Good Wednesday morning. I'm Jake Sherman and welcome to your political playbook audio briefing

sponsored by U.S. Chamber of Commerce. And I'm Anna Palmer. Forget the substance of last night,

because as you know, we are state of the union skeptics. But we have some observations from inside

the chamber last night. There was definitely a weird vibe. It seemed a tad bit emptier than

usual. Just two Democrats sat on the aisle to greet the president. Democrats chatted during parts of the

speech. They barely stood even when the president rattled off statistics about the growing economy

that would have in other years had both sides on their feet. The depleted House Republican minority was on its feet frequently,

chanting and cheering, hooting and hollering months after their 40-seat loss.

They were especially inspired when the president said there could not be, quote,

ridiculous partisan investigations into his administration,

perhaps forgetting they did the same to Barack Obama.

One questionable line, President Trump said he wants legal immigration in, quote, the largest

numbers ever. House Republicans, Senate Republicans, and Trump's White House have dumped all over

that and have in fact called for cuts to legal immigration.

One thing is for sure. Immigration politics are getting worse. The president was booed when he

mentioned a caravan coming to the U.S. Democrats laughed at Trump when he called the caravan an onslaught.

He said, I will never abolish our heroes from ICE. Democrats had a pep in their step.

They cheered loudly when Trump talked about new jobs created during his administration,

namely theirs in Congress, and they hollered when he talked about women in the workforce and in

Congress. They were not applauding him. In fact, they hardly did. They were applauding the fact

that they were elected because of him. Here's how it played, Burgess Everett, Heather Kagle,

and John Bresdenhan have a look at how

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