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Biden's Fiery State of the Union · Pod Save America

0:01
Speaker 1: Thank you.
0:20
Speaker 2: Welcome to Pod Save America. I'm Jon Favreau.
0:22
Speaker 3: I'm Dan Pfeiffer.
0:22
Speaker 2: And we just watched the State of the Union, Dan.
0:25
Speaker 2: It's late. It's 8.45 Pacific time. I don't know how
0:29
Speaker 2: people on the East Coast do this.
0:30
Speaker 3: I mean, we used to do it.
0:32
Speaker 2: I know. We were a lot younger. We are fortunate
0:37
Speaker 2: to have White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre. She'll be
0:41
Speaker 2: joining us a little bit later. But first, Joe Biden
0:44
Speaker 2: just gave a humdinger of a State of the Union, Dan. He...
0:49
Speaker 2: really enjoyed himself. I think he likes doing this. He
0:52
Speaker 2: likes giving the State of the Union. That was my
0:55
Speaker 2: first impression. He was energetic. He was forceful. He picked
0:58
Speaker 2: a lot of fights. Dan, if a Biden skeptical friend
1:02
Speaker 2: who didn't watch the speech asked you about the speech,
1:06
Speaker 2: what would you say?
1:07
Speaker 3: Watch the speech. I mean, that's sort of the point, right?
1:13
Speaker 1: Is.
1:15
Speaker 3: All of the concerns we hear about the president's age,
1:18
Speaker 3: his fitness at his job, all of that are offered
1:20
Speaker 3: by people who most likely have not seen him give
1:22
Speaker 3: a speech in three years. And so what you see
1:27
Speaker 3: of Joe Biden is what you hear about an 18-year-old
1:29
Speaker 3: man and the sort of self-fulfilling prophecy of people saying
1:32
Speaker 3: they're concerned about his age, so more people are concerned
1:33
Speaker 3: about his age. Or you see, out of context, largely
1:36
Speaker 3: unflattering TikToks of the president. Watch the speech. I think
1:40
Speaker 3: you people, anyone who watches the speech would feel very
1:42
Speaker 3: good about his ability to do the job. He certainly...
1:46
Speaker 3: wildly surpassed the expectations. A lot of people very concerned
1:49
Speaker 3: about his ability to do the job. He wildly surpassed
1:53
Speaker 3: the very low bar of expectations set by the right-wing
1:56
Speaker 3: media and Donald Trump and the Republicans. And I also
1:58
Speaker 3: think there's a lot in this speech for people who
2:01
Speaker 3: are concerned about costs, the border, just whether the president's
2:06
Speaker 3: going to fight for them. So this is one of
2:08
Speaker 3: those things you would do where you would take clips
2:09
Speaker 3: from this speech. You would show that if they would
2:11
Speaker 3: watch the whole speech, God bless them, they must be
2:13
Speaker 3: a really good friend. But if not, there's a lot
2:15
Speaker 3: of really important moments we're going to talk about some
2:17
Speaker 3: of them that we should show people. And I think
2:19
Speaker 3: that was the sort of thing that would begin to
2:20
Speaker 3: change people's impressions of the president.
2:23
Speaker 2: Yeah, it started at 9.26 p.m. It was a little delayed.
2:27
Speaker 2: I was getting a little nervous there.
2:28
Speaker 3: Where do you think he was?
2:30
Speaker 2: I don't know, but we're just waiting and waiting. I
2:32
Speaker 2: was like, let's start this thing. Maybe the most surprising
2:35
Speaker 2: thing about the speech, I thought, is the first State
2:37
Speaker 2: of the Union I've ever heard where he directly went
2:40
Speaker 2: after the guy he's running against. Now, of course, nothing
2:44
Speaker 2: is normal about this situation. We have two former presidents
2:48
Speaker 2: who served in two consecutive terms who are now running
2:51
Speaker 2: against each other. You know, Donald Trump's going to run again.
2:54
Speaker 2: This is the third time he's running for president. And
2:56
Speaker 2: so he looms over the entire night, particularly because he
3:01
Speaker 2: is basically the boss of the Republicans in Congress right now.
3:05
Speaker 2: But Joe Biden over and over again I thought it
3:09
Speaker 2: was going to be like oblique references. He just called
3:11
Speaker 2: out his predecessor. He calls it my predecessor many times
3:15
Speaker 2: in the speech. Let's listen.
3:16
Speaker 1: My predecessor and some of you here seek to bury
3:19
Speaker 1: the truth about January 6th.
3:21
Speaker 3: I will not do that.
3:23
Speaker 1: Many of you in this chamber and my predecessor are
3:26
Speaker 1: promising to pass a national ban on reproductive freedom. My God,
3:30
Speaker 1: what freedom else would you take away? Over 100 million
3:35
Speaker 1: of you can no longer be denied health insurance because
3:39
Speaker 1: of pre-existing condition. But my predecessor and many in this
3:43
Speaker 1: chamber want to take this prescription drug away by repealing
3:47
Speaker 1: Affordable Care Act. I'm not going to let that happen.
3:54
Speaker 1: My predecessor told the NRA he's proud he did nothing
3:58
Speaker 1: on guns when he was president. After another shooting in
4:01
Speaker 1: Iowa recently, he said, when asked what to do about it,
4:05
Speaker 1: he said, just get over it. There's his quote, just
4:09
Speaker 1: get over it. I say, stop it, stop it, stop it,
4:14
Speaker 1: stop it.
4:15
Speaker 2: So what did you think about that? I was surprised.
4:18
Speaker 2: Were you surprised?
4:19
Speaker 3: I was impressed that they got that through the lawyers.
4:21
Speaker 3: I mean, like we know, you know, when, when Obama
4:25
Speaker 3: gave the 2012 state of the union heading into that campaign,
4:29
Speaker 3: you wrote that speech, um, We did not yet know
4:32
Speaker 3: Mitt Romney was definitely going to be his opponent, but
4:35
Speaker 3: we had a pretty good idea. And that speech was
4:37
Speaker 3: written with the idea that we were going to be
4:40
Speaker 3: facing Mitt Romney, a private equity executive who made a
4:45
Speaker 3: lot of money buying companies and firing the employees and
4:47
Speaker 3: was promoting policies to cut taxes for rich people like himself.
4:50
Speaker 3: And remember in that speech, there was a lot about
4:53
Speaker 3: economic inequality. That was the Buffett rule, which was the
4:56
Speaker 3: rule that said that That was based on the idea
4:59
Speaker 3: that Warren Buffett used to say that his secretary paid
5:01
Speaker 3: a higher tax rate than he did. And so I
5:03
Speaker 3: expected it to be all about Trump. I didn't expect
5:05
Speaker 3: that they would directly mention him, but they did. That's great.
5:11
Speaker 3: No reason to dance around it. I hate when you
5:14
Speaker 3: don't just say the thing, and they said the thing,
5:15
Speaker 3: and I think it's great. And because he did that,
5:18
Speaker 3: and I think this is the most important part about this,
5:20
Speaker 3: is it will get more attention. And one of the
5:23
Speaker 3: things that the president has really struggled with because of
5:27
Speaker 3: the sort of structural deficiencies that Democrats have in the
5:31
Speaker 3: media is grabbing the nation's attention. And one way to
5:33
Speaker 3: do that is to just, is to break some eggs, right?
5:37
Speaker 3: Have some conflict. And this speech will get way more
5:39
Speaker 3: attention because he went directly after Trump than if he
5:41
Speaker 3: had kind of sort of given a very good speech
5:44
Speaker 3: that just was an implicit, a subtle implicit White House
5:47
Speaker 3: counsel-approved contrast, just going after the president, I think it
5:50
Speaker 3: was 13 times in the speech, was a smart move.
5:54
Speaker 2: I also think we should say Hatch Act doesn't apply
5:56
Speaker 2: to the president. So that's in terms of the president's speeches.
5:59
Speaker 4: Yes.
5:59
Speaker 2: The president can say what he wants. But what I
6:02
Speaker 2: thought about when listening to him go after Trump and
6:05
Speaker 2: really just the entire speech, the energy level, the feistiness,
6:09
Speaker 2: like Joe Biden is is not going to. let Donald
6:15
Speaker 2: Trump return to power without a real fight. Like he,
6:19
Speaker 2: he feels this. He genuinely believes that Donald Trump is
6:23
Speaker 2: a threat to this country. And he has heard the
6:27
Speaker 2: worries and the criticisms and all that kind of stuff.
6:30
Speaker 2: And he was up there tonight and he, he was feisty.
6:33
Speaker 2: He was like, he was as energetic as I've seen him.
6:36
Speaker 2: And here's the thing too. It was not perfect, right?
6:40
Speaker 2: Like he, his stutter, which he has been struggling with
6:43
Speaker 2: his entire life. in which we saw him struggle with
6:46
Speaker 2: in 2020, it was definitely like there were moments tonight
6:49
Speaker 2: where he swallowed his words like he usually does. But,
6:52
Speaker 2: and I think I've made this point before, but like he,
6:55
Speaker 2: it was okay. It's okay if he mumbles through some
6:58
Speaker 2: stuff as long as he is showing energy and fight
7:02
Speaker 2: and expressing himself in a way that makes you believe it, right?
7:07
Speaker 2: And I think that there was a lot of times
7:09
Speaker 2: tonight where he probably more times than his staff would like,
7:13
Speaker 2: that he went off script. But even those moments when
7:16
Speaker 2: he went off script, it was something that he deeply believed.
7:19
Speaker 2: And so I think that the performance of the speech tonight,
7:22
Speaker 2: the delivery, was something that he felt deeply. And I
7:25
Speaker 2: think that goes a long way with people. And so then,
7:28
Speaker 2: if you flub some lines here and there and you
7:29
Speaker 2: mumble through some words, people don't penalize you for that
7:33
Speaker 2: because they know that what you're saying is authentic to
7:37
Speaker 2: who you are and what you believe. And I think
7:39
Speaker 2: that's what he demonstrated tonight.
7:41
Speaker 3: Those are the sort of not even misstatements, but sort
7:45
Speaker 3: of speech delivery moments that voters don't care about, right?
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Speaker 3: It's really only people like us and reporters and close
7:53
Speaker 3: political observers who look at every single word a politician says.
7:55
Speaker 3: Voters have a much more human approach to the way
7:58
Speaker 3: people talk. That's always been true of Joe Biden. And
8:01
Speaker 3: it's just the way he delivered the speech was strong.
8:05
Speaker 3: And it got so important, right? It felt like a fight.
8:09
Speaker 3: It felt like the battle for the soul of the nation,
8:12
Speaker 3: if you will. But he really was He was fighting.
8:14
Speaker 3: And that's important because the age concerns are often sometimes
8:18
Speaker 3: become a proxy for strength concerns. And if he's out
8:21
Speaker 3: there fighting and seeming energetic, it just goes a long
8:24
Speaker 3: way to make people feel much more comfortable that he
8:27
Speaker 3: can be the strong leader they want. And in times,
8:30
Speaker 3: it feel chaotic.
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Speaker 2: I'll just tell you the chyron on Fox News on
8:36
Speaker 2: Sean Hannity's show. It's got a video of Biden And
8:42
Speaker 2: at a rally somewhere. And then it's got Biden at
8:46
Speaker 2: the speech tonight. And it just says, jacked up Joe,
8:49
Speaker 2: not his normal self tonight.
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Speaker 3: Sure. Great.
8:53
Speaker 2: I'll take it. Great. Jacked up Joe. Absolutely. All right.
8:56
Speaker 2: So there's another thing that I had not seen in
8:58
Speaker 2: a State of the Union before. He started with Ukraine
9:02
Speaker 2: at the beginning of the speech. He had a message
9:05
Speaker 2: for Putin. Let's listen.
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Speaker 1: We will not walk away.
9:17
Speaker 2: We will not bow down. I will not bow down.
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Speaker 1: In a literal sense, history is watching.
9:34
Speaker 2: He did say history is watching quite a few times.
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Speaker 2: I was wondering at first when I heard him, like, oh,
9:38
Speaker 2: that's interesting that he's starting with Ukraine. And the reason
9:40
Speaker 2: I said that is because if you ask most Americans
9:43
Speaker 2: their top concern, they're not going to say the war
9:45
Speaker 2: in Ukraine, even though they a majority of Americans support
9:49
Speaker 2: Ukraine and support sending additional aid to Ukraine to stop Putin.
9:54
Speaker 2: So he's, you know, public opinion is on his side,
9:56
Speaker 2: but it's not the most salient issue. But then that
9:59
Speaker 2: clip that we just heard, the message to Putin, after
10:02
Speaker 2: he said that, he got applause from Democrats and Republicans.
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Speaker 2: It was one of the few times during the speech
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Speaker 2: that everyone stood up to applaud. So I'm betting that's
10:09
Speaker 2: why they did it first, probably because Joe Biden thinks
10:13
Speaker 2: it's very important that we support Ukraine. He genuinely believes that,
10:17
Speaker 2: you know, if Putin is allowed to, uh, take Ukraine,
10:21
Speaker 2: then he'll roll through NATO next. But it was interesting
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Speaker 2: that they started with that.
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Speaker 5: Yeah.
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Speaker 3: I mean, as I said to you earlier, in every
10:30
Speaker 3: State of the Union I've ever worked on or watched,
10:32
Speaker 3: I always go pee during the foreign policy section. And
10:35
Speaker 3: so I had a mild panic attack when he started
10:38
Speaker 3: with that. But I think he had a bunch of
10:44
Speaker 3: really big things really fast. And I think it's actually
10:46
Speaker 3: a pretty savvy understanding of both how people consume media
10:50
Speaker 3: right now and how political narratives are set. We remember
10:52
Speaker 3: this from debates, right? What happens in the first 15
10:55
Speaker 3: minutes of a debate is if you start out a
10:57
Speaker 3: debate super strong, no matter, almost nothing happens in the
11:00
Speaker 3: last five minutes of the debate hurts you, right? But
11:02
Speaker 3: if you start out weak and then you get better
11:05
Speaker 3: than the narrative.
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Speaker 2: Doesn't matter.
11:06
Speaker 3: Doesn't matter. So he started with several big, strong moments,
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Speaker 3: lots of applause, seeming very strong. And it sort of
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Speaker 3: set the stage for how people were going to think
11:14
Speaker 3: about the debate going forward. So that was smart. It
11:16
Speaker 3: was good.
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Speaker 2: Well, so it was Ukraine, and then he went to
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Speaker 2: January 6th, and then he talked about Roe v. Wade
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Speaker 2: and IVF. Let's listen.
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Speaker 3: If you, the.
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Speaker 1: American people, send me a Congress that supports the right
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Speaker 1: to choose, I promise.
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Speaker 2: You, I'll restore Roe v.
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Speaker 1: Wade as the law of the land again.
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Speaker 2: So that is all right at the beginning. Ukraine, January 6th, Roe.
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Speaker 2: the campaign has been saying and Democratic strategists have been
11:45
Speaker 2: saying for some time now that the election is going
11:47
Speaker 2: to be Dobbs and democracy. And I guess that was
11:51
Speaker 2: the signal for the beginning of the speech, that they're
11:53
Speaker 2: going to be campaigning on that. And that's going to
11:55
Speaker 2: be the central focus to the campaign.
11:57
Speaker 1: Yeah.
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Speaker 3: And it's also an acknowledgement that while abortion has driven
12:02
Speaker 3: Democratic victories ever since the Dobbs decision, that there is
12:05
Speaker 3: work to do. You guys talked about this a few
12:06
Speaker 3: days ago, but there's work to do in helping voters
12:09
Speaker 3: understand how responsible Trump is for every single one of
12:12
Speaker 3: these abortion bans.
12:14
Speaker 5: Yeah.
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Speaker 2: Did the speech tell you anything new about Biden's reelection strategy?
12:19
Speaker 3: I don't know if it told me anything new, but
12:22
Speaker 3: it sort of clarified, I think, some of his top priorities.
12:26
Speaker 3: First is definitely trying to reestablish some of his populist
12:29
Speaker 3: credentials to demonstrate that he is fighting for middle and
12:33
Speaker 3: working class people. That's something that he did very well
12:36
Speaker 3: on in 2020, and he has fallen behind Trump in
12:38
Speaker 3: the polling on, and Trump has like a 10-point advantage
12:41
Speaker 3: on it in the CBS poll that came out this weekend.
12:43
Speaker 3: And you saw that in the policies on shrinkflation and
12:46
Speaker 3: corporate price gouging and raising taxes on corporations. He said,
12:49
Speaker 3: I'm going to fight like hell for a more fair
12:51
Speaker 3: tax code. And so I think that that is one
12:53
Speaker 3: of the main things that he was doing there. And
12:55
Speaker 3: abortion is obviously another huge part of the agenda. And
13:00
Speaker 3: the third thing is that he is going to draw
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Speaker 3: a contrast between the progress that he has made, which
13:04
Speaker 3: is strong progress, not triumphant progress, but strong progress against
13:09
Speaker 3: the chaos of the Republican House, which I think is
13:11
Speaker 3: serving as a proxy for Donald Trump in this, which
13:13
Speaker 3: is why he hit them on refusing to pass the
13:16
Speaker 3: border security bill, refusing to pass Ukraine aid, and trying
13:20
Speaker 3: to really stroke a fight with them over a whole
13:22
Speaker 3: bunch of different things to show just how chaotic and
13:26
Speaker 3: overly political they are.
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Speaker 2: You mentioned that you talked about taxes. He went into
13:32
Speaker 2: a section after... sort of that opening that we talked
13:35
Speaker 2: about where he discussed sort of where the country was
13:39
Speaker 2: when he took office, the economic progress we made. He
13:42
Speaker 2: sort of touted a lot of his accomplishments. And then
13:44
Speaker 2: as he spoke about his economic agenda going forward, I
13:48
Speaker 2: think that his section on taxes was probably maybe the
13:51
Speaker 2: longest section. It was certainly one of the feistiest sections
13:54
Speaker 2: in the economic section. Let's listen.
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Speaker 1: Folks at home, does anybody really think the tax code
13:59
Speaker 1: is fair? Do you really think the wealthy and big
14:03
Speaker 1: corporations need another $ 2 trillion tax break? I sure don't.
14:09
Speaker 2: So that is not going to be the sexiest section
14:14
Speaker 2: for media coverage, I would imagine. But I haven't seen
14:18
Speaker 2: focus groups yet. I haven't seen dial tests yet. I
14:21
Speaker 2: would bet that's one of the more popular sections.
14:24
Speaker 3: And the subtext here, which I think is worth pointing out,
14:27
Speaker 3: is that the Trump corporate tax cuts that lowered corporate
14:30
Speaker 3: tax rates, gave huge benefits to the wealthiest people, expire
14:33
Speaker 3: at the end of the next president's first year. So
14:36
Speaker 3: if we elect Donald Trump, he's going to renew those.
14:39
Speaker 3: If we elect Joe Biden, he will let those expire
14:42
Speaker 3: and raise taxes back up to a normal, more fair
14:45
Speaker 3: level for corporations.
14:47
Speaker 2: Yeah. And I think it's going to be a great
14:48
Speaker 2: contrast with Trump. He's going to be able to kick
14:50
Speaker 2: the shit out of Trump on this. Trump already passed
14:53
Speaker 2: one of Trump's few domestic policy achievements. in his first term,
14:57
Speaker 2: was passing a giant tax cut, mostly for the wealthy,
15:01
Speaker 2: which skyrocketed the deficit. And Biden's going to say, I
15:05
Speaker 2: want to raise tax. He talks about no billionaire should
15:07
Speaker 2: pay a lower tax rate than a teacher, a sanitation worker,
15:10
Speaker 2: or a nurse, much like the Buffett rule that you mentioned.
15:14
Speaker 2: One of these days, we're going to get it passed.
15:15
Speaker 2: So I do think when he talks about his economic agenda,
15:19
Speaker 2: when he's out on the campaign trail, I would imagine
15:21
Speaker 2: that his tax agenda is going to be something that
15:22
Speaker 2: he really focuses on. And we have seen in polling
15:25
Speaker 2: and a lot of message testing that when you ask
15:27
Speaker 2: a lot of working class voters and a lot of
15:30
Speaker 2: these gettable voters who are persuadable, who haven't made up
15:33
Speaker 2: their minds yet, their biggest concerns about Trump are both
15:37
Speaker 2: what he might do on taxes and then also what
15:40
Speaker 2: he might do on Medicare and Social Security. And I
15:43
Speaker 2: thought Biden had a great back and forth with Republicans,
15:47
Speaker 2: similar to the one he had last year and last
15:49
Speaker 2: year with the union about Social Security and Medicare. Let's listen.
15:52
Speaker 1: If anyone here tries to cut Social Security, Medicare, or
15:55
Speaker 1: raise the retirement age, I will stop you. That's the proposal. Oh, no.
16:02
Speaker 1: You guys don't want another $ 2 trillion tax cut? I
16:06
Speaker 1: kind of thought that's what your plan was. Well, that's
16:10
Speaker 1: good to hear. You're not going to cut another $ 2
16:13
Speaker 1: trillion of the super wealth.
16:15
Speaker 2: That's good to hear. They are going to do that.
16:18
Speaker 3: That is their plan.
16:19
Speaker 2: That's their plan. That's Donald Trump's plan. They're going to
16:22
Speaker 2: cut Social Security and Medicare so they can pay for
16:24
Speaker 2: a giant tax cut for rich people. They also want
16:27
Speaker 2: to defund the IRS so that rich tax cheats can
16:31
Speaker 2: continue being rich tax cheats. That's what they want to do. Look,
16:35
Speaker 2: I love the whole campaign to be fought about. In
16:37
Speaker 2: normal times, this is what we would fight a campaign on.
16:40
Speaker 2: This is what we fought against. the 2012 campaign against
16:44
Speaker 2: Mitt Romney about. And they are good issues for Democrats.
16:48
Speaker 2: Since then, it has been very hard. It was hard
16:49
Speaker 2: for Hillary Clinton in 2016. It was hard for Biden
16:52
Speaker 2: in 20 because of COVID to have an economic message
16:55
Speaker 2: break through. But I do think that Democrats have an
16:57
Speaker 2: advantage on taxes against this Republican Party that wants to
17:01
Speaker 2: give tax cuts to the wealthy and that wants to
17:03
Speaker 2: cut Medicare and Social Security. And it was good to
17:06
Speaker 2: see Biden really zero in on that tonight, I thought. So...
17:10
Speaker 2: He talked about the border like we thought he was
17:11
Speaker 2: going to do. He did not announce any new executive
17:14
Speaker 2: actions on the border. He did whack the Republicans for having,
17:18
Speaker 2: you know, and Donald Trump for killing the bipartisan border
17:21
Speaker 2: deal that came together in the Senate. And then it
17:23
Speaker 2: was an interesting moment where Marjorie Taylor Greene, who she's
17:29
Speaker 2: like wearing her MAGA hat. She's got like a T-shirt on.
17:33
Speaker 2: And she gave Biden a button when he walked into
17:36
Speaker 2: the State of the Union saying, And it was a
17:38
Speaker 2: button about Lakin Riley, who's the young woman from Georgia
17:42
Speaker 2: who was murdered by an undocumented immigrant from Venezuela. And
17:46
Speaker 2: it has been this gigantic story. You probably have not
17:50
Speaker 2: heard about it, but it has been a gigantic story
17:52
Speaker 2: on the right. It's been all over Fox, all over
17:53
Speaker 2: conservative media. She gave him this button. And as he's
17:57
Speaker 2: going back and forth with Republicans about the border, he
18:00
Speaker 2: picks up the button and he says, you know what?
18:03
Speaker 2: He's like, I'm It's horrible that this young woman died
18:06
Speaker 2: and he like says something to her parents who I
18:08
Speaker 2: don't think were there. Maybe they were there, but he
18:10
Speaker 2: mentioned something about her parents. What did you think about
18:12
Speaker 2: that sort of ad lib where he went off script
18:16
Speaker 2: to talk about that?
18:18
Speaker 3: I don't, that was certainly not his strongest part of
18:20
Speaker 3: the night. Obviously the use of the term illegal, which
18:22
Speaker 3: he did once or twice was unfortunate, not how he
18:25
Speaker 3: would normally, he would usually use the term undocumented. So that,
18:28
Speaker 3: I think he was a little flustered.
18:29
Speaker 2: In that moment.
18:31
Speaker 3: But I think, you know, The back and forth is
18:34
Speaker 3: usually good for him. That one was less good. But
18:38
Speaker 3: in the whole of the speech, I don't think it's
18:39
Speaker 3: a huge, huge moment. But I think we are now
18:43
Speaker 3: hitting a transition period where every state of the union
18:45
Speaker 3: is going to be like this now.
18:47
Speaker 5: Yeah.
18:47
Speaker 3: Where it's– they sort of started– we've been getting there.
18:50
Speaker 3: There was such backlash when Congressman Joe Wilson yelled, you
18:55
Speaker 3: lie to Obama. And then it was– everyone was on
18:57
Speaker 3: their best behavior for like a decade. And then Last year,
18:59
Speaker 3: they got into a thing with Biden, even though Biden
19:01
Speaker 3: won that exchange. Now, I think every one of these
19:04
Speaker 3: members is going to try to get some attention from
19:06
Speaker 3: doing it. So this is the future. If Biden is reelected,
19:09
Speaker 3: he has four more of these. Democrats probably do the
19:11
Speaker 3: same thing to Trump. So I think this is par
19:14
Speaker 3: for the course going forward.
19:16
Speaker 2: I will say, obviously, him using the word illegal is
19:21
Speaker 2: just evidence of him being from a different generation. That's
19:23
Speaker 2: what people said, even people who supported immigration way back when.
19:27
Speaker 2: So that wasn't great. But It's very Joe Biden to
19:32
Speaker 2: take off like Marjorie Taylor Greene hands on this button.
19:34
Speaker 2: And instead of being like, fuck off, I'm not going
19:37
Speaker 2: to talk about this issue. The fact that he's like, yeah, no,
19:39
Speaker 2: that my position is it's, of course, horrific that this
19:42
Speaker 2: young woman was murdered. But what I want to do
19:44
Speaker 2: is secure the border and also give a pathway to
19:47
Speaker 2: citizenship for the millions of immigrants living here. who make
19:50
Speaker 2: this country stronger and not set up mass deportation camps
19:54
Speaker 2: like Donald Trump wants to do. And he also, you
19:57
Speaker 2: can tell he, he enjoyed the, you're right that the
19:59
Speaker 2: back and forth is going to be the norm from
20:01
Speaker 2: Stathamians from now on. But he really enjoys it. He's like,
20:06
Speaker 2: You could see the guy would be very comfortable in
20:08
Speaker 2: the British Parliament. He liked the back and forth. He
20:13
Speaker 2: wanted to talk to them. He mentioned Bob Casey and
20:17
Speaker 2: his bill about shrinkflation at one point. He's like, pass
20:20
Speaker 2: Bobby's bill.
20:21
Speaker 3: Bobby is in the prepared remarks.
20:23
Speaker 2: Bobby is in the prepared remarks.
20:24
Speaker 3: He said pass Bob Casey's shrinkflation bill.
20:26
Speaker 2: Pass Bobby's bill. Calls out Lindsey Graham later. It's very
20:31
Speaker 2: Joe Biden. He loves legislating. He loves governing. He loves Congress.
20:36
Speaker 2: That's what he likes to do.
20:37
Speaker 3: I'm sure the staff was not super excited when they
20:39
Speaker 3: saw him going into his pocket to get the thing
20:41
Speaker 3: that Marjorie Taylor Greene gave him. But other than that
20:44
Speaker 3: one flub that we mentioned, he navigated that moment fine.
20:58
Speaker 2: I know that we are not Tommy and Ben. This
21:01
Speaker 2: is not Pod Save the World. So we will not
21:02
Speaker 2: get deep into the policy. But obviously, the president announced
21:06
Speaker 2: the opening of a pier in Gaza to get more
21:09
Speaker 2: aid in, humanitarian aid. It seemed like a very specific
21:12
Speaker 2: effort to speak to the voters unhappy with his approach
21:15
Speaker 2: to Gaza. What did you think of that section of
21:18
Speaker 2: the speech?
21:19
Speaker 3: I thought that that was probably the politically worst part
21:23
Speaker 3: of the speech. I think he, from a policy perspective,
21:26
Speaker 3: he's trying to do something to speak to the people
21:30
Speaker 3: And I think within the administration themselves who are incredibly
21:33
Speaker 3: horrified by what's– by the humanitarian crisis happening in Gaza
21:36
Speaker 3: without changing the actual policy and approach to Israel. But
21:41
Speaker 3: the rhetoric that he used, the way he talked about
21:44
Speaker 3: it was I think– you could just see it online
21:47
Speaker 3: that people reacted very negatively to it. I think he
21:51
Speaker 3: seemed more concerned about being considered insufficiently supportive of Israel
21:56
Speaker 3: than– than supportive, insufficiently supportive of trying to help the
22:02
Speaker 3: people in Gaza. And I think that that, that is
22:04
Speaker 3: just like, when you say being of a different generation,
22:06
Speaker 3: that is of a different generation, that is a different
22:09
Speaker 3: political world. It's, it felt not a too, it is certainly,
22:12
Speaker 3: if the policy was designed to, I think, actually do
22:15
Speaker 3: what the United States can to deal with it, obviously
22:17
Speaker 3: this crisis, but the announcement of the policy and the
22:19
Speaker 3: preview was designed to speak to the people in his
22:23
Speaker 3: 2020 voters in our base who are very unhappy with
22:26
Speaker 3: what's happening there, the uncommitted voters in Michigan and Minnesota
22:29
Speaker 3: and elsewhere, the rhetoric around that policy, I think, certainly
22:33
Speaker 3: didn't help things. It may have made them worse.
22:36
Speaker 1: Yeah.
22:37
Speaker 2: In that moment, I could see, I really felt for
22:40
Speaker 2: his staff and I could see what they must have
22:42
Speaker 2: gone through over the last several months because he gets,
22:47
Speaker 2: in the prepared remarks, he gets to a, but Israel
22:49
Speaker 2: must do its part, must allow more aid in to
22:52
Speaker 2: leadership of Israel. I say this, humanitarian assistance cannot be
22:55
Speaker 2: a secondary consideration or Barton goes on and on. But
22:57
Speaker 2: before he gets to the, but he, the only ad
23:00
Speaker 2: lib in that section was saying like, and no one
23:03
Speaker 2: has been a stronger supporter of Israel. And I challenge anyone,
23:06
Speaker 2: you know, like, and I imagine that over the last
23:08
Speaker 2: several months since October 7th, there have probably been several
23:11
Speaker 2: instances where whether it's Secretary of State Blinken, whether it's
23:15
Speaker 2: Jake Sullivan, whether it's other people who are probably trying
23:17
Speaker 2: to get him to be a little more forceful. But
23:19
Speaker 2: he is, we've talked about this before, and Tommy and
23:22
Speaker 2: Ben have, he is a president from an era where
23:26
Speaker 2: Israel's security was so threatened all the time that I
23:29
Speaker 2: do not think, I mean, he talks about whether your
23:31
Speaker 2: ideas are old or not. I think on this issue,
23:34
Speaker 2: he is still, he is a man of the past.
23:36
Speaker 2: And he is, you know, it's, I didn't like it.
23:38
Speaker 2: I didn't love it. Okay, so end of the speech.
23:42
Speaker 2: He used the end of the speech to take on
23:44
Speaker 2: the age issue directly, which I thought was interesting. Let's listen.
23:48
Speaker 1: I know you don't want to hear any more, Lindsay,
23:50
Speaker 1: but I got to say a few more things. I
23:54
Speaker 1: know it may not look like it, but I've.
23:55
Speaker 3: Been around a while.
23:59
Speaker 1: When you get to be my age, certain things become
24:01
Speaker 1: clearer than ever. I know the American story. Again and again,
24:06
Speaker 1: I've seen the contest between competing forces in the battle
24:10
Speaker 1: for the soul of our nation. between those who want
24:13
Speaker 1: to pull America back to the past and those who
24:15
Speaker 1: want to move America into the future. The issue facing
24:21
Speaker 1: our nation isn't how old we are, it's how old
24:26
Speaker 1: are our ideas. Hate, anger, revenge, retribution are the oldest
24:31
Speaker 1: of ideas. But you can't lead America with ancient ideas
24:36
Speaker 1: that only take us back. You need America, the land
24:39
Speaker 1: of possibilities. You need a vision for the future and
24:43
Speaker 1: what can and should be done.
24:44
Speaker 2: I thought it was great. I thought it was a
24:47
Speaker 2: great way to take it on. And, you know, it
24:50
Speaker 2: was a slight joke. It was the end of the speech.
24:52
Speaker 2: I do think the best sound of him taking on
24:56
Speaker 2: the age issue was not in the prepared remarks. It
25:00
Speaker 2: was caught on hot mic when he was talking to
25:04
Speaker 2: Congressman Jerry Nadler after the speech. Let's listen.
25:07
Speaker 1: Nobody's going to talk about cognitive impairment now.
25:12
Speaker 2: You are on fire. I kind of wish sometimes I
25:19
Speaker 2: was cognitively incognitive decline. I love that. That's just great.
25:25
Speaker 2: That's just real. That's real. What did you think of
25:27
Speaker 2: the end there?
25:28
Speaker 3: Well, he road tested this. It's not my age. It's
25:32
Speaker 3: the age of one's ideas on... um, Seth Meyers a
25:36
Speaker 3: few weeks ago or last week, I guess that was
25:37
Speaker 3: time has no meaning anymore. Um, but, and I think
25:40
Speaker 3: that's the right thing to do. You're not going to keep,
25:43
Speaker 3: and it's also an, I think an acknowledgement that he
25:47
Speaker 3: has taken a transition on this. I think he was
25:49
Speaker 3: very dismissive of people's concerns for a while. I think,
25:53
Speaker 3: I think he was annoyed by them and frustrated by them.
25:55
Speaker 3: And he's, I mean, as he mentioned tonight, he was
25:57
Speaker 3: elected the Senate when he was 29. They wouldn't let
25:59
Speaker 3: him get in the Senator's elevator because they thought he
26:01
Speaker 3: was like an intern. Um, And so he's always been
26:03
Speaker 3: the youngest person. And now all of a sudden he's
26:05
Speaker 3: the oldest person. That's kind of how I feel on
26:07
Speaker 3: this podcast, but see, and you make a joke about it.
26:11
Speaker 3: You make a joke about it. You feel better.
26:13
Speaker 5: Yeah.
26:13
Speaker 2: Yeah.
26:15
Speaker 3: But now he's sort of going on offense a little
26:17
Speaker 3: bit with it. And it's just like, ultimately what the
26:20
Speaker 3: words are not going to solve the concerns. It's just
26:22
Speaker 3: going to be how he performs over the next eight
26:24
Speaker 3: months here. But to the extent when you talk about it,
26:26
Speaker 3: if you can just pivot into offense and then, because
26:29
Speaker 3: what he is, When you do this, not in the
26:31
Speaker 3: speech per se, but like in the Seth Meyers interview,
26:33
Speaker 3: it's the age of his ideas. Look at all these
26:35
Speaker 3: things he wants to do. He wants to take us
26:35
Speaker 3: back to when women didn't have reproductive freedoms, when gay
26:41
Speaker 3: people couldn't get married, and just go right at sort
26:43
Speaker 3: of the revanchist MAGA agenda. And it makes a very
26:46
Speaker 3: easy pivot point. And you go from defense to offense
26:49
Speaker 3: very quickly as opposed to just being incredibly defensive about it,
26:52
Speaker 3: which he was in that Robert Herr Report press conference
26:55
Speaker 3: a few weeks ago.
26:57
Speaker 2: Ron Barnstein had a very smart piece in The Atlantic. today,
27:01
Speaker 2: where he talked about sort of the three options for
27:04
Speaker 2: this race, for how to define this race. He talked
27:07
Speaker 2: about it could be a referendum on Biden, right, which
27:09
Speaker 2: obviously Biden does not want. It can also be a
27:12
Speaker 2: choice between whether voters think that Donald Trump's term was
27:17
Speaker 2: better or Joe Biden's term was better. And he was
27:20
Speaker 2: saying it is clear that the Trump people want that
27:24
Speaker 2: choice because right now they are benefiting from short memories
27:28
Speaker 2: and people forgetting that how bad Donald Trump was. And
27:32
Speaker 2: so they are judging it by the last four years, which,
27:35
Speaker 2: you know, we're pretty happy with, but a bunch of
27:38
Speaker 2: people in the country apparently are not happy with. And
27:41
Speaker 2: the other choice is to make it about the future
27:44
Speaker 2: and about what Donald Trump is going to do and
27:47
Speaker 2: what Joe Biden is going to do in the next
27:48
Speaker 2: four years and where Donald Trump's going to take the
27:50
Speaker 2: country and where Joe Biden is and Donald Trump's policies
27:52
Speaker 2: and old ideas and Joe Biden's policies and ideas that
27:56
Speaker 2: will take us into the future. And I do think
27:59
Speaker 2: that you're definitely going to need to do some looking
28:02
Speaker 2: backward to remind people how bad Trump's term was, particularly 2020.
28:07
Speaker 2: Not a great year. At least Stefanik the other day said,
28:11
Speaker 2: are you better off than you were four years ago?
28:13
Speaker 2: Four years ago right now, everyone was about to be
28:15
Speaker 2: locked in their homes, like thousands of people dying a
28:18
Speaker 2: day in April. And then the year ended with a
28:21
Speaker 2: fucking insurrection. So not a great year. So there's going
28:24
Speaker 2: to be going to have to be the campaign is
28:25
Speaker 2: going to definitely do some work reminding people of how
28:27
Speaker 2: bad Trump's term was and also remind people what Joe
28:30
Speaker 2: Biden has achieved over these last four years. But I
28:32
Speaker 2: do think the bulk of the campaign is going to
28:35
Speaker 2: have to be what Biden wants to do versus what
28:38
Speaker 2: Trump will do. And, you know, he basically set that
28:42
Speaker 2: up at the end of the speech. And I think
28:43
Speaker 2: he did that throughout the speech. You know, there's still
28:46
Speaker 2: a little heavier on the accomplishments than I would like.
28:49
Speaker 2: But I like that at least at the end and
28:52
Speaker 2: at the beginning and with a lot of the policy
28:54
Speaker 2: he laid out, he is setting up a campaign where
28:56
Speaker 2: he can talk about, you know, Maybe I'm pretty old,
28:59
Speaker 2: but I'm the one who wants to take us into
29:01
Speaker 2: the future with the policies that I have already enacted
29:04
Speaker 2: and the ones that I'll be fighting for if you
29:05
Speaker 2: give me another four years. And Donald Trump will take
29:07
Speaker 2: us backward and it'll be chaos and disaster. And it's
29:11
Speaker 2: all there in the plans that he wants to enact
29:14
Speaker 2: if he's president again.
29:15
Speaker 3: Yeah, I thought the accomplishments was pretty good. I thought
29:20
Speaker 3: you have to do it. You know, there's polling that
29:21
Speaker 3: shows that it's actually incredibly influential with the double haters,
29:26
Speaker 3: the people who disapprove of both of them, which makes
29:27
Speaker 3: up a quite a large swath of the electorate this
29:30
Speaker 3: time around. And particularly, and this is the one he
29:32
Speaker 3: did it for a lot tonight, is there is no
29:35
Speaker 3: policy more popular than the law having Medicare negotiate with
29:40
Speaker 3: the prescription drug companies to get lower prices and capping
29:42
Speaker 3: the price of insulin at $ 35. Polls show that upwards
29:45
Speaker 3: of 80% of voters love it. Also, polls show that
29:48
Speaker 3: less than 50% of voters know about it. So talking
29:51
Speaker 3: about those things is important. But what I thought the
29:53
Speaker 3: tone was right for people's mood right now. People are
29:58
Speaker 3: a little more optimistic about the economy, though not yet
30:00
Speaker 3: giving the president credit for it. But it was not
30:02
Speaker 3: so triumphant. He really got to where I think he
30:05
Speaker 3: needs to be, which is we inherited a shit show.
30:09
Speaker 3: We've made some real hard progress. We did it even
30:13
Speaker 3: in bipartisan ways. And we're making that progress. And we're
30:16
Speaker 3: going to get there. But we're not going to get
30:18
Speaker 3: there if Donald Trump and these fucking extreme yahoos get
30:22
Speaker 3: in power and they take us all the way back. Right.
30:24
Speaker 3: And I think that was sort of the tenor, the
30:26
Speaker 3: subtext and the tenor of the speech. And I thought
30:28
Speaker 3: that was good there. He did not do we passed
30:31
Speaker 3: all these amazing things and everything is perfect. The greatest
30:33
Speaker 3: economy of all time.
30:34
Speaker 2: Right.
30:34
Speaker 3: There was like obviously a little triumphalness and there should be.
30:36
Speaker 3: But I don't think he overshot the runway at all tonight.
30:39
Speaker 2: You know, I I think a campaign that is Donald
30:42
Speaker 2: Trump is consumed with his own past and getting revenge.
30:46
Speaker 2: And Joe Biden is consumed with the future and what
30:49
Speaker 2: kind of country he can leave to his grandchildren and
30:53
Speaker 2: everyone else's. That's that's a good choice. That's that's a
30:56
Speaker 2: fight that they're going to want to have. And I
30:58
Speaker 2: think they did a great job setting that up tonight.
31:00
Speaker 2: All right. Katie Britt, Republican senator from Alabama. She gave
31:06
Speaker 2: the response and who I've never heard one like this before.
31:11
Speaker 2: Let's let's listen to a clip.
31:12
Speaker 1: Mr.
31:13
Speaker 2: President, enough is enough. Innocent Americans are dying and you
31:20
Speaker 2: only have yourself to blame. Fulfill your oath of office.
31:26
Speaker 4: Reverse your policies.
31:29
Speaker 5: End this crisis and stop the suffering.
31:33
Speaker 2: Got the Oscars this Sunday. A late entry from Katie Britt.
31:38
Speaker 3: That's a good joke.
31:40
Speaker 2: She sounded like she was on a bad Netflix teen drama.
31:45
Speaker 2: The overacting was just wild. I can't even tell you
31:51
Speaker 2: what she said because I could not... I couldn't focus
31:55
Speaker 2: on anything but the quiver in her voice and the
31:59
Speaker 2: fact that it was so obviously inauthentic in acting.
32:02
Speaker 1: It was horrible.
32:04
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's one of the worst ones ever. And that
32:05
Speaker 3: is saying a lot because they're all pretty terrible.
32:08
Speaker 2: They're all bad. You knew it.
32:10
Speaker 3: Was going to be bad when Jonathan Swan of the
32:13
Speaker 3: New York Times tweeted this out that her allies have
32:17
Speaker 3: already put out talking points before the speech was given.
32:19
Speaker 3: comparing it to Ronald Reagan's Berlin Wall in City on
32:24
Speaker 3: a Hill speeches. She hadn't given the speech yet. This
32:29
Speaker 3: is like, you're compensating for something there, people. You've seen
32:31
Speaker 3: the dress rehearsals.
32:33
Speaker 2: And MAGA people do not like it either. Charlie Kirk tweeted,
32:37
Speaker 2: did you like Katie Britt's speech? And go check out
32:40
Speaker 2: some of the replies. Way too dramatic, bizarre, very babysitter
32:45
Speaker 2: reading a bedtime story. These are all the like blue
32:48
Speaker 2: check MAGA people. It was- Bad reviews. Bad reviews from
32:51
Speaker 2: Katie Britt. And then, of course, Trump was doing an
32:55
Speaker 2: in-real-time truthing of the whole speech, where he really zeroed
33:00
Speaker 2: in on Joe Biden coughing a lot. He said, don't
33:03
Speaker 2: shake his hand. He's coughing, which is interesting. As someone
33:08
Speaker 2: on our team said, this is the guy that exposed
33:10
Speaker 2: everyone to COVID, almost killed a few people.
33:12
Speaker 3: He's very worried about receiving germs, not giving them to people.
33:16
Speaker 3: That's right.
33:18
Speaker 2: Anyway, enough with Katie Britt, enough with Donald Trump. It
33:21
Speaker 2: was a great night for Joe Biden. Have you seen
33:23
Speaker 2: any of the dial tests?
33:24
Speaker 3: I have not seen any dial tests. Have our team
33:27
Speaker 3: seen the CNN or CBS polls yet?
33:29
Speaker 2: I haven't gotten a chance to dig into all the
33:31
Speaker 2: dial testing. I think some of the flash polls were
33:35
Speaker 2: quite good for the president, as they often are after
33:38
Speaker 2: State of the Unions. But that's great. We'll take it.
33:41
Speaker 2: I'm interested to see all the data. I would not
33:42
Speaker 2: be surprised, though, if this speech... really energized Democrats, wavering Democrats,
33:48
Speaker 2: and probably, you know, picked up some ground with independents
33:52
Speaker 2: as well.
33:53
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think this, I think whether this moves the
33:55
Speaker 3: polls or not, I don't want to set expectations too high,
33:57
Speaker 3: but I think it sets the stage.
33:59
Speaker 2: I think he's going to get a 10 point, 10
34:01
Speaker 2: point bump. You heard it here.
34:02
Speaker 3: State of the union bound, something that we argued against
34:04
Speaker 3: for years in our previous life. But no, I look,
34:07
Speaker 3: I think this was a great night for the president.
34:08
Speaker 3: He should feel very good about it. His team should
34:10
Speaker 3: feel very good about it. I think this is the
34:12
Speaker 3: kickoff of the general election campaign and he kicked it
34:13
Speaker 3: off in a really good way.
34:15
Speaker 2: Yeah. We should say the only real presidential approval bump
34:19
Speaker 2: after State of the Union in the last couple decades
34:22
Speaker 2: was Barack Obama three points after the 2009 State of
34:26
Speaker 2: the Union, which I can only imagine is because... We
34:30
Speaker 2: were going through the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression,
34:34
Speaker 2: and he was a brand new president. So they were like,
34:37
Speaker 2: all right, let's cut him some slack for a little bit.
34:39
Speaker 2: And then that quickly went away, as we all know.
34:43
Speaker 2: But just to set the baseline, usually these things don't
34:46
Speaker 2: actually move presidential approvals.
34:48
Speaker 3: It is unlikely to change, but it sets the stage
34:51
Speaker 3: for change later on.
34:52
Speaker 2: Yes, and it is a blueprint for a message that—
34:55
Speaker 2: that he can deliver throughout the campaign. And also, it
34:59
Speaker 2: was good to see him have a lot of fight tonight. Okay,
35:01
Speaker 2: before we go to break, two quick items. We're announcing
35:05
Speaker 2: new tour dates in just a few days. Pre-sale tickets
35:07
Speaker 2: will only be available for Friends of the Pod subscribers
35:09
Speaker 2: starting on Tuesday, so make sure to join. For access
35:12
Speaker 2: to the best seats in the house, head to cricket.com
35:14
Speaker 2: slash friends to sign up. Also, if Biden's remarks didn't
35:17
Speaker 2: calm your anxiety about the year ahead, you can pre-order
35:20
Speaker 2: our book, Democracy or Else, right now at cricket.com slash books.
35:25
Speaker 2: And we're going to be donating the profits to support
35:27
Speaker 2: Vote Save America, its partners and other organizations which are
35:30
Speaker 2: mobilizing around the 2024 election. It's a fun book. Lots
35:34
Speaker 2: of illustrations. Pretty short. A good guide to how to
35:37
Speaker 2: get through this election and other elections if we have them.
35:40
Speaker 2: And again, it goes to a good cause, VSA. So
35:44
Speaker 2: pre-order your copy of Democracy or Else Now at crooked.com
35:47
Speaker 2: slash books.
35:47
Speaker 3: I've read it. It's great.
35:49
Speaker 2: Dan has read it.
35:49
Speaker 3: I've read it. I've pre-ordered it. It is a short read,
35:52
Speaker 3: which is real. That's a plus. You're going to learn
35:55
Speaker 3: a lot.
35:55
Speaker 2: That's what we want.
35:56
Speaker 3: You're going to laugh a lot. It's not going to
35:57
Speaker 3: take too much of your time. Go for it.
35:59
Speaker 2: That's what we need. That's what we're looking for. When
36:01
Speaker 2: we come back, White House Price Secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre. Joining
36:17
Speaker 2: us tonight, White House Press Secretary Corrine Jean-Pierre. Corrine, welcome
36:21
Speaker 2: to Pod Save America. Welcome back.
36:22
Speaker 4: Thank you so much for having me back. What a
36:25
Speaker 4: great night. What a great night. It's good to see
36:27
Speaker 4: you both.
36:28
Speaker 2: You too. So you're the White House Press Secretary. What's
36:31
Speaker 2: your dream headline for the speech? What are you hoping
36:34
Speaker 2: to see Friday morning?
36:36
Speaker 4: You know what?
36:36
Speaker 5: I think what we saw tonight, as far as a headline,
36:40
Speaker 5: is you saw a president stand up and fight for
36:43
Speaker 5: the American people. And it was a president who stood
36:47
Speaker 5: up for our democracy, who stood up for the middle class,
36:50
Speaker 5: who stood up for our rights, who stood up for
36:52
Speaker 5: our freedoms and laid out his visions. for moving this
36:55
Speaker 5: country forward, not going backwards. And I think that is
37:00
Speaker 5: what you saw. It was probably one of the best
37:04
Speaker 5: State of the Union speeches that I think we've seen
37:07
Speaker 5: in some time. And he was incredible in the sense
37:11
Speaker 5: of taking it on. He just took it on when
37:14
Speaker 5: when House Republicans were trying to give him a little
37:17
Speaker 5: bit of a hard time.
37:18
Speaker 4: He's like, oh, yeah, you want a little bit of this?
37:20
Speaker 5: I'll show you Joe from Scranton, you know.
37:23
Speaker 4: And and so but but, you know, you saw.
37:26
Speaker 5: A leader drawing a stark contrast between the vision of
37:30
Speaker 5: this country and that of those who are trying to block.
37:34
Speaker 4: Our progress.
37:35
Speaker 3: Right.
37:35
Speaker 4: And he started from that from the beginning.
37:37
Speaker 2: Right.
37:38
Speaker 4: You know, you can't.
37:40
Speaker 5: I mean, there's some great there is some great lines
37:43
Speaker 5: that he had in the speech.
37:44
Speaker 4: Let me see if I can. I wrote some of
37:46
Speaker 4: them down.
37:47
Speaker 5: Let me see if I can share some of them
37:49
Speaker 5: that I thought that was really, really good, which is
37:53
Speaker 5: the state of our union is getting stronger and stronger.
37:57
Speaker 5: You don't love your country. This is the first, I
37:59
Speaker 5: think the first thing that he said, which was so powerful,
38:02
Speaker 5: you don't love your country only when you win, only
38:05
Speaker 5: when you win. And so it, It was exactly what
38:11
Speaker 5: he needed to do. He met the moment of where
38:13
Speaker 5: we are as a country. He met the moment of
38:15
Speaker 5: where we need to be going. And I think one
38:17
Speaker 5: of the way he ended it is so Joe Biden
38:21
Speaker 5: in an optimistic way, talking about the future, the possibilities
38:26
Speaker 5: of Americans, not betting against Americans. And that is something
38:29
Speaker 5: that is so quintessential Joe Biden, that optimism.
38:32
Speaker 4: Of who he is. He is in his DNA, he's optimistic.
38:37
Speaker 5: And also, let's not forget, there's a commander in chief
38:40
Speaker 5: component of it as well, discussing what America's role around
38:45
Speaker 5: the world and the threats that we face and where
38:47
Speaker 5: we stood. You know, the first thing he talked about
38:50
Speaker 5: was Ukraine and called out House Republicans for really not
38:55
Speaker 5: moving on that, not moving on that national supplemental deal
39:00
Speaker 5: that passed 70 to 29 in the Senate. And if
39:03
Speaker 5: it was put in the floor by the speaker who
39:05
Speaker 5: was standing, obviously, to to his left, it would get
39:09
Speaker 5: overwhelming support. And this is about not politics, but about
39:13
Speaker 5: our national security. And we have to help the brave
39:16
Speaker 5: people of Ukraine as they are defending themselves, defending themselves
39:20
Speaker 5: against a tyrant as they're fighting for their democracy. I mean,
39:23
Speaker 5: it was a jam-packed speech, but it was impactful. And
39:27
Speaker 5: let's not forget about one of the number one issues
39:30
Speaker 5: that we hear about over and over again, especially over
39:33
Speaker 5: the last couple of years, which is reproductive rights, fighting
39:36
Speaker 5: for women's health care. I think he gave one of
39:39
Speaker 5: the most strongest remarks on that and the reason to
39:44
Speaker 5: make sure we protect reproductive rights. He did that in
39:48
Speaker 5: a really forceful way. And also our democracy, our democracy.
39:52
Speaker 5: We got to fight for our democracy. So that is
39:56
Speaker 5: that is what I saw last night. I think that's
39:58
Speaker 5: what other people saw. I got so many texts from
40:00
Speaker 5: people saying, wow, what a powerful speech. He was great.
40:04
Speaker 5: This is exactly what we needed him to do. And
40:08
Speaker 5: and I will say one more thing.
40:10
Speaker 4: The fact that he talked about his age at the
40:13
Speaker 4: end and took that head on and.
40:16
Speaker 5: Didn't back away from it and said, look, there were
40:18
Speaker 5: a time where people thought I was too young. There
40:20
Speaker 5: were times where people thought I was too old. And
40:24
Speaker 5: I think all of these things are important because he
40:26
Speaker 5: answered and leaned into things that we keep hearing about, right?
40:31
Speaker 5: And I think that was incredibly important as well. I
40:34
Speaker 5: think he did a great job. I think he was fantastic.
40:37
Speaker 2: So here.
40:37
Speaker 3: Here's my question for you. John and I worked on
40:39
Speaker 3: a lot of State of the Unions together.
40:41
Speaker 4: Yes, I was going to say, I was thinking that.
40:43
Speaker 3: And one of the great impediments to progress in any
40:46
Speaker 3: State of the Union is the White House Counsel's Office.
40:48
Speaker 3: I know you guys take the Hatch Act very seriously.
40:51
Speaker 3: Yet somehow there were, by my count, 13 references to
40:55
Speaker 3: an unnamed person. Is the White House counsel tied up
41:00
Speaker 3: in a basement somewhere? How did you guys get that done?
41:02
Speaker 4: Here's the thing.
41:03
Speaker 5: I mean, he did say the former president, right? And
41:06
Speaker 5: Donald Trump was a former president. And I think there
41:11
Speaker 5: are real things that have happened in the last three years,
41:14
Speaker 5: even before then, obviously during his presidency, that I think
41:17
Speaker 5: the president was able to lean into and talk about.
41:20
Speaker 5: And Here's the thing, you know, there is extremists in
41:23
Speaker 5: the Republican Party that follow this former president. I mean,
41:27
Speaker 5: he talked about the border deal. Let's not forget that
41:30
Speaker 5: border deal that we got from the Senate, which is
41:32
Speaker 5: a bipartisan deal. Republicans and Democrats, we worked with them.
41:36
Speaker 4: For two months. And this is not normal.
41:39
Speaker 5: We don't normally get bipartisan deals, especially bipartisan deals that
41:43
Speaker 5: is supported by the border patrol union or the U
41:46
Speaker 5: S chamber of commerce. Like that's not something that happens
41:50
Speaker 5: here in this political discourse.
41:52
Speaker 4: That was, we were able to land that. And what happened?
41:55
Speaker 4: The former president stepped in and said, do not.
41:59
Speaker 5: Move this forward because Joe Biden will win and it
42:03
Speaker 5: will be a political gain for him.
42:05
Speaker 4: And I don't want that. And they rejected the deal.
42:08
Speaker 4: They rejected the deal.
42:09
Speaker 5: And so the president had always said he was going
42:11
Speaker 5: to be very honest about that, take it directly to
42:14
Speaker 5: the American people. I mean, the reproductive, right? You think
42:17
Speaker 5: about Roe v. Wade, the Dobbs decision. That happened under
42:21
Speaker 5: the former president when he, as you all know, you've
42:24
Speaker 5: covered this very, very well, what he did with the
42:27
Speaker 5: Supreme Court. It leans very much conservative. And because of that,
42:31
Speaker 5: and he was really clear as why he was doing that,
42:34
Speaker 5: because they wanted to overturn Roe v.
42:36
Speaker 2: Wade.
42:37
Speaker 4: And that's what happened.
42:38
Speaker 5: So it is everything that we're seeing right now, everything
42:42
Speaker 5: that we're seeing right now with this country, with Republicans,
42:45
Speaker 5: is tied in to the former president.
42:48
Speaker 4: But you're right. You're right, Dan. You've been a communications director.
42:52
Speaker 5: You were a senior advisor here for the former president,
42:57
Speaker 5: President Obama. John, as a speechwriter, you know how much
43:01
Speaker 5: of a massive undertaking it takes to write these types
43:05
Speaker 5: of speeches.
43:06
Speaker 3: You're right.
43:06
Speaker 4: It has to go to the House of Council. It's
43:08
Speaker 4: a lot of fun.
43:09
Speaker 5: But I think he was able to make his point
43:12
Speaker 5: about where we are politically and where the Republicans, how
43:15
Speaker 5: extreme they are. And it is being led by the
43:18
Speaker 5: former president. That is just the reality that we're in
43:20
Speaker 5: right now.
43:22
Speaker 2: You mentioned the section on when he challenged Republicans on
43:26
Speaker 2: passing the bipartisan border bill. There had been some rumors
43:29
Speaker 2: that the president might announce some executive actions on his
43:32
Speaker 2: own been some reporting on that. Is that something that
43:36
Speaker 2: you guys are thinking about in the next several weeks?
43:39
Speaker 2: He didn't mention it tonight. What was the thinking there?
43:41
Speaker 5: So the president, look, we always, as you know, working
43:44
Speaker 5: in an administration, you always have to be prepared, look
43:47
Speaker 5: at all of the options on the table.
43:49
Speaker 4: And we're doing that.
43:50
Speaker 5: We're always going to look at the options on the table.
43:53
Speaker 5: What we believe, what this president believes, and this is
43:55
Speaker 5: what he said, today in this speech, and this is
43:59
Speaker 5: what he's even said privately, is he wants to get
44:02
Speaker 5: this bipartisan border deal done. He believes there's still a
44:05
Speaker 5: chance to get this done. He believes it's the best
44:07
Speaker 5: way to move forward with a broken system, a broken
44:09
Speaker 5: immigration system. He believes it's the best way to actually
44:12
Speaker 5: deal with the challenges that we're seeing at the border.
44:15
Speaker 5: It is tough, but it is a fair piece of legislation.
44:18
Speaker 5: And it's not very often that you come to this,
44:21
Speaker 5: to come to the space in a bipartisan way. So
44:24
Speaker 5: he wants to continue fighting for it. Let's not forget
44:26
Speaker 5: that was the bipartisan infrastructure legislation. People said we wouldn't
44:29
Speaker 5: get that done. It was a joke in the last administration.
44:31
Speaker 5: It was, you know, a punchline infrastructure week. And the
44:34
Speaker 5: president was able to get that done. The Chips and
44:36
Speaker 5: Science Act, the PACT Act, right? That helps veterans and
44:40
Speaker 5: their families. Nobody thought we would be able to get
44:43
Speaker 5: that done And we were able to get that done. Obviously, Congress,
44:47
Speaker 5: the makeup of Congress was obviously different. But the president, again,
44:52
Speaker 5: optimistic guy. He wants to get that done as it
44:54
Speaker 5: relates to any executive action. We don't believe any executive
44:58
Speaker 5: action would have would be as strong as the one
45:02
Speaker 5: as the deal that we have currently.
45:04
Speaker 4: So he wants to continue to work towards that.
45:07
Speaker 5: But of course, we're always going to look at all
45:11
Speaker 5: the opportunities, options that we have in front of us.
45:14
Speaker 4: But we want to try.
45:15
Speaker 2: Right.
45:15
Speaker 4: We want to try and get to see if we
45:17
Speaker 4: can move this at all, move this at all.
45:21
Speaker 2: This State of the Union for every president running for
45:23
Speaker 2: reelection is usually the speech where, as the president did tonight,
45:28
Speaker 2: you sort of lay out your agenda for a second term.
45:32
Speaker 2: President Biden certainly did that. as he is going out
45:35
Speaker 2: on the road, talking to crowds in the next several
45:39
Speaker 2: weeks and months, what do you think are the big
45:42
Speaker 2: ticket policy initiatives that he talked about tonight that he's
45:46
Speaker 2: going to really emphasize and focus on in the months
45:50
Speaker 2: to come?
45:51
Speaker 4: It's a great question.
45:51
Speaker 5: So two things that we talked, actually three things that
45:54
Speaker 5: we talked about this week, as you know, as we
45:56
Speaker 5: go into the State of the Union, which this week
45:59
Speaker 5: obviously was on a Thursday, we try to lean into
46:01
Speaker 5: a couple of policies. a couple of new things to
46:05
Speaker 5: kind of lay out the ideas and what he's thinking
46:08
Speaker 5: about for the rest of this year. And we did
46:11
Speaker 5: a drug, we focused on pharmaceutical drugs this week, right?
46:15
Speaker 5: What can we do? to make sure that we continue
46:18
Speaker 5: lowering costs, right? He talked about Obamacare, right? ACA and
46:22
Speaker 5: how important it is to protect that. So healthcare costs
46:25
Speaker 5: are really important. Drug costs are really important and it's
46:27
Speaker 5: actually very popular, very important for the American people. So
46:32
Speaker 5: we talked about that. He brought together his competition council, right?
46:37
Speaker 5: To talk about more junk fees, ways that we can
46:39
Speaker 5: get rid of junk fees. And so that is something
46:41
Speaker 5: that Americans really truly care about And so these are
46:45
Speaker 5: things that are that we think that are important. Lowering
46:48
Speaker 5: all of this really goes under lowering costs.
46:51
Speaker 4: And so that is critical.
46:53
Speaker 5: And that is that is I think you're going to
46:55
Speaker 5: continue to hear the president talk about that.
46:58
Speaker 4: We're going to be on the road for most of
47:00
Speaker 4: the march tomorrow. We're going to be in Philly.
47:03
Speaker 5: On Saturday, he's going to be in Atlanta, Georgia. We're
47:06
Speaker 5: going to be announcing a lot more trips. And you'll
47:08
Speaker 5: see that theme, right? The economy, making sure that we're
47:12
Speaker 5: growing the economy from the bottom up, middle out. That
47:14
Speaker 5: is something that the president wants to continue to do,
47:16
Speaker 5: not leave anybody behind.
47:19
Speaker 4: And those important pieces of.
47:22
Speaker 5: Laws, legislation that he signed into laws, like I mentioned,
47:26
Speaker 5: the Chips and Science Act, the Inflation Reduction Act, We
47:29
Speaker 5: got to, and bipartisan infrastructure legislation, we have to implement
47:33
Speaker 5: those and protect those because Republicans want to repeal, for example,
47:37
Speaker 5: the Inflation Reduction Act. So those are the things that
47:40
Speaker 5: he's been talking about this week that we're going to
47:42
Speaker 5: continue to move forward on. And so that's going to
47:46
Speaker 5: be kind of what you're going to be hearing from
47:48
Speaker 5: him throughout this month and also making sure we're protecting,
47:53
Speaker 5: we're fighting for reproductive health, women's health care. And so
47:58
Speaker 5: that's kind of what you're going to be hearing from
47:59
Speaker 5: the president this month.
48:01
Speaker 2: Thank you so much for staying up with us. I
48:04
Speaker 2: know it's a late night and a big night for
48:06
Speaker 2: you and for the president and for everyone at the
48:08
Speaker 2: White House. So we really appreciate you jumping on with
48:10
Speaker 2: us for a little bit.
48:11
Speaker 4: It's my pleasure.
48:12
Speaker 5: Happy to do it again, guys. Thank you for everything
48:14
Speaker 5: that you all do. And talk to you all soon.
48:17
Speaker 2: Talk to you soon.
48:17
Speaker 3: Congratulations on a big night.
48:19
Speaker 4: Thank you.
48:19
Speaker 1: Bye, Dan. Bye, John.
48:25
Speaker 2: Thanks to Kareem for joining us, and everyone have a
48:29
Speaker 2: great weekend. We will talk to you next week. Bye, everyone.
48:33
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