Politico

America will have to settle for the Puppy Bowl.

Joe Biden’s planned interview ahead of the Super Bowl appears scuttled after Fox Corp. aggressively volleyed with the White House over an agreement to have the president sit down with Fox Soul, an obscure streaming service operated by a subsidiary.

Fox News originally appeared in line to land an interview with Biden out of a tradition between presidents and the network hosting the Super Bowl.

But brinkmanship between the president’s team and the media giant stretched for days and then hours heading into the weekend of the big game. It started Friday morning when the White House announced that an interview with Fox Soul — which came as a surprise to many — had been scrapped for good.

“The President was looking forward to an interview with Fox Soul to discuss the Super Bowl, the State of the Union, and critical issues impacting the everyday lives of Black Americans,” press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in a tweet. “We’ve been informed that Fox Corp. has asked for the interview to be cancelled.”

Hours later, Fox Corp. issued a statement citing “some initial confusion” the night before, but concluding that Fox Soul still looked forward to hosting the interview.

But by Friday evening — a point by which presidents and TV networks traditionally record Super Bowl interviews ahead of the Sunday program — a White House official informed POLITICO that nothing had changed since providing the earlier comments.

“FOX has since put out a statement indicating the interview was rescheduled, which is inaccurate,” the White House official said. While the person did not elaborate, Biden was not expected to conduct a Super Bowl interview of any kind.

The saga comes after initial talks fell apart between the White House and Fox News, the company’s highly-rated network. Earlier this week, a Fox anchor said the White House had ghosted the network. In the days that followed, Fox representatives confirmed that productive discussions were effectively over.

White House officials declined to provide specifics on why their outreach to Fox stopped. Fox’s Bret Baier was viewed as the most likely anchor from the news and conservative opinion network to land the president. Biden sat down in previous years with news anchors from NBC and CBS.

The decision not to have Biden tangle with one of Fox News’ top anchors means the White House was willing to sacrifice a massive pre-game audience on Sunday to which the president could share his message. But it also suggests the White House was unwilling to reward a network that houses prime-time hosts who mercilessly assail the administration and Democrats.

Instead, Biden’s team worked on landing an agreement with Fox Soul, a streaming outfit part of Fox’s TV stations division and geared toward a Black audience. White House officials had arranged for the interview to be conducted by Fox Sports host Mike Hill and actress Vivica A. Fox. Fox Soul general manager James DuBose had planned to produce the interview. All three flew Friday from Los Angeles to Washington for the interview.

The White House seeking out Fox Soul was seen as a way to have the president avoid appearing with a Fox News personality while still going through with an interview. Biden has yet to sit for an interview with Fox News, making a different calculation than his former boss, Barack Obama. While the Obama White House is remembered for icing Fox News journalists — leading other networks to offer their solidarity — Obama did sit for a pair of pre-game interviews with former Fox host Bill O’Reilly.

Labor Secretary Marty Walsh hasn’t gone anywhere yet, let alone confirmed plans to leave the Biden administration, but the political world is already talking about him in the past tense.

In the days since word leaked that Walsh is in contract negotiations to head up the NHL Players’ Association, D.C. politicos are already maneuvering to line up support for their preferred successor.

While it is fairly common for word to get out before a high-level departure is finalized, the Walsh situation is somewhat unusual for how widely it is being treated as a fait accompli.

There is a concerted push to get President Joe Biden to bump up DOL’s No. 2, Julie Su, both for her familiarity with the agency and labor policy — as well as to further diversify the Cabinet, which does not presently have an Asian American Pacific Islander at the secretary level.

She scored another key endorsement Thursday, from the Congressional Black Caucus, another girder in her support among influential Democrats who have the president’s ear. (Of course, Su hasn’t said publicly whether she’d want the job.)

Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi is trying to drum up support for former Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney, who lost reelection while presiding over House Democrats’ campaign arm that saw the majority flip to Republicans in the midterms.

And long shots like ex-New York Mayor Bill de Blasio are also reportedly trying to get into the mix.

Walsh’s silence on the matter has caused embarrassment in some quarters, particularly in Massachusetts, where he was mayor of Boston before Biden tapped him to run the Labor Department.

State Lt. Gov. Kim Driscoll posted — then swiftly deleted — a congratulatory message about Walsh’s returning to organized labor, and state Rep. Smitty Pignatelli was also among those to post a sendoff.

“Congratulations to my longtime friend ⁦@marty_walsh⁩. A huge loss to the ⁦@POTUS⁩ but a big bonus to the ⁦@NHL⁩ He leads with his heart and common sense,” Pignatelli tweeted Thursday.

The White House and Labor Department have both insisted that there is no vacancy — as of now — though that has done little to tamp things down. A DOL spokesperson declined to comment on Friday.

Meanwhile, Walsh has continued to appear in public in his capacity as Labor secretary.

On Monday, he led an event commemorating the 30th anniversary of the passage of the Family Medical Leave Act. A day later — as the NHLPA development came out — the White House tasked Walsh with being the designated survivor if most of the federal hierarchy was wiped out while attending Biden’s State of the Union address, a coincidence that also garnered intrigue.

But he hit the road on behalf of the administration Thursday, traveling to Tulsa, Okla., to amplify Biden’s message and promote Black-owned businesses and economic justice initiatives.

During a visit to Black Wall Street, the African American financial district destroyed by a white mob in 1921, Walsh said: “The President spoke the other night in his State of the Union about lifting all America up and moving forward, and that’s part of why I’m here today.”

It was all business as usual.

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — President Joe Biden is swinging into Florida on Thursday and he’s bringing more than just talking points.

Fresh off his State of the Union address, Biden will be giving beleaguered Florida Democrats a glimmer of hope that the rest of the party hasn’t written off the nation’s third most populous state after a crushing midterm.

“It’s very clear to me he can win the state of Florida and it’s very clear to the White House,” said Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, a South Florida Democrat and former chair of the Democratic National Committee. “They are coming down to underscore what they accomplished and how they can build on it.”

Rep. Kathy Castor, a Tampa Democrat who will accompany Biden during his brief visit, said she “cheered” when she heard that the president was coming.

“That means they are going to continue to invest in Florida,” Castor said. “They have not given up. To the contrary, they are going to fight.”

This marks the second trip of the year to Florida by the Biden White House. Vice President Kamala Harris came to Tallahassee last month to mark the 50^th anniversary of the Roe v. Wade decision that was undone by the U.S. Supreme Court last summer. Their visits also coincide with the recently launched presidential campaign of one Floridian — former President Donald Trump — and the widely anticipated campaign of another, Gov. Ron DeSantis’.

Biden, who visited the battleground state of Wisconsin on Wednesday, is on a post-State of the Union push ahead of his expected reelection bid. WhileBiden’s advisers view Florida as a longshot after his 3.4 percent loss there in 2020, if the president doesn’t win the Sunshine State, it greatly narrows his path to victory.

Biden is scheduled to appear midday in Tampa, a city on Florida’s west coast, to talk about familiar topics such as Social Security, Medicare and health care that could resonate with the state’s sizable older population. He will likely tout measures that passed without help from Florida Republicans in Congress.

Castor noted that Tampa is located in a part of the state’s oft-discussed Interstate 4 corridor that has been critical in past statewide elections. But DeSantis completely flipped Hillsborough County during the midterms — a county that went for Biden in 2020 and which was won by Democrat Andrew Gillum in the governor’s race two years before that.

The November election has triggered a nearly existential crisis for Florida Democrats. Not only did DeSantis get re-elected by nearly 20 points but Republicans gained a supermajority in the Florida Legislature and picked up four congressional seats that helped flip the U.S. House to the GOP. It remains unclear where DeSantis will be Thursday during Biden’s visit since the governor routinely announces his schedule just hours before his events.

Key to the GOP wins last year was that Republican turnout was significantly higher than Democratic turnout – a nod to the drawing power of DeSantis, whose battles over race, gender and Covid-19 have made him a rising star among conservatives. Another factor was that national Democratic groupslargely ignored Florida and dramatically cut back the amount of money they spent in the state.

Florida Democratic Party chair Manny Diaz wound up abruptly resigning from his post in early January amid growing calls for his ouster. Democrats are scheduled to find a replacement later this month, but the bad news keeps adding up: New numbers show Republicans now hold a more than 400,000 person edge over Democrats in active registered voters, a stunning reversal from just four years ago, when Democrats had the lead.

“The Democratic Party has to understand we are at a crossroads,” said Nikki Fried, the former agriculture commissioner and the last Democrat to win a statewide election. “It’s going to take all hands on deck here but support from across the country to rebuild.”

Fried argued Democrats need to put together a plan for the next six to eight years that include “achievable goals.” But Fried, a persistent critic of DeSantis who lost in the Democratic primary for governor, contends that Democrats nationally also need to focus on Florida so that the “blueprint” laid out by DeSantis “doesn’t permeate across the country.”

Fried added that the presence of both Biden and Harris is a good sign and that their recent trips here are “more than they did during the midterms.”

But the visit by Biden may also include some shots at another Floridian — who is not running for president but for re-election.

One of the most talked about moments from Biden’s Tuesday night speech came when Biden said some Republicans were threatening to sunset Social Security and Medicare — a reference to a plan released by Florida Republican Sen. Rick Scott last year but which most Republicans have rejected. Scott’s plan did call for taking a vote on all federal programs every five years, but he has insisted he would never back the elimination of Social Security.

Biden cited Scott’s plan directly during his stop in Wisconsin, where he pulled out a copy of Scott’s Rescue America plan.

Scott himself has gone on the offense, even launching a television ad that will air in Tampa the next two days that calls on Biden to resign.

“It’s telling that Joe Biden used his State of the Union speech to lie about my plan,” Scott said in a statement. “If Biden had a single accomplishment to speak of, he wouldn’t have to lie about me. These lies aren’t going to work in the Sunshine State.”

At this point, Scott has a clear path to another six-year term in 2024. While some names have been floated, no prominent Democrat has yet stepped up to challenge Scott, a multimillionaire who has spent millions of his own money to win three straight elections.

But Democrats say the bigger point is that Biden’s visit shows that Florida is still part of his re-election calculus.

“We have 30 electoral votes,” Wasserman Schultz said. “Florida is part of the math to 270 electoral votes.”

President Joe Biden and Joe Manchin met at the White House about a month ago on a topic that’s critically important to the West Virginia senator: implementing the sweeping tax, climate and health care law that both men shaped.

And if you ask Manchin, things have not gone well since that huddle. That’s because the West Virginia Democrat is livid about how his party’s president and his administration are rolling out a party-line bill that served as a crowning achievement for both men — and he’s particularly peeved at a delay in new guidelines on who gets the law’s generous electric vehicle tax credits.

In addition to lobbying the president at the previously unreported Jan. 3 sitdown, Manchin has introduced a bill that would halt the credits until Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen implements strict requirements for electric-vehicle battery sourcing. As Manchin sees it, using the credit to boost U.S.-manufactured rather than overseas-made vehicles is essential to making the law succeed.

He’s even talked directly to Yellen several times about the matter. Summing up his approach of late, Manchin said: “I’ve been raising hell.”

“They almost act like they gotta send $7,500 or a person won’t buy a car. Which is crazy, ludicrous thinking for the federal government,” Manchin said in an interview this week. “I just totally and absolutely am disagreeing with what they’re doing.”

A frustrated Manchin is nothing new for Democrats, but the current situation is plainly untenable for them. He’s still undecided on reelection next year in a state that’s critical to keeping their Senate majority. And as Energy Committee chair, he has the power to wreak havoc by slowing down nominees, hauling in Biden officials for public testimony and pushing legislation against the administration’s wishes.

What’s more, Manchin’s grievances go beyond just the tax credit. He dislikes the public perception of the law he insisted on calling the Inflation Reduction Act, which he sees as an energy security measure rather than a climate change-fighting one — a distinction with a political difference in a deep-red, fossil-fuel state like West Virginia.

Notably, the Manchin-backed law also requires new sales of oil and gas leases that his progressive colleagues might otherwise have opposed. So as he weighs a bid for reelection, he’s touting the power of the bill he wrote in order to puncture Democratic hopes of ending U.S. reliance on fossil fuels.

At Wednesday’s Senate Democratic retreat, Manchin handed out a one-page summary of his perspective on the proposal he revived last summer in a nearly singlehanded show of force, telling colleagues that the U.S. is on track to energy independence as a result of it, according to a person briefed on the meeting who spoke candidly on condition of anonymity.

“This is bullshit. So they’re gonna basically starve us out of energy that we have a tremendous, abundant supply of because of their aspirational thoughts?” Manchin said of fellow Democrats who want to quickly transition the nation away from oil and gas. “I will continue to fight and I’ll do everything I can to make sure the public knows what they’re doing and what it will do to you and your economy and your lifestyle.”

Manchin’s approval ratings back home took a hit after he supported the Inflation Reduction Act. And being at odds with the White House is just good politics for red-state Democrats. In a similar turn, Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.) is openly skeptical of the Biden administration’s response to the Chinese spy balloon that flew over his state last week, and he will hold a hearing Thursday on it.

Some in the administration and the Senate see Manchin’s moves as catering to his state’s conservative voters as he considers whether to run again for six more years in deep-red territory. West Virginia continues to depend on energy production for its economy, and Manchin’s fight to preserve a fossil-fuel bridge to a clean energy future may play well there.

Still, at the moment the schism is alarming enough that Democrats are working to patch things over. Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.), a close Biden ally, recently traveled to Europe with Manchin and is among those hoping to turn down the temperature.

“I recognize that this is a tense and challenging dynamic, but one where I hope to be able to contribute,” Coons said.

And Republicans, all of whom opposed the Inflation Reduction Act, are reveling in the discord.

“It’s clear the Democrats have no clue what they voted for. Only a full repeal would fix it,” said Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), the No. 3 Senate Republican and the ranking member of the Energy Committee.

This is not the nadir of relations between the president and Manchin. It was only 14 months ago that the senator pulled the plug on the sweeping, more expensive and liberal-leaning party-line bill known as “Build Back Better,” with the White House accusing him of a “breach of his commitments to the president.” Since, the two Joes have rekindled their partnership — until the last few weeks.

The president is subtly working to smooth things over. On Tuesday evening during the State of the Union, Biden stated that “We’re still going to need oil and gas for a while,” adding that it would be at least 10 years, if not more, before the country can wean itself off those fuels.

And the White House is done going after Manchin. In a statement, spokesperson Michael Kikukawa said that Biden “has great respect for Senator Manchin and communicates with him frequently about the important task of implementing the Inflation Reduction Act in a way that achieves President Biden’s and Congress’ goals.”

Manchin is not nearly as cool to Biden as he was toward former President Barack Obama, whom he did not support in the 2012 election. To hear Manchin tell it, Biden is caught between his personal views and a more progressive Democratic Party that runs much of the day-to day-work in his administration.

“Joe’s been pushed pretty hard,” Manchin said. “I’m pleased that he’s worked his way back to where I think he always has been, that center left. But, the headwinds are strong there, and they keep going.”

The Treasury Department is expected to finalize its guidance for the credit in March, giving consumers at least a few more weeks of access to the full tax credit regardless of the sourcing used for electric-vehicle parts. Treasury did not comment for this story, but released a white paper outlining how complicated the issue is and said last month it needed extra time “to work through significant complexities.” The department has already implemented an income cap on tax credits.

Manchin said that, during his conversations with Yellen, he’s told her she’s “absolutely out of your wheelhouse” in her implementation of the law. Some Democrats, however, are perfectly comfortable with it.

“I completely agree with Joe Manchin in creating industrial policy to build that stuff here. But we also have to manage the supply chain between now and when those factories open,” said Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), “It takes three years to build a factory.”

For Manchin, that’s kind of the point. He took the leap to plow hundreds of billions of dollars into clean and domestic energy, shore up health care access and raise taxes on corporations, in part to reorient the economy toward his vision. He wants a supply chain anchored domestically, with his state competing for the accompanying energy jobs — and if that means fewer tax credits designed to boost clean cars for a while, so be it.

The Inflation Reduction Act “was passed for energy security, not purely for accelerating the environmental pathway. That’s not going to happen until the technology’s there,” Manchin said. “It’s not going to happen overnight. They know it. We know it.”

Josh Siegel contributed to this report.

MADISON, Wisc. — A jubilant President Joe Biden kicked off his post-State of the Union blitz on Wednesday, buoyed after a night of touting his wins from the past two years and challenging Republicans.

“Folks, I hate to disappoint them, but the Biden economic plan is working,” the president told a crowd gathered inside a union training center. “It’s working.”

The president used his stop in the battleground state to drive home the themes from his national address, primarily his optimism about his economic plan. Biden also will continue hitting the road as he prepares to launch an expected reelection bid in the coming months.

After running through his usual economic talking points, Biden capitalized on his handling of a tense exchange the previous night with Republicans for wanting “Medicare and Social Security to sunset.” While Biden didn’t name Sen. Rick Scott during his State of the Union speech, he did so on Wednesday, pulling out the Florida Republican’s “Rescue America” pamphlet that calls for all federal legislation to include such a provision.

Then the president quoted Sen. Ron Johnson’s (R-Wisc.) stance on the issue, prompting the crowd to boo.

“They sure didn’t like me calling them on it,” Biden said, noting that Rep. Marjorie Taylor Green (R-Ga.) stood up and called him a “liar” during Tuesday night’s speech. “Look, a lot of Republicans — their dream is to cut Social security and Medicare. Well, let me just say this. It’s your dream, but I’m going to use my veto pen and make it a nightmare.”

A post-State of the Union barnstorming swing has become a traditional part of the calendar for modern presidents, with great thought put into the location for a visit inherently bound to receive more media attention than an average trip.

For the Biden White House, it was always going to be Wisconsin. White House aides suggested that a lot of the year ahead will look just like this day. They believe that a message of blue collar populism works for the president, saying he is the first Democratic standard bearer in decades to successfully chase a demographic drifting steadily toward Republicans.

A labor hall filled with union workers was considered a perfect backdrop for this particular president. Biden aides said they hoped to fill his schedule with events like this one — and like last week’s twin infrastructure events in Maryland and New York — to showcase the president’s record in creating jobs and tangible, real-world projects.

Wisconsin, in many ways, has become the preeminent swing state. It was one of the trio of Great Lakes states — along with Michigan and Pennsylvania — that Biden won back from Donald Trump in 2020. And while the president may still be a month or more from announcing his reelection plans, most paths for a Biden second term run right through the same three states.

Michigan and Pennsylvania trended more toward the Democrats in the 2022 midterms than did Wisconsin, which reelected a Democratic governor but also a Republican senator in Johnson. Biden’s margin of victory in Wisconsin in 2020 was fewer than 21,000 votes — his smallest advantage of the three former “Blue Wall” states — but his advisers believe that his pro-union and manufacturing message will continue to play well in the state.

Moreover, Biden advisers are looking at the electoral map and see limited options. Many in the party believe that Florida — which has dramatically trended rightward in recent years and is home to the GOP’s two top leading 2024 candidates — is a lost cause. Still, Biden will make a stop there Thursday. But even the most bullish Biden advisers concede Florida is an uphill climb, and a loss there, if combined with defeats in Georgia and Arizona — two states Biden barely captured two years ago — would make his path to victory very narrow. It also would make Wisconsin essential.

Biden has been to Michigan and Pennsylvania more often to this point in his term, and aides said to expect travel to Wisconsin to ramp up. It’s been decided by less than a percentage point in four of the last six presidential races, including in 2016 and 2020.

Prominent Democrats on Wednesday rallied behind President Joe Biden after he faced tense jeering from Republicans during his State of the Union address.

“It showed just that Biden was talking to the average American, and the contrast of these guys screaming and yelling and throwing junk on the wall, and not having a plan, just calling names, I think is going to serve the president so well and it’s going to serve the country well,” said Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.”

The president’s speech at the Capitol on Tuesday night began without much theatrics but slowly escalated over the roughly 75 minutes to GOP heckling and off-script responses from Biden. The jeering ranged from shouted boos to audible calls from the Republican side of the House floor of “secure the border” and “your fault.”

Schumer said on Democrats’ side of the room Tuesday, “there was excitement” as Biden was “hitting it out of the park.” The contrast with the Republican side of the room, he said, will be “remembered for quite a while, by anybody who watched it.”

At one particularly tense moment, GOP lawmakers booed the president when he claimed Republicans want Medicare and Social Security to sunset — referring to Sen. Rick Scott’s (R-Fla.) proposal to wind down all laws after five years. Biden went off-script as the outrage from Republicans on the floor grew louder, attempting to clarify “I don’t think it is a majority of you” and finally saying, “So folks, as we all apparently agree, Social Security and Medicare, off the books now, right?”

Schumer said Wednesday “there is no way” to eliminate the deficit in 10 years — a goal of Republican leadership — without slashing Medicare and Social Security, though House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) did pledge Tuesday that he wouldn’t touch the two programs in the ongoing debt limit fight. The New York Democrat also called Biden “deft” for letting Republicans “walk into his trap” by essentially making them assert to the public they aren’t for cutting Medicare and Social Security.

“Joe Biden was so deft. He let them walk into his trap. He rope-a-doped them,” Schumer said. “And now all of America has seen the Republican Party say, ‘No, we’re not going to cut Social security and Medicare.’ He did a service.”

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) — who yelled “Liar!” at Biden during the contentious moment on Social Security and Medicare — told CNN on Wednesday said she “didn’t take any bait” during the speech, and the president “got exactly what he deserved” from Republicans.

“You know what? People are pissed off for the president of the United States to come into the people’s house and lie about the economy, the border, and then act like he is terrified of China and unwilling to talk about the fact that they spied on us last night,” Greene said.

Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), who stepped down from leadership earlier this year but remains a member of Congress, thought Republicans “protested” too much on Tuesday on Medicare and Social Security, telling MSNBC “they really cannot erase who they are.” But she added there’s a way to go forward on the debt ceiling, “and it has to be in a bipartisan way.”

Pelosi came under fire during former President Donald Trump’s 2020 State of the Union address, when the then-speaker ripped up a copy of Trump’s speech just after he finished delivering it.

White House chief of staff Ron Klain concurred with Pelosi on Wednesday, saying Biden made it clear he’s ready to work with Republicans and also prepared to stand up to them if they try to cut Social Security and Medicare.

“They saw the president who has been working successfully on a bipartisan basis these past two years say that he’s got a blue collar blueprint to rebuild the middle class and asking Republicans to join him in finishing that important job,” Klain told MSNBC.

But McCarthy took a different tone on Biden’s address, calling it “one of the most partisan State of the Union speeches I’ve ever heard” in a tweet Wednesday.

Vice President Kamala Harris called the Republican jeering “theatrical” and applauded the president for being “in command” and staying “focused on the American people” as opposed to “the gamesmanship that was being played in the room.”

“The president, it’s his nature and it’s his commitment to the American people to work across the aisle,” Harris said on ABC’s “Good Morning America.” “That’s not going to stop even if some people are cynical about it.”

Assistant Democratic leader Rep. James Clyburn (S.C.) said Biden’s speech could be a preview for his 2024 campaign for reelection, should he make good on his stated intentions to mount another White House bid. Clyburn added that “it was the best effort I’ve seen” from Biden in a “long, long time,” and praised his “maturity” in responding to the hecklers.

“I saw in him last night the kind of maturity that the American people would like to see in a president,” Clyburn said. “He took on the hecklers. Let them have their say. Gave them a nice little smile and responded in a very positive way.”

After delivering his speech Tuesday, Biden will hit the road this week to promote his agenda. The president will travel first to Madison, Wis., on Wednesday to push his administration’s economic priorities, followed by a Thursday trip to Tampa, Fla., to discuss Medicare and Social Security.

The president made no mention Tuesday night of a reelection bid but his address was widely seen as an early look at the message he might campaign on amid concern among Democrats about his age — Biden recently turned 80 and is the oldest man ever to hold the office of president — and sagging job approval numbers.

Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the former Trump administration press secretary who delivered the GOP response to Biden’s speech on Tuesday, highlighted the president’s age, but Harris on Wednesday pushed back on the narrative that Biden’s age should hold him back, saying “age is more than a chronological fact.”

“I think what people want to know is what have you done, and when you look at what President Biden has achieved, what our administration has achieved … I think you will see that we have a very bold and vibrant president in Joe Biden,” Harris said on “Good Morning America.”

For four decades, since Ronald Reagan re-invented the modern State of the Union address, television audiences have become accustomed — arguably to the point of tedium — to presidents putting the spotlight on ordinary Americans invited to the House chamber to be hailed for some extraordinary act.

At last, in 2023, came a new twist on the old ritual. This time, it was ordinary Republicans putting the spotlight on themselves — through extraordinary rudeness. With boos, taunts, groans, and sarcastic chortles, the opposition party effectively turned themselves into prime-time props for President Joseph Biden.

The performance definitely broke through the tedium. Let’s remember to check Biden’s next campaign disclosure forms — the Republican honking amounted to an in-kind contribution, one he sorely needed.

The gift paid dividends at both the stylistic and substantive levels.

In terms of pure theater, the jeers helped Biden come alive.

At the beginning of the address, Biden ambled through the House gallery, an 80-year-old president who didn’t look a day over 80, nor a day under. A politician who overcame a boyhood stutter, yet who has never been particularly strong with formal speeches, had his usual mix of garbled phrases and you-know-what-he-means sentence fragments. Would this be a painful evening?

Soon enough, it became an entertaining one. At least, Biden was having fun, looking at booing Republicans with a smile. He accused “some of my Republican friends” of wanting to “sunset Social Security and Medicare,” even as he acknowledged that, “I am not saying this a majority” who backs a proposal last year from Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.).

Amid shouts of “liar!” Biden responded, “Anybody who doubts it contact my office and I will give you a copy of the proposal.” As audible protests continued, Biden returned the volley, in seemingly spontaneous fashion. “So folks, as we all apparently agree, Social Security and Medicare off the books now, right? All right. We got unanimity.”

Beyond enlivening the evening, the boisterousness in the gallery was a reminder of something more consequential. Even in a polarized era, the modern presidency gives its occupants unmatched ability to define and hold the political center. This might be easy to forget, after years in which Donald Trump — practicing a politics of contempt aimed mostly at mobilizing supporters —- seemed indifferent to this reality.

Biden, formed by a different era, and advised by veterans of Bill Clinton’s and Barack Obama’s presidencies, was plainly using the speech to achieve more traditional aims. He sought to present himself as a common-sense realist, in touch with the everyday concerns of voters—inviting the opposition to choose between joining him to solve problems or risk being portrayed as obstructionists and extremists. It may not be the most novel of strategies, but for the past couple generations it has been the one that most two-term presidents have followed — typically using State of the Union addresses as major events in making the case.

Biden also showed that it is not such a difficult feat — at least not with the presidential platform — to unify different wings of his party, despite some commentary asserting they are irreconcilable.

No reason they need to be. On policing reform, for instance, Biden introduced the parents of Tyre Nichols — killed in a beating by police in Memphis last month — and trumpeted his proposals to reduce police violence. But he steered far clear of the anti-police rhetoric embraced by some on the left, and exploited by Republicans, after the George Floyd murder in 2020: “I know most cops are good, decent people — the vast majority.”

Biden congratulated new House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, joking that, “I don’t want to ruin your reputation, but I look forward to working with you.” At the same time, he well knew Republicans would have little interest in working with him on proposals to raise taxes on corporations and the wealthy, and to expand government rules on business from everything from drug prices to airline fees.

It’s little wonder that Republicans in the crowd were irritated. The whole evening was evidence that even a president with low approval ratings has a much louder voice and more potent ability to frame the debate than they do.

For the historical-minded, it was also evidence of how standards of decorum are highly fluid. Recall the big fuss in 2009 when Republican Joe Wilson of South Carolina interrupted President Obama’s speech to Congress by shouting, “You lie.” Even many Republicans were embarrassed, and Wilson apologized.

This time, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene shouted out at least nine times, by the count of a POLITICO reporter in the gallery, that Biden was a liar. No one was surprised — certainly not Biden, who recognized an opportunity when it is delivered gift-wrapped before a nationwide audience.

House Republicans are itching to investigate Hunter Biden. But they have a problem: The feds got there first.

Though their probes differ in focus and scope — Republicans are looking at possible conflicts of interest by the Biden family writ large while the Justice Department homes in on potential crimes by Hunter Biden — they’re treading on overlapping terrain. That’s an issue for the House GOP, because any DOJ indictment of Hunter Biden would effectively close off certain investigative paths.

The turf battle has flown largely under the radar, but it threatens to undermine one of House Republicans’ most highly visible priorities for their new majority. Investigating Hunter Biden is one of the few things they could do unilaterally, at least in theory. But the DOJ looms as a potential roadblock.

In fact, Oversight Committee Chair James Comer (R-Ky.) suggested in a brief interview with POLITICO that the Justice Department should hold off on issuing any indictment against Hunter Biden so Republicans can complete their probe. He openly acknowledged that criminal charges could hinder his investigation, giving any witnesses in the DOJ case clearance to assert their Fifth Amendment rights.

If the DOJ does go that route, one option would be for the panel to pivot to focus more heavily on other Biden family members, including brothers of the president, the GOP chair said.

“If they indict Hunter Biden, there’s still a lot of stuff out there. And say we can’t touch anything [Hunter-related], it freezes up all the evidence — there’s still a lot of stuff out there,” Comer said.

In calling for the DOJ to delay, Comer said prosecutors had already “waited this long” and Republicans would only “need a matter of months.” But his recommendation is all but guaranteed to fall flat. If the DOJ did listen, it would mirror the sort of unfounded coordination accusations that Republicans have previously lobbed at Democrats.

The DOJ tends to purposely avoid linking its work to Congress’ timeline — a frequent source of frustration for both parties. For example, members of the Jan. 6 select committee routinely groused that the department didn’t appear to be pursuing matters they had uncovered in their inquiry that they believed potentially rose to criminal levels.

Republicans are formally kicking off their investigation into the Biden family this week with their first public hearing tied to the probe, focused on Twitter’s decision to restrict a New York Post story on Hunter Biden just before the 2020 election. (Twitter officials have publicly acknowledged that they view the decision as a mistake.)

As part of the hearing, three former company executives — James Baker, former Twitter deputy general counsel; Yoel Roth, Twitter’s former global head of trust and safety; and Vijaya Gadde, Twitter’s former chief legal officer — are expected to testify. Comer formally subpoenaed them, but aides said it was meant to give the witnesses legal cover to appear before the panel.

Democrats, meanwhile, are expected to use the hearing to ask their own questions about Twitter’s handling of former President Donald Trump’s controversial tweets. Their witness for the hearing will be Anika Collier Navaroli, a whistleblower who previously spoke with the House’s Jan. 6 committee over the social media platform’s handling of Trump’s tweets.

The former president was banned from the platform in the wake of the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol by his supporters, only to be allowed back on recently by its current owner, Elon Musk.

The hearing serves as Comer’s opener into his larger Biden family investigation, which is expected to take a broad dive that specifically touches on Hunter Biden’s business dealings, bank records and art sales but also spans beyond the First Son. Republicans are hunting for a smoking gun that ties Joe Biden’s decisions to his son’s business agreements, though no evidence has yet emerged linking the two.

POLITICO has not undergone the process to authenticate the Hunter Biden laptop that underpinned the New York Post story, but reporter Ben Schreckinger has confirmed the authenticity of some emails on it. A committee aide described themselves as highly confident that the information gleaned from the laptop was connected to Hunter Biden, but argued that the onus was on skeptics of its veracity to prove that any specific email or document on it isn’t valid.

Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.), a member of the Oversight Committee, questioned the need for either the DOJ or House GOP investigation, arguing that they were both “based on false premises.” But he also identified the undeniable political pickle that the DOJ’s active investigation would present for Republicans by limiting their requests for information and cooperation from potential witnesses.

“Why not, in some cases, say … ‘we know DOJ is investigating, and we’re gonna wait to hear the results before we do.’ We did that with the Mueller report,” Connolly added.

The DOJ declined to comment for this story. But the department previously outlined how it responds to congressional investigations in a letter last month to Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), chair of the Judiciary Committee and a member of the Oversight panel.

That letter detailed how the DOJ handles information requests spawning from congressional investigations, effectively warning that it was reserving the right not to cooperate with GOP demands if they’re tied to an ongoing internal matter.

Carlos Uriarte, DOJ’s legislative affairs chief, noted in the letter that “consistent with longstanding policy and practice, any oversight requests must be weighed against the Department’s interests in protecting the integrity of its work.” The DOJ, in accordance with long-standing policy, hasn’t formally confirmed the existence of a Hunter Biden investigation.

Regardless of whether the DOJ ultimately issues any Hunter Biden-related indictments, though, the ongoing federal probe has cast a shadow over Congress’ fight on that front.

Republicans say they are basically in the dark about the tightly held inquiry, which has reportedly gone on for years. And some Democrats view the DOJ probe as a legitimate counterpart to House Republicans, saying it is the proper lane for investigating any of Hunter Biden’s potential missteps.

Hunter Biden and his team are also going on offense, urging the DOJ, Delaware attorney general and IRS to investigate many of the figures who came to possess the files culled from his alleged laptop — and some of the “inconsistencies” in stories about how those various offices came to access the records.

That request from Hunter Biden would require the administration to take up the politically explosive matter at the same time House Republicans are preparing to seek similar information from the same offices. Administration officials have given no indication they plan to do so.

Katherine Tully-McManus contributed to this story. 

President Joe Biden made a forceful case for his policy vision during Tuesday’s State of the Union address, crediting his expansive agenda for pulling the nation out of historic crises — and mapping a clear path to continued progress over the next two years.

During the 73-minute speech, Biden touted his administration’s success across a range of high-stakes challenges, from rallying global allies around Ukraine amid a grinding war to delivering bipartisan victories at home aimed at strengthening the economy and bolstering America’s competitiveness.

“We are the only country that has emerged from every crisis stronger than when we entered it,” Biden said. “That is what we are doing again.”

Yet Biden also warned that the job remains half-done, using the address to lay out priorities across several areas that, he argued, would be essential to keeping the U.S. on the right track.

And in a nod to the tougher political landscape he now faces with Republicans in charge of the House, Biden emphasized his openness to compromise. He urged GOP leaders to work with him to strengthen the economy and slash the deficit even as he vowed to pursue his own longstanding cost-cutting policies.

Here are some of the major policy areas that Biden focused on in his speech:

Shoring up the economy

Biden made the state of the economy a central element of his address, reveling in its resilience over the past year despite persistent inflation and widespread predictions the U.S. was bound for a recession.

The president boasted about the roughly 12 million jobs created throughout his administration and an unemployment rate at its lowest point in more than 50 years. He credited a pair of bipartisan laws for spurring a boom in manufacturing investments and infrastructure projects across the country.

And Biden expressed confidence that the inflation that has dampened the White House’s economic record to date would continue to slow.

“Jobs are coming back, pride is coming back because of the choices we made in the last several years,” he said. “This is my view and of a blue-collar blueprint to rebuild America.”

Maintaining that progress means continuing to bring manufacturing operations back to the U.S. and focus on building out the nation’s middle class, he argued. In that vein, Biden announced that the administration would soon issue guidance requiring that a range of construction materials used in federally funded infrastructure projects be made in America.

Addressing the deficit

The federal deficit fell by roughly $1.7 trillion in Biden’s first two years. On Tuesday, he proposed reducing it further through a pair of populist policies that would tax billionaires and corporate stock buybacks.

The plan Biden laid out is a long shot; it would require Congress to pass legislation unlikely to make it through the GOP-controlled House. It would impose a minimum tax on billionaires to ensure they won’t pay “a lower tax rate than a school teacher or a firefighter.” Corporations’ stock buybacks, meanwhile, would be taxed quadruple the current rate as an incentive for companies to make long-term investments.

Biden’s deficit talk came against the backdrop of a looming fight over the debt ceiling, which he noted had been raised three times in previous years “without preconditions or crisis.”

The president reiterated his call for quickly increasing the borrowing limit, calling it a necessary step to prevent an “economic disaster” that would throw the full faith and credit of the U.S. in question.

Even as he sought to reach across the aisle in other areas, Biden couldn’t help but hit Republicans over their suggestions that the debt ceiling is tied to cutting spending on entitlements.

“Republicans want Medicare and Social Security to sunset,” he said, eliciting boos and finger-waving from GOP lawmakers and prompting a back-and-forth over the prospect of touching the programs.

“So folks, as we all apparently agree, Social Security and Medicare, off the books now, right?” a bemused Biden eventually asked, to cheers from both sides of the aisle. “All right. We got unanimity.”

Cutting health care costs

Biden cast health care affordability as a key to his efforts to fight inflation by lowering “every day” costs, highlighting provisions in last year’s Inflation Reduction Act that reduced Obamacare premiums and helped spur record enrollment. The bill also granted Medicare the power to negotiate drug prices and limited the price of insulin for program beneficiaries, fulfilling two of Democrats’ long-held health policy priorities.

But Biden noted the bill failed to expand that insulin price cap to all Americans in the face of Republican opposition. He renewed his call for making the policy universal, challenging Congress to apply the new $35-per-month insulin limit to everyone who needs the medicine.

“There are millions of other Americans who are not on Medicare, including 200,000 young people with Type I diabetes who need this insulin to stay alive,” Biden said. “Let’s finish the job this time.”

Abortion

Despite making the threat to abortion access a key pillar of his midterm message, Biden made only a brief mention of the issue during his address on Tuesday.

Congress must codify Roe v. Wade, he said, mirroring the central argument that his administration has made in the months since the Supreme Court struck down the precedent. He insisted the White House is doing all it can to protect abortion access in the meantime, though he offered few specifics as to what that entailed besides pledging to veto any national abortion ban.

Keeping Covid in check

Biden pointed to Covid’s blunted impact on public health and the economy as confirmation of his administration’s progress in fighting the pandemic, insisting the country has reached a clear turning point where it can live safely with the virus.

He celebrated the planned expiration of the public health emergency for Covid this spring, and declared that the U.S. has “broken Covid’s grip on us.” Biden allowed that the virus is still circulating, and that his administration would continue working to keep it under control.

But in a sign of the pandemic’s shrinking political salience, Biden devoted relatively little time to discussing the next stage of a public health battle that once defined his presidency. He offered little in the way of new federal initiatives that might further suppress Covid’s spread outside of reiterating a monthslong call for more funding.

Defending America’s interests abroad

A year after making a primetime case for defending Ukraine against a just-launched Russian invasion, Biden pointed to the country’s extraordinary resilience in arguing that the U.S. must remain resolute in its support.

The nation’s continued defense of Ukraine, he said, is a testament to the U.S.’s ability to assemble and keep intact a global coalition. In a move that came even as some Republicans’ have grown openly skeptical over continuing to send aid to Ukraine, Biden directly addressed the Ukrainian ambassador, telling her: “We are united in our support for your country. We are going to stand with you as long as it takes.”

Biden also briefly addressed last week’s downing of a Chinese spy balloon, holding it up as a clear message that “if China threatens our sovereignty, we will act to protect our country.”

Guns and policing

In one of the most somber moments of the night, Biden mourned the death of Tyre Nichols at the hands of Memphis police officers. Acknowledging Nichols’ parents in the audience, Biden lamented there are “no words to describe the heartbreak and grief of losing a child.”

Biden also offered a defense of law enforcement, calling most police “good, decent people.” But he urged Congress to embrace the need for greater accountability and pass a policing reform bill that has now been stalled for two years.

Biden similarly renewed his call for stronger action to curb access to assault weapons, in the aftermath of back-to-back mass shootings in January. Brandon Tsay, who disarmed a mass shooter at a Lunar New Year festival in California, was one of the president’s guests for the speech.

“Ban assault weapons now. Ban them now, once and for all,” Biden said.

Immigration

Biden batted away criticism of his border policies from Republicans who have vowed a flurry of investigations over the issue, contending that he’s made significant progress in policing human smuggling and fentanyl trafficking across the southern border.

But he also sought help from Congress to take additional action, pleading that if lawmakers won’t “pass my comprehensive immigration reform,” they should at least pass legislation providing the equipment and officers necessary to secure the border.

Biden added that Congress also needed to prioritize a pathway to citizenship for DACA recipients, farm workers, essential workers and those in the country on temporary status.

Climate

Biden pointed to the IRA in laying out his achievements on the climate, which he hailed as setting the foundation for a green revolution over the next several years. The hundreds of billions of dollars in subsidies meant to spur electric vehicle manufacturing and other green technology investments will lead the way to what Biden termed a “clean energy future.”

Still, he linked the need to do more on the climate to his corporate tax proposals, arguing that ensuring the wealthiest corporations pay their “fair share” would be key to funding future investments aimed at preserving the environment.