‘This Was Biden I Think at His Best’: President Wins High Marks for SOTU
Republican hecklers only served to elevate president as "reasonable"
President Biden found himself winning high praise Tuesday night for his delivery of a State of the Union address which found the commander-in-chief commended for the verve and passion with which he delivered the traditional annual speech, according to a number of political commentators.
Even the Republican hecklers, like hard-right congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, only served to elevate the president, they said.
Biden riffed through a variety of policy goals and proposals during the televised speech before Congress, including gun-safety reform, COVID-19 response — even a proposed increase on the taxes for corporate stock buybacks.
He did so amid the backdrop of the new Republican House majority, some of whom decided to heckle Biden during his remarks.
At one point, Greene — the Georgia Republican who embraces such bizarre conspiracy theories as QAnon and the idea that California wildfires were caused by lasers in outer space owned by Jews — even shouted, “Liar!” at the president.
Biden acknowledged the new majority early, by welcoming Republican Kevin McCarthy as the new House speaker.
"You know, I start tonight by congratulating the members of the 118th Congress and the new Speaker of the House, Kevin McCarthy,” Biden said, to cheering and applause. “Speaker, I don't want to ruin your reputation, but I look forward to working with you.”
After it was over, several TV commentators said that Biden had been in his best form Tuesday evening.
“He literally said, 'Okay, fine. Offer your plan.' He starts riffing with them. And as you said, Chris, they are literally arguing with the only guy with the microphone, and he held that stage. This was Biden I think at his best, in terms of a public performance,” said MSNBC host Joy Reid. “He was a little rowdy, right? He was a little fun. He did his Biden-ing with the people that he was showing empathy toward, including Tyre Nichols’ parents.”
Tyre Nichols was the motorist who was beaten and killed by five police officers in Nashville, Tenn., last month.
“But I also feel like he baited them throughout. The parts where Kevin McCarthy couldn't stand showed his weakness in the caucus, that he couldn't stand up for democracy, for Ukraine, things that would have in the past been solid Republican issues. He couldn't stand up. Remarkable,” she added.
Reid's colleague, Rachel Maddow, agreed.
“We have heard rumors ahead of this State of the Union address from President Joe Biden that this was a lengthy speech. We were settling in. This speech was long in word count, but it was delivered with a lot of energy and a lot of pace, and a combativeness and sort of liveliness that I am not sure that we have ever seen in this particular type of presidential address,” she said. “We had a number of instances in which it appeared to be -- our sense was that there were members of Congress on the Republican side who were shouting at him, heckling, at least responding to him. Rather than him shutting that down or ignoring that or having it be sort of a crisis moment, he instead took those opportunities to have the argument, to challenge them back, to bring the pace even further to the fore.”
Wolf Blitzer, on CNN, had much the same reaction in an on-camera conversation with correspondent Kaitlan Collins.
"You know, Kaitlan, I have heard President Biden, going back to his 36 years in the U.S. Senate, deliver a lot of speeches over the years. I’ve covered him for many, many years and gotten to know him a bit. I think this was the best speech I have ever heard him deliver,” Blitzer said. “He was passionate, it was extremely well-written, he clearly had practiced it and he delivered a powerful message to the American people.”
Former House speaker Nancy Pelosi had a wry reaction about the Republican hecklers when asked about them in an interview with CNN host Jake Tapper.
“Well, actually, they were, for them, fairly well-behaved from what we see every day of the week in the House of Representatives, unfortunately,” she said.
The hecklers actually only wound up adding to Biden's presence, Tapper said.
“House Republicans heckling him — and it was a minority of them, but it was the same ones who gave Kevin McCarthy a run for his money a month ago — but they were loud and proud, and they really gave him an opportunity to seem reasonable, to push back, to have an ad hoc debate, and to even score some points,” he said.
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