Biden’s speech on the State of the Union: keys to an intervention with electoral overtones

The US president, Joe Biden, has prepared this Tuesday the ground for his re-election in 2024 with a speech in which he He has marked differences with the Republicans, has endured boos and has tried to always staying above, convinced that his mission is to restore “the soul” of the country. “Because the soul of our nation is strong, because the backbone of this nation is strong, because the people of this nation are strong, because the State of the Union is strong. As I stand here tonight, I have never felt so optimistic. about the future of America,” Biden proclaimed in his speech to Congress.

Biden’s second State of the Union address has come at a tipping point: midway through his term and just weeks before he officially announces whether he will run for re-election in the 2024 election, even though he has already said that intends to do it. His speech, 72 minutes, has been focused on national politics and the objective was to talk about the economy and other issues that concern the millions of Americans who were watching from home. If last year Biden began his speech by talking about the invasion that Russian President Vladimir Putin had just launched on Ukraine; this time the name of the Russian leader did not arrive until after the hour of the speech.

The phrases he repeated the most during his speech were: “Let’s finish the job!” and “We’re just getting started!”, which he’s used to urge Congress to pass some of the policies he came to office with, like lowering insulin prices, that he hasn’t yet gotten through. Despite the bitter exchanges with the opposition, which showed the division of the country, Biden has wanted to portray himself as a leader capable of reaching agreements with the Republicans and reestablish decency in American politics, the idea that already focused his campaign for the 2020 elections. As then, Biden has assumed the mission of giving comfort and transmitting security to a nation submerged in economic uncertainty, the fear of a recession , and that he views the war in Ukraine and the growing tensions with China with concern.

speech keys

Biden has made this Tuesday an appeal to the US Congress to Ban Assault Rifles and Reform the Police, all referring to the latest shootings in the country and police abuses against the black population. The US president has asked the country’s legislators to save lives by banning assault weapons “once and for all”, recalling that a temporary ban approved in 1994 led to a decrease in shootings for a period of ten years, as he has highlighted. during his intervention in the State of the Union. Likewise, he has urged congressmen to carry out a reform of the Police after several police officers from the city of Memphis fatally beat a young African-American man, Tire Nichols.

On the other hand, the US leader has indicated that the steel, cement and other materials used for the construction of federal infrastructures Must be made in the United States. “Tonight, I announce new standards to require that all construction materials used for federal infrastructure be made in the United States,” said Biden, who at another point in his speech insisted that his goal is not only for supply chains guaranteed but rather “begin” in the United States, he went further with his commitment to use his own materials in construction financed by the federal government.

biden too has defended the right of women to choose and has warned on camera that if Congress passes a national abortion ban, it will veto it. “If Congress approves a national ban on abortion, I will veto it,” said the president, who recalled in his State of the Union address that “here at the Casa del Pueblo, it is our duty to protect all rights and freedoms of people”. It should be remembered that this is the first State of the Union address that the president has given since the Supreme Court struck down the ‘Roe v. Wade’ ruling that had protected the right to abortion in the United States since 1973. Since then it has been in the hands of each state the decision so that 18 of the 50 states in the country have prohibited abortion or have severely restricted it.

The American president has stressed that will also veto attempts to repeal its inflation reduction law, especially if they seek to prevent the reduction in the prices of medicines. “Some members (of Congress) are threatening to withdraw the inflation reduction law. Make no mistake, if you try to do anything to increase the cost of drugs, I will veto it,” he stressed. And he has recalled some of the plans of the Republicans, who “instead of making the richest pay their fair share, they want to put clauses to review plans like Medicare or Social Security every five years and they want” the United States to drown in its own debt for the first time in its history”.

Biden avoids mentioning the classified papers scandal, one of the biggest controversies of his legislature

Another of the key points of Biden’s speech has gone through legislation to develop laws that allow stricter limits to be imposed on the personal data that technology companies collect about citizens: “It’s time to pass bipartisan legislation to prevent Big Tech from collecting personal data from children and teens online, ban advertising directed at children, and impose stricter limits on the personal data these companies collect about all of us.” insured whatIt’s time to “hold social media companies accountable for the experiment they’re running with our children for profit”.

Despite the fact that in recent weeks they have been the center of the political scuffle in the United States, the classified papers that the president and other politicians improperly kept they have not had a single mention in the State of the Union address. This January it was revealed that in November the president’s team had found sensitive and classified documents from the time when he was vice president of Barack Obama (2009-2017) and when he was a senator (1973-2009). Since then the US government has announced the discovery of more documents several times. On January 12, the United States Attorney General, Merrick Garland, announced the appointment of a special prosecutor, the conservative Robert Hur, who will study all the classified papers found.

A few days ago, the discovery of documents in the house of former Vice President Mike Pence also came to light, a situation that, added to the papers found in the mansion of former President Donald Trump, forced the National Archives to ask all former presidents and former vice presidents of the country to review your personal records in case they might contain confidential documents. Both the White House and Biden himself have insisted from the beginning on their total willingness to collaborate in the investigations of the Department of Justice and they have tried to distance themselves from the case of the classified documents found by the FBI in Trump’s mansion, for which he is also being investigated.

Trump charges against Biden

Former US President Donald Trump, candidate for the presidency in 2024, took the opportunity to criticize Biden shortly after, noting that is leading the country “to World War III”. “He is bringing us to the brink of World War III. And on top of all that, he is the most corrupt president in American history,” he has stated in his response to his State of the Union address. For Trump, Biden accumulates a balance of debt and border and immigration problems since he came to power in January 2021. “The good news is that we are going to reverse every crisis, calamity and disaster that Joe Biden has created. I aspire to the presidency to to end the destruction of our country and to finish the unfinished business to make America great again,” he said.

Trump has considered that the true “State of the Union” is a country where “millions and millions” of immigrants have crossed the border illegally, in which drug cartels rake in “billions of dollars” and in which “savage murderers, rapists and violent criminals are released from jail to continue their crime spree.” Biden and the Democrats, he added, “have wasted trillions of dollars and caused the worst inflation in half a century. Real wages have fallen for the 21st straight month and gas prices have skyrocketed.” His criticism of his successor also considered that he has “instrumentalized” the Justice Department, and he himself considered himself a “victim” of this and of the “persecution” of “his political opponents.”