President Biden delivered his third State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress on Thursday, issuing a full-throated defense of his record in one of his most energetic and assertive speeches of his presidency.
He used the address to contrast his vision for the country with that of “my predecessor,” a reference to former President Donald Trump, who has all but wrapped up the Republican presidential nomination. Without naming him, Mr. Biden criticized Trump for the attack on the Capitol on Jan.
6, the overturning of Roe v. Wade, his economic record and his opposition to a bipartisan border security bill that stalled in Congress earlier this year. The defiant speech came at a crucial time, when many voters are expressing doubts about Mr. Biden’s age and his ability to do the job. He spoke for more than an hour, and took several interruptions in stride, responding to heckling lawmakers at some points.
He lingered in the well of the House chamber long after the end of the speech, glad-handing and posing for photos with Democratic members. Here are the highlights and key moments from Mr. Biden’s 2024 State of the Union address:
“Freedom and democracy are under attack both at home and overseas”
Mr. Biden began his speech with a quip: “If I were smart, I’d go home.” He then turned serious and immediately raised the stakes of the election, telling those assembled in the House chamber that Americans “face an unprecedented moment in the history of the union.” Mr. Biden said he came to the House chamber to “wake up this Congress and alert the American people that this is no ordinary moment.”
The president warned that not since President Abraham Lincoln have freedom and democracy been under threat in the U.S. But, Mr. Biden continued, “what makes our moment rare is that freedom and democracy are under attack both at home and overseas at the very same time.”
He turned to foreign policy and urged lawmakers to pass assistance for Ukraine to help it defend itself from Russia. Mr. Biden took his first jab at Trump, criticizing his predecessor for his stance toward Russian President Vladimir Putin and accused him of bowing down to the Russian leader. “It’s outrageous. It’s dangerous. It’s unacceptable,” the president said.
On Jan. 6: “You can’t love your country only when you win”
Mr. Biden told lawmakers that “history is watching — just like history watched three years ago on Jan. 6, when an insurrection stormed this very Capitol and placed a dagger to the throat of American democracy.”
He noted that many of the assembled lawmakers were present on Jan. 6, 2021, when a mob of hundreds of Trump supporters broke into the Capitol and violently tried to prevent the transfer of power.
“Jan. 6 [and] lies about the 2020 election and the plots to steal the election posed the gravest threat to democracy since the Civil War. But they failed,” he continued. “My predecessor and some of you here seek to bury the truth about Jan. 6. I will not do that. This is the moment to speak the truth, and to bury the lies. Here’s the simple truth: You can’t love your country only when you win.”
A testy exchange on immigration: “Send me the border bill now!”