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Kevin McCarthy<\/strong> pledged that he and Republicans would not engage in \u201cchildish games<\/a>\u201d Tuesday night. He would not be ripping up the copy of\u00a0Joe Biden<\/strong>\u2019s State of the Union speech, he said, taking a shot across\u00a0Nancy Pelosi<\/strong>\u2019s bow who tore the pages of\u00a0Donald Trump<\/strong>\u2019s speech three years ago. McCarthy and Republican leaders\u00a0reportedly<\/a> reminded the party that the \u201ccameras are on\u201d and \u201cmics are hot.\u201d \u201cWe\u2019re members of Congress. We have a code of ethics of how we should portray ourselves,\u201d McCarthy added<\/a> in a CNN interview. McCarthy,\u00a0finally Speaker of the House<\/a> after a protracted and painful election in early January, however, sat at the lectern next to Vice President\u00a0Kamala Harris,<\/strong>\u00a0watching over a Republican party that had a very different idea of how Tuesday would play out.<\/p>\n Republican\u00a0Marjorie Taylor Greene<\/strong>, an ally of McCarthy,\u00a0spent much of the day<\/a> walking around the Capitol complex with a large white balloon in hand, a jab at the Biden Administration\u2019s handling of the\u00a0suspected Chinese surveillance balloon<\/a> in United States\u2019 airspace earlier this week. The balloon didn\u2019t join Greene in the House chamber, where the Georgia firebrand sat in the back of the room, notably apart from Colorado\u2019s\u00a0Lauren Boebert<\/strong>, who took a swipe at her balloon antics earlier in the day when asked if she was preparing any forms of protest Tuesday.\u00a0\u201cWell, I won’t be bringing a white helium balloon, if that’s what you’re asking,\u201d Boebert\u00a0told The Hill<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n That kind of GOP infighting defined the start of the evening, particularly when reporters noticed a tense exchange between Utah Republican senator\u00a0Mitt Romney<\/strong> and\u00a0George Santos<\/strong>, who apparently got to the chamber early to save a seat by the main aisle where Biden entered the chamber.\u00a0\u201cHe is a sick puppy,\u201d Romney said of Santos after the speech. \u201cHe shouldn\u2019t be there,\u201d he said,\u00a0noting his disappointment in how McCarthy has handled the New York Republican who has been caught in a\u00a0litany of lies<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cGiven the fact that he\u2019s under ethics investigation he should be sitting in the back row and being quiet instead of parading in front of the president,\u201d Romney added. When asked if he was disappointed that Speaker McCarthy had not called on Santos to resign, the Utah Senator bluntly responded, \u201cYes.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Just after 9:07 PM on Tuesday night, Biden\u00a0took the lectern to applause. For weeks, Biden toiled away with a number of his top aides\u2014Mike Donilon<\/strong>,\u00a0Bruce Reed<\/strong>,\u00a0Steve Ricchetti<\/strong>,\u00a0Anita Dunn<\/strong>,\u00a0Vinay Reddy<\/strong>, being the most influential\u2014crafting the president\u2019s address. The group spent this past weekend cloistered at Camp David, to finetune and polish the prose, according to a White House official.\u00a0Throughout his roughly hour-long speech, Biden pulled from the same pantry of rhetorical staples that have contoured his political career \u2014 the importance of bipartisanship, his working class roots \u2014 and sought to highlight the accomplishments of his administration.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0McCarthy sat aloof behind him, largely expressionless. He clapped at the obvious areas of agreement. He even laughed at some of Biden\u2019s jokes. For much of Biden\u2019s speech, Republicans responded civilly\u2014until they didn\u2019t. Biden\u2019s declaration that some Republicans were intent on cutting Social Security and Medicare, prompted boos from members of the party. McCarthy shook his head as Biden doubled down, seemingly enjoying pushing Republicans deeper in a corner against the very entitlement cuts that conservatives have long called for. But when one Republican was heard shouting \u201cliar\u201d at the president, McCarthy appeared to shush his own.<\/p>\n McCarthy\u2019s subtle signal to his ranks to simmer down was soon lost. When Biden boasted of his administration\u2019s efforts to curb China\u2019s influence, Greene shouted, \u201cChina is spying on us!\u201d in between laughs. Minutes later, Greene invoked China again when the president noted that 700,000 Americans die from Fentanyl overdoses each year.\u00a0\u201cIt is coming from China,\u201d she said. At this point, other Republicans shouted, \u201cClose the border.\u201d And one Republican sunk even lower, heard saying, \u201cIt is your fault!\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n China was something of a theme of the night. Greene\u2019s balloon aside, McCarthy invited former NBA player turned activist\u00a0Enes Kanter Freedom<\/strong>, who has been an outspoken critic of human rights abuses in Turkey and China. \u201cI have so much respect for the speaker as both a leader, and a friend. His support for me doesn\u2019t go unappreciated for even a moment, and I hope he can lead by example to others to stand for what is right,\u201d Freedom told\u00a0Vanity Fair.<\/em>\u00a0<\/p>\n To be sure, Democrats also made political statements with their guests.\u00a0Pelosi invited Sergeant\u00a0Aquilino Gonnell<\/strong> who served as a Capitol Police officer during the January 6, 2021 insurrection and her husband Paul Pelosi<\/strong>, who had become the subject of right-wing conspiracies after being brutally attacked in his own home. Freshman Democrat\u00a0Maxwell Frost<\/strong>, a longtime gun activist before he ran for Congress, invited\u00a0Manuel Oliver<\/strong>, father of Parkland shooting victim Joaquin Oliver.<\/p>\n But the Republicans\u2019 performance Tuesday night was something of a roadmap for the next two years.\u00a0Grappling with a silver of a majority in the House, McCarthy will have a difficult time wrangling his own fractious caucus, let alone shepherd legislation that survives the House, the Democrat-controlled Senate and Biden\u2019s veto. Meanwhile, as early as this week House Republicans are poised to launch a series of investigations into everything from the border, to the Chinese spy balloon, to\u00a0Hunter Biden<\/strong>\u2019s laptop and foreign business dealings. And then there\u2019s Santos, who is now officially under investigation by the House\u2019s ethics committee \u2014 and is certainly good at taking up a lot of oxygen in the room.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n