Alexis Guilleux (in the United States) with AFP
modified to
08:18, February 08, 2023
He wants to “finish the job”, restore popular America its “pride” and the divided nation its “unity”: Joe Biden, who plans to run for a second term, delivered a speech to Congress on Tuesday that had already country accents. If the exercise of the “State of the Union speech” is generally a stuffy exercise, punctuated by the ovations of the presidential party, the 80-year-old Democrat this time had to deal with the invectives of certain parliamentarians from the radical right. .
A visibly relaxed Joe Biden
In a combative mood, visibly relaxed, Joe Biden replied with a few jokes, without turning away from his message: “We must be the nation that we always were when we were at the top. Optimistic. ‘coming”. Even where supporters of Donald Trump tried, on January 6, 2021, to prevent Congress from certifying his election, the president considered that American democracy, certainly “bruised”, remained “inviolate and preserved”.
Joe Biden complimented by Donald Trump
The former president also commented live on Tuesday on Joe Biden’s speech on his social network, Truth Social, even giving him an extremely rare compliment: “I oppose the majority of his policies, but he put words on how he felt and ended the evening much better than he started it,” he said.
Throughout his speech, Joe Biden presented himself as a president who “understands” difficult weekends, devoting most of his more than hour-long speech to the problems of everyday life. Promising to work for the “forgotten” of growth, those whom the previous president and current candidate Donald Trump was able to seduce in part, Joe Biden lamented: “For decades, the middle class has been crushed”. “And, over time, we lost something else. Our pride. Our self-confidence,” he lamented, promising to restore them.
Struggling in the polls, he played the pragmatism card, writing the article – in the most precise detail – of his major bills supposed to bring back jobs and factories, and make life easier for consumers.
Tax billionaires and regulate the carrying of weapons
He also called on Republicans to join him in adopting a whole series of major reforms – knowing full well that he will never be followed by the most radical parliamentarians, on whom the Republican Party depends to control the House of Representatives. Joe Biden has called for a “permanent” ban on assault rifles, heavy taxes on billionaires and multinational corporations, a cap on the price of insulin, tough regulation of tech giants who “conduct experiments on (the) children and siphon off data from teenagers to fuel their profits”.
The president also applauded the parents of Tire Nichols, a young African-American man who died after being beaten by police in Memphis. And judged that America “could not turn away” from the problem of police violence.
The president was expected on the case of the downed Chinese balloon
In the camp of the president, we are frankly delighted: “Joe Biden must be delighted, it was a masterstroke”, applauded David Axelrod, former adviser to Barack Obama. Joe Biden knows well that, according to the polls, the Americans do not want a second match between him and Donald Trump in 2024. But where the Republican presents himself as a providential man, the only one capable of saving America from a ” decline” generalized, the Democrat is betting that his message of optimist in chief will end up federating.
While a year ago, Joe Biden, speaking a few days after the invasion of Ukraine, had insisted a lot on international issues, this time he passed on the subject quite quickly. The American president was especially expected on China: the affair of the Chinese balloon shot down on Saturday after flying over American territory for several days earned him criticism of weakness on the right.
America “will act” if Beijing “threatens its sovereignty”, he warned, calling however, there too, for “unity” between Democrats and Republicans to win the “competition” with Beijing. Inviting the parliamentarians to give the Ukrainian ambassador, present in the room, a standing ovation, he promised that the United States would support Ukraine “as long as necessary”.
Source: Europe1
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