The president’s traditional address to a joint session of Congress comes as he confronts a stalled legislative agenda, the lingering coronavirus pandemic and spiraling inflation at home. In a wide-ranging speech, Biden urged Congress to pass legislation aimed at making the United States more economically competitive with China, and to confirm his Supreme Court nominee; vowed to fight inflation with proposals that would lower the cost of child care and prescription drugs; and implored Americans to stop seeing the pandemic through a partisan lens.
Biden entered the House to sustained applause and even drew bipartisan standing ovations at certain parts of his speech, such as when he voiced support for Ukraine and when he called for police to receive more funding. Still, there were moments when bitter partisanship bubbled through, with Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) interrupting several times to shout “Build the wall!” and to challenge Biden when he spoke about the death of his son, a veteran.
Here’s what to know:
‘Insulin’, ‘LGBTQ’, ‘Ruble’: 20 words Biden entered into the State of the Union lexicon
Return to menuSince 1790, presidents have used tens of thousands of different words in State of the Union addresses. Biden, in his first such speech, added to the list. According to a Washington Post analysis, there were 20 words Biden spoke tonight that had never been used before in an official State of the Union address.
The newly spoken words thread through current events and rising issues of the day. Some related to the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine — Kyiv, ruble and Ukrainians — and others to health care — covid, immunocompromised, insulin and variant. He was also the first president to use the acronym LGBTQ in the speech.
The 20 words: chokeholds, covid, dizziness, fearlessness, fingertip, guardrails, immunocompromised, incinerated, insulin, intel, Kyiv, Legos, LGBTQ, ruble, rust, supercharge, trauma, Ukrainians, variant and weatherize.
‘Republicans believe that parents matter,’ Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds says in GOP response
Return to menuIn her response to Biden’s State of the Union, Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds (R) spoke at length about the issues of coronavirus restrictions and schools, in an indication of the issues on which Republicans plan to focus in the November midterms.
Reynolds said that in Iowa, “we honored your freedoms and saw right away that lockdowns and school closures, they came with their own significant cost, that mandates weren’t the answer.”
As GOP candidates across the country emphasize parents’ right to have a say in their children’s education, Reynolds delivered a refrain that will likely be heard again before November: “Republicans believe that parents matter.”
“It was true before the pandemic, and it has never been more important to say out loud: Parents matter,” she said. “They have a right to know and to have a say in what their kids are being taught. Families also have every right to live in a safe and a secure community, and that begins with a safe and secure country.”
‘We will save democracy,’ Biden says as he concludes his remarks
Return to menuAs his remarks neared a close, Biden declared that “the State of the Union is strong because you, the American people, are strong.”
He also cast the current moment as a pivotal one for the nation, telling those assembled in the House chamber, “It is in this moment that our character of this generation is formed, our purpose is found, our future is forged.”
“Well, I know this nation,” Biden said. “We’ll meet the test: protect freedom and liberty, expand fairness and opportunity. And we will save democracy. As hard as those times have been, I’m more optimistic about America today than I’ve been my whole life — because I see the future that’s within our grasp, because I know there’s simply nothing beyond our capacity.”
Biden speech clocks in at just over an hour
Return to menuThe State of the Union address lasted about an hour and two minutes, slightly shorter than the joint address to Congress that Biden delivered last April. It was briefer than former president Donald Trump’s typical State of the Union speech, which averaged an hour and 20 minutes, according to the American Presidency Project.
Fact Checker: Biden wrong on gun manufacturer liability
Return to menu“Look, repeal the liability shield. It makes gun manufacturers the only industry in America that can’t be sued.”
This is false. Gun manufacturers can certainly be sued — and some other industries have some liability protections.
Biden appears to be referring to the 2005 Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act, which was passed after a wave of lawsuits filed against gun manufacturers by municipalities and gun-control advocates.
The 2005 law does not guarantee blanket immunity, and it has some exceptions. Manufacturers or dealers can be sued if they knowingly sold a product that would be used to commit a crime. They can be sued if they were negligent in selling the product to someone they knew was unfit (i.e., a child or someone who was drunk). They can be sued for another technical negligence claim (“negligence per se”) that relates to the violation of a safety statute.
The Connecticut Supreme Court had ruled two years ago that the laws did not protect manufacturers from claims that wrongful advertising resulted in injury or death. That led the way to a $73 million settlement between family members of those killed in the 2012 Sandy Hook shooting and insurers for the now-bankrupt Remington Arms, manufacturer of the Bushmaster rifle used in the killings. The families’ lawsuit argued that Remington marketed the semiautomatic weapon specifically to young and at-risk men with suggestive advertising and product placement in violent video games.
Before this ruling, the law appeared to provide a relatively unique federal legal shield. Negligence claims in tort law generally allow consumers to sue for negligence caused by carelessness, which doesn’t always involve a violation of the law or knowingly entrusting someone unfit to handle the product.
Few industries have federal liability immunity, but Biden is wrong to say gun manufacturers are alone. Vaccine manufacturers have limited protection from lawsuits if their vaccine led to an injury. The federal government enacted this immunity to encourage companies to produce more vaccines without the fear of lawsuits, for their benefit to public health. Another example is federal protection for the airline industry from lawsuits arising from the 9/11 terrorist attacks. But unlike the gun law, both cases established a compensation plan for victims to recover money for damages.
Biden tries to navigate the difficult politics of the coronavirus
Return to menuBiden, pivoting to the coronavirus section of his speech, walked a fine line as he laid out a four-point plan to continue fighting the pandemic.
The president said he would stay committed to providing vaccines and treatments, speed up the fight against variants, avoid shutdowns at schools and businesses, and continue to vaccinate the world.
The White House and many Democrats are eager to show progress on fighting the virus, especially as support for Biden’s handling of the pandemic fades and issues like school closures are expected to be hotly debated in this year’s midterm elections. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention last month rolled back its mask recommendations, leading to a strikingly different visual at this year’s address compared with Biden’s remarks last year to Congress, where lawmakers were masked.
But many public health experts are worried that the administration is moving too quickly to reduce protections during a pandemic that is still leading to nearly 2,000 U.S. deaths per day. Immunocompromised Americans are at high risk, and many people still report complications weeks or months after their initial infections.
“We’re leaving no one behind or ignoring anyone’s needs as we move forward,” Biden said, trying to reassure skeptics.
Biden also appeared to edit his comments in real time.
The speech’s prepared text read that scientists are “working hard” to authorize vaccines for young children, “and we’ll be ready with plenty of vaccines when they do.” But Biden changed that to “if and when they do” — a reflection of how federal agencies like the Food and Drug Administration have sometimes bristled at the White House’s vaccine plans, saying political appointees were too hasty to promise booster shots last year, for instance.
