Joe Biden was 20 minutes late to his own State of the Union address. He then forgot he was supposed to wait for the Speaker of the House to introduce him. With applause ringing in his ears, the president opened his speech by declaring, “If I were smart I’d go home now.”

He didn’t go home.

The address will most be remembered for the how Biden shouted and slurred his way through at a speed that had more than one commentator wondering if the cocaine found at the White House was his.

Whatever drugs Biden had taken to create the vigor needed to show he’s not as decrepit as Special Counsel Robert Hur and three years of daily examples demonstrate wore off as the speech carried on. Increasingly he stumbled and coughed before making one gaffe that will haunt him in the campaign to come.

Say Her Name. He Tried and Got It Wrong

The story starts when Biden made his entrance. As the president pressed the flesh on his leisurely way down the aisle, he was confronted by Rep. Marjorie Taylor-Greene, sporting a T-shirt reading “Say Her Name Laken Riley.” She pressed a button in Biden’s hand and said, “Say her name,” to which Biden responded. “I know how to say her name.”

Turns out he didn’t.

Far into the speech, Biden finally began to talk about immigration, which is only the top issue on the minds of Americans. (As Trump noted, “Biden talked about the SNICKERS Bars before he talked about the border!”)

Taylor-Greene again shouted “Say her name!” And Biden fumbled the one ball he could not afford to drop.

He slowly reached for the button, drew it up, then called her “Lincoln Riley” … the name of USC’s college football coach, not the viciously slain college student whose murderer was set loose thanks to Biden’s border policies.

For two weeks he hasn’t said her name. Then, last night when he did, he got it wrong.  Twice.

Biden refers to Laken Riley as "Lincoln Riley" and says "Having lost children myself, I understand." pic.twitter.com/2eEMdMZrl7

— TheBlaze (@theblaze) March 8, 2024

What’s more, Biden connected Riley’s savage killing to the deaths of his own children, and muttered something about all the thousands murdered by legal immigrants and residents. Not realizing, perhaps, that drawing attention to the horrific crime rates under his watch is hardly a comeback.

All told, he had only one real job last night: demonstrating that he’s still up for the job. His shouting, speeding, stumbling, slurring, and flubbing the name of the woman who symbolizes the devastation of illegal immigration showed the answer is “no.”

That said, what of the content?

The President of Ukraine and Dark Visions

The president did not deliver a statesmanlike State of the Union address. He did not utter a single line designed to get the entire Congress to its feet. Every president does that in order to at least act, if only for one night, as if they are president of all the people. He didn’t give even a shout out to the military that’s been facing rocket fire, drone strikes, and missiles for months on end. Instead, he delivered a campaign speech showing more venom toward his political opponents than those trying to kill us.  

He spoke more about Trump than he did you and me. He spoke with more passion about Ukraine than he did America.

When regular Americans are hurting and struggling, seeing their cities wrecked, their gasoline prices again on the rise, their children groomed for abuse, brainwashed with Marxist doctrine, and falling behind other nations academically, Biden showed where his heart truly was. He opened by comparing himself to FDR and Donald Trump to Hitler, then riffed on the need to continue supporting Ukraine.

This annual speech is supposed to be about the state of our Union.

Biden then launched into his now-familiar refrain that “freedom and democracy are under attack at home,” and attacked the ‘insurrectionists” of January 6, calling the protest “the gravest threat to democracy since the Civil War.” As Trump quickly noted on Truth Social, “The so-called “insurrectionists” that he talks about had no guns, they only had a Rigged Election. The only gun was that used on Ashli Babbitt, who sadly, is no longer with us!”

Regardless, Biden declared, “The threat to democracy must be defended.”

Does that even make sense?

More Moments That Made Little Sense

Biden spit in the eye of the teaching of the Catholic Church (to which he belongs) by offering full-throated support for abortion up to birth, vowing to restore Roe v. Wade as the law of the land. However, he would not use the word “abortion.” Instead he used the ghastly euphemism “reproductive freedom,” as if unborn children are slave masters and he’s Abraham Lincoln.

He then made a veiled threat to the Supreme Court.

Biden basically threatens the Supreme Court justices to their faces over abortion and struggles to read the teleprompter while doing it.
pic.twitter.com/zMJvgPqbjg

— Greg Price (@greg_price11) March 8, 2024

Even that got botched when he referred to women’s electoral power as “electrical power.”

Biden also promised transgender people, “I have your back,” which means, “I’m fine with the idea of chopping off minors’ healthy organs and mutilating them for life while letting men put women at risk in athletic competitions.” It also means “Admiral” Rachel Devine gets to keep being Deputy Secretary of Health and Human Services despite endangering a generation of children with radical transgender indoctrination.

The Big Guy also railed against “banning books.” Great. The guy who showered with his own daughter and sniffs little girls’ hair wants your children to read all about sex — and let’s be clear that this means all kinds of sexual interactions that most parents find shocking — in schools.

Biden Talks Health and Accidentally Praises Trump

First Lady Jill Biden got a shout out and a new task. She’s being put in charge of a women’s health initiative. (Uh, he does know she’s not a real doctor, right?)   

While talking about prescription drug prices, Biden offered to take people to Moscow on Air Force One for cheaper drugs.

“I’m gonna get in trouble for saying it, but anyone want to get in Air Force One with me and fly to Toronto, Berlin, Moscow — excuse me. Well even Moscow probably…”

Why is the president of the United States always worried about getting into trouble for talking? Perhaps because of lines like this: “The vaccine used to stop COVID is now used to fight cancer.” Whose Operation Warp Speed brought those vaccines in time for leftists to mandate their use? The guy he compared to Hitler. 

Or what about the time Biden claimed he “taught the Second Amendment for 12 years!” Though he pocketed a million bucks (courtesy of the Chinese) while on staff at the University of Pennsylvania, he never taught a single class there.

Building a Temporary Port in Gaza

Biden announced the U.S. military will be building a temporary port in Gaza to help get humanitarian aid into the area. This means he is proposing to send U.S. military directly into territory controlled by Hamas terrorists, funded by Iran, and populated with people supporting them — but not to fight the terrorists. What could go wrong there? Who wants to bet that port will be used to cruise jihad-loving “refugees” to America? At the beginning of last night’s address Biden compared himself to FDR, but we’ll see if he turns out to be more like The Love Boat’s Capt. Merrill Steubing. 

Biden said he’s working for an “immediate ceasefire” and a “two-state” solution in Israel, in a bid to keep the Muslim vote in Michigan and Minnesota. — not that anything less than handing the Jewish State over on a plate will satisfy the mobs. The president couldn’t even get from the White House to Capitol Hill to deliver the speech without having to thread his way through protesters blocking Pennsylvania Avenue, holding signs declaring “Biden’s legacy is genocide.”

#NOW #DC Ceasefire Protest BLOCKS BIDEN Motorcade Route from State of the Union address at US Capitol #StateOfTheUnion pic.twitter.com/rAJFfv9BJ1

— Oliya Scootercaster 🛴 (@ScooterCasterNY) March 8, 2024

Those protestors actions sound like “interfering with an official proceeding.” But don’t hold your breath waiting for any of the protesters to get locked away in the D.C. gulag.

As for the American hostages still held by Hamas, the president vowed, “I will not rest until they are home.” By our count, Biden has spent at least 45 days either on vacation or at one of his Delaware homes since October 7.

Biden Trying to Pretend He and Trump Are the Same Age

The president closed by acknowledging his age — but only as a way to bash Trump and claim he and the former president are the same age (thus suggesting the same vitality.)

My lifetime has taught me to embrace freedom and democracy. A future based on the core values that have defined America: honesty, decency, dignity, equality. To respect everyone. To give everyone a fair shot. To give hate no safe harbor. Now some other people my age see a different story: an American story of resentment, revenge, and retribution. That’s not me.

Two points: From what do leftists’ obsession with Trump and desperate efforts to jail him and his supporters spring if not “resentment, revenge and retribution”? And second, do we really need lectures on economic data from someone who thinks 81 equals 77?

The Reaction: The Speech Was “Fiery” Says the Media in One Syncopated Voice

Joe Biden’s speech was “fiery,” the fawning media declared with a unison that would make the Mormon Tabernacle Choir jealous: Associated Press, USA Today, Yahoo, NBC News, CNBC, US News and World Report, even the BBC, to name a few, used that word. Apparently, Reuters didn’t get the memo, instead describing the speech as “feisty.”

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) summarized the address most succinctly, telling Sean Hannity, “The whole thing was weird.”

READ THE SPEECH TRANSCRIPT HERE.

 

Al Perrotta is managing editor of The Stream, coauthor with John Zmirak of The Politically Incorrect Guide to Immigration and coauthor of the counterterrorism memoir Hostile Intent: Protecting Yourself Against Terrorism.