2024-03-07 17:30:08
Democrat President Joe Biden will take the podium Thursday evening to deliver his third and possibly, depending on the outcome of the November presidential election, last State of the Union address as president of the United States.
Biden will appear in the U.S. House chamber before the entire Congress — and sitting behind him will be Vice President Kamala Harris and House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) — for the address, scheduled to begin at 9:00 p.m. ET. The annual address from the nation’s chief executive is always filled with Washington pageantry, as most of the president’s cabinet — except for a designated survivor — as well as top military advisers, most of Congress, and most Supreme Court Justices attend the event in the House chamber.
Eight-foot-tall steel fencing is put up around the U.S. Capitol the day before President Joe Biden is to deliver the State of the Union address on March 6, 2024, in Washington, DC. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
State of the Union addresses are where presidents often tout accomplishments in the past year or lofty goals for the year ahead. But in Biden’s case, 2024’s speech comes at a particularly perilous time for him politically and for the nation policy-wise. Biden’s main general election opponent, former President Donald Trump, wrapped up the Republican nomination for president on Super Tuesday by knocking his last remaining challenger out of the race. Trump currently leads Biden in most general election polling and in key battleground states around the country, while Biden has reached a near-record low in his disapproval rating from American voters.
Former President Donald Trump (Win McNamee/Getty)
Furthermore, Biden’s own Justice Department — through Special Counsel Robert Hur — just determined that Biden will not face criminal charges he otherwise would have because, in Hur’s estimation, Biden is too “elderly” with “poor memory” issues. Biden will seek to use the stage on Thursday evening to prove his doubters wrong, something that he will likely do easily if he just sticks to the teleprompter throughout the address.
Then there are major problems facing the nation and the world that Biden will seek to regain control over. First off is the economy, where inflation continues to rage out of control, and Biden will seek to shift blame for that from himself and his Democrats’ failed policies to companies by leaning into the buzzword “Shrink-Flation.” That is hardly the only place Biden will play the blame game on Thursday: When it comes to immigration and his failed policies — which have allowed millions upon millions of migrants into the country — Biden will undoubtedly seek to blame Trump and Republicans in Congress for the flow because of their decision to block a bipartisan Senate foreign aid deal negotiated by, among others, Sen. James Lankford (R-OK). Biden’s blame on that will be factually inaccurate, however, since the Lankford deal would have made the problem far worse, not better at all, than it is currently — and Biden could fix this problem easily via executive action and a return to Trump’s policies.
Trump, for his part, says he will provide live commentary and fact-checking of Biden’s lies throughout the address via his Truth Social account. Trump’s response is far more important than the “official” Republican response offered by Sen. Katie Britt (R-AL), a selection of outgoing Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and Johnson, who will deliver her own speech afterward.
Sen. Katie Britt (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
But perhaps the biggest tell in his State of the Union address will be how Biden handles what he and his closest advisers recently told the New Yorker they expect to be the centerpiece of his 2024 reelection campaign: The nonsensical argument that Republicans and Trump are somehow a threat to democracy itself. How political Biden gets in this speech, and how it is received after the fact, could very well determine whether Trump maintains or expands his general election-season-opening lead in the race for the White House.
Follow along here on Breitbart News for the latest breaking news and analysis throughout the address and afterward.
UPDATE 9:18 p.m. ET:
Biden is entering the chamber now and members of Congress are interacting with him as he walks down the center aisle to the podium.
UPDATE 9:13 p.m. ET:
Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona is the designated survivor this evening.
UPDATE 9:10 p.m. ET:
Jill Biden, the First Lady, just entered her seat in the House gallery.
Tapper from CNN noted that Biden is late for the address.
The Speaker, Mike Johnson, just gaveled in the House and the clerk welcomed the president’s cabinet into the chamber.
UPDATE 9:09 p.m. ET:
A Biden biographer, Evan Osnos, is on CNN arguing that this might be the most important speech of Biden’s long career in politics.
Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff, Kamala Harris’s husband, entered the House gallery.
UPDATE 9:02 p.m. ET:
Biden’s motorcade has arrived at the Capitol and the president is walking through the building.
UPDATE 8:59 p.m. ET:
Key officials like the diplomatic corps and several Supreme Court Justices are entering the Chamber now too.
UPDATE 8:55 p.m. ET:
CNN’s Kasie Hunt is saying dating back decades of State of the Union addresses she’s covered she’s never seen anything like the protests currently derailing Biden’s arrival for his address.
Currently on the House floor, Speaker Mike Johnson and Vice President Kamala Harris–who serves as president of the Senate–are bringing the joint session of Congress to order via procedural motions.
UPDATE 8:53 p.m. ET:
CNN’s Jake Tapper reported that U.S. Secret Service took President Biden via an alternate route to the Capitol because of the pro-Palestinian leftist protesters who blocked the originally planned route.
UPDATE 8:51 p.m. ET:
Biden’s motorcade is now en route to the Capitol. He is set to deliver the speech at 9 p.m. ET. Whether that starts on time or is disrupted by the protests remains to be seen.
UPDATE 8:49 p.m. ET:
CNN’s Jake Tapper reports that the president normally would have left the White House by now, but leftist protesters blocking his route to the Capitol may have the U.S. Secret Service planning an alternate route.
Biden has now finally just left the White House along with First Lady Jill Biden.
UPDATE 8:44 p.m. ET:
Biden reportedly intends to use this speech to aggressively attack Trump. How that goes will be interesting, but he is reportedly going to attack Trump’s age. Trump is younger than Biden by a few years.
UPDATE 8:43 p.m. ET:
Biden is about to leave the White House soon to head to Capitol Hill. Vice President Kamala Harris just entered the House chamber with senators. Pro-Palestinian protestors are apparently blocking Biden’s motorcade’s path to Capitol Hill.
