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Post by Webster on Mar 7, 2024 21:30:57 GMT -5
(The Guardian) Education secretary Miguel Cardona is not attending tonight’s State of the Union address because he is the designated survivor, a White House official confirmed. That means he stays in a secure location in case something happens to the president and leaders of the legislative and judicial branches during tonight’s speech.
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Post by Webster on Mar 7, 2024 21:33:46 GMT -5
(The Guardian) Biden begins State of the Union speechJoe Biden has climbed the House dais to begin his third State of the Union address, and the last of his first term – and potentially his presidency.
Joe Biden began by comparing the moment to one faced by Democratic president Franklin Rosevelt in 1941, when Adolf Hitler was on the march in Europe. “Now, it’s we who face an unprecedented moment in history, the union and yes, my purpose tonight is to wake up the Congress, alert the American people, that this is no ordinary moment either,” Biden said.
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Post by Webster on Mar 7, 2024 21:38:54 GMT -5
(The Guardian) Biden attacks Trump for blocking Ukraine aidMinutes into his speech, the first point the president landed on was this: Donald Trump is to blame for Congress’s failure to pass more aid to Ukraine. “Ukraine is being blocked by those who want to walk away from our world leadership,” Joe Biden said. -- It wasn’t a long ago when a Republican president named Ronald Reagan thundered, ‘Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall’. Now, my predecessor, a former Republican president, tells Putin ‘do whatever the hell you want’. That’s a quote. A former president actually said that, bowing down to a Russian leader. I think it’s outrageous, is dangerous and it’s unacceptable.
Biden accuses Trump, Republicans of trying 'to bury the truth about January 6'Joe Biden wasn’t done with his attacks on Donald Trump and his allies, bringing up the January 6 attack and accusing them of trying to cover it up: History watched three years ago on January 6 when insurrectionist stormed this very capitol and placed a dagger to the throat of American democracy. Many of your were here on that darkest of days, we all saw with our own eyes. The insurrectionists were not patriots – they’d come to stop the peaceful transfer of power, to overturn the will of the people. January 6 lies about the 2020 election and the plots to steal the election posed a great gravest threat to US democracy since the Civil War. But they fail.He concluded: Our predecessor and some of you here seek to bury the truth about January 6. I will not do that.
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Post by Webster on Mar 7, 2024 21:43:40 GMT -5
(The Guardian) Joe Biden is now hitting out at the supreme court’s 2022 decision overturning Roe v Wade, and vowing to codify the former precedent into law, if re-elected. “If the American people send me a Congress that supports the right to choose, I promise you I will restore Roe v Wade as the law of the land again,” he said. The Democrats and Biden’s cabinet secretaries stood and applauded at that line. The six supreme court justices in the room – two of whom voted to overturn Roe v Wade – sat stonefaced.
Biden took a moment to recognize the pandemic – the lives lost and the social isolation. He accused Donald Trump of not caring - to which someone from the audience shouted “lies”.
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Post by Webster on Mar 7, 2024 21:57:01 GMT -5
(The Guardian) Joe Biden hit out at Republicans who voted against legislation he championed to revitalize the nation’s infrastructure, but nonetheless accepted the money it authorized. “And by the way, I noticed some of you have strongly voted against it but they’re cheering on that money coming in,” Biden said, to applause, presumably from Democrats. “If you don’t want that money in your district, just let me know.”
Joe Biden did not hold back on criticizing the overturning of Roe v Wade, addressing his remarks directly to the justices who were in the room. “With all due respect, justices, women are not without … electoral or political power,” he said.
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Post by Webster on Mar 7, 2024 22:06:29 GMT -5
(The Guardian) While voters haven’t responded well to “Bidenomics”, there have been multiple polls to show they do support Joe Biden’s policies on capping prescription drug costs and changes to Medicare pricing in a country where health care burdens run many families into debt. Biden seems to have recognized that he must go beyond saying the economy is strong and that inflation is down and took a significant amount of time to talk about his actions to limit health costs. “The Affordable Care Act, old Obamacare, is still a very big deal,” he said. “Over 100 million of you can no longer be denied health insurance because of a pre-existing condition. But my predecessor and many in this chamber want to take that protection away by repealing the Affordable Care Act. I won’t let that happen. We stopped you 50 times before, and we will stop you again.”
Joe Biden threw his weight behind a long-running push to restore a tax credit that is seen as crucial to lowering child poverty. “The child tax credit I passed during the pandemic cut taxes for millions of working families and cut child poverty in half,” Biden said. He then boomed: Restore the tax credit! No child should go hungry in this country.
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Post by Webster on Mar 7, 2024 22:10:31 GMT -5
(The Guardian) Would it be a Democratic president’s State of the Union without an accusation that Republicans want to cut social security and medicare? Nope! “Many of my friends on the other side of the aisle want to put Social Security on the chopping block,” Biden said. “If anyone here tries to cut Social Security, Medicare or raise the retirement age, I will stop you.”
Biden then appeared to lure Republicans into a trap. “We have two ways to go: Republicans can cut Social Security and give more tax breaks to the wealthy,” he said. But before he could continue, the GOP erupted into jeers. “Well, that’s the proposal,” the president countered. “You guys don’t want another $2tn tax cut? I kind of thought that’s what your plan was. Good to hear you’re not gonna cut another $2tn for the super wealthy. That’s good to hear.”
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Post by Webster on Mar 7, 2024 22:20:34 GMT -5
(The Guardian) Joe Biden then sparred with Republicans over immigration reform, after the party killed a bipartisan compromise to tie tighter border policies to aid to Ukraine and Israel. “I’m told my predecessor called members of Congress in the Senate to demand they block the bill,” Biden said. But he appeared to lose his train of thought, and picked up a pin, worn by rightwing lawmaker Marjorie Taylor Greene, with the name Laiken Riley, a Georgia woman suspected to have been killed by an undocumented immigrant. He called Riley “an innocent young woman who was killed by an illegal” but then flubbed his next few words.
A protester was just removed from the House gallery. The man started yelling at Joe Biden as he was addressing murder rates. It was hard to hear what he was saying, but it sounded like something about the marine corps.
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Post by Webster on Mar 7, 2024 22:28:54 GMT -5
(The Guardian) The words “Donald Trump” have not passed Joe Biden’s lips since he began this speech, but he has repeatedly referenced “my predecessor”. The most recent moment came when he discussed gun control and mass shootings. “My predecessor told the NRA he’s proud he did nothing on guns when he was president. After another shooting in Iowa recently, he said, when asked what to do about it, he said, ‘just get over it’. There’s his quote, ‘just get over it’”, Biden said. “I say, stop it”.
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Post by Webster on Mar 7, 2024 22:29:50 GMT -5
(The Guardian) Biden announces 'temporary pier' off Gaza coast to deliver humanitarian aidJoe Biden just announced the US military would build a pier off Gaza’s coast to facilitate aid deliveries, and said no American soldiers would set foot in the enclave besieged by Israel. “Tonight, I’m directing the US military to lead an emergency mission to establish a temporary pier in the Mediterranean on the coast of Gaza that can receive large shipments carrying food, water, medicine and temporary shelter,” Biden said. “No US boots will be on the ground. A temporary pier will enable a massive increase in the amount of humanitarian assistance getting into the Gaza every day … Israel must allow more aid into Gaza ensure humanitarian workers aren’t caught in the crossfire.”
As Joe Biden discussed the war in Gaza, two progressive House Democrats sitting in the audience staged a minor protest. Rashida Tlaib and Cori Bush remained sitting and held up signs that read: “Lasting ceasefire now.”
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Post by Webster on Mar 7, 2024 22:34:31 GMT -5
(The Guardian) Biden appears to be wrapping up, in high spirits. “Let me close with this,” he said, to sardonic applause. “I know you don’t want to hear any more, Lindsey. But I gotta say a few more things,” Biden said. He was presumably talking to South Carolina Republican senator Lindsey Graham.
“I know it may not look like it, but I’ve been around a while,” said the 81-year-old president, the oldest to ever hold the job. “You get to be my age, certain things become clearer than ever,” Biden continued. “I know the American story. Again and again, I’ve seen the contrast between competing forces in the battle for the soul of our nation, between those who want to pull America back to the past and those who want to move America into the future.”
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Post by Webster on Mar 7, 2024 22:37:13 GMT -5
(The Guardian) Biden directly addresses advanced age as he concludes State of the UnionJoe Biden rarely discusses his age, but did so directly as he closed his State of the Union address. “I’ve been told I’m too old,” he said, continuing: Whether young or old … I’ve always known what endures. I’ve known our north star, the very idea of Americans, that we’re all created equal, deserve to be treated equally throughout our lives. We’ve never fully lived up to that idea. We’ve never walked away from it either. And I won’t walk away from it now.
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Post by Webster on Mar 7, 2024 22:53:33 GMT -5
(The Guardian) During Joe Biden’s speech, there were several rowdy heckles from Marjorie Taylor Greene and others. Then came an unexpected yell from the public balcony, directly opposite where (Guardian correspondent David Smith was) sitting in the press gallery. A man wearing dark suit, blue shirt and yellow tie cupped his hands and shouted: “Remember Abbey Gate! United States Marines.” Abbey Gate, outside Kabul’s airport, is where 13 US service members were killed during the withdrawal from Afghanistan two years ago. His point made, the man voluntarily left before security yanked him out. Biden did not seem thrown off by the interruption as he carried on speaking. But the episode was a reminder that his approval rating has never quite recovered from the chaos in Kabul.
One of the most striking moments of the night happened when Joe Biden addressed the topic of immigration – which polls show is a major weakness going into the November contest against Donald Trump. As he spoke, the president was heckled by Marjorie Taylor Greene, a rightwing antagonist. Greene demanded he say the name of Laken Riley, who is suspected to have been murdered by an undocumented migrant. Biden, who usually wants nothing to do with Greene, took her up on the offer. Here’s what happened:
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Post by Webster on Mar 7, 2024 23:12:44 GMT -5
(The Guardian) Alabama senator Katie Britt is delivering the Republican rebuttal to Joe Biden’s State of the Union address, and responded to his comments on Laken Riley. “Tonight, president Biden finally said her name, but he refused to take responsibility for his own actions,” said Britt. “Mr President, enough is enough. Innocent Americans are dying and you only have yourself to blame. Fulfil your oath of office, reverse your policies, end this crisis and stop the suffering.”
“Just ask yourself, are you better off now than you were three years ago?” Katie Britt asks in the Republican rebuttal to Joe Biden’s State of the Union address. Expect that to be a theme of GOP campaigns nationwide, including Donald Trump’s. More, from Britt: Look, we all recall when presidents faced national security threats with strength and resolve. That seems like ancient history right now. Our commander in chief is not in command. The free world deserves better than a doddering and diminished leader. America deserves leaders who recognize that secure borders, stable prices, safe streets and a strong defense are actually the cornerstones of a great nation.
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Post by Webster on Mar 7, 2024 23:14:05 GMT -5
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