Biden Admits He’s Old, But Shows He’s Ready to Fight Trump: President Hits Donald 13 Times WITHOUT Using His Name in Defiant State of the Union, Slapping Critics Who Say He’s Unfit to Serve, So Did you prove them wrong?

On Thursday night, President Joe Biden used the backdrop of Congress and his most important speech of the election year to deliver a sharply political message that democracy is threatened at home and abroad.

It was not so much a State of the Union as a state of race.

He channeled his message through the prism of Donald Trump, referring to “my predecessor” 13 times, without once uttering his name.

He attacked him in Russia. He attacked him over reproductive rights, affordable health care, the border crisis, gun control, the January 6 attack and his handling of the pandemic.

“A president, my predecessor, failed to fulfill the most basic presidential duty he owes to the American people: the duty to care,” he said. “I think that’s inexcusable.”

Commentators said it was the most partisan State of the Union address they could remember, as Biden used the occasion, eight months before the election, to repeatedly compare himself to the alternative facing voters.

He even found a way to use his 81 years to his advantage.

“I’ve been told I’m too old,” he said. ‘Whether young or old, I have always known… what lasts. I know our North Star: the very idea of ​​America is that we are all created equal.

While he looked to the future, he added, others looked back for “anger, revenge and retribution.”

Trailing in the polls, the oldest president in American history needed to boost his campaign. And the live television audience gave him the opportunity not only to convey a message but also to show his stamina and aptitude for the job.

The result was a president with historically low approval ratings who delivered an openly populist speech, with tax increases for billionaires and promising measures to address the border crisis.

Republican strategist John Feehery described it as a convention speech rather than a State of the Union.

“The elephant outside the room was Trump,” he said. ‘You can’t escape Trump.

“And all the things he talked about, populism, the border, immigration, are things that are in his territory.”

If the idea of ​​the speech was to irritate Trump, it worked.

“That may be the angriest, least compassionate, worst State of the Union speech ever delivered,” the former president posted. ‘It was a shame for our country!’

The speech is one of the best opportunities for Biden to take advantage of prime-time television and a direct line to living rooms across the country. But the dwindling crowd has taken some of the excitement out of the night.

Instead, his advisers hope he can generate viral moments, like last year when he criticized Republicans who booed him over cuts to Medicare and Social Security.

This year, in a reminder of the president’s fragility, his attempt at a boo-like improv backfired when he grabbed a pin handed to him by Republican controversialist Marjorie Taylor Greene.

“Lincoln, Lincoln Riley,” he said. “An innocent young woman who was murdered by an illegal.”

The case has become a cause célèbre among Republicans who highlight the criminal threat posed by immigrants, but Biden managed to botch the name ‘Laken Riley’ and use a term, ‘an illegal’, that his party does not like.

Still, Democrats were delighted with his vigorous speech and the way it set the tone for an election in which they say they are fighting for democracy.

“Freedom and democracy are under attack both at home and abroad at the same time,” he said, opening his speech with a call for Congress to support Ukraine.

And he compared his opposition to Russian leader Vladimir Putin to Trump’s position.

“Now my predecessor, a former Republican president, says to Putin, quote, do whatever you want,” he said, his voice full of contempt.

‘That’s a quote. In fact, a former president said that…bowing to a Russian later.

‘I think it’s scandalous. “It is dangerous and unacceptable.”

He used a similar formula throughout, setting his policies and views in contrast to those of his predecessor.

“My predecessor, and some of you here, seek to bury the truth about January 6; I will not do that,” he said.

‘This is the time to tell the truth and bury the lies. Here is a simple truth. “You can’t love your country only when you win.”

Democratic strategist Brad Bannon said that just 48 hours after Super Tuesday, and with the two electoral candidates practically decided, it made sense to draw the battle lines with the State of the Union.

“I think it was a good example of what his re-election campaign will be like,” he said. “He made it clear that his goal is to fight attempts to subvert democracy domestically by Trump and internationally by Putin.”

And Bannon said he addressed the age issues with a forceful speech and addressing the issue head-on.

“My fellow Americans,” Biden said as he concluded, “the problem facing our nation is not how old we are, but how old our ideas are.”

‘Hatred, anger, revenge and retribution are among the oldest ideas.

‘But you can’t lead America with old ideas that only set us back.

“Leading America, the land of possibilities, requires a vision of the future of what America can and should be.”