First Lady Jill Biden suffered embarrassment at the Reagan Institute Summit on Education when an “applause line” fell flat, resulting in her actively requesting that her audience clap.
JILL BIDEN: "I've found that the common values that unite us are deeper than our divisions!"
*crickets*
"I thought you might clap for that!" pic.twitter.com/UJEhPHyHRi
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) May 25, 2023
“I’ve visited red states and blue states and I’ve found that the common values that unite us are deeper than our divisions,” said the 71-year-old at the event, pausing and clasping her hands together in expectation of applause but being met by silence.
“And, um – I thought you might clap for that,” Jill Biden added awkwardly, prompting laughter and a short burst of dutiful applause.
Such classic lines about Americans being more similar than different may be failing to resonate in the post-2016 era, with Democrats and liberals, in particular, appearing to be more intolerant of people who do not share their views.
AEI has found that while over half of Republicans have Democrat friends, less than a third of Democrats say they have Republican friends, for example, and Democrats are also roughly three times more likely than Republicans to “unfriend” people on social media for not sharing their politics.