Matt Lauer to Biden: Did Republicans ‘Disrespect’ Obama During State of the Union?

LAUER: “Alright, let’s talk about this speech then. A lot was made, Mr. vice president, about the fact that this was the first time the president was delivering a State of the Union address in that room where both bodies of Congress were controlled by the Republican majority. You were sitting there, did the room feel different to you? More tension than normal?”
BIDEN: “No, it didn’t. As a matter of fact, it felt the opposite. I think what’s happened is it’s – I was going to say dawned on, that’d be unfair – the Republicans realize they’re in control and have to govern. It’s a split government and they have an equal responsibility of governing. So that’s why I’m more optimistic about being able to get things done than, quite frankly, I was before. Everybody knows they won the election, they control both houses, now what are we going to do about – everybody’s talking about the middle class. What are we going to do to help the middle class?”
LAUER: “There were some odd moments. That one odd moment that a lot of people are talking about this morning, Mr. vice president, where the president was talking about having arguments that are worthy of the body and the country, and then he said, ‘I’ve run my last campaign,’ and there was a smattering of applause, maybe even laughter from some Republicans and the president shot back. Did you see that as a moment of disrespect? Was it a symptom of the very pettiness that the President was referring to?”
BIDEN: “Look, Matt, I’ve sat through a lot of State of the Unions with eight different presidents and similar things have occurred. I just think it’s the nature of a body of 535 people and there’s always something like that, that comes out. I don’t think it represented any institutional disrespect for the president.”