Republican and Democratic lawmakers walked away from President Biden’s State of the Union address with very different impressions on Thursday night — as expected.
GOP legislators in the House and Senate called the 81-year-old president an “old man” while blasting his speech as a political campaign speech ahead of the November election.
Democrats, meanwhile, praised Biden’s energy and “strong” address.
“This was not supposed to be a progressive stump speech, this was supposed to be a State of the Union, and I’m not sure we really got that,” Rep. Stephanie Bice, R-Okla., told Fox News Digital.
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U.S. President Joe Biden delivers the annual State of the Union address before a joint session of Congress in the House chamber at the Capital building on March 7, 2024 in Washington, DC. (Shawn Thew-Pool/Getty Images)
Rep. Don Bacon, R-Neb., called Biden’s speech “the most political” State of the Union he’s ever heard. “It was not a dignified State of the Union address. It was a partisan stump speech,” Bacon said.
Republican Study Committee Chairman Kevin Hern, R-Okla., told Fox News Digital, “It sounded more like a campaign speech than it did a State of the Union.”
“He talked a lot about his predecessor, which is also his opponent, so he used this platform to run for office as opposed to telling the American people that he’s accountable for what’s happened the last three and a half years with 20% inflation since he’s been in office, you know, trillions of dollars in debt, and more big government, more spending more regulation,” Hern said.
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Rep. Don Bacon, R-Neb., blasted Biden’s speech as a campaign address
Rep. Ben Cline, R-Va., told Fox News Digital that Biden seemed “very shrill and very angry.”
“And his solutions are very tired – I mean, he’s been here 50 years, his solutions are the same tax and spend policies that got us into this inflationary spiral that we’ve been in,” he said.
Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., said, “It was a campaign rally. It wasn’t a serious speech.”
Biden’s allies, like Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii., came away with a very different view.
“I’ve been here for 12 years, that was probably the best State of the Union I’ve ever heard,” Schatz told Fox News Digital.
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President Joe Biden delivers the State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress at the Capitol, Thursday, March 7, 2024, in Washington. Standing at left is Vice President Kamala Harris and seated at right is House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La. ((Shawn Thew/Pool via AP))
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Rep. Don Beyer, D-Va., suggested Biden was able to dispel concerns about his age while also painting a distinct contrast between himself and the GOP.
“I thought it was great. He had lots of energy,” Beyer told Fox News Digital. “It’s not about his age, it’s about the quality of his ideas, and he clearly laid out two different Americas — our America, which is based on dignity, humanity and decency. And the contrary view which is revenge and hate and retribution.”