President Joe Biden raised some eyebrows with three words he added at the end of his State of the Union address.
“I’ve come to report on the state of the union, and my report is this: the state of the union is strong because you, the American people, are strong,” Biden said as he wrapped up his speech Tuesday night.
He continued, “We are stronger today than we were a year ago. And we’ll be stronger a year from now than we are today. This is our moment to meet and overcome the challenges of our time, and we will as one people, one America, the United States of America. God Bless you all, and may God protect our troops.”
Biden then added three words that raised some eyebrows, “Go get ’em!”
Watch the video below:
"Go get 'em" — that's how BIden ends SOTU pic.twitter.com/K2NBz5ZM8h
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) March 2, 2022
According to a transcript of the remarks released ahead of the speech, it appears those words may have been an ad-lib.
After Biden wrapped up his remarks, MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell said, “I also think there was a strange moment at the end where he said ‘go get ’em.’ That was audible to the audience. And we’re not quite sure what he means. I think he’s talking about Vladimir Putin and the bad guys over there. But it was an ad-lib that kind of felt strange.”
NBC News’ Andrea Mitchell on Biden's #SOTU: “there was a strange moment at the end when he said 'go get 'em' … we're not quite sure what he means.” pic.twitter.com/PMQz5m1hVp
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) March 2, 2022
Social media users debated whether he said “go get ’em” or “go get him” and what that meant.
Check out some of the reactions below:
What did Biden mean by this? "God bless our troops, go get him.”
— Ian Miles Cheong (@stillgray) March 2, 2022
Wait… is there a chance that Biden either heard or read the line… "Go get him" which was intended to be for his handlers to pull him out of there?
— Tim Young (@TimRunsHisMouth) March 2, 2022
Why did Biden end his speech with "GO GET HIM" ???
— Abigail Jackson 🇺🇸 (@abigailmarone) March 2, 2022
Who is he talking about?
https://twitter.com/toddstarnes/status/1498858554954027012
Was Biden saying "go get 'em" at the end or "go get him"?
— Alex Thompson (@AlexThomp) March 2, 2022
Was another little Biden ad-lib.
Wait did Biden say “Go get him!” right at the the end… to our troops? To go get… Putin?
— John Daniel Davidson (@johnddavidson) March 2, 2022
What did Biden mean by “Go get him,” at the end? Did he think he was ending a pre-game speech? pic.twitter.com/pq9kweUroP
— Clay Travis (@ClayTravis) March 2, 2022
Joe Biden went off script mysteriously to say “Go get him!” at the end of #SOTU. It doesn’t do to guess what he meant. But it was a vainglorious self-indulgence. pic.twitter.com/uOaQk4xnoA
— Miranda Devine (@mirandadevine) March 2, 2022
Biden ends speech in classic form by misspeaking with "Go get him" rather than "Go get 'em"
— Brent Scher (@BrentScher) March 2, 2022
Unless there is somebody we need to go get?
What did "Go get him" mean? Sincere question.
— Jonah Goldberg (@JonahDispatch) March 2, 2022
It appears that this is not the first time Biden has deployed that phrase.
CSPAN’s Communications Director Howard Mortman shared a clip of Biden speaking in St. Louis, Missouri, in Nov. 2016 ahead of that state’s Senate election. He said, “God bless you all, and may God protect our troops. Go get him!”
He also made similar comments in 2020.