{"id":21784,"date":"2022-03-04T14:12:35","date_gmt":"2022-03-04T19:12:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.indianz.com\/News\/?p=21784"},"modified":"2022-03-04T14:12:36","modified_gmt":"2022-03-04T19:12:36","slug":"cronkite-news-president-biden-delivers-first-state-of-the-union","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/2022\/03\/04\/cronkite-news-president-biden-delivers-first-state-of-the-union\/","title":{"rendered":"Cronkite News: President Biden delivers first State of the Union"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Cronkite News Video by Alexia Stanbridge: State of the Union <\/a>\r\n<\/figcaption>\r\n
Biden\u2019s upbeat State of the Union in unsteady times splits state lawmakers<\/div>\r\n
Friday, March 4, 2022<\/div>\r\n
By Camila Pedrosa and Reagan Priest<\/div>\r\n
Cronkite News<\/DIV>\r\n
cronkitenews.azpbs.org<\/A><\/DIV>\r\n

<\/p>\r\nWASHINGTON, D.C. — President Joe Biden delivered his first State of the Union address Tuesday in a speech that toggled between plans for tackling domestic challenges and reasserting U.S. international leadership.

<\/P>\r\nThe hour-long address<\/a> came in a Capitol that was ringed with police and security fencing reminiscent of the January 6 attack, but where waning COVID-19 cases let lawmakers go maskless for the first time in two years. It also came against a backdrop of war in Ukraine and surging inflation at home that has tempered strong gains in employment and wages.

<\/P>\r\nBiden acknowledged those challenges but also painted an optimistic picture of America, a nation he said was \u201cdefined by a single word: possibilities.\u201d

<\/P>\r\n\u201cThe state of the union is strong because you, the American people, are strong,\u201d he said at the end of the address. \u201cWe are stronger than we were a year ago. And we will be stronger a year from now than we are today.\u201d

<\/P>\r\n \"Joe<\/a>

President Joe Biden delivers the State of the Union at the U.S. Capitol on March 2, 2022. Photo: White House<\/figcaption>\r\n

<\/p>\r\nRep. Greg Stanton, D-Phoenix, praised what he called the \u201cmost bipartisan State of the Union we\u2019ve seen in many, many years,\u201d pointing to repeated standing ovations when Biden praised Ukraine and Ukrainians and attacked Russian President Vladimir Putin.

<\/P>\r\n\u201cI thought that was really a poignant and beautiful moment in the speech \u2026 (making) every person in that room stand up and make it absolutely clear that we stand with the people of Ukraine during this incredibly difficult time,\u201d Stanton said.

<\/P>\r\n\u201cThe president probably had to tear up whatever the original draft was a couple of weeks ago, and spent a lot of time discussing American support for \u2026 our fellow NATO countries,\u201d Stanton said of the attack on Ukraine that began less than a week earlier.

<\/P>\r\nBut where Stanton saw bipartisanship, Arizona Republicans like Rep. Paul Gosar, R-Prescott, saw \u201cthe last gasp<\/a> of a dying and desperate administration.\u201d Rep. Debbie Lesko, R-Peoria, carrying a small Ukrainian flag like many lawmakers, some of whom wore the Ukrainian colors of blue and yellow, saw the war in Ukraine as just another issue to blame on the administration.

<\/P>\r\n\u201cThe State of the Union is in crisis,\u201d Lesko said in a statement<\/a> released after the speech. \u201cGasoline, grocery and energy prices are soaring, crime has risen through the roof, the southern border is wide open, fentanyl is killing our kids, and war has broken out in Ukraine.\u201d

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Hundreds of National Guard troops were put on standby before President Joe Biden’s first State of the Union address Tuesday. (Photo by Emily Sacia<\/a>\/Cronkite News)<\/figcaption>\r\n

<\/p>\r\nBiden spent the first 12 minutes of his speech talking about Ukraine. He announced that the U.S. will join other countries that have closed their airspace to Russian flights, in addition to levying harsh economic sanctions against Russia, and renewed the pledge to defend NATO countries and supply Ukraine with weapons to defend itself.

<\/P>\r\nBut he spent the bulk of the speech talking about the economy, pledging to create millions of jobs through infrastructure upgrades and to bring jobs back to the U.S. by encouraging new domestic manufacturing. He pointed in the audience to the CEO of Intel, a major employer in Arizona, which has pledged $20 billion to build a semiconductor plant in Ohio.

<\/P>\r\nDespite the jobless rate falling to just 5.3% in 2021 and a increase in wages, Biden acknowledged that those gains were being eroded by an inflation rate that hit 7.5% last year, the highest in decades. When he said the solution is to \u201clower your costs, not your wages,\u201d he drew chants of \u201cUSA, USA,\u201d from the lawmakers.

<\/P>\r\n\u201cMake more cars and semiconductors in America. More infrastructure and innovation in America. More goods moving faster and cheaper in America. More jobs where you can earn a good living in America,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd, instead of relying on foreign supply chains \u2013 let\u2019s make it in America.\u201d

<\/P>\r\n\"State<\/a>

Security fencing, last seen in the wake of the January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, went up again over the weekend in preparation for possible disturbances at President Joe Biden’s first State of the Union address. (Photo by Emily Sacia<\/a>\/Cronkite News)<\/figcaption>\r\n

<\/p>\r\nNot all the interruptions were in support of the president.

<\/P>\r\nWhen he pledged to improve health care for veterans, citing the death of his son Beau, a veteran, from brain cancer, Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Colorado, shouted \u201c13\u201d in an apparent reference to the 13 U.S. soldiers killed during the evacuation of Afghanistan. The Washington Post reported that it was Boebert and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Georgia, who tried to start a \u201cbuild the wall\u201d chant after Biden mentioned his plan for border security.

<\/P>\r\nBiden – who halted construction of the Trump administration\u2019s border wall soon after taking office – said the border needs to be secured and that his administration has installed new technology at the border and worked closely with Mexico and Guatemala to stop traffickers.

<\/P>\r\nArizona lawmakers on both sides of the aisle agreed that more needs to be done to secure the border – Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Gilbert, tweeted that<\/a> he would be \u201cglad to take\u201d Biden to see the border crisis Biggs said the president created.

<\/P>\r\nBut Biden also said the immigration system needs to be improved along with border security, by adding immigration judges among other moves, and he called on Congress to pass long-stalled comprehensive immigration reform.

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