Rep. Rashida Tlaib to bash moderate Democrats in progressive response to Biden's State of the Union address

• Rep. Rashida Tlaib will give a progressive response — on behalf of the Working Families Party — to Biden's State of the Union address.
• She is expected to take on moderate Democrats who progressives believe have stymied Biden's agenda.

Democratic Rep. Rashida Tlaib of Michigan plans to give her own progressive response to President Joe Biden's State of the Union address on March 1.

Tlaib's plans, first reported by Politico on Wednesday, are somewhat unusual given that she and Biden are in the same party. Typically, the party that does not currently hold the White House gives a televised response to the president's address, and this year the Republican Party chose Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds to deliver the GOP's message.

Tlaib plans to call out the moderate and conservative Democrats who progressives believe have stymied Biden's agenda.

"No one fought harder for Build Back Better and a pro-democracy agenda than progressives," Tlaib told Politico in a statement. "The work is unfinished and we're not giving up on what our communities deserve. We need to get as much done for the people as we can this year, and elect a majority that can deliver for working families in 2023."

Tlaib is delivering the response on behalf of the Working Families Party, a minor political party that works to boost progressive candidates and elected officials within the Democratic Party. Many states have their own chapters, and the party carries significant political weight, especially in New York state politics.

In the last two years, other Squad members have given the party's State of the Union response as well. Last year, Rep. Jamaal Bowman of New York gave the party's response to Biden's first joint address to Congress in April, and Rep. Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts gave a response to former President Donald Trump's final State of the Union address in 2020.

"We're going to be clear about who and why the agenda is incomplete," Maurice Mitchell, national director of the Working Families Party, told Politico. "There are particular political actors — of course Republicans, but then a very niche, small group of obstructionist Democrats. And we're going to name names."

Those names would likely include Democratic Sens. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, who opposed parts of Biden's now-stalled Build Back Better social spending and climate bill, as well as Democratic Rep. Josh Gottheimer of New Jersey, one of a handful of centrist Democrats who urged the House to approve a separate bipartisan infrastructure bill that progressives wanted to see passed along with the social spending bill.

But Tlaib's communication director Denzel McCampbell told Insider that Tlaib will not be naming names, though it may not be difficult to understand who she's referring to.

"The speech is about supporting President Biden and his Build Back Better Agenda for the American people. It's about delivering a popular, progressive vision that people across the country are demanding," McCampbell said. "While Rep. Tlaib will not be calling people out by name, she will make it clear that Republicans and a handful of corporate Democrats are providing obstacles to the President's agenda."

Politico also reported that Tlaib will call for Biden to cancel student loan debt via executive authority, as well as argue that some Democrats are complicit in blocking progress on lowering housing, health, and prescription drug costs.

Tlaib is no stranger to taking on members of her own party. In May, she confronted Biden on the tarmac of an airport in Michigan over the US's role in supporting Israel as it conducted a bombing campaign against Hamas in Gaza.

Tlaib's response underscores the significant anger among progressives at the moderate Democrats they view as holding up swaths of Biden's domestic agenda. Progressives had demanded the infrastructure law and social spending plans pass one after the next. But they came under pressure to loosen their blockade on the roads-and-bridges plan and it was signed into law in November.

Tlaib was one of six Democrats, alongside other progressive Squad members like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, that voted against the infrastructure bill.

Manchin sunk the social and climate spending package a month later, declaring it "dead" out of concern about its price tag and potential impact on inflation. Whether Democrats revive a slimmer version of the plan remains highly uncertain as the conservative West Virginia Democrat wants to act on other priorities, like elections reform, first.

Ocasio-Cortez has recently heaped criticism onto Manchin for "nuking" the expanded child tax credit checks that helped keep many kids out of poverty. Democrats had wanted to renew the temporary child allowance as part of the plan.