but we begin tonight with the gloves off version of President Joe Biden who used his State of the Union Address to stand up for freedom and democracy at home and abroad in what was likely his most important speech as he runs for reelection Biden was forceful and coherent opening with a riff on the US standing up to Hitler in the 1940s and Ronald Reagan facing down the USSR and then putting a prime time Spotlight on Reproductive Rights including calling out the Supreme Court to their faces for en
ding the federal right to abortion Biden issued a wake-up call on the threats to democracy we're facing ripping the Republican party over January 6th while using frequent adlibs to draw battle lines with Donald Trump whom he referred to 13 times during the speech as my predecessor I see a future we defending democracy you don't diminish it I see a future where restore the right to choose and protect our freedom not take them away I know it may not look like it but I've been around a while when y
ou get to be my age certain things become clearer than ever my lifetime has taught me to embrace freedom and democracy a future based on core values that defined America honesty decency dignity equality to respect everyone to give everyone a fair shop to give hate no Safe Harbor now other people of my age see it differently and I will always be president for all Americans because I believe in America the president energized Dems in the chamber amp them up really so much so that the Reverend Dr r
apael waro of eaner Baptist Church complimented Biden afterward for preaching listen I'm a preacher I know a sermon when I hear one and I heard one tonight it's helpful to remember that Biden who was a senator for decades AIDS was on his home turf he enjoyed himself so much he stayed until the Lights Went Out literally taking his time exiting the house chamber as he caught up with lawmakers and chatted about policy he also got a standing ovation and fist bump from United Auto Workers president S
han Fain who was emerging as a top surrogate for Biden's re-election bid in Michigan it was quite a spit split screen with the assembled Republicans who were for the most part silly obnoxious performative like Troy Nells who wore without irony a shirt with Trump's mug shot printed on it along with the words Never Surrender even though the photo is of trump literally surrendering as for marer Taylor Green Let's just say you can't elect your way to class or dignity she put herself in violation of
House Rules by Dawning a trump campaign hat from his past failed election bid the contrast with the other side couldn't be clearer but the most damning split screen of all wasn't the Maga clowns who were there but rather the ring master in Florida who spent the night fuming over Biden's success by using SnapChat filters to turn Biden into a Pinocchio and a dog as if he's a petulant middle schooler with a phone and not enough homework but the Tom Foolery aside the truly terrifying contrast has to
do with what Trump reportedly did today which was to meet with Victor orbon hungary's autocratic prime minister the dictator play dat was to occur at marago home of trump and quite possibly our national Secrets orbon Champions what he calls illiberal democracy after losing his bid for re-election in 2002 he plotted a comeback that would ensure he never lost again when he was elected again in 2010 he got to work quickly he has cracked down on the media and the Judiciary in his country his loyali
sts rewrote the Hungarian Constitution and changed hundreds of laws to keep Orban and his party in power and to render elections no more than a formality Trump has an affinity for men like Orban and Putin and Kim Jong-un for the obvious reasons it's an infatuation he happens to share with the American right is Hungary a model for Trump of course it is and so away we go after Co nearly every elected Republican as of today Trump has now officially taken over the Republican National Committee with
the installation of loyalist Michael wattley the former head of the North Carolina Republican party and larara Trump Donald Trump's daughter-in-law Watley is a proud election denier while Lara claims that Republican voters want the RNC to pay her father-in-law's massive legal bills and she could be right after all it's a cult it's also a Victor Orban style Playbook seizing control of first a major political party and then any institution that stands in his way we are now in a political reality w
here the age and experience of of people like Joe Biden are viewed as a political liability while cult like fandom matters more have a listen for a moment to Beth block the RNC member who officially nominated Lara Trump this morning as she invokes nothing less than God Almighty in making her nomination of her new and unqualified leader in a world where qualifications are often measured by titles and years of experience we are reminded of a powerful truth God does not call the qualified he qualif
ies the called lord Trump is the embodiment of this truth joining me now is Tom Nichols staff writer for the Atlantic and NBC News presidential historian Michael BOS both Friends of the show thank you both for being here Tom I want to start with you first because you talk a lot about this it it there's a combination of it being frightening and just deeply unserious uh last night I thought that Republicans put on a show that would have been embarrassing if middle schoolers did it um it wasn't dig
nified it wasn't adult it was silly but at the same time it did also show that they truly have drunk the authoritarian Kool-Aid they're all autocrat enablers and sick ofans and they wanted it to be displayed your thoughts the word you left out is opportunist um many of them are doing this um because they like being in Congress I mean look George Santos showed up um you know once they've once they've been in in the chamber they're they don't want to go home and if um you know wearing silly t-shir
ts and funky bow ties and flouting the house rules by wearing hats is what keeps you living in Washington that's what they're going to do but there is it is a weird double-edged sword that on the one hand you say you know these are this is just a clown show on the other hand you know there's clowns with flamethrowers are not funny um and so you know it's both it's both laughable but also deeply dangerous and it and it's damaging to our democracy to have that kind of spectacle in in the people's
house um these used to be serious events they're and they're just not right now indeed you wonder what the world is is thinking when they're watching okay I'm I'm going to do something I don't normally do I'm going to play you to you Michael BOS here's you when we were together and we were talking about what we were expecting from the state of the union here here you are all Biden needs to do I think is to make it clear you know yo Americans a lot of people have risked and given their lives over
centuries to to protect your rights and to expand your rights are you willing willing to give all of that up uh by voting for a gambling opponent someone who is an ex-president who loves dictators and wants dictatorship here Michael how'd he do I think he did great uh because see this is the thing what I was really worried about was you have a majority of the American people I believe and I'm optimistic about this who love democ democracy they want they don't want to give up up their rights the
y don't want someone arriving in their Town Square and sending their sister to a labor camp I mean that's the kind of thing that's happens as the three of us know under dictatorships and so on the issues Joe Biden should actually have a fairly easy year I believe in americ a definite majority of Americans love democracy and hate dictatorship at the same time think of you know that speech last night he showed vitality and all the things we've been talking about but he also unveiled position after
position that are with an American majority on things like reproductive health and and tax rates for billionaires he's again against helping them you know in the way that they are right now that 88.2% rate he talked about Ukraine he's against a candidate Donald Trump who says to Putin you know under certain circumstances do whatever the hell you want gun safety so on paper this should be an easy winnable race for Joe Biden especially with an amazingly strong record over the last three years wha
t I was worried about until last night was that people would be distracted by the illusion and the untruth that Joe Biden is not able to be president he couldn't have that record unless you had this wisdom and skill over the last three years that comes from a half century working in a democracy so to exent that last night that Truman esque performance dispelled those doubts I think last night could very well be a turning point yeah I I think it was I think yeah he definitely changed I think the
perceptions and he he's pushed the media off of their Narrative of he's old and feeble I mean clearly not but you know and Tom I want to come back to you on this because what I what I have found remarkable the other day I treated myself to about 10 straight minutes of listening to Donald Trump just straight and and I was and what was remarkable to me was how utter I did it so that you all don't have to we have to suffer on this side of the the camera right and and what I found remarkable was how
utterly incoherent he was his it sounded like his brain was mush and and I I said to my team like we have to actually play a little bit I don't like playing Donald Trump that much but what's what's remarkable is the perception of Biden is that he's old and feeble and his cognitives aren't good but when he actually speaks he sounds perfectly normal vigorous and he sounds in control let me let you play Don let me let you listen to a little bit of Donald TR I'm only going to make y'all listen to 3
5 seconds here it is thank you this is an incredible group of people so many celebrities that I'm not going to introduce any because I'm just going to get myself in trouble if I do that because I'll leave out most of you a tragic thing happened during the election it was a tragedy because you wouldn't have think of it all of the problems that you have today I don't think you would have had any of them we're a third world country at our borders and we're a third world country at our elections and
we have to stop that our cities are choking to death our states are dying and frankly our country is dying right now our country is known as a joke it's a joke I want to make a direct appeal to the parents out there and in particular to my fellow moms we see you we hear you and we stand with you you well you might have caught the Republican response to President Biden State of the Union Address delivered by Alabama Senator Katie Brit it shall we say is not getting great reviews from Republicans
an anonymous strategist told The Daily Beast quote it's one of our biggest disasters ever which is something considering Bobby jindal's weird speech and Marco Rubio and his tiny water bottle any HS a never Trump Republicans said with with a lot of people thought former Trump Aid Alysa Farah Griffin tweeted Senator Katie Brit is a very impressive person I do not understand the decision to put her in a kitchen for one of the most important speeches she's ever given even Maga world wasn't thrilled
with Senator Brit's not so subtle appeal to fans of retrograde America right-wing troll Charlie Kirk said quote Joe Biden just declared war on the American right and Katie Brit is talking like she's hosting a cooking show Whispering about how Democrats don't get it while pizzagate influencer Jack poovak rageed that she didn't even mention Donald Trump for his part Trump says he loved it especially the fear mongering about the Border here's a bit of that President Biden's border policies are a d
isgrace this crisis is Despicable although as my friend and colleague Rachel matto noted and others have pointed out Senator Brit helps negotiate the bipartisan border security bill but ultimately voted against it after Trump told Republicans not to take away his pet issue joining me now is John fuglesang host of tell me everything on sirusxm and the John fuglesang podcast and journalist Liz plank author of airplane mode on substack thank you both for being here um John I don't I I mean the a lo
t of people on the right didn't like the speech uh Tommy tuberville loved it he and he said the following he said she was picked as a housewife not just a senator somebody who sees it from a different perspective I mean she did what she was asked to do I thought you did a great job um I mean by definition a housewife and a senator two different things but anyway what what did you think I mean you know Tommy tuberville better like it because he's now the smartest senator in Alabama so good for hi
m uh I I was actually broadcasting live last night on SiriusXM Joy so I didn't get to see the end um did Katie Brit ever finally get to speak with the manager because that's what I was wondering the whole time watching he put the Q and Karen last night I was watching this thing like no really what anti-depressant is this an ad for that was like the the the seen in the Lifetime movie before she loses her job and has to move back home and coming after that speech by Joe Biden which was just so imp
ressive which he did at 81 with a stutter I needed to take a nap halfway through Dune and then he gives that speech and it was so cynical that the Republican Party thought their uh their rebuttal should be this lip service to women and younger voters that they're not actually interested in serving so I think she did her job great and I think she's going to generate a lot of votes for the Democratic Party let me play one more one more bite this is Katie Brit uh for you Liz talking really graphic
this is where it kind of went dark where she talks about this cartel uh rape issue she told me not just that she was raped every day but how many times a day she was raped the card tells put her on a mattress in a shoe box of a room and they sent me men through that door over and over again Liz um she says that this story is about when she first took office in the Del Rio section of Texas she spoke to a woman who said she had been sex trafficked by Cartel starting at age 12 it's an horrific stor
y that she told but the challenge is when I was listening to this her tell this story what I was thinking in part is that this woman is 100% anti-abortion so if that story happened today or even with this young girl who was 12 she would expect if that person that young person that young woman got pregnant that young girl got pregnant the child got pregnant she would force them to have the rapist's child just your thought on all of it yeah that's a really really important point and she was doing
her speech from Alabama where uh yeah abortion is illegal uh and makes no exceptions for rap or incest um and and watching uh Katy breaks rebuttal it feels like it that's probably what it felt like watching like the Titanic sink you know where you're seeing a tragedy unfold and there just nothing that you can really do about it um and to your point I think people are you know saying that this really didn't go well but I think that this went exactly according to plan for Republicans I mean we say
that Donald Trump you know often said the quiet part out loud but I think that this speech said the quiet part out loud there's a reason that she did this speech from her kitchen um if we just look at the policies not even what Republicans say right or even they intentions just based on their policies they want women to go back into the kitchen they want women to have a lot of children and not have you know the ability to to choose if they want children or how many children they have um they wa
nt them to be subservient to their to their husbands and so in a way um it's it's it just kind of revealed right what the Republican party where they're at right now and and where they stand with women that they would put their Rising female star in her kitchen yeah I I I I I can't argue with that um let's let's let's talk about another person who was in a strange position Mike Johnson we just some pictures John fug say of Mike Johnson he didn't seem to really know what to do with his body and h
is face and he didn't seem to know like when to clap when not to clap should he clap there was one time he finally stood up and vice president Harris gave him a look like oh now you're up you know what what did you make of his performance last night the entire thing was awkward he he always looks like he's worried his wife just figured out what his passwords are but last night I mean he was a he couldn't stand up for ending cancer he couldn't stand up for minimum wage he couldn't stand up for fi
ghting fascism and he's in a tough position he can scowl and make Putin happy or he can politely nod his head and enrage his caucus I mean I I think maybe he was just thinking the entire time that oh my God tomorrow morning Lara Trump takes over the RNC and starts draining our bank accounts to pay Donald Trump's legal fees so whatever was on his mind um he's earned it he's deserved it and uh you know and and today Matt Gates will probably be calling for his removal Fair uh list blank the other s
ort of strange happening was the return of George Santos uh orar rash as I prefer to say um apparently running for office again uh and showed up last night your thoughts he just wants attention I mean to meet the the margerie Taylor green with the Maga hat um just using um their time in office or or using the Privileges that they you know have because of their time in office in the case of George Santos um to to to elevate their brand um as if they're they're influencers uh when they you know ar
e supposed to be public servants uh but no I I wasn't surprised at all to see him there I mean of of course he's there he needs to sell more of his uh you know videos than he does uh uh for you know fans and and whatnot so so and he has legal pills to to to pay too yeah he does I quite a few um let me play very quickly Sean Hannity's take oh well I won't even play it apparently well I play it I think we have 14 seconds here it is PL tonight America saw um let's say a very different Joe Biden I m
ight call him jacked up Joe and that's being charitable he sounded like a hyper caffeinated angry old man John F was like it sounds like the thing that died last night was there sort of Joe Biden is befuddled and cognitively impaired now he's amped up and like on the ruins your thoughts yeah it's fitting he said Biden's on drugs because that's the only way I can watch Sean Hannity's show don't forget this is what they did for Obama eight long years Obama's this neoy amateur in over his head and
he's a socialist Mastermind pulling all the strings so yeah Joe Biden has dementia and he's a mastermind as well this is Sean Hannity who is more responsible than any other journalist for lying this country into a bloody illegal war in Iraq who's the number one birther in America push that racist smear for years with no evidence I would be shocked if Hannity told the truth about last night's speech that would concern me
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