Local people divided over President Biden’s State of the Union address

(ABC 6 News) – President Biden’s State of the Union address Tues. night, has sparked nationwide conversations from all sides of every issue facing the country.

We’ve heard from the President, we’ve heard from the politicians and now the people of Rochester are giving their thoughts on the speech.

Some people say the address made them hopeful for the future of the country, others say that the President is out-of-touch with reality.

“I’m not really sure how much he really knows is going on in the world,” said resident Thomas Mitchell. “I think that it was more of a show for entertainment not for anybody’s actual value.”

People say it has been a tough year, and during the President’s SOTU address, they say he brushed over important issues.

“Last night I think it was a lot more of that selling the American people on a lot of spending and things that we are not interested in because we are the ones suffering with the prices of gas, food and energy,” explained Trina Bickham.

Like most of Congress, other people disagreed, saying that the President left them feeling hopeful and satisfied with the issues that were discussed, like infrastructure and job growth.

“I think he touched on all of them. I don’t think he has the answer for all of them, but I think he touched on all of them and he recognized those were issues,” said Todd Kegley. “As long as they’re working toward them, I’m okay with that.”

Others were fond of the speech as well.

“He [Biden] is my hero just because he’s trying to do the right thing for everybody, not just the wealthy,” said Margaret Gorrissen.

People agreed that the hostility between the nation’s leaders are out of control.

“We need to go beyond providing just band-aids and rhetoric and demonizing each other,” said John Kruesel.

“I wish we could get back to a point in time in this country where we could have civil discord and disagree about things without getting mean and nasty about it,” Kegley added.

The biggest takeaway from speaking with the people of southeast Minnesota is that the current state of the country depends on who you ask.

“I think our country is in the worst shape it’s ever been,” Bickham added.

“I think it’s getting better and I think you have to realize what we just went through so I think we’re on the right path,” Kegley said.

“I want to be encouraged but there are people that as far as I am concerned, on both sides of the fence, that do not take their oaths seriously and they should be terminated,” Kruesel added.

The people of SE Minnesota are very divided and they say only time will tell where we go from here.