Was Biden's State of the Union 'great' or 'yelly'? Depends on the network you're watching
President Joe Biden went into the State of the Union address Thursday night under intense pressure to dispel the notion that he’s too old to run for reelection — a narrative media have relentlessly pursued.
So how did he do? It depends on which network you were watching.
“Overall, I think most people are going to say that is a man who’s up to the job,” Alyssa Farah Griffin, the former White House communications director for Donald Trump, said on CNN.
“Everybody knows that this was a great speech. … I thought this was a really remarkable State of the Union,” Nicole Wallace said on MSNBC.
Fox News was a different universe after the State of the Union
And Fox News? Different universe. Give their pundits this much — they’re nothing if not consistent.
“I’m not sure a person sitting at home tonight looking at the guy would think he was anything other than an angry old man,” Brit Hume said on Fox News, sounding not unlike the kind of person he was describing.
“It was yelly,” Hume’s colleague John Roberts said. “It was rancorous. It probably turned a lot of people off if they’re right-leaning independents or Republicans. But I’m just going to predict that when the reviews come in on this in places like the New York Times and the Washington Post and the National Review and MSNBC and other left-leaning outlets, they’re going to say that this was the most brilliant State of the Union” that Biden has given.
Fair enough on that last part, though that isn’t surprising. Political experts can debate the substantive merits of Biden’s speech, but in terms of delivery and energy, it was anything but lacking. He was loud and he was forceful, enough so that critics like Sean Hannity on Fox News, who criticize Biden for his lack of energy, now found fault with him for being too energetic.
Biden is kind of like an experienced stand-up comic — he really comes alive when he’s jousting with hecklers.
Granted, the State of the Union speech is delivered inside the U.S. Congress, not the local Laff Factory or whatever. But the decorum ship sailed a long time ago, so now we have clowns like Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene decked out in a MAGA hat and a Trump reelection get-up shouting the president down as he delivers his address.
And we have Biden going right back at her.
It’s kind of interesting politically and it’s entertaining as television. But it’s just kind of sad that it’s come to this. Everything has become a performative gesture.
Katie Britt's response was a gift to 'Saturday Night Live'
Speaking of, the Republican response to Biden’s speech was delivered by Sen. Katie Britt of Alabama — from her kitchen, which social-media pundits noted was a little on-the-nose, even for Republicans. Again, I’ll leave the politics to someone else. But as a speech, it was bizarre, delivered mostly in a stage whisper, crocodile tears always threatening to break through. As a performative gesture, it was terrible — and make no mistake, she performed it.
(Best tweet: “I don’t think Katie Britt is going to get the lead in the school play this year.”)
Merry Christmas, “Saturday Night Live.”
Of course, so much of the night was performative. Biden, for his part, spent a lot of his speech drawing contrasts between himself and Trump, though he never said his name. Instead, he went with “predecessor” — 13 times, according to CNN’s Dana Bash. He rightly characterized the election as a stark choice between preserving democracy, and not. There’s inherent drama in talking about the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection in the halls in which it occurred and calling out the still-sitting Republicans who refuse to refute it.
“My predecessor and some of you want to bury the truth about Jan. 6,” Biden said. “You can’t love your country only when you win.”
A now long-standing — or sitting — tradition requires that, when the president says something his party likes, they stand and applaud, while the other party sits on their hands. It’s that way no matter which party is in power. But Thursday night showed how bizarre this has become. For one thing, Speaker of the House Mike Johnson nodded approvingly and applauded more than you might think (though he didn’t stand much).
But the partisan requirements boxed the Republicans in. This means when Biden talked about low unemployment or declining inflation — or even giving teachers in public schools a raise — the GOP must, by the rules of hating everything all the time, just sit there, acting like the power went out or something. It's not a good look.
Ultimately, the coverage of the speech played out predictably and offered hints about what’s to come during the election. MSNBC is going to boost Biden, almost certainly. Fox News is going to glorify Trump — their pregame coverage was surprisingly glowing, even for them. CNN is going to figure this whole thing out, just you wait.
And we will watch. What else can we do?
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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: State of the Union was dramatic TV. Was Biden 'remarkable' or 'yelly'?