Speaker emerita and democratic congresswoman from california, nancy pelosi. Speaker pelosi, thank you so much for joining us. We appreciate it. So i have to say this was this may have been the highest stakes speech of President Bidens long career in politics. It may have been the highest stakes state of the Union Address that ive ever seen. I think he met the moment. Oh, i think he did definitely. Actually, i should quote him and just say, maybe i should go home right now because i think what he did was spectacular. He did it with vigor. He did it with vision, with patriotism. And i think it was one of the finest state of the Union Addresses i have seen. And ive seen many. So obviously a lot of republicans are critical of it. One of the things that theyre criticizing it for is for being political. And it was a very political state of the Union Address. Well, it had some political aspects to it, mostly generated by the audience saying four more years, but the perhaps amnesia has set in on the disgraceful speech that donald trump gave to the chamber, the one you ripped up. Well there were so many disgraceful ones. I get them, but this is the one where he gave a president ial medal to somebody who was, oh, rush, rush limbaugh. Yeah, all that stuff and all he talked about was the election and the rest. And as speaker, i was offended because it is not a political rally. And by the way, he had what, the convention at the white house. Right. So, okay, lets get to whats important to americas Working Families instead of some of this. So he did mention you by name, President Biden. Yeah. Can we roll that little clip . Yes. So you think the very idea of americans that were all created equal and deserves to be treated equally throughout our lives, weve never fully lived up to that idea, but weve never walked away from it either. And i wont walk away from it now. Im optimistic. I really am. Im optimistic. Nancy, hope you didnt hear it that time. Hey, mr. He said im optimistic. Im im im optimistic. Nancy, you didnt catch that the first time. I guess theres a lot of noise going on. Noise . Yeah. Why do you think he said that to you. Do you, do you do you disagree with him privately about his optimism . No, no, i think he was saying i hope you agree that i delivered the message tonight. This is you said its high stakes. One of the reasons its high stakes is because the opposition, the person that hes running against, is such a low form. I always say hes doing a Limbo Contest with himself to see how low he can go. So this is really important for the democratic candidate who is the incumbent president to be president ial, to show a path. And i think, quite frankly, while i missed the nancy part, i did love what he said at the end about two paths you have a path that takes us to the path, narrowing our freedom. In the history of our country, we have always expanded freedom from a constitution which, thank god our founders made it amendable. Ending slavery, expanding the right to vote. Black men, women, women. As time goes by, roe v wade and the rest until this court narrowed freedom with the Dobbs Decision and threatening to say because privacy is not guaranteed in the constitution, and we are ignoring precedent of the court, Everything Else is at stake. Whether its a Marriage Equality or whatever else. So this was a path to go back or a path to go to the future. And i think that he very clearly laid out a vision for the future based on values and really centered around americas Working Families, which has always been his commitment. And quite frankly, i think tonight was a clear definition between the democrats and the republicans is what we stand for. And he has faced down big money, big money and guns and won Big Money In Pharma and won Big Money In Fossil Fuel Industry and won with legislation in the congress and a path with more to come. Making wealthy people pay their fair share. Dana. Madam speaker, one of the clearly ad libbed moments was during the section about immigration, and im sure you saw the buttons that your colleagues across the aisle had, and he had one of those buttons. We believe it was given to him by Marjorie Taylor greene. And when she said something to him during his speech, he responded, i think we have that. Lets listen to it. I didnt see any republican buttons. Lincoln. Lincoln riley, an innocent young woman who was killed by an illegal. Thats right. But how many of the thousands of people being killed by illegals to her parents, i say my heart goes out to you. Having lost children myself, i understand now you should have said undocumented, but its not a big thing. Okay . Whats the big thing about . No, i was i actually wasnt even going to ask about that. I was just going to ask more about the moment. But you do think that he should have sent undocumented . That wasnt going to be my question. Well, we usually say undocumented, he said. Illegal i dont think its a big deal. Okay. I dont think its a big deal. But but more broadly, because i think the his focus was on the sympathy for the family. Yeah. Its a terrible tragedy that was going to be the sort of the basis of my question about it, which is as you well know, maybe you didnt know about the buttons, theres been a lot of talk, a lot of news about this, this young woman who was a student at the University Of Georgia and she died and apparently was an undocumented immigrant and the fact that he was ready with that, with the button, with the response, what do you make of that when it comes to not just the substance, but also the performance . Well, i think that it was that spontaneous. See, i dont know about the buttons, and youre telling me that they had buttons i didnt see . I didnt do too much schmoozing with the republicans before. Usually we do, and we had some conversations, but none of the ones that came over to converse with us had those buttons on, so i didnt see the buttons. So we wont make a thing of the button. The president , i think, handled it very well. Yeah. And i think i think he handled it very well. Its a terrible situation that anybody losing a child or a family member, its a terrible situation. But i think he handled it well. And you well know that one of the questions that, people were looking at, they were wanting to see how he performed when it comes to his age. Yeah, i think he you think that do you think he put it to rest, at least for a short time . Well, i thought he i thought he showed great vigor in the speech. Sustained a level of strength in his speech for a long time, which would be hard for anyone at any age to give that performance. And i think that his enthusiasm for all of it was demonstrated. Hes old. He said it. You know, ive been around, but i have wisdom and i think its important for him to embrace his age, says one who is older than the president myself. With age comes wisdom, judgment and knowledge. And this president , when he was speaking, i was thinking at last, people are seeing the way we see him, which is when you go in there, you dont have to speak short, a long hand to him on subjects hes informed hes knowledgeable, hes been around, he knows the territory. He has a great vision for the country. He has great knowledge of the issues. He has great judgment. Therefore because he has knowledge and he thinks in a strategic way about how to get things done. And his record as a president when we had the majority was equal, well on a par with lyndon johnson. And compared to Franklin Roosevelt for a two year period of their terms in office. So i think that his kind of making some humor about his age was okay. I thought i thought he was great, but what are you going to do . You cant make yourself younger, but you have to show what you bring to the table at whatever your age is. And i think that it was important for him to embrace it. Madam speaker. Cant erase it. Madam speaker, thank you so much for being here. We really appreciate it. Thank you for your insights, erin. I just want to say its so interesting is ever one of the best speeches ever. Okay, erin, to you, jake, you know, its interesting hearing the former speaker there, talk about how this would have been a hard speech for anyone to deliver. And im going to admit when. Right. He started, you know, they they send you the full speech, so print it out, and i and i go, okay, i knew this was long, but this was long. And then you looked at it and you saw lots of Exclamation Points, which was really just a symbol of how much he had, oops, how much he had worked on practice. It how much he he knew this performance mattered. Yeah. This was a this was a demonstration project. Really. It was about demonstrating to americans that from the moment he walks into that room, that hes got the energy to stay through to the end and, you know, by the end, hes still schmoozing afterwards. Thats very important because thats what people wanted to see. And Exclamation Points. You know, he also puts tick marks next to the words where he needs to take a breath. Hes been doing this ever since he started giving speeches 50 years ago. Because. And did you hear that . Now that youve known you knew that its part of his practice. Its part of the reason. Its as kate knows better than i do. Its part of the reason why he starts early and needs to rehearse. Because he knows hes got a this stutter never goes away. Its been a part of his life forever. And he mastered it at an early age. But it comes back. And so when you hear him trip up in a speech like that, this is something that hes dealt with for, you know, all of his life and even in it, with all the clear, you know, the short sentences and the and the and the, you know, plethora of Exclamation Points to where he wanted to put emphasis. There was a lot of ad libbing, and you started noticing that. You started noticing that earlier. Yeah, just play a couple for anybody who just joining us now, a couple of examples of when that happened. Republicans can cut Social Security and give more tax breaks to the wealthy. I will thats the proposal. 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 not going to cut another 2 trillion for the super wealthy. Thats good to hear. In november, my team began serious negotiations with a Bipartisan Group of senators. The result was a bipartisan bill with the toughest set of Border Security reforms weve ever seen. Oh, you dont think so . Oh, you dont like that bill, you know, that was the repartee that he clearly was seeking out. Yes. And then and then, but there was also these were just moments that he was creating, and there were many other moments that he just added some much more extensively than others. Yes. Because he was very comfortable. And i think one thing that was great about this, and i imagine this was probably some of the calculation here, is, you know, theres been a lot of, you know, as people have talked about what hes like Behind Closed Doors and have said, you know, his mental acuity is strong. You know, the criticism has been, well, then lets see it, you know, then lets see some of these things that go on Behind Closed Doors that thats a great example. I mean, that i can tell you thats how he is in meetings. You know, if youre going back and forth with him, you raise an issue and he says, now wait a minute. No, actually, thats not it. And, you know, hes very, hes very on top of that back and forth. And so i think it was great for them to, to be able to kind of, for him to be able to manufacture those kinds of moments, to show people that, you know, hes he is more than capable of that. Back there was a moment when wall street came up in a pejorative sense in the speech, and then he said, well, theyre not bad guys. And were sitting here, right . And kate interjects to us, oh, you know, then hes going to tell this thing about how in delaware, its okay, because the Corporate Tax laws, im not against corporations and capitalism that was not in the speech. But then there it came, almost word for word. I mean, you knew what was coming because he knows who he is. And so when hes talking about these issues, he talks about things from a place of his own experience. And every, you know, as hes explaining where he stands on things, he really he takes the time to talk about why he feels that way, why his why he you know, why hes been shaped that way. Thats thats the perfect example. I mean, you know, and you saw that frequently throughout the speech again because he was comfortable. I mean, what struck me, something that was very new was the way he talked about age at the end. You know, six months ago, he wasnt talking about it that way. He wasnt really comfortable addressing it head on. He would make an offhand comment, but i think what you heard tonight was the beginning of a strategy for how hes going to talk about it, which is its not the age of how old you are, its about the age of your ideas. Are they fresh . Are they forward looking . Thats something that, you know, at one point he said, young or old, ive had a sense of our north star. I think there is a way in which were going to hear about age for the next eight months. Its a reality. But as much as you perform and you show people, look, judge, this performance for yourself, but also talk about it and acknowledge it and say that this is a big issue for this country. And i take it seriously and ending on it, knowing that people will remember that, right. Not trying to bury it. Yeah. All right. Of course, staying with us is our special coverage continues coming up, The Big Question tonight is how the president s speech played with actual voters. So we are now getting the first results of cnns Exclusive Flash Poll of americans who watched the State Of The Union, and we will have that for you after a quick break. Very sorry to hear about your father, father, mother. Thank you. Well, thats you know, its a little better. You have no heart, no soul. Its the happiest ive ever been in my life. Curb your enthusiasm streaming exclusively on max. Okay, yall, we got ten orders coming in. 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After having an interview with jake tapper, new episodes next sunday at nine on cnn. And we are back with our state of the Union Coverage breaking down President Bidens politically charged speech. We are moments away from the first results from cnns Exclusive Flash Poll of voters who watched the president tonight. Well talk to David Chalian about that shortly. But first, i want to get reaction from the biden team. M. J. Lee is at the white house. What are you hearing . Well, anderson, we knew heading into the evening the major issues and the themes that the president wanted to hit on. What we didnt know was how he was going to land the delivery. You know, there was a moment where he got into the chamber, and when he got to the podium,