A lot of political emotions in a very fired up President Biden, welcome to our special coverage of the State Of The Union. Im caitlin collins, and im abby phillip, President Biden tonight sought to take full advantage of a prime time tv audience, setting up the stakes for election day. He directly targeted donald trump quite a lot, but he refused to even say his name. My predecessor and some of you here seek to bury the truth about january 6th. My predecessor failed the most basic president ial duty. My predecessor are promising to pass a national ban on reproductive freedom. My predecessor, a former republican president , tells putin, quote, do whatever the hell you want. My predecessor came to office determined to see roe v wade overturned. My predecessor called Members Of Congress in the senate to demand they block the bill. But unlike my predecessor, i know who we are as americans. My predecessor told the nra hes proud he did nothing on guns when he was president. He said, my predecessor over 13 times in that speech and in the room tonight, the staid and respectful tone that used to mark the State Of The Union gave way to what we are now so familiar with. When these State Of The Unions happen, the kind of call and response and the chants that we expect to hear in an arena full of partizan diehards, does anybody really think the tax code is fair . Do you really think the wealthy and big corporations need another 2 trillion tax break . For. My fellow americans. Back when joe biden used to sit in the background as Vice President , one member of Congress Actually called out in the speech with President Joe Biden, President Biden. And it was almost unheard of prior to that. Yet tonight, you see the Evolution Republicans walked out, some of them in the middle of the speech. There were interruptions. So many too many to count. Check the numbers. Oh, no, you guys dont want another 2 trillion tax cut. I kind of thought thats what your plan was. Well, thats good to hear. Youre saying low. Look at the facts. I know. I know you know how to read. Oh, boy. Here with us to break it all down, cnn contributor and Associate Professor of history at johns hopkins. Leah, right. Our cnn Political Analyst and New York Times white house correspondent, zolan kannoyoungs, cnn Political Commentator and former Senior Adviser to hillary clinton, karen finney and cnn Political Commentator and republican strategist alice stewart. Karen finney, let me start with you, because we went into this with everyone saying, what a big night and high stakes moment it was for President Biden. And he needed to show, you know, style, not just substance. How do you think he did a plus of course, well, i mean, come on, let me deliver the goods here. No, but i mean, in that clip we just played, right . He was having fun with it. I mean, it was pretty predictable that republicans were going to misbehave, dave. And they walked right into that trap as they usually do. He kind of goaded them into it. Yeah, but he knew that it was not going to take much to get them to go there. They went there and he was ready for it. And its sort of interesting that now the modern, you know, State Of The Union speech, youve got to be ready for that. Right. But i also thought that, you know, for people who were the bar was set. So high and for people who are saying, well, hes show energy will he show fire and gusto . Absolutely. And i think he showed passion. I think he showed compassion. And i thought he wove, you know, a lot of times state of the Union Speeches end up. And having worked on them, i can tell you they end up its like, oh, we have this issue and there and get that issue and its like this laundry list of issues and even though there was a lot of policy and issue talk out the way they wove it into the conversation and used the guests who were seated with the first lady to humanize some of these issues was really important. I think the i would certainly wouldnt give him an a plus. Im more like a c or d for my look, my book look. He didnt stumble over words. He didnt forget anything. He stuck to the teleprompter, but he was angry. He came across very angry. And he came across as someone who talks about unity and uniting this country. He was very divisive. And look, if his goal tonight was to win over independents and some of the nikki haley voters, he did nothing to appeal to them. He he yelled quite often throughout this speech, and it came across as someone who is talks about how this lifting up this country and this country is getting better, he just seemed he just came across as very angry. And it was, in my view, extremely partizan for him to mention donald trump so early. He didnt say donald trump, his predecessor, many times, for him to use his name or mention him early and so often, this was more of a start of a Campaign Speech and not a State Of The Union speech. And that is not what this is about. This is about him telling the American People, what is the State Of The Union . How am i going to make this better . And yes, this is an election year, but the fact he made it so political on all of these issues, i think, did not do a service to what the state of the Union Address is supposed to be. Just play a little bit of what President Biden said, because to your point, alice, he pretty early on, he went at the heart of some of these issues that he has with donald trump without ever saying his name. Take a listen. My predecessor, a former republican president , tells putin, quote, do whatever the hell you want. Thats a quote, a former president actually said that bowing down to a russian leader, i think its outrageous. Its dangerous, and its unacceptable. And zolan, you know, we hear from President Biden a lot in these closed door fundraisers and hes talking about stuff like this, and hes using some pretty salty language. The question had been, should he be showing that kind of anger in public . Do you think he did that tonight on a public stage . I mean, i understand sort of the concerns you were talking about, but when i talked to democratic voters going back to early in the presidency, one complaint of the white house and the president was, ive talked to a lot of voters who said they didnt just want to hear about unity, but also accountability. And also a way to directly sort of call out the former president. There was a point in time when the President Biden seldom, invoked President Trump, seldom tried to move on, kind of as part of this sort of movement to restore normalcy. But for many people in the country, this isnt a normal time. So there i have been hearing more and more sort of calls for him to directly call out the president s comments. I also know that for the white house last year, they relished some of those back and forths with republicans and part of the strategy of performance here was going in with an intention of confrontation almost. Yeah, he was trying to recreate those moments. One of the most remarkable ones that stood out to me, though. Where was obviously there are Supreme Court justices in there. Some of the ones who actually, you know, wrote this Opinion OverturningRoe Versus Wade were not actually seated in there. Alito, i believe, was not there. But President Biden took a moment where he kind of chastised the Supreme Court and he said, you know, with all due respect to the justices in this room. And he quoted from the Majority Opinion in there, i think we have that moment where it was just so striking to see him chide the Supreme Court. Heres what he said. And with all due respect, justices, women are not without electoral electoral power. Excuse me . Electoral or political power. Youre about to realize just how much you write about this. What did that say to you . Just in a context of watching a sitting president of the United States say that to the Supreme Court justices in the room . I mean, biden says it said it in his State Of The Union speech. These are not the olden days. These are the new times. These are different times. And i think one of the things that we have to take into account with the State Of The Union speech is that the State Of The Union speech has always evolved to reflect, you know, the context of the larger political moment. And in this political moment, we are in uncharted territory. We are in a place where somebody like joe biden is if you do, if you dont. And his i think to your point , his base is calling for some kind of energy, some kind of passion, some kind of accountability, but also acknowledgment of them. Trump speaks to his voters. Biden voters want to be spoken to. And one of the best places where they where somebody like biden can make an intervention is on the issue of Something Like dobbs, of the overturning of roe v wade. We already know that the American Public has lost faith in the Supreme Court. So what better way than a president who needs to show that he really does care about women, and that women have political power than to call out the Supreme Court justices who made dobbs happen . I think another instance tonight where he was able to react to prompting by people in the audience was when Marjorie Taylor greene asked him to say her name. And we know were talking about lake and riley, the Nursing Student at the university of georgia, my alma mater, who was jogging and was killed suspectedly by an undocumented immigrant from venezuela. People in the media and others have been after this. President to say lake and rileys name acknowledged that this is at the hands of someone who has been a Repeat Offender and needs to be held accountable. Thankfully congress acted today in in passing the lake and riley act, but he just now is acknowledging her name. He has just now admitting that this did happen. Hats off to Marjorie Taylor greene for pushing him. But this just goes to show that there is a crisis at the border. His policies in in my view, in many persons views are at the root cause of why were having such a tremendous border problem. And he is just now acknowledging it. And i think this has been a tremendous opportunity for him to acknowledge more of the crisis and what he can personally do to fix it and not blame this on republicans. He repeatedly said republicans are to blame. They didnt pass this, but he himself needs to acknowledge he came into office on day one and overturned, President Trumps policies to secure the border and also build the wall. And he overturned those. And three years later, hes just now doing so. Okay but two things. Number one, President Trump as president didnt solve the problem. And lets be honest, it has been a crisis for a long time. I can remember growing up in california talking about the immigration crisis. Right. So lets just be honest about that. At the same time, President Biden on day one also introduced comprehensive immigration reform, and that kind of went nowhere. And i thought it was very powerful for him. And weve seen this actually in focus groups. When you tell people what was in the bill, theyre like, oh, great, thats what i want. And so i think it was very and its something that many of us have been urging the white house to do more of, to tell people what you were trying to do and then put it on the republicans who did walk away from the bill. I think that was an important moment. And i think that key moment with Lankford Nodding his head and saying, thats true, he sure did cut that one for an ad, because, yeah, thats exactly what they were hoping for. It should be noted, too. I mean, when you look at that bill, ive covered immigration since the Trump Administration and an Expulsion Authority that would rapidly turn migrants away, raising the credible fear standard to make it harder to gain asylum in the us. Surging resources to the border. I mean, i remember Trump Administration officials, talking to them and them saying these are some of the policies that that we that we need at this time. I do think this is a really fascinating moment for the white house here on immigration. I dont know if it will be successful yet. You see them shifting to the offense here on immigration. There was a lot of criticism from both parties of distancing themselves from a crisis that is on the mind of american voters. I dont know, though, at this point what the result will be essentially of saying house republicans, youre the one who blocked this even while its still there. There is going to be a result. I think its a political thats right strategy at the end of the day. But yeah, well, the border came later on in his speech. The thing he came out of the gate starting with, which we were told was going to happen, was democracy. And then he immediately mentioned ukraine and talked about making sure putin doesnt wont stop at ukraine and talk about the importance of funding, sending ukraine aid. Of course, as House Speaker mike johnson is right there. But the other thing that was paired with, with all of this is that you have to think about israel and gaza, which is obviously, you know, President Biden on the way to this speech, had to take a different route to actually get there to avoid the protesters who were trying to block his motorcade from getting to the capitol. He was a little bit late getting there. I wonder what you make of how he handled that moment in the historical context, but also something that could be deeply damaging to him come november with the progressive, younger members of his party right. So not only i think one of the things that the white house continues to do is underestimate just what kind of impact this kind of israelhamas, but also palestinian crisis, humanitarian crisis that the us is now actively involved in, how how thats going to play out at the polls and so i think tonight he did a job and apparently the cnn, you know, quick poll, supports this where it said the majority of americans felt like he talked about israel just enough. Right. Like just he did exactly what he needed to do. With that being said, though, i think that there were, again, underestimating what people in very specific areas like michigan, like pennsylvania, very specific target groups, how they feel about the issue. And right now amongst those groups, particularly amongst young people, the Biden White House is not doing enough. And i dont know that there is a solution that makes the democratic, you know, this kind of disparate coalition of the Democratic Base happy, all happy. And so what theyre doing right now is trying to figure out what is the middle ground. They did time. I mean, its a pretty extraordinary announcement that they made today that they were going to basically build a port right on the shores of gaza to get this aid in both an indictment of the netanyahu administrations unwillingness to allow more aid over land, but also timed to address this directly. At the end of the day, this is the State Of The Union. Hes not going to tailor that to the far left of his party, but did he do enough to get the people that he needed to stay in the coalition . Well, i think thats exactly the problem is the professor was saying theres never going to be enough. I mean, and the other problem, as we know, were the United States, its really up to netanyahu. Theres only so much that we can do. Obviously, theres more we can do potentially with aid. But you cant make netanyahu do what we want him to do. Hes still their leader. And so i think the president was right to make the point, though he is the person who has been pushing it now to care about the hostages. I thought it was very touching to have their parents there. And look, remember, this also comes on the heels of the Vice President s announcement this weekend. I think that was very the two pieces of it in selma. And then today is the anniversary of summer. Yesterday was the anniversary of selma. I think that was very powerful. I think for the Vice President to come out and say, we support a ceasefire, thats one thing, but it Means Nothing if hamas is not on board. And i think a ceasefire needs to be hand in glove with releasing these hostages and a big step with helping to get the aid into gaza. But we have to talk