Utah Republicans in Congress found little to like in President Joe Biden’s animated, campaign-minded State of the Union address, blasting him on his border policies and bemoaning his failure to address the nation’s deficit and debt.

In a video response following the speech, Utah GOP Sen. Mike Lee criticized Biden for focusing on foreign conflicts rather than the U.S.-Mexico border, painting a grim picture of the impact border crossings are having on the country and invoking the name of Laken Riley, the Georgia college student whose murder, allegedly by a man who was in the country illegally, has become a symbol of the White House’s failure on immigration among conservatives.

“It’s a glaring example of how American lives are being put at risk under President Biden’s leadership,” Lee said.

Lee was among the first to come out against a bipartisan House immigration deal that collapsed under Republican pressure earlier this year.

Lee went on to discount Biden’s comments on the strength of the economy, saying Americans are weighed down by high living costs and pointing to the U.S. “pouring billions into the defense of other countries,” though not identifying those nations by name.

Utah Republican Sen. Mitt Romney, however, made no mention of the border in his video statement. On foreign policy, he said he thought the president “did a good job,” agreeing America should push back against Russian President Vladimir Putin’s assault on Ukraine in order to prevent the need for U.S. involvement in the conflict.

On domestic policy, however, Romney said, “I’m afraid it was the same old liberal playbook,” accusing Biden of making promises he can’t deliver because he doesn’t — and won’t — have Republican support, and saying the president didn’t take a hard look at the deficit in his speech because “Democrats don’t like to do that.”

“I think the greatest mistake was that he really never talked about how we’re going to deal with the deficit and the debt — and the debt is enormous. It poses a threat to us. The interest payments are now going to exceed this year our military spending. This is a problem,” Romney said.

Rep. Blake Moore, R-Utah, in a written statement pushed for a return to immigration policies used by the Trump administration like requiring asylum seekers to “remain in Mexico” and Title 42, which allowed for restrictions on migration in the name of public health.

Moore offered support for finding solutions for sending aid to Ukraine, and said that a focus must be placed on the safe return of Israelis taken hostage by Hamas.

“I am glad the administration has worked with Israel to develop stronger aid corridors for innocent civilians while Israel continues to fight to defeat Hamas. However, we cannot forget that other regional players have a responsibility to step up as well,” Moore said, pointing to the challenges faith-based and humanitarian groups are facing in Egypt as they try to get aid to Palestinians in Rafah.

For Lee and Rep. Burgess Owens, disapproval of Biden’s speech began as soon as Biden started speaking — and even before — with Lee running a critical, real-time string of posts on his personal account starting ahead of the president’s late arrival, and Owens posting, “President Biden starting his State of the Union talking about Ukraine tells you everything you need to know. America LAST.”

Owens’ social posts also denounced Biden’s lack of action at the border and called for a return to Trump-era immigration policies.

Utah News Dispatch is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news source covering government, policy and the issues most impacting the lives of Utahns.

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