CNN anchor Chris Wallace said Tuesday on his network’s coverage of the State of the Union Address that President Joe Biden had brilliant moments with “political showmanship.”
Co-anchor Jake Tapper said, “I just keep thinking about the idea that not only does the House Republicans, and again, it was a minority of them, it was not most of them, but the ones who were unruly and yelling and heckling, the president, not only did they make themselves look bad but they really gave him an opportunity to look vigorous.”
Wallace said, “Oh, absolutely. I mean, they literally played into his hands. You know, I don’t know if the people of the White House, as they were drafting, it said this weekend, envisioned that happening the way it did, but it played out perfectly. I am looking back at the end of that whole sequence when he was engaged back and forth with the Republicans, and he said, ‘So tonight, let’s all agree to stand up for seniors.’ Of course, one of the things that you notice in the speeches is half the House, the Democratic side for Democratic presidents stands up in the other side set on their hands, but he said, let’s all stand up for seniors, and there was no politician who was not going to stand up for seniors. So, they were standing up while he said, ‘Let’s all agree not to cut Social Security. Let’s all agree not to cut Medicare,’ when they were all standing up, he said, ‘Well, apparently, it is not going to be a problem.’ It was a brilliant moment. And, it took something that had been prepared by the speech writers, and he made it his own, and he made it magic. It was really quite a piece of political showmanship.”
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