Right now, our Commander-in-Chief is not in command. The free world deserves better than a dithering and diminished leader. America deserves leaders who recognize that secure borders, stable prices, safe streets, and a strong defense are actually the cornerstones of a great nation.

Republican response from Junior Senator from Alabama, Katie Brett. She is 42 years old. She is a former Chief of Staff for one of the previous senators from Alabama, Richard Shelby. This is the job that the senators from the Republican Party have given her. Kaitlyn Collins, a fellow University of Alabama graduate. What can you tell us about Ms. Brett and what do you think of her response?

I'll tell you why Republicans picked her. They her because she is the youngest Republican woman elected to the Senate. They believe that the fact that she's half Biden's age would be an effective response to have her also at her kitchen table talking about kitchen table issues, which they feel like President Biden is the weakest on. And also the moment in Alabama, of course, that no one could ignore. Republicans there have been since scrambling to protect IVF, to let clinics there open. I think a question also is she's on Trump's VP shortlist. I think after that, the question is going to be if Republicans felt like she met the moment in responding to a very fiery Biden speech and forceful delivery that he had, where he addressed issues like the border and crime, which she mentioned there. I think that's going to be the big question of whether Republicans feel that she met the moment. I'll tell you, I talked to multiple Republicans on the Hill today who are looking forward to this. Obviously, also, I should note, it's always a thankless task.

It is indeed a thankless task, and also very difficult to give a speech basically by yourself in your kitchen much easier for politicians to do it in a room where they can play off the crowd. Anderson? Jake, thanks very much. Here with the panel in New York. Alyssa, what do you think?

Listen, Katie Brett, a rising star, no doubt among Republicans. I think it was a smart choice. She's somebody who's an incredibly impressive person. She ran a smart race in Alabama. But I've got to say, the staging of this was bizarre to me. Women can be both wives and mothers and also stateswomen. To put her in a kitchen, not in front of a podium or in the Senate chamber where she was elected after running a hard fought race, I think, fell very flat and was confusing to some women watching it. I think that was a missed opportunity. I think her focus on the border, on the economy, that's what Republicans wanted to hear. The substance of her remarks, great. The staging, just very, very bizarre.

I want to play two sound bites from President Biden's address, where I think some of the key moments, and we talked about this, he had done this in the last day of the Union, where he was trying to elicit a response from Republicans. One is on tax out to one is on immigration. Let's play this back to back.

January sixth lies about the 2020 election and the plots to steal the election posed a gravest threat to US democracy since the Civil War. But they failed. America stood. America stood strong and democracy prevailed. We must be honest, the threat to democracy must be defended. My We're a predecessor, and some of you here seek to bury the truth about January sixth. I will not do that. Political violence has absolutely no place, no place in America. Zero place. In November, my team began serious negotiation with a bipartisan group of senators. The result was a bipartisan bill with the toughest set of border security reforms we've ever seen. Oh, you don't think so? Oh, you don't like that bill, huh? That Conservatives got together and said it was a good bill? I'll be darn. That's amazing.

That was something we played the wrong for the first, but then that was some of his... Do you think that was effective, David?

Yeah, I do. Look, first of all, I think he knew that was going to happen, and he was ready to do it, and he did it because there's a tremendous amount of hypocrisy associated with what happened. James Lankford is, in fact, one of the most conservative members of Congress. He spent months assiduously negotiating what would have been the strictest border bill in decades. And then it was tanked, and it was tanked, as the President said, because Donald Trump wanted it tanked. So he knew this moment was going to elicit a response, and he wanted to say exactly what he said.

But it has nothing to do with the current problem and how we got here over the last three years. On day one, reversing all of Donald Trump's immigration policies by executive action. And the idea that after three years of telling the American people the border was secure after having unleashed this on the American people and then saying, Well, we didn't pass the bill. So it's all there. It's not going to happen.

No, I understand that you feel like it. You feel, and you're probably right, this is a good issue for Republicans, but the public actually wants answers to it. This was an answer, and Trump tanked it.

Do you think the public believes Joe Biden has the answers?

I think the public believes that the bill... I think if they saw the details of the bill and its particulars, they would say, Yeah, those are good things, and we ought to do that. And in fact, you would have said that, too, if you were asked about this before it became an issue that Trump pulled the rip cord on.

Scott, the whole time Joe Biden has been President, people have been saying he's cowering to the left. He's too progressive. On an issue that Republicans say they care about, he presented one of the most conservative bills possible. In the chamber, tonight, to the Anderson's point, most conservative senator says, That's true.

Yes.

Which took some courage because I'm sure he knew the camera was going to be on him. So he's really discounting what you're saying right now is that that bill would have solved the problem. If you want to be the party who says you want to take the future forward, then you have to solve problems. But that's not what's happening. And the person on the top of your-But you don't-Wait, let me finish. The person on the top of your ticket doesn't solve problems. He creates chaos. He tells people not to do their job. And that is what happened on that immigration bill. And the President, Joe Biden, is allowed to call it out.

So the President Biden created the crisis, only went to the border because Governor Abbott gave some immigrants options to go to Democratic cities and elevate this issue to be a national issue. And now at the last minute, right before the fourth quarter, right before the end of the game-Fellas, there's a bill on the table.

You can't get credit for creating it. There's a bill on the table, Dave, that would solve it or at least to help address it. Everybody agreed on it until Trump came in and said no.

I see it somewhat differently in that there is a problem there, and there's been a problem there for a while. It has gotten worse. Everybody's got a number that's too many. We hit our numbers, Democrats, and we couldn't find a partner. I think that's not good. You wouldn't take the S for an answer. I'm glad that Biden calls you out on.