During the State of the Union address on Thursday night, President Joe Biden faced heckling from Republican dissenters when he discussed his border reform bill. Rather than being deterred, Biden seemed to enjoy engaging with his critics.
Biden explained, “In November, my team began serious negotiations with a bipartisan group of senators. The result was a bipartisan bill with the toughest set of border security reforms we’ve ever seen.”
As dissenters yelled “No!” and booed, Biden responded, “Oh, you don’t think so? Oh, you don’t like that bill, huh? That conservatives got together and said it was a good bill. I’ll be darn! That’s amazing!”
He then highlighted key provisions of the legislation, such as hiring 1,500 more security agents and officers, adding 100 more immigration judges to address the backlog of two million cases, and including 4,300 more asylum officers. The bill also aims to resolve cases in six months instead of the current six years.
Democrats cheered Biden’s remarks, with Vice President Kamala Harris standing and clapping enthusiastically.
Republicans have criticized Biden for not doing enough to address the crisis at the southern border. While a bipartisan group of senators proposed a compromise bill on border security and other international issues, Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) declared it “dead on arrival” in the House.
During a visit to a border town in Texas last week, Biden called on former President Donald Trump to support the bill and help move it through Congress.
“Instead of playing politics with the issue, instead of telling members of Congress to block the bill, join me, or I’ll join you in telling Congress to pass this bipartisan border security bill,” Biden said to Trump, who has opposed the bill.
The clip of Biden’s remarks can be viewed on CNN.