Biden emphasizes protecting democracy, calls out Trump in 2024 State of the Union address

Delivering the State of the Union address in a year with lots of political uncertainty and controversy surrounding the upcoming presidential election, President Joe Biden’s speech aimed to make voters believe that he is suited for reelection. Photo courtesy of WikiCommons

In this year’s State of the Union address, Biden had the pressure of delivering a speech that would make voters still feel confident enough in his ability to lead the nation; so much so that they would be willing to vote in favor of his reelection. 

Biden shared some accomplishments of his Administration, including the creation of new American jobs and lower unemployment rates, a drop in inflation, protecting the Affordable Care Act and reducing student debt. 

Woven within these stories of successes were also acknowledgements of other issues currently facing the nation. Biden spoke to the war between Israel and Palestine, access to reproductive care, climate change initiatives and border control. Naturally, Biden also took opportunities to take some non subtle jabs at his opponent in this year’s presidential election, former president Donald Trump.

In the opening of his address, Biden referenced a speech given by President Franklin Roosevelt in January 1941, amid World War II and Hitler’s rule of Nazi Germany. 

“‘He said, “I address you at a moment unprecedented in the history of the Union.’” 

After uttering Roosevelt’s words, he followed with a declaration of his own: “Freedom and democracy were under assault in the world [during Roosevelt’s speech]. Tonight, I come to the same chamber to address the nation.” 

“Now it is we who face an unprecedented moment in the history of the Union,” Biden said in comparison, echoing Roosevelt’s speech. 

This year’s speech bears lots of similarities to last year’s address, specifically in Biden’s reiteration that democracy is under attack. In reference to the events of Jan. 6, Biden stated in both addresses that the Capitol attacks were the biggest threat to our democracy “since the Civil War.” 

A big advocate for defending democracy — both domestically and internationally — Biden highlighted himself as the safekeeper of democracy and insinuated Trump to be responsible for its undoing. 

“(The) Jan. 6th lies about the 2020 election and the plots to steal the election posed the gravest threat to our democracy since the Civil War,” Biden said. “But they failed. America stood strong and democracy prevailed.”

Biden continued on this sentiment, choosing not to refer to Trump by name as he called out the former president’s history.  

“But we must be honest, the threat to democracy must be defended. My predecessor and some of you here seek to bury the truth of January 6th. I will not do that,” Biden said. 

Later on in the address, Biden issued a plea to Congress Republicans to help pass a major bipartisan bill that would employ more border security, bring in more immigration judges, introduce new asylum officers and policies, develop high-tech drug detection machines and give the president executive power to temporarily close the border in the case of an “overwhelming” number of migrants. 

The bill was blocked by Senate Republicans in early February. In his speech, Biden attributed the bill’s failure to be the fault of Trump, who he claimed had called Republicans and convinced them not to sign off on the deals. 

During this portion, far-right Georgia representative Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) yelled at Biden in reference to the murder of University of Georgia student Laken Riley. The man who was charged with her murder was a Venezuelan immigrant who entered the country illegally. 

Biden strayed from script to respond to Greene, in which he referred to Riley’s murderer as an “illegal” before proceeding to say that many crimes are caused by citizens.

The use of the term “illegal” garnered backlash from fellow Democrats as well as the National Immigrant Justice Center, who released a statement saying, “We were shocked to hear the president echo the words of anti-immigrant extremists in his [State of the Union] speech tonight. Manipulating a personal tragedy for political gain in this way is dangerous. Conflating immigration status with criminality is racist and dehumanizing.”

In an interview with MSNBC, Biden stated regret for his usage of the term “illegal.” 

“I shouldn’t have used ‘illegal.’ It’s ‘undocumented,’” he said. 

This was not the only unexpected outburst that startled the president. A man named Steve Nikoui yelled, “Remember Abbey Gate” and was arrested by U.S. Capitol Police for disrupting the address. 

The outburst was in reference to the attacks at the Abbey Gate military base in Kabul, Afghanistan in 2021, which killed 13 American service members and around 170 Afghan civilians.

Nikoui was a guest of Rep. Brian Mast (R-FL) to the address and a father to Marine Lance Cpl. Kareem Nikoui, who was killed in the withdrawal from Afghanistan. 

On a lighter note, Biden poked fun at himself by making jokes about his age — which has been the topic of much scrutiny — during the address. 

“I know I may not look like it, but I’ve been around a while,” Biden said, a statement that was then followed by laughter and cheering. “And when you get to my age, certain things become clearer than ever before. I know the American story.”

Perhaps one of Biden’s biggest obstacles in his campaign for reelection, the president took this time to try and portray a positive spin on his age of 81. 

“My fellow Americans, the issue facing our nation isn’t how old we are. It’s how old our ideas are,” Biden said. 

Biden concluded his speech with a reiteration of maintaining democracy and a series of enthusiastic statements, including, “We are the United States of America. There is nothing beyond our capacity when we act together!”