5 Takeaways From President Biden's State Of The Union Speech

Perhaps the most powerful moment in the night came when Biden acknowledged the parents of Tyre Nichols, who attended the event as guests of First Lady Jill Biden. The president, who has endured the deaths of two children and his first wife, empathized with the grieving parents. “As many of you personally know, there’s no words to describe the heartache or grief of losing a child,” Biden said before adding, “But imagine, imagine if you lost that child at the hands of the law.” Though not mentioned by the president, Michael Brown Sr., whose teenage son was killed in an encounter with police in Ferguson, Missouri, in 2014, also attended at the invitation of Rep. Cori Bush.

Biden went beyond acknowledging the pain felt by the families of Tyre Nichols and other victims of police violence. “What happened to Tyre in Memphis happens too often,” the president said. While complimenting police for engaging in meaningful and dangerous work, Biden also called for greater accountability, listing several reforms he urged to implement. He noted that as president, he had issued an executive order for federal officers that included several provisions from the defeated George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, such as banning chokeholds and limiting no-knock warrants. But having had the George Floyd Act defeated just before last year’s State of the Union, Biden did not explicitly call for Congress to renew debate on that proposal. He only mentioned other priorities like voting rights in passing. With a divided Congress, the president seems resigned to the idea that only limited reforms in these areas will come from the federal government.

The State of the Union is always a visual showcase for the vice president, who traditionally sits in a prominent spot directly behind the president’s right shoulder. As Harris led the applause for Biden’s accomplishments, the president took multiple moments to single out Harris’ achievements. First, he thanked the vice president for leading efforts “to make sure small businesses have access to capital.” Later, he said, “The vice president and I are doing everything to protect access to reproductive health care and safeguard patient safety” in the wake of the overturning of Roe v. Wade. With people on both sides of the aisle throwing criticisms and shade at Harris, Biden’s mentions of Harris’ accomplishments were intentional efforts to reinforce her status.

With some people questioning Biden’s plans to run for reelection and leaders like former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi already stepping aside, this State of the Union had a subtext of passing the torch to a new generation of Democratic leaders, and a few rising Black Democrats got their moment. For example, at the beginning of Biden’s speech, he recognized “the First African American House minority leader in history, Hakeem Jeffries,” with the president adding that he had campaigned for Jeffries. And at the end of the night, as Biden mingled with the political establishment after his speech, Black New York Democratic Rep. Jamaal Bowman yelled across the chamber, “Mr. President, that was awesome!”

Rep. Jamaal Bowman just shouted to Biden from halfway across the House chamber: "Mr President, that was awesome" he says with a fist pump

Biden looks up from a huge gaggle of members/Supreme Court justices/Joint chiefs/etc

— Sarah Ferris (@sarahnferris) February 8, 2023

Meanwhile, Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders gave the Republican response to the speech, doubling down on the policies she and other Republicans have implemented “to ban CRT, racism and indoctrination in our schools,” and to make the false accusation that by teaching accurate American history, “our children are taught to hate one another on account of their race, but not to love one another or our great country.” Perhaps unaware of the behavior of her colleagues who were present for the State of the Union, Sanders said without any apparent sense of irony that “the dividing line in America is no longer between right or left. The choice is between normal or crazy.”

While Biden set the agenda for his administration and began to highlight some of the leaders expected to carry on the legacy of his administration, renewed antagonism from Republicans means that the next two years will be contentious. Regardless of how much Biden’s speech called for bipartisan cooperation, making good on the promises for police reform and other priorities will be a long and hard fight.