The State of the Union is the president’s opportunity to address the nation and speak to our fears, concerns, hopes, and dreams as Americans — and the perspectives and interests he chooses to prioritize in this speech have always provided essential insight into his greater priorities as leader of the nation. Well, as of last night we have a new SOTU from Biden, and we’re digging into the shocking, the not-so-shocking, and (of course) the responses from Biden’s political allies and enemies. Watch below:

What we were all waiting to hear in the sixty-seven-minute speech, we think, was Biden’s response to the ongoing genocide of Palestinians by Israelis in Gaza — which the Biden administration is actively funding. Biden’s call for a merely temporary ceasefire, and his rhetorical centering of the Hamas attacks of October 7 when 30,000 Palestinians have been murdered — not to mention the claim that Hamas should release the hostages, when they have already offered to do so provided Israel release Palestinian prisoners and stop the genocide — is disappointing to say the absolute least.

But it’s also expected. If you listened to SOTU, you heard Biden proudly claim that nobody has a better record on Israel than he does — which is saying an awful lot, in a room full of militant Zionists, war hawks, and those getting their pockets lined by the American defense industry. To hear a president reaffirm his support and longstanding commitment to a genocidal ethnostate after more than 150 days of senseless slaughter in Gaza shows why people turned out in far greater numbers than expected to vote Uncommitted in the Democratic primary in states like Michigan, North Carolina, and more. Biden may have thought that his brief statements condemning Palestinian death last night were enough. But they reveal the ally to military interests, and the enemy to the international working class, that he’s always been.

This was just one part of a (sometimes) fascinating speech, with equally interesting responses from Biden’s colleagues. We get into it on KK&F this week — you can listen to the episode as a podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Pandora, and more.