mark the rapid elevation<\/a> for Sanders, who was sworn into elected office for the first time just weeks ago. However, she is far from a political neophyte, as her father held the same position she now occupies from 1996-2007 and Sanders previously served as press secretary in the Trump White House. She also represents a new class of Republicans attempting to marry Trumpism with more traditional parts of GOP orthodoxy.<\/p>\nIn one of her first acts as governor, Sanders garnered national attention for a directive banning the term Latinx across the Arkansas government. In her Tuesday response, Sanders similarly waded into culture war subjects that have animated conservatives in the Biden years, inveighing against \u201cfalse idols\u201d of the left and other conservative punching bags.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat’s not normal. It\u2019s crazy, and it\u2019s wrong,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Huckabee is also expected to hit the president for his stewardship of the economy and the Biden administration\u2019s handling of immigration policy.<\/p>\n
Those broadsides are not far apart from the depiction of Biden and his fellow Democrats presented by her previous boss, former President Donald Trump, underscoring the lasting impression he has made on the Republican party.<\/p>\n
Trump \u2014 the only major declared Republican candidate for the White House \u2014 released his own short response to Biden\u2019s speech in which he painted a bleak picture of the country and accused the president of allowing illegal immigrants to \u201cstorm\u201d the country and letting drug cartels smuggle \u201cpoison\u201d across the border.<\/p>\n
Trump also highlighted inflation, the rise in murder rates, and said the Biden administration is \u201ctrying to indoctrinate and mutilate our children\u201d \u2014 a reference to sexual orientation and gender identity issues that have animated the party.<\/p>\n
By contrast, Sanders\u2019 excepts echoes those same themes without quite the same edge, and nods to a softer touch that Republicans have at times grasped for as a way to modulate the former president\u2019s agenda into an enduring coalition.<\/p>\n
\u201cRepublicans believe in an America where strong families thrive in safe communities. Where jobs are abundant, and paychecks are rising,\u201d Sanders says in her remarks.<\/p>\n
Nevertheless Sanders\u2019 speech stands in contrast to the tone left by her predecessor, Republican Asa Hutchinson, a regular presence on Washington Sunday shows who in the past has condemned some of Trump\u2019s rhetoric, his most controversial policies while and members of the former governor\u2019s fellow lawmakers in Arkansas.<\/p>\n
Meridith McGraw contributed to this report.<\/p>\n