President Biden delivered his State of the Union address before a joint session of Congress Thursday night, a speech coming in at just more than an hour. It was directed squarely at Republicans and, without naming him, former President Trump.
The address comes during a pivotal election year in which Biden is seeking a second term. The speech was considered by his campaign to be a launching pad toward the general election, where he is likely to face a rematch with Trump.
Following the president’s address, Sen. Katie Britt (R-Ala.) gave the Republican response from her home.
And after both, the commentary came flooding in.
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Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) slammed President Biden’s State of the Union speech.
The No. 4 House Republican criticized Biden’s address, saying “it was a failed speech.”
— Filip Timotija
Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) said GOP lawmakers who heckled Biden were responding to an “overly partisan speech.”
Asked about the exchange between Biden and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), Johnson said people listening to the address grew “very emotional” because of the “overly partisan” nature of Biden’s remarks.
“People got very emotional tonight because it was an overly partisan speech and it was filled, full of information that is just objectively not true. And so you saw the visceral reaction, I think, from people in the chamber and I suspect that a lot of people at home were feeling that same frustration,” Johnson told reporters.
— Mychael Schnell
Sen. Katie Britt (R-Ala.) on Thursday argued President Biden is a “dithering and diminished” leader who is taking the U.S. down a worrisome path.
Delivering the GOP response to Biden’s State of the Union from her own kitchen table, the freshman senator laid into the president for the border, crime, the economy and his work on the international stage.
“President Biden just doesn’t get it. He’s out of touch. Under his administration, families are worse off, our communities are less safe and our country is less secure,” she said from her home in Montgomery, Ala. “I just wish he understood what real families are facing around kitchen tables just like this one.”
Read more on her response here.
—Al Weaver
Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) said President Biden was “on fire” during his State of the Union address.
Raskin said the speech was a “game-changer politically.”
“He came out swinging and he was on fire,” he said.
Raskin also praised Biden’s promise to back Israel but also push the nation to get more aid into Gaza and reduce civilian casualties in the war against Palestinian militant group Hamas.
“He established that he has been a champion of Israel’s security and survival and prosperity forever,” he said. “But he also was very clear that we have to pay attention to the terrible humanitarian crisis taking place in Gaza.”
— Brad Dress
Rep. Mike Waltz (R-Fla.) blasted President Biden’s plan to address the war between Israel and Palestinian militant group Hamas and raised questions about a proposal to build a port in Gaza to increase aid.
“I want to see some detail on this plan to put a port in a terrorist-run war zone,” he said. “How do we defend it? How do we sustain it?
“And how do we do all that without a boot on the ground?” he added. “I’ve got a lot of questions on how this militarily will get pulled off.”
Waltz also criticized Biden’s State of the Union address that called for a two-state solution between Palestine and Israel.
“They want to completely eliminate Israel,” Waltz said of Hamas, saying that complicates a two-state solution. “This is ISIS running Gaza.”
— Brad Dress
Rep. Michael Waltz (R-Fla) criticized President Biden’s calls for aid to Ukraine, arguing the president hasn’t done enough to define the parameters of U.S. assistance.
“We’re literally spending against ourselves and we have yet to hear: what does success look like? How long? How much? What’s it going to take? ‘Sign me another blank check and don’t ask questions or you’re pro Russia’ is a bunch of garbage, and they know it. We’ve had those conversations behind closed doors; in the open. We deserve some kind of strategy before we just keep shoveling money out the door,” Waltz said.
During his speech Thursday, Biden said aid was being “blocked by those who want us to walk away from our leadership in the world.”
“If anybody in this room thinks Putin will stop at Ukraine, I assure you, he will not,” Biden said.
“But Ukraine can stop Putin if we stand with Ukraine and provide the weapons it needs to defend itself. That is all Ukraine is asking.”
— Rebecca Beitsch
Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) defended President Biden’s decision to kick off his State of the Union address by speaking about Ukraine, saying he successfully linked their struggle to the U.S. fight for democracy.
“He basically looked to the Republican side and said, ‘Look, I’m standing with democracy. We’re standing with Ukraine’ and challenged them to come with us. I thought that was very important to start with that moment because, yes, the speeches are about the economy and the comeback but also the work ahead,” she said.
“But fundamentally, it was about those last lines when he said, we stood for freedom, we defend freedom.”
— Rebecca Beitsch
Biden, who spent roughly an hour mingling with lawmakers after his speech, was greeted with praise from Rep. Jerry Nadler (R-N.Y.) during an exchange along the aisle.
“No one’s gonna talk about cognitive impairment now,” the New York congressman joked.
“I kinda wish sometimes I was cognitively impaired,” Biden responded.
— Brett Samuels
Rep. Garret Graves (R-La) criticized former Rep. George Santos for observing the speech on the House floor, calling him a “moron” who left the rest of the New York delegation incensed.
“The guy’s a moron. He shouldn’t be here,” Graves told reporters after the State of the Union.
“I’m guessing that the New York delegation hand wrote a new rule in the House where he’s not allowed to come because those guys were irate,” Graves added, saying he does not think the former lawmaker should retain his floor privileges.
“They were very bothered by him being there and just the sensationalism or attention,” that Santos is seeking, Graves added.
— Rebecca Beitsch
Rep. Bob Good (R-Va.) said President Biden’s State of the Union address was an “angry” speech.
“He was like an angry man yelling at people to get off his lawn,” said Good. “He started screaming from the very beginning.
“He was very backward-looking, there was just a lot of, again, anger,” Good added. “There was very little in the way of hope or vision for the country.”
— Brad Dress
A CNN instant poll of individuals who watched Biden’s State of the Union found 64 percent viewed his speech somewhat or very positively, compared to 29 percent who viewed it negatively.
The poll also found 62 percent of speech watchers feel Biden’s policies will move the U.S. in the right direction, up from 45 percent who felt that way before the speech began.
— Brett Samuels
Fox News pundit Sean Hannity dubbed Biden “jacked up Joe” after his speech.
“And that’s being charitable,” Hannity said. “He sounded like an hyper caffeinated angry old man.”
Biden’s reelection campaign responded with a short statement to react to Trump’s reaction to the State of the Union address.
“Sad,” Ammar Moussa, Biden director of rapid response, said in a statement.
Trump shared on Truth Social that he thought Biden’s address was “an angry, polarizing, and hate-filled Speech” and added, “he did not do a very good job!”
— Alex Gangitano
The White House on Thursday hit Alabama Sen. Katie Britt (R) over her stances on the bipartisan border deal and reproductive rights issues after her State of the Union response.
Britt, in her response, criticized President Biden for the situation at the U.S. southern border, for high prices at the grocery store and gas station, and for crime in cities.
“President Biden’s border policies are a disgrace, this crisis is despicable, and the truth is, it is almost entirely preventable,” she said.
The White House called her out for opposing the bipartisan border deal, which was negotiated by a group of senators and endorsed by the White House. Biden blamed Republicans in his address for killing that legislation, calling on them to pass it.
Read the full story here.
— Alex Gangitano
President Biden drew a sharp contrast with former President Trump and Republican lawmakers in Thursday’s State of the Union address, using the bully pulpit to harp on issues that will shape the general election campaign and sell voters on his first three years in office.
Biden’s remarks, which lasted just over an hour, could at times be mistaken for a campaign address. The president did not refer to Trump by name at any point, but he said “my predecessor” 13 times throughout his speech, according to prepared remarks provided by the White House.
Just minutes into the speech, he referred to Trump’s suggestion that he would let Russian President Vladimir Putin “do whatever the hell he wants” if NATO allies had not spent enough on defense, calling those remarks “dangerous and unacceptable.”
In short order, Biden spoke about threats to democracy, the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, which drew eye rolls from Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) and threats to abortion access and reproductive health care, all of which are key pillars of his reelection bid.
— Brett Samuels and Alex Gangitano