President Biden's State of the Union address

During his speech, President Biden touted his Supreme Court nominee, Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, and claimed that her appointment has been embraced by a bipartisan array of interest groups and legal experts.  

“Since she’s been nominated, she’s received a broad range of support, from the Fraternal Order of Police, to former judges appointed by Democrats and Republicans,” Biden said.  

Facts First: This is correct.  

Jackson, who is the first Black woman nominated to the Supreme Court, comes from a law enforcement family. Her brother was a detective in Baltimore and two of her uncles were police officers, including one who was the police chief in Jackson’s hometown of Miami.  

Fraternal Order of Police National President Patrick Yoes issued a statement saying Jackson “has the temperament, intellect, legal experience, and family background to have earned this appointment” and will be a fair justice on the high court. This was a surprising endorsement, as the group endorsed former President Trump in 2020 and the group’s vice president recently slammed Biden for “demonizing” police officers.   

Biden also accurately pointed out that Jackson has support from some retired GOP-appointed judges. This includes Judge J. Michael Luttig, who served in the Virginia-based federal appeals court for 15 years and informally advised former Vice President Mike Pence regarding Jan. 6. And according to Axios, Jackson is also supported by former Judge Thomas R. Griffith, who was an influential conservative voice on the DC Circuit Court of Appeals from 2005 until his retirement in 2020.  

But there are limits to the bipartisan support for Jackson’s nomination. Some Senate Republicans have criticized her record and the Republican National Committee called her a “radical, left-wing activist.” 

Gov. Kim Reynolds, a Republican from Iowa, said that she encourages President Biden "to put his faith" in the American people.

While delivering the GOP response to the State of the Union address, Reynolds said that Americans "have never wavered" their "belief in this country regardless of who leads it" because "the soul of America isn't about who lives in the White House." 

"It's men and women like you in every corner of this nation who are willing to step up and take responsibility for your communities, for your neighbors, and ultimately for yourselves. By that most important measure at least, the state of our union is indeed strong," she concluded.

In the GOP response to President Biden's address, Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds said that President Biden's Build Back Better agenda didn't pass "because even members of his own party said enough is enough." 

Reynolds said Americans "are tired of the theater where politicians do one thing when the cameras are rolling and another when they believe you can't see them."

Watch the moment:

Gov. Kim Reynolds, a Republican from Iowa, is delivering the GOP response to President Biden's State of the Union address.

"I listened as the governor of our state, as a mom, and a grandmother of 11, who is worried our country is on the wrong track," she began her speech. 

Watch the moment:

President Biden said the pandemic disrupted global supply chains and in turn boosted inflation. A third of last year’s inflation was due to higher car prices, he said. 

Facts first: That’s roughly correct.  

As of January, inflation for used and new vehicles made up nearly a third of overall price increases. 

The Labor Department’s consumer price index rose by 7.5% in the 12 months ended in January. Prices for used cars contributed roughly 1.7 percentage points of that, while new vehicles added another half percentage point. 

Car prices rose as manufacturers faced a shortage of computer chips used in new vehicles, hampering new production. As a result, used car prices spiked. 

President Biden closed his first State of the Union speech with a message of strength and patriotism.

"I know this nation. We’ll meet the test, protect freedom and liberty, expand fairness and opportunity. And we will save democracy,” the President added.

Biden called this a "moment of responsibility," adding that this current time is the “moment that the character of this generation is formed. Our purpose is found. Our future is forged.”

Of the United States, the President said, "there is simply nothing beyond our capacity. We are the only nation on Earth that has always turned every crisis we have faced into an opportunity. The only nation that can be defined by a single word: possibilities.”

Set upon a backdrop of a conflict in Ukraine that grows deadlier each day, Biden closed his State of the Union by saying, "This is our moment to meet and overcome the challenges of our time and we will, as one people, one America. The United States of America. May God bless you all and may God protect our troops.”

Addressing gun control, President Biden repeated his claim that “gun manufacturers (are) the only industry in America that can't be sued.” 

CNN has previously fact checked this claim. Here’s what we found:

Facts First: This is false. Gun manufacturers are not entirely exempt from being sued, nor are they the only industry with some liability protections. 

Under the 2005 Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act, gun manufacturers cannot be held liable for the use of their products in crimes. However, gun manufacturers can still be held liable for (and thus sued for) a range of things, including negligence, breach of contract regarding the purchase of a gun or certain damages from defects in the design of a gun. 

In 2019, the Supreme Court allowed a lawsuit against gun manufacturer Remington Arms Co. to continue. The plaintiffs, a survivor and families of nine other victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School mass shooting, wanted to hold the company — which manufactured the semi-automatic rifle that was used in the killing — partly responsible by targeting the company’s marketing practices, another area where gun manufacturers can be held liable. On Feb. 15, those families reached a $73 million settlement with the now-bankrupt gun manufacturer and its four insurers. 

Other industries also have some exemptions from liability. For example, vaccine manufacturers cannot be held liable in a civil suit for damages from a vaccine-related injury or death. And for the next four years, pharmaceutical companies developing the Covid-19 vaccines will have immunity from liability under the 2005 Public Readiness and Emergency Preparedness Act. Those who claim to have been harmed by vaccines may receive money from the government, not the pharmaceutical company, via the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program. 

President Biden’s remarks were briefly interrupted Tuesday when, during a portion of his State of the Union remarks, he paid tribute to members of the armed forces who were sickened by burn pits, including his son, Beau Biden, who died from brain cancer in 2015.

Biden’s comments were interrupted by GOP Colorado Rep. Lauren Boebert, who audibly interrupted, “You put them there—13 of them” — an apparent reference to soldiers killed during the withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan. Boebert was quickly shushed by lawmakers.

“One of those soldiers was my son Major Beau Biden. I don’t know for sure if the burn pit that he lived near, that his hooch was near in Iraq, and before that in Kosovo, is the cause of his brain cancer, the diseases of so many of our troops. But I’m committed to finding out everything we can.”

Boebert later tweeted about her outburst.

President Biden said in his address tonight: “We are giving more than $1 billion in direct assistance to Ukraine.” 

Facts First: This is true, but it needs context. The US has given more than $1 billion in total security assistance to Ukraine over the past year. While Biden administration officials have continued to send aid to Ukraine since the beginning of the Russian invasion six days ago, they are not giving the total $1 billion in assistance right now. 

The US has given more than $1 billion in total security assistance to Ukraine over the past year, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement on Feb. 26. The US is not currently giving Ukraine $1 billion in aid, as the President stated in his speech. 

Blinken authorized the Defense Department to provide $60 million in immediate military assistance to Ukraine in the fall of 2021. In December, Blinken authorized an additional $200 million. After the invasion began, Blinken authorized a third aid package of $350 million for “immediate support to Ukraine’s defense,” Blinken said in the statement, bringing the total security assistance from the US to Ukraine “over the past year to more than $1 billion.” 

Biden administration officials have said they are continuing to send security assistance to Ukraine, even as the Russian invasion continues. 

US security assistance to Ukraine has continued to arrive, a senior defense official told reporters Monday. 

“It continues to arrive. and continues to get to them, including in just the last day or so,” the official said on a call with reporters. “We’re not going to talk about the specifics of how we get stuff in, so we can continue to get stuff in.”