Vox Sentences - Biden goes on the offensive in Florida

Biden takes his State of the Union message to Florida; the Chinese spy balloon had intelligence gathering capabilities.

Tonight's Sentences was written by Jariel Arvin.

Biden sees an opportunity in Florida

Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

• President Joe Biden visited Tampa, Florida on Thursday, rallying support after his State of the Union address ahead of an expected 2024 announcement. [Tampa Bay Times / Emily L. Mahoney]
• Biden took his message of unity, solutions to economic irritants like junk fees, and defense of Social Security and Medicare to the increasingly red state that Democrats have lost statewide for the past two cycles. [Politico / Gary Fineout]
• Biden also criticized House GOP plans to force spending cuts in exchange for raising the debt ceiling. [New York Times / Michael D. Shear]
• Of late, he’s focused attacks on a proposal from Florida Sen. Rick Scott that would sunset federal legislation, including Medicare and Social Security, every five years. [CNN ]
• Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has rejected Scott’s plan; Scott denies Biden’s claims and is running attack ads calling on the president to resign. [The Hill / Julia Mueller]
• Ultimately, Biden’s visit is a way to highlight a line of attack that rankled the GOP during the SOTU and to rally a Florida Democratic Party that has seen tough recent election cycles. [Reuters / Trevor Hunnicutt and Jarrett Renshaw]

Chinese spy balloon sought US intelligence

• The spy balloon that flew across the US last week carried devices capable of gathering intelligence, and its manufacturer is connected to the Chinese military, a State Department official said Thursday. [NBC News / Abigail Williams]
• The Pentagon discovered the equipment after flying high-altitude U-2 spy planes to observe the massive balloon. An official said the US blocked the balloon from monitoring sensitive sites. [USA Today / Tom Vanden Brook, Josh Meyer, and Kevin Johnson]
• The House of Representatives unanimously approved a resolution condemning China for the spy balloon and calling on the White House to keep Congress aware of new developments. [The Hill / Mychael Schnell]
• Meanwhile, the FBI is working to recover and analyze debris from the Atlantic Ocean where the balloon was shot down. [CNBC / Dan Mangan]

📍 If you read just one story

Vox’s Jonathan Guyer explains why the Chinese spy balloon marks the beginning of a new space race. [Vox / Jonathan Guyer]

More than 20,000 people have died after powerful earthquakes in Turkey and Syria, raising questions about Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s disaster response. [Vox / Jen Kirby]

• Orca mothers often stop having offspring to take care of their adult sons, according to research published Wednesday. [CNN / Lianne Kolirin]
• Wednesday, shares in Google parent company Alphabet lost $100 billion in value after its new AI chatbot flubbed an answer in a promotional demonstration. [BBC / Natalie Sherman]
• Minnesota Rep. Angie Craig was assaulted at her apartment in Washington, DC, Thursday. Craig is recovering after defending herself from the attacker, who fled. [Star Tribune / Briana Bierschbach]

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“That means they [national Democrats] are going to continue to invest in Florida. They have not given up. To the contrary, they are going to fight."

[Florida Rep. Kathy Castor, a Tampa Democrat, on Biden’s visit / Politico]

Behind the blue wall

Sean Illing speaks with Rosa Brooks, a former reserve police officer and current law professor at Georgetown University. They discuss what she saw during her time on the force, some of the differences between how police see their jobs and how things are, and what could be done differently to fix American policing.

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