The White House insists President Joe Biden‘s “got this” after House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) encouraged his Republican conference of lawmakers not to heckle the commander in chief during his State of the Union address.
The White House and the Biden campaign have used clips of the president responding to, for example, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), calling him a “liar” during his 2023 address to Congress as his administration and Republicans were criticizing each other over entitlement program reform.
“You saw the president last year when some Republican members behaved in a way that was, I would say, disrespectful, and he handled that, and he did that on his own, and he held them to account as it related to important programs that matter to the American people, Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid,” press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters Wednesday.
“He called them out on it while they were obviously heckling at him, so the president’s ready for anything,” Jean-Pierre said. “He’s ready for anything, as you saw him literally do that last year. It was something to watch. You all reported on that.”
Jean-Pierre repeatedly underscored Biden’s performance during the 2023 State of the Union, adamant he “knows how to handle this stuff” and that “nobody was expecting that.”
“He got this,” she said. “The president’s got this.”
The press secretary previewed tidbits from Biden’s speech, saying that he would talk about how he has achieved “more in his first three years than most presidents in two terms.”
This year’s State of the Union comes two days after Super Tuesday and former President Donald Trump closing in on the delegates he needs for the 2024 Republican nomination. Jean-Pierre also referenced last year’s remarks when pressed about the prospect of a general election debate between Biden and Trump.
Johnson asked for “decorum” during the State of the Union during a House Republican conference meeting on Wednesday.
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The speaker told members, “We should be professional, we should maintain a high standard of decorum,” Rep. Don Bacon (R-NE) told Axios.
“He’s reminding us to be respectful of the institution … and to the president of the United States and the office, whether we agree or not,” Rep. Mark Alford (R-MO) added.