Joe Biden versus the hecklers — State of the Union Speech 2023

Republican congressman George Santos sits as other Republicans stand as President Joe Biden talks about American manufacturing during the State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress at the US Capitol, in Washington, DC on 7 February 2023. (Photo: EPA-EFE / Jacquelyn Martin / Pool)

By J Brooks Spector

8 Feb 2023

Fortified by pots of very strong coffee, this correspondent arose promptly at 4 am to watch the US president’s ‘State of the Union’ speech. It was really good theatre, even if the policy implications remain murky. The Biden administration still has a way to go in convincing the nation the president’s policies have turned the tide on the nation’s economic woes.

The American constitution requires the incumbent president to periodically report to the Congress on “the state of the union” (thus the SOTU as the name for the speech). For more than a hundred years this came in the form of a written report, until President Woodrow Wilson changed this to a face-to-face encounter 110 years ago. It has now become political theatre of a high (or, increasingly, low) order. This year was no exception, but this time around there was some fascinating, built-in, presumably pre-set, “gotcha” added to the mix.

Make no mistake, Joe Biden is never going to be remembered as a president who could deliver the kind of soaring oratory and ringing rhetoric that sets hearts on fire or leads whole populations into battle. But Biden has managed to perfect — in spite of a modest stutter that can set him off stride if he is not careful in his word choice — a way of delivering a speech that exudes a sense of just folks, speaking frankly and openly.

biden pelosi Democrat congresswoman and former House of Representatives speaker Nancy Pelosi (centre) and Democrat congressman Steny Hoyer (right), applaud as US President Joe Biden delivers the State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress at the US Capitol, in Washington, DC on 7 February 2023. (Photo: EPA-EFE / Jacquelyn Martin / Pool)

This penchant was on full display, Tuesday evening Washington time, in the House of Representatives chamber. Gathered there were all of the members of the Senate, the House of Representatives, the cabinet, the Supreme Court justices, and military leaders. In addition, there was an SRO upper gallery filled with invited guests, including the parents of Trey Nichols — the young Memphis man effectively beaten to death by a police mob.

Such invited attendance by non-government individuals is a tradition first made use of by President Ronald Reagan, who invited Lenny Skutnik, the man who had jumped into the freezing waters of the Potomac River (as he was driving home from work) in the middle of winter, to rescue passengers of a commercial jet that had crashed short of landing at the airport.

This tradition is now well-established for SOTU speeches and is now used consciously to punch up particular points mentioned in the speech itself — giving a particularly human face to what might otherwise be an abstract point. (Reagan’s had been the importance of individual, non-government effort, rather than the welfare state.)

Bipartisan effort

The incumbent president’s SOTU speech included what is a standard Biden trope, the need to find ways to advance the nation through bipartisan effort in congressional action. This point was made even as he engaged in the usual self-congratulations (much of which was earned) over his administration’s record in reviving a Covid-affected economy through strong growth in new jobs, a slow but relatively steady taming of inflation, an ongoing decline in the price of petrol (a true hot-button issue for a nation that largely drives to work), and, crucially, low unemployment levels last at such a level during the late 1960s.

The president’s big challenge has been that many of these positives have not translated into a sense of direct economic benefit for many individuals who — when polled — said they fail to see much in the way of results. Still, quick polling after the speech has indicated a modest but significant positive bounce for the president as an economic policy manager.

In recent years, Republican congressmen (and now some of its zanier women) have taken to heckling Democratic presidents, shouting “liar, liar” or worse.

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Biden and his speechwriting and adviser team had obviously taken this dynamic into their consciousness, setting up a rhetorical trap for Republicans — who seemed unable to resist the bait. In setting out his plans (and hopes) for legislative efforts, Biden drew a sharp line between his agenda and the Republican one — drawing on a controversial proposal by a Republican senator to his party’s legislative study group that would require both Social Security and Medicare to be reauthorised every five years — setting them up to being trimmed as a budget move.

biden speech US President Joe Biden (right) shakes hands with retired Justice Stephen Breyer after delivering the State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress at the US Capitol, in Washington, DC, on 7 February 2023. (Photo: EPA-EFE / Jacquelyn Martin / Pool)

Biden called on everyone in attendance to stand up and pledge they would support older Americans and their pensions and medical care, forcing Republicans to stand up and join the team as well. Who, after all, wants to be singled out publicly as an enemy of old people? Republicans are hopping mad — and all over the electronic and broadcast media — about this, charging Biden with a verbal conjurer’s trick since the proposals for benefit cutting or review is not formally Republican policy.

Moreover, it is important to note that Biden pledged to veto if it ever reached his desk. (Maybe in their discomfiture, the Republicans have been watching how proposed changes in retirement benefits have drawn hundreds of thousands out into the streets in France in protest.)

Point made

But the president’s point was made. Republicans will cut government benefits and will try to roll back social welfare measures, the moment they are given half a chance and the moment the Democrats take their hand off the steering wheel. Thus the best protection of the social welfare net is to vote for Democrats.

Perhaps the best applause lines were those that singled out all those odious add-on fees that are bootlegged into hotel bills, airline ticket purchases, switches to another communications service provider, and so forth. These things are the bane of millions of peoples’ existence and proposed legislation to force disclosure at the point of sale or removal of them entirely was a surefire applause line, and it would be a very popular achievement — if it can get passed in a Congress where the Republicans control the House. This will likely be true for proposals to restrict the sales of assault weapons — popular with voters, not so much with legislators.

Part of this message was the subliminal statement that Biden will run for reelection in 2024. And, if he has the kind of bounce in his step he had during his SOTU, he may be able to minimise the fact he is already 80 years old. The subliminal message: Age is just a number; experience and skills matter; keep your eye on what we do as your president.

George Santos

biden speech santos Republican congressman George Santos (right) sits as other Republicans stand while President Joe Biden talks about American manufacturing during the State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress at the US Capitol, in Washington, DC on 7 February 2023. (Photo: EPA-EFE / Jacquelyn Martin / Pool)

Perhaps the most extraordinary moment came when Republican Senator Mitt Romney publicly upbraided (you could see it on television screens all over the nation) newly elected congressman and serial fantasist George Santos as a disgrace to his office and unfit for duty. Other Republicans may now turn on Santos as well, with the realisation his continued presence in Congress is a sparking lightning rod, highlighting the duplicitous nature of their party.

Following the actual SOTU speech, newly elected Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders gave the Republican Party’s response. She seemed to be alternating between being just a good-old, down-home Southerner, lauding the pluck of her mother and father and their honest American values with perorations that Republicans are all that stand between solid values and that deranged, woke-ist Democratic madness. Her speech was not a roaring success, but by the same token it seemed an effort to position herself as the logical, go-to vice presidential candidate, almost no matter who the Republicans end up choosing to oppose Joe Biden (assuming his resolve stays firm), come 2024.

Now the actual mud wrestling will truly begin in the new Congress with its split control between Democrats in the Senate and the Republicans in the House. The fighting will be over policies, budgets, the politically charged debt limit, and the endless investigations Republicans have been promising to embarrass and delegitimise the Biden administration. DM

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Bipartisan effort

Point made

George Santos