AMAC Exclusive – By Aaron Flanigan
After a historically tumultuous first two years in office, Joe Biden delivered his second State of the Union address on Tuesday. Despite his historic unpopularity, catalogue of national disasters, lack of policy accomplishments, and growing concerns about his age and competence, the 73-minute speech was the subject of seemingly endless praise from the liberal mainstream press – perhaps hinting that the media may be gearing up for a hard push on Biden’s behalf. The American people, however, almost certainly had a different response.
Here are a few lowlights from the speech and the media reaction to it.
1. Biden Lies About Record on Everything from Inflation to Immigration
Much like his first State of the Union address last year, Biden downplayed—and in some cases completely ignored—many of the crises that have come to define the first two years of his presidency. For instance, despite widespread consensus by economists that Biden’s gargantuan spending bills and war on American energy production have led to dire economic conditions and exacerbated inflationary forces, the president contended that the nation’s 40-year-high inflation was simply a result of the “pandemic” and “Putin’s unfair and brutal war in Ukraine.”
Furthermore, although Biden maintained that inflation is “coming down,” real wages continue to decline. A recent ABC News poll also found that only 16 percent of Americans believe they are better off in the Biden economy, and that a record number of Americans consider themselves to be worse off.
But this was just the beginning of Biden’s fabrication of his record. As the country faces a devastating surge in violent crime triggered by Democrats’ soft-on-crime policies, Biden dismissed any increases as a result of “the pandemic,” and then implicitly invoked the left’s baseless narrative that law enforcement is systemically racist—incorrectly suggesting that American police officers routinely “violate the public trust” by disproportionately targeting “black and brown” Americans.
After reversing each of the Trump administration’s border security policies and overseeing the worst border crisis on record, Biden then had the gall to urge Republicans to “secure the border” and “come together on immigration and make it a bipartisan issue once again”—which according to him means mass amnesty for the millions of people already here illegally. As Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) noted, Biden’s speech was “fundamentally dishonest”—and did nothing to advance the “unity” Biden promised last night.
2. Biden Lies About GOP Agenda, Then Admits it in Real Time
In one of the most stunning moments in any State of the Union address in recent history, Biden bizarrely claimed that Republicans “want Medicare and Social Security to sunset.” After being met with a chorus of boos, he then immediately walked back his claim in an apparent admission that he was lying. “As we all apparently agree,” he said just seconds later. “Social Security and Medicare is off the books now… We’ve got unanimity.”
This episode marked perhaps the first moment in presidential history that a sitting president was forced to concede he was lying in real time. But just as significantly, it demonstrates the remarkable extent to which Donald Trump has shifted the GOP’s priorities. Prior to Trump’s election in 2016, it would be difficult to imagine the near-unanimous Republican outrage in response to Biden’s claim. As The American Conservative reporter Bradley Devlin observed in response to the interaction, “It’s Trump’s GOP, whether or not he gets the nomination in ‘24.”
3. Once Again, Biden Leans on Trump Rhetorically
In another sign of Trump’s staying power both in the Republican Party and in Washington, D.C., more broadly, Biden on multiple occasions invoked classic Trumpian lines and rhetoric in a desperate attempt to bolster his faltering image and policy platform. Like last year’s State of the Union, Biden cynically appealed to the American manufacturing industry in a way that closely echoes lines from former President Donald Trump’s speeches. “For decades, the middle class has been hollowed out,” Biden said. “Once-thriving cities and towns that many of you represent became shadows of what they used to be.”
In the most flagrant instance of plagiarizing Trump, however, Biden echoed the signature line from Trump’s first inaugural address that “the forgotten men and women of our country will be forgotten no longer.”
“My economic plan is about investing in places and people that have been forgotten. So many of you listening to me tonight, I know you feel it. So many of you felt like you’ve just simply been forgotten,” said Biden. As political commentator Matthew J. Peterson quipped, Biden’s “just going to just up and outright declare we must Make America Great Again and start imitating Trump’s voice and diction by the end of this isn’t he?”
4. Delivery, Optics of Speech Did Not Inspire Confidence
Throughout the remarks, Biden frequently resorted to yelling—often appearing unnecessarily agitated from the podium, not unlike his infamous September 2022 speech from Independence Hall. In a sign of his old age, Biden also regularly mispronounced and omitted words in his remarks. But to make matters worse for the president, Kamala Harris constantly stood up and applauded during awkward moments during the speech—including those in which Biden’s language was indiscernible. As Rich Lowry observed on Twitter, “[N]o one is going to watch him deliver this speech and think, ‘This is a guy who is up for being president of the United States until he’s age 86.’”
But the lack of confidence inspired by Biden’s address went far beyond his shaky delivery. Despite his stated intention to “to unite the country” last night, Biden failed to offer any bold, visionary policy plans that large segments of the nation could rally behind. Instead, large sections of the speech read like a laundry list of far-left, small-ball policy proposals designed to shore up every possible left-wing constituency as he nears a decision on his 2024 plans. As Trump advisor Jason Miller noted, “Americans still want to be inspired. To improve life for themselves and their families, and also to aim for the stars.” Biden, however, failed to offer that.
5. Media Gushes Over Speech, Signaling Support for Biden in 2024
In the latest sign that the media is no longer capable of objectively processing political reality, the left-wing media complex almost unanimously lauded Biden’s remarks as, in the words of the New York Times, the “best speech of his presidency.” “That was a terrific and rousing speech,” wrote Michelle Goldberg. Moreover, despite Biden’s frequent off-key screaming, Frank Bruni praised Biden as a “happy warrior” with “improbable joy.” This sentiment was echoed by the likes of CNN, MSNBC, and a slew of other networks and publications—suggesting that the media’s persistent partisan spin on every national story is not going anywhere anytime soon.
From its one-sided coverage of the Chinese spy balloon to censoring the Hunter Biden laptop story to the Columbia Journalism Review’s exposé on media bias pertaining to the Russiagate narrative, the media is increasingly becoming a propaganda instrument for the Democratic Party and woke regime—which could become a major issue as the 2024 presidential election continues to gear into action. And perhaps most notably, the left’s rave reviews of Biden’s speech suggest that, despite growing questions concerning a potential primary challenge, the media establishment is all in on Biden 2024.
But after a speech defined in large part by its dishonesty, finger-pointing, and radical policy agenda, the media, the Democratic Party, and the nation itself may find it is in their best interest to look elsewhere.
Aaron Flanigan is the pen name of a writer in Washington, D.C.
