Highlights from Biden’s State of the Union Address
The most memorable moments of the night include an awkward immigration comment from Biden, fiery remarks over reproductive rights — including an exchange with the Supreme Court Justices — and a somewhat lackluster attempt on reconciling pro-Palestinian pushback.
Many Democrats going into the State of the Union (SOTU) address on March 7, 2024 had the overwhelming feeling that this would make or break U.S. President Joe Biden’s campaign. Biden, who is currently 81 years old, is the oldest president to date, surpassing Reagan, who was 77 at the end of his tenure. Many attacks and critiques from the right launched against Biden have accused him of being “sleepy Joe” and focused on his alleged cognitive decline. This criticism has landed not only among Republicans, but also with some Democratic voters; viral clips of Joe waving to seemingly no one (which has been debunked), slurring his speech (probably in part due to his speech impediment), and mistaking the names of heads of state do not help his case. However, on March 7, Biden effectively silenced these critics in his Address. The President came across as a fiery, quick-witted, and capable candidate. A CNN poll found that 6/10 Americans reacted positively to Biden’s Address. “My fellow Americans, the issue facing our nation isn’t how old we are: It’s about how old our ideas are,” said Biden. “You can’t lead with ancient ideas that only take us back.” This comment did well at assuaging concerns about his age while reiterating his commitment to improve the country in a forward-thinking manner.
Quips countering Republican outbursts seemed to fuel Biden’s confidence throughout the speech. Perhaps what gave him the most energy occurred before he even reached the podium at all. Biden had a very lengthy walk up to the podium, taking nearly 15 minutes to stop and speak with politicians on the floor. He seemed at ease and comfortable, sharing laughs and embraces with Democratic congresspeople and even giving reaction to some Republicans, including Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene. Biden’s eyes widened somewhat amusingly as he regarded Representative Greene, who wore Make America Great Again attire and a shirt saying, “SAY HER NAME,” referring to the alleged murder of Georgia nursing student Laken Riley by an undocumented immigrant last month. Interestingly, Biden took a pin from Miss Green and later displayed it when discussing the bipartisan border bill that Republicans caused to fail. This seemed to be a strong point for Biden, showing confidence in addressing the tragedy and diverting blame from himself to the blocked passage of the border bill by Republicans. However, it all seemed a bit odd, especially when he mispronounced Lacken’s name and went off-script by using the term “an illegal.” Biden’s new, restrictive approach to immigration may be an attempt to appeal to moderates and even some conservatives that would discourage illegal immigration efforts by “[combining]strategies to incentivize arrivals at ports of entry, use stricter enforcement and narrow access to asylum to disincentivize arrivals between official border crossings, and establish new temporary pathways for some nationality groups.” Many Democrats do not align with Biden on his current right-leaning stance on this issue, and especially his language choice in saying “illegal” over the preferred term of “migrant” in his address. Texas lawmaker Greg Casar shared his opinion that it was an inaccurate and hurtful way of talking about people. Furthermore, many of Biden’s tactics to appear progressive on immigration were merely him stating the extreme actions his predecessor took that he would not, such as what is referred to as “the Muslim Ban” and separating families. The contention over immigration policy has pushed the sitting President further right on this issue, to the dismay of many Democrats. However, it might be what garners him enough moderate support to win the 2024 U.S. presidential election.
Outside of this awkward commentary on immigration, a high point for Biden came when discussing reproductive rights and freedom. Bringing with him two women who experienced obstacles to receiving reproductive healthcare due to Republican-backed legislation was a great move to showcase the real-life repercussions of Republicans restricting bodily autonomy. Biden also directly challenged the Supreme Court Justices over their decision to strike down Roe v. Wade, quoting them in the majority opinion, “Women are not without electoral or political power.” He continued this by saying, “You’re about to realize just how much you were right about that. Clearly, those bragging about overturning Roe v. Wade have no clue about the power of women.” This moment was a direct, open call to women everywhere to show up and vote blue to protect their reproductive rights and freedoms from further degradation. Recent news about the threats to in vitro fertilization in Alabama have already weakened Republican control on the issue. Biden echoed many women’s sentiments and concerns about the direction the Republican party is taking on this issue when he said, “My God, what freedom else would you take away?”
Biden also devoted time to talk about Israel and Palestine as controversy and criticism over Israel’s use of force and military tactics continues to arise, both within the United States and globally. Biden risks losing a major base of voters, who view Israel’s actions as a genocide against the Palestinian people. History reveals a lengthy record of mistreatment, occupation, and oppression of the Palestinian people by the state of Israel. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s disapproval rating has increased amongst Americans, with it being his worst on record. Additionally, the killing of seven humanitarian workers from World Central Kitchen and the famine in Gaza has sparked outrage and concern. In the Address, Biden reiterated his support for Israel and its goal of defeating Hamas, even bringing family members of Israeli hostages held by Hamas to the Address. However, he did carve out some minutes to touch on the need to provide more humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip and said he would take more steps to do so. He also called on Israel to protect civilians in Gaza and cited the numbers that over 30,000 Palestinians have been killed, and nearly 2 million Palestinians are under bombardment or displacement. While Biden called it “heartbreaking,” he failed to bring about any concrete sanctions against Israel and continues to support and fund the military operations being carried out. While Biden’s support for Israel is the typical stance of a U.S. president, never before have this many Palestinians been killed in such a short period of time. This will be a sticking point in his campaign and the race for the 2024 presidential election. While some ascertain that Democrats who choose “uncommitted” over Biden in the primaries will end up supporting him when he rivals Trump, there is still anxiety about whether this issue will ultimately cost him.
Makenzie Rodrigues is currently a copy editor for JPI Online Magazine. She is a first-year MA student pursuing a degree in Politics (American Politics) at NYU in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. She earned a BA in Political Science with a double minor in French and Legal Studies in the Baccalaureate Honors Program at Rider University on a full-tuition scholarship. She also was a player on Rider’s Division 1 women’s soccer team all four years. Her interests and areas of expertise include American Politics, gender and racial justice, and progressive policy. She enjoys playing soccer, going to museums, singing, and finding good spots to eat!