Here's What People Are Saying After Biden's State of the Union

Takeaways from both sides of the aisle
By Evann Gastaldo,  Newser Staff
Posted Feb 8, 2023 12:46 AM CST
Updated Feb 8, 2023 6:38 AM CST
Reaction to Biden's State of the Union Address
President Biden delivers the State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress at the US Capitol, Tuesday, Feb. 7, 2023, in Washington, as Vice President Kamala Harris and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy listen.   (Jacquelyn Martin, Pool)

One big theme in coverage of President Biden's Tuesday night State of the Union address? The POTUS was scrappy and seemed to relish it. As Politico's headline briefly put it, "Biden pokes the elephant." Some quick takes and reactions:

  • CNN offers a few takeaways from the SOTU here. Kevin Liptak notes the president "powered through" despite the clear and open hostility aimed his way from the other side of the aisle. "The spectacle of Biden smiling and offering a pointed riposte through multiple rounds of heckling from some House Republicans was, in many ways, an apt illustration of his presidency and a useful preview of his likely 2024 candidacy," Liptak writes. Another takeaway? Despite his age, he showed "vigor" and energy, per Liptak.

  • At Fox News, however, David N. Bossie illustrates how Republicans saw the speech: He says Biden "was in full spin mode from the get-go, behaving more like a desperate candidate on the campaign trail." Bossie also says Biden's speech failed to reflect on the "obvious takeaway," which, according to Bossie, is that Republicans took control of the House of Representatives in the midterms "because the American people voted against the president's left-wing agenda."
  • At NBC News, Jonathan Allen delves into the moment Marjorie Taylor Greene called Biden a liar, when the president was accusing Republicans of going after Medicare and social security. He "went off-script" to accept Greene's comment "as on-the-spot agreement from the GOP to keep the programs intact," proving he was "nimble enough ... to box them in on Social Security and Medicare."
  • Vox runs down five winners and two losers from the SOTU here. Among the winners: "The ad-libbing old-school Joe Biden."
  • If you're looking for economic takeaways, CNBC has those here. Among the topics: billionaire tax, junk fees, and the insulin price cap.
  • If it's fact-checking you're interested in, outlets including CNN, the Hill, the Washington Post, the New York Times, and PolitiFact did that.
  • The Post also looks at 39 "key proposals, pledges, or priorities" from last year's SOTU and runs down which ones flopped and which ones succeeded in the year since.
Politico has a full transcript of Tuesday's speech here. (Sarah Huckabee Sanders offered the GOP rebuttal to Biden's address.)

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