Biden meets workers to build on congressional speech momentum

Biden meets ‘workers’ to build on congressional speech momentum

In the swing of his State of the Union address, interpreted as a disguised campaign start, Joe Biden departed on Wednesday to meet the “workers” he hopes to be the champions of.

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After a hawkish address to Congress, the American president sought to continue his momentum in Wisconsin, a northern agricultural state he struggled to win against former President Donald Trump in the 2020 presidential election.

“My economic project is for this popular America that gets up every morning to go to work and struggles to make a decent living,” the 80-year-old Democrat said at a construction workers’ training center, surrounded by union leaders in helmets and work vests.

Joe Biden pledged, as he did the day before, to defend a middle class “crushed” by decades of resettlement and give it back its “pride”.

Biden meets 'workers' to build on congressional speech momentum

The president, who has not officially declared himself a presidential nominee in 2024, basically wants to appeal to the same audience as his predecessor.

But where Donald Trump speaks of “decline,” he is promised better days, a “program to rebuild America by and for workers.”

Joe Biden was also happy to return to a highlight of his State of the Union address.

“Liar! »

Tuesday night, as he accused Republicans of wanting to abolish the minimum age requirement (called Social Security in the US) and health insurance for seniors (Medicare), he was interrupted by insults from hard-right lawmakers, particularly a “liar!” created by the elected Marjorie Taylor Greene.

Joe Biden, to the jubilation of Democrats, had reversed the situation and joked about his opponents’ sudden “conversion” to welfare benefits.

In Wisconsin, he drove the point home.

“Many Republicans dream of doing away with Social Security and Medicare. Let me tell you that I will turn your dream into a nightmare by vetoing any attempt at legislation in this direction, he promised.

Biden meets 'workers' to build on congressional speech momentum

In Wisconsin, Joe Biden continued to refine what could be his campaign speech: a decidedly upbeat tone and as concrete an approach as possible, with plenty of detail about his past reforms and his future projects, be they “huge infrastructure projects or the everyday problems of consumers.” .

Joe Biden said he was surprised to hear a TV commentator say he hadn’t talked about “important things”.

Using the example of current account fees, which he promises to reduce, the president, who comes from a middle-class family, launched: “It may not matter to the rich, but it is important to the people I grew up with. »

“Awakened Package”

In a sort of pre-election campaign, Joe Biden will travel to Florida Thursday, a now-majority Republican Southern state popular with retirees.

He’ll detail his programs for seniors — while showing in passing that he’s ready to fight with the hard right, of which local Gov. Ron DeSantis is a rising star.

Where Joe Biden plays pragmatism and optimism, Republicans chose, at least as of Tuesday night, to respond in a more somber tone, attacking the register of “culture wars” — those battles waged by the ultra-conservative leadership around school curricula and gender issues and racial inequalities.

Biden meets 'workers' to build on congressional speech momentum

Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, a former spokeswoman for Donald Trump and officially designated to deliver the Republican “backspeech” Tuesday, accused Biden of “surrendering to a woke pack that doesn’t even know what a anymore.” woman is”. .

Joe Biden’s speech to Congress remobilized his camp, but it is difficult to predict the impact of this high political crowd, with declining television viewership, on the electorate in general.

Previous polls show that American voters want a second term for Biden just as little as they want a new Trump presidency.