WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama used part of his State on the Union address on Tuesday to call for bipartisan criminal justice reform.
Obama referenced the protests over the deaths of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, and Eric Garner in New York last year, and said that while people may have differing opinions on those tragedies, there is room for agreement on criminal justice reform more broadly.
“We may have different takes on the events of Ferguson and New York. But surely we can understand a father who fears his son can’t walk home without being harassed. Surely we can understand the wife who won’t rest until the police officer she married walks through the front door at the end of his shift,” Obama said, according to prepared remarks.
“Surely we can agree it’s a good thing that for the first time in 40 years, the crime rate and the incarceration rate have come down together, and use that as a starting point for Democrats and Republicans, community leaders and law enforcement, to reform America’s criminal justice system so that it protects and serves us all,” he continued.
In the wake of unrest in Ferguson and protests across the country this fall, Obama formed a presidential commission to look at policing issues. The commission is expected to offer recommendations in March.
live blog Oldest Newest Share + Today 9:33 PM ESTObama To Congress: Don't Refight Old Battles On Immigration HuffPost’s Elise Foley reports:
Obama’s message was that Congress should stop fighting him on immigration. Or, more specifically, that they should stop fighting his executive actions to protect some undocumented immigrants from being deported.
“If we’re going to have arguments, let’s have arguments — but let’s make them debates worthy of this body and worthy of this country. … Yes, passions still fly on immigration, but surely we can all see something of ourselves in the striving young student, and agree that no one benefits when a hardworking mom is taken from her child, and that it’s possible to shape a law that upholds our tradition as a nation of laws and a nation of immigrants,” Obama said.
Read the full story here.
Some fun on the floor, as Gillibrand makes a "come onnnnn" hand gesture when the Repubs around her didn't stand for pay equity #SOTU2015
— daveweigel (@daveweigel) January 21, 2015
“To everyone in this Congress who still refuses to raise the minimum wage, I say this: If you truly believe you could work full-time and support a family on less than ,000 a year, go try it,” Obama said. “If not, vote to give millions of the hardest-working people in America a raise.”
“Today, we’re the only advanced country on Earth that doesn’t guarantee paid sick leave or paid maternity leave to our workers. Forty-three million workers have no paid sick leave. Forty-three million. Think about that. And that forces too many parents to make the gut-wrenching choice between a paycheck and a sick kid at home,” Obama said. “So I’ll be taking new action to help states adopt paid leave laws of their own. And since paid sick leave won where it was on the ballot last November, let’s put it to a vote right here in Washington. Send me a bill that gives every worker in America the opportunity to earn seven days of paid sick leave. It’s the right thing to do.”
Obama went back to speaking on Rebekah and Ben, saying for a couple like them, “Friday night pizza is a splurge.”
“Because families like Rebekah’s still need our help. She and Ben are working as hard as ever, but have to forego vacations and a new car so they can pay off student loans and save for retirement,” Obama said.
“Basic childcare for [their children] Jack and Henry costs more than their mortgage, and almost as much as a year at the University of Minnesota,” Obama added. “Like millions of hardworking Americans, Rebekah isn’t asking for a handout, but she is asking that we look for more ways to help families get ahead.”
“We can’t slow down businesses or put our economy at risk with government shutdowns or fiscal showdowns,” Obama said. “We can’t put the security of families at risk by taking away their health insurance, or unraveling the new rules on Wall Street, or refighting past battles on immigration when we’ve got a system to fix. And if a bill comes to my desk that tries to do any of these things, it will earn my veto.”
Many in the chamber gave Obama a standing ovation when he mentioned “ten million uninsured Americans [who] finally gained the security of health coverage” this year.
Obama told the story of Rebekah Erler, a guest of first lady Michelle Obama at the SOTU, and her husband Ben.
“America, Rebekah and Ben’s story is our story. They represent the millions who have worked hard, and scrimped, and sacrificed, and retooled. You are the reason I ran for this office,” Obama said. “You’re the people I was thinking of six years ago today, in the darkest months of the crisis, when I stood on the steps of this Capitol and promised we would rebuild our economy on a new foundation. And it’s been your effort and resilience that has made it possible for our country to emerge stronger.”
“Tonight, for the first time since 9/11, our combat mission in Afghanistan is over. Six years ago, nearly 180,000 American troops served in Iraq and Afghanistan,” Obama said. “Today, fewer than 15,000 remain. And we salute the courage and sacrifice of every man and woman in this 9/11 Generation who has served to keep us safe. We are humbled and grateful for your service.”
“We are fifteen years into this new century. Fifteen years that dawned with terror touching our shores; that unfolded with a new generation fighting two long and costly wars; that saw a vicious recession spread across our nation and the world. It has been, and still is, a hard time for many,” Obama said at the start of his speech. “But tonight, we turn the page.”
Read the president’s full remarks as prepared for delivery here.
President Barack Obama is making his way into the House chamber now.
HuffPost’s Sabrina Siddiqui reports:
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The annual lunch, in which the president lays out his policy proposals before influential members of the media covering the address, is off the record. However, Fox News anchor Shepard Smith, an attendee in recent years, has made it a tradition of providing viewers with a detailed rundown of the menu, though not the details of what was discussed, after the meal.
Read more here.
Mother Jones’ Tim Murphy and Patrick Caldwell report:
Each year, the opposition party taps a member to deliver a response to the president’s State of the Union address. For Tuesday night’s speech—President Barack Obama’s sixth—Republicans have awarded this duty to Iowa freshman Sen. Joni Ernst, who rose to prominence last spring when she released a campaign ad about castrating a pig.
Read more here.
HuffPost’s Ariel Edwards-Levy reports:
The state of the State of the Union remains largely unwatched.
Last year’s State of the Union was Jan. 28, 2014. Here’s a chart of President Barack Obama’s average approval the week before and after, which even when set to be as sensitive as possible to change, looks suspiciously like a straight line.
Read more here.
MSNBC’s Ari Melber reports:
When President Obama delivers the State of the Union Tuesday night, he will outline ideas that have been months in the making. The speech is typically the most watched presidential address of the year – 33 million viewers caught it live in 2014 – yet many people may not realize how much goes into the big night.
“This is sort of the World Series, and the Final Four, and the Super Bowl – all rolled into one for the Obama speechwriting operation,” says Dan Pfeiffer, senior adviser to Obama.
Read more here.
#StateOfTheUnion is tonight. This is how I'm going to watch from work! @WhiteHouse http://t.co/ufWIRBCORy
— Connie Britton (@conniebritton) January 20, 2015
The Washington Post’s Aaron Blake reports on an ad running in the Washington area during Obama’s speech that likens “climate change deniers to other science deniers who turned out to be very wrong.” Read about it here.
Sneak peek at my prep for tonight’s Republican Address following #SOTU pic.twitter.com/kF8a9IVfR4
— Joni Ernst (@SenJoniErnst) January 20, 2015
HuffPost is interviewing Obama administration officials immediately after the president’s annual State of the Union address on Tuesday.
For more information, go here.
The AP reports:
Key elements of the economic proposals President Barack Obama will outline in his State of the Union address Tuesday appear to be aimed at driving the debate in the 2016 election on income inequality and middle-class economic issues, rather than setting a realistic agenda for Congress.
Obama’s calls for increasing taxes on the wealthy, making community college free for many students and expanding paid leave for workers stand little chance of winning approval from the new Republican majority on Capitol Hill. But the debate over middle-class economics is looking critical for the coming campaign.
Read more here.
