A spirited President Joe Biden delivered a fiery, partisan State of the Union tackle on Thursday, match for an election yr with enormously excessive stakes in a divided nation.
“Not since President Lincoln and the Civil Warfare have freedom and democracy been underneath assault right here at house as they’re as we speak,” Biden stated early within the speech.
“What makes our second uncommon is that freedom and democracy are underneath assault, each at house and abroad, at the exact same time,” he stated.
“Abroad, [President Vladimir] Putin of Russia is on the march, invading Ukraine and sowing chaos all through Europe and past. If anyone on this room thinks Putin will cease at Ukraine, I guarantee you, he won’t,” the president stated to cheers from Democrats and applause from a smattering of Republicans.
“My message to President Putin is easy. We won’t stroll away. We won’t bow down. I won’t bow down,” Biden stated.
The president additionally celebrated Sweden’s ascension into NATO earlier within the day, as Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson sat to the left of First Girl Jill Biden in her visitor field.
U.S. first woman Jill Biden sits alongside Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson throughout U.S. President Joe Biden’s State of the Union tackle within the Home Chamber of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, March 7, 2024.
Mandel Ngan | Afp | Getty Pictures
On home coverage, Biden was much more confrontational than he was on overseas affairs, repeatedly calling out Republicans and sparring stay on TV with a number of the loudest voices within the GOP caucus.
As a coterie of conservative Supreme Court docket justices sat simply toes away from him, Biden excoriated them for overturning the reproductive rights enshrined in Roe vs. Wade.
“In its determination to overturn Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court docket majority wrote that, ‘ladies will not be with out … electoral or political energy,'” Biden stated.
Then he paused and stated to them, “You are about to understand simply how a lot.” With that, Democrats within the chamber jumped to their toes and clapped and cheered.
Biden additionally went toe to toe with Republicans over a border safety invoice.
“In November, my workforce started severe negotiations with a bipartisan group of senators. The consequence was a bipartisan invoice with the hardest set of border safety reforms we have ever seen on this nation,” stated Biden.
U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., yells at U.S. President Joe Biden as he delivers the State of the Union tackle on the U.S. Capitol in Washington, March 7, 2024.
Evelyn Hockstein | Reuters
As Republicans booed the invoice that they agreed to within the Senate, however then sunk within the Home, Biden turned to his left, the place Republican members have been seated.
“Oh, you do not suppose so? You do not like that invoice, huh? Darn, that is superb,” he stated.
“As a result of that bipartisan deal would rent 1,500 extra border safety brokers and officers, 100 extra immigration judges to assist sort out a backload of two million circumstances.”
Time and again, Biden met Republican interruptions and boos in actual time with quips and jabs that appeared to disarm them.
Total, the speech was a transparent, and efficient, effort to convey to the general public and to his occasion that he’s a candidate prepared for a struggle in November.