United States President Joe Biden delivered on Thursday his final State of the Union address in fiery fashion that many Americans, including Republicans, did not expect from the oldest-ever leader of the country in history.

The 81-year-old’s address was without stumble, stammer, slip of the tongue or confused look. Instead, it was laced with jokes, retorts to hecklers, soaring rhetoric and a minimum of his customary mangled phrases.

Biden got cheers from his Democratic party members who also chanted “four more years” as he laid out the case for a second term with a pugnacious energy that seemed to bely his old age.

To the great relief of lawmakers in his party, acutely aware of how heavily his age is weighing in the presidential race, Biden was in rare form, showing stamina in an hour-plus speech, speaking in a clear tone and quick clip, taking jabs at Republicans, and offering sprinkles of humor.

Absent any major Biden blunders, the Republicans — many of them Donald Trump loyalists — remained in their seats and mostly held their tongues.

After wrapping up his fiery address, he stood in the well of the chamber for more than 25 minutes, shaking hands and clapping backs, taking selfies with congressmen and senators, sharing a word with military generals and generally outlasting Republican rivals.

In his final SOTU before his anticipated November rematch with Republican Donald Trump, the president mentioned “my predecessor” 13 times, calling him an enemy of democracy and the liberal world order.

He also criticized his predecessor’s false election fraud claims that inspired the 6 January 2021 assault on the US Capitol.

“My predecessor and some of you here seek to bury the truth about January 6. I will not do that,” Biden thundered. “This is a moment to speak the truth and to bury the lies.”

Trump had promised retorts throughout the speech posted on his social media platform, Truth Social.

But the live commentary ended up being an embarrassing flub as the website crashed before Biden began and stayed out for most of the speech, coming back only intermittently.

WITH AFP