The State of the Union, Super Tuesday, Trump, and Govt. Shutdown
Hello everyone and welcome back to another week of Politics Explained! If you’re new, we publish short and concise blogs every Friday that recap the happenings of Capitol Hill. This week we will recap Super Tuesday, Biden’s State of the Union address, Trump being eligible in Colorado and a new government shutdown bill that has passed. Just a reminder, if you want to continue to stay updated throughout the week, go checkout our instagram @politicsexplained1776! Now let’s dive right into the blog!
In a State of the Union address, President Biden focused on many topics including gun violence, climate change, abortion, the wars, and his age. Biden also used it as an opportunity to argue his position in the upcoming election, calling out Trump (not directly but instead saying his ”predecessor”) as a threat to democracy. Biden also called Trump out for his lies about January 6 and the Capitol insurrection, delivering quite an electric and energetic speech. While successfully fending off heckles from GOP lawmakers such as Marjorie Taylor Greene who yelled his son should pay his taxes, it was clear that President Biden and his team had prepared well for these situations. In terms of abortion, Biden focused on fighting for reproductive freedom. Senator Katie Britt of Alabama presented the Republican rebuttal* to Biden’s State of the Union address, calling the President “out of touch” and explaining that “he just doesn’t get it.” Using her home kitchen as the background, the focus of the rebuttal was that Biden and his administration are harming American families. Watch the State of the Union address here, and Senator Britt’s rebuttal here.
This week was a big week in the Presidential primaries, because on Tuesday we had Super Tuesday. Super Tuesday is when voters in 19 states voted in the presidential primaries. Also many House districts and Senate primaries were voted on that day. This year on the Republican side, former President Donald Trump swept almost all of the states except Vermont. Nikki Haley the next day decided that the odds were not in her favor and decided to take herself out of contention for the Republican bid for the Presidency. Haley only won 2 places for her primaries - Vermont and DC - which were not enough to give her an advantage in the race. Flipping to the Democratic side, President Joe Biden had a clean sweep of all states and won handily. This resulted in Dean Phillips (D-MN) dropping his bid to become the President. Biden and Trump seem to be on track to be their parties’ nominees in the 2024 Presidential elections. There is so much more to come on this election, so stay tuned for the rest of the year!
Lastly, some super quick recaps:
The Supreme Court ruled that Trump was allowed to be on the Colorado ballots. This ruling has basically shot down any hope for Trump to be excluded from the 2024 Presidential Election, and sets the stage for a rematch of Biden vs. Trump.
On Wednesday, the House approved $459 billion in new government spending, preventing a partial shutdown this weekend. The next deadline is March 22, as we hope to see lawmakers come to agreements to avoid a shutdown.
Definition of the Week (rebuttal): a refutation or contradiction.
