President Biden’s State of the Union address Thursday should probably be renamed the Shift of the Blame address in the view of Missouri Sen. Eric Schmitt.

Schmitt told The Heartlander in an exclusive interview Thursday morning that Biden has no record to brag about and would simply blame Republicans for his failed policies.

Indeed, he joked to Fox News’ Laura Ingraham Wednesday that if there was a State of the Union drinking game where you had to take a drink everytime Biden mentioned “extreme” or “MAGA” Republicans, “I think Washington, D.C., would be drunk in the first five minutes.”

“The previews that I’ve heard about or read about is that it’s essentially going to be his effort to deflect blame for all of his failures,” Schmitt told The Heartlander. “And I think he’s desperate. You look at his approval numbers, they’re in the 30s. That’s really unprecedented, and he’s got not much to brag about. We’ve got a wide-open southern border, families are paying $10,000 or more a year for the same stuff, and our energy policy has been a disaster.  

“So, I’m not sure what he can brag about. He’ll try to blame other people for it, but I think the American people are smarter than that.”

Schmitt calls Biden “the most divisive president we’ve ever had,” and says Biden, not his conservative opponents, is the actual threat to democracy.

“Well, I just am tired of being lectured about all these ‘threats to democracy’,” Schmitt told The Heartlander. “When you’ve got a president who literally is trying to kick his opponent off the ballot, put him in jail for the rest of his life, and has been proven to censor millions of voices – like, I don’t know about you, but that’s the Third World stuff we warn Americans about, and he’s doing it. So, I think it’s a classic case of projection.”

Considering the growing doubts about the current president’s mental acuity, Americans increasingly wonder if someone other than Biden is calling the shots.

“I don’t know. I don’t know,” Schmitt shrugs to that. “What I do know is that he’s got a lot of people populated in government positions in the White House who are radical leftists who don’t believe in borders. They are perfectly fine sending jobs to China and making us weaker through our energy policy, and again, aren’t really very concerned about working people.  

“It’s really the party of and by and for the elites now, and Joe Biden is certainly the manifestation of that agenda.”

Considering the state of the economy and inflation, the border, national security concerns, “lawfare” being waged against the administration’s enemies, and involvement lagging foreign wars, why isn’t presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump doing better in polls, which have him up just three to five points?

Schmitt is bullish on the party’s chances, especially as November draws nearer.

“I think if you look at all the polls now, Trump’s ahead. I think if the election were held today, Trump would win, and I think he’s pulled together a new coalition – certainly it’s something I support, having grown up in a blue-collar neighborhood: Working people are the backbone of the Republican Party now, and that continues to expand. You’ve got blacks and Hispanics, President Trump’s increasing his support among all those groups.

“And it makes sense: Everybody was doing better [under Trump] – every economic group, every category, was making more. Inflation was low and we had a secure border. And the closer we get to that election and people compare the records of Donald Trump and Joe Biden, the choice is pretty clear. 

“And I think you’re seeing that being reflected especially in the states that are going to ultimately decide the election: places like Michigan and Pennsylvania and Arizona, places like that. I think President Trump’s doing really well.”

Alabama Sen. Katie Britt, the state’s first woman elected to the Senate, has been tapped to give the Republican rebuttal to the State of the Union address.

What would Schmitt’s rebuttal message be?

“That we’ve got a very different vision for what can help Americans, one that’s based on making sure people earn higher wages, that we bring our manufacturing back home, that we believe in an energy policy that makes America stronger, that we believe in a secure border. None of those things are happening right under Joe Biden. 

“I think one thing that’s very clear over the last three years: Americans have now seen the consequences of the Democrat agenda, and it’s not good for our country. And I think we should be unapologetically pro-American. And I think that ought to be the message.”