Did Biden pass or fail? Former presidential speechwriters grade the State of the Union address

Saddled with negative approval ratings and trailing former President Trump in the latest polling average of their general election rematch, President Biden went for the jugular in prime time Thursday evening as he delivered the State of the Union address with eight months to go until the November showdown.

Biden early and often took aim at Trump, whom he only referred to as "his predecessor," and also fired numerous salvos at Republican lawmakers sitting directly in front of him as the president delivered his address to a joint session of Congress.

"My predecessor, a former Republican President, tells Putin, ‘Do whatever the hell you want,’" Biden charged three minutes into his speech. It was the first of thirteen references to Trump, who this week became the GOP's presumptive nominee.

While Democrats applauded the tone and tenor of the president's address, Republicans savaged the speech for crossing the line.

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"This was the most partisan State of the Union I’ve heard in my lifetime," said Bill McGurn, who served as chief speechwriter for then-President George W. Bush.

"No outreach to Republicans, and the clear message was this: the era of big government is back, with a vengeance," added McGurn, a Wall Street Journal editorial board member and columnist as well as a Fox News contributor.

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Marc Theissen, who also served as a speechwriter for Bush, argued Biden's speech was an "utter disgrace."

"Attacking his opponent directly in the first minutes of his speech is unprecedented and perhaps the most partisan start to a State of the Union address in modern memory," Theissen emphasized in a