Tag: Biden

Biden on documents: People packing offices ‘didn’t do the kind of job that should’ve been done’

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He continued to contrast the discovery of sensitive materials in his own possession with the FBI seizure of documents at former President Donald Trump’s Florida estate in August.
“The best of my knowledge, the kind of things they [investigators] picked up are things that — from 1974, stray papers. There may be something else, I don’t know,” Biden said of the investigators that looked for materials in his possession. 1974 was Biden’s second year in the U.S. Senate, and he didn’t explain what type of material from that year he might have had in his possession.
He also maintained he “volunteered to open every single aperture” in cooperating with the Justice Department, a notable difference from Trump. The former president is under investigation not only for allegedly holding highly sensitive national security documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate, but also for possibly obstructing the investigation process. Trump has repeatedly complained about the process that led to the FBI seizures at Mar-a-Lago.
Classified documents have been found at Biden’s Wilmington, Del., home, as well as a Biden-associated private think tank space in Washington. Biden previously said he was “surprised” at the discovery of classified materials in the think tank space and that he didn’t know what was in them.
Federal agents also searched Biden’s Rehoboth Beach, Del., home last week, but no additional documents with classified markings were found, according to Biden’s personal lawyer.
His administration has repeatedly said they’re cooperating with the investigation, which is being led by special counsel Robert Hur.
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#Biden #documents #People #packing #offices #didnt #kind #job #shouldve
( With inputs from : www.politico.com )

February 9, 2023
Biden stops the Dem bedwetting … for now

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It wasn’t only that the 80-year-old, gaffe-prone president had avoided any serious misstep. It was that Biden showed he was up for a fight and, frankly, had a few uppercuts left in him.
“The energy of the speech, particularly the joyful jousting with the Republican hecklers, was a powerful rejoinder to those who question his mental acuity,” said David Axelrod, the former Barack Obama adviser, and someone not prone to hold back on Biden skepticism. “The speech,” he added, gave “Democrats a messaging road map.”
For months, uneasiness among Democrats about the president had centered on fears that it would be much harder for him to run in 2024 against any younger, less objectionable Republican nominee than Donald Trump.
But in his sparring with heckling House members Tuesday evening, Biden demonstrated that there was an entire constellation of Republicans beyond the former president whom he could turn into a foil. Doing so had long been the plan of Biden’s advisers, but watching it actually happen in front of one of his largest audiences in recent memory was a different dynamic entirely.
“It doesn’t have to be Trump being the boorish rude jerk if the rest of them are doing the work for him,” said Matt Bennett, a co-founder of the center-left group Third Way.
One day after the State of the Union, Bennett said, “It’s a good day to be a Biden Democrat.”
That one evening could provide such profound relief and zest is a testament to the psyche of the Democratic Party. By most measures, Biden has proven to be one of the most effective Democrats in modern history: defeating a sitting incumbent, enacting historic legislation and scoring major midterm victories even while his approval rating hovered in the low 40s. And yet, the party — as it is wont to do — laments.
Members are concerned about Biden’s age. And they note that despite his successes, he is still with major liabilities. Few Americans — just about three in 10 — think the country is heading in the right direction. According to an Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll this week, just 37 percent of Democrats want Biden to run for re-election.

That’s hardly a vote of confidence. In a preview of how Republicans will go after him, Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, in her GOP response to the State of the Union, cast Biden as an aged creature of the “woke” left.
But it was the GOP’s uprising in the House chamber that offered Biden a contrast that Democrats were still reveling in hours later.
“If [House Speaker Kevin] McCarthy had better control over his caucus, which he doesn’t, he would have prevented the caucus from walking right into the president’s hands,” said Julie Roginsky, a Democratic strategist and former top adviser to New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy. “But when you have Marjorie Taylor Greene becoming the story of the Republican opposition, much more so than Sarah Huckabee Sanders, who gave the actual rebuttal, that can only benefit the White House.”
For Biden’s allies, Tuesday evening wasn’t a revelation so much as an affirmation of their long-held belief: that the party worries too much and too often about him and can’t seem to accept that he’s been a success.
“He’s the master of lowering expectations and then clearing them by a mile,” said one Democrat close to the White House. “Whether that’s the press or Republicans lowering the bar for him, when it matters he just keeps knocking it out of the park. It’s something you can’t teach. You can only claim luck so many times. It’s working. It’s just working for him.”
Biden’s goading of Republicans on Social Security and Medicare on Tuesday night (getting them to publicly take cuts to the programs off the table) was, for many party allies, the evening’s crowning achievement. It amounted to what Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, called a “brilliant master class.” Bennett said Biden “set a trap and the Republicans walked right into it. It was incredible.”
And yet, even in a moment of triumph, caveats abound. The bar for Biden on Tuesday was extraordinarily low, and the State of the Union is a controlled environment designed to benefit a sitting president. The afterglow, the concern went, may not last very long.
“These speeches,” Axelrod said, “have a limited half-life, time marches on and the issue of age won’t disappear. He’s going to have to continue to bring it, as he did last night.”
House Republicans certainly weren’t eager to dwell on the night that was. They moved quickly on Wednesday to hearings on the Hunter Biden laptop incident, hoping to reorient Washington D.C.’s focus. The GOP’s presidential primary, once it begins in earnest, will do more to define the Democrats’ opposition in 2024 than any off-year State of the Union speech.
Democrats, too, may not remain as sanguine. In a divided Congress, much of Biden’s high-profile legislative agenda is unlikely to pass, and the glow of Tuesday night may soon turn to restlessness.
Joseph Geevarghese, executive director of the Bernie Sanders-aligned group Our Revolution, said the president had missed an opportunity to “up the ante” on Republicans by threatening to govern more on a range of issues by executive action.
But as a table-setting address for Biden’s likely re-election campaign, Tuesday could hardly have gone better.
“People continually underestimate Joe Biden,” said Kelly Dietrich, a former Democratic fundraiser and founder of the National Democratic Training Committee, which trains candidates across the country. “I know people worry about him being too old, but he’s crushing this job right now.”
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#Biden #stops #Dem #bedwetting
( With inputs from : www.politico.com )

February 9, 2023
Biden on Republicans: ‘Their dream is to cut Social Security and Medicare’

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After running through his usual economic talking points, Biden capitalized on his handling of a tense exchange the previous night with Republicans for wanting “Medicare and Social Security to sunset.” While Biden didn’t name Sen. Rick Scott during his State of the Union speech, he did so on Wednesday, pulling out the Florida Republican’s “Rescue America” pamphlet that calls for all federal legislation to include such a provision.
Then the president quoted Sen. Ron Johnson’s (R-Wis.) stance on the issue, prompting the crowd to boo.
“They sure didn’t like me calling them on it,” Biden said, noting that Rep. Marjorie Taylor Green (R-Ga.) stood up and called him a “liar” during Tuesday night’s speech. “Look, a lot of Republicans — their dream is to cut Social Security and Medicare. Well, let me just say this. It’s your dream, but I’m going to use my veto pen and make it a nightmare.”
A post-State of the Union barnstorming swing has become a traditional part of the calendar for modern presidents, with great thought put into the location for a visit inherently bound to receive more media attention than an average trip.
For the Biden White House, it was always going to be Wisconsin. White House aides suggested that a lot of the year ahead will look just like this day. They believe that a message of blue collar populism works for the president, saying he is the first Democratic standard bearer in decades to successfully chase a demographic drifting steadily toward Republicans.
A labor hall filled with union workers was considered a perfect backdrop for this particular president. Biden aides said they hoped to fill his schedule with events like this one — and like last week’s twin infrastructure events in Maryland and New York — to showcase the president’s record in creating jobs and tangible, real-world projects.
Wisconsin, in many ways, has become the preeminent swing state. It was one of the trio of Great Lakes states — along with Michigan and Pennsylvania — that Biden won back from Donald Trump in 2020. And while the president may still be a month or more from announcing his reelection plans, most paths for a Biden second term run right through the same three states.
Michigan and Pennsylvania trended more toward the Democrats in the 2022 midterms than did Wisconsin, which reelected a Democratic governor but also a Republican senator in Johnson. Biden’s margin of victory in Wisconsin in 2020 was fewer than 21,000 votes — his smallest advantage of the three former “Blue Wall” states — but his advisers believe that his pro-union and manufacturing message will continue to play well in the state.

Moreover, Biden advisers are looking at the electoral map and see limited options. Many in the party believe that Florida — which has dramatically trended rightward in recent years and is home to the GOP’s two top leading 2024 candidates — is a lost cause. Still, Biden will make a stop there Thursday. But even the most bullish Biden advisers concede Florida is an uphill climb, and a loss there, if combined with defeats in Georgia and Arizona — two states Biden barely captured two years ago — would make his path to victory very narrow. It also would make Wisconsin essential.
Biden has been to Michigan and Pennsylvania more often to this point in his term, and aides said to expect travel to Wisconsin to ramp up. It’s been decided by less than a percentage point in four of the last six presidential races, including in 2016 and 2020.
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#Biden #Republicans #dream #cut #Social #Security #Medicare
( With inputs from : www.politico.com )

February 9, 2023
US ‘will act’ to protect if China threatens its sovereignty, warns Biden

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Washington: Amidst growing US-China tension over a suspected Chinese surveillance balloon, President Joe Biden has asserted that America “will act” to protect if Beijing threatens its sovereignty.
The US military downed a suspected Chinese spy balloon over the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of South Carolina last week, drawing a strong reaction from China which on Sunday warned of repercussions over America’s use of force against its civilian unmanned airship.
“I am committed to work with China where it can advance American interests and benefit the world. But make no mistake: as we made clear last week, if China threatens our sovereignty, we will act to protect our country. And we did,” Biden said in his second State of the Union address on Tuesday night.
The US has accused China of violating American sovereignty and international law by sending the surveillance balloon over the country and sensitive installations.
“Let’s be clear: winning the competition with China should unite all of us. We face serious challenges across the world. But in the past two years, democracies have become stronger, not weaker,” he said in his second State of the Union Address before a Joint Session of the US Congress.
President Biden mentioned China and his counterpart, Xi Jinping, at least seven times in his 72-minute address, focusing mainly on how the US was prepared to compete with an assertive Beijing while also seeking to avoid conflict.
Reacting to Biden’s remarks, China on Wednesday said it does not fear competing with the US but is “opposed to defining the entire China-US relationship in terms of competition.”
“It is not the practice of a responsible country to smear a country or restrict the country’s legitimate development rights under the excuse of competition, even at the expense of disrupting the global industrial and supply chain,” Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said at a daily briefing in Beijing.

China will defend its interests and the US should work with Beijing to “promote the return of bilateral relations to a track of sound and stable development,” she said in response to questions.
In his primetime speech, which revolved around the theme of unity, Biden said two years into his administration, autocracies have grown weaker, not stronger.
“America is rallying the world again to meet those challenges, from climate and global health, to food insecurity, to terrorism and territorial aggression,” he said in his address three months after Republicans took control of the House of Representatives.
“Allies are stepping up, spending more and doing more. And bridges are forming between partners in the Pacific and those in the Atlantic. And those who bet against America are learning just how wrong they are. It’s never a good bet to bet against America,” Biden said.
Biden said before he came to office, the story was about how China was increasing its power and America was falling in the world.
“Not anymore. I’ve made clear with President Xi that we seek competition, not conflict,” Biden said, amidst applause.
“I will make no apologies that we are investing to make America strong. Investing in American innovation, in industries that will define the future, and that China’s government is intent on dominating. Investing in our alliances and working with our allies to protect our advanced technologies so they’re not used against us,” he said.
“Modernising our military to safeguard stability and deter aggression. Today, we’re in the strongest position in decades to compete with China or anyone else in the world,” he said.
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#act #protect #China #threatens #sovereignty #warns #Biden
( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

February 8, 2023
Joe Biden got some unexpected GOP laughs and applause when he said the country would need oil and gas for “at least another decade.”

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Joe Biden got some unexpected GOP laughs and applause when he said the country would need oil and gas for “at least another decade.”

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#Joe #Biden #unexpected #GOP #laughs #applause #country #oil #gas #decade
( With inputs from : www.politico.com )

February 8, 2023
House GOP hauls in former Twitter execs. The larger target: Biden

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Speaking with reporters on Tuesday, House Oversight Chair James Comer (R-Ky.) said he was focused on understanding how Twitter identifies misinformation and what role the federal government allegedly played in pressuring the platform to remove content.
“I’m hopeful we can find out a lot of things,” Comer said, before listing a series of questions he wants answered. “What exactly Twitter’s policy was on determining what was disinformation and what wasn’t? Who was in charge of that? What role did the government play in telling Twitter what was disinformation and what wasn’t? What role did the government play in determining who was kicked off a platform? Were any tax dollars spent by the government?”
In promoting the hearing in the weeks leading up to Wednesday, though, Comer has framed it as part of an investigation of the Biden family itself, referring to the “Biden family’s shady business schemes.” The laptop purportedly included Hunter’s promises to arrange meetings between foreign executives and his father, who at the time was vice-president in the Obama administration.
Comer has said the committee’s investigation will “inform legislative solutions” related to protecting Americans’ First Amendment right to free speech and a free press, although his committee lacks the ability to introduce legislation.
When asked for comment on the panel’s investigation into the Biden family, White House spokesperson Ian Sams referred to an earlier tweet that called the House Republicans’ investigation “a political stunt.”
Either way, the hearing is likely to have little impact on the current operations of Twitter— given it’s now run by Elon Musk, the tech billionaire who has been courting Republicans since he bought the company in late October.
Committee members will also focus on information released in Musk’s “Twitter files” — reports purporting to show collusion between the FBI and company executives to quash the New York Post story. However, the files themselves showed no evidence that the FBI asked Twitter to censor the story, and multiple federal officials have denied the allegation.
Across the aisle, Democrats want to use the hearing for something completely different: To remind viewers of Twitter’s role in spreading right-wing extremist content ahead of the Jan. 6 insurrection. Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), the committee’s ranking member and a key leader on the Jan. 6 committee, wants to focus on how social media companies can contribute to violent events offline — and is not concerned about the politics of the Hunter Biden laptop story.

“Twitter is a private company,” Raskin said in an interview. “It’s not Congress’ role to run around second guessing the editorial judgements of private news entities.”
“On the other hand, if social media are being used for the purposes of inciting violent insurrections and coordinating violence against the government, I think that presents a serious problem under the First Amendment because the First Amendment does not allow deliberate incitement of imminent lawless action,” Raskin added.
Raskin has secured former Twitter employee Anika Collier Navaroli to be his Democratic witness. Navaroli appeared before the Jan. 6 committee to discuss Twitter’s failure to stop extremist posts leading up to the insurrectionists takeover of the U.S. Capitol.
Although social-media bias and platform regulation have grown into significant political issues over the past several years, the current House GOP has shown little appetite for serious regulation of the industry. Last week, party leaders passed over one of the industry’s strongest Republican critics, Rep. Ken Buck (R-Colo.), in favor of a more industry-friendly figure to run the House Judiciary antitrust subcommittee.
House leadership has, however, remained laser-focused on the Biden angle of the Twitter story.
Comer sent a letter to Musk last October demanding that he hand over Twitter records pertaining to the laptop story immediately after the billionaire bought the company — and before the GOP had even won the House in the 2022 midterms.
The opening line of the letter read “Committee on Oversight and Reform Republicans are investigating the Biden family’s pattern of influence peddling to enrich themselves and President Biden’s involvement in these schemes.”
Three weeks after the Republicans won office, Musk obliged with what has now become the “Twitter files.” Comer, who has not called Musk to testify, referred to the billionaire as “a great American” last week.
The three former Twitter executives called by Republicans are:
* Vijaya Gadde, Twitter’s former chief legal officer, who Musk fired last October. She played a central role in blocking and then later reinstating the New York Post’s reporting on Hunter Biden’s laptop — saying initially that tweets about the reporting violated Twitter’s 2018 policy against publishing hacked materials.
*James Baker, Twitter’s former deputy general counsel who also previously worked as general counsel at the FBI during the investigation of whether Trump colluded with Russia, will also testify. He will likely face many questions from Republicans, especially related his past involvement in the Trump probe and claims Musk fired him in December for allegedly interfering in the publication of additional Twitter files.
* Yoel Roth, Twitter’s former global head of trust and safety, who left in November after Musk’s takeover.
The witnesses are all appearing under an agreement that will allow them to share privileged information from when they worked at Twitter.

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#House #GOP #hauls #Twitter #execs #larger #target #Biden
( With inputs from : www.politico.com )

February 8, 2023
House GOP’s under-the-radar Hunter Biden problem: DOJ got there first

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In fact, Oversight Committee Chair James Comer (R-Ky.) suggested in a brief interview with POLITICO that the Justice Department should hold off on issuing any indictment against Hunter Biden so Republicans can complete their probe. He openly acknowledged that criminal charges could hinder his investigation, giving any witnesses in the DOJ case clearance to assert their Fifth Amendment rights.
If the DOJ does go that route, one option would be for the panel to pivot to focus more heavily on other Biden family members, including brothers of the president, the GOP chair said.
“If they indict Hunter Biden, there’s still a lot of stuff out there. And say we can’t touch anything [Hunter-related], it freezes up all the evidence — there’s still a lot of stuff out there,” Comer said.
In calling for the DOJ to delay, Comer said prosecutors had already “waited this long” and Republicans would only “need a matter of months.” But his recommendation is all but guaranteed to fall flat. If the DOJ did listen, it would mirror the sort of unfounded coordination accusations that Republicans have previously lobbed at Democrats.
The DOJ tends to purposely avoid linking its work to Congress’ timeline — a frequent source of frustration for both parties. For example, members of the Jan. 6 select committee routinely groused that the department didn’t appear to be pursuing matters they had uncovered in their inquiry that they believed potentially rose to criminal levels.
Republicans are formally kicking off their investigation into the Biden family this week with their first public hearing tied to the probe, focused on Twitter’s decision to restrict a New York Post story on Hunter Biden just before the 2020 election. (Twitter officials have publicly acknowledged that they view the decision as a mistake.)
As part of the hearing, three former company executives — James Baker, former Twitter deputy general counsel; Yoel Roth, Twitter’s former global head of trust and safety; and Vijaya Gadde, Twitter’s former chief legal officer — are expected to testify. Comer formally subpoenaed them, but aides said it was meant to give the witnesses legal cover to appear before the panel.
Democrats, meanwhile, are expected to use the hearing to ask their own questions about Twitter’s handling of former President Donald Trump’s controversial tweets. Their witness for the hearing will be Anika Collier Navaroli, a whistleblower who previously spoke with the House’s Jan. 6 committee over the social media platform’s handling of Trump’s tweets.

The former president was banned from the platform in the wake of the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol by his supporters, only to be allowed back on recently by its current owner, Elon Musk.
The hearing serves as Comer’s opener into his larger Biden family investigation, which is expected to take a broad dive that specifically touches on Hunter Biden’s business dealings, bank records and art sales but also spans beyond the First Son. Republicans are hunting for a smoking gun that ties Joe Biden’s decisions to his son’s business agreements, though no evidence has yet emerged linking the two.
POLITICO has not undergone the process to authenticate the Hunter Biden laptop that underpinned the New York Post story, but reporter Ben Schreckinger has confirmed the authenticity of some emails on it. A committee aide described themselves as highly confident that the information gleaned from the laptop was connected to Hunter Biden, but argued that the onus was on skeptics of its veracity to prove that any specific email or document on it isn’t valid.
Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.), a member of the Oversight Committee, questioned the need for either the DOJ or House GOP investigation, arguing that they were both “based on false premises.” But he also identified the undeniable political pickle that the DOJ’s active investigation would present for Republicans by limiting their requests for information and cooperation from potential witnesses.
“Why not, in some cases, say … ‘we know DOJ is investigating, and we’re gonna wait to hear the results before we do.’ We did that with the Mueller report,” Connolly added.
The DOJ declined to comment for this story. But the department previously outlined how it responds to congressional investigations in a letter last month to Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), chair of the Judiciary Committee and a member of the Oversight panel.
That letter detailed how the DOJ handles information requests spawning from congressional investigations, effectively warning that it was reserving the right not to cooperate with GOP demands if they’re tied to an ongoing internal matter.
Carlos Uriarte, DOJ’s legislative affairs chief, noted in the letter that “consistent with longstanding policy and practice, any oversight requests must be weighed against the Department’s interests in protecting the integrity of its work.” The DOJ, in accordance with long-standing policy, hasn’t formally confirmed the existence of a Hunter Biden investigation.
Regardless of whether the DOJ ultimately issues any Hunter Biden-related indictments, though, the ongoing federal probe has cast a shadow over Congress’ fight on that front.
Republicans say they are basically in the dark about the tightly held inquiry, which has reportedly gone on for years. And some Democrats view the DOJ probe as a legitimate counterpart to House Republicans, saying it is the proper lane for investigating any of Hunter Biden’s potential missteps.
Hunter Biden and his team are also going on offense, urging the DOJ, Delaware attorney general and IRS to investigate many of the figures who came to possess the files culled from his alleged laptop — and some of the “inconsistencies” in stories about how those various offices came to access the records.
That request from Hunter Biden would require the administration to take up the politically explosive matter at the same time House Republicans are preparing to seek similar information from the same offices. Administration officials have given no indication they plan to do so.
Katherine Tully-McManus contributed to this story.
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#House #GOPs #undertheradar #Hunter #Biden #problem #DOJ
( With inputs from : www.politico.com )

February 8, 2023
Republicans Turn Themselves into Props for Biden

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The gift paid dividends at both the stylistic and substantive levels.
In terms of pure theater, the jeers helped Biden come alive.
At the beginning of the address, Biden ambled through the House gallery, an 80-year-old president who didn’t look a day over 80, nor a day under. A politician who overcame a boyhood stutter, yet who has never been particularly strong with formal speeches, had his usual mix of garbled phrases and you-know-what-he-means sentence fragments. Would this be a painful evening?
Soon enough, it became an entertaining one. At least, Biden was having fun, looking at booing Republicans with a smile. He accused “some of my Republican friends” of wanting to “sunset Social Security and Medicare,” even as he acknowledged that, “I am not saying this a majority” who backs a proposal last year from Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.).
Amid shouts of “liar!” Biden responded, “Anybody who doubts it contact my office and I will give you a copy of the proposal.” As audible protests continued, Biden returned the volley, in seemingly spontaneous fashion. “So folks, as we all apparently agree, Social Security and Medicare off the books now, right? All right. We got unanimity.”
Beyond enlivening the evening, the boisterousness in the gallery was a reminder of something more consequential. Even in a polarized era, the modern presidency gives its occupants unmatched ability to define and hold the political center. This might be easy to forget, after years in which Donald Trump — practicing a politics of contempt aimed mostly at mobilizing supporters —- seemed indifferent to this reality.
Biden, formed by a different era, and advised by veterans of Bill Clinton’s and Barack Obama’s presidencies, was plainly using the speech to achieve more traditional aims. He sought to present himself as a common-sense realist, in touch with the everyday concerns of voters—inviting the opposition to choose between joining him to solve problems or risk being portrayed as obstructionists and extremists. It may not be the most novel of strategies, but for the past couple generations it has been the one that most two-term presidents have followed — typically using State of the Union addresses as major events in making the case.
Biden also showed that it is not such a difficult feat — at least not with the presidential platform — to unify different wings of his party, despite some commentary asserting they are irreconcilable.

No reason they need to be. On policing reform, for instance, Biden introduced the parents of Tyre Nichols — killed in a beating by police in Memphis last month — and trumpeted his proposals to reduce police violence. But he steered far clear of the anti-police rhetoric embraced by some on the left, and exploited by Republicans, after the George Floyd murder in 2020: “I know most cops are good, decent people — the vast majority.”
Biden congratulated new House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, joking that, “I don’t want to ruin your reputation, but I look forward to working with you.” At the same time, he well knew Republicans would have little interest in working with him on proposals to raise taxes on corporations and the wealthy, and to expand government rules on business from everything from drug prices to airline fees.
It’s little wonder that Republicans in the crowd were irritated. The whole evening was evidence that even a president with low approval ratings has a much louder voice and more potent ability to frame the debate than they do.
For the historical-minded, it was also evidence of how standards of decorum are highly fluid. Recall the big fuss in 2009 when Republican Joe Wilson of South Carolina interrupted President Obama’s speech to Congress by shouting, “You lie.” Even many Republicans were embarrassed, and Wilson apologized.
This time, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene shouted out at least nine times, by the count of a POLITICO reporter in the gallery, that Biden was a liar. No one was surprised — certainly not Biden, who recognized an opportunity when it is delivered gift-wrapped before a nationwide audience.
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#Republicans #Turn #Props #Biden
( With inputs from : www.politico.com )

February 8, 2023
What Biden said — and what he meant

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Here’s a guide to what Biden said — and what he actually meant:
The McCarthy Greeting
What he said: I start tonight by congratulating the members of the 118th Congress and the new Speaker of the House, Kevin McCarthy. Mr. Speaker, I look forward to working together.
What he meant: This is going to be a long two years.
Decoding: Biden genuinely believes in compromising with Republicans to get things done. But he knows that the new House GOP majority will be focused, perhaps above all else, on inflicting political pain on him and weakening his case for reelection with myriad investigations. An irascible conservative wing with immense power over the new speaker makes the chances for serious legislating slim to none.
Me vs. Trump
What he said: Two years ago our economy was reeling. As I stand here tonight, we have created a record 12 million new jobs — more jobs created in two years than any president has ever created in four years. Two years ago, Covid had shut down our businesses, closed our schools, and robbed us of so much. Today, Covid no longer controls our lives. And two years ago, our democracy faced its greatest threat since the Civil War. Today, though bruised, our democracy remains unbowed and unbroken.
What he meant: You all remember 2020? Does anyone seriously want to go back to Trump?
Decoding: Biden offered a self-progress report on the big crises he vowed to address. But at the outset of a potential rematch with Trump, he’s also reminding the country of the chaos and, ultimately, violence of his predecessor’s tenure.
With polls this week showing Biden’s post-midterm bump fading, and one even showing Trump leading a hypothetical rematch, you can understand why the president would want the country to evaluate his presidency in terms of the situation he inherited and the progress that’s been made on the pandemic, unemployment and election integrity.

Blame for inflation
What he said: Inflation has been a global problem because the pandemic disrupted our supply chains and Putin’s unfair and brutal war that disrupted energy as well as food supplies, blocking all that grain in Ukraine. But we’re better positioned than any country on Earth. We have more to do, but here at home, inflation is coming down.
What he meant: Why can’t more of you appreciate the strength of this economy?! Don’t you see all this job growth? Can’t you see that higher prices aren’t my fault?
Decoding: This isn’t the first time Biden has argued that the main causes of inflation are largely beyond his control. But he has little choice but to use this once-a-year platform to hammer it again — given the disconnect between strong economic metrics and the public’s frustration that everything costs more now than it did a couple years ago.
Abortion politics
What he said: The vice president and I are doing everything we can to protect access to reproductive health care and safeguard patient privacy. But already, more than a dozen states are enforcing extreme abortion bans. Make no mistake; if Congress passes a national abortion ban, I will veto it.
What he meant: I know Congress isn’t going to send this bill to my desk. But please, Republicans, go ahead and take a shot.
Decoding: Enough Republicans have expressed their support for a federal abortion ban that Biden can reasonably set this up as a hypothetical. If only for the purposes of clarifying again which party is united in its support of reproductive freedom and which is responsible for the Supreme Court majority that struck down Roe v. Wade last summer and talking about going further.
After Democrats avoided the sweeping midterm defeat most presidents’ parties have historically suffered, in large part thanks to the backlash from women incensed by the Court’s reversal on abortion, Biden wanting to beat this drum loudly should come as no surprise.
The debt ceiling staring contest
What he said: In the last two years, my administration cut the deficit by more than $1.7 trillion — the largest deficit reduction in American history. Under the previous administration, America’s deficit went up four years in a row. Because of those record deficits, no president added more to the national debt in any four years than my predecessor. Nearly 25% of the entire national debt, a debt that took 200 years to accumulate, was added by that administration alone. How did Congress respond to all that debt? They lifted the debt ceiling three times without preconditions or crisis. They paid America’s bills to prevent economic disaster for our country. Tonight, I’m asking this Congress to follow suit.
What he meant: Y’all want to talk about spending? Let’s talk about spending.
Decoding: Okay, this doesn’t need much translation. Biden’s decision to question Republicans’ return to conditioning any increase of the nation’s debt ceiling on spending cuts, something it never did when Trump was in the White House, makes clear that he feels good about the cards he holds at the moment. And that he’s happy to remind the country what’s at stake and to up the pressure on the GOP.
But as Biden challenged the GOP, shouts arose in the chamber. The television cutaways showed GOP lawmakers shaking their heads. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), draped in a white fur-collared coat, stood up and shouted something back at the president.
Prior to the speech, Biden aides hinted they wouldn’t be upset if some far-right Republicans made a scene during the speech. It’s quite likely, given the response Biden drew, that this part of the speech was written to bait someone like Greene into providing the contrast the White House wanted between the president and the MAGA Republicans he didn’t explicitly call out.
Infrastructure hypocrisy
What he said: I sincerely thank my Republican friends who voted for the [bipartisan infrastructure] law. And to my Republican friends who voted against it but still ask to fund projects in their districts, don’t worry. I promised to be the president for all Americans. We’ll fund your projects. And I’ll see you at the ground-breaking.
What he meant: No way I was going to let you all get away with voting against this bill and then taking credit for the projects and new jobs in your districts.
Decoding: Biden and top aides plan to focus a lot of attention this year on the real world effects of laws they’ve passed, including the $1.2 trillion infrastructure overhaul that’s now taking the shape of bridge repairs, lead pipe removals and the construction of new charging stations for electric vehicles.
And while Biden will always note that the law passed with bipartisan support, he’s intent on calling out Republicans who voted against it but are now benefiting. In a speech where he largely laid off attacking “MAGA Republicans,” something McCarthy specifically requested, this gentle ribbing served as a friendly reminder that Biden will continue to draw sharp contrasts with the Republicans who aren’t interested in bipartisan cooperation.
A recalibration on policing
What he said: I know most cops are good. decent people. They risk their lives every time they put on that shield. But what happened to Tyre in Memphis happens too often. We have to do better.
What he meant: I’m taking the “tough on crime” thing down a notch.
Decoding: A year ago with the midterms looming in the distance, Biden was emphatic in trying to make clear that he and Democrats weren’t looking to weaken law enforcement, bellowing his vow to “FUND THE POLICE.” There was no such call this year. And Biden’s remarks here reflect a recalibration on this subject.
With the the parents of Tyre Nichols in the balcony, Biden called on Congress to act on a police reform plan to better train officers and hold them to higher standards. There was still a line about providing “more resources” for law enforcement but it was delivered quickly and without the same rhetorical emphasis that characterized last year’s address.
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )

February 8, 2023
Biden pledges to protect America after Chinese balloon incident

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The balloon traversed U.S. and Canadian airspace last week before it was shot down off the coast of the Carolinas on Saturday, just days before Biden addressed Congress.
China has claimed it was a weather balloon that went off course and has lashed out at the U.S. over shooting it down. Secretary of State Antony Blinken postponed a trip to Beijing over the incident.
The flap triggered bipartisan uproar at China on Capitol Hill — where confronting Beijing has garnered support from both parties — and calls for more information over the balloon and the administration’s handling of it.
Biden said last week he ordered the military to shoot down the balloon before Saturday, but top brass recommended waiting until it was over water so it would minimize risk to people on the ground. The military is now working to retrieve the debris.
Administration officials are set to brief lawmakers on the balloon this week, and a Senate panel is scheduled to hold a hearing Thursday on it.
Biden added Tuesday night that his administration has put the U.S. in “the strongest position in decades to compete” with Beijing. The U.S., he said, would cooperate where possible.
He added that he makes “no apologies that we are investing to make America strong” and competing with China. He touted efforts to modernize the military “to safeguard stability and deter aggression.”
Biden also highlighted the administration’s efforts to aid Ukraine to repel Russia’s invasion, a message that comes as some Republican factions question the need to continue to aid Kyiv.

As the war nears its one-year mark, Biden said Russian President Vladimir Putin’s February 2022 invasion was “a test for the ages” for the U.S. and its allies in Europe.
“One year later, we know the answer,” he said.
Biden called out Ukraine’s ambassador to the U.S., Oksana Markarova, who sat in the House gallery for the speech.
“We are united in our support for your country,” Biden pledged. “We’re going to stand with you as long as it takes.”
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )

February 8, 2023