Ol’ Smokin’ Joe delivered a real barn burner of a State of the Union address on International Women’s Day, the anniversary of Bloody Sunday, and the beginnings of the #COVID pandemic in 2020. I wonder if Speaker Johnson thought about any of that before he invited Biden to address Congress?
Many have talked about the speech. It’s successes and shortcomings and its possible effect or lack thereof on the country. I don’t have much to add to that. What I can do, however, is comment on the curious body language of Mike Johnson as he sat uncomfortably behind Joe Biden and especially when he let his inner Brandon shine through.
It was so interesting to me that I decided to present here for all y’all to comment on. Before we get to the clips there’s a couple of things to notify y’all about the mechanics and sources of what we’re doing here:
- Please note that I’m using the PBS News Hours‘ broadcast of the speech as it appears on their Youtube channel.
- I’ve used the Youtube feature that allows you to start a link at a specific time, but not stop it, so I’ve listed the times that the clip I’m commenting on starts and stops in the text.
- Buffering, need I say more?
I also want to discuss the specific body language and how it is generally interpreted before referring to specific instances:
- HEAD NODDING implies agreement with what is being said whether it is consciously being done or not.
- HEAD SHAKING, likewise, implies disagreement. Mike Pence would famously shake his head no as he lied on camera.
- RAPID EYE BLINKING is a reliable sign of nervousness.
- LOOKING DOWN AND TO THE SIDE is a clear sign of shame.
- BRIEFLY SHUTTING THE EYES implies that you just want to shut out what is happening around you.
- EYE ROLLING is a sign of disrespect.
- FIDGETING is signals nervous energy and emotional discomfort.
We’ll see Speaker Johnson display all of these at points during the speech. I invite you to contrast Johnson’s displays of those of Vice President Kamala Harris. Throughout the speech, Harris sits steady in her chair, looking ahead, her eyes open, smiling occasionally. Johnson, on the other hand, can’t sit still, he’s constantly fidgeting, alternating looking at Biden, down at his hands, and out at the Republican caucus. His eyes blink rapidly throughout the speech and frequently blink very rapidly. He has moments when he holds his eyes shut and looks down and away.
We’ll go through the speech more or less chronologically, and focus on only the most important issues and interesting reactions.
Aide for ukraine
At the very beginning of the speech when Biden was warning about the necessity of stopping Putin at Ukraine and supporting Ukraine with weapons and armament, Speaker Johnson is nodding his head showing agreement with the statement (27:32 – 28:05). Of course, it is well known that Johnson wants aide to Ukraine, but many in his caucus don’t, so it is natural that he would nod here, but it also gives us a clue about his body language and to watch for other times in the speech he nods in agreement.
If you keep watching the speech to 29:07, you’ll see Biden attacking Trump for saying that Putin can do whatever the hell he wants to NATO countries, you’ll see Johnson’s rate of blinking his eyes increase showing nervousness and he nods his head in assent when Biden declares that such an idea is unacceptable.
The 6 January Insurrection & Johnson’s role in it
In this clip (31:04 – 31:17), when Biden addresses the 6 January Insurrection, you’ll see Johnson shaking his head no slightly, his blink rate increase slightly, he holds his eyes shut for a beat or two, and he looks down. Johnson was one of the chief Congressional organizers and participants in the insurrection. Shutting his eyes is a way of trying to block out what Biden is saying; looking down signals shame. He knows what he did. He’s ashamed of it and is nervous about being held to account for it.
Contrast the looks of shame Johnson gave with his nod of agreement when Biden said, Here’s the simple truth: you can’t love your country only when you win! (32:13 – 32:22) How whole-heartedly does Johnson back the Big Lie? How much of an insurrectionist is he? Who are we kidding? You can’t be a little bit pregnant, and you can’t only be a little bit of a fascist insurrectionist.
The pandemic recovery
In one of the quickest and tellingest shifts from disagreement to agreement occurs when Biden starts to talk about the pandemic and Trump’s malignant and self-serving response to it — the failure to care, as Biden termed it — Johnson is shaking his head in disagreement (37:20 – 38:16). But, when Biden talks about the economic and social recovery from the pandemic that he led and says, The American people are writing the greatest comeback story never told, Johnson gives a little nod, acknowledging his agreement with accuracy of the statement.
Trickle down panic
Watch Johnson’s reaction when Biden attacks trickle down economics (46:57 – 47:44 ). He has one of the most prolonged bouts of rapid eye-blinking of the whole speech. It makes him nervous for Biden to so thoroughly dismantle the lie of trickle down economics — the pre-I2I4 Big Lie. At about 47:36 after a run of quick blinks, Johnson holds his eyes closed as Biden says, when the middle class do well, the wealthy, the corporations do well; we all do well, as if he’s trying to shut out what Biden is saying.
You can keep watching the speech and see the Speaker agreeing with caping insulin at $35.00 a month, which will still leave the pharmaceutical companies a healthy profit and agreeing with many of the things that Biden wants to do in his second administration: provide healthy lead-free drinking water across the country, making home buying and rents more affordable, giving public school teachers a raise.
Bemused disbelief & worry for the wealthy
At about 58:30 (ends about 59:43), we get a new expression, the inner raised eyebrows of doubtful questioning. It occurs when Biden says — looking squarely at the Republican caucus, BTW — that he has already cut the federal deficit by a trillion dollars, and he dares them to check the numbers. The Speaker goes on to give him a bemused smile when he claims that the bipartisan deal would cut another trillion dollars in the next decade. Clearly, Johnson doesn’t agree with the claims. And, then when Biden says that the very wealthy and big corporations will finally begin to pay their fair share, he looks very dubious. However, Biden’s claims are largely correct if lacking nuance and context that such a speech cannot provide. It continues as Biden compares his deficits to those accrued by I2I4, who added more to the deficit than anyone else by cutting taxes for the wealthy.
He looked particularly worried and concerned when Biden was talking about raising the tax rate on billionaires to 25% (1:02:00). But, more significantly, when Biden says that if anyone tries to cut Social Security or Medicaid, he will stop them, Johnson nods in agreement: Biden will stop them — he believes that Biden has the resolve to do so; it’s a non-negotiable (1:02:47 – 1:03:11).
The immigration Trap
It was clear that Biden came loaded for bear and was ready for just about anything the Republicans. This was clearest over the immigration bill. Biden had a trap that he was waiting to spring, and it unfolded all over Johnson’s face from his annoyance with the Freedumb Cockups to his dismay of the huge Biden own.
Lankford’s big confirmation
At 1:06:30 (ends at 1:07:10), we get a shot of Senator Lankford, the Marco Rubio of 2023, blinking rapidly and nervously as Biden points out that they had the toughest border bill in the country’s history — he also nods his head yes and mouthed it’s true — as Republicans hooted and hollered and Speaker Johnson shook his head. Johnson, though, looks down and away in shame as he denies the truth of what Biden is saying.
As the heckling and booing over the immigration bill goes on, and Biden continuously pwn’s the Freedumb Cockups over it, Johnson just shakes his head in disgust with his fellow Republicans for being so so stupid.
The laken riley gambit
The tension in Johnson’s face (1:08:34 – 1:10:36) — if he pursed his lips any tighter, he’d have a manbag to go along with his moobs — when Maddog Greene shouts about Laken Riley is telling. He looks at Biden to see how he’ll respond. When Biden says her name, Johnson shakes his head no, but when Biden asks how many thousands have been killed by legals, he nods, yes. Then, during Biden’s slightly garbled and confused explanation that with the likely penalty for entering the country without a visa and entry stamp won’t come for six to eight years, it makes sense to pay $8,000.00 to a coyote to cross, Johnson agrees, but immediately after, he shifts to shaking his head no. Biden goes on to say that if you can reduce that time frame to months or weeks, it no longer makes sense, Johnson sits up and shakes his head, probably because the Freedumb Cockups just shot them all in the gonads again and handed Biden a clear win before 35 million viewers.
The Admiral Ackbar “It’s a trap!” special
Biden’s immigration bill trap sprung at the 1:11:40 minute (ends at 1:12:00), and Johnson’s reaction says it all. As Biden says, we have a simple choice: we can either fight about the border or we can fix it, Johnson looks like Biden had turned around and slapped him. He twists his face, nods his head, and looks over at his fellow cockups. When Biden declares, I’m ready to fix it, the pwn’ing of Republicans on immigration is complete, Johnson’s worst nightmare has been realized, and the blank dumbfounded shaking of his head says it all. As the Democrats thunderously chant FIX IT, Johnson looks like he’s ready to call it a night and spend the rest of the speech under the desk.
The eye rolling of Johnson
Disrespecting falling crime rates
Speaker Johnson literally rolls his eyes as Biden talks about how the violent crime rate has declined (1:16:40). He’s doing the usual dubious eyebrow raise and slow head shake, but adds a very slight eye roll to show his contempt for the actual crime statistics and hard data.
Dismayed by the predecessor
He does another hard eye roll as Biden talks about his efforts to end gun violence in America and contrasts that with I2I4’s statement to the NRA that he was proud he had done nothing to manage guns and that survivors of a mass shooting should just get over it (1:18:56). I guess Johnson was showing more contempt for the blundering orange corruption bot than he was for Biden’s attempts to manage guns in America, but I could be wrong.
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Image Attribution
This was a screen grab from 1:18:56 from the PBS NewsHours‘ Youtube Channel’s WATCH LIVE: President Joe Biden’s 2024 State of the Union Address | PBS NewsHour Special Coverage
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Categories: Cognitive Psychology
The Psy of Life 
I enjoyed watching the Speaker during that speech, which I watched on CSPAN. That speech was so good, all on its own. It fired me up in general and on politics, too, as I watched the Speaker react. It was as if he had a little devil and a little angel on either shoulder; sometimes he nodded before he could stop himself, as you mentioned above, because Pres. Biden said things that Jesus said we should do (taking care of people.) But, yes, the devil shoulder won out during the COVID and crime bit, though the Speaker seemed ashamed of that. I wish I could recall now which bit it was, but the CSPAN camera had panned down and to the side of the Pres. and the Speaker, and we saw the Speaker applauding beneath their tabletop/bench. Interestinger and interestinger.
The speech was all-around amazing, for me. I haven’t enjoyed politics so much since before GW got into office. Pres. Biden did an amazing job on this SOTU.
As an aside I’ve read a bit about Pres. Biden using the term illegal while talking about Ms. Riley. I heard it, and while I cringed, the people to whom Pres. was speaking made the use of that term seem contextual; it is what they say and he needed to make his point while he had them. That’s how it seemed to me, anyway, though it’s still cringey. However, Pres. Biden has acknowledged and apologized for that.
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Howdy Ali!
I’m glad someone else noticed it, too. I found myself distracted by him and all of his fidgeting and nodding. Lawrence O’Donnell on MSNBC noted the under-the-desk applause, too. I didn’t include it in the commentary, but I thought it showed how green he is. Someone with more awareness of his physical-spatial positioning vis-a-vis the live TV cameras broadcasting his image to 35 million people might have managed his expressions a bit better. Kamala Harris, for her part, seemed to understand her role as head cheerleader.
I swear by the end of the immigration part of the speech, Johnson looked positively exacerbated with his caucus. Biden showed them up badly. You know he was prepared for exactly what happened. That’s the funnest part of it.
In terms of his faux pas with his language, I hope people can cut him a little slack. Illegal alien was the term for most of his adult and professional life. In the heat of the moment, it is easy to fall back into those old terms kind of like calling a woman a girl. People do it from time-to-time and it is cringeworthy but forgivable.
Still, a rousing speech and something that Biden and his team have wasted no time on building upon with his commercial release and rally. Hopefully, it will be a regular thing this speaking in public and attacking Trump and MAGA.
Huzzah!
Jack
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