Facing Congress, Joe Biden attacks “dictator” Putin

For fifteen minutes, Vladimir Putin will have achieved something rare: to unify the American Democrats and Republicans. Joe Biden forcefully attacked the Russian president, a “dictator” who is “more isolated than ever”, on Tuesday as Moscow stepped up its offensive in Ukraine, hitting Kiev and the major city of Kharkiv.

Joe Biden calls Putin a “Russian dictator” and is realistic, “Ukrainians are fighting with their courage but the next days and weeks will be tough.” But he assures that “Putin will pay a high price in the long run” and that Russia will emerge weaker. pic.twitter.com/WjIRaKSIix

— Philippe Berry (@ptiberry) March 2, 2022

The Russian president “thought the West and NATO would not respond” to the invasion of Ukraine launched on February 24, he launched during his first “State of the Union address ” in Washington.

But “Putin was wrong”, “we are ready, we are united”, he hammered, calling on the American Congress to offer a standing ovation in support “to the Ukrainian people” who “are not afraid of anything”. “Putin is now more isolated than ever from the rest of the world”, because in the battle against “autocracy”, “democracies are at the rendezvous”, he added, listing the unprecedented sanctions that have been downed on Russia.

Closed US Airspace

But “if dictators do not pay the price for their aggression, they cause even more chaos”, warned the 46th president in American history to the address of the master of the Kremlin.

The tenant of the White House also threatened the Russian oligarchs to seize their “yachts, luxury apartments and jets”. “When the history of this period is written, Putin’s war on Ukraine will have left Russia weaker and the rest of the world stronger,” predicted the Democratic leader.

Joe Biden confirms he is closing US airspace to all Russian planes #SOTU pic.twitter.com/2nlIkIAJru

— Philippe Berry (@ptiberry) March 2, 2022

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In fact, international pressure continues to increase on Moscow. Joe Biden announced the banning of United States airspace “to all Russian flights”, as the European Union had done.

The fight against Covid-19 and inflation

Joe Biden, who campaigned on the promise to heal America’s “soul”, wants to see in the common dread over the war in Ukraine, and in the shared relief over the waning of the pandemic, a opportunity to get there. “The Covid-19 must no longer govern our lives”, he proclaimed, facing parliamentarians, ministers, and judges of the Supreme Court, who had almost all abandoned the mask, following new recommendations from the authorities. sanitary.

Recalling the sometimes violent debates on health measures, he added: “We cannot change our past divisions. But we can change the way we are going to move forward, on Covid-19 and other issues that we have to face together. »

He assured that the fight against soaring inflation, which the White House took a long time to recognize, and which is certainly its main political handicap, was “his first priority”.

And, with accents almost reminiscent of Donald Trump, he pleaded for an industrial renaissance in the United States and for a reduction in dependence on imports: “Let’s produce in America! »

Midterms in sight

The president, whose confidence rating is anemic, knows well that in a few months, in the mid-term legislative elections, he risks losing his very slim parliamentary majority. So the former senator, moderate at heart, engaged in a political balancing act before Congress.

No violent criticism from the Republican opposition, no attacks, as he was able to deliver, against his predecessor Donald Trump. Joe Biden tried not to offend anyone.

To conservative voters who accuse him of laxity, he promised that he would invest in the police force in the face of the outbreak of crime in the United States, and assured that he wanted to “secure” the southern border, where successive waves of migration.

To his progressive supporters, he assured that he would fight to defend the right to abortion “threatened as never before” and for access to the vote for African-Americans. He also promised his “support” for young transgender Americans, in the face of measures taken in certain conservative states against surgical or hormonal procedures followed by certain minors.

And Joe Biden, an incorrigible optimist but also a tricky centrist, has bludgeoned themes that he hopes will be consensual, trying to be as concrete as possible, he who has seen his major social reform projects sink due to too small a parliamentary majority.