MSNBC’s McCaskill Says Biden Speech During Which He Was Heckled ‘Captured This Rare Moment of Unity in Our Country’
MSNBC contributor and former senate Democrat Claire McCaskill said on Morning Joe that President Joe Biden‘s State of the Union speech – which was interrupted, and was followed by factional responses – captured a rare moment of “unity” in the United States.
The Morning Joe crew was talking about various aspects of the speech, and when Willie Geist turned to McCaskill for her take, he brought up the fact that Biden had spent several minutes talking about the situation in Ukraine. There was a standing ovation from both parties during that part of the speech.
“You know, these moments of bipartisanship are vanishingly rare these days to see, you know, Republicans and Democrats stand and give an ovation for Ukraine and for this cause,” he said. “How did the president handle that within the context of the speech and the larger question, how is he handling the American response to what’s happening there?”
McCaskill took that ball and ran with it, assessing agreement on that subject somewhat generously as “unity.”
“I think he captured this rare moment moment of unity in our country right now,” she said.
She noted that he led with Vladimir Putin‘s near-universally condemned Russian invasion of Ukraine and said that, “for Joe Biden” he did a “pretty good job” of getting everyone together and “all rowing the same direction.”
“Which is a remarkable achievement, and we need to thank Putin for that, because he has unified our country, which is a tough thing to do lately,” she added as an odd rhetorical flourish.
McCaskill also pointed out that after leading with that area of agreement, Biden brought up other common ground with Republicans during the speech, to include funding the police, rather than defunding, as well calling to “secure the border and reform immigration.”
“So he really went straight at the Republican talking points,” she said, and Geist agreed.
During the speech, Republican Reps. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) and Marjorie Taylor-Greene (R-GA) each interrupted him with shouts or chants from the chamber.
Boebert was in turn booed by others for her outburst.
In addition to the Republican response delivered by Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds, there were two separate Democrat responses and one from the No Labels bi-partisan group.
