US President Joe Biden
USA President, Joseph R. Biden Jr. entered the presidency as a deadly pandemic and an economic crisis prevented him from doing any of the parts of the job that might typically be considered among its perks.
He cannot review the troops, shake hands along a rope line or host a state dinner for a visiting foreign leader. But on Wednesday night, Mr. Biden finally participated in one sanctified ritual of the presidency: addressing a joint session of Congress.
The president said:
“America is on the move again,” acknowledging that he took office in the middle of the worst pandemic in a century, the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression and what he called the “worst attack on our democracy since the Civil War.”
The four major Takeaways are:
1. History is made with two women on the podium:
Nothing about Mr. Biden’s speech looked like the annual address has in the past, with more brown chairs visible in the audience than masked faces. But the most arresting image of the night had nothing to do with coronavirus precautions. For the first time in history, two women sat on the dais behind the presidential podium.
Vice President Kamala Harris and Speaker Nancy Pelosi in two seats of prominence were a reminder of the cracks in the political glass ceiling and the changing face of the Democratic Party.
Later, while talking about equal pay and opportunity for women, he ad-libbed a second acknowledgment of the striking scene behind him. It “has been too long,” he said of equal pay. “And if you’re wondering — look behind me.”
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As a candidate, Mr. Biden pitched himself as a “transitional candidate” who was uniquely positioned to unite the country and beat Donald J. Trump, but who ultimately wanted to serve as a bridge to the next generation of Democratic leaders.
In his speech on Wednesday, Mr. Biden made it clear that he aimed to be more than a blip in the history books whose greatest achievement was the unseating of his predecessor and outlined proposals to expand family leave, child care, health care, preschool and college education for millions of people. His ambitious plans, if passed, could make him a transformational figure in American history.
He called his $2 trillion infrastructure plan a “once-in-a-generation investment in America itself,” noting that it was the largest jobs plan since World War II, and said that while he welcomed Republican ideas, “doing nothing is not an option.”
“The American Jobs Plan will be the biggest increase in nondefense research and development on record,” he said.
3. He took a victory lap on the Covid-19
Mr. Biden’s advisers often say his presidency will rise or fall based on the number of vaccine shots in arms and relief checks that show up in bank accounts. On Wednesday night, Mr. Biden indicated that he believed he was winning on the mark that was likely to matter most to Americans watching at home.
He bragged that he beat his goal of 100 million vaccine shots in his first 100 days. “We will have provided over 220 million Covid shots in 100 days,” Mr. Biden said, noting that nearly 70 percent of seniors were now fully protected from the virus, up from just 1 percent who were vaccinated when he was sworn in.
Mr. Biden did not mention the looming challenges on Vaccination Wednesday night. Instead, he focused on more optimistic statistics. “Today, 90 percent of Americans now live within five miles of a vaccination site,” he said, noting that everyone over the age of 16 is now eligible for a vaccine.
4. Bipartisanship has its limits.
Senator Ted Cruz, Republican of Texas, appeared to sleep through some of Mr. Biden’s speech. But he was awake to clap when the president referred to his decision to end the war in Afghanistan. Senator Mitt Romney, Republican of Utah, applauded when Mr. Biden said that “clean energy will create jobs for America.” As he left the House chamber, Mr. Biden schmoozed at length with Senator Rob Portman, Republican of Ohio.
Those were some of the rare nods to bipartisanship during a night in which Republicans and Democrats continued to talk past each other, addressing different realities and different audiences. None of the Republicans in the hall clapped for Mr. Biden’s stated goal of helping cut child poverty in half this year. And there was little reaction to the president’s promise that “American tax dollars are going to be used to buy American products made in America that create American jobs,” even though it appeared to channel President Donald J. Trump’s economic vision of “buy American.”
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