facilities at the border with Mexico.
“For those who complained about the sound of my Mylar blanket, imagine what this room sounds like,” Boebert tweeted along with a photo of the blankets seen at a Border Patrol’s Central Processing Center in McAllen, Texas. “Fix it, Joe!”
The photo was taken in June 2019, according to the Department of Homeland Security, before Biden was president and when former President Donald Trump was in office.
Other Republicans, including Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and Sen. Mitt Romney Utah, were seen sitting expressionless while others applauded as Biden talked about his proposals and policies.
Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio was also seen shaking his head while Biden talked about the economy, according to Business Insider.
At some points during the address, however, some Republicans were nodding or stood to applaud — including when Biden talked about jobs and COVID-19 vaccines.
Some Republicans, including Boebert, were live-tweeting criticisms of Biden’s speech. Others tweeted them after.
“I miss President Trump,” Boebert tweeted during the address.
“This whole thing could have just been an email,” House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy said after the address, according to Business Insider.
Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina gave a rebuttal to the president’s address minutes after it ended, in part criticizing Biden for campaigning on bipartisanship but pushing policies that he said are divisive.
“He promised to unite a nation, to lower the temperature, to govern for all Americans, no matter how we voted. This was the pitch,” he said. “You just heard it again. But our nation is starving for more than empty platitudes. We need policies and progress that brings us closer together. But three months in, the actions of the president and his party are pulling us further and further apart.”
But polling found a majority of Americans who watched the speech had a positive view of it.
A CNN poll found that 71% of Americans who watched Biden’s speech said they “walked away feeling more optimistic about the country’s direction” and roughly half had a very positive reaction.
Seventy-three percent said they believed Biden’s policies would move the country in the right direction while 27% said they would move it in the wrong direction.
“Among Republicans, the share saying Biden’s policies would move the country in the right direction grew from 13% pre-speech to 27% post-speech, while among independents, that percentage rose from 61% to 73%,” CNN found in the poll.
The poll included 589 U.S. adults who said they watched the address. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 5.4 percentage points, CNN reports.
A CBS News poll of 943 respondents found 85% of people who watched the speech approved of it, while 15% disapproved. The margin of error is plus or minus 4.4 percentage points, CBS reports.
Additionally, many Democratic lawmakers praised Biden’s address.
“Last night, @POTUS showed that America is back on track,” Rep. Darren Soto of Florida tweeted.
“Tonight, President Biden offered a message of possibility — seizing the moment to not only recover, but build America back better,” Rep. David Price of North Carolina said in a statement.
