House Speaker Kevin McCarthy made vague efforts to control the raucous outbursts by members of his Republican caucus during President Joe Biden's 2023 State of the Union address Tuesday. But lured into the fray by Biden's surprisingly punchy delivery, fringe members of the GOP herd let loose an array of howls and heckles that the speaker couldn't hold back. So much for "institutional norms" and the comeback of politics as usual.
In the days before the SOTU, reporters nudged McCarthy about whether he would indulge himself by ripping up his paper copy of Biden's speech at its conclusion, mimicking then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi's theatrical gesture at the conclusion of Donald Trump's 2020 speech.
