‘Just astonishing’: Lawrence on Biden’s direct attacks on Trump and SCOTUS | State of the Union

I think that at least my first impression was that it was an incredibly pugnacious speech where he came out with both proverbial barrels blazing right at the top um talking about democracy being threatened at home and abroad talking about needing to stand up for Ukraine talking about needing to never let lies take over the truth when it comes to what happened on January 6th and the threat to our own democracy uh talking about Reproductive Rights very very early on um really not shying away from

talking about the former president he kept calling my predecessor who of course is his opponent in the general election campaign this year um a lot of policy like you always get from presidents in the State of the Union that was sort of the uh maybe the the second third of the speech but that whole first third and then a rip roaring finish um he was yelled at a few different times there was some outbursts from Republicans I don't think any of that will be substantively memorable I think the what

will be memorable about those outbursts was the president handling them seeming energized by them and sort of almost looking forward to them laoren o' Donnell um what are your impressions you know it's there's so many things in this speech that we've never seen before in the State of the Union Address uh one of them is the 13 times he referred to the candidate he's going to be running against for president that's normally impossible to do in the State of the Union Address but this time when you

get to say my predecessor that makes it a presidential issue that that now you are comparing your governing to what came before you and what you're correcting and he said my predecessor 13 times beginning very early on every single subject it was extraordinary and and there was at that moment that I think we all remember of the way he attacked I guess is the word for it the Supreme Court to their faces uh where the camera then goes to this shot of the six Supreme Court Justice three of whom he

was very specifically attacking uh that's never been done before to to to the extent that a president has a disagreement with the Supreme Court expressed in the State of the Union Address they always try to find the most polite possible language for doing that this was not the night for that uh so that that was just astonishing and this enthusiasm that you're seeing after the fact uh by my reading is real because the thing that isn't really known about this and it doesn't seem obvious is it's a

tough crowd if you've actually sat in the among the Senators and house members as I have many times when I was working there the general feeling is boredom it is very very hard to ignite them to capture them and he had them every step of the way in an in an very well- written speech that really flowed uh in a very smooth way uh was everything they wanted to hear had surprises in it had an energy level that I think uh was I mean listen I've never brought that much energy to the 10 p.m. hour I'm j

ust tell and and he lifted that crowd the Democratic crowd really did