Biden uses address to try to counter key Republican attacks on him
Whether on the border, crime or Covid, Biden took the opportunity of his nationally televised address to try to convince Americans that his position on certain hot-button issues isn’t quite how Republicans have portrayed him.
It was on these points that Biden delivered some of his more memorable lines of the night, including, “We should all agree: The answer is not to defund the police. The answer is to fund the police. Fund them. Fund them,” he said to a chorus of bipartisan cheers.
He also called to “secure the border and fix the immigration system,” which led to a small number of Republicans, including Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., to chant “build the wall.”
And on Covid, Biden made an appeal to Americans who might be hesitant to return to a pre-2020 normal: It’s safe to take off your mask and get back to your schools and offices.
“It’s time for America to get back to work and fill our great downtowns again with people,” Biden said. “People working from home can feel safe to begin to return to the office.”
“Our schools are open. Let’s keep it that way,” he added. “Our kids need to be in school. And with 75 percent of adult Americans fully vaccinated and hospitalizations down by 77 percent, most Americans can remove their masks, return to work, stay in the classroom and move forward safely. We achieved this because we provided free vaccines, treatments, tests and masks.”
Republicans have made increasing crime — and calls from some progressives to curb police spending — as well as an influx of migrants crossing the southern border and pandemic school policy centerpoints of their midterm messaging campaign
Manchin, Romney sit together ‘as a show of solidarity’
16m ago / 3:28 AM UTC
Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., sat on the Republican side of the aisle during Biden’s speech Tuesday. His spokesperson told NBC News: “Senator Manchin sat with his colleague Senator Romney to remind the American people and the world that bipartisanship works and is alive and well in the U.S. Senate.”
Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, told NBC News: “Just as a show of solidarity between the two parties, bipartisanship, we worked together extensively over the last couple of years and plan on keeping it up.”
Biden’s immigration shoutout
The president called for a pathway to citizenship for Dreamers and touted border enforcement as he addressed one of the more politically precarious issues he faces.
Biden’s remarks come as immigration rights groups have pushed the administration to elevate the issue and pass reforms now that Democrats hold majorities — albeit slim — in the House and Senate.
Biden boasted of technology, “like cutting-edge scanners to better detect drug smuggling,” and collaborating with Mexico and Guatemala to crack down on human traffickers.
But he also talked about smoothing out bureaucracy by dedicating immigration judges for asylum seekers so that families fleeing persecution and violence can have their cases heard faster. That comment comes in the wake of the administration’s attempt to reverse former President Trump’s “Remain in Mexico” policy. That effort toward a reversal has been stymied by courts and is now a matter before the Supreme Court.
Fact check: Biden highlights record job gains, fastest growth in almost 40 years
18m ago / 3:26 AM UTC
“Our economy created over 6.5 million new jobs just last year, more jobs in one year than ever before in the history of the United States of America. The economy grew at a rate of 5.7 [percent] last year, the strongest growth in nearly 40 years,” Biden said.
U.S. employers added 6.6 million jobs in Biden’s first full year, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That’s the biggest one-year gain since the government started collecting employment data in 1939. But the surge came on the heels of historic job losses during the initial months of the coronavirus pandemic, as small businesses shuttered and employers were forced to lay off employees because of Covid restrictions.
The nation’s gross domestic product surged last year, as well, with 5.7 percent growth, the most since 1984. As with employment, the economy struggled significantly early in the pandemic before it rebounded significantly.
Biden seeks bipartisan backing on four main issues
21m ago / 3:23 AM UTC
Biden sought support from Republicans and Democrats on a variety of issues, including the opioid epidemic, mental health, veterans support and ending cancer.
“So tonight I’m offering a unity agenda for the nation, four big things we can do together,” he said.
Biden pushed to beat the opioid epidemic and to take on mental health issues, especially among children, “whose lives and education have been turned upside down.”
Biden added that he is committed to helping veterans and providing assistance with job training and housing, as well as helping lower-income vets get Department of Veterans Affairs care debt-free.
“I’m also calling on Congress: Pass a law to make sure veterans devastated by toxic exposures in Iraq and Afghanistan finally get the benefits and comprehensive health care they deserve,” he said.
Biden also said his goal is to cut the cancer death rate by at least 50 percent over the next 25 years and to turn more cancers from death sentences into treatable diseases.
“A unity agenda for the nation,” he said. “We can do this.”
What to expect from Gov. Kim Reynolds’ response
25m ago / 3:19 AM UTC
Iowa’s Kim Reynolds, a two-term governor and grandmother of 11, will make the biggest speech of her political career when she delivers the official Republican response to Biden’s address — and it’s all about contrast. She’s expected to highlight the difference between the Biden administration’s response to the pandemic and the economy as compared to that of GOP-led states like hers.
Watch for Reynolds to lay out how Iowa resisted Covid-related lockdowns in the initial days of the pandemic and was among the first to move to reopen, according to a person familiar with her remarks. Iowa was one of the first states to get kids back in classrooms in person a year ago, and parents’ rights will be part of tonight’s theme; one source described her as in the “center of the zeitgeist” on that front.
She’s also expected go after the president’s record on the economy and inflation, and could point to a new tax reform law she just signed that implements a 3.9 percent flat tax in Iowa.
Reynolds is expected to nod to foreign policy and to other issues salient to conservatives, like the southern border wall, but thematically this is about drawing a distinction between the Biden administration federally and the work of conservative leaders on the state level. She’s expected to promote the work of Republican governors as a group being ahead of the curve on economic and pandemic-related measures.
She’s a popular figure among Republicans in Iowa, and insiders in the state have been eager to point out that her approval ratings are in the high 80s. She’s also remained on friendly terms with former President Donald Trump, who won the state in 2020.
Biden called on the nation to stop politicizing Covid
After laying out a four-point plan for how to tackle Covid moving forward, Biden concluded with a plea for both parties to work together to contain the virus and reopen businesses and schools.
“Let’s use this moment to reset. Let’s stop looking at Covid-19 as a partisan dividing line and see it for what it is: a God-awful disease,” Biden said. “Let’s stop seeing each other as enemies, and start seeing each other for who we really are: fellow Americans.”
“We can’t change how divided we’ve been, but we can change how we move forward — on Covid-19 and other issues we must face together,” he said.
Republicans chant ‘build the wall’ when Biden mentions the border
A small number of Republicans could be heard chanting “build the wall” when Biden spoke about immigration.
The shouts came as Biden said: “And if we are to advance liberty and justice, we need to secure the border and fix the immigration system.”
“We can do both,” he continued. “At our border, we’ve installed new technology like cutting-edge scanners to better detect drug smuggling.”
Biden makes the case for Judge Jackson
Biden dedicated a few minutes to re-introduce his Supreme Court nominee, Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson.
He described Jackson as a “consensus builder” and one of the country’s “top legal minds” and said she would “continue Justice Breyer’s legacy of excellence.”
Biden said that since he announced her nomination, Jackson has “received a broad range of support — from the Fraternal Order of Police to former judges appointed by Democrats and Republicans.”
Biden says right to vote is ‘under assault’
41m ago / 3:03 AM UTC
Biden called on the Senate to pass a package of voting rights bills.
“The most fundamental right in America is the right to vote — and to have it counted. And it’s under assault,” he said. “In state after state, new laws have been passed not only to suppress the vote, but to subvert entire elections.”
He urged the Senate to pass the bills, dubbed the Freedom to Vote Act, the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act and the Disclose Act, “so Americans can know who is funding our elections.”
Biden remarks end his remarks with a rallying cry: ‘Go get ’em’
Biden concluded his roughly hourlong speech with a unscripted message for Americans: “Go get ’em.”
Biden: ‘The answer is not to defund the police. It’s to fund the police’
Biden, who met with New York Mayor Eric Adams last month after the killing of two on-duty police officers, reiterated a message he made when…
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