President Joe Biden used his second Oval Office address to make the case to the public and Congress for U.S. leadership and support for Israel and Ukraine's respective wars.
But Biden's use of his bully pulpit may not make much of a difference as the House remains without a speaker and cannot pass the president's $100 billion supplemental funding request.
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During the prime-time address Thursday, Biden described the United States as "the indispensable nation" and the moment as one "where the decisions we make today are going to determine the future for decades to come.”
“Hamas and [Russian President Vladimir] Putin represent different threats, but they share this in common: They both want to completely annihilate a neighboring democracy,” the president said from behind the Resolute Desk. "American leadership is what holds the world together. ... To put all that at risk if we walk away from Ukraine, if we turn our backs on Israel, is just not worth it."
The White House announced Biden's address en route from Israel, his second trip to a war zone after he traveled to Ukraine in February. His address also comes after he previewed major Ukraine remarks as support for Ukraine erodes, particularly among Republicans, and is, in part, why Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) was removed as speaker by a minority of his own conference.
Simultaneously, support for Israel could erode among Democrats, depending on Israel's conduct during its likely ground invasion of Gaza and the provision of humanitarian aid to civilian Palestinians. Senior State Department official Josh Paul, for example, resigned this week from his role as Bureau of Political-Military Affairs director over the U.S. sending "blind" "continued lethal assistance" to Israel.
"The administration has called for deescalation without trying to forcefully rein in [Israel Defense Forces] operations," Ret. Army Col. Rich Outzen, an Atlantic Council senior fellow, told the Washington Examiner. "There he is on the horns of a dilemma, with his own base and progressives in the Democrat Party quite uneasy with continuing IDF operations in Gaza and pro-Israel conservatives and moderates more inclined to support Israel until the Hamas threat is abated."
Regardless of whether Biden's address changes public opinion about the wars, Democratic strategist Stefan Hankin contended the president's speech connected "the dots" between Israel and Ukraine and underscored the importance of U.S. leadership abroad in the hope of "making it exceedingly difficult for 20 to 30 Republicans to vote against funding both efforts."
"'Great orator' is, never in the history of Biden's career, [been] a label you would put on it," Hankin said. "But from a political standpoint, he's had a very good week. ... His statements so far have been pretty spot on."
"This is the proof in the pudding on the pushback of, 'Oh, he's old. He's diminished,'" he added. "OK, he's old. Age is a number, and it keeps going up, but what of this last week to 10 days do you point to and be like, 'Oh, he's out of his depth' or 'He's out of his league' or 'He's not sharp' or 'He's not handling this well.' And then you juxtapose that with whatever that word salad was that [former President Donald] Trump put out there after the attacks on Israel, and it's like, 'Who do you want in the Oval Office after next year?'"
Republicans would cite Biden not remembering former Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir's name and misremembering whether they met before the 1967 Six-Day War or 1973 Yom Kippur War.
To Hankin's argument, the White House circulated a memo Thursday titled "House Republicans’s self-inflected, extreme chaos worsens as Biden leads" amid House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan's (R-OH) speakership campaign.
"President Biden is leading and standing up for our national security interests on the world stage, fighting to reduce costs like energy and junk fees, both of which he took recent action on, and bringing the nation together to support Israel in the wake of the worst terrorist attack in its history," White House spokesman Andrew Bates told reporters. "Meanwhile, House Republicans continue their downward spiral into chaos and away from governing."
"They need to get their act together and join this president at the adults table," he said.
Thursday's address is Biden's second from the Oval Office, the first last summer after the White House and Congress avoided a default through the bipartisan budget agreement. His budget request asks for $60 billion for Ukraine, $14 billion for Israel, $14 billion for border security, $10 billion for humanitarian aid, and $7 billion for the Indo-Pacific.
Times change, and the impact and manner of presidential addresses change as well, according to historian David Pietrusza.
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"One may start the conversation with FDR and his fireside chats, which were certainly a game changer and very effective in their time," Pietrusza said. "JFK's addresses on civil rights in Alabama and the Cuban missile crisis were more than noteworthy and effective. LBJ and Richard Nixon similarly employed Oval Office addresses, most often in regards to the [Vietnam] War. The nation was divided before they were delivered, and they were divided afterwards."
"Today," he added, "there's no guarantee of an audience for any presidential address or much of anything for that matter."