President Joe Biden delivered a powerful State of the Union address on Thursday, setting the tone for his reelection campaign, seeking to ease Democrats’ concerns about his age and his unconditional support for Israel’s war in Gaza.
Biden also used the speech to step up his attacks on Donald Trump and contrast with the Republican presidential nominee’s positions on key issues.
Observers hailed the speech as a potential reset point for Biden’s campaign, which has been weighed down by the president’s low approval ratings.
“This was a well-crafted speech,” said Jennifer R. Mercieca, a presidential rhetoric scholar and professor of communications at Texas A&M University. “The Democratic Party has [a] Great night,” she told VOA.
The speech laid out a blueprint for the Biden campaign’s strategy for approaching the president’s victory and its issue areas.
Defend freedom and democracy
Biden has struck hard on the issues on which he is most confident: Ukraine, election integrity, abortion, taxes and federal programs. He spoke in the broader context of defending freedoms and democracy, which he believes are threatened at home by Trump and abroad by Moscow’s aggression.
He reminded Americans that it was Trump who gave the conservative majority to the Supreme Court and struck down legal protections for women’s right to abortion. “My God, what more freedoms are you taking away?” he asked. He described pushing for gun control as “freedom to be safe” and expanding minority voting rights as “freedom to vote.”
These issues have broad support among Biden and his supporters. Seeking to wrest the mantle of economic populism from Trump, Biden has laid out a progressive vision of his social welfare agenda, proposing to reshape the corporate tax system so that the wealthiest Americans pay more.
By pledging to protect American freedoms and democracy, Biden is taking advantage public dissatisfaction How democracy works in the country; approval rate hits record low 28%.
However, Chris Tuttle, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, said that while linking the protection of freedom and democracy at home and abroad was a “clever rhetorical move” for a speech, it was not clear that the November speech could How to effectively motivate voters. Voice of America.
Pro-Palestinian groups in Biden’s base point to his handling of Gaza as an example of the hypocrisy of his fight for freedom.
Hassan Abdul Salam, a representative of the “Dump Biden” movement led by disillusioned former supporters of the president, said Biden quoted Ronald Reagan in his speech, who asked Mikhail Gorbachev “tear down the wall” that surrounded what was then West Berlin.
“He remains silent when all we want to do is call on the Israeli government to finally ‘tear down this wall,’ which has brought death, destruction and starvation to innocent people,” Salam told VOA.
A more balanced approach to Gaza
As casualties mounted, Biden became increasingly candid with Israel, offering a rare rebuke that “humanitarian aid cannot be a secondary consideration or a bargaining chip.”
In addition to ordering the U.S. military to airdrop aid, he also directed the U.S. military to build a temporary dock on the Gaza coast to facilitate the delivery of aid from Cyprus, an unusual and expensive operation.
William F. Wexler, senior director of the Rafik Hariri Center and Middle East Program, told VOA that the president has become increasingly frustrated with the way Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has handled the humanitarian crisis, and Unwillingness to commit to a two-state solution.
Biden’s campaign is betting that Democrats angered by the president’s Gaza policies will decide on Election Day that the alternative will be worse if a more balanced approach is adopted. But that bet hinges on the prospect of a lasting ceasefire and Washington’s continued unconditional support for Israel.
“Criticizing Netanyahu’s war and helping him in one breath is ridiculous [with] “Another $10 billion is going to continue the next war,” said progressive Democratic Senator Bernie Sanders.
Stay strong and stable in China
Robert Daley, director of the Wilson Center’s Kissinger Institute on China, said that while China has long been prepared to deal with attacks from both parties in the United States in an election year, Biden’s speech showed that the issue may not be as important during the campaign. Beijing imagined it would receive so much attention. and the United States.
“Biden’s record on standing up to China is strong enough that Republicans may not want to have a debate,” Daley told VOA.
Biden stressed that he wanted competition, not conflict, with China, saying the United States was capable of winning because of moves to reinvigorate Pacific partnerships and alliances, maintain stability across the Taiwan Strait and ensure advanced U.S. technology was not used. in Chinese weapons.
“Frankly, despite all the tough talk my predecessor had on China, I never expected to do that,” Biden quipped.
Border issues blamed on Trump and Republicans
Undocumented immigrants are crossing the U.S.-Mexico border in unprecedented numbers, making immigration a top issue for voters and a vulnerability for Biden.
Earlier this year, Senate Republicans blocked a bipartisan bill that would have given Biden the power to stop accepting asylum applications when the number of migrants reaches a certain number and provide more funding for agencies and courts to expedite the backlog. Asylum procedures.
Biden put the blame on Trump and Republicans, accusing them of blocking the bill so they could continue their campaign against chaos at the border.
Confronting Trump Head-on
Whether voters will ultimately side with the president on key issues remains to be seen, but many of Biden’s core supporters are happy to see the president go head-to-head with Trump.
“The president brings the passion and swagger that black voters have been waiting for,” said Adrianne Shropshire, a Democratic strategist and executive director of BlackPAC. “We knew we were in a fight and they wanted to see the president and vice president fistfight,” she told VOA.
Among the topics that matter most to young voters — climate change, reproductive opportunity, gun violence prevention and student debt, said DeNora Getachew, CEO of the youth-focused activist center DoSomething.org — making progress is key.
However, Getachew told VOA that in this election year, the general mood among young people about a Biden-Trump rematch is “disappointment, if not disbelief.”
She said the president needs to instill hope that victory in 2024 means he will take decisive action to eliminate the “polarization and inaction” in Congress that is eroding trust in political institutions and American democracy.
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