The State of the Union Address: One of Biden’s biggest annual speeches and what he said

Every year, the President speaks for about 90 minutes to give the State of the Union Address. 

One of the largest and least surprising topics for this year’s speech was the situation happening in Ukraine. Congress showed their respect for Ukraine with many members wearing blue and yellow (the colors of the Ukrainian flag), along with both U.S. and Ukraine flag pins. President Biden said that Putin had “met a wall of resistance he never imagined,” leading to a rare moment where members of both sides of the aisle stood up and cheered. Along with this, Oksana Markarova, Ukraine’s ambassador to the U.S., received a standing ovation. The President announced the U.S. will close its airspace to Russian planes, and he reiterated his thoughts against Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Biden also focused largely on the economy, giving Congress a nod for passing the American Rescue Plan and the bipartisan infrastructure bill. He also spoke on the issue of inflation. He said that strengthening supply chains and shoring up domestic manufacturing are two of his major goals to help fight inflation, including the production of semiconductors for automobiles here in America.

A moment that has gained a lot of attention in the media was when Representative Lauren Boebert (CO-3) interrupted President Biden while he was talking about the service members that did not return from Afghanistan alive. Boebert shouted “You put them in, 13 of them” at Biden, which drew criticism from both sides of the aisle.

The President talked about how voting rights are under assault in the form of efforts to convince lawmakers to pass the Freedom to Vote Act, the John Lewis Voting Rights Act and the Disclose Act. Senate Republicans have blocked consideration of multiple voting bills in 2021.  Majority Leader Schumer has attempted to edit the filibuster rules to get those passed.

While I've highlighted some of the main points of the speech here, I would personally recommend that you listen to the full thing. It’s an important speech that carries a lot of weight each year.

https://www.businessinsider.com/key-takeaways-biden-2022-state-of-the-union-2022-3

By Andrew Schwartz