WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden has turned his State of the Union speech into an animated argument for a second term as he laces into GOP front-runner Donald Trump for espousing “resentment, revenge and retribution” and jeopardizing freedom at home and abroad.
Biden delivered broadsides Thursday at “my predecessor” without mentioning Trump by name, raising his voice as he tried to quell voter concerns about his age and job performance while sharpening the contrast with his all-but-certain November rival. Biden goaded Republican lawmakers over their policies, invited call-and-response banter with fellow Democrats and seemed to revel in the fight.
In her rebuttal, Republican Senator Katie Britt called President Joe Biden a “dithering and diminished leader.”
The first-term Alabama Republican is the youngest woman in the Senate. She gave a stinging election-year critique of the president, arguing that “the country we know and love seems to be slipping away.” She also directly appealed to fellow mothers.
Britt’s remarks echo the same dark vision for the future under Biden and Democrats laid out in rebuttals by Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders in 2023 and Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds in 2022.
(Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.)
