President Biden delivered his the State of the Union address on Tuesday, a speech at times feisty and jovial, serious and stern. It was his third time addressing a joint session of Congress but his first before a divided government.
Biden began by speaking of “possibilities” and calling for Congress to find “consensus.” He lauded his administration’s work on infrastructure and rolled out a plan to use only made-in-America construction supplies on federal projects.
Biden has tried to appeal to Republicans in his address, calling on them to work with him over the next two years of a divided Congress.
Over more than an hour, Biden touted his administration’s and Democrats’ accomplishments over the past year, using the speech as a launching pad for a 2024 presidential run.
At the same time, Republicans are looking to fight back, and they’ve already started. Biden was heckled from some Republicans amid his speech, including a robust exchange on Medicare and calls for securing the border while Biden talked about curbing fentanyl trafficking.
Here’s a look at how it all unfolded, along with reaction after the address, captured by staff of The Hill.
More from The Hill: ➡Six progressive takeaways from Biden’s State of the Union speech
More from The Hill: ➡ Sarah Huckabee Sanders says ‘choice is between normal or crazy’ in GOP response
Biden’s address clocks in at 1 hour, 12 minutes
Biden comments on Nichols draw praise
Congressional Black Caucus leader Rep. Steven Horsford (D-Nev.) lauded the president’s comments on the death of Tyre Nichols, speaking with MSNBC after the address.
“I cannot thank President Biden and Vice President Harris enough for speaking to the hearts of the American people today of taking the plea of the mother of Tyre Nichols and so many other families who have lost a loved one or had a loved one traumatized because of their interaction with law enforcement,” Horsford said.
Biden motorcade returns to applause
President Biden’s motorcade arrived back at the White House from the State of the Union at 11:18 p.m.
While members of the press pool did not see him, they heard staff applauding him while walking through the White House.
Schumer says Biden spoke to families
McConnell cheers Biden’s commitment to Ukraine
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has clashed with Biden over countless policy issues over much of the last two years. But emerging from Biden’s speech, the Republican leader highlighted one area where the two sides are firmly aligned.
“Certainly on Ukraine, we’re on the same team,” McConnell said.
Biden, with broad congressional support from both parties, has supplied billions of dollars in aid to Kyiv — military, economic and humanitarian — since Russia’s invasion almost a year ago. The president used his speech on Tuesday to make a commitment to Ukraine’s ambassador to the U.S., who was in attendance, that the help would continue to flow.
“Ambassador, America is united in our support for your country,” he said. “We will stand with you as long as it takes.”
Former Vice President Pence responds to Biden’s State of the Union
Pelosi: GOP ‘protested too much’
Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) told CNN after the address that Republicans who heckled President Biden were “fairly well-behaved for what we see every day of the week,” but said they “protested too much.”
“They have demonstrated how chaotic they can be,” she said, pointing out the prolonged election of Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.).
Separately, Pelosi said her colleagues, including “many of the Republicans,” have been “very prayerful and kind” as her husband, Paul, recovers from a violent attack at their home. The former Speaker said he is “strong and resilient.”
Arkansas Gov. declares Biden unfit for the job as POTUS
Sarah Huckabee Sanders said President Biden was “simply unfit to serve as Commander in Chief” in her live remarks Tuesday night following Biden’s speech.
“It is time for a new generation of Republican leadership,” she added.
“At 40 I’m the youngest governor in the country. At 80 he is the oldest president in American history,” Sanders said.
CBS’ John Dickerson dubs Marjorie Taylor Greene ‘chaos entrepreneurs’
CBS anchor and political analyst John Dickerson called Republicans who interrupted president Biden’s State of the Union Address “chaos entrepreneurs.”
“You think back to Joe Wilson, the congressman for south carolina, he yelled, you lie at President Obama. It was a seismic moment in our politics. It almost seems like it’s cascading over the sea now. It’s just another interruption in a chaotic political war,” Dickerson said during the network’s coverage of Biden’s speech. ” Marjorie Taylor Greene will probably see a benefit from this. In politics, it’s driven by attention and fund raising. Shouting out and when norms aren’t maintained, shouting out is actually perfectly fine if you’re a chaos entrepreneur in the political realm these days.
Ogles yelled ‘it’s your fault’ when Biden brings up fentanyl deaths
Rep. Andy Ogles (R-Tenn) yelled out “it’s your fault” when President Biden mentioned fentanyl deaths in his speech.
“That was a very visceral moment for me,” Ogles told The Hill after the speech.
“He could close that border with the stroke of a pen, and he hasn’t had the courage to do it.”
Manchin calls GOP heckling ‘unacceptable’
Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), a key centrist, took aim at GOP hecklers during Biden’s address, calling the jeers “unacceptable” while pressing for action from Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.).
“That’s just unacceptable, and the type of country we are, and leader of the free world — might be accepted in a third world country, but not here,” he said.
Manchin added that he hopes McCarthy addresses the disruptions, noting “he looked like he was shushing.”
— Aris Folley
Rep. Connolly slams behavior of House Republicans
Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.) slammed House Republicans for their behavior during the State of the Union shortly after the speech ended.
“It’s really a shameful moment I think for the Republican majority,” he said.
Alyssa Farah Griffin: Biden’s ‘buy American’ lines during State of the Union sound like Trump
Former White House communications director Alyssa Farah Griffin said President Biden’s calls for more products and manufacturing to be made and done in America sounded like her former boss, president Trump.
“I was looking at some of the messaging and it could have been straight out of a Trump state of the union,” Griffin said during CNN’s coverage of the president’s state of the union speech. “Talking about buy American, on shoring American jobs. Now will the policies reflect that is the question.”
During his speech, Biden said on his watch “American roads, American bridges, and American highways will be made with American products.”
Romney told Santos he ‘shouldn’t be there,’ slams him as ‘an embarrassment’
Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) appeared to have a heated exchange with Rep. George Santos (R-N.Y.) as he encountered the disgraced freshman lawmaker in the center aisle.
“I don’t know the exact words I said. He shouldn’t have been there. Look, he’s a sick puppy. He shouldn’t have been there,” Romney told reporters after the speech.
“I don’t think he ought to be in Congress and he certainly shouldn’t be in the aisle trying to shake the hand of the president of the United States and dignitaries coming in. It’s an embarrassment,” he added.
Romney said he didn’t hear Santos’s reply but the congressman later jabbed back at the senator on Twitter.
“Hey @MittRomney just a reminder that you will NEVER be PRESIDENT!” he tweeted.
Asked if he was disappointed that Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) has yet to call on Santos to resign, Romney responded: “Yes.”
—Al Weaver and Alexander Bolton
Biden hails parents of daughter with cancer, ‘kindred spirits’ of him and first lady
Biden renewed attention on his Cancer Moonshot initiative, highlighting a couple whose young daughter is “on her way to being cancer free.” Biden’s son Beau Biden died from a rare form of brain cancer in 2015.
The president called Maurice and Kandice Barron “kindred spirits” to him and Jill Biden, having gotten married in the same chapel as they had. Their three-year-old daughter named Ava, who was watching the address from the White House, had been given a five percent survival rate after being diagnosed with kidney cancer.
“They read how Jill described our family’s cancer journey and how we tried to steal moments of joy where you can. For them, that glimmer of joy was a half-smile from their baby girl. It meant everything,” he said. “They never gave up hope. Little Ava never gave up hope. She turns four next month.”
— Joseph Choi
Jamaal Bowman: ‘Mr. President, that was awesome’
“Mr. President, that was awesome,” Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-N.Y.) shouted to President Biden in the House chamber shortly after he ended his State of the Union address.
2023 SOTU clocks in at slightly over an hour
Biden has finished speaking and is making his way out of the chamber.
Final speech time: 1 hour, 12 minutes.
Biden: We should hold social media companies accountable
President Biden urged support for proposals to ban tech companies from collecting personal data on kids and teens online, and to ban them from targeting ads to children.
“We must finally hold social media companies accountable for the experimenting they are running on our children for profit,” he said.
He also proposed imposing “stricter limits” on the personal data tech companies collect “on all of us.”
Biden heckled over fentanyl comments
Some lawmakers yelled out as President Biden discussed fentanyl trafficking during his speech.
“Close the border,” Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) yelled. “It’s coming from China.”
Another lawmaker shouted, “It’s your fault.”
Bipartisan applause as Biden says U.S. must defend democracy, Ukraine
Both Republicans and Democrats applauded Biden as he expressed support for defending democracy and Ukraine.
Ukrainian Ambassador Oksana Markarova put her hand over heart as lawmakers clapped.
Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) also stood in support for Ukraine and for the ambassador.
— Brad Dress
Biden calls on Congress to renew assault weapons ban
Biden reiterated his call for Congress to renew an assault weapons ban, which the president has pushed for since he entered office and reiterated the wake of the recent shootings across the U.S.
He also gave a nod to Brandon Tsay, who disarmed a gunman in the Monterey Park, Calif. shooting last month and was in the audience.
“Let’s finish the job and ban assault weapons again,” he said. In response, McCarthy was seen looking off to the side and Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) shook her head.
He noted that an assault weapons ban was passed in 1994, when he served in the Senate, and blamed Republicans for letting it expire 10 years later.
— Alex Gangitano
McCarthy stands up in applauding Biden as president defends law enforcement
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) didn’t take too many opportunities to stand up in applause during President Biden’s State of the Union speech, but he did stand up and clap as Biden defended law enforcement. He applauded Biden as the president spoke about how most police officers were good civil servants and risked their lives daily.
-Caroline Vakil