Kaitlan Collins Says Biden ‘Almost Relished’ Back-and-Forth with Marjorie Taylor Greene and Republicans During SOTU

CNN’s Kaitlan Collins described President Joe Biden as “lively and engaged” during his State of the Union address and pointed out he seemed to enjoy sparring with Republicans, perhaps a sign that he is prepared to run for reelection in 2024.

“A lot will be said, Wolf, about what the Republicans were doing when it came to heckling President Biden and how they reacted during certain parts of the speech,” Collins said to CNN anchor Wolf Blitzer shortly after the speech.

She cited the heckling Biden received from some Republicans while he discussed fentanyl, which led Speaker Kevin McCarthy to visibly shush members of his caucus.

“For the other parts, with Marjorie Taylor Greene and the aspects on Social Security and Medicare, he almost seemed to be relishing the punching and counter punching,” Collins said. “He was lively, he was very engaged in it. And I think, what we are talking about going into this speech was it being a preview of his next election run, what the 2024 run is going to look like, and I think we just saw it.

“He was engaging with these Republicans, he was going back and forth with them, he made the joke about converting them after they made clear that cutting Social Security and Medicare was not what the majority of them wanted.”

Collins concluded that Biden will continue to give remarks on a similar theme as a lead-up to officially announcing his re-election campaign. “We’ll see him on the road in the future, and once he does announce it, that is the 2024 message of the president, looking like this political fighter as he did. I think that is going to be the takeaway that the White House is very pleased with.”

Collins has her own history of back-and-forth exchanges with Biden, most notably in 2021 when Biden chided Collins for a question about Russian President Vladimir Putin. Biden later apologized for “being such a wiseguy” with his reaction.

Watch above, via CNN.

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