'He nailed it': Republican strategist reacts to Biden's speech
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
- ๐๏ธ The president's primary objective was to demonstrate his fitness for a second term.
- ๐ He was seen as energetic and engaged throughout the evening, drawing energy from the room.
- ๐ฃ๏ธ The president's speech aimed to reassure Americans of his vigor and precision.
- ๐ค He interacted with attendees, including congress members, showcasing his ability to connect.
- ๐ฃ The speech highlighted accomplishments of the past three years and laid out a vision for the future.
- ๐ The president addressed issues important to the middle class and women's rights.
- ๐จ There was a clear contrast drawn between the current administration and the previous one.
- ๐ค The speech was designed to appeal to independent voters and swing states.
- ๐ The president's performance was well-received, as indicated by the reaction of Republican attendees.
- ๐ญ There was a notable moment with Marjorie Taylor Greene, which the president handled with personal empathy.
- ๐ 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
๐ฃ๏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.
๐ฉ 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
๐กSecond Term Fitness
๐กEvan Osnos
๐กDemocratic Congresswoman Debbie Dingell
๐กRepublican Strategist Sarah Longwell
๐กIndependent Voters
๐กNikki Haley
๐กVision for the Future
๐กMiddle Class Support
๐กWomen's Rights
๐กMarjorie Taylor Greene
๐กState of the Union
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
Last night wasn't all deadly serious.
One of the other objectives
for the president last night,
of course, was possibly
the top line objective,
which everyone I'm talking to says he met
is to prove that he is
fit for a second term
I know it may not look like it,
but I've been around a while
where you get to be my age,
certain things become clearer than ever.
All right.
Our panel joins us now.
Democratic Congresswoman
Debbie Dingell is back with us,
along with New Yorker
staff writer
Evan Osnos
and Republican strategist Sarah Longwell.
Evan, I want to start with you.
Only because you spent so much time
kind of profiling the president.
What did you see from him last night?
He clearly was basking in the moment
and he came to do a task.
It seems like he executed on it.
Yeah,
I think from the moment
he left the White House,
you saw it a little skipping his step.
He got his way over there to the chamber.
First thing he did
is he says hello to everybody on
two feet, including congresswoman,
including Congressman King.
You know, look, he is he
draws energy from a room like that.
He sort of gained
some speed
over the course of the evening,
gave a long speech, gave it well
and stayed longer probably than anybody
expected him to.
Look, the bar,
as we know
last night, was to say to Americans,
I can do this
I've got the vigor,
I've got the precision.
And look,
there are flubs along the way
that's inevitable.
But this is about giving.
There were a lot of Americans
who weren't sure
what they were going to see last night.
And I think a lot of people
came out of there feeling reassured.
Congressman, what do you think
he said to independent voters?
I mean, they're
sort of an increasingly small slice,
but a lot of them came out
and voted for Nikki Haley.
Clearly, there are
people in your state of Michigan,
other swing states.
What do you think
the president gave to those voters
last night?
Well, first of all, I agree with 70.
He did a great job.
And I, I
as you know, I told you last night,
I thought he would do a great job.
That audience is his element.
And I wasn't surprised
at how long he stayed because he
you know, he lives in a bubble
and they don't let him talk to people.
And he had all of his friends there.
So he was happier.
But I think he also laid out a vision.
He laid out his vision for the future.
He did.
You know,
I think one of the things
all of us have not done
a good job
about is talking
about what we have gotten accomplished
in the last three years.
He reminded people of all of the things
that we've gotten done
called Republicans on some of it
like lowering
prescription drugs
and the infrastructure bill
and the money out there.
And, hey,
most of you didn't vote for it,
but you're taking credit for it. Now.
That was one of my favorite lines.
But he laid out his vision.
And I think
it is a very stark choice between another
four years of Joe Biden
what he wants to do,
how he's going
to support the middle class,
how he's going to
protect people's
freedom, starting with women's
rights and women's freedom
and very much in
that democracy was at stake
and made it wasn't afraid to call out.
You're right.
You didn't use Donald Trump's name,
but he told people and reminded them
they were proud that they overturn
Roe versus Wade.
They won a national abortion ban,
that he wants to repeal the Affordable
Care Act, that his boot and friend
and I could go on.
I think that was a very excellent speech.
And clear, stark
contrast the country needs to see.
Sarah Longwell,
you've talked to a lot of
Republican voters
and voters in general
about what they expect
from President Biden.
And we were talking yesterday
about how
they had set the bar incredibly low.
What is your view
of how he performed last night
and how it's going to be received
by some of these voters?
Well, you can tell how well he did by
how annoyed Republicans are this morning
at last night.
You could just see how upset they were.
And I think look, for a lot of voters,
they think the stakes
are incredibly high.
And I think the fear has been
that Joe Biden can't hit
you know, can't manage
where the stakes are like
isn't good enough
to to take us through this moment.
And last night,
what he said
was for the Democratic base
but how he said it was for swing voters
who needed to see
that this guy was all there,
that he could do the job.
And I told you yesterday
when I was on the show,
the Republicans have made a mistake
because they set the bar at dementia.
And that if look,
if that's what dementia,
I hope that's how I have dementia.
When I'm older
because he was on his game, the energy
and he did the thing that I think
Joe Biden is particularly good at,
where he sparred
with the Republicans
he he somehow managed to have it
be incredibly political.
He managed to be going
right at Republicans,
but often was also like joking
with them, smiling at them,
egging them on a little bit.
And it gave this balance to the speech
that I think
just worked really well for him.
And it was offense. It was offense.
He's been leading this shift
change the tone.
And I think he nailed it.
You could see Lindsey Graham
at one point,
you know, laughing at him
in the audience. Right.
It's like he's almost forgotten
that they were friends
for so many years before Lindsey
Graham was suddenly very close
to Donald Trump.
There was one particular moment that he
he basically adlibbed
because of something that happened
on his way down the aisle.
He encountered Marjorie
Taylor Greene in a read
Make America
Great Again
hat and a button
with the name Lincoln Riley on it.
She, of course, was there,
the nursing student in Georgia
who was killed
by an undocumented immigrant.
He took the button
and then he did this from the dais
Lincoln, Lincoln, Riley,
an innocent young woman who was killed
by an illegal That's right.
But how many have thousands of people
being killed by illegals?
To her parents,
I say
my heart goes out to you
having lost children myself, I understand
even I've heard
from a number of Democrats
already this morning that they didn't
love the way
the language that he used,
that he said illegal There
you've known him a long time.
Is that authentic to him?
What was he doing there?
You know, in some ways
that was a moment that could have gone
a lot of different directions.
He did use a word that did bother people.
Immigration advocates
don't want to hear him
use the word illegal.
What he did
do, though, was take a moment
and acknowledge
the suffering of that family.
He put it in personal terms.
He said, I've known
I know what it means to lose children.
And you'll notice
it was over in a matter of seconds.
It was not ceding the ground
to Marjorie Taylor.
Greene was not losing
command of that space,
which is really important.
You know, in some ways,
the measure of a moment like that
is if you turned off the TV
and turned off the sound on your TV,
and you were just
watching the people in that room,
who would you think
came out of there confident
and in control?
And I think Joe Biden
ultimately was able to
manage
what could have been a very volatile time
Yeah.
I mean, and Sarah,
we know that the House speaker had
basically told everybody to behave.
Do you think that
that effectively happened?
I mean, what
how do how do swing
voters perceive kind of what Marjorie
Taylor Greene did there?
Well, like I said this yesterday,
look, any time Joe
Biden has the opportunity
to do a split screen
with Marjorie Taylor Greene,
he should take it because these swing
voters, these sort of
right leaning, independent,
soft Republicans,
they don't want to be
in a political coalition
with Marjorie Taylor
Greene and people like her
and I think the stunt
that she was pulling, wearing a hat
like what he did
was he met her at her stunt
and he called her on it.
And I think it was a little unclear
what he was saying.
And I think that actually
it matters
less about sort of the specific word
to use than the fact
that he sort of got into it
with Marjorie Taylor Greene
and he did the thing
where he acknowledged
her family and made it
put it in personal terms.
And so I think he got through that
just fine.
Congressman,
can you take us down onto the floor
in terms of the way that that, frankly,
our politics have so deeply divided us?
I mean,
there were
we had reports here at CNN last night
that there were
members of the escort
committee for the president
who refused take photos with him
on the way in.
You've seen increasingly
kind of those divisions on display.
How does it feel different?
I mean, you've seen so many of these now.
I'm not somebody that I talked
to Marjorie Taylor Greene screaming
matches with the debate
on the Capitol steps once or twice.
But I think you talk about this.
I mean, me,
I think she should be
talking to everybody I was struck
last night.
I've never seen Republicans won.
They were behaved.
I mean, other than Marjorie
Taylor Greene.
And I wasn't quite sure
what the dissenter in the gallery said.
Yeah, that seemed quite not quite square.
They just said they were very careful.
There were a couple of moments
where when they're
talking about IVF
and some of the women got up and quickly
sat down.
And I've never seen such a disciplined
group of Republicans
that were responding to nothing.
I felt that I was on the aisle
talk to those guys all the time
and that it wasn't
they were uncomfortable last night.
It was very clear
that they were uncomfortable.
There were people that agreed with
some of the things
that he was saying then.
And I'll tell you what I've never seen.
You know,
normally security boxes,
you can't get off the floor.
Publicans were out of there in 2 seconds,
so that president stayed another hour.
There was a Republican
to be found on that floor.
It is.
I mean,
I'm glad you sort of
laid it out like that
because, I mean,
I've covered State of the Union addresses
since George W Bush.
And honestly,
usually there are many moments
in speeches
where both sides
will stand up in terms
of cheering for the country as a whole.
Really a sign of the times.
Congresswoman Dingell,
thank you so much
for spending some time with us
this morning. I really appreciate it.
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