Morning Report — Biden blasts Trump to make reelection case

Alexis Simendinger

President Biden tried to reassure Democrats and confronted Republican foes and former President Trump during a Thursday night speech filled with sharp partisan rebukes attached to gossamer calls for “unity” and “vision.”

Biden made his opening pitch for a second term by taking Trump on during his State of the Union address without naming him and while unabashedly championing a progressive agenda that would be impossible to enact without electing more Democrats to the House and Senate. Repeatedly referring to “my predecessor,” Biden used some of Trump’s recent statements to attack him as a danger to democracy and a risk on the world stage.

“You can’t love your country only when you win,” Biden said.

Speaking rapidly and raising his voice, the president outlined his economic loyalties to the middle class and challenged House Republicans to back a bipartisan border security bill, approve more international aid, shift tax breaks away from corporations and the wealthy and craft a federal legal shield for in vitro fertilization — all issues that divide the GOP.

  • The Washington Post: Biden’s exchanges with Republican lawmakers in the House chamber turned the address into a form of political theater.

  • The Atlantic: Republican members of Congress repeatedly heckled the president, who was happy to mix it up with them.

Biden reached out to younger voters, independents, seniors, women, minorities, union workers and veterans on issues they care about. Without their support in November, polls suggest Biden could lose to Trump. He has eight months to bolster a coalition that has frayed since 2020 because of economic anxieties and fears that Biden is too old. The president joked about his age, but left that vulnerability to the end of his speech.

  • The Hill: Five takeaways from the State of the Union address.

  • The Hill: Sen. Katie Britt (R-Ala.) went after “dithering, diminished” Biden in her State of the Union response.

Biden began with a smile and handshake followed by an implicit rebuke for Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), the conservative lawmaker seated behind him. Emphasizing that “freedom and democracy are under attack both at home and abroad,” Biden urged House Republicans to approve stalled funding that would provide Ukraine with more than $60 billion in military and humanitarian aid to defend against Russia.

The Hill: Speaker Johnson and colleagues reacted to “overly partisan” Biden remarks.

Biden quoted Trump with alarm for boasting that he would encourage Russia and Vladimir Putin to “do whatever the hell they want” to NATO allies if those countries did not spend enough on defense.

The president said Trump urged Republicans to oppose a bipartisan border security bill in the Senate because it would hand Biden a legislative win in an election year.

Turning to the plight of Palestinians and escalating calls from Americans for a cease-fire in Gaza, Biden challenged the Israeli government, explained his efforts to secure a deal between Israel and Hamas and pledged more humanitarian assistance by air and sea.

“This war has taken a greater toll on innocent civilians than all previous wars in Gaza combined,” Biden said, noting the deaths of 30,000 Palestinians since Oct. 7. “Israel must allow more aid into Gaza and ensure that humanitarian workers aren’t caught in the crossfire. To the leadership of Israel I say this: Humanitarian assistance cannot be a secondary consideration or a bargaining chip. Protecting and saving innocent lives has to be a priority.”

The administration in recent weeks has worked with Egyptian and Qatari officials to broker a temporary cease-fire between Israel and Hamas, and U.S. troops have airdropped food aid into Gaza. Biden announced Thursday that the U.S. military will build a temporary maritime pier to transport food, water and provisions by sea.

Biden will travel today to Philadelphia for a campaign event as Vice President Harris and Cabinet members begin a media blitz and fan out to at least a dozen states this month to trumpet administration accomplishments and draw contrasts with Republicans. The president and Trump will separately headline campaign events in Georgia Saturday.

The Hill: Biden sparred with Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R) over immigration. He mentioned the late Laken Riley’s name at the lawmaker’s urging.

Find text of the president’s speech as prepared for delivery HERE.

Trump’s review of the speech: Using Truth Social to provide some play-by-play of Biden’s address, the former president revived criticisms of his successor and Biden’s record as president, fact-checked by The Independent HERE.

3 THINGS TO KNOW TODAY

LEADING THE DAY

CONGRESS

Border issues: The House Thursday approved legislation that would require the detention by Immigration and Customs Enforcement of any migrant who commits burglary or theft. The bill cleared the chamber 251-170, with 37 Democrats joining Republicans. Some Democrats who supported the measure are in tough races this year, including Senate contests (The Hill).

Conservatives, pointing to the administration’s policies at the U.S. southern border, named the immigration bill after Laken Riley, a Georgia student allegedly murdered by an undocumented migrant from Venezuela who was charged last month with felony murder, kidnapping and false imprisonment. Referring to news accounts about crimes allegedly committed by migrants, Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) said, “They’ve all been victimized by those whom the Biden administration has released into our country. He is releasing them into your state.”

Fact check for this week’s talking points: Stanford University researchers last year noted that immigration opponents assert that migrants drive up crime. Myth, according to a detailed historical study of incarceration rates of migrants nationwide relative to U.S. born individuals, and regardless of immigrants’ legal status. “Far from the rapists and drug dealers that anti-immigrant politicians claim them to be, immigrants today are doing relatively well and have largely been shielded from the social and economic forces that have negatively affected low-educated U.S.-born men,” wrote Stanford economist Ran Abramitzky.

IVF: The House will not tackle legislation dealing with the nationwide controversy over in vitro fertilization, which erupted following an Alabama Supreme Court decision that frozen embryos are children, Johnson told “CBS Mornings” during a Thursday interview. Johnson previously said he supports IVF (“It needs to be readily available”), adding Thursday that he believes it’s a “state’s issue.”

✂️ The Hill: Among Senate Republicans, the risk of a partial shutdown reemerged with a sudden skirmish over earmarks. Also, nuclear waste reprocessing, revived after decades, is in the House spending measure as an earmark.

TikTok: A House panel unanimously advanced a bipartisan bill Thursday that could ban TikTok. It passed days after introduction by two lawmakers on the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party (The Hill).

Radiation: The Senate voted 69-30 Thursday to update existing law to compensate Americans exposed to radiation by the federal government. Sponsor Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) previously said he would factor his colleagues’ vote on his bill while weighing his choice to be the next Senate Republican leader. Two aspirants seeking to succeed Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) are Minority Whip John Thune (S.D.) and Sen. John Cornyn (Texas). They voted against Hawley’s measure. McConnell voted in favor (The Hill).

Demoted: Rep. Ronny Jackson (R-Texas), a Trump ally and former Navy physician assigned to the White House medical team during the Obama years, was demoted by the Navy in 2022 to retired captain from rear admiral, a change retroactively applied to his 2019 retirement but not publicly disclosed at the time. The demotion followed a Pentagon inspector general report and a decision that Jackson’s behavior was “not in keeping with the standards the Navy requires of its leaders” (The Washington Post). The lawmaker has continued to publicly describe himself as a “retired U.S. Navy rear admiral.” He maintains that the Inspector General probe was politically motivated.

2024 ROUNDUP

  • Republican National Committee members are expected to vote today on new leadership during a Houston meeting where Chair Ronna McDaniel says she’ll step down. The change is fresh evidence that political alliances with Trump often include an expiration date.

  • Trump’s impending takeover of the RNC could give him access to cash at a time when he is beset by legal bills, making some committee members nervous.

  • Biden won the Hawaii presidential primary Wednesday, according to The Hill’s projection with Decision Desk HQ. His win in the Aloha State will likely add most of the state’s 22 pledged delegates to his total. Hawaii Republicans will hold their caucuses Tuesday.

  • Biden’s campaign called a new ad released by a super PAC supporting Trump “sick and deranged” on Thursday. It includes this voiceover: “If Biden wins, can he even survive until 2029?”

  • Rep. Katie Porter (D-Calif.) is doubling down on her claim that California’s Senate race was “rigged by billionaires” after she lost the chance to advance to the general election.

  • Former Rep. George Santos (R-N.Y.), who was expelled from the House last year and succeeded by a Democrat in the seat he left, announced Thursday in Washington that he’s running for Congress again. His new target: GOP Rep. Nick LaLota in New York’s 1st Congressional District.

ZOOM IN

MORE POLITICS

Who would those third-party contenders be? The centrist group No Labels is expected to push forward today with plans for an independent presidential “unity” ticket this year, The Wall Street Journal reports.

“We expect our delegates to encourage the process to continue,” said Ryan Clancy, the group’s chief strategist. No Labels still has a lengthy process ahead as delegates aim to debut a formal selection process this month and proceed from there.

The group’s plans could still change, The Associated Press reports. Group officials have said they are communicating with potential candidates but have not disclosed any names. Nikki Haley said she’s not interested. Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), who is retiring from the Senate, says he won’t be a presidential candidate. Former Republican Gov. Larry Hogan of Maryland is seeking a Senate seat.

WHERE AND WHEN

The House will convene at 10 a.m.

The Senate will meet at 10 a.m.

The president will receive the President’s Daily Brief at 10 a.m. Biden and first lady Jill Biden will leave the White House at 1:40 p.m. to travel to Philadelphia for a campaign event at 5 p.m. They will later depart Philadelphia to fly to New Castle, Del., and remain overnight. On Saturday, the Bidens head to Atlanta for a campaign event and return again to Delaware. Biden is scheduled to return to the White House on Sunday.

The vice president will be interviewed by NBC News for its “Nightly News” broadcast. Harris will fly to Phoenix to speak about reproductive rights at an event at 4:25 p.m. MST. She will be accompanied by Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra. Harris will depart Phoenix for Los Angeles, where she will remain overnight. The vice president will be in Las Vegas Saturday to again speak about reproductive rights.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken meets this morning with Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan at the State Department and hosts a reception this afternoon for International Women’s Day.

Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm will travel to Colorado today to highlight clean energy manufacturing as part of the president’s agenda.

Second gentleman Doug Emhoff will speak about transportation infrastructure and the economy during an event at the Albuquerque, N.M., airport at 12:30 p.m. MT. He will visit Barelas Coffee Shop and then Bow and Arrow Brewing Co. in Albuquerque in the afternoon.

ELSEWHERE

INTERNATIONAL

HAMAS LEFT GAZA CEASE-FIRE TALKS Thursday in Cairo with no sign of progress just days before the start of Ramadan. The U.S. — which is brokering the talks alongside Qatar and Egypt — said the onus was on the Palestinian militant group to strike a deal on Israeli hostages. Israel and Hamas blamed each other for the lack of agreement after four days of talks to secure a 40-day ceasefire amid fears violence could escalate during the Muslim holy month.

Egyptian sources told Reuters that the talks, taking place without an Israeli delegation in Cairo, would resume on Sunday, the deadline mediators have set for the two sides to respond to the truce proposal.

Regardless, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel will not give in to international pressure to stall an attack on the southern Gaza city of Rafah and will continue its offensive against Hamas (The Guardian).

“There is international pressure and it’s growing, but … we need to stand together against the attempts to stop the war,” the prime minister said Thursday, adding that Israel’s forces would operate against Hamas all through the Gaza Strip “including Rafah, the last Hamas stronghold… Whoever tells us not to act in Rafah is telling us to lose the war and that will not happen.”

  • Al Jazeera: The U.S. plan to build a temporary port off Gaza’s coast to step up the delivery of humanitarian aid has been criticized as an attempt to divert attention from Israel’s consistent blocking of assistance to the enclave.

  • The New York Times: Since October, organizers and Palestinian cooks working with the World Central Kitchen — the aid organization founded by the renowned Spanish chef José Andrés — have served more than 32 million meals in Gaza.

  • Reuters: Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories have expanded by a record amount and risk eliminating any practical possibility of a Palestinian state, the U.N. human rights chief said Friday.

When Israel’s war on Hamas ends, its conflict with Iran-backed militias may rage on, reports The Hill’s Brad Dress. Israeli officials are increasingly concerned with the constant artillery and rocket fire at the northern border with Lebanon’s Hezbollah and have said they will fight to push the group back from bordering territory. The clash with Hezbollah is driving up the stakes in the Middle East, having already created a messy dilemma that will have to be resolved one way or another regardless of the Israel-Hamas war.

A The New Yorker Q&A with Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) focused on the humanitarian crisis in Gaza and his pressure on the administration to use the leverage of U.S. law: “I do think that the [Biden] administration recognizes how bad it looks to repeatedly request the Netanyahu government take action and to repeatedly be ignored, while at the same time the administration has been providing a substantial amount of military aid that’s being used in Gaza. I think the administration recognizes the contradictions, but has not yet resolved those contradictions.”

Sweden officially joined NATO on Thursday after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine spurred it to rethink its defense policy and abandon its long held position of neutrality (CNN).

TRUMP WORLD

JUDGE AND JURORS: The judge overseeing Trump’s upcoming hush money trial in New York City agreed Thursday to limit the disclosure of the names and other identifying information of jurors, finding “there is a likelihood of bribery, jury tampering, or of physical injury or harassment of juror(s).” Jury selection is to begin March 25 (ABC News and The Hill).

TRUMP HAS BEEN ORDERED TO PAY a six-figure legal bill to Orbis Business Intelligence, a company founded by former British spy Christopher Steele, that he unsuccessfully sued for making what his lawyer called “shocking and scandalous” false claims that harmed his reputation. A London judge, who threw out the case last month saying it was “bound to fail,” ordered Trump to pay legal fees of $382,000, according to court documents released Thursday (ABC News).

OPINION

  • In his State of the Union, Biden plays the age-old hits, by David Von Drehle, deputy opinion editor and columnist, The Washington Post.

  • Biden’s partisan State of Disunion, by The Wall Street Journal editorial board.

THE CLOSER

And finally … 👏👏👏 Standing O for this week’s Morning Report Quiz winners! We asked about trivia tied to past State of the Union addresses and readers delivered.

Here’s who went 4/4, demonstrating that the state of their puzzle acumen is strong: Pam Manges, Lynn Gardner, Patrick Kavanagh, Phil Kirstein, Peter Sprofera, Randall S. Patrick, Mary Anne McEnery, Bill Moore, Carmine Petracca, Ned Sauthoff, Linda Field, Clare Millians, Roger Barnaby, Chuck Schoenenberger, Ki Harvey, Harry Strulovici, John Trombetti, Frank Garza, Robert Bradley. Jack Barshay and Steve James.

They knew that in 1947, Harry Truman was the first president to give a State of the Union speech on television.

Former President Bill Clinton set a record with an 89-minute State of the Union address in 2000.

“My fellow Americans” was a phrase coined by President Lyndon Johnson in the opening of his annual address to a joint session of Congress in 1964 (text HERE).

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) memorably became parched in 2013 while delivering a live, televised response to the State of the Union address. He briefly paused for a big swig from a water bottle.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.

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