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President Biden had one of the largest captive audiences he will speak to all year on Tuesday night, delivering the annual State of the Union Address before a joint session of Congress at a key moment in his presidency.
Seen largely as Biden’s entrance into a campaign for a second term, his speech provided fodder for hours of analysis across cable news and debate in Op-Ed sections of leading news outlets.
During his address, Biden focused primarily on the economy, jobs, police reform and a number of other wedge issues that telegraphed his messaging plans ahead of the 2024 cycle. Republican lawmakers, meanwhile, grabbed headlines of their own for vocally chiding the president during his speech.
How Biden’s speech, and cascade of Republican rebukes, lands with the American public will depend largely on how it is portrayed in the media.
Here are what leading pundits are saying about Biden’s prime time address this year:
MSNBC panelists praise Biden’s demeanor
President Joe Biden delivers the State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress at the U.S. Capitol, Tuesday, Feb. 7, 2023, in Washington. Vice President Kamala Harris and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy of Calif., listen. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)
Several pundits on the left-leaning cable channel spent the hours after Biden’s speech applauding what they said was the president’s ability to deliver the address calmly without getting flustered amid a frenzy of vocal opposition from Republicans.
“It was a wonderful speech,” Micheal Beschloss, the presidential historian said. “Didn’t you think he was Mr. Smooth? … He was elegant, he was civilized, he was conciliatory, he was reasonable and maybe most of all, he sounded like a centrist, which is exactly where he wants to be.”
During the network’s coverage, before the president took to the dais, Joy Reid, a leading liberal host on MSNBC, remarked that Joe Biden’s “superpower” is that he “is a regular person.”
“A long speech from him will be interesting, because it will be more conversational than what you’d get with the great oratory of an Obama,” Reid said.
