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The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
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Tom McCarthy in New York

State of the Union: Republicans say Obama on false path after election loss – as it happened

US President Barack Obama delivers the State of the Union address at the US Capitol.
President Barack Obama delivers the State of the Union address at the US Capitol. Photograph: Larry Downing/AFP/Getty Images

Summary

We’re going to wrap up our live blog coverage for the day. Here’s a summary of where things stand:

  • Republicans spent the morning after President Barack Obama’s sixth State of the Union address criticizing the speech and countering its proposals.
  • Conservatives said the president had failed to grapple with the reality of the GOP congressional majority and his own lame-duck status.
  • Potential 2016 presidential candidate Jeb Bush said Obama “wants to use the tax code to divide us.” Governor Chris Christie called last night’s address “a campaign speech.”
  • Obama traveled to Idaho at the start of a two-day trip to highlight themes from his speech.
  • It was revealed that a real-time Republican “fact check” of the speech omitted Obama’s sharpest criticism of climate change deniers.
  • House speaker John Boehner announced that he had invited Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu to talk about Iran before a joint session of Congress on 11 February.
  • “This particular event seems to be a departure from... protocol,” the White House said.
  • Vice president Joe Biden said “there’s a chance” he would challenge Hillary Clinton for the Democratic presidential nomination. Should she indeed decide to run.

Senator Marco Rubio said on Wednesday he was still weighing whether to run for president, Reuters reports:

“I know I need to make a decision in due time if I want to be able to mount a credible campaign,” the 43-year-old senator said.

ThinkProgress reports that two GOP congresswomen have withdrawn their support for a proposed 20-week abortion ban that the House was expected to vote on on Thursday, the 42nd anniversary of Roe v Wade:

On Tuesday afternoon, during the House’s session, Reps. Renee Ellmers (R-NC) and Jackie Walorski (R-IN) requested to remove their names from HR 36, the “Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act.” The exchange was recorded on C-SPAN.

Read the full report here.

Updated

The Obama administration has declared today to be Big Block of Cheese Day. The video below starring press secretary Josh Earnest and cast members from The West Wing purports to explain it. You be the judge:

Updated

The Twitter metrics team has pulled out the stops analysing network activity during last night’s State of the Union and presenting the data in charts. Click through the link in the tweet to explore the speech and see how realtime reaction played out on Twitter:

“The President wasn’t merely upbeat,” writes John Cassidy in a review of the State of the Union on the New Yorker web site. “He was self-assured, glib, and, at times, bordering on bumptious”:

“Well, we’ve been warned,” Karl Rove complained on Twitter. “POTUS will spend rest of year campaigning.” In the chamber, the Republicans, some of whom had perhaps been expecting a more humble Obama, sat mostly in silence. (As is usual on these occasions, John Boehner, the Speaker of the House, looked like he was suffering from chronic constipation.) At one point, after reciting another encouraging economic development, the President turned to the Republicans and said, “This is good news, people.” It wasn’t until near the end that he acknowledged the results of the elections—the elections he triumphed in, that is. “I have no more campaigns to run,” he said. And then, departing from his prepared remarks in response to some applause from Republicans, he smiled and added: “I know, because I won both of them.”

Read the full piece here.

Guardian Washington bureau chief Dan Roberts (@robertsdan) has annotated last night’s speech. Click here for comprehensive commentary on what the president said, what he meant and what he left out.

A snippet of the 2015 State of the Union address as annotated by Dan Roberts.
A snippet of the 2015 State of the Union address as annotated by Dan Roberts. Photograph: guardian

Updated

Republicans cut Obama remarks on climate

“Republicans cut Barack Obama’s most forceful comments on climate change – his mockery of climate denial – from the party’s official live stream of his State of the Union address,” reports Guardian environment correspondent Suzanne Goldenberg:

A purported Republican fact-check of Obama’s address, prepared by staffers for the House speaker, John Boehner, clumsily cuts the president off mid-sentence just as he was about to wreck the Republicans’ new default line for talking about climate change: “I am not a scientist.” [...]

In the full version of the speech, as seen by millions in America and around the world, Obama said: “ I’ve heard some folks try to dodge the evidence by saying they’re not scientists; that we don’t have enough information to act. Well, I’m not a scientist, either. But you know what – I know a lot of really good scientists at Nasa, and Noaa, and at our major universities.”

Those words however did not make the cut in the official House Republican version, billed as an “enhanced webcast” that would be “holding President Obama accountable in real-time”.

Read the full piece here.

“In America, economic recovery is inevitable,” writes Guardian US finance and economics editor Heidi Moore (@moorehn). “Political redemption is not”:

And it’s redemption that President Obama is looking for after six years of stumbling growth. His State of the Union speech reflected his financial priorities – “middle-class economics”, he called it – yet the most important line in his speech was not about tariffs or taxes.

It was this: “I have no more campaigns to run.”

That line was a declaration of independence on policy, indicating he would put wishes above political feasibility and look towards his legacy.

Read the full piece here.

Senator Robert Menendez, Democrat of New Jersey, who got in a spat with the president last week over legislation he is sponsoring to levy new sanctions on Iran, said at a hearing Wednesday morning that the president’s recent calls to allow nuclear negotiations to run their course “sounds like talking points that come straight out of Tehran”:

(h/t: Daily Caller)

Christie: 'a campaign speech'

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie – a prospective 2016 presidential candidate – has dismissed last night’s State of the Union as a “campaign speech,” CNN reports:

“I thought the most ironic part of what the President said last night was when he said he ran his last campaign,” the New Jersey Republican told reporters in Washington on Wednesday morning. “It sounded to me like a campaign speech last night, like the ‘04 speech, like the ‘08 speech.”

President Obama called once again last night for the closure of the US prison at Guantánamo Bay:

As Americans, we have a profound commitment to justice. So it makes no sense to spend $3 million per prisoner to keep open a prison that the world condemns and terrorists use to recruit. (Applause.) Since I’ve been President, we’ve worked responsibly to cut the population of Gitmo in half. Now it is time to finish the job. And I will not relent in my determination to shut it down. It is not who we are. It’s time to close Gitmo. (Applause.)

“There’s a chance”

White House 'reserves judgment' on Netanyahu visit

The White House said on Tuesday that it has not yet spoken with Israeli government officials about the plans of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday to address a joint meeting of Congress on 11 February and reserves judgment on the visit, Reuters reports:

White House spokesman Josh Earnest said U.S. officials will reserve judgment on the visit until they hear from counterparts about Netanyahu’s plans.

“The protocol would suggest that the leader of one country would contact the leader of another country when he’s traveling there,” Earnest told reporters traveling with Obama aboard Air Force One.

“This particular event seems to be a departure from that protocol,” Earnest said.

Updated

On foreign policy and national security, Obama cannot be blamed for wanting to “turn the page,” writes Guardian US national security editor Spencer Ackerman (@attackerman). “Beyond Cuba, setbacks are accumulating for what Obama on Tuesday called his ‘smarter kind of American leadership’”:

Several aspects of Obama’s speech did not correspond to the realities his administration confronts. While Obama claimed the US-led coalition is “stopping [the Islamic State’s] advance” in Iraq and Syria, Pentagon officials have conceded that Isis isgaining territory in Syria, while it consolidates its currently uncontested control of major Iraqi cities like Mosul and Fallujah.

It remains too soon to tell if, as Obama said, the US is not “getting dragged into another ground war in the Middle East”. Obama has authorized some 3,000 US troops to return to Iraq, though official “combat” roles are reserved for the daily US air strikes in Iraq and Syria. Sunni Iraqi politicians grouse that they cannot see a much-promised political reconciliation from the newest US-backed Iraqi prime minister, but they can see “widespread ethnic cleansing” on the outskirts of Baghdad.

Read the full piece here.

The transportation secretary wasn’t there – but he was watching.

(h/t: @holpuch)

“Perhaps more than any other, the internet was the backdrop for much of President Obama’s State of the Union on Tuesday night – from healthcare to hackers, and from infrastructure to education,” writes Trevor Timm in Comment is Free.

But, Trevor goes on to warn, don’t let the clichés fool you:

By and large, however, Obama stuck to empty platitudes that no one could disagree with (“we need to ... protect our children’s information” and “I intend to protect a free and open internet”) rather than offering concrete new proposals.

But don’t let the president’s standard State of the Union clichés fool you: in 2015, the Obama administration will almost certainly re-shape the law around net neutrality, cybersecurity and the NSA. In doing so, the president will carve out the rules of the internet for the coming decade, and his choices over the next few months will significantly affect hundreds of millions of Internet users, along with his lasting legacy.

Read the full piece here.

NBC’s Chuck Todd reports “genuine anger developing” between the White House and Congress over Boehner’s timely Netanyahu invite.

Rand Paul: 'America is adrift'

“America is adrift,” Senator Rand Paul, the prospective 2016 presidential candidate, said in his reply to the State of the Union. “What America desperately needs is new leadership... The best thing that could happen is for us to once and for all, limit the terms of all politicians”:

These come from the Daily Signal web site. Here’s Texas Representative Louie Gohmert, who takes a stab at sarcasm. “I’m just deeply encouraged that there’s no more big problems,” he says. “It’s just wonderful to hear that.”

Washington appears to have something of a hangover on the morning after the big speech:

(h/t: @daveweigel)

Updated

Barack Obama insisted forcefully before his newly empowered opposition on Tuesday that he would hold the line against attacks on his domestic and international climate agenda, writes Guardian environment correspondent Suzanne Goldenberg:

But even though he called out climate deniers once again, the president offered no concrete sign of new initiatives on the horizon in his remaining two years in power.

After repeatedly using his executive authority to advance climate measures, Obama pivoted in his State of the Union address to making sure that Republicans did not undo what he has sought to accomplish on climate change.

That crucially applies to the international arena, where Obama recommitted America to help lead efforts in forging an international climate deal.

Read the full piece here.

U.S. President Barack Obama boards Air Force One as he departs Joint Base Andrews in Washington January 21, 2015.
U.S. President Barack Obama boards Air Force One as he departs Joint Base Andrews in Washington January 21, 2015. Photograph: KEVIN LAMARQUE/REUTERS
FILE - In this May 24, 2011 file photo, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu walks with House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio to make a statement on Capitol Hill in Washington.
FILE - In this May 24, 2011 file photo, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu walks with House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio to make a statement on Capitol Hill in Washington. Photograph: Evan Vucci/AP

Boehner: 'I did not consult the White House'

GOP leaders have emerged from their morning conference to speak to the press. House speaker John Boehner is asked whether he consulted the president about extending an invitation to the Israeli prime minister to address a joint session of Congress, the Guardian’s Amanda Holpuch (@holpuch) reports from Washington:

“I did not consult the White House,” Boehner said. “Congress can make this decision on its own. I don’t believe we’re poking anyone’s eye.”

Before concluding his remarks, Boehner mentioned his tie had a mint julep print.

Updated

Russia has hit back at Barack Obama’s State of the Union speech, saying that it showed the US believes it is “number one” and seeks world domination, Reuters reports:

“The Americans have taken the course of confrontation and do not assess their own steps critically at all,” the Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, told a news conference on Wednesday.

“Yesterday’s speech by President Obama shows that at the centre of the [US’s] philosophy is only one thing: ‘We are number one and everyone else has to recognise that’ … It shows that the United States wants all the same to dominate the world and not merely be first among equals.”

In the speech Obama said the United States was upholding “the principle that bigger nations can’t bully the small” by opposing what he called Russian aggression and supporting democracy in Ukraine.

Obama embarks on post-speech trip

The president’s usual travels after the State of the Union address will take him this year to Idaho and Kansas.

In Boise, Idaho, Obama will tour the new product development lab at Boise State University and give a speech. Then he will fly south to spend the night in Lawrence, Kansas.

Marine One, the presidential helicopter, has just left for arrived at Andrews air base, according to a pool report.

Updated

The Washington Examiner’s Byron York points out that Obama did not congratulate Republicans on their midterms victory, after the manner of George W Bush in 2007:

Obama’s silence on that political reality stood in stark contrast to George W. Bush’s 2007 State of the Union address, in which he graciously and at some length acknowledged the Democrats’ victory in the 2006 midterms. Bush said it was an honor to address Nancy Pelosi as “Madame Speaker.” He spoke of the pride Pelosi’s late father would have felt to see his daughter lead the House. “I congratulate the new Democrat majority,” Bush said. “Congress has changed, but not our responsibilities.

If one cannot imagine Barack Obama saying such a thing – well, he didn’t.

Read the full piece here.

Paul Ryan approves of Obama speech

Representative Paul Ryan, the chairman of the House Ways and Means committee and former Republican vice-presidential nominee, on Wednesday had a few nice words to say about the president’s speech last night.

“I agree with every word in his speech in respect to trade and Asia and getting in there and helping write the rules instead of China writing the rules,” Ryan said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” according to a report by The Hill:

I’m glad that he sort of held back on the partisanship and the demagoguery,” Ryan said. “I guess I’d say in his speech, he dialed it down a bit. We’re used to seeing more divisive speeches from the president, he didn’t do that as much. I think that’s a good thing.”

Jeb Bush, the former Florida governor and possible future presidential candidate, said in a reply to the State of the Union address that the president “wants to use the tax code to divide us”:

It’s unfortunate President Obama wants to use the tax code to divide us – instead of proposing reforms to create economic opportunity for every American. We can do better.

Bush has made plans for no fewer than 60 fundraisers in the coming weeks as he considers a presidential run, the Washington Examiner reports.

Updated

There was some excitement outside the Capitol last night: a suspected armed robber was apprehended by Capitol police after a car chase.

Senator Marco Rubio has consistently displayed a sense of humor about Watergate 2013:

Updated

Bringing Netanyahu in to talk about Iran at a time when there’s a public fight playing out between the president and Congress over whether to enact additional sanctions on Iran before nuclear negotiations are through is a cheeky move.

Netanyahu often describes Iran as an existential threat to Israel and he has warned that the American-led effort to end the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program through diplomacy is misguided.

Here’s Obama last night renewing his promise to veto any new sanctions on Iran:

But new sanctions passed by this Congress, at this moment in time, will all but guarantee that diplomacy fails -- alienating America from its allies; making it harder to maintain sanctions; and ensuring that Iran starts up its nuclear program again. It doesn’t make sense. And that’s why I will veto any new sanctions bill that threatens to undo this progress. (Applause.) The American people expect us only to go to war as a last resort, and I intend to stay true to that wisdom.

Update: a photo posted Monday:

Updated

Netanyahu to address Congress - reports

Netanyahu has accepted House Speaker John Boehner’s invitation to address a joint session of Congress next month, according to Reuters citing an unnamed Israeli official and to CNN.

Updated

Boehner: 'Netanyahu is a great friend'

Here’s more on the Netanyahu invite, via Boehner’s office:

“Prime Minister Netanyahu is a great friend of our country, and this invitation carries with it our unwavering commitment to the security and well-being of his people,” Boehner said in a statement. “In this time of challenge, I am asking the Prime Minister to address Congress on the grave threats radical Islam and Iran pose to our security and way of life. Americans and Israelis have always stood together in shared cause and common ideals, and now we must rise to the moment again.”

House Speaker John Boehner has invited the Israeli prime minister to address a joint session of Congress next month, AP reports:

Last night after the speech Senator Marco Rubio was asked, “who are you wearing”? He laughed off the question, saying he doesn’t buy his own suits. The question was indeed unusual. But in fact it’s equivalent to the main – and for some people only – question that is asked about the first lady at the State of the Union every year.

Last night’s presidential address avoided all-out triumphalism, but Obama’s promises to veto whole swathes of potential GOP legislation – and the absence of any significant olive branch for Republicans – left some opponents visibly fuming, writes Paul Lewis:

The roughly 300 Republican representatives and senators who funnelled out of the chamber and to nearby Statuary Hall were ready to vent.

Asked by the Guardian what he thought of the president’s televised address, McConnell simply raised his eyebrows and shook his head.

One of the first to emerge from the House chamber was Florida senator and potential Republican presidential contender Marco Rubio, who was visibly incensed at the president’s call to lift the Cuban embargo.

“I don’t know of a single contemporary tyranny that’s become a democracy because of more trade and tourists,” he said, chased by reporters into an elevator. “China is now the world’s richest tyranny. Vietnam continues to be a Communist tyranny.

Read Paul’s full analysis here.

Vice-president Joe Biden tells ABC News “there’s a chance” he will challenge Hillary Clinton for the Democratic presidential nomination.

Vice President Joe Biden bites his lip
Vice President Joe Biden. Photograph: Winslow Townson/AP

Good morning and welcome to our live coverage of a new day in American politics, following a State of the Union address that is being praised for its unchecked ambition and panned for its unrealistic ambition.

President Barack Obama made a rousing call for national inclusion on Tuesday night, saying the economy has come back strong but failed to bring many households along with it. He said “I still believe that we are one people” and called for a redoubled commitment to what he called “middle-class economics”.

Republicans agreed, in their replies, about the problem of a struggling middle class – but they dismissed the tax reform proposals Obama offered as a solution, and accused him of gliding by the fact that they, the GOP, are now the ones in charge.

This morning, we’ll wade into the debate. But first, here are a few unscripted moments from last night you might have missed:

The GOP finally found a way to speak to Latino voters: tell them what they want to hear in Spanish – and just leave that part out when you’re talking American!

President Obama replied to Republican applause for his line, “I have no more campaigns to run …” with the taunt, “I know – ’cause I won both of them.”

Senator Ted Cruz had a false start in his on-the-spot, extemporaneous reply to the speech. In a video that was uploaded to YouTube and then deleted, Cruz, who must’ve been unable to book CNN, speaks to camera for a while then stops and says, “No, lemme start over.” Then he nails it:

And in case you missed it, here’s the speech in full, below. You can peruse our live-blog coverage from last night here.

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