Biden uses the State of the Union address to attack Trump and launch his re-election campaign
The president turns his appearance before Congress into an aggressive defense of his suitability to hold office for four more years
Joe Biden gave the most eagerly awaited State of the Union address in recent history on Thursday. Because it was also a speech on the state of the campaign for his re-election as President of the United States and, above all, a speech on his state of health. In these exceptional times, the 68 minutes of his speech on Capitol Hill were also a medical check-up before the country and the world on the abilities of an 81-year-old man to steer the flagging ship of the world’s leading power for another term in office, at the end of which Biden will be 86 years old. It is often said that the speech is the most important of the year for an incumbent president, but this time it was not far-fetched to add that it was also the most important in the long career of the Democratic politician, who turned it into a fierce attack against his rival, Donald Trump, as well as the first major act of his campaign and an aggressive defense of his suitability to be re-elected in November.
The address was broadcast in prime time so that millions of his fellow Americans could hear him defend the achievements of three years in office, and in the process test the extent to which he has the faculties which many critics, but especially Donald Trump, his opponent in the November elections, say are no longer with him. Well, Biden passed that test, or at least, he didn’t make any terrible mistake. The speech did not leave any of those lapses (confusing Macron with Mitterrand, Mexico with Egypt) that went around the world and that led the special prosecutor Robert Hur, who was investigating his handling of classified documents from his time as vice president, to define him in a devastating report for the Biden campaign as an “elderly man with a poor memory.” It would be too much to say that the clouds over his suitability for four more years in one of the most difficult jobs in the world were dispelled, but considering that among his shortcomings is the fact that he was never a great public speaker and taking into account that he was reading a text, broken up into short sentences, which he had been preparing for months, he was energetic, at times combative and almost always verging on shouting. However, his address offered little that was new and instead reiterated his usual message that only by voting for him can American democracy be saved.
The “elderly man” started his speech 25 minutes behind schedule, in part, because he took a stroll around the floor before taking the podium during which it seemed he was going to stop for a moment with everyone present, a mix of representatives and senators from both parties, members of his cabinet and the Supreme Court justices. Once on stage, he stood between Vice President Kamala Harris and the Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson, who was occupying the same seat held a year ago by Kevin McCarthy and nearly filled by other nominees before Johnson, during 12 months of endless crisis for House Republicans. He began by going back to 1941 (the year before he was born), and recalled Franklin Delano Roosevelt, when he addressed the nation and “Hitler was on the march,” to warn that “freedom and democracy are under attack, both at home and overseas, at the very same time.” “If anybody in this room thinks Putin will stop at Ukraine, I assure you, he will not.”
With this warning, he gave way to a speech that, according to White House sources, he worked on up to the last minute in order to sell the idea that under his leadership the United States is staging a “comeback” to its essence. On paper, the speech was a 6,442-word text, but not a single one of those was “Trump,” although the Republican hovered over a good part of it, as it was completely a campaign speech. He did refer to him as a “former president” or his “predecessor” (a term I used up to 13 times). It disgusted him that the former president recently encouraged Russia to do “whatever the hell it wants” with NATO allies who do not pay for defense (a gesture that he described as outrageous, dangerous and unacceptable) and that he maneuvered to overthrow the right to abortion, which the Supreme Court overturned in 2022.
The (not expressly) mentioned man did not take long to react on his social network, Truth Social, shortly after the television broadcast ended. “That may be the Angriest, Least Compassionate, and Worst State of the Union Speech ever made. It was an Embarrassment to our Country!” Trump wrote. And then added a malicious piece of advice: “Don’t shake his hand, he’s been coughing into it the entire night!”
His “predecessor” and January 6
He also addressed the assault on the Capitol: “My predecessor and some of you here seek to bury the truth of January 6th. I will not do that,” he said, in another direct allusion, but without explicitly naming Trump. “This is a moment to speak the truth and bury the lies.” “Insurrectionists stormed this very Capitol and placed a dagger at the throat of American democracy. Many of you were here on that darkest of days. We all saw with our own eyes these insurrectionists were not patriots. They had come to stop the peaceful transfer of power and to overturn the will of the people. January 6th and the lies about the 2020 election, and the plots to steal the election, posed the gravest threat to our democracy since the Civil War. But they failed. America stood strong and democracy prevailed. But we must be honest: the threat remains and democracy must be defended,” he insisted.
At another point in his address, he bet on “a future based on the core values that have defined America. Honesty. Decency. Dignity. Equality.” “Now some other people my age see a different story. An American story of resentment, revenge, and retribution. That’s not me.” And that’s how Biden took the chance of putting his rival, who is 77 years old, on the same “elderly man” boat as himself, while Democrats clapped and chanted “four more years! Four more years!”
He asked Republican congress members to approve the Senate border bill, which has the support of both parties, and which would serve, he said, to solve the immigration problem. He accused Trump of pushing his supporters in the House of Representatives to block that new law out of mere political calculation. “If you’re watching me,” he said, speaking to his opponent, “instead of playing politics and pressuring members of Congress to block this bill, join me!”
The Republicans came to the meeting with the intention of behaving better than last year, when they interrupted and rebuked the president again and again, and one of them, Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, broke a few records against decorum. This Thursday she outdid herself by wearing a red cap with the Trump slogan Make America Great Again, despite the fact that House rules prevent covering one’s head, and, once again, she shouted at the president in the middle of his argument about the border.
Internally, he focused on his favored issues: abortion, public health care represented by Medicaid and Medicare (“Many of my Republican friends want to put Social Security on the chopping block. If anyone here tries to cut Social Security or Medicare or raise the retirement age I will stop them!”), the defense of the middle class, the increase in the corporate tax, the taking aim at large fortunes and, in general, an economy which he claims is doing better than what citizens feel, frustrated by the high prices at the supermarket and when buying a home. He reminded viewers that during his term in office the record for job creation has been broken, despite the high interest rates, he underlined that inflation has fallen from 9% to 3.1%, he announced aid for mortgages of 400 dollars a month and boasted of industrial investments, in microprocessors, in infrastructures or in green energy.
On foreign policy, the topic with which he decided to open his speech and which he returned to at various points, Biden addressed the urgency of restoring aid to Ukraine blocked by the Republicans on Capitol Hill to stop Putin (although he promised that it is not among his plans to send American soldiers) and celebrated Sweden’s entry into NATO; among those present was the Swedish Prime Minister, Ulf Kristersson, who stood up to greet his American counterpart. He also announced that the United States will build a temporary pier in Gaza for humanitarian aid access, in a gesture that seems aimed at easing one of his main obstacles on his path to re-election: his military support for Israel could cost him dearly among Muslim Americans, essential to win in key swing states like Michigan, and among young people. A group of protesters gathered near the Capitol to remind him by blocking a street. They forced the caravan that was taking the president to Congress to make a detour. He insisted on the idea of two states to solve the problem and warned: “We’ve been working non-stop to establish an immediate ceasefire that would last for at least six weeks.”
In the guest gallery, located to Biden’s left, there were Americans with relatives who are among those kidnapped by Hamas. He summoned them to reinforce his message about the Middle East, in the same way that he invited Jazmin Cazares, sister of a 9-year-old girl who was one of the victims of the 2022 shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, to the Capitol, which helped him ask for greater gun control. There was also Latoya Beasley, who saw her in vitro fertilization treatment canceled a couple of weeks ago when the Alabama Supreme Court ruled that embryos would be legally considered children in that State. And Kate Cox, who sued Texas to be able to obtain the abortion that her doctor recommended, after Texas prohibited the termination of pregnancy in its territory and she had to leave the state to undergo that intervention.
Biden did not miss the opportunity to elaborate on the issue of abortion, one that has helped Democrats win elections, confident that it can help his cause again in November: “In its decision to overturn Roe v. Wade the Supreme Court majority wrote, ‘Women are not without electoral or political power.’ No kidding. Clearly, those bragging about overturning Roe v. Wade have no clue about the power of women in America. They found out though when reproductive freedom was on the ballot and won in 2022, 2023, and they will find out again, in 2024. If Americans send me a Congress that supports the right to choose, I promise you, I will restore Roe v. Wade as the law of the land again!”
The president closed his speech with a reference to his great weakness, which he tried to turn into a virtue. “When you get to my age certain things become clearer than ever before. I know the American story. Again and again I’ve seen the contest between competing forces in the battle for the soul of our nation. Between those who want to pull America back to the past and those who want to move America into the future.” “That’s not me,” he declared. Then he went through his life: “In my career I’ve been told I’m too young and I’m too old,” he argued.
In half a century of public service, he said, he’s learned that “to lead America, the land of possibilities, you need a vision for the future of what America can and should be. Tonight you’ve heard mine... So let’s build that future together! Let’s remember who we are! We are the United States of America. There is nothing beyond our capacity when we act together!”
Biden took to the stage this Thursday as the most unpopular president in history, with his job approval rating sinking to 38%. Only two White House incumbents reached the year of their reelection with such bad numbers: Trump (42%) and George Bush Sr. (41%). Both remained one-term presidents. Whether Biden’s performance from the congressional lectern will help improve his prospects is a matter for pollsters. Before him, he has 34 weeks of electoral campaign ahead of him. And it promises to be one of the fiercest campaigns in recent history.
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