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Joe Biden’s State of the Union Speech Backed Republicans Into a Corner

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President Joe Biden’s second State of the Union address was partly a victory lap and partly an acknowledgement of how far he still has to go. Flanked by Vice President Kamala Harris and new House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, Biden updated the “unity agenda” of his first speech for the divided Congress he addressed Tuesday. “Fighting for the sake of fighting, power for the sake of power, conflict for the sake of conflict, gets us nowhere,” he said. “And that’s always been my vision for our country. To restore the soul of the nation. To rebuild the backbone of America, the middle class. To unite the country.”

“We’ve been sent here,” he added, “to finish the job.” 

That line was a refrain for Biden throughout the address: As he touted his administration’s many, and often underestimated successes, the president called for a continuation of his agenda on prescription drug prices and healthcare coverage; climate change; the economy; gun control; and police reform, which has been thrust back to the fore of national politics in the wake of the horrific killing of Tyre Nichols by Memphis police last month. “We need to rise to this moment,” Biden said. “Do something.” 

It was an effective speech, particularly when he essentially got Republicans — who have tried to take a hard line on debt-ceiling negotiations — to take cuts to Medicare and Social Security off the table. “I will not allow them to be taken away,” Biden said of the entitlement programs Americans have paid into. “Not today. Not tomorrow. Not ever.” It was delivered with vigor and verve, of the kind aimed not only at uniting the American people, but uniting them around a second presidential bid

But it goes without saying that much of his immediate audience on Capitol Hill has no intention of heeding his call to take bipartisan action on behalf of the American people these next two years. McCarthy—who couldn’t even bring himself to applaud when Biden hailed democracy for remaining intact despite after the stress test Donald Trump subjected it to—had to explicitly warn his rowdy, ungovernable caucus not to cause a scene at the address, if only to allow him to project a veneer of respectability. But such propriety was just too much for the GOP, as members like Marjorie Taylor Greene—empowered by McCarthy—booed and jeered at some of the president’s lines, and heckled him en masse over the border and other matters. “It’s your fault,” one Republican was heard shouting as Biden lamented the toll the fentanyl crisis has taken on Americans. 

But while Biden was speaking before the assembled lawmakers, much of his address was aimed directly at the public—particularly those he described as the “invisible” Americans who have been left behind by Washington and beset by uncertainty about the future. These are most likely the same ones who indicated in recent polls that they are not feeling the effects of his administration’s accomplishments. To this end, Biden expressed a great deal of compassion, including during a section of the speech discussing the Nichols killing. “There are no words to describe the heartbreak and grief of losing a child. But imagine what it’s like to lose a child at the hands of the law,” Biden said. “Imagine having to worry like that every day in America.” But he also made a special point to sell his administration’s track record of successes on areas from infrastructure and the economy to gun safety. “We’ve made real progress,” he said. “But there is so much more to do, and we can do it together.” 

He was ostensibly talking about the next two years, in hopes that the new Republican House majority will at least cooperate on matters like the debt ceiling and support for Ukraine, which began mostly as a bipartisan matter but has been on shaky ground since the Republican takeover of the lower chamber. However, the president was also speaking, implicitly, about the bid for a second term he’s expected to formally announce in the coming months. Even Democratic voters haven’t exactly seemed especially enthusiastic about that prospect, despite his accomplishments, as questions about his age and a still-lingering sense of national malaise hang over his political future. 

It remains to be seen if his address Tuesday evening—by turns conciliatory and strident, with zingers and olive branches offered up in equal measure—will allay those concerns. But it was as commanding a speech as he’s given during his presidency—one that touched on traditional Biden themes of unity and hope and stability, while acknowledging the particular challenges those values face for at least the near future. “I have never been more optimistic about the future of America,” he said in the forceful final passages of his address. “We just have to remember who we are.” It’s a hopeful goal, and one rather hopes it’s another job he can finish. But Sarah Huckabee Sanders’ GOP response didn’t exactly give cause for optimism as she leaned harder into the right’s deranged culture wars: “Forgive me for not believing much of anything I heard tonight from President Biden,” she said in a dark rebuttal to his speech, casting him and his party as “crazy.” “Biden and the Democrats have failed you.”



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