The State of the Union

The Daily

The New York Times

Daily News, News

4.4 • 102.8K Ratings

🗓️ 5 February 2020

⏱️ 25 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Hours after Iowa kicked off the process to choose President Trump’s 2020 opponent, and just a day before the verdict is expected in his Senate impeachment trial, the president gave his third State of the Union address. Today, we take you to The New York Times’s Washington bureau, where we examined the speech — and the unique moment in which it was delivered. Guest: Maggie Haberman, who covers the White House for The New York Times. For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Background reading: Though Mr. Trump didn’t mention impeachment, the process hung over his address, and his refusal to shake Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s hand put the bitterness between them on full display.The speech sounded like a re-election pitch, with the president claiming credit for a “great American comeback.”

Transcript

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0:00.0	So it is 8.40pm Tuesday night. I have just arrived in Washington, DC from
0:11.0	Des Moines, Iowa, where I was covering the Iowa caucuses. That was a mess. Now we are in the times
0:18.0	Washington Bureau to cover President Trump's final state of the union of his first term.
0:24.0	And I'm standing outside a giant conference room where about 2 to 3,000 reporters and editors are gathered to watch, analyze, and fact check the president's speech.
0:34.0	And we are headed into that room to kind of observe it all and to eat the barbecue that has been laid out there.
0:44.0	On a brain power.
0:47.0	Oh, that's a math. Just let you know we're here.
0:49.0	I know. Everyone's under instructions to behave themselves. No, behave normally. Oh no.
1:00.0	So the center of this room is a giant television screen, 2 into CNN, which is carrying a view of the house chamber and lawmakers walking in shaking Joachans and taking their seats.
1:14.0	And it is panning up to show House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Vice President Mike Pence.
1:22.0	Looking friendly. Surprisingly friendly.
1:26.0	How long is this speech going to be?
1:29.0	We're anticipating about an hour and a half. But that's before the possible apple moving. So we don't know.
1:37.0	The short answer is we don't know. Okay. But long. We expect you to be able to. So we'll see you at 10.52.
1:45.0	10.53. 54. Thank you Maggie. Goodbye.
1:54.0	Madam Speaker. The President of the United States.
2:00.0	From New York Times, I'm Michael Babaro. This is the Daily.
2:10.0	Today. The President's third state of the Union address. Maggie Hayberman on what it tells us.
2:21.0	It's Wednesday, February 5th.
2:33.0	Maggie, it feels very hard to separate this state of the Union address from the moment in which it's being delivered.
2:38.0	The day after Iowa kicked off the 2020 election to pick Donald Trump's Democratic opponent and the day before the President faces a verdict in the Senate impeachment trial, which is put together quite a backdrop.
2:50.0	Absolutely. And if you did not know that this was a state of the Union address, it felt like a campaign rally at the very beginning.
	...

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