Biden gives tough talk on Putin during State of the Union

During President Biden’s State of the Union address, he gave tough talk on Russian President Vladimir Putin saying, “He thought the West and NATO wouldn’t respond. And he thought he could divide us at home. Putin was wrong. We were ready.”

Video transcript

JOE BIDEN: Putin's latest attack on Ukraine was premeditated and totally unprovoked. He rejected repeated, repeated efforts at diplomacy. He thought the West and NATO wouldn't respond.

He thought he could divide us at home, in this chamber, in this nation. He thought he could divide us in Europe as well. But Putin was wrong.

We are ready. We are united. And that's what we did. We stayed united.

We prepared extensively and carefully. We spent months building coalitions of other freedom-loving nations in Europe and the Americas to-- from America to the Asian and African continents to confront Putin. Like many of you, I spent countless hours unifying our European allies.

We shared with the world in advance what we knew Putin was planning and precisely how we would try to falsify and justify his aggression. We countered Russia's lies with the truth. And now-- now that he's acted-- the free world is holding him accountable, along with 27 members of the European Union, including France, Germany, Italy, as well as countries like the United Kingdom, Canada, Japan, Korea, Australia, New Zealand, and many others, even Switzerland, are inflicting pain on Russia and supporting the people of Ukraine. Putin is now isolated from the world more than he has ever been.

[APPLAUSE]

Together--

[APPLAUSE AND CHEERING]

--together--

[APPLAUSE AND CHEERING]