Biden’s Great State of Disunion Speech

Democrats loved it; Republicans hated it. And here we all are.

After President Joe Biden’s big State of the Union address last night, the media landscape is littered with Republicans grudgingly admitting Biden did a fair job in contrast to all the pre-SOTU hand-wringing over how the aging President might fare and Democrats jubilantly celebrating the demonstrable lack of catastrophe.

Biden’s recent avoidance of the post-Super Bowl interview led plenty of Americans — Republican and Democrat — to fear the worst about the President’s health and fitness.

The State of the Union address was supposed to fix that. It may have helped the President’s image, but reactions are decidedly mixed.

One thing about which many media outlets agree is: It was a partisan speech, meant to divide rather than unify.

“Biden’s Partisan State of Disunion,” lamented the Wall Street Journal editorial board. “The Democratic pep rally had not a single bipartisan grace note.”

“State of the Union speeches are eminently forgettable, but President Biden’s address on Thursday was memorable for all the wrong reasons,” the board wrote. “His address was one long, divisive pep rally for Democrats, goading Republicans throughout the speech, and targeting multiple and various villains for partisan attacks. It really was extraordinary.”

“Most such speeches make at least an attempt at reaching across the aisle, if only as a gesture,” the board continued. “This one had none, not even on the issue of aid to Ukraine where he most needs Republican support.”

“They should be terrified,” pitched the New York Times. “Biden, Trump, and the State of our Disunion.”

Conservative media outlets have, during the speech and in the hours since had a field day fact-checking President Biden’s speech with a fine-toothed comb.

“FACT-CHECK-PALOOZA,” shouted Breitbart News, live-blogging during the SOTU. “JOE LIES…AND LIES…AND LIES! ON BIDENOMICS.”

“No, you did not eliminate the trade deficit,” the outlet pointed out unsparingly. “No, you did not inherit an economy on the brink of collapse. No, consumer confidence is not soaring. No, your border bill is not the toughest ever.”

Not to be outdone, the New York Times did its own fact-check of the President’s speech.

To Biden’s claim to adding “15 million new jobs in just three years — a record,” the NYT added this “context.”

“That is a growth of about 10 percent in three years,” noted the NYT. “However, it is worth noting that Mr. Biden came to office as jobs were beginning to return after huge losses during the coronavirus pandemic. Total jobs are now about 3.5 percent higher than the pre-pandemic peak in February 2020. About half of the 22 million jobs lost in 2020 had returned by the start of the Biden administration.”

To: “In fact, my policies have attracted $650 billion in private sector investment, in clean energy, advanced manufacturing, creating tens of thousands of jobs here in America!”

The Times added: “public announcements of investments — not necessarily dollars spent — across industries targeted by Mr. Biden’s legislative accomplishments.”

Other fact-checks included Biden’s claim that Republicans want to cut Social Security — they don’t — and “We’ve already cut the federal deficit over a trillion dollars” — we haven’t.

Fall out from Biden’s big speech has fallen along predictable lines.

“Did Biden pass or fail?” asked Paul Steinhauser and Andrew Murray for Fox News.

The answer, as usual, depends on political party loyalties.

“Democrats and Republicans disagree on whether the president’s address was too political,” they also noted.

Biden early and often took aim at Trump, whom he only referred to as ‘his predecessor,’ and also fired numerous salvos at Republican lawmakers sitting directly in front of him as the president delivered his address to a joint session of Congress,” Steinhauser and Murray continued.

“While Democrats applauded the tone and tenor of the president’s address, Republicans savaged the speech for crossing the line,” they concluded.

“I have never seen in general an angrier speech,” Republican political analyst Victor Davis Hanson complained to Tucker Carlson on the latter’s new political news program.

Conservatives weren’t the only ones who noticed Biden’s militant tone.

“This is the 36th of these for me,” noted John King on CNN. “Never heard one so political. Never heard one that is such a campaign speech.”

“Joe Biden was angry, he was bitter, he was screaming the entire night,” Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) told the press post-SOTU. “He was radical and extreme.”

Lots of progressive media outlets lauded the Presidential tone, however.

“The Strategic Shouting of Biden’s State of the Union,” gushed Harold Meyerson for The American Prospect. “Loud and proud, Biden dispelled the ‘lack of energy’ issue while promoting an economics to which the GOP has no real rejoinder.”

“The news isn’t that President Biden delivered a combative State of the Union address,” Meyerson couched. “Given the political climate, given what the Republican Party has become and what a Donald Trump victory in November would do to the nation, a combative speech was absolutely necessary and a foregone conclusion. The real news was how finely targeted Biden’s attacks turned out to be, and how well he delivered them.”

Biden wasn’t the only one feeling combative. One congressman sported a shirt emblazoned with former President Donald Trump’s infamous mugshot.

“Rep. Troy Nehls (R-Texas) is wearing a shirt with former President Trump’s mugshot on it during the Biden State of the Union,” reported The Hill, deadpan.

One heckler disrupted President Biden’s speech. The man, Steve Nikoui, whose son was killed during Biden’s chaotic withdrawal from Kabul, Afghanistan, in 2021, was removed, arrested, and charged with a misdemeanor for shouting “Abbey Gate!” and “United States Marines!”

Predictably, progressives are furious with Biden for giving into the prop theatrics of Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-FL), who demanded Biden acknowledge the death of a Georgia college student recently murdered by an illegal immigrant.

“An innocent young woman who was killed by an illegal, that’s right,” President Biden said in response to Greene’s heckling. “Just like thousands of other people.”

“As a proud immigrant, I’m extremely disappointed to hear President Biden use the word ‘illegal,’” tweeted Congressman Chuy Garcia after the President’s speech.

Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told CNN she wished Biden had used the word “undocumented” instead.

“Let me be clear,” Rep. Ilhan Omar chimed in on Twitter. “No human being is illegal.”

“There was a lot of good in President Biden’s speech tonight, but his rhetoric about immigrants was incendiary and wrong,” tweeted Rep. Joaquin Castro, not to be outdone.

“My guest for this year’s State of the Union was the widow of a North Texas rancher who was murdered by a neighbor who didn’t want Latinos living next door,” Rep. Castro continued. “Across Texas, many families can tell similar stories of hate and harassment inspired by the rhetoric of Donald Trump.”

“The rhetoric President Biden used tonight was dangerously close to language from Donald Trump that puts a target on the backs of Latinos everywhere. Democrats shouldn’t be taking our cues from MAGA extremism.”

Meanwhile, Republicans weren’t impressed.

“Biden’s State of the Union was decent,” admitted Ingrid Jacques for USA TODAY. “It’s not enough to make voters forget he’s old.”

“One speech is not enough to ease the very real concerns voters have about President Biden’s age and his ability to govern for four more years,” Jacques wrote. “Biden got through his hour-long speech, with a few stumbles and mumbles. Yes, Biden can handle reading a speech from a teleprompter. It’s when he has to think on his feet — like at a news conference — where he struggles most.”

(contributing writer, Brooke Bell)