SOTU Rebuttal: Rashida Tlaib Calls Biden Out for ‘Green New Deal’ Failure

Rashida Tlaib
BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP via Getty Images

Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) on Tuesday night gave an unusual rebuttal to President Biden’s State of the Union address that scolded the president for not enacting Green New Deal-like policies into law.

Tlaib, chair of the powerful progressive caucus, thumped Biden for failing to pass his Build Back Better agenda, which includes large aspects of the Green New Deal. She claimed enacting Green New Deal-like policies would increase union jobs, a goal Biden has promised to deliver.

“With the Green New Deal we rebuild our country by creating millions of unions jobs in the clean energy industry of the future,” she lamented about the stalled legislation.

“We even played hardball in Congress” to pass “environmental justice,” she said while blaming Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) and Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ)  as “corporate-backed Democrat obstructionists” for the legislative failure.

“With the majority of the Build Back Better agenda stalled, Mr. President, our work is unfinished,” she slammed Biden, noting the need to continue the “fight for environmental justice.”

“We are ready to jumpstart our work again,” she added. “Imagine turning the rust belt into the green belt that is the center of American jobs and innovation for the next century.”

Tlaib’s unusual rebuttal of an in-kind Democrat president comes as Biden failed to mention the Green New Deal in his speech to Congress Tuesday night.

In the past, Biden officials instead have said they support “green energy projects” in Ukraine and that Russia needs to focus on “building back better.”

Follow Wendell Husebø on Twitter and Gettr @WendellHusebø

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