Seth Meyers
Seth Meyers recapped Joe Biden’s State of the Union address on Wednesday evening: Biden’s bullish picture of his administration’s achievements, heckling by Republicans, and an especially loud disruption from the far-right congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, who “shouted in a fur coat like a real housewife who wasn’t allowed into a reunion show”.
“All they had to do was sit there and listen and not be insane,” the Late Night host said of Republicans, who are just weeks removed from their debacle over electing Kevin McCarthy as speaker of the House. “Just be normal! Unfortunately, it seems like some of them skipped their electro-shock therapy, because they spent the night heckling and yelling incoherently from the back row.”
Greene, who was wearing a white coat with a fur collar, looked like “a Long Island dance mom about to get her final warning”, Meyers laughed. “She looks like an old rapper’s first wife.”
At one point, as Biden criticized some Republicans for threatening to cut social security and Medicare to balance the federal budget, Greene stood up and shouted “liar!” at the president. (Biden seemed to anticipate the agitated response – “We’ve got unanimity,” he said. “Apparently it’s not going to be a problem.”)
“In a split screen with these two, I’m definitely less inclined to believe the lady who’s dressed like she’s leaving her entire fortune to her cat,” said Meyers, adding that Greene looked like “a crazy person yelling at the bus driver because he refused to drop you off at the racetrack”.
“Biden thrives compared to the current era of Republicans,” he said later. “The beginning of his address last night wasn’t anything special, but then these lunatics started heckling, and you could see him lick his lips and everyone thought, ‘OK, Grandpa came to play.’ These guys make Biden look like a Harlem Globetrotter.”
The Daily Show
Republicans were acting like wild animals at the SOTU and @chelseahandler kinda liked it? pic.twitter.com/EVr4oWpeJS
— The Daily Show (@TheDailyShow) February 9, 2023
On the Daily Show, guest host Chelsea Handler admitted that she had never watched a State of the Union address before, because “I have a life.” But she was glad to tune in this time, “because it wasn’t nearly as boring as I thought it would be. In fact, it’s apparently got a bit of a UFC, junior high cafeteria kind of vibe now.”
To start, before Biden entered the room, the Utah Republican Mitt Romney told the disgraced representative George Santos that he ought to be embarrassed for his many lies. “I would like to go on the record tonight and say that I am sexually attracted to Mitt Romney,” said Handler. “What Romney said doesn’t sound too harsh, but remember: it’s Mitt Romney. ‘You ought to be embarrassed, son’ is the Mormon equivalent of ‘suck my fucking dick you pussy ass bitch!’”
In general, “Republicans were acting like wild animals … and I liked it,” said Handler. “Keep this up, you guys, you finally made a State of the Union watchable!”
But she had to wonder: “What are we going to do about Marjorie Taylor Greene?
“She’s like one of those dogs who needs a big backyard to run outside and expend all of her energy, but instead she’s stuck inside a one-bedroom apartment slamming her head against the wall,” she joked. “When are they going to put this woman on Real Housewives of Atlanta?”
Jimmy Fallon
And on the Tonight Show, Jimmy Fallon reported that 72% of State of the Union viewers had a positive reaction to Biden’s speech. “That’s amazing – we can’t even get 72% of Americans to agree on what an M&M should wear,” he joked.
Fallon described Biden’s speech as “passionate and energetic”, or in other words: “he basically went from decaf green tea to Mountain Dew Code Red.”
Among many things, Biden talked about the strong jobs market. “He said people are working as bankers, real estate developers, dancers, philanthropists, Broadway producers – and that’s just George Santos,” Fallon quipped.
Fallon also recapped Republicans’ booing and heckling of Biden. “It was a busy night for Marjorie,” he said of Greene. “She went straight from the State of the Union to getting her 102nd Dalmatian.”
All told, about 23 million people watched the speech. “It’s always a good sign for democracy when the State of the Union gets the same number of views as the trailer for Magic Mike’s Last Dance,” Fallon noted.
