Takeaways From Biden’s State of the Union Address
In campaign mode, president challenged Trump and Republicans on Ukraine, immigration and taxes
By Catherine Lucey - March 8, 2024
Shifting into campaign mode, President Biden used his State of the Union address to promise to protect abortion access, plead for Ukraine aid and criticize Republicans—particularly his once and future opponent, Donald Trump.?
Here are some takeaways from the address:?
Taking on Trump
From the start, Biden embraced political messaging and targeted his likely Republican opponent.
While Biden didn’t name Trump, he accused him of “bowing down” to Russian President Vladimir Putin, saying it is “outrageous, it is dangerous and it is unacceptable.” Biden called for funding Ukraine in its war against Russia.?
Standing in the House of Representatives, Biden also referenced the Jan. 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol riot and said Republicans are undermining U.S. democracy with false claims about widespread fraud in the 2020 presidential election. “My predecessor and some of you here seek to bury the truth of Jan. 6,” he said.?
“You can’t love your country only when you win,” he added.
Biden also assailed Trump’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic, saying, “My predecessor failed the most basic presidential duty that he owes the American people, the duty to care.”?
Abortion on the ballot
Biden confronted the Supreme Court—with some justices in the audience looking on—over the decision that eliminated the right to an abortion.
“With all due respect, justices, women are not without electoral or political power,” Biden said. “You’re about to realize just how much.” It was an unusually direct rebuke of the court by Biden, an institutionalist who has long said he respects the independence of the court.
Democrats have been driven to the polls since the 2022 Supreme Court decision that eliminated the right to the procedure. While Biden, a devout Roman Catholic, has been a reluctant messenger on abortion in the past, he has embraced the issue. In the speech, he never actually used the word abortion despite it being in his prepared text. Many Democratic women in the audience wore white in support of abortion rights.?
Without naming Trump, Biden pointed out that the former president has bragged about appointing the Supreme Court justices that overturned the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision. He also argued that Republicans are blocking access, citing restrictive laws that have been passed around the country. And he assailed the state Supreme Court ruling in Alabama that frozen embryos qualify as children under a state law, upending in vitro fertilization services in the state.?
Biden also referenced two of the guests in the first lady’s box to support the reproductive-rights message: Kate Cox, a woman who had to leave Texas to get an abortion for a fetus with a fatal diagnosis, and Latorya Beasley, an Alabama woman whose in vitro fertilization process was disrupted.?
“My God, what freedoms will you take away next?” he said to Republicans.?
Immigration clash
Republicans wanted Biden to say the name of Laken Riley, a 22-year-old nursing student from Georgia who was allegedly killed by a Venezuelan migrant. He said it.?
Some Republicans wore buttons—and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R., Ga.) wore a shirt—with the words “Say Her Name,” a reference to Riley. Greene said, “Say her name” to Biden as he entered the room, and then shouted it again when Biden began speaking about immigration.
Holding up a button, Biden said her name, but appeared to pronounce it as “Lincoln Riley.” He called her “an innocent young woman who was killed by an illegal.” Addressing her parents, he added, “My heart goes out to you, having lost children myself, I understand.”
Biden then launched into a rebuke of Republicans and Trump for opposing a bipartisan border agreement in the Senate. Trump has opposed the measure, calling it a “gift” to Democrats in an election year. Biden called on Republicans to work with him. “We can fight about fixing the border, or we can fix it,” he said.?
Biden has been weighing executive action on immigration, but has yet to make such a move. Those efforts have drawn criticism from some within his party as well as questions over whether they would be challenged in court.?
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The age factor
Biden came into the chamber looking for opportunities to joust with Republicans.
His team wanted to show a feisty Biden, knowing he would be closely watched for any signs of age or fatigue, and he frequently raised his voice. Polling shows the public is deeply concerned about his age, particularly following a special counsel report that raised questions about his memory.?
Biden narrowly trailed Trump in the latest Wall Street Journal poll, with 47% backing Trump and 45% picking Biden—and 73% of voters saying he is too old to run for another term.?
His exchange with Republicans on Riley was the kind of moment the White House wanted to see. At another point, Biden knocked Republicans for touting the flood of cash that has been funneled into their districts from bills that they opposed, such as the infrastructure law.
“If any of you don’t want that money in your district, just let me know,” Biden said.
Biden also went off script a few times, including a point where he suggested that people could fly on Air Force One with him to Toronto, Berlin or Moscow to find cheaper prescription drugs.
And he directly referenced his age at times. “I’ve been told I’m too old,” he said as he concluded his speech. “Whether young or old, I’ve always known what endures.”
“The issue facing our nation isn’t how old we are,” he said. “It’s how old are our ideas.”??
Middle East politics
Biden tried to walk a careful line on the toughest policy issue on his plate, Israel’s war with Hamas—as protesters calling for a cease-fire gathered outside the Capitol.?
Biden stressed the need for a temporary cease-fire and called for hostages to be released. He also announced that the U.S. military will install a temporary pier off the Gaza coast for cargo ships to unload food, water and other emergency supplies, boosting the direct American role in addressing the humanitarian crisis.
Biden stressed that Israel has a right to defend itself, but said “Israel also has a fundamental responsibility to protect innocent civilians in Gaza.” He also said: “As we look to the future, the only real solution to the situation is a two-state solution over time.”?
Progressive Democrats have been vocally critical of his response to the war between Israel and Hamas and pressed him to do more to curtail the bombardment of Gaza and a growing humanitarian crisis. When Biden brought up Gaza, Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D., Mich.)—the only Palestinian-American in Congress—jumped up to display a two-sided sign. One side read “Stop Sending Bombs,” and the other side said “Lasting Ceasefire Now.”?
Divided chamber
Biden drew repeated cheers and applause from Democrats, but little love from Republicans.?
He drew little bipartisan support until he spoke about the late congressman John Lewis and civil rights, when members of both parties stood up, including House Speaker Mike Johnson (R., La.), who was seated alongside Vice President Kamala Harris behind Biden, in his first State of the Union address as speaker.?
Some Republicans took to social media to complain. Rep. Dan Bishop (R., N.C.) said that this “is not a State of the Union. This is an angry screed vilifying half the country.”
Rep. Don Bacon (R., Neb.)—one of the few Republicans to cheer Biden’s calls for supporting Ukraine—in another post characterized the address as “thus far one of the most divisive speeches ever for a State of the Union.”?
Trump reacted in real time to President Biden’s speech, railing against his successor on his social-media platform, Truth Social.
“He is so angry and crazy!” Trump wrote, in one of a string of posts during the speech.
In the GOP response to the speech, delivered from her kitchen, Sen. Katie Britt (R., Ala.), 42, targeted Biden’s age, calling it the “the performance of a permanent politician who has actually been in office for longer than I’ve been alive.” She attacked Biden’s policies on the border in graphic detail, citing Riley’s death, and criticized him as out of touch while people struggle with inflation.
“Let’s be honest—it’s been a minute since Joe Biden pumped gas, ran carpool or pushed a grocery cart,” she said. “Meanwhile, the rest of us see every day that our dollar doesn’t go as far.”
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