US President Joe Biden’s hot mic moments after the State of the Union were the real performance

Richard Hall, The Independent

The moment his State of the Union address ended, the president looked out across the House chamber like a small child might look at a dessert trolley. Oration has never been his strong point, but when it comes to working a room — especially here in the halls of the Capitol where he toiled as a Senator for 36 years — Joseph R Biden has no peer.

The boring bit was over, now was his time to shine.

As the cameras kept rolling, and the mics too, Mr Biden meandered his way from the podium to the exit, pressing the flesh with dozens of his Democratic Party colleagues and a smattering of friendly Republicans.

Diligently documented by Jennifer Bendery, senior politics reporter for HuffPost, the footage gave viewers at home a rare and close-up look at how the Biden White House interacts with the legislative branch. Even for a man who has earned a reputation over the years as a master of retail politics, his performance will go down as one of the greats.

“Hey Big John!” he bellowed at Jon Tester, the Senator from Montana and second-largest John in the senate, shortly after stepping down from the podium.

“Aren’t those stars heavy?” he asked of a general standing nearby, pointing to the insignia on his shoulder.

“Bob I gotta talk to you about Cuba! I’m serious!” he shouted over the same general’s shoulder.

Sounding at times like a club comedian doing crowd work, and at others like a fatherly party leader, it took Mr Biden 20 minutes to travel roughly 40 feet to the door. During that time, he had brief policy discussions about Detroit, the California water shortage and investment in green energy; he regaled two retired Supreme Court judges with a story about Ronald Reagan, took numerous selfies, made several promises to Democratic congresspeople and invited the daughter of one to the annual Easter Egg Roll at the White House.

Rep Sheila Jackson Lee used the opportunity to encourage Mr Biden to pursue police reform. “I think if we lean in,” she told him, “we can get this done in the first three months.”

“I think so too. I’m praying for that,” Mr Biden replied.

As he passed a group of freshman members of Congress, one shouted: “We’re so excited. You got us fired up.”

Besides pointing out how big or well-dressed his party colleagues were (“He’s got guns as big as my thighs!” and “I wanna know where he gets his suits”), Mr Biden fielded requests from members of Congress representing districts across the country and made commitments to visit some of them.

Watching the performance from her home in San Francisco was Susan RoAne, author of the best-selling How to Work a Room and a speaker on the same topic.

“President Biden gave a master class on how to work a room,” she told The Independent on Wednesday. “He went over to people, he approached people. But he also made himself approachable so that people in that chamber could talk to him,” she added.

That skill, she added, is no small part of Mr Biden’s success as a politician.

“There’s only one other president that I have personally seen who is able to connect with people on the level he has, and that was Bill Clinton,” she said. “He responds to what people say, which means that he listened. He makes whoever he connects with feel — because he didn’t look around that when he was talking to them — as if they were the only person in the room.”

As he neared the door, Mr Biden was introduced to Democratic congressman from California and the son of former defence secretary Leon Panetta, Jimmy Panetta.

“Jimmy! Tell dad to take it easy on me won’t ya,” he said.

But it was not all backslapping and congratulations. As he finally reached the exit, Mr Biden was caught by Doug Lamalfa, Republican congressman also from California, who used his 10 seconds with the president to press him on the devastating water shortage in his state.

“Half a million acres went dry of agricultural land last year and I don’t know where the food is going to come from,” he said as he grasped Mr Biden’s hand.

“I know, I don’t either,” Mr Biden replied just at the edge of the chamber, before being interrupted by the speaker’s gavel calling the House to order, a little prematurely.