DES MOINES, Iowa — Iowa was thrust into the national spotlight Tuesday night as Gov. Kim Reynolds provided the Republican rebuttal to President Joe Biden's first State of the Union address.
While the two leaders agree Americans should stand firmly behind Ukrainians battling for their freedoms abroad, the pair disagreed on how we got here and who's to blame.
"Putin's latest attack on Ukraine was premeditated and unprovoked," Biden said. "He rejected repeated efforts at diplomacy."
While Biden placed the conflict squarely on Vladimir Putin's shoulders, Reynolds pointed to the U.S. pullout of Afghanistan as a move she believes emboldened enemies.
Reynolds, whose foreign affairs experience is limited to overseas economic development missions, said “weakness on the world stage has a cost. And the President’s approach to foreign policy has consistently been too little, too late.”
“And now Russia has launched an unprovoked full-scale military invasion of Ukraine, an attack on democracy, freedom, and the rule of law," she said, speaking from the rooftop terrace of Iowa Historical Building with the gold-domed state Capitol in the background .
The swipe goes right at what had been a perceived strength of Biden, who brought to the White House eight years as vice president and decades of service on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
Reynolds' defense of democracy, however, also comes as a select congressional committee has spent more than a year investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol by activists loyal to former President Donald Trump who believed the Republicans falsehoods — roundly rejected by state officials and the courts — that the 2020 election was stolen.
While Democrats have portrayed the deadly Capitol siege as an attack on democracy, the Republican National Committee last month labeled the event “legitimate political discourse.”
Biden's address to the nation came after what he described as two of the hardest years it's ever faced. He touted the success he believes the American Rescue Plan has had in lifting Americans out.
"Unlike the $2 trillion tax cut passed in the previous administration that benefitted the top 1% of Americans, the American Rescue Plan helped working people, and left no one behind," Biden said.
Reynolds, however, said his leadership has only lead to inflation and a hit on Americans' pocketbooks.
"While Democrats in D.C. are spending trillions, sending inflation soaring, Republican leaders around the country are balancing budgets and cutting taxes," said Reynolds, who signed a historic tax reform bill earlier Tuesday. "Because we know that money spent on main street is better than money spent on bureaucracy."
Biden also spoke on public safety after protests over law enforcement's role have divided the country.
"That's why the Justice Department required body cameras, banned chokeholds, and restricted no-knock warrants for its officers," he said. "That's why the American Rescue Plan provided $350 billion that cities, states, and counties can use to hire more police."
"We now live in a country where violent crime is out of control, liberal prosecutors are letting criminals off easy, and many prominent Democrats still want to defund the police," Reynolds said. "The Department of Justice treats parents like domestic terrorists but looters and shoplifters roam free."
She also took her moment to introduce herself as a Midwestern mother and grandmother — once a small-town grocery clerk — more in touch with everyday Americans than leaders in Washington, whom she painted as out of touch with heartland cultural concerns.
It's those leaders in Washington, she argued, who are part of “a political class trying to remake this country into a place where an elite few tell everyone else what they can and cannot say, what they can and cannot believe.”
Last year, Reynolds signed legislation banning from schools controversial books and teachings, including lessons about systemic racism and white privilege.
Parents are “tired of politicians who tell parents they should sit down, be silent, and let government control their kids’ education and future," she said.
“It seems like everything is backwards,” she said, describing Americans as “waiting for the insanity to stop.”
WATCH | Hours after signing historic tax bill, Gov. Reynolds strides into GOP spotlight for Biden response