Panelists on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" were blown away by President Joe Biden's performance during the State of the Union address.
The president repeatedly called out Donald Trump without ever saying his name and attacked Republican policies, drawing eye rolls and head shakes from House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) seated behind him, and GOP lawmakers repeatedly shouted objections – but panelists said Biden was unfazed and confident.
"Why is he shaking his head when Joe Biden talks about Jan. 6 being such a dark day?" Scarborough said. "When he talks about the big lie, Speaker Johnson was, again, one of the key proponents of on the House floor. Liz Cheney wrote all about it. How do you not stand up when the president of the United States says you want to buy American. You shake your hand at that, buying America? Ooh la la, what a campaign this is going to be. I have to say, we have to keep going back to it – Joe Biden underestimated time and time again. We were having this same conversation after the State the Union last year. People going, 'Oh, maybe, maybe he's not too old, maybe he's not.' Same now. It'll be the same going into the fall."
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"I mean, Democrats certainly, if there were any Democrats wavering, last night had to make them feel they're in really good shape," Scarborough added. "Especially, I just love how the issues line up. Republicans are on the wrong side of history, they're on the wrong side of the polls. They're on the wrong side of decency on so many of these questions. I'm saying specifically on that front, Donald Trump. Last night, game, set, match to Joe Biden."
Biden established his re-election campaign's major themes in the first five minutes of his speech, said Politico's White House bureau chief Jonathan Lemire, and Republicans made clear their opposition to each of those issues.
"The president got off to such a roaring start.," Lemire said. "He was so striking right at the beginning. He invokes FDR and the do-nothing Congress against making that comparison. He ticks off Ukraine, Jan. 6, abortion at the top, the defense of democracy abroad, the defense of democracy at home, the defense of freedom and rights at home. That right there, those three, there's your campaign. First five minutes of the speech last night, President Biden said, this is what the next eight months are going to be about, right here."
Even some Democrats were worried about Biden's ability to deliver a strong speech, but former White House director of communications Jennifer Palmieri said the early reviews were astounding.
"I've been in politics 30 years, [and] I never had a night where my phone was exploding," Palmieri said. "People yesterday were saying, 'Biden campaign? There is no campaign,' saying, 'Oh, my God, he knocked it out of the park.' You knew about -- it was smart. I'm looking at Lemire's notes here about what the campaign would be about, in case people only paid attention to the first few minutes. The other thing striking was to say it is a moment to speak the truth. Usually you come in and give some quarter to, like, oh, we can all agree on this or that. He's like, 'No, we don't agree. We don't agree on Jan. 6, on abortion, and don't agree on Ukraine. I am going to speak the truth now, and you all are going to have to react to it. This is what my campaign is going to be about.'"
"If people were going to challenge him in the Democratic primary, this time last year was when they needed to do it," Palmieri added. "It was a State of the Union that was so strong last year, it made people realize, 'I'm not challenging this guy, I'm not challenging this guy and the record he has or the vigor he has, the experience he has.'' Last night, I mean, that was even a bigger tour de force. It really felt like President Biden came into his own, right?"
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