The drive-by media was very hopeful in the days ahead of the State of the Union address, and the prevailing sense is that the speech was going to be hailed as successful so long as President Joe Biden didn’t soil himself on the dais. CBS’s early reaction to the speech appears to confirm that sense.
Watch as chief White House correspondent Nancy Cordes hails Biden’s “stamina” and “fire in the belly”:
NORAH O’DONNELL: Nancy Cordes is our chief White House correspondent and Nancy, you covered this president closely. He’s been criticized for sometimes flubbing a speech, going off script. Tonight was a bit different.
NANCY CORDES: Norah, this seemed to me to be a speech designed first and foremost to show that Joe Biden has the stamina and the fire in the belly to go another four years. It was designed to be delivered with high energy. He even broke into a call and response at one point and Democratic lawmakers played along. He told jokes. But he came out of the gate criticizing Donald Trump on Ukraine and then on January 6th. That was unexpected. He accused him of unleashing chaos when it comes to reproductive rights and pandering to Vladimir Putin. It seemed to me that this White House understood that one of the biggest obstacles to reelection for him are the persistent voter questions about the president’s age. And the White House set out to try to address those questions with a speech in which he ad-libbed about everything from taxes to Snickers.
These statements of attestation to Biden’s vigor and stamina are normally reserved for Cabinet officials and elected Democrats who find themselves compelled to defend the president against accusations (with evidence) of diminished physical and cognitive capabilities. In the case of Cordes though, she delivers these attestations freely, willingly, and without reservation once elicited to do so by anchor Norah O’Donnell.
Cordes’ affirmations of presidential vigor were preceded by John Dickerson’s cheerleading of Biden’s excessive partisanship, as proven by his use of “my predecessor” and “fair”.
The portion of the post-reaction closed out with correspondent Robert Costa’s wishcasting over whether Biden gets Nikki Haley’s voters, and with enthusiasm over Biden’s start to the general election campaign season.
CBS’s coverage proves the drive-by media’s desire to cast the speech as successful, at all costs up to and including credibility.
Click “expand” to view the aforementioned portion of post-speech coverage as aired on CBS on Thursday, March 7th, 2024:
NORAH O’DONNELL: And there it is. President Biden delivering a feisty and animated State of the Union address tonight. Probably one of the most political addresses I’ve ever heard, before a joint chamber, at this time drawing a sharp contrast with Republicans. And while he did not mention Donald Trump’s name, he referred to his predecessor more than a dozen times, taunting Republicans at times in a vigorous address. I want to bring in our chief political analyst, John Dickerson. John.
JOHN DICKERSON: Yes. A stemwinder, Norah. I’m going to pluck two words out of the speech that President Biden used. He used each of them 13 times. One is the one you just mentioned, “predecessor” or “my predecessor”. Referring to Donald Trump as a threat to American democracy as great as the one America faced in 1941 before World War II. You cannot set the stakes any higher than that in terms of defining who he is running against. The other word he used 13 times is “fair”. This is a policy argument he was making when he talked about- when he talked about lowering drug prices, helping teachers get paid more, helping others go up the ladder of opportunity, helping with housing. All of those policies, those are to help people who are in the middle class and lower. How was he going to pay for it? By increasing taxes on the wealthy and corporations. It’s a populist pitch aimed at fairness. The speech will fade but those two things, how he defines his opponent and that notion of fairness is pretty much the argument from now until November.
O’DONNELL: Nancy Cordes is our chief White House correspondent and Nancy, you covered this president closely. He’s been criticized for sometimes flubbing a speech, going off script. Tonight was a bit different.
NANCY CORDES: Norah, this seemed to me to be a speech designed first and foremost to show that Joe Biden has the stamina and the fire in the belly to go another four years. It was designed to be delivered with high energy. He even broke into a call and response at one point and Democratic lawmakers played along. He told jokes. But he came out of the gate criticizing Donald Trump on Ukraine and then on January 6th. That was unexpected. He accused him of unleashing chaos when it comes to reproductive rights and pandering to Vladimir Putin. It seemed to me that this White House understood that one of the biggest obstacles to reelection for him are the persistent voter questions about the president’s age. And the White House set out to try to address those questions with a speech in which he ad-libbed about everything from taxes to Snickers.
O’DONNELL: And Robert Costa, I was struck by that too. We’ve covered so many of these State of the Union addresses where the president begins with domestic issues. It’s- foreign policy is not usually considered that interesting, but we are in a different era. And he began with Ukraine. He began with his predecessor and Putin and said “My predecessor, a former Republican president, tells Putin do whatever the hell you want,” saying that he’ll bow down. It’s outrageous, it’s dangerous, it’s unacceptable.
ROBERT COSTA: Norah, sometimes timing is everything in politics. And what happened just days ago, Super Tuesday, former ambassador Nikki Haley got out of the race. President Biden tonight making a pitch to Nikki Haley’s voters, traditional Republicans who might feel like they don’t have a home in Donald Trump’s Republican party. He’s quoting Ronald Reagan. He’s talking about January 6th, and he’s saying to them, “I’m building a coalition that’s not only progressives and Democrats but could include some Republicans.” And you look at- sometimes a picture tells a thousand words. You see President Biden there mingling on the House floor. Democrats all smiles, some centrists from the New Jersey delegation there. I saw Senator Bernie Sanders come up with a big grin to say hello to President Biden. They’re happy tonight. The president kicked off his campaign with a forceful speech, giving Democrats in that room and nationally a lot of confidence that he has what it takes for a rough campaign against Trump.