Joe Biden’s Partisan State of the Union Clears a Low Hurdle

It was clear within its first minutes that Joe Biden’s address before a joint session of Congress on Thursday night would go down as one of the most partisan campaign speeches ever to masquerade as a State of the Union.

Biden hit the podium and launched into attacks on his Republican counterparts in Congress for failing to approve a new tranche of aid to Ukraine. Although not by name, he savaged his likely opponent in the fall for “bowing down to a Russian leader.” Indeed, the president’s rhetorical assaults on his “predecessor” flowed freely throughout the evening. Those jabs were interspersed with efforts to goad and even mock those Republicans present, alternating between condemnations of their legislative paralysis (on their failure to pass the bipartisan Senate supplemental dealing with the border crisis, for example) or their extremism (including the Alabama supreme court’s decision that initially threatened access to IVF procedures). Don’t dwell on the contradictions — Biden didn’t.

About the Author

Noah Rothman

Noah Rothman is a senior writer at National Review. His third book, Blood and Progress: A Century of Left-Wing Violence, was published by Hachette in May 2026.

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It was clear within its first minutes that Joe Biden’s address before a joint session of Congress on Thursday night would go down as one of the most partisan campaign speeches ever to masquerade as a State of the Union.

Biden hit the podium and launched into attacks on his Republican counterparts in Congress for failing to approve a new tranche of aid to Ukraine. Although not by name, he savaged his likely opponent in the fall for “bowing down to a Russian leader.” Indeed, the president’s rhetorical assaults on his “predecessor” flowed freely throughout the evening. Those jabs were interspersed with efforts to goad and even mock those Republicans present, alternating between condemnations of their legislative paralysis (on their failure to pass the bipartisan Senate supplemental dealing with the border crisis, for example) or their extremism (including the Alabama supreme court’s decision that initially threatened access to IVF procedures). Don’t dwell on the contradictions — Biden didn’t.

About the Author

Noah Rothman

Noah Rothman is a senior writer at National Review. His third book, Blood and Progress: A Century of Left-Wing Violence, was published by Hachette in May 2026.