‘i Don't Know If That Was Joe Biden Or Joe Louis’: Warnock Celebrates Biden’s Sotu

Joe Biden has officially put his dukes up.

That was the message Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.) took away from the president’s State of the Union speech Thursday.

“As I sat the other night and listen[ed] to the President's speech, I'll tell you, I said to my colleagues, ‘I don't know if that was Joe Biden or Joe Louis,’” Warnock said Sunday during an interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

Louis was the world heavyweight boxing champion for more than a decade; his 1938 victory over German champion Max Schmeling in the years leading up to World War II was one of the most famous fights of all time.

The link between the late heavyweight boxing champion and the 81-year-old president isn’t one that others have made, but in last week’s speech — during which Biden repeatedly swung at his likely GOP presidential opponent, Donald Trump, (though he never mentioned the former president by name) — Biden “came out fighting, and he never let up,” Warnock said.

Biden is expected to face a close race in Georgia come November, and some polls currently show him tailing Trump in the key swing state. Warnock, who won two runoff elections to earn and keep his Senate seat, offered some advice for Biden on Sunday:

“I say, ‘Soldier on,’” Warnock told NBC’s Kristen Welker. “As someone who has had his name on the ballot in Georgia five times in three years, I know a little bit about what it means to run in Georgia. And the road to the White House leads straight through Georgia.”