The New York Times has released a laughable report on how President Biden is prepping for his 2024 State of the Union address. Glenn, Pat, and Stu rip it apart for the propaganda that it is. They also give their predictions for just how geriatric this speech will be. Will Biden make it through the whole speech? How mockable will the "historic accomplishments" that he plans to highlight be? How many times will he blame Republicans and Donald Trump for his own failures? And will he address the big issues that Americans really care about, like the border and high crime?
Transcript
Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors
GLENN: Hmm. Wow. The New York Times has done some vigorous research and reporting on the State of the Union tonight. They write, fueled by throat-soothing tea, guided by teleprompters, and surrounded by six aides and one historian, President Biden spent hours at Camp David last weekend, honing a State of the Union speech that will be watched by one of the biggest audiences before the November election. Really? Really.
The final speech, which aides say will be edited up until Mr. Biden gives it, will be delivered by a president under pressure to reassure voters that he's not too old for the job.
So they talk about in the speech prep sessions. Now, I want you guys to hear. We're joined from Pat Gray from Pat Gray Unleashed. Pat, I want you to hear. Because this is different.
Listen to the rigor of this.
PAT: Okay.
GLENN: In speech press sessions, Mr. Biden goes through the material line by line.
STU: Whoa.
PAT: Wow.
GLENN: Yeah. He marks up words, and creates breaks to remind himself to navigate around a stutter, he's had since childhood.
PAT: Oh.
GLENN: If he lands on a passage that he does not think feels like something he would say, he marks it out.
STU: Wait. What?
PAT: No!
STU: Himself?
GLENN: Himself. One former speechwriter described this phase, as an exercise in trying to capture Mr. Biden's extemporaneous thoughts, and put them down on the page.
STU: That's the type of word he would skip --
GLENN: I would have X'ed that out.
PAT: Which, by the way, if he's doing it in advance, it's not extemporaneous. Can we go ahead and notice that?
STU: Thank you.
GLENN: We're trying to capture that.
STU: So basically, they're trying to fool us.
PAT: Yeah.
GLENN: They said that the president works hard and rigorously each year.
STU: Okay.
GLENN: Adding that he knows, it's his one chance to lay out an agenda every year for progress.
PAT: And show us just how vigorous he really is. I can't wait to see that.
STU: He works vigorously, once a year.
He works vigorously each year, is the quote.
GLENN: Yeah. Now, I will tell you, that incredible speech prep session that they have. Is what I would like to call speechwriting.
PAT: Uh-huh.
STU: Would you call it that, speechwriting?
The fact that he's kind of correcting some word?
GLENN: I would say, this is done by anybody who has ever spoken in public before.
STU: Right. And it's the last step in that process. What you're describing is the final checkoff.
GLENN: Yeah. He's not speechwriting. He's rehearsing. That's what he's doing.
STU: I don't like this part. I'll take that one out.
GLENN: I'm going to have a hard time with that one.
So let me separate this sentence.
That's not speechwriting, even. That's part of the speechwriting process.
STU: Yeah.
PAT: Which means there will also be three words that are spoken tonight. Because he has a problem with all of it. There are about three words that he can say.
GLENN: Except with this particular thing. I don't know what they do to him. But I think he's got a cocktail.
PAT: Yes.
GLENN: Like crazy.
STU: Yeah. I agree.
And I will say, of all the problems that Joe Biden has, the highest profile of vets are not his worst moments. Would you agree with that.
He's almost like, you know, he gets up for the big games a little bit. Now, I think drugs are probably involved in that process.
His problems almost always are, he's just like walking by, you know -- like in an ice cream store, and there's cameras there.
And he looks like a complete idiot.
It's not usually those big moments like, okay. He has to nail this.
He's usually bad in those moments. But not catastrophic.
PAT: I think he will be tonight. Maybe I'm wrong.
But I don't see how it's avoidable.
GLENN: Dr. Nick has already been called. He's already been called. He's probably got the IV running through him.
PAT: No. I'm sure. I'm sure.
This speech is usually almost an hour.
Sometimes it even exceeds that.
If he cuts it down to five minutes, maybe -- he can't get through an hour. There's no way. There's no way.
STU: He couldn't get through an hour last year. He was bad through the last half of that. But he got through the first 20 minutes or so, okay. For him.
And that was enough. Most people tuned out.
You know, I was listening to Karine Jean-Pierre doing an interview this morning. Which is always an adventure.
And, of course, first of all, they were saying. They asked a specific question.
Is he preparing for, like, hecklers, like if there are Republican hecklers?
GLENN: Oh, yeah. Oh, he's got some great one-liners, I will bet.
STU: There are massive reporting saying he is, right?
Of course, she denies it. Says, he is not doing that. Yet another lie.
But they went back to -- and what about last year?
He had that amazing response last year. I'm like, amazing response to the hecklers?
I don't understand this. They play it back.
The Republicans want to get rid of Social Security.
The Republicans go, no. No.
I don't know if that should be the Republican position. They go, no. No. No.
Oh, well, I guess we all agree now.
That Social Security is -- is off the books.
PAT: That was the amazing --
STU: That was literally the clip they pull, to highlight how good he is.
PAT: My gosh.
STU: Now, I think it was off the table. So it didn't even say the right thing.
All the books. What the hell are you talking about?
GLENN: Of course. There are a lot of the things off the books in Washington. That's the problem.
STU: Make sure this is off the books.
This is supposed to be a different speech.
Amazing. That's his good moment? But I will say, compared to him on a daily basis, in these moments, he's been a D minus instead of an F.
GLENN: He's going to know how to get off the stage. Tonight, he will know.
STU: Probably.
PAT: You think? He might need a little help. But he might be able to get off the stage with assistance. Some kind of assistance. Jill will be there.
GLENN: They have three stairs up to the -- they put a chair lift.
STU: That would be awesome.
PAT: That would be hysterical.
STU: Because that was the Bill Maher thing. Did I see this? He should just lead into this. Yeah, I'm old. But I'm better than that guy.
That should be his campaign. He should come out with one of the stair rails. And come up on the stage.
PAT: That's funny.
GLENN: You know who would do that?
Donald Trump. Donald Trump --
STU: He always --
GLENN: He leans into it.
STU: Go for it. When he's on with like Sean Hannity. And he's like, well, you would never, obviously, become a dictator.
Yeah. I would! Day one.
I'm a dictator, that's me.
But that is what he does.
GLENN: Yeah.
STU: He's a "yes, and" guy. He's like, when you go to improv class. Never say no, when you're in the middle of an improv class. Say yes, and. Then come with up with a scenario.
That's what he does.
Again, I would totally be a dictator. Let me tell you the ten things I would do. He leans in.
PAT: The problem is, they bought into that. Anything he says, they naturally pick up on, even when he's just doing funny things.
GLENN: Let me ask you this: What will he address?
Will he address the border.
And will it only be a blame on Republicans?
PAT: A blame on Republicans.
STU: Yes and yes. Same thing with the economy. Same thing with shrinkflation.
PAT: And we will hear the 14 million job number he created.
STU: Fact-check, by the way, to give credit. Fact-checked him on that a million times.
It is a lie.
PAT: It's garbage.
STU: Same thing with the deficit number. That it's a lie.
GLENN: How could he possibly say he's cutting the deficit, when we are spending 1 trillion dollars over budget, every 100 days.
STU: He's a liar.
GLENN: Okay.
All right.
STU: So it's very easy for him to do that.
Because he doesn't care if it's true or not.
When you separate yourself from the truth. You can separate yourself from anything.
PAT: And it's like the other day, when he was asked about the poll numbers, and how bad they are.
Check the polls, Jack.
Five in a row. I'm beating him. Five in a row. Nobody can find one in a row.
I mean, maybe one, from a while ago. But mostly, he's losing in almost every poll.
STU: He's led in two recent polls over the past, let's see --
GLENN: Would you do me a favor?
Would you write -- would you read those three times? I got six in a row.
STU: These are since the 21st of February. Going back then. Trump plus six. Trump plus two. Trump plus four. Trump plus two. Trump plus four. Biden plus one.
Trump plus four. Biden plus one. Trump plus two. Those are the recent polls. And he's obviously not winning --
PAT: It's just a flatout lie. Just a flatout lie.
GLENN: So what happens if Trump wins by two?
STU: Oh, my God. What happens if Biden wins by two?
STU: I can't even imagine how the country reacts to a situation like that.
GLENN: I know. That should be --
PAT: That's scary.
GLENN: For all Nikki Haley people, that are just like, I'm not going to vote for him. I'm not going to vote for him. You have to.
STU: They got -- everybody has to relax on that. Like if people are -- if people -- there are certain people who will never vote for Donald Trump. If they're not across that line, and they're leaning Republican, they will come back. It's eight months of hearing Joe Biden. Don't freak out. People freak out about it. Like, the Nikki Hailey voter generally, isn't even a Nikki Haley voter. Most of them are just protest votes against Trump. They're not being big fans of Trump.
GLENN: Yeah. Many of them are -- are Democrats.
STU: Many of them are Democrats. Many of them are independents. Now, of course, in a general election, by the way, we do need to get some independents and Democrats. A lot of people seem to forget that.
GLENN: I agree.
STU: You do need those people. I don't think the approach of just mocking and belittling everyone who didn't vote for you. Is necessarily the right approach here.
But you have eight months. It probably works itself out. The question is, can you get the people who didn't vote at all, in these primaries.
Or people who are in the middle, and are considering you. Can you win those people over?
GLENN: Do you think any of the people will be watching it tonight. Other than the people like us, addicted to the news.
Or in our case, paid to watch the news.
STU: Yes!
GLENN: I mean, I just don't see this being a big audience.
PAT: I wouldn't. If I don't have to. It's too aggravating. It just enrages me. So I would skip it.
GLENN: Yeah. We're doing our coverage tonight.
STU: The coverage tonight, will be really fun. Glenn, you will be on.
We also have Dave Landau on. Michael Malice is going to be on. Sarah Gonzalez. Jason Buttrill will be on.
Talking about a new documentary we are doing. It is going to be a really fun. It's a roast.
We're not doing -- oh, let's get into the numbers.
No, well, we will fact-check live as well. But we will just be mocking Joe Biden relentlessly.
GLENN: Well, that's not right.
STU: Unless he does a great job.
GLENN: Like you know exactly how he's going to perform tonight. What he will say.
STU: I tend the rates will be up for this one.
State of the Unions in all the other years. The nonelection years. They're for political nerds. But we are getting into election season. Everyone knows what the match will be. I think this one might be a little higher rated.
GLENN: They say this is going to be the highest rated -- this is what the New York Times said, the highest, the biggest audience he'll have, until the November election.
That's possible.
Because they won't cover anything else that he does, long form.
STU: Yeah.
GLENN: This might be the longest form thing he does, until the election.
STU: I think you're probably right on that. And I think too. When you look at the ratings at the end of the day, you can't just add up what you see on the networks.
Because not only, you know, we're doing coverage. I mean, Donald Trump is doing some alternate coverage now. A lot of people -- this is a very wide split audience.
I would watch this, but I would watch it on BlazeTV.
I would want to watch it be mocked.
GLENN: Yeah, I wouldn't watch him on ABC. Even Fox. I just wouldn't be watching it.