Weekly Recap 3/9: Biden Nails the SOTU

By TokyoSand on March 9, 2024 • ( 1 )

Let’s jump right into the good news from a great week:

Good News

President Biden was on fire at the State of the Union address and got incredibly strong reviews afterwards.

On every platform that I’m on, Democrats were super energized following Biden’s speech and ready to help him win re-election.

A CNN flash poll found that 62% of State of the Union viewers say President Biden’s policies will move the U.S. in the right direction.

Via the Playbook: “The 9 p.m. hour — when Biden was revving up his State of the Union speech — was the best fundraising hour his reelection campaign has had since its launch last April. … The 10 p.m. hour was even better — they were the two most lucrative hours online for the campaign yet this cycle.”

Trump was planning to “live tweet” throughout the SOTU on Truth Social but the platform crashed right at the beginning of the speech and lasted for an hour.

The Republican rebuttal to the SOTU, delivered by Senator Katie Britt from Alabama, was universally panned. Even by Republicans. One GOP strategist had this to say to the Daily Beast about the rebuttal: “Everyone’s fucking losing it. It’s one of our biggest disasters ever.”

This news: “Coming off of the president’s forceful State of the Union, senior Biden campaign officials on Friday rolled out a $30 million ad buy and new campaign travel stops. The announcements were designed to drive home the aggressive posture Biden is adopting as the general election contest with former President Donald Trump begins.”

U.S. employers added a surprisingly strong 275,000 jobs in February in a sign of continued economic strength.

Trump installed his cronies, including Lara Trump, as leaders of the RNC. I’m choosing to include this as good news because these new leaders have been clear they want to use the RNC to help fund Trump’s legal bills and won’t be supporting down ballot Republicans as much.

Sen. Todd Young (R-IN) says he will not support Donald Trump in his bid for the Republican presidential nomination.

Embattled Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ) will not run for re-election in November. (I’d prefer he resign immediately but I’ll take this.)

Not only did Krysten Sinema decide not to run for re-election in Arizona, but she also ruled out running on the No Labels ticket.

Trump asked for a delay re: paying the $83M to E. Jean Carroll, but the judge said no. At the very last minute, he posted a bond for $91M (which includes interest) so he can appeal the decision.

Some news I’m proud of: After Super Tuesday, I did a TikTok to highlight the disaster candidate North Carolina Republicans have nominated to be their next governor and asked my audience to chip in a donation to the Democratic candidate, Josh Stein. And over 600 people did!

Sweden formally joined NATO.

There were many, many wonderful takes about Biden’s speech, but I particularly loved this from Taegan Goddard of PoliticalWire:

If this wasn’t Biden’s best speech, it was certainly one of his best. He toyed with Republicans all night. He easily surpassed all expectations. Republicans have spent so much time setting the bar at “dementia” they might now be regretting it. Biden’s job was to show the stakes in this election, drive the contrast with Trump, highlight his record and explain his vision for the future — and he absolutely nailed it.

Call to Action

With Super Tuesday cementing that the 2024 election will be Trump vs Biden, plus Biden having given the speech if a lifetime, this would be a great moment to send Biden a donation—of any size—to show the nation we’re committed to keeping the White House blue. Give HERE.