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Saddled with adverse approval rankings and trailing former President Trump in the newest polling common of their common election rematch, President Biden went for the jugular in prime time Thursday night as he delivered the State of the Union address with eight months to go till the November showdown.
Biden early and sometimes took goal at Trump, whom he solely known as “his predecessor,” and likewise fired quite a few salvos at Republican lawmakers sitting instantly in entrance of him as the president delivered his address to a joint session of Congress.
“My predecessor, a former Republican President, tells Putin, ‘Do whatever the hell you want,’” Biden charged three minutes into his speech. It was the first of 13 references to Trump, who this week grew to become the GOP’s presumptive nominee.
While Democrats applauded the tone and tenor of the president’s address, Republicans savaged the speech for crossing the line.
BIDEN TARGETS TRUMP AND CONGRESSIONAL REPUBLICANS IN STATE OF THE UNION ADDRESS
President Joe Biden delivers the State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress at the Capitol, Thursday, March 7, 2024, in Washington. Standing at left is Vice President Kamala Harris and seated at proper is House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La. (Shawn Thew/Pool by way of AP) (Shawn Thew/Pool by way of AP)
“This was the most partisan State of the Union I’ve heard in my lifetime,” mentioned Bill McGurn, who served as chief speechwriter for then-President George W. Bush.
“No outreach to Republicans, and the clear message was this: the era of big government is back, with a vengeance,” added McGurn, a Wall Street Journal editorial board member and columnist in addition to a Fox News contributor.
FOX EXCLUSIVE: TRUMP REACTS TO BIDEN STATE OF THE UNION ADDRESS
Marc Theissen, who additionally served as a speechwriter for Bush, argued Biden’s speech was an “utter disgrace.”
“Attacking his opponent directly in the first minutes of his speech is unprecedented and perhaps the most partisan start to a State of the Union address in modern memory,” Theissen emphasised in a social media posting.
It was a really completely different take from Dan Cluchey, who served as a speechwriter for the president in the Biden White House.
“With energy and vigor, the President laid out the clear choice facing America — a choice between two starkly different visions for our future. Will we expand freedom, or restrict it? Will we defend democracy, or attack it? Will we continue to grow the economy for all, or rig it on behalf of billionaires and the wealthiest corporations? President Biden made it crystal clear where he stands — and he did it while commanding the room with equal parts sharp oratory, disarming banter, and matter-of-fact moral authority,” Cluchey instructed Fox News.
And Cluchey argued that “State of the Union addresses don’t get better than this.”
President Joe Biden speaks throughout a State of the Union address at the US Capitol in Washington, DC, US, on Thursday, March 7, 2024. (Al Drago/Bloomberg by way of Getty Images)
Longtime Democratic advisor Maria Cardona instructed Fox News “the contrast with Trump was brilliant and scathing. He pulled no punches, told the truth, and he was everything he needed to be.”
“Of course, Republicans thought it was too political. If that’s their only criticism, they know he had a homer, and they have nowhere else to go,” added Cardona, a Democratic National Committee member and veteran of a number of presidential campaigns.
Cardona argued that the president “was energetic, direct, funny, eloquent, and he laid out his accomplishments clearly and relevantly, connecting them with peoples’ lives.”
McGurn agreed that the 81-year-old Biden “was vigorous, more than we’ve recently seen.”
But he added that the address “had a get-off-my-lawn-you-rotten-kids! quality to it.”
And Clark Judge, who served as a speechwriter for the late President Ronald Reagan, concurred that Biden’s address “sounded angry. For its force, it depended upon him basically shouting and projecting outrage.”
And he charged that the speech was “a laundry list of bad solutions for the problems he [Biden] caused.”
Biden used a portion of his address to highlight the financial rebound throughout his tenure in the White House.
“I inherited an economy that was on the brink,” Biden famous earlier than touting “now our economy is the envy of the world.”
And he spotlighted that “wages keep going up and inflation keeps coming down!”
But ballot after ballot signifies that Americans aren’t giving the president a lot credit score for the easing in inflation.
And Biden went on offense in opposition to Trump and congressional Republicans on one other problem the place he is politically weak, the disaster at the nation’s southern border.
But Colin Reed, a veteran Republican strategist, mentioned that when it got here to the financial system and the border, “both were buried deep within the confines of the speech.”
“On the two most important issues, he whiffed big time,” mentioned Reed, a marketing campaign veteran who served as a high adviser this cycle on a brilliant PAC supporting former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie’s 2024 GOP nomination bid.
Biden is the oldest president in the nation’s historical past. And polls point out a majority of Americans harbor severe questions on his bodily and psychological capability to deal with one other 4 years in the White House.
“I know I may not look like it, but I’ve been around a while. And when you get to my age, certain things become clearer than ever before,” Biden quipped close to the finish of his address.
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Seasoned Democratic strategist and communicator Chris Moyer acknowledged that the president “can’t stick his head in the sand and pretend voters don’t know he’s old, and this was the first time he took on his age directly. It was smart to do so, and I think he’ll refine this more and more over the course of the campaign.”
And Moyer, who’s served on a number of Democratic presidential campaigns, famous that “this was more campaign speech and less State of the Union address.” But he argued that Biden “did what he needed to do, showing a fighting spirit and hitting many of the expected notes on popular issues.”
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