“This was an angry, polarizing, and hate-filled Speech,” posted Donald Trump on his Truth Social website after President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address. “This rambling and nasty speech is long and exhausting,” said conservative radio host Mark Levin on X. “For a man speaking of a great comeback, he doesn’t seem very happy. He seems angry,” said Fox News’s Brit Hume, also on X. Representative Dan Crenshaw of Texas, on CNN, said the speech was “divisive” and sounded like a convention speech.
Trump and his fellow conservatives calling Biden “angry” and “divisive” instead of experiencing cognitive decline is proof that Biden did his job and then some.
Trump, in a separate post, even grudgingly acknowledged that Biden didn’t faceplant: “The Story is that he got through it, he’s still breathing, and they didn’t have to carry him out in a straitjacket. Other than that, he did not do a very good job!”
It is a tall order for one speech to reframe a presidential campaign, but Biden may have accomplished just that. After weeks of media coverage stoking concerns about his mental acuity, Biden’s ferocious speech and gleeful, unscripted engagement with unruly Republican backbenchers undercut attempts to make his age the central issue.
Republicans were left complaining about Biden’s sharp and partisan tone, which, for a party beholden to Trump, is transparently disingenuous.
(Recall that four years ago, in Trump’s campaign-year State of the Union, he accused Democrats of supporting “legislation that would bankrupt our nation by providing free taxpayer-funded healthcare to millions of illegal aliens,” slammed the “failing policies of the previous administration,” and bestowed the Presidential Media of Freedom on the veteran purveyor of partisan hatred, Rush Limbaugh.)
Biden began his address with two big issues that unite Democrats: restoring reproductive freedom and defending democracy in Ukraine and at home. Moreover, these aren’t issues that strictly appeal to Biden’s progressive base. Abortion rights have demonstrated appeal to moderates and center-right Republicans. Support for Ukraine is a crucial issue that separated Nikki Haley Republicans from Donald Trump Republicans.
By the time Biden got to issues that cause agita in the Democratic ranks—border security and the Israel-Gaza war—he had Democrats in the House chamber on his side. His biggest left-wing congressional critics opted for silent expressions of opposition to military aid for Israel, holding up signs that read “Stop Sending Bombs” but refraining from vocal disruptions; such indecorous acts were left to Republicans like Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene.
Greene tried to set Biden up. As he walked to the dais, she handed him a “Say Her Name Laken Riley” button, referring to the Georgia nursing student who was allegedly murdered by an undocumented immigrant. Then she called our “Say Her Name” as Biden urged the room to support the bipartisan border security bill negotiated by, then filibustered by, Senate Republican leaders. Unruffled, Biden held up the button, explained how the bill would make it less likely for such people to enter the country, and urged Republicans to set aside politics and pass it. It was the coup de grace that Senator James Lankford, the Oklahoma Republican tapped by Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell to negotiate the bill, mouthed the words “That’s true,” as Biden ticked off its merits.
Biden raised some Democratic eyebrows by saying Riley was killed by “an illegal,” dehumanizing language that his party assiduously avoids. But former Speaker Nancy Pelosi, after the speech on CNN, “He should have said undocumented, but that’s not a big thing.”)
Biden didn’t just help himself. He helped Democrats up and down the ballot. He also wrote an optimistic narrative that his Democratic allies could start echoing in hopes of changing public perception about the economy. Similar to how Ronald Reagan celebrated “Morning in America,” Biden showered praise on “the American people” for “writing the greatest comeback story never told.”
After citing the many data points showing a growing economy, Biden told the story of a Belvidere, Illinois, auto plant that almost closed but was saved in part by the United Auto Workers and is now being converted into an electric vehicle battery factory. “When Americans get knocked down, we get back up!” he cheered.
Swing voters will probably not be so quickly converted to economic optimists by a single speech. But Biden’s narrative has the value of being true. The economy is growing. Wages are rising. Manufacturing has made a comeback. Having rallied Democrats to his side with a barnburner speech, he now has an army of surrogates primed to echo his narrative and, perhaps, less likely to vent criticisms publicly.
After last night, Democrats are coalescing around Biden’s message, Republicans were forced to abandon their message, and ageism is being sidelined. Maybe, just maybe, after 54 years in public life, Biden has learned a few things about politics.
