US President Joe Biden fights Republicans on Middle East and gun laws in State of the Union address

Donald Trump taunted a fiery Joe Biden on social media as the US President delivered a combative State of the Union address, which included a call for peace in the Middle East and an overhaul of gun laws.

Joe Biden has tried to rescue his struggling presidency with a fiery and combative State of the Union speech, declaring that America must not turn its back on the world and was ‘writing the greatest comeback story ever told.’

In the most important speech of his presidency, Biden sought to allay growing fears he is too old and infirm for the job by giving an address free of major gaffes while directing fire at Donald Trump and Republicans on Ukraine, abortion, tax and their vision for America.

“My lifetime has taught me to embrace freedom and democracy,” Biden said, in a jab at Trump who is facing charges for seeking to overthrow the 2020 election. “To respect everyone. To give everyone a fair shot. To give hate no safe harbour. Now some other people my age see a different story: an American story of resentment, revenge, and retribution. That’s not me.”

Addressing both houses of congress, the speech by the 81 year old was watched as much for the way Biden delivered it rather than its contents after a slew of opinion polls show three out of four voters believe he is too old to be an effective president.

It also came just two days after the Super Tuesday Republican primaries where a resurgent Trump destroyed his last opponent Nikki Haley, guaranteeing a rematch of the 2020 contest between the two men in November’s presidential election. Polls show Trump now has a narrow lead over Biden whose disapproval ratings have hit record highs.

Biden used the speech, one of his last primetime speeches before the election, to outline his priorities for a second term.

He also unveiled an emergency plan to establish a port in Gaza for a ‘massive increase’ in humanitarian aid in a dramatic escalation of US involvement in the Israel-Hamas war. The move reflects growing US frustration with Israel’s reluctance to increase aid into Gaza and to reduce civilian casualties in Gaza. It also reflects a political backlash against Biden among Arab and younger voters for being too pro-Israel in the Gaza conflict.

Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) heckles President Biden as he delivers the State of the Union address.

Biden said America needed to remain a major player in global affairs, accusing Trump and Republicans of wanting to ‘walk away from world leadership,’ and appeasing tyrants like Russian president Vladimir Putin.

He attacked Republicans over their lack of commitment to continue US funding for the war against Russia in Ukraine.

“If anyone in this room thinks Putin will stop at Ukraine, I assure you he will not,” he said.

“We have to stand up to Putin…history is watching, if the US walks away it will put Ukraine at risk, Europe is at risk, the free world is at risk. We will not walk away. We will not bow down, I will not bow down.”

Biden then acknowledged the prime minister of Sweden, Ulf Kristersson, who was in the chamber to mark his country’s accession this week to NATO in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

His comments came as Russia has regained the initiative on the deadlocked front line in eastern Ukraine with Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelensky warning his country will lose the war without substantial US aid.

President Biden during his SOTU speech.

On China, Biden referenced Australia when he talked about how the US had ‘revitalised’ alliances in the face of a rising China.

‘Across the Taiwan Straits, I revitalised our partnerships and alliances in the Pacific, India, Australia, Japan, South Korea, the Pacific Islands,’ he said.

He said America was standing up against China’s unfair economic practices alliance.’

“I want competition with China and not conflict.’

On domestic issues Biden attacked Republicans over abortion rights, a topic which has hurt the Republicans electorally since the conservative-majority Supreme Court overturned the Roe V Wade ruling which had protected abortion rights.

“In its decision to overturn Roe v. Wade the Supreme Court majority wrote, ‘Women are not without electoral or political power,’” Biden said, as at least five Supreme Court judges watched from the front row.

“No kidding. Clearly those bragging about overturning Roe v. Wade have no clue about the power of women in America.”

“If Americans send me a Congress that supports the right to choose I promise you: I will restore Roe v. Wade as the law of the land again,” he said.

During his speech the Democrat members of Congress jumped to their feet repeatedly, chanting ‘four more years,’ while the Republican side of the chamber sat stonily in silence.

Biden spent much of his speech trying to tout his economic achievements, saying the US economy was getting stronger each day with low unemployment, wages, growth and falling inflation.

He said he entered office during “one of the toughest periods in our nation’s history,” but Americans are now “writing the greatest comeback story never told.”

He said Inflation had dropped from 9 per cent to 3 per cent and that ‘consumer confidence is soaring.’

But polls say voters continue to mark Biden poorly on the economy amid ongoing anger about inflation and cost of living pressures. He said part of his agenda for a second term would include higher taxes on corporations and on the wealthy and accused Republicans of seeking to protect the wealthy and corporate America.

Biden was heckled by Republicans when he called on them to pass the bipartisan bill on tougher border control measures which Republicans scuttled a border bill last month aimed at stemming the influx of illegal migrants. Biden chided Trump for pressuring Republicans not to pass the bill.

But polls show the border is now the number one concern of voters who blame Biden for causing it by dropping many of the tough Trump-era border security measures, leading to an unprecedented influx of undocumented migrants.