During the State of the Union Address, President Joe Biden was able to get Republicans to stand apparently in support of Social Security and Medicare – programs considered by many to be on the table as part of debt ceiling negotiations.
"This speech was long in word count, but it was delivered with a lot of energy and a lot of pace, and a combativeness and liveliness that I am not sure that we have ever seen in this particular type of presidential address," said MSNBC's Rachel Maddow.
"We had a number of instances in which it appeared to be, our sense was that there were members of Congress on the Republican side who were shouting at him, heckling, at least responding to him. Rather than him shutting that down or ignoring that or have it be, sort of, a crisis moment. Instead took those opportunities to have the argument, to challenge them back."
That's when the Social Security and Medicare stand came, when Maddow noted Biden turned "the heckling back on the Republicans and sort of tricked them into agreeing with him publicly that they would not do that."
Chris Hayes said that it's not the best idea to try and debate with someone who is on stage and has the only microphone in the room.
Calling it "rhetorically at his best," Hayes said it gives a sense of what Biden would be like when negotiating on the debt ceiling.
"It also showed -- and this was, I think, throughout the first two-thirds of the speech, the agenda, on domestic policy that he has proposed and passed and he's proposing now, is broadly popular stuff," said Hayes. "And he really just led with that and stayed with that and wanted to keep putting their face. And when he said some of you have proposed sunsetting Medicare and Social Security, they got angry, because the truth of the matter is, some of them have proposed that, including Rick Scott, who ran the Republican Senate campaign -- much to the chagrin of Mitch McConnell, as well as Ron Johnson. So, he was squarely on the facts there."
Hayes said that Biden understands that he has 60 percent of Americans on his side about a lot of stuff, including his kitchen table issues.
Joy Reid cracked up at the "brilliant speechcraft."
"He said stand up and show them we will not cut social security. Then they start howling -- so he said, stand up then. Stand up!" Reid laughed.
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