■Rep. Jim Costa of Fresno receives several minutes of “face time” with President Biden.

■Costa thanks the president for federal funding of California’s High-Speed Rail project.

■Costa echoes Biden’s view that the U.S. and the world face a “seminal moment.”

Rep. Jim Costa of Fresno was one of many Democrats who congratulated President Joe Biden after the State of the Union Speech. Costa gave him strong words of encouragement.

“Mr. President, you kicked ass!” Costa, D-Fresno, said on the floor of the House of Representatives on Thursday night.

C-SPAN captured the audio of the post-speech meeting. They spoke on and off for about four minutes.

He sure did! https://t.co/yeEKhokQHW

— Rep. Jim Costa (@RepJimCosta) March 8, 2024

“Harry Truman said (that) when they said ‘Give ’em hell, Harry!’ He said, ‘Give them hell? Just give them the truth,’ ” Costa continued while in a crowd of Congress members surrounding Biden.

“They don’t like to hear it,” chimed in Katherine Clark, D-Massachusetts.

Costa Brings Up Kyiv Trip, China

C-SPAN’S audio did not pick up clearly the start of the conversation, but Costa said something that made Biden chuckle.

Costa’s office said Costa thanked the President about funding for High-Speed Rail.

Costa told the president about his recent trip to Kyiv. He was part of a delegation (along with Rep. Don Davis, D-North Carolina) to the Yalta European Strategy Conference in Kyiv last month. Costa met with Ukrainian officials, military officials, and European leaders. Foreign aid to Ukraine was part of the discussion.

China also came up in the brief chat.

“I talked to Rahm (Rahm Emmanuel, U.S. Ambassador to Japan) last night. The Chinese are watching. Everybody is watching. The point you made … the world is watching. Seminal moment in American and world history,” Costa said.

Biden responded that historians will write about this particular time when they assess the effectiveness of American leaders.

Costa also got another dig in about Republicans.

“I love the give and take you gave our friends across the aisle there,” Costa said.

Valadao: Biden More Focused on Politics Than Solutions

Republicans, of course, criticized Biden’s speech.

“President Biden has failed to take meaningful action to address the long list of problems his policies have caused for Central Valley families, from the skyrocketing cost of groceries to the fentanyl coming across our open southern border,” said Rep. David Valadao (R-Hanford) in a statement.

“I’m disappointed that instead of taking accountability and working toward solutions, Biden continued to pass the blame in his speech tonight. There’s a lot of us who are willing to work across the aisle to solve the issues facing the American people. Unfortunately, the President is more focused on his political agenda than real solutions.”