CNN Panel Praises Hopeful, Empathetic Tone of ‘Commander-in-Grief’ Biden’s First Address: ‘This Is Who He Is’

CNN’s Anderson Cooper and his fellow panelists had warm praise for President Joe Biden’s first presidential address, calling his remarks on America’s response to the coronavirus pandemic uplifting and inclusive.

Cooper kicked off the conversation noting that Biden was America’s commander-in-chief, but “tonight he really was sort of the ‘commander-in-grief,'” mentioning how Biden had taken time at the beginning of his speech to acknowledge the 527,726 American lives that had been lost so far to Covid-19.

“And he spoke in great detail about what everybody in this country has missed this past year,” CNN chief political analyst Gloria Borger noted, “how you miss being with your family, how you missed seeing your parents, how you missed seeing your grandchildren.”

“And this is Joe Biden,” she continued. “This is what he talks about. This is who he is.” Borger also praised Biden for giving Americans “realistic hope,” telling us the truth, but showing the “light at the end of the tunnel,” and “here is what we, not I, what we have to do together as a country and as a nation to get out of it.”

Cooper remarked that America had “grown used to boasts and threats and jibes during a speech like this” during former President Donald Trump’s term, but “there was none of that tonight.”

“Not even against the Republican Party that voted against him,” said former Obama adviser Van Jones. “The beauty of that.”

Cooper noted that the Covid relief bill had passed without any Republican support, and clearly the Biden administration viewed it as a big accomplishment, but “he hardly talked about it — I mean, it wasn’t until really the end there that he even mentioned it.”

“Look, I just think that he is the guy we need right now,” Jones agreed. “When he talked about ‘I’m going to heal the soul of America,’ a lot of people thought that was some corny stuff. But to see the President of the United States standing up there, he didn’t say ‘you need me.’ He said ‘I need you.’ I need you. I mean, my God, that is — isn’t that it? We need each other.”

Jones also praised Biden’s remarks for their “inclusivity,” noting that he hadn’t just said “states,” he included “the tribes and territories,” and “rural America,” and “he stuck up for the Asian-American community that’s been living a horror for this entire time.”

“But there was nothing about it where he was taking shots at anybody,” Jones concluded. “He didn’t blame the other party for not being there. He told the country that we can get this done. And it was just — the tone was different…this is exactly what we need right now.”

Watch the video above, via CNN.