IL legislators react to President Obama’s Final State of the Union speech

We keep hearing how ISIS numbers are down, but he said they now have some 36,000 fighters from 120 different countries.

The US needed to “reject any politics that targets people because of race or religion. Democracy grinds to a halt without a willingness to compromise; or when even basic facts are contested, and we listen only to those who agree with us”.

He called on voters and members of Congress to change the divisive tone of politics and to “change the system to reflect our better selves”.

Yik Yak said five percent of all its posts during the address were about the speech.

OBAMA: It’s one of the few regrets of my presidency that the rancor and suspicion between the parties has gotten worse instead of better.

“Tonight marks the eighth year I’ve come here to report on the State of the Union”.

“The world respects us not just for our arsenal; it respects us for our diversity and our openness and the way we respect every faith”, he said.

Mr Obama took indirect aim to Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump who has been criticised for his comments about Muslims and immigrants. Delivering the Republican response, South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley reiterated the party’s pledge to “end a disastrous health care program, and replace it with reforms”.

“I know some of you are antsy to get back to Iowa”, he joked. “He would have us believe that global warming is our greatest threat, our military is as strong as it can be, the economy is working for American families, and that the key to alleviating poverty is more government dependence”.

She also blasted her for being the voice of the Republican establishment. Earnest said he was unsure if the president would meet with billionaire investor Warren Buffett, who has supported the president’s views on income inequality but who opposed the administration’s stance on the Keystone XL pipeline.

“For my final address to this chamber, I don’t want to talk just about the next year”, he said. The president says IS is made up of killers, fanatics and twisted souls, and that the USA will hunt them down and destroy them. “It’s a dark and unsafe place because of his weakness, which has led to American weakness around the world”. “If I’m elected POTUS”, Cruz wrote on Twitter, using the acronym for president of the United States, “there’ll be an empty seat for the over 50 million unborn children killed since Roe #Stand4Life”. Period. It’s not even close…

U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, who the president alluded to in urging that America needs to bring more than just “tough talk” to foreign policy situations, told NBC’s Lester Holt that he “will apologize to nobody for (his) commitment to kill the terrorists”.

“But they do not threaten our national existence”, said the president. “That may work as a TV sound bite, but it doesn’t pass muster on the world stage”, Obama said. “A little applause right there”, Obama said while pointing up at the gallery. After a quick summary of the president’s feelings, she said we need to be honest with each other.

“We’re already looking forward to have a new president…”

The White House had billed Obama’s speech as a rethinking of the genre, and delivered.

The President at the outset spoke to the joint session of Congress about what he’d like to get done in a bipartisan basis in his final year in office.