Biden speech reactions show poli8k8 livetical divide

The reaction to US President Joe Biden's State of the Union speech hewed mostly to political lines.

Biden started the address to a joint session of Congress on Tuesday offering to work with Republicans, but as the speech went on, any amity soon dissipated as some of his assertions were met with jeers.

The speech underscored the stark division in American politics, even more so now that the GOP is the majority in the House of Representatives.

The president touched on several hot topics for Democrats and Republicans, among them: police reform, entitlement programs, border security and oil company profits.

Biden on Wednesday said he was not surprised by the heckling from some Republican lawmakers during the speech.

In an interview with PBS Newshour, he was asked if he was expecting the vocal reaction.

"From the folks who did it, I was," Biden said. "The vast majority of Republicans weren't that way. But you know, there's still a significant element of what I call the MAGA Republicans … and you know, I kind of anticipated it."

During Tuesday's speech, a number of Republicans shouted at Biden, including Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, who called Biden a "liar" after a remark by the president that some Republicans wanted to "sunset" Medicare and Social Security.

Other Republicans yelled at Biden to "secure to border" when he spoke about the opioid and fentanyl crisis in the US.

"Apparently the White House comms team is delighted at the reaction because it looked like Joe Biden was standing up to the Republicans," Steve Doocy, a host on Fox News's Fox & Friends, said to House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, a California Republican. "

But McCarthy said Biden was riling up members of the House GOP.

"Well, the president was trying to goad the members, and the members are passionate about it," said the speaker, who wrote on Twitter on Wednesday, "that was one of the most partisan State of the Union speeches I've ever heard".

Representative Jared Huffman, a California Democrat, said of the jeers, "That was distracting and disruptive. But I thought the president powered through," reported The Press Democrat newspaper of Santa Rosa, California.

Many conservatives responded to Democrats' disdain for the boos by recalling when previous House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, also a California Democrat, ripped up a copy of former president Donald Trump's speech as she stood behind him during the 2020 State of the Union address.

"I was glad to see that we have a speaker of the House that's not going to tear up an opposition speech like we had Nancy Pelosi tear up Trump's," said Matt Heath, Sonoma County (California) Republican Party chairman, to the newspaper.

On Tuesday, Trump, the only officially declared Republican candidate for 2024, posted a running commentary to Biden's speech on his Truth Social platform.

"Too much use of the word 'folks!'" was one of Trump's observations.

"I notice (Utah Senator) Mitt Romney and some of the RINOs (Republican In Name Only) jumping up and down with applause for the wrong reasons!" he wrote in another.

"I disagree with him (Biden) on most of his policies, but he put into words what he felt, and he ended the evening far stronger than he began," Trump wrote.

Representative Mike Thompson, a California Democrat, said: "I thought he (Biden) did a great job. I thought he was upbeat. He was positive," The Press Democrat reported.

Another contentious point in the speech was when Biden criticized oil company profits.

"You may have noticed that Big Oil just reported record profits. Last year, they made $200 billion in the midst of a global energy crisis. It's outrageous," the president said.

Biden said he had asked oil executives to increase investments, and he said they told him: "We're afraid you're going to shut down all of the oil wells and all the oil refineries anyway so why should we invest in them?"

Biden then said he responded: "We're going to need oil for at least another decade."

That comment drew laughter from the chamber, and then Biden quickly added, "and beyond that".

The American Petroleum Institute tweeted on Wednesday in response: "The Biden admin. continues to advance misguided policies and contradictory rhetoric when it comes to energy. To help lower costs for consumers and stabilize global markets, we need increased investment and production of U.S. natural gas & oil."

The Sierra Club tweeted in support of Biden: "YESSIR @POTUS! It's time Congress passes the Big Oil Windfall Profits Tax Act!"