Iowa’s Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds hit President Biden following his State of the Union address Tuesday, accusing him of failing to make America respected and united.

“Even before taking the oath of office, the president told us that he wanted to ‘make America respected around the world again and to unite us here at home’. He’s failed on both fronts,” Reynolds said in the Republican response to Biden’s speech.

She pointed to last year’s chaotic Afghanistan withdrawal, historic inflation, the ongoing border crisis and Russia’s recent invasion of Ukraine.

“Weakness on the world stage has a cost. and the president’s approach to foreign policy has consistently been too little too late,” she said. “It’s time for America to once again project confidence. It’s time to be decisive. It’s time to lead. But we can’t project strength aboard if we’re weak at home.”

While moments prior, Biden lauded the US as “stronger today than we were a year ago,” the Iowa governor insisted the country changed — and not for the better. 

“This is not the same country it was a year ago. The President tried to paint a different picture tonight. But his actions over the last 12 months don’t match the rhetoric. It’s not what he promised when he took office,” Reynolds said.

She then appeared to make an appeal to American voters, as the 2022 midterm elections grow nearer.

“But it doesn’t have to be that way. There is an alternative. Across the nation, Republican governors and legislators are showing Americans what conservative leadership looks like, what it means to respect the people we serve, to hear them out to stand up for them and walk alongside them,” she said. 

In her remarks, Reynolds pushed the idea that Americans are tired of “a political class trying to remake this country into a place where an elite few tell everyone else what they can and cannot say, what they can and cannot believe.”

She pointed to mask mandates that were implemented across the country throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as tensions between local governments and parents regarding children’s education. 

Reynolds blasted the Biden administration over the ongoing border crisis, claiming it has “refused” to protect the American people. 

“They’ve refused to provide the resources to stop human trafficking, to stop the staggering influx of deadly drugs coming into our neighborhoods. They’ve refused to protect you,” she said, pointing to Texas and Arizona, who she said have led the charge. 

On inflation, Reynolds accused the Biden administration of calling it a “high-class problem.”

“I can tell you, it’s an everybody problem,” Reynolds said. 

“While Democrats in DC are spending trillions sending inflation soaring. Republican leaders around the country are balancing budgets and cutting taxes,” she said. 

Towards the end of her remarks, Reynolds emphasized that Republicans “are leading.”

“We’re standing up for parents and kids. We’re standing up for life. We’re keeping our community safe and thanking those in uniform. We’re fighting to restore America’s energy independence, and that includes biofuels. We’re getting people back to work, not paying them to stay home. Most of all, we’re respecting your freedom,” she said. 

Reynolds’ speech was praised by fellow Republicans, with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell who called it “outstanding” compared to Biden’s “warmed-over DC laundry list.” 

Reynolds “has done a great job leading with common sense through the pandemic. She’s backed the blue, faced down Big Labor to open schools, and fought for parents. Outstanding speech. After a warmed-over D.C. laundry list, Americans got to hear straight talk & real solutions,” he tweeted. 

In the minutes that followed Biden’s address, Republican lawmakers took to twitter to share their disappointment in his remarks.

“President Biden ignored that his agenda has completely flopped for American families: Raging inflation, open borders, crime. The President did his best to try to pick himself up and provide some level of optimism but that’s not what the American people are feeling right now,” McConnell said.

House Speaker House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) said, “To the 13 American families who lost loved ones in Afghanistan in August, you deserved to be recognized by the President tonight. Americans remember your sacrifice, and we are forever indebted to you.”

And Sen. Tom Cottom (R-Ark.) tweeted that the president “thinks that the solution to inflation is to spend trillions more that we don’t have.”

“Unfortunately, the state of our union is not good,” Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) said in a statement. “Our border is broken. Inflation is rampant. We went from energy independence back to dependence on foreign oil coming out of Russia and other places. Afghanistan is a breeding ground for terrorists.

“The foreign and domestic policies of President Biden are not working for the American people. He needs to adjust his policies,” he said.

Graham urged for the US to return to Trump-era policies of energy independence, including reopening the Keystone Pipeline. 

“We need to put sanctions on Russian oil and gas. We need to secure our border before it is too late. Our border is completely broken, terrorists can come across, drugs are flowing at the highest level in history,” he added.

“I hate to say it, but the state of our union is really in grave danger, and President Biden is not rising to the moment.”

Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel also blasted Biden’s address Tuesday evening saying it shows how he “fails to grasp the hurt his policies have causes American families.”

“He did not take responsibility for his failures, offered no real solutions to the many crises Americans are facing, and instead doubled down on his disastrous and polarizing agenda,” McDaniel said. Americans are struggling and Biden once again ignored them. Republicans will hold Biden and Democrats accountable in November.”

While the president received several standing ovations and only a few moments of “boos” throughout his speech, his comments did appeal to some across the aisle. 

“I liked the optimism I heard tonight. Many of our goals are the same. Our approaches though are very different. Some where. Some day. Maybe we can meet in the middle. God bless America #SOTU,” Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) wrote.