Biden comes out swinging in feisty speech
President calls for action on Ukraine, border security
Also in today’s edition of ‘Regular Order’ for March 8, 2024:
GOP spending blueprint takes first step.
House panel okays bill that could ban TikTok app.
Senate poised to vote on spending package.
STATE OF THE UNION. Ridiculed by his critics as senile and feeble, President Joe Biden was anything but on Thursday night, as he used his State of the Union Address to deliver a blistering attack on Republicans and former President Donald Trump, calling on GOP lawmakers to join with him in bipartisan efforts on aid for Ukraine and border security at home, while also touting his own legislative achievements.
BIDEN. "The state of our union is strong and getting stronger," Biden declared to a Joint Session of Congress, rattling off economic gains during his time in office, and touting victories on infrastructure, semiconductor production, veterans health, and more. "I inherited an economy that was on the brink," Biden said. "Now our economy is the envy of the world."
JAWBONING. Biden wasted no time raising his voice, as he portrayed the failure of the House to approve more military aid for Ukraine as a major foreign policy error by the GOP. "History is watching," Biden told lawmakers. "If the United States walks away now, it will put Ukraine at risk, Europe at risk."
TRUMP. While the President never said the words 'Donald Trump,' you knew who Biden was talking about, as the phrase 'my predecessor' was found 13 times in his prepared remarks. "January 6th and the lies about the 2020 election, and the plots to steal the election, posed the gravest threat to our democracy since the Civil War," Biden said.
ABORTION. Biden even pointed directly at the Supreme Court Justices gathered before him as he blasted the Court's decision to overturn the Roe v. Wade decision on abortion - saying women would once again show up to the polls to prove the Court wrong. "Clearly, those bragging about overturning Roe v. Wade have no clue about the power of women in America," Biden said.
MONEY. Biden also mocked GOP lawmakers who voted against the bipartisan infrastructure law, but have sometimes readily accepted money for projects back home. “If any of you don't want that money in your district, just let me know," Biden said with a smile.
DARK BRANDON. The speech clearly thrilled Democrats both inside and outside of D.C. "I am just floored," said Democratic strategist Jim Manley, a former Senate staffer. "I have been watching him give speeches in the Senate since 1990 - most of them weren’t any good. This is by far the best speech I have ever seen him give."
HEAVYWEIGHT. “I don’t know whether to call him Joe Biden or Joe Louis,” said Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-GA), comparing Biden to the legendary heavyweight boxing champ. “He came out fighting.”
REACTION. While Democrats cheered, Republicans were a grumpy lot. “It was not a dignified State of the Union Address,” said Rep. Don Bacon (R-NE). “I thought the speech was angry and bitter,” said Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX). Rep. Brian Babin (R-TX) - who left 30 minutes before it was over - called it "the most partisan, in your face, discourteous speech I've ever heard.”
GRAMPS. As GOP lawmakers filtered in to talk with reporters, there was one theme which quickly emerged from Republicans - that Joe Biden is just like the old man down the block who yells at the kids to get off of his lawn.
JACKED UP. “The speech read like Grandpa yelling because it’s time to take his keys away,” said Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL). Rep. Bob Good (R-VA) called Biden, ‘an elderly man with a poor memory.’ “I don’t like people yelling at me,” said Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA).
DEMS. It was clear that Democrats had a different experience. “It was probably the best State of the Union I’ve ever heard,” said Sen. Brian Schatz (D-HI).
BORDER. Republicans had hoped they could put Biden on the defensive over border security. Instead, Biden’s speech produced a moment that undermined many of the GOP attacks, because of a perfectly timed cutaway shot by the TV cameras.
BOOMER SOONER. At one point, Biden was touting a bipartisan Senate deal as the ‘toughest set of border security reforms we’ve ever seen in this country.’ The camera then cut to Sen. James Lankford (R-OK) - who negotiated the deal for the GOP. He seemed to quietly mouth to himself, ‘That’s true.’
NOT TRUE. It was basically the reverse of what we saw in the 2010 State of the Union, when Barack Obama attacked a Supreme Court decision on campaign finance laws. The camera cut to Justice Samuel Alito, who mouthed, “Not true.”
IMMIGRATION. Biden again made the case that Congress needs to act to hire more border agents, more asylum officers, and drug detection machines. “The Border Patrol union endorsed the bill,” the President pointed out. “I believe that given the opportunity a majority of the House and Senate would endorse it as well. “
TRUMP. Biden didn’t just call for bipartisan cooperation on border security. He took the chance to make his State of the Union into a mini-campaign speech on the issue, hitting Donald Trump over his opposition to that bipartisan Senate border deal.
MY PREDECESSOR. “I’m told my predecessor called Republicans in Congress and demanded they block the bill. He feels it would be a political win for me and a political loser for him,” Biden said. “We can fight about the border, or we can fix it. I’m ready to fix it. Send me the border bill now.”
MRS. GREENE OF GEORGIA. Biden was heckled repeatedly during his speech, especially when it came to illegal immigration, by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), who was wearing a red MAGA baseball hat on the House floor. When Biden jabbed back at Greene, he went off script, and angered some of his own flock.
ILLEGAL. What did Biden do that made some Democrats flinch? “Laken Riley, an innocent young woman who was killed, by an illegal,” the President said, as he pushed back at Greene. To most of you, the term ‘illegal immigrant’ is normal. To many Hispanic Democrats, it is not acceptable at all.
NOT HAPPY. “The rhetoric President Biden used tonight was dangerously close to language from Donald Trump that puts a target on the backs of Latinos everywhere,” said Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-TX). “I’m extremely disappointed to hear President Biden use the word illegal,’ added Rep. Chuy Garcia (D-IL).
MORE. “No human being is illegal,” said Rep. Delia Ramirez (D-IL), who said she was ‘disappointed’ in the President’s choice of words.
BOTTOM LINE. It won’t surprise me for Biden to get a boost from this speech. Whether it can help bring about a bipartisan deal on border security and/or funding for Ukraine is a different question. The general election campaign is clearly upon us. It might have been better for the GOP to have scheduled this for January.
NOVEMBER. With Nikki Haley dropping out of the GOP race this week, we're down to exactly what was expected in 2024 - a rematch of Biden and Trump. Many voters didn’t want that choice, but that's what will be on the ballot, whether you like it or not. That's my column in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
TIKTOK. Supporters of the TikTok app aggravated a big swath of Capitol Hill on Thursday, as they swamped phone lines with calls opposing a possible ban on the app in the U.S. "Stop a TikTok shutdown," app users were told. "Let Congress know what TikTok means to you and tell them to vote NO." It then produced a rather amazing outcome.
BILL. What's this about? There is a bill being pushed in Congress which would force the Chinese owner of TikTok - ByteDance - to sell the company within six months to a non-Chinese company, or the app would be banned because of national security concerns.
ACTION. "It's worth noting this legislation doesn't actually ban TikTok," said Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-TX). "This legislation simply says that it would have to be owned by an American company."
UNANIMOUS. After minimal debate, that bill was approved 50-0 in the House Energy and Commerce Committee on Thursday. Yes, a unanimous vote of a House committee. You don't see that very often. "This issue is a national security issue," said Rep. Anna Eshoo (D-CA).
PUSHBACK. TikTok wasn't having any of that. "This bill is an outright ban of TikTok," the company said in a statement. "This legislation will trample the First Amendment rights of 170 million Americans and deprive 5 million small businesses of a platform they rely on to grow and create jobs."
DATA. What’s the big deal about TikTok? The concern is that ByteDance could share all sorts of TikTok data with the Chinese government, or be used to spread disinformation. The app has an estimated 150 million users in the U.S.
LAW. At the end of 2022, Congress passed a bill which banned TikTok on government devices. It sure feels like lawmakers still want to do more.
GOP BUDGET. The House Budget Committee voted along party lines on Thursday to approve a 2025 budget framework from Republicans which envisions a balanced budget - by 2034. "We are determined to show America what the path to balance looks like," said panel chair Rep. Jodey Arrington (R-TX).
SPENDING. The GOP spending outline would see the yearly defense budget cross the $1 trillion mark in 2032. The plan calls for 'Government-Wide Savings' of $2.9 trillion over ten years. Those details are not specified.
DEFICITS. While the GOP plan balances in ten years, it would still add nearly $6 trillion to the deficit. If you dig into the fine print, you also see that Republicans estimate $3 trillion in deficit reduction - not from spending cuts - but from increased economic gains.
GOP. Republicans never brought a ‘budget resolution’ - which is a non-binding budget outline - to the House floor in 2024. We’ll see if that changes this year.
BUDGET. We'll find out the specifics of President Biden's red ink forecast on Monday, when he sends Congress his proposed budget for 2025. When I first started working on Capitol Hill in 1980, lawmakers were outraged by the deficit hitting $73 billion. We could only wish for that now.
MINIBUS. The Senate doesn't usually work on Fridays, but Senators are in session today dealing with a package of government funding bills, facing a midnight shutdown deadline for a number of federal agencies. The votes are there to pass the plan, but there could be procedural hurdles which might delay final action.
SCHUMER. "We’re close to the finish line, but it will take bipartisan cooperation to get us there," said Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer. If there is no deal to speed up this work, the Senate will vote at 12 noon to break a GOP filibuster against the minibus package.
DELAY. If opponents really want to drag this out, they could force the Senate to wait to take a final vote until Saturday night, well after the midnight shutdown deadline. I don't think that will happen, but the Senate is the Senate.
UKRAINE. Another work week comes to a close on Capitol Hill with no public discussion by Speaker Mike Johnson on whether he will allow a vote on aid for Ukraine. "Mr. Speaker, let us vote on support for Ukraine so we can continue to stand with the cause of liberty," said Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-NJ).
NATO. On Thursday, Sweden officially joined NATO - another example of how the Russian invasion of Ukraine has backfired. "Now it’s time for House Republicans to help finish the job and renew our aid to Ukraine," said Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA).
HOUSE. Efforts to bring a compromise bill to the House floor to address both aid to Ukraine and border security could take a procedural step forward as early as today. Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA) told me that if his revised bill language gets finalized, then he might start getting signatures for his discharge petition.
SORE LOSER. One thing we have all watched is how Donald Trump still refuses to admit his defeat in the 2020 election, instead doubling and tripling down on the same bogus allegations that the election was 'rigged' against him. It looks like Rep. Katie Porter (D-CA) was taking notes.
PORTER. It wasn't enough on election night when Porter bitterly complained about her loss in the California Senate race. Or the next night when she claimed outside groups conspired to 'rig' the election against her. Porter just kept going.
STATEMENT. "'Rigged' means manipulated by dishonest means," Porter said in a new statement, as she denounced attack ads run against her. "I said "rigged by billionaires" and our politics are - in fact - manipulated by big dark money," Porter added.
DEMS. That didn't sit well with fellow Democrats. "The election in California was not rigged," tweeted Sen. Brian Schatz (D-HI).
CONCESSION. I'll say this again. Losing an election must really suck. But what you should do when you lose is stand up before the TV cameras - even though it hurts like hell - and congratulate the winner. Porter still hasn't done that, and she deserves all the bad press she gets for using the loaded term ‘rigged.’
RAP SHEET. A California woman has been arrested for her actions on Jan. 6. Outside the Capitol, Kayla Reifschneider joined other rioters in forcing members of the news media to flee, and then helped destroy some of the equipment they left behind. Reifschneider spit at one reporter and yelled, "Get fucking COVID!"
MUSE OF HISTORY. March 8, 1974. For the second time in six days, former top White House aides to President Nixon were indicted. In this case, John Ehrlichman and Charles Colson were charged in the 1971 burglary at the office of Daniel Ellsberg's former psychiatrist. Ellsberg had leaked the Pentagon Papers. Nixon hoped to find damaging information about Ellsberg. It was simply a precursor to the Watergate break-in a year later.
LEGISLATIVE PROGRAM:
The House meets at 9 am.
The Senate convenes at 10 am.
Check President Biden’s schedule.
Follow me on Twitter @jamiedupree.
Email me at jamiedupree@substack.com
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If the GOP doesn't like being yelled at maybe they should stop yelling at everyone who is not in lockstep with them!!
Fascinating Muse of History today. I ended up interviewing John Ehrlichman a few times in the 90s after he moved to Atlanta. I even had a chance to delve into questions about his former boss when a local gallery hosted an exhibition of his WH sketches drawn while serving in the RMN administration. I always admired his frankness and how he took responsibility for his role in Watergate and also how he successfully moved on after doing his time.