Feisty Biden draws battle lines in State of the Union speech

US president Joe Biden had two missions on Tuesday night in his State of the Union address, delivered to a newly divided Congress with Republicans in control of the House of Representatives.

The first was to defend his economic record and accomplishments of the last two years, setting the stage for a 2024 re-election bid that could be launched in the coming weeks. “We’ve been sent here to finish the job,” Biden said.

His second task, arguably more important, was to show that at 80 years old he still has the vigour to clash with Republicans and prevail in a second presidential campaign, whether it is a rematch against Donald Trump or another candidate.

The result was one of the punchiest public interventions of Biden’s presidency, in which he went off script on several occasions to respond to Republican heckles and jeers on matters ranging from the debt ceiling to smuggled fentanyl and immigration.

Democrats emerged delighted. “Take this speech to the trail in 2024 . . . this should put to rest concerns about Biden running,” said Jess O’Connell, a Democratic strategist and founder of Newco Strategies, a consultancy.
Biden is “ready to work with Republicans where they can and will . . . [But] if some of these new Republicans think they can intimidate him, they don’t know Joe”, she added.

The bulk of Biden’s address focused on domestic policies, particularly related to the economy, where the president’s approval ratings are low. He sought to more directly connect the investments and subsidies in his multitrillion dollar economic packages with the lives of middle- and lower- income households, stressing that his goal was to help “people that have been forgotten”.

He also sought to draw a contrast between his policies and those of congressional Republicans, forming early battle lines in likely legislative tussles with Congress as well as future Republican presidential challengers. The president warned them not to “hold the economy hostage” by failing to raise the debt ceiling, which could lead to a default, and said he would veto any efforts to pass a national abortion ban.

There were multiple flashpoints throughout the evening. Several Republican lawmakers shouted “liar” as Biden accused Republicans of wanting to cut Social Security and Medicare, the government pension and healthcare programmes for seniors. Biden fired back in an exchange that ended with Republicans applauding his comments about never sacrificing the programmes.

Later in the speech, several Republicans again heckled the president as he discussed the number of Americans dying of fentanyl overdoses, shouting: “It’s your fault!” The taunts appeared to attract the disapproval of Kevin McCarthy, the Republican Speaker of the House, who earlier on Tuesday told reporters that Republicans were “not going to be playing childish games”.

Joe Manchin, the Democratic senator from West Virginia, said of the taunts directed at the president: “That’s just not acceptable in the type of country we are, and the leader of the free world.”

Mitt Romney got into a small tiff earlier with George Santos, the New York Republican congressman who reportedly fabricated much of his resume and life story, for attempting to shake hands with the president. “This is not the House of Parliament,” Romney said later, according to Politico. “I wish there were more decorum, but it seems like we just keep going further downhill.”

The foreign policy section of Biden’s speech was more limited than in 2022, although he did deliver pointed, if relatively brief, comments on China in the aftermath of the furore over a spy balloon the US shot down last week.

Biden stressed that Washington did not want “conflict” with Beijing, but the country would “act” to protect its sovereignty. He then claimed autocracies were growing weaker rather than stronger — and went off the cuff again. “Name me a world leader who’d change places with Xi Jinping — name me one, name me one !” he quipped.

Biden was also confrontational when it came to the wealthy and big business, particularly oil and pharmaceutical companies, as he called for a new tax on billionaires, the quadrupling of a 1 per cent tax passed last year on share buybacks and the expansion of a price cap on insulin — another hint of potential 2024 campaign themes.

And in the wake of the latest episodes of gun violence and police brutality in the US, Biden felt pressure to show that he was still committed to addressing the issues, renewing his call for an assault weapons ban and police reform in the wake of last month’s deadly beating of Tyre Nichols, whose parents were in the audience.

By the end of the speech, when Joaquin Castro, Democratic representative from Texas, was asked outside the House chamber if he would support Biden in 2024, he replied: “Oh yeah.”

“If Joe Biden wants to be the nominee in 2024, he’ll be the nominee.”