Following a highly divisive State of the Union Speech (SOTU), which saw President Joe Biden comparing former President Donald Trump to Adolf Hitler, comparing his supporters to Russians invading Ukraine, and pushing for the restoration of Roe V. Wade, the Maine Wire reached out to Maine’s congressional delegation to ask their opinions on the speech.
Rep. Chellie Pingree (D-Maine) was the first to comment on the SOTU, posting her comments to X the night of the event, and expressing her unmitigated support for President Biden’s comments.
“Tonight, we heard from a leader guided by compassion, conviction, integrity, and a vision for our shared future,” said Rep. Pingree, “President Biden laid out a bold vision to reign in corporate greed, protect reproductive rights, support our allies abroad, and keep the American dream alive for middle class families.”
The Maine Wire reached out for comment from Sen. Collins (R-Maine), who did not make comments on X, asking her opinion on multiple aspects of the speech.
Collins responded with a general condemnation of the speech without addressing any of its specific aspects.
“The President’s highly partisan speech was more appropriate for a political rally than for a State of the Union address,” said Sen. Collins.
Sen. Angus King (I-Maine) and Rep. Jared Golden (D-Maine) did not comment publicly on the SOTU, nor did they acknowledge requests for comment from The Maine Wire.
The two Republicans running against Rep. Golden for Maine’s second congressional seat, State Reps. Austin Theriault (R-Fort Kent) and Mike Soboleski (R-Phillips) did offer comments on the speech.
“Tonight we saw what a failed presidency looks like. Biden’s policies — backed by Jared Golden — have made life worse for Mainers,” said Theriault on X.
In comments provided to The Maine Wire, Theriault offered more specific criticism of the speech.
“President Biden is clearly too soft on Hamas, too soft on illegal immigration and asylum seekers, and too soft on Chinese organized crime — yet Jared Golden still backs him. I’m supporting Donald Trump because he’s the opposite of soft on those issues and more,” said Theriault.
Rep. Soboleski also weighed in with comments provided to The Maine Wire.
“On Thursday night we watched President Biden give a campaign speech, insult half the country, and mispronounce the name of Laken Riley whose accused murderer is an illegal in this country because of Biden’s open border policy. He offered no workable plan to fix the border crisis, a crisis he created,” said Soboleski, “America deserve honesty! This country needs Donald Trump to be our 47th President. I would encourage everyone who wants strong borders, international peace through strength and their civil liberties protected to vote for him. Our country’s future depends on it.”
Soboleski took the time to fact-check some of Bidens most spurious claims, something which mainstream media outlets avoided.
“His speech included a misleading claim that US inflation is the “lowest in the world” @ 3.1%, it’s not, Italy is at .06%. He claimed crime is down but homicide and violent crime rates are higher now than in 2019. He claimed $650B in clean energy investments but they are only intended investments not actual, and he claimed wages are up but over the entirety of his presidency wages are down when adjusted for inflation,” said Soboleski.
[RELATED: Oxford County GOP Announces Plans to Host Maine CD-2 Primary Debate…]
On April 20, the Oxford County GOP will hold a debate, moderated by The Maine Wire Editor-in-Chief Steve Robinson, where Theriault and Soboleski will face off ahead of the June primary, which will decide which of the two will face Rep. Golden in the general election.
Sen. Angus King (I-Maine) and Rep. Jared Golden (D-Maine) did not comment publicly on the SOTU, nor did they acknowledge requests for comment from The Maine Wire.
because Jared Golden is the 1st looser and has to watch every step, and Anus King Doesn’t have the guts to admit he is a demoKKKrat let alone do or say anything else.
Golden never responds to anything that is out of step that causes him to think outside party lines
“Tonight, we heard from a leader guided by compassion, conviction, integrity, and a vision for our shared future,” said Rep. Pingree, “President Biden laid out a bold vision to reign in corporate greed, protect reproductive rights, support our allies abroad, and keep the American dream alive for middle class families.”
This comment by Pingree should disqualify her for office. It shows her incompetency. It would be a laughable comment if the damage being done by him and his party weren’t so readily evident.
The dems want to tax greedy businesses, what they don’t understand is corporations don’t pay taxes. People pay taxes. Businesses pass along the cost to the consumer, they maintain their profit margins.
Pingree is a multi-millionaire carpetbagger that lives on an island and doesn’t give a crap about Mainers! King Anus is another carpetbagger multi-millionaire that has bilked the citizens of Maine over and over by fraud and his big wind legislation that has cost taxpayers billions and he’s pocketed millions! Golden is just a leftist puppet that does what he’s told by party heads! Just remember the demonrats don’t run a ‘party’ candidate for senate against King Anus, Why? Because he’s a leftist demonrat that lies about it, always has. When he ran against Joe Brennan (a real old school democrat) the party financed King Anus because he’s a woke leftist! Brennan was a good guy that cared about the people he was one of the last old school good democrat the very last was Jim Tierney and the party trashed him too! I didn’t leave the democrat party, it left me(Ronald Reagan)! The demonrat party has abandoned the country and is working desperately to destroy it!