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President Biden gave his final State of The Union Address on March 7, 2024. He presented it to the 118th Congress in the House chamber in the Capitol. During this speech he is speaking to lawmakers and people from all across the world the total viewer count, was 32 million. Biden framed this speech all around a moment for democracy. In the heat of the Biden and Trump SAGA he believed, Trump was putting democracy on the line with his values. So he considered it an attack on his home turf along with dealing with attacks abroad, and here he is fighting for his second term. All through the speech he is defending the working class, democracy, abortion, getting rid of gun violence, and speaking on the war in Gaza.

Biden and Kamala kept driving this whole rhetoric with, “freedom”, behind it saying that they were protecting democracy. That is what they always went for and stood by it. That is what to me is the main message of Biden’s speech. Democracy in his head and to a lot of democrats on the line due to Trump’s, more radical believes than past politicians and presidents. He repeatedly said the choice to choose democracy in 2024 wasn’t just something he was saying, but actually something the country must choose for itself. In his opening he talked about January 6th and he made that into an example that our democracy as a country is under attack, but never exactly said Donald Trump’s name, but we knew who he was talking about. He went the emotional route trying to touch the hearts of the American people but talking about a student who was murdered, Laken Riley, and families who were affected by the ban of abortions. There had been a slight on Biden saying he was too old and frail now to be a President, but he responded back in an energetic way despite all the concerns. The speech felt way more like a rallying of the troops than the usual constitutional update to the people. His speech was all about energy and the urgency to try and find out what we really want as a nation. It was for persuasive for people who already disliked Trump and were leaning towards voting for Biden. For people who were on the wall it might have not affected them as much, as it might been seen as, “doing too much”, or, “trying to hard.”

The mainstream media saw the speech from a different perspective. PBS Newshour said the speech was very clear on Biden’s intentions going forward. The main highlights were him trying to silence people about his age, and fighting for democracy and abortion rights. There perspective was it was very energy and filled words of urgency and to let people know he is very capable of running again. ABC said he delivered a strong argument for his second term and that actually appeared more, “alive”, than people may have expected. This mainstream media outlets saw the speech as a success for his campaign. In contrast, Fox News and the other conservative main stream media outlets framed the speech as a one sided campaign speech disguised as a State of the Union address. Fox kept referring to Biden as just an angry old man saying that speech was over the top and useless. That only focused on attacking Republicans, and Trump. Rather than talking about the details they focused more on the tone of the speech and about how that it was what they claimed to be dishonest and too rowdy. On social media platforms especially X or otherwise known as twitter the reactions were way more emotional. Liberal accounts spoke out saying that Biden need this type of energy for his address to get the people going, saying that he, “silenced the haters”, who said he was too old to run again. Many of them posted small clips of his most memorable words saying that he looks strong and ready to lead. On the conservative side that thought this speech was a joke and just a cry for help, and of course used small clips of his slip ups against him. This is the downside of everything being recorded today you can’t get away with anything.

In conclusion, the speech was very energetic and had a clear message behind it. His main emphasis was protecting the main base of our government which is democracy. He strongly conveyed without saying his name that we will go downhill as a country if Trump is our next President.