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Tag: state of the union address
Joe Biden

Biden Pulls Even With Trump In Latest National Polls

In the four weeks since his fiery State of the Union address, President Joe Biden's campaign has kicked into high gear—barnstorming eight battleground states, opening up more than 100 field offices, making a $30 million ad buy, and launching a Latino outreach strategy targeting the Southwestern swing states of Arizona and Nevada.

Some polls have begun to see movement in Biden's direction, including a recent Bloomberg battleground poll, the Marquette University polling released Thursday, and the NPR/PBS/Marist poll (compared to its January/February survey).

Since last fall, the standard line in national political reporting has been that Trump leads Biden in the polling. That construct doesn't hold true any longer. Eyeballing the last two weeks of polls released by nonpartisan outfits (excluding Trafalgar Group) on 538's aggregate, Biden won six of them, Trump won five, and one found them even.

Data analysts far smarter than me also see positive movement for Biden.

The 538 generic ballot continues to be better for Democrats relative to results earlier this year. At 44.6% to 44.4%, Democrats are now up by a whisper over Republicans, who consistently led in the generic this year until roughly a month ago when Democrats pulled even.

It's impossible to intuit exactly what goes into subtle shifts among the electorate, but Trump hasn't exactly been killing it on the campaign trail. His campaigning over the past month has mainly consisted of making courtroom appearances, golfing, some fundraising, and 'Truthing' his endless grievances.

The presumptive GOP candidate did manage to cause a stir this week in the battleground state of Michigan, where he lied about speaking with Ruby Garcia’s family. The Michigan woman was murdered by a man who was in the country illegally. Trump never spoke to her loved ones.

“He did not speak with any of us, so it was kind of shocking seeing that he had said that he had spoke with us, and misinforming people on live TV,” Mavi Garcia, who has acted as a spokeswoman for her family, said in an interview with WOOD-TV8, the NBC affiliate for West Michigan.

Other local media outlets carried similar stories refuting Trump's false claim.

From a campaign standpoint, it wasn't exactly a home run, even though the virulently anti-immigrant aspect of the stop surely thrilled his MAGA faithful.

Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos.

How A Stuttering President Confronts A Right-Wing Bully

How A Stuttering President Confronts A Right-Wing Bully

“Donald Trump mocks Joe Biden’s stutter,” the headlines blare, and I am confronted (again) with (more) proof that the presumptive Republican presidential nominee hates people like me.

I don’t remember when they told me I stuttered, but I do remember the banana chips I got as “rewards” in the speech room in my Ohio grade school. I learned tricks that worked well and tricks that didn’t, tricks that I still use to this day, and tricks I’ve long forgotten. I don’t remember if I got picked on for it, but it wouldn’t surprise me. Fifth grade was my Nerd Year, after all, plagued by incessant bullying and the kid-violence that comes with it.But I do remember when the former vice president “came out” as a stutterer in a sprawling profile in The Atlantic, written by John Hendrickson, a stutterer himself.

I already knew Biden stuttered, because I’m a stutterer and Extremely Online, but the big reveal rippled through the media and endeared him to the public. People seemed to be watching for the former vice president to get caught on words, just so they could loudly forgive him for it. He even invited a young stutterer to be part of the virtual Democratic National Convention that summer, and I cried as I watched the video.

Some four years later, my response to video of Trump mocking Biden elicited a far different response.

The Washington Post, August 21, 2020:

Twenty seconds into his speech to the Democratic National Convention on Thursday, Brayden Harrington started to stutter.
He knew he would — it was the reason the 13-year-old was addressing millions of viewers from his bedroom. As he had explained to kick off his speech, his life had changed after meeting former vice president Joe Biden in February.
“He told me that we were members of the same club. We ... ” Brayden said, shutting his eyes as he drew out an “s” sound, willing the word to emerge: “... stutter.”
And then, he kept going — smiling, poised, and delivering a powerful message about how Biden, who has spoken openly of his battle with a speech impediment, had inspired him to reach higher.

“He kept going.” I have two words, in my own handwriting, inked where my right wrist meets my palm: Keep going.They’re words that apply to many situations—how I got through a rough childhood, a challenging young adulthood, more than one breakup, and a spinal injury in 2018. But those words whisper encouragement when I cover my mouth to “reset” during those moments when my mouth stops listening to my brain.

It’s a trick I learned in that small speech room in elementary school. It requires me to stop trying to speak and focus on just being present.

Biden has other tricks.

The Atlantic, January/February 2020:

At first, Biden sounded strong, confident, presidential: “My plan makes a limit of co-pay to be One. Thousand. Dollars. Because we—”
He stopped. He pinched his eyes closed. He lifted his hands and thrust them forward, as if trying to pull the missing sound from his mouth. “We f-f-f-f-further support—” He opened his eyes. “The uh-uh-uh-uh—” His chin dipped toward his chest. “The-uh, the ability to buy into the Obamacare plan.” Biden also stumbled when trying to say immune system.
Fox News edited these moments into a mini montage. Stifling laughter, the host Steve Hilton narrated: “As the right words struggled to make that perilous journey from Joe Biden’s brain to Joe Biden’s mouth, half the time he just seemed to give up with this somewhat tragic and limp admission of defeat.”

I remember that montage. It sickened us here in the Daily Kos newsroom, because it was so unapologetically childish and cruel. I took it particularly hard, because I’ve lost so many words to “that perilous journey.”

Stress exacerbates my stutter. It’s a force multiplier. So when, for a few years in my life, I found myself speaking before crowds and before cameras, I wasn’t surprised when no amount of preparation guaranteed my carefully chosen words would make it out of my mouth without encountering obstacles. I’d fret for weeks, wondering if I’d manage to avoid getting caught up, and if I did, if I’d be able to keep going.

Then a good friend advised me to own it. “Once you’ve reset, just smile, say ‘sorry, I stutter, so that might happen again,’ and just keep going. And remember those people want to hear what you have to say. They’ll wait.”

And that’s what I did. That’s what I still do. And I remember that folks want to listen to me, and waiting a few seconds for me to squeak out a word isn’t the big deal I think it is.

And so it is for Biden. When the president speaks, people listen. Even if they have to wait a few seconds.

As Hendrickson wrote for The Atlantic on March 10, 2024, after Trump mocked Biden for his stuttering incidents during an undeniably successfully State of the Union speech:

Stuttering is one of many disabilities to have entered Trump’s crosshairs. In 2015, he infamously made fun of a New York Times reporter’s disabled upper-body movements. Three years later, as president, when planning a White House event for military veterans, he asked his staff not to include amputees wounded in combat, saying, “Nobody wants to see that.” Stuttering is a neurological disorder that affects roughly 3 million Americans.
[...]
For a time, Trump exercised a modicum of restraint around this topic. As I once wrote, Trump was probably wise enough to realize that, to paraphrase Michael Jordan, Republicans stutter too.
[...]
Trump may be among the most famous and powerful people in modern history, but he remains a small-minded bully. He mocks Biden’s disability because he believes the voters will reward him for it—that there is more to be gained than lost by dehumanizing his rival and the millions of other Americans who stutter, or who go through life managing other disorders and disabilities.

The rights and dignity of the disabled have always mattered to me, but after my injury, I am more aware of how cruel the world can be to those with different or fewer abilities. Watching the opposition party become the “fuck your feelings” party of wannabe fascists these last nine years should embarrass and enrage us all.

Alliteration is especially tough for me, and when I know it’s coming, I slow my words and enunciate them with almost comical intensity. But I don’t stutter when I type. And so I can easily say that I’m ready to spend the next seven-plus months beating bullies, building benches, saving statehouses and the Senate, and righting wrongs.

I’ll never say “fuck your feelings” to anyone, even a MAGA zealot, because that’s just not me. But I will say this—a few times, fast, even:

Fuck fascism.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I think I’ve earned some banana chips.

Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos

Marjorie Taylor Greene

Margie Lied: Debunking That 'Migrant Crime Wave' Canard

President Joe Biden chose to scrap a bit with Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene at the State of the Union — a choice that should remind us of the old saw, "Never wrestle with pigs. You both get dirty and the pig likes it."

Greene has two modes: heckling and lying. This time, she was doing both by bellowing that Biden should "Say her name," a reference to Laken Riley, the nursing student who was murdered by an undocumented immigrant. Biden said the name (though he mangled it) and added the reasonable observation that thousands of people are murdered every year by the native born. A few progressive speech police then attacked Biden (!) for using the politically incorrect terminology for the murderer, causing Biden to correct himself, and here we are — all covered in mud while the pig is grinning.

Biden's initial instinct was good, even if the execution and follow-through left something to be desired. But that doesn't mean Biden should shrink from the subject in future. On the contrary, the false immigration narrative is clearly damaging Biden's standing.

Cards on the table: I'm for increased immigration. Immigrants are vital to our economy. They will contribute an estimated $7 trillion to our GDP over the next 10 years. They also revitalize our civic culture, injecting new Americans who do not take our prosperity or our freedoms for granted (and that's not even counting all the new cuisines). They contribute more to the economy than they take from it. Yes, our immigration laws are outdated and in need of reform — as the Biden administration at length conceded.

But while revising our criteria for asylum and hiring new immigration judges, we must not lose sight of the fact that being a magnet for those who want a better life is an American strength, not a weakness.

Greene cited the case of Laken Riley because she was a young, white woman murdered by an illegal immigrant. A group of GOP senators led by Rand Paul is muscling in on the stunt by demanding documents relating to the case. This is key to the cynical effort to convince Americans that most immigrants are dangerous criminals.

Recall that in 2015, the right was similarly inflamed about Kate Steinle, a woman who was shot and killed in San Francisco. The man who accidentally shot Steinle was eventually acquitted, but never mind the details. She was young and beautiful and nativists from coast to coast exploited her tragic death. Trump invoked her at the 2016 Republican Convention as evidence of the vicious invasion America was facing from Mexican rapists and murderers.

Since then, Trump has only ratcheted up his incitement, now employing fascistic language about immigrants "poisoning the blood" of this country.

In 2022, there were 18,785 murders in the United States. Some of them happened in Greene's district. A Dalton, Georgia, man escorting his girlfriend to the home of her ex was arrested after stabbing the ex to death. Also in Dalton, a 19-year-old pled guilty to second-degree murder for supplying a 16-year-old girl with fentanyl. In Rome, Georgia, a man was convicted of slaying two sisters he believed had stolen his wallet. He shot them and dumped their bodies in a river. He later found the wallet behind his TV.

Is the Republican governor of Georgia to blame? Is Greene? Should she say their names?

Every study on the subject has shown that since 1960, immigrants are much less likely than native-born Americans to be arrested or convicted of crimes (excluding those associated with entry into the country). The right highlights a few cases of murder committed by immigrants, but as Alex Nowrasteh of the Cato Institute shows, undocumented immigrants are 27.7 times less likely to commit homicide than natives, and legal immigrants are 57.1 times less likely.

A Stanford University study of incarceration rates going all the way back to the 19th century shows that immigrants are less likely to commit crimes of every description than are the native-born. "Far from the rapists and drug dealers that anti-immigrant politicians claim them to be, immigrants today are doing relatively well." Criminologists have consistently found that immigrant-heavy neighborhoods in big cities have less crime, not more crime, than other areas.

It's rich that Republicans are seeking to blame Biden for murders committed by undocumented immigrants when they just rejected a bill that would have hired thousands of new border patrol agents and asylum officers, and allocated $20 billion for new detention facilities, improved drug detection technology, and more immigration judges. It would also have dramatically overhauled the standards for asylum. But the GOP foot soldiers, after stoking anti-immigrant hysteria for years, refused to take yes for an answer precisely because the incitement is the policy.

Biden's fundamental decency was on display during the State of the Union when he extended his deep sympathy to Laken Riley's family for their loss. The same cannot be said for Greene and company, whose bad faith is exceeded only by their shamelessness.

Mona Charen is policy editor of The Bulwark and host of the "Beg to Differ" podcast. Her new book, Hard Right: The GOP's Drift Toward Extremism, is available now.


'Biggest Disaster': Republicans Blast Their Own State Of The Union Response

'Biggest Disaster': Republicans Blast Their Own State Of The Union Response

President Joe Biden was forceful, aggressive and focused during his State of the Union address on Thursday night, March 7, tackling everything from abortion rights and Obamacare to military aide for Ukraine. Biden never mentioned likely GOP presidential frontrunner Donald Trump by name during his speech, only referring to him as "my predecessor." Yet he made a strong case for rejecting MAGA policies in the November election.

Biden's SOTU was followed by a rebuttal from Sen. Katie Britt (R-Alabama). Democrats, not surprisingly, have been attacking Britt's speech as a weak response to a fiery, on-target address. But the criticism is not only coming from members of Biden's party.

The Daily Beast's Jake Lahut, in an article published the next morning, stresses that Britt's speech was so bad that even Republicans are slamming it.

"The freshman senator is considered a rising star in the party," Lahut explains. "But her speech’s intense tone — with an over-the-top dramatic cadence that was delivered in a kitchen — left political operatives and observers struggling to make sense of it. In particular, some Republicans watched the high-profile speech with a grimace."

Lahut notes that Britt has been mentioned a possible running mate for Trump but may have endangered that possibility because of her March 7 rebuttal.

A GOP "operative," interviewed on condition of anonymity, told the Beast, "Everyone's fucking losing it. It's one of our biggest disasters ever."

Another Republican insider told the Beast that Britt "lowered her stature" with the rebuttal. And former GOP strategist Tim Miller, a Never Trump conservative who is supporting Biden, slammed Britt's speech as "creepy."

Conservative Alyssa Farah Griffin, who served as White House communications director under Trump but endorsed former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley in the 2024 GOP presidential primary, is criticizing Britt's speech as well — although not as intensely as others on the right.

On X, formerly Twitter, Griffin posted, "Senator Katie Britt is a very impressive person. She ran a hell of race in [Alabama],” a former Trump White House communications adviser and Nikki Haley supporter posted on X. “I do not understand the decision to put her in a KITCHEN for one of the most important speeches she’s ever given."

Reprinted with permission from Alternet