Former Trump speechwriter Stephen Miller has lashed out at Joe Biden and his speechwriters, calling the president’s Thursday speech “gloomy,” uninspiring, and possibly even threatening.
“It was so gloomy. It didn’t inspire or uplift at all…They’re deliberately setting extraordinary low, unambitious, uninspiring goals on the theory that he can then exceed these incredibly dismal objectives,” Miller complained, speaking to Fox News business on Saturday.
“There was a section of the speech that I truly believe could be one of the least inspiring calls to action in human history, and this was that ‘if we all sacrifice, if we all do our part, if we stay closed, if we suffer, if we struggle, if we hurt, then maybe, just maybe on July 4 you can have dinner with your own family in your own backyard,’” the official added, juxtaposing the address’s pessimism with the optimism of President Kennedy’s man on the Moon speech, and the Trump speech about getting people to Mars.
Miller also suggested that Biden a “huge missed opportunity” to unite Americans by not thanking the previous administration for creating vaccines.
“It would have been so gracious, and so unifying, and so honest too just to say ‘when we came into office, we had a vaccine, thanks to president Trump,’” the former aide said, referring to Operation Warp Speed, the Trump administration directive to facilitate the development and distribution of coronavirus vaccines.
Fox News host Larry Kudlow, Trump’s former National Economic Council director, also expressed concerns about Biden’s warnings about a possible second national lockdown if the restrictions weren’t followed, saying any attempts to do so would cause a revolt among states.
“It’s threatening language. Biden’s speechwriters – I don’t know how much of this Joe Biden is personally doing – Biden’s speechwriters clearly thought it would be an effective cajole to threaten people with an ‘or else.’ That’s not how you inspire people,” Miller suggested. “Threatening people with punitive measures and saying ‘well if you don’t do it this way then I’ll be forced to shut everything down’ is mean-spirited, it’s actually cruel when you think about what these lockdowns do to people,” he added.
About 18 million Americans tuned in to watch Biden’s Thursday speech, with the president delivering the address after signing the new $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief bill into law. The speech coincided with Biden’s 50th day in office.
Biden accused his predecessor of meeting the virus “with silence” and allowing it to spread unchecked for months, and talked about death tolls, the social and psychological consequences of the pandemic, including lockdowns, job loss and mental health issues. He asked Americans to continue wearing masks, to get vaccinated, and to continue practicing self-isolation and social distancing.
Biden did not offer a timeline for when a full return to normal should be expected. In the US and in countries worldwide, such timelines have been pushed back repeatedly for over a year now, with many governments’ original promises of “two week” lockdowns to “flatten the curve” spreading into months, with some restrictions in place to this day.
