'He nailed it': Republican strategist reacts to Biden's speech

CNN
8 Mar 202409:22

Summary

TLDRThe transcript discusses the President's recent address, highlighting his performance and the reactions from various political figures. The President's energy and ability to connect with the audience were noted, as well as his focus on his vision for the future and the stark contrast between his policies and those of his Republican counterparts. The panelists, including Democratic Congresswoman Debbie Dingell, New Yorker staff writer Evan Osnos, and Republican strategist Sarah Longwell, shared their insights on how the speech might influence independent and swing voters, and the importance of the President's demeanor in reassuring the public of his fitness for a second term.

Takeaways

  • ๐Ÿ›๏ธ The president's primary objective was to demonstrate his fitness for a second term.
  • ๐ŸŽ‰ He was seen as energetic and engaged throughout the evening, drawing energy from the room.
  • ๐Ÿ—ฃ๏ธ The president's speech aimed to reassure Americans of his vigor and precision.
  • ๐Ÿค He interacted with attendees, including congress members, showcasing his ability to connect.
  • ๐Ÿ“ฃ The speech highlighted accomplishments of the past three years and laid out a vision for the future.
  • ๐Ÿ’™ The president addressed issues important to the middle class and women's rights.
  • ๐Ÿšจ There was a clear contrast drawn between the current administration and the previous one.
  • ๐Ÿค” The speech was designed to appeal to independent voters and swing states.
  • ๐ŸŒŸ The president's performance was well-received, as indicated by the reaction of Republican attendees.
  • ๐ŸŽญ There was a notable moment with Marjorie Taylor Greene, which the president handled with personal empathy.
  • ๐Ÿ“ˆ The overall tone of the speech was seen as a shift in approach, focusing on offense and maintaining a balance.

Q & A

  • What was the main objective for the president during his speech last night?

    -The main objective was to prove that he is fit for a second term.

Outlines

00:00

๐Ÿ—ฃ๏ธ Presidential Performance and Reassurance

The first paragraph discusses the president's performance during a recent event, highlighting his energy, ability to connect with the audience, and his successful delivery of a long speech. The panelists, including Democratic Congresswoman Debbie Dingell, New Yorker staff writer Evan Osnos, and Republican strategist Sarah Longwell, share their perspectives on how the president addressed various topics, including his vision for the future, accomplishments of the past three years, and the stark contrast between his policies and those of his Republican counterparts. They also touch on the president's interaction with Marjorie Taylor Greene and his ability to manage potentially volatile situations with grace and control.

05:00

๐ŸŽฉ Confrontation with Marjorie Taylor Greene

The second paragraph focuses on a specific encounter between the president and Marjorie Taylor Greene, who was wearing a 'Make America Great Again' hat and a button with the name Lincoln Riley, a victim of an undocumented immigrant. The president's response to the button, expressing sympathy for the family's loss, is discussed, as well as the political implications of his choice of words. The panelists analyze the president's handling of the situation, his ability to maintain control, and the impact of the incident on swing voters. They also reflect on the overall behavior of Republicans during the event, noting a significant shift in their conduct compared to previous occasions.

Mindmap

Keywords

๐Ÿ’กSecond Term Fitness

This refers to the president's ability and readiness to serve another term in office. In the video, there's a significant emphasis on proving the president's fitness for a second term. This concept is critical as it pertains to the president's health, vitality, and capability to lead effectively, considering the demands of the presidency.

๐Ÿ’กEvan Osnos

Evan Osnos is a staff writer for The New Yorker, known for his political profiles. In the script, he provides insights into the president's performance and demeanor during the event, highlighting aspects like the president's energy and the way he engaged with the audience.

๐Ÿ’กDemocratic Congresswoman Debbie Dingell

Debbie Dingell is a Democratic Congresswoman featured in the video. Her perspective is significant as she provides a Democratic viewpoint on the president's speech and actions, reflecting on his achievements and his vision for the future.

๐Ÿ’กRepublican Strategist Sarah Longwell

Sarah Longwell is a Republican strategist who comments on the president's performance and its reception among Republican voters. Her insights are crucial for understanding the bipartisan reception of the president's actions and how they resonate across the political spectrum.

๐Ÿ’กIndependent Voters

Independent voters are individuals not aligned with any particular political party. In the script, there's a discussion about the president's appeal to this group, as they are a crucial demographic in elections due to their potential to swing the vote.

๐Ÿ’กNikki Haley

Nikki Haley is mentioned in the context of independent voters' preferences. Her mention suggests a comparison of political figures and how different personalities appeal to various voter segments, especially in swing states.

๐Ÿ’กVision for the Future

This refers to the president's plan and goals for the nation's future. In the script, there's a focus on how the president laid out his vision during his speech, which is vital for rallying support and providing a roadmap for his potential second term.

๐Ÿ’กMiddle Class Support

Support for the middle class is highlighted as a key aspect of the president's agenda. This is significant as it relates to economic policies and initiatives aimed at improving the lives of middle-income Americans, a large and influential demographic.

๐Ÿ’กWomen's Rights

Women's rights, particularly in the context of the script, refers to the president's commitment to protecting and advancing these rights. This topic is a pivotal part of his vision, showcasing his stance on gender equality and reproductive rights.

๐Ÿ’กMarjorie Taylor Greene

Marjorie Taylor Greene is a controversial political figure mentioned in the script. Her interaction with the president and the reactions it provoked are significant for understanding the current political climate and divisions within it.

๐Ÿ’กState of the Union

Although not explicitly mentioned, the context suggests the script revolves around a State of the Union-like address. This is an annual speech delivered by the president to Congress, outlining the administration's accomplishments and future agenda.

Highlights

The president's top line objective was to prove his fitness for a second term.

The president was seen as energetic and executing his tasks effectively during the event.

The president's ability to draw energy from the room was noted, especially his interaction with the audience.

The president's speech reassured many Americans who were unsure of his capabilities.

The president laid out a vision for the future, emphasizing accomplishments of the past three years.

The president called out Republicans for taking credit for policies they did not vote for.

The stark contrast between the president's vision and the Republican agenda was highlighted.

The president's performance was well-received, as indicated by the annoyance of Republicans the next morning.

The president's ability to manage the stakes and reassure voters was a key point of the speech.

The president's interaction with Marjorie Taylor Greene and his response to her stunt was discussed.

The president's personal touch in addressing the loss of children, drawing from his own experience, was noted.

The disciplined behavior of Republicans during the speech was remarked upon.

The absence of Republicans on the floor after the speech was observed.

The president's ability to manage a potentially volatile situation with Marjorie Taylor Greene was praised.

The president's speech was seen as a shift in tone, focusing on offense.

The president's interaction with Lindsey Graham, highlighting their past friendship, was mentioned.

The president's use of the term 'illegal' in reference to immigration was discussed and its impact on the audience.

The overall perception of the president's speech by swing voters and its potential impact on the political landscape was analyzed.

Transcripts

00:00

Last night wasn't all deadly serious.

00:01

One of the other objectives

00:03

for the president last night,

00:04

of course, was possibly

00:05

the top line objective,

00:06

which everyone I'm talking to says he met

00:09

is to prove that he is

00:10

fit for a second term

00:13

I know it may not look like it,

00:14

but I've been around a while

00:18

where you get to be my age,

00:19

certain things become clearer than ever.

00:23

All right.

00:23

Our panel joins us now.

00:24

Democratic Congresswoman

00:25

Debbie Dingell is back with us,

00:27

along with New Yorker

00:28

staff writer

00:28

Evan Osnos

00:29

and Republican strategist Sarah Longwell.

00:33

Evan, I want to start with you.

00:34

Only because you spent so much time

00:35

kind of profiling the president.

00:37

What did you see from him last night?

00:39

He clearly was basking in the moment

00:42

and he came to do a task.

00:44

It seems like he executed on it.

00:45

Yeah,

00:45

I think from the moment

00:46

he left the White House,

00:47

you saw it a little skipping his step.

00:49

He got his way over there to the chamber.

00:51

First thing he did

00:51

is he says hello to everybody on

00:53

two feet, including congresswoman,

00:55

including Congressman King.

00:56

You know, look, he is he

00:58

draws energy from a room like that.

01:01

He sort of gained

01:02

some speed

01:02

over the course of the evening,

01:04

gave a long speech, gave it well

01:06

and stayed longer probably than anybody

01:09

expected him to.

01:10

Look, the bar,

01:11

as we know

01:12

last night, was to say to Americans,

01:15

I can do this

01:16

I've got the vigor,

01:16

I've got the precision.

01:18

And look,

01:18

there are flubs along the way

01:19

that's inevitable.

01:20

But this is about giving.

01:21

There were a lot of Americans

01:23

who weren't sure

01:23

what they were going to see last night.

01:24

And I think a lot of people

01:25

came out of there feeling reassured.

01:27

Congressman, what do you think

01:28

he said to independent voters?

01:30

I mean, they're

01:30

sort of an increasingly small slice,

01:32

but a lot of them came out

01:33

and voted for Nikki Haley.

01:35

Clearly, there are

01:36

people in your state of Michigan,

01:39

other swing states.

01:40

What do you think

01:41

the president gave to those voters

01:42

last night?

01:43

Well, first of all, I agree with 70.

01:45

He did a great job.

01:46

And I, I

01:47

as you know, I told you last night,

01:49

I thought he would do a great job.

01:50

That audience is his element.

01:52

And I wasn't surprised

01:53

at how long he stayed because he

01:54

you know, he lives in a bubble

01:56

and they don't let him talk to people.

01:57

And he had all of his friends there.

01:58

So he was happier.

01:59

But I think he also laid out a vision.

02:01

He laid out his vision for the future.

02:03

He did.

02:04

You know,

02:04

I think one of the things

02:05

all of us have not done

02:06

a good job

02:07

about is talking

02:08

about what we have gotten accomplished

02:10

in the last three years.

02:12

He reminded people of all of the things

02:13

that we've gotten done

02:15

called Republicans on some of it

02:16

like lowering

02:17

prescription drugs

02:18

and the infrastructure bill

02:20

and the money out there.

02:21

And, hey,

02:22

most of you didn't vote for it,

02:23

but you're taking credit for it. Now.

02:25

That was one of my favorite lines.

02:27

But he laid out his vision.

02:29

And I think

02:29

it is a very stark choice between another

02:33

four years of Joe Biden

02:34

what he wants to do,

02:35

how he's going

02:36

to support the middle class,

02:37

how he's going to

02:38

protect people's

02:39

freedom, starting with women's

02:42

rights and women's freedom

02:43

and very much in

02:44

that democracy was at stake

02:46

and made it wasn't afraid to call out.

02:48

You're right.

02:48

You didn't use Donald Trump's name,

02:50

but he told people and reminded them

02:52

they were proud that they overturn

02:53

Roe versus Wade.

02:54

They won a national abortion ban,

02:56

that he wants to repeal the Affordable

02:58

Care Act, that his boot and friend

02:59

and I could go on.

03:01

I think that was a very excellent speech.

03:03

And clear, stark

03:05

contrast the country needs to see.

03:07

Sarah Longwell,

03:07

you've talked to a lot of

03:09

Republican voters

03:11

and voters in general

03:12

about what they expect

03:14

from President Biden.

03:15

And we were talking yesterday

03:16

about how

03:17

they had set the bar incredibly low.

03:20

What is your view

03:21

of how he performed last night

03:22

and how it's going to be received

03:24

by some of these voters?

03:25

Well, you can tell how well he did by

03:28

how annoyed Republicans are this morning

03:30

at last night.

03:31

You could just see how upset they were.

03:34

And I think look, for a lot of voters,

03:36

they think the stakes

03:37

are incredibly high.

03:39

And I think the fear has been

03:40

that Joe Biden can't hit

03:43

you know, can't manage

03:44

where the stakes are like

03:45

isn't good enough

03:46

to to take us through this moment.

03:48

And last night,

03:50

what he said

03:51

was for the Democratic base

03:53

but how he said it was for swing voters

03:55

who needed to see

03:57

that this guy was all there,

03:58

that he could do the job.

04:00

And I told you yesterday

04:02

when I was on the show,

04:03

the Republicans have made a mistake

04:04

because they set the bar at dementia.

04:07

And that if look,

04:09

if that's what dementia,

04:10

I hope that's how I have dementia.

04:12

When I'm older

04:13

because he was on his game, the energy

04:16

and he did the thing that I think

04:18

Joe Biden is particularly good at,

04:20

where he sparred

04:21

with the Republicans

04:22

he he somehow managed to have it

04:23

be incredibly political.

04:25

He managed to be going

04:26

right at Republicans,

04:27

but often was also like joking

04:29

with them, smiling at them,

04:31

egging them on a little bit.

04:33

And it gave this balance to the speech

04:34

that I think

04:35

just worked really well for him.

04:37

And it was offense. It was offense.

04:39

He's been leading this shift

04:41

change the tone.

04:42

And I think he nailed it.

04:43

You could see Lindsey Graham

04:44

at one point,

04:45

you know, laughing at him

04:46

in the audience. Right.

04:47

It's like he's almost forgotten

04:48

that they were friends

04:49

for so many years before Lindsey

04:50

Graham was suddenly very close

04:52

to Donald Trump.

04:53

There was one particular moment that he

04:57

he basically adlibbed

04:58

because of something that happened

05:00

on his way down the aisle.

05:02

He encountered Marjorie

05:03

Taylor Greene in a read

05:04

Make America

05:05

Great Again

05:05

hat and a button

05:06

with the name Lincoln Riley on it.

05:08

She, of course, was there,

05:09

the nursing student in Georgia

05:11

who was killed

05:12

by an undocumented immigrant.

05:13

He took the button

05:14

and then he did this from the dais

05:21

Lincoln, Lincoln, Riley,

05:24

an innocent young woman who was killed

05:27

by an illegal That's right.

05:30

But how many have thousands of people

05:31

being killed by illegals?

05:34

To her parents,

05:35

I say

05:35

my heart goes out to you

05:36

having lost children myself, I understand

05:41

even I've heard

05:41

from a number of Democrats

05:42

already this morning that they didn't

05:44

love the way

05:44

the language that he used,

05:45

that he said illegal There

05:48

you've known him a long time.

05:50

Is that authentic to him?

05:52

What was he doing there?

05:53

You know, in some ways

05:54

that was a moment that could have gone

05:55

a lot of different directions.

05:56

He did use a word that did bother people.

05:59

Immigration advocates

05:59

don't want to hear him

06:01

use the word illegal.

06:02

What he did

06:02

do, though, was take a moment

06:04

and acknowledge

06:05

the suffering of that family.

06:07

He put it in personal terms.

06:08

He said, I've known

06:09

I know what it means to lose children.

06:11

And you'll notice

06:12

it was over in a matter of seconds.

06:14

It was not ceding the ground

06:16

to Marjorie Taylor.

06:16

Greene was not losing

06:18

command of that space,

06:19

which is really important.

06:21

You know, in some ways,

06:22

the measure of a moment like that

06:23

is if you turned off the TV

06:25

and turned off the sound on your TV,

06:26

and you were just

06:26

watching the people in that room,

06:28

who would you think

06:29

came out of there confident

06:30

and in control?

06:31

And I think Joe Biden

06:32

ultimately was able to

06:34

manage

06:34

what could have been a very volatile time

06:36

Yeah.

06:36

I mean, and Sarah,

06:37

we know that the House speaker had

06:38

basically told everybody to behave.

06:40

Do you think that

06:41

that effectively happened?

06:42

I mean, what

06:42

how do how do swing

06:44

voters perceive kind of what Marjorie

06:45

Taylor Greene did there?

06:47

Well, like I said this yesterday,

06:49

look, any time Joe

06:50

Biden has the opportunity

06:51

to do a split screen

06:52

with Marjorie Taylor Greene,

06:54

he should take it because these swing

06:56

voters, these sort of

06:57

right leaning, independent,

06:58

soft Republicans,

07:00

they don't want to be

07:01

in a political coalition

07:02

with Marjorie Taylor

07:04

Greene and people like her

07:05

and I think the stunt

07:07

that she was pulling, wearing a hat

07:09

like what he did

07:10

was he met her at her stunt

07:12

and he called her on it.

07:13

And I think it was a little unclear

07:16

what he was saying.

07:16

And I think that actually

07:18

it matters

07:19

less about sort of the specific word

07:21

to use than the fact

07:22

that he sort of got into it

07:23

with Marjorie Taylor Greene

07:24

and he did the thing

07:25

where he acknowledged

07:27

her family and made it

07:28

put it in personal terms.

07:30

And so I think he got through that

07:31

just fine.

07:33

Congressman,

07:34

can you take us down onto the floor

07:35

in terms of the way that that, frankly,

07:37

our politics have so deeply divided us?

07:39

I mean,

07:40

there were

07:41

we had reports here at CNN last night

07:43

that there were

07:43

members of the escort

07:44

committee for the president

07:45

who refused take photos with him

07:47

on the way in.

07:48

You've seen increasingly

07:50

kind of those divisions on display.

07:52

How does it feel different?

07:53

I mean, you've seen so many of these now.

07:54

I'm not somebody that I talked

07:56

to Marjorie Taylor Greene screaming

07:58

matches with the debate

07:59

on the Capitol steps once or twice.

08:00

But I think you talk about this.

08:02

I mean, me,

08:03

I think she should be

08:04

talking to everybody I was struck

08:07

last night.

08:08

I've never seen Republicans won.

08:11

They were behaved.

08:11

I mean, other than Marjorie

08:12

Taylor Greene.

08:13

And I wasn't quite sure

08:14

what the dissenter in the gallery said.

08:17

Yeah, that seemed quite not quite square.

08:20

They just said they were very careful.

08:22

There were a couple of moments

08:23

where when they're

08:25

talking about IVF

08:26

and some of the women got up and quickly

08:28

sat down.

08:29

And I've never seen such a disciplined

08:33

group of Republicans

08:34

that were responding to nothing.

08:35

I felt that I was on the aisle

08:37

talk to those guys all the time

08:39

and that it wasn't

08:41

they were uncomfortable last night.

08:43

It was very clear

08:44

that they were uncomfortable.

08:45

There were people that agreed with

08:47

some of the things

08:47

that he was saying then.

08:49

And I'll tell you what I've never seen.

08:52

You know,

08:52

normally security boxes,

08:53

you can't get off the floor.

08:55

Publicans were out of there in 2 seconds,

08:57

so that president stayed another hour.

08:59

There was a Republican

09:00

to be found on that floor.

09:02

It is.

09:02

I mean,

09:03

I'm glad you sort of

09:04

laid it out like that

09:05

because, I mean,

09:06

I've covered State of the Union addresses

09:08

since George W Bush.

09:10

And honestly,

09:11

usually there are many moments

09:12

in speeches

09:13

where both sides

09:13

will stand up in terms

09:14

of cheering for the country as a whole.

09:17

Really a sign of the times.

09:18

Congresswoman Dingell,

09:19

thank you so much

09:20

for spending some time with us

09:20

this morning. I really appreciate it.

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