Biden gives State of the Union pep talk

Bullies don’t like to get hit. President Joe Biden hit Donald Trump in the mouth and kept hitting the former president with one verbal blow after another. 

Unfortunately for Trump, Biden was serving up his State of the Union address to the American people while he hammered No. 45 with carefully said and well-crafted verbiage. 

"I fixed student loan programs to reduce the burden of student debt for nearly 4 million Americans." pic.twitter.com/8FfY9ElNIK

— The White House (@WhiteHouse) March 8, 2024

That meant that Trump was not able to hit back…not as hard as Biden, who had the fortune of having the entire world tuning into listening to his speech. Biden had a lot to talk about. 

During his primetime speech, Biden discussed eradicating student debt, keeping social security, restoring a woman’s right to abortion, fixing the immigration crisis, domestic terrorism, and confronting Russian President Vladimir Putin. 

It felt like Biden was trying to cram in just about every issue Americans are dealing with into his last big speech before the November election where he’ll square off against Trump to be president for another four years. 

A former U.S. senator, Biden commanded the room and discussed those issues with the American public, but he saved his harshest tone during the evening going up one side of Trump and coming down the other side. 

The first issue that Biden takes offense to is Trump cow-towing down to Putin, something an American President should never do, he said.   

“It wasn’t that long ago when a Republican President, Ronald Reagan, thundered, ‘Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall.’ Now, my predecessor, a former Republican President, tells Putin, ‘Do whatever the hell you want.’ A former American President actually said that, bowing down to a Russian leader. It’s outrageous. It’s dangerous. It’s unacceptable.”

In continuing to hit Putin over the head about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Biden denounced any belief that might conclude that the former Soviet Union leader would end his war crusade there. 

“If anybody in this room thinks Putin will stop at Ukraine, I assure you, he will not,” Biden remarked. My message to President Putin is simple. We will not walk away. We will not bow down. I will not bow down.” 

"But Israel must also do its part. Israel must allow more aid into Gaza and ensure that humanitarian workers aren’t caught in the cross fire." pic.twitter.com/PRHyLnpgcP

— The White House (@WhiteHouse) March 8, 2024

 After going all in against Putin, Biden had some more choice words for Trump and some of his cronies in Congress who tried to sabotage the certification of the election in 2020. This, of course, led to the Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. People died. Democracy was nearly crushed but it survived.   

“History is watching, just like history watched three years ago on Jan. 6. Insurrectionists stormed this very Capitol and placed a dagger at the throat of American democracy,” Biden said. “Many of you were here on that darkest of days.  We all saw with our own eyes these insurrectionists were not patriots.”

Biden then went all in on Trump and the many betrayers of the United States. 

“My predecessor and some of you here seek to bury the truth of Jan. 6,” Biden said. “I will not do that. This is a moment to speak the truth and bury the lives. And here’s the simplest truth. You can’t love your country only when you win.”    

"I’m demanding a BAN on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines." pic.twitter.com/Z5gmWg1vYP

— The White House (@WhiteHouse) March 8, 2024

Biden took another dig at the former president when he talked about gun laws and the mass shooting that took the lives of 19 students and two educators at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas. 

“With us tonight is Jasmine, whose 9-year-old sister Jackie was murdered with 21 classmates and teachers at her elementary school in Uvalde, Texas,” Biden said. “Soon after it happened, Jill and I went to Uvalde and spent hours with the families. We heard their message, and so should everyone in this chamber do something.”

Biden continued, “I did something by establishing the first-ever Office of Gun Violence Prevention in the White House that Vice President Harris is leading. Meanwhile, my predecessor told the NRA he’s proud he did nothing on guns when he was President,” Biden said.”After another school shooting in Iowa, he said we should just ‘get over it.’ I say we must stop it.” 

Lead Photo Caption: President Joe Biden delivers the State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress at the Capitol, Thursday, March 7, 2024, in Washington. (Shawn Thew/Pool via AP)