State Of The Union - Joe Biden, Serena Joy & Did Marjorie Taylor Green Violate the Hatch Act?

Hi All -

I’m sliding back into your inbox nonchalantly as though I haven’t been absent for a while - but I’m back, baby.

Here’s what I’ll discuss in this newsletter:

• Overall Analysis

• Biden’s Biggest Bangers

• Summary of the Speech

• Katie Britt Rebuttal Analysis, Ugh

• Did MTG Violate The Hatch Act?

• Influencers at the White House

• Question I Got Asked: Why Do Members of Congress Want a Selfie with the President?

• Final Thoughts

Overall Analysis:

The State of The Union speech is a big deal generally, and - frankly - for Joe Biden last night, it was a bigger deal. His task was to push back on rumors of his mental decline; therefore he needed to show up with a strong delivery. He was so un-sleepy Joe that Fox News had to pivot by saying that he was on uppers. For Biden, the performance was as important as the content - and he delivered.

The GOP aimed to contrast him with two young faces: Speaker Mike Johnson (52), sitting behind him on the dais, & Senator Katie Britt (42) who gave the official Republican rebuttal. However, their inexperience on a stage of this level really showed through. Johnson gave the meme warriors enough facial expressions to fill their coffers. Britt gave an over-acted speech literally from the kitchen with a delivery so awful I could barely listen to the content. It was giving Serena Joy.

The main thing I heard from people in advance was, “I’m nervous.” Most people haven’t heard Biden speak recently other than carefully cherrypicked clips that circulate through the clickbait ecosystem. I think people’s fears were allayed with a strong, forceful speech that hit a lot of subject matters with the right tone, and which provided a clear distinction from Trump without making Trump the subject of the speech. He was able to react quickly to heckling and bring in a more conversational style when it counts. A friend of mine texted me, “I generally lean right but Biden surprisingly did a very good job. Like kinda shocked me.”

Joe Biden has a stutter and he is 81 years old. These things didn’t somehow disappear because of this speech. But as Senator Katie Britt’s awful rebuttal (and Marco Rubio’s sip heard round the world) shows, it’s actually quite hard to hit the right notes at a moment like this.

Marjorie Taylor Greene showed up wearing an outfit that was giving, “you don’t have your minimum 15 items of flair.” As expected, she heckled Biden during the speech. Using a phrase lifted from the social movement to uplift the stories of black women and girls who have been killed by police (“say her name”) MTG urged Biden to say the name of Lakyn Riley. (The Right’s appropriation of black social justice movement phrases is an interesting topic for a future newsletter). Laken was a 22-year-old nursing student killed by someone in the country illegally.

As can be seen from the fact that I’m talking about this up at the top, MTG accomplished her goal to direct the conversation about the speech with this anecdote - and, of course, herself. Biden responded to MTG, by saying “An innocent young woman who was killed by an illegal. That’s right,” using the exact phrasing of MTG and MAGA Republicans - achieving another goal of defining the words used. Kica Matos, President of the National Immigration Law Center, told the New York Times Biden “parroted dehumanizing Republican rhetoric about immigrants.” That being said, he quickly pivoted to add there are thousands of other murders attributed to “legals” and saying that as a parent who has lost children, his heart goes out to the family. Biden’s best attribute is his empathy stemming from lived experience and pivoting to that here worked. Later in the speech Biden delivered the prepared line, “I will not demonize immigrants, saying they are poisoning the blood of our country.”

Biden’s Biggest Bangers:

re: Jan 6: “You can’t love your country only when you win.”

re: the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade: “Justices, women are not without electoral power”

re: Biden is old (and so is Trump): “The issue facing our nation isn’t how old we are, it’s how old are our ideas.”

Summary of the Speech:

Biden hit a LOT of issues, here’s a quick rundown:

Major Themes:

• The country is faced with two visions for our future:

  • freedoms vs. taking them away

  • democracy vs. diminishing it

  • economy for the middle class v. the wealthy & corporations

  • moving the country forwards v. backwards

Major Policy Issues:

• Freedoms:

  • Restore Roe v. Wade

  • Protect voting rights

  • Guarantee the right to IVF

  • No Book banning

  • LGBTQ+ rights

• Lower Costs for the American People:

  • Cap prescription drug costs at $2,000 a year and cap insulin at $35 a month

  • Affordable high-speed internet for every American

  • Reduce student loan debt for Americans working in public service and increase Pell Grants to make college more affordable

  • Eliminate surprise junks fees and cut credit card late fees from $32 to $8

  • Crack down on companies who are price-gouging consumers

• Taxes:

  • Increase minimum corporate tax rate from 15% to 21%

  • Make billionaires pay their fair share

  • Provide a two-year annual tax credit of $400/month for Americans who buy homes

  • Restore the Child Tax Credit

• National Security & Foreign Affairs:

  • Provide assistance to Ukraine

  • Rescue the hostages held by Hamas

  • Provide humanitarian assistance to civilians in Gaza

Katie Britt Analysis, Ugh:

Holy Serena Joy, Batman. The Republican’s choice of Alabama Senator Katie Britt was clearly an effort to go after the ‘suburban mom’ demographic and to contrast her youth and bouncy beauty with Biden’s lack thereof. She was touted as a wife and mother foremost. The overwhelming response amongst everyone who watched was a loud cringe - it was a terrible episode of political theater. Here’s the response from some influencers on the right:

Did MTG Violate The Hatch Act?

As any long-time staffer (me) will tell you, we are fearful of violating the Hatch Act. When I was at the White House earlier this week there were lots of mandates NOT to discuss campaign related issues for fear of violting it.

MTG’s hat violated the rules - but it was the House Rules not the Hatch Act. (1) Hatch Act applies to staff, not elected representitves (loophole!); and (2) Regardless there’s no teeth to the statute, you just get a warning. The Office of Special Counsel (an independent body) can write letters but has no punishment capability, the President would have to do that.

However, the House Rules (1) Prohibit head coverings except for religious purposes (a 2019 change for Ilhan Omar); (2) Says Government Buildings shouldn’t be used for "the conduct of campaign or political activities."

The Sergeant at Arms did approach MTG and tell her to take the hat off, saying it’s because of “decorum” and she told him she’d pay a fine if she needed to. After the event she recounted, “You can hold me out of here. Go ahead and try it, but I'm not going to take this hat off. And I told them, 'I'm elected by my district, this is the People's House, I will wear this hat, I will wear it here on the House floor because my district supports President Trump, support 'Make America Great Again' policies and support me wearing this hat,”

What’s the consequence? Well she might face an ethics complaint in a House controlled by Republicans who serve at the call of Donald Trump. So nothing. The ruling party has the power to enforce fines and things like that, MTG was fined $500 for not wearing a mask on the floor during the pandemic and tried to appeal it to the Supreme Court. (She was not successful).

Influencers at the White House:

I was invited by the White House Office of Digital Strategy to attend a briefing on the State of the Union this past Wednesday - a fact that is apparently newsworthy as it was covered by Wired and The Daily Mail. They also held two other events with digital creators and media brands the day of the speech.

Giving press, think tanks, advocacy groups, and surrogates briefings in advance of a big speech or announcement is a tale as old as time in DC. The discourse coming out of the left has pushed back against this idea as if the White House trying to spread their message is anathema to their purpose. What is new about this is the recognition of the role of digital media and influencers as its own constituency to brief. What is complicated is that this is a group where individuals straddle a gray area between journalist and surrogate depending on who you are talking about.

Question I Got Asked: Why Do Members of Congress Want a Selfie with the President?

The vast majority of members of Congress don’t see the President on a regular basis, only at large public events. The people who meet with him regularly are mostly leadership (Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries), and somtimes when there is a huge negotiation on a bill, key negotiators on that issue. The rank and file are fangirls who want that snap for the insta feed just like you and me.

Final Thoughts:

A tension we will continue to see through November is how to balance discussion of what President Joe Biden has done in his first term and what he will do in a second term. Any incumbent president faces this messaging hurdle: how do you talk about things you want to do when many voters will think you’ve already had the power to do it? As with everything, the answer is both: he needs to clearly articulate what he’s done and what he will do.

Biden needs to tout his accomplishments because he has a real record on issues across the board. But Americans don’t necessarily feel like things are great, so he needs to articulate what he would do with four more years to make their lives better. There is also the need to tell voters that he will keep an even hand on the economic levers, that he wouldn’t reach for the shiny red nuclear button, and that he wouldn’t turn the administrative state into an autocratic apparatus. This last point is - of course - defined and overwhelmed by what he wouldn’t do which is tough messaging to resonate. Last night, for a rare moment, we mostly got to hear Biden on Biden.