Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene screams 'liar' during Biden's SOTU address

Marjorie Taylor Greene screams 'liar' during President Biden's SOTU address

Do some politicians just want us to be divided? If you watched Tuesday night's State of the Union, there were moments when elected officials acted quite unruly.

AUSTIN, Texas - Do some politicians just want us to be divided? If you watched Tuesday night's State of the Union, there were moments when elected officials acted quite unruly.

"That means Congress doesn't…And I tell you, I enjoy conversion," said President Biden, during his address.

Republican Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene screamed "liar" at the president.

During that, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy was seen shaking his head during it all as he sat behind the president.

Biden delivers State of the Union address

President Joe Biden exhorted Republicans over and again Tuesday night to work with him to "finish the job" of rebuilding the economy and uniting the nation as he delivered a State of the Union address meant to reassure a country beset by pessimism and fraught political divisions.

RELATED COVERAGE:

Democratic analyst Ed Espinoza and Republican political consultant Ashley Brasher joined FOX 7 Austin's Rebecca Thomas to discuss.

REBECCA THOMAS: Ed, have we witnessed the death of decorum here?

ED ESPINOZA: Well, look, I mean, the death of the quorum started back in 2009 when Joe Wilson, the congressman from South Carolina, started all of this. And it has continued, but it hasn't continued across the board. What you were seeing last night was Joe Biden setting up something to talk about Social Security, Medicare, and then a small group of Republicans who really focused on their outrage, who vocalize their outrage. By the way, the same small group of Republicans that gave Speaker Kevin McCarthy a very hard time when he was trying to get elected speaker and forced us to go more than 15 rounds for an election in that race. So it's the same group of people that are causing noise. And it's unfortunate, but it's the reality that we're in.

REBECCA THOMAS: Ashley, do you see anything wrong with the way Marjorie Taylor Greene and a few others behaved last night?

ASHLEY BRASHER: I do think that there is a small group of extremely right wing Republicans that let things get the best of them at times. And I'm not always completely partizan at those moments. I do think things could be handled in a more appropriate way. But I do understand that we're sick of the abuse and the bullying. For years, we've been told, you know, we need to fight pro-lifers. It's a call to arms, and we need to be, you know, rioted in the street against, and we need to be attacked. And if you see anyone from the Trump administration, you need to attack them in public. You need to harass them. We've been called Nazis. We've been called racists. I think we've all just had enough.

REBECCA THOMAS: Ed, look, you know, Democrats and Republicans are not always going to agree on everything. That's just the way it is. But what is your take on some politicians trying to divide us or behaving in such a divisive manner?

ED ESPINOZA: Well, And it's the reality is some politicians have done that. By the way, at no time have any Democrat called for attacks on Republicans. I don't know where....

ASHLEY BRASHER: That's not true.

ED ESPINOZA: But I will say this. I will say this.

ASHLEY BRASHER: Maxine Waters, Hilary Clinton, Joe Biden himself.

ED ESPINOZA: Actually. Hold on a second. What happened last night was Joe Biden started his speech with bipartisanship. He started talking about the successes that the executive branch and the congressional branch, both parties together have accomplished the unprecedented job creation and low unemployment. Those are things that he included Republicans in. And then it just started to unravel. It doesn't have to be that way. Marjorie Taylor Greene, on the other hand, showed up in a big Cruella de Vil furry coat, drawing attention to herself and then twice interrupted the speech. Those were planned interruptions. It seemed as if she was going there with the intent to disrupt the speech. And that's the kind of thing that we need to put aside and just get back to business.

REBECCA THOMAS: And actually, how do we do that? How do we get back to business? I mean, how do we start being productive without all of this animosity?

ASHLEY BRASHER: Well, when we do have specifically people like Maxine Waters, like Hillary Clinton, like Joe Biden, like Senator Hirono from Hawaii calling for attacks on Republicans, I think we need to address things like that immediately and not let it get to this point where we've all had it. There has been a call for attack on Republicans for years now, and we're just sick of it. We're sick of being bullied.

REBECCA THOMAS: Yeah, let's go back to them.

ASHLEY BRASHER: At one point, Kamala Harris actually said Antifa riots where people were getting seriously hurt, that those should continue and those are a good thing. And I think that needs to be addressed. We shouldn't be talking like that. I think we need to stop this violent rhetoric that is coming from the left. And I don't think that what kind of coat someone wears in these situations has anything to do with it. I don't think style choices have anything to do with what happened last night. So I think we need to stick to the facts.

REBECCA THOMAS: All right. We are out of time. But Ashley, Ed, thank you both for sharing your perspectives with us tonight.