Was this the State of the Union or the Democratic National Convention? President Joe Biden’s speech was marinated in division, rancor, and guff. He picked fights with congressional Republicans who mostly sat idle as this dementia-ridden head of state rattled off a vision of America that doesn’t exist. The address started with a January 6 lecture, where everyone knew this would devolved into an hour of insanity.
Some noted that the address would be grounded in telling Americans they were idiots—we were right. Biden embodied a ‘we know best’ attitude, telling struggling Americans whose wallets get torched when they pay the electric bill or go to the grocery store that their eyes are deceiving them. Joe wants to declare war on gun owners, touted Obamacare, which wasn’t his accomplishment, and outright lied about Republicans wanting to cut Social Security and Medicare—the AARP has pro-Trump ads on this, Joe. They’ve been running since 2016.
On border security, the president remains blind that his reversal of critical Trump executive orders is what caused us to lose operational control. Biden called the stalled border security package conservative because it provided more funds for judges and agents—all of which would have helped ferry people in instead of keeping people out and deporting them, which needs to happen. It also contained a pathway to citizenship for unvetted Afghan refugees and provided legal status to the children on H-1B visas, who lose their deportation protections around age 21. It was also a Ukraine bill, Joe. Of the $117 billion, only around $20 billion was for border security.
Biden did have a lofty goal for prescription drugs and taking on the pharmaceutical companies, including capping drug prices. There was a lengthy government spending list, but Biden repeated the lie that no one making under $400,000 would see their taxes go up. As Katie will cover in the morning, Biden, like Obama, took a swipe at the Supreme Court over abortion, which occupied a healthy portion of his address. Biden knows he can’t lose single, college-educated, and chardonnay-guzzling suburbanite women.
On foreign policy, The president even had the gall to say that the world is safer than it was four years ago, placing a lot of blame on Donald Trump, though he didn’t mention him by name. It was an angry, partisan speech that some observers hit two birds with one stone. It was meant to dissuade any intraparty coup toward possibly replacing Biden at the convention later this year. And it served red meat to the far left faction, which has been drifting away from Biden.
Suppose it sounded like a speech to the Democratic Party base. In that case, that’s because it was—these people see the polling: Biden is struggling with blacks, Hispanics, young voters, Muslim Americans, and labor unions. The labor union brass might like Biden, but the rank-and-file are decidedly unenthused. The president still stumbled, slurred his words, and got lost at multiple points, but I’ll say this: if whatever cocktail his doctors injected into him to keep him half-awake is tweaked, Biden could maybe hold his own with Trump. Remember, all Joe must do is not short-circuit a la Mitch McConnell on live television.
Abortion, destroying the rich, open borders, grabbing guns, and everything terrible is all Trump’s fault—that’s the Cliff Notes version of Biden’s address.
It was part revving up the liberal base, but also soaked in indignation toward those who Biden feels should be giving him more credit for his failure of a presidency. Eighty-six percent think he’s too old, while 61 percent of Americans think he doesn’t deserve a second term. Will this address have legs? Probably not, and all it takes for all this supposed goodwill to evaporate is for Biden to have another senior moment, where everyone is reminded that he can’t and hasn’t been able to do the job. Biden has been on vacation for 40 percent of his presidency.
