Prior to the arrival of President Joe Biden at his State of the Union address, C-SPAN caught U.S. Senator Mazie Hirono (D-HI) and Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) sitting next to each other enjoying a good laugh. Well, more like Sanders erupted in laughter after Hirono dropped a punch line on him.
When Hirono shared the video — there is no audio — she predicted (correctly) that her followers would want to know what she’d said to Sanders that made him break out in laughter like that. So the junior senator from Hawaii captioned it: “knock knock. who’s there? orange. orange who? orange you glad the other guy’s not President?” (The “other guy” being the man Biden referred to throughout his speech as simply “my predecessor.”)
[Note: Both Hirono and Sanders supported the impeachment of Donald Trump after the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.]
knock knock.
— Senator Mazie Hirono (@maziehirono) March 8, 2024
who's there?
orange.
orange who?
orange you glad the other guy's not President? pic.twitter.com/2Qay4PNJAM
While the knock-knock joke is probably not exactly what Hirono hit Sanders with on the House floor, the video was widely circulated online and praised for exhibiting an upbeat tone among Democrats that Biden critics, wringing their hands over polls, have missed.
Just left the live quorum call vote on the Senate Floor where Democrats were noticeably cheerier than Republicans. Last night put wind in our sails. 🙂
— Sheldon Whitehouse (@SenWhitehouse) March 8, 2024
Hirono has supported Sanders and his legislation in the past. Most recently, in January, Hirono voted for Sanders’s resolution to apply the human rights provisions of the Foreign Assistance Act to U.S. aid to Israel’s military. The proposal was defeated, 72 to 11.
The 11 Senators who voted to advance the resolution (including Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts) were branded as “Democratic rebels” by The Hill. MAGA Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky was the lone Republican to vote in favor of the legislation.
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