Politics and views in the United States.

President Joe Biden delivers his final State of the Union address before the election and Republicans respond. The Republican National Committee gets a new chair and co-chair and George Santos is running for Congress again.

TRANSCRIPT

Welcome to 2024 Talks, where we're following our democracy in historic times.

The threat to democracy must be defended.

My predecessor and some of you here seek to bury the truth about January 6th.

I will not do that.

This is the moment to speak the truth and to bury the lies.

Here's the simple truth.

You can't love your country only when you win.

Throughout his final State of the Union address before the election, President Joe Biden sought to differentiate himself from former President Donald Trump, who he described as threatening American democracy.

Polls show the combative campaign-style speech outperforming voter expectations, but suggest it wasn't enough to move his approval ratings on key issues.

Alabama Republican Senator Katie Britt's response referred to the president as a professional politician, noting Biden's been in office longer than she'd been alive.

She sharply attacked Biden's border policies.

Minutes after taking office, he suspended all deportations.

He halted construction of the border wall.

And he announced a plan to give amnesty to millions.

Britt is drawing scorn for blaming Biden for a horrific sex trafficking incident that took place in Mexico during George W. Bush's term.

She also blamed the president for migrant crime when immigrants, legal and illegal, are on average more law-abiding than native-born Americans.

Another regular Republican crime talking point is also being fact-checked.

Trump and others regularly portray Democratic-run cities like New York as being crime-ridden, but federal statistics show Alabama has crime rates often three times higher than those of the Big Apple.

Republicans are also faulting Biden for mispronouncing the name of Lakin Riley, a Georgia nursing student murdered last month with a Venezuelan immigrant arrested for the crime.

But House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries took issue with Georgia Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene's shouting criticism about the killing during the State of the Union.

These people want to lecture Joe Biden because he delivered a strong and forceful speech that made them uncomfortable because he exposed their lies and shamelessness.

We have one message for extreme-MAGA Republicans who want to lecture us about the crime.

Get lost.

Republican National Committee Chair Rona McDaniel has stepped down and has been replaced by an ally of Trump.

Michael Watley, the North Carolina Republican Party's former chair, thanked the former president when taking the position.

I would like to thank President Trump for his trust and support.

There is no one who has been more focused on fighting for the American people, and I am grateful for the opportunity to work with him to win and help revitalize our great nation.

His co-chair will be Laura Trump, the former president's daughter-in-law who says every penny the committee raises will go to Trump's election effort.

The RNC faces lackluster fundraising compounded with the question of whether it will help pay Trump's significant legal fees.

Expelled Congressman George Santos is running for Congress again.

This time he's taking on the New York First Congressional District incumbent Nick LaLotta for the Republican nomination.

LaLotta says he welcomes the challenge, noting Santos' record as an ineffective representative who lied outrageously and repeatedly will take center stage.

I'm Edwin J. Vieira for Pacifica Network and Public News Service.

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