Show Notes: State of Disunion, COVID Chaos, & Climate Zealots
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BREAKING:
State of the Union
Joe Biden will give his first state of the union address tonight. Members of Congress and the Senate will be able to attend with one seat separating everyone. No guests will be allowed and a negative COVID test will be required before attending. Marco Rubio said he doesn’t have time to take a COVID test and won’t attend. He won’t be alone.
Biden’s speech will focus on Ukraine and the economy. However, there are a multitude of negative stories about Democrats that could distract the public from Biden’s speech.
Joe Manchin is unimpressed with Biden’s sanctions on Russia and is pressing the President to ramp up domestic oil production. - Hot Air
Biden’s own party will offer two responses to the President’s speech. This is not something that a unified party does. - Axios
Democratic governors want a political reset from President Biden as voters’ frustrations grow with Democrats. - NYT
Senate Democrats tried and failed to pass an extreme abortion bill that aimed to protect abortion up until birth. - National Review
Ukraine
Russia is growing increasingly frustrated with their lack of progress in toppling the Ukrainian government and have resorted to attacking civilian areas. Kharkiv was the initial site of indiscriminate bombing. Now, Moscow says Kyiv is next. Here are the latest headlines:
Putin is trying to stop money from leaving Russia after the country experienced a mass exodus of cash. - CNN
The Biden administration is relying on Russia to finalize a brokered nuclear peace deal with Iran. - Free Beacon
Oil tops $100 barrel thanks to Putin’s invasion and Biden’s resistance to energy independence. - NY Post
Europe is significantly ahead of the United States in its response to Russia. - WAPO
As Russia wages war, the U.S. Army mandates its officers undergo training on pronouns and gender transition surgery. - Free Beacon
BREAKING: Democrats and Republicans are rallying around a new push to provide billions in aid to Ukraine. - WAPO
Polling Deep Dive
It is difficult to understate just how bad the polling is for Joe Biden. Here’s a quick breakdown:
RNC polling has Biden’s approval rating at -12. The Hill
USA Today poll shows 44% of Americans strongly disapprove of Biden with 63% saying Biden is not a strong leader. - USA Today
Fox polling puts Biden’s approval rating underwater by 13 points. 53% say Biden doesn’t “care about people.” - Fox News
Washington Post has Biden’s approval rate at 37%. - WAPO
CNN polling confirmed that 58% of Americans disapprove of Biden. - CNN
Democrats Moving On From COVID
Democratic pollsters are telling President Biden and other Democrats to simply move on from COVID. Did the science change? Nope. Only the polling. This is from NBC:
The message is backed by advice from Biden’s polling firm, Impact Research, which studied voter attitudes to Covid and found that most Americans are "worn out" by the restrictions and "have personally moved out of crisis mode."
In a Feb. 16 memo, the firm told Democrats to take "the win" on Covid, warning that by 49 percent to 24 percent, Americans are more concerned about it causing economic harm than infecting them or a family member, and that far more parents and teachers worry about learning loss than illness for their kids.
The worst response yet?
Ouch.
The rest of the news:
CNN is replacing Zucker with Stephen Colbert’s former producer. - WSJ
A federal judge is upholding Georgia’s redistricting. - AJC
Zelensky’s speech made his translator choke up at European Parliament. - Yahoo
Youngkin poised to withdraw Virginia from a multistate climate pact. - Daily Signal
Microsoft CEO’s son passed away at 26. - NY Post
Complaints of New Yorkers’ noisy sex are rising. - The Guardian
NBA player bullied into using an iPhone. - Fadeaway World
These are great--of course, by the time I read these you were off the air--but still great. The news headlines.... sigh.... no wonder the Babylon Bee is frustrated. Who could come up with some of the craa....uh...stuff!