Biden calls out hecklers, rallies base: State of the Union highlights

Many studies have found immigrants are less drawn to violent crime than native-born citizens. One published by the National Academy of Sciences, based on Texas Department of Public Safety data from 2012 to 2018, reported native-born U.S. residents were more than twice as likely to be arrested for violent crimes than people in the country illegally.

Many voting and racial justice activists praised Biden’s invocation of the late John Lewis in his vows to protect democracy and combat voter suppression, gerrymandering and “election subversion” in his remarks. The president, who spoke on the 59th anniversary of “Bloody Sunday,” criticized “forces taking us back in time” in his remarks as he connected his policies to the Civil Rights movement.

“I think he’s on fire,” said LaTosha Brown, co-founder of Black Voters Matter, a voting rights group. She called Biden’s call for the passing of the Voting Rights Act “fantastic.”

“I thought he delivered a powerful state of the union and did not back down about what he stands for. Joe Biden the fighter showed up tonight,” said Melanie Campbell, president of the National Coalition on Black Civic Participation.

As he neared the end of the speech, President Joe Biden quipped, “I know it may not look like it, but I’ve been around a while.”

The 81-year-old president added, “When you get to be my age, certain things become clearer than ever.”

He went on to promise that he wouldn’t allow the country to go backward or return to the past.

According to a new AP-NORC poll, 63% of U.S. adults are “not very confident” or “not at all confident” that Biden has the mental capability to serve effectively as president. A slightly smaller but similar share (57%) is not confident in Trump’s mental capability. Biden, though, faces greater concern from independents about his acuity and memory: 80% are not confident in Biden’s mental abilities, while 56% are not confident in Trump’s.

Biden is promising “no U.S. boots will be on the ground” amid Israel’s war in Gaza. Instead, he said, “A temporary pier will enable a massive increase in humanitarian assistance getting into Gaza.”

In discussing immigration policy, President Joe Biden mentioned Laken Riley, the Georgia nursing student who police say was killed by an immigrant in the country illegally.

Biden blamed Republicans for derailing a bipartisan border package in the Senate.

When Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene cried, “Say her name,” Biden replied. “Laken Riley.”

He said she had been killed by an “illegal” — referring to people in the country illegally. That’s a word Democrats do not use today; when Biden took office he used the word “noncitizens.”

But he also said the border package would have improved immigration policy — if congressional Republicans hadn’t derailed it.

Greene tried to give Biden a pin with Riley’s name as he entered the chamber prior to his speech.

It’s an idea he first pitched during his first State of the Union address in 2021. His plan would have called for states and the federal government to jointly fund it. He also sought to radically expand an existing program that helps the neediest families with child care expenses. The price tag for preschool and child care programs in the American Rescue Plan was $200 billion.

Congress ultimately axed from the American Rescue Plan. It passed a bill in 2021 that included $24 billion to keep the child care industry afloat, money that providers used to raise worker salaries and keep tuition rates down. It was the largest federal investment in child care in history.

That funding expired in September. Biden’s calls to invest an additional $16 billion to keep the industry solvent have gone unheeded.

The economy is a perennial topic for State of the Union addresses, but this year Biden is emphasizing recent positive economic indicators since Americans generally think the national economic situation is sour — and many think it’s gotten worse since Biden took office.

A new AP-NORC poll found that 69% of U.S. adults describe the nation’s economy as “poor.” Americans are more optimistic about their own finances than about the economy as a whole: About half (54%) of U.S. adults describe their household’s financial situation as good.

But when it comes to Biden’s performance on the economy, there’s a lot of discontent. Nearly two-thirds of U.S. adults (64%) disapprove of the way he’s handling the economy, and 57% say the national economy is worse off than it was when he took office in 2021.

Calling the U.S. economy the envy of the world, Biden tried to make his best pitch to a deeply skeptical public that things are getting better: “When America gets knocked down, we get back up.”

He pointed out that the racial wealth gap is the smallest in 20 years. Still, the Black-white racial wealth gap does persist.

Biden’s administration has pitched its policies as a remedy to economic stagnation and inequality across communities.

Kristersson is in the first lady’s box as Sweden gets set to complete the formal process of joining the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Sweden, along with Finland, moved to join NATO after Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

In the background of tonight’s speech, the Russia-Ukraine and Israel-Hamas wars are raging. Lawmakers are locked in a dispute about how much — if any — aid to contribute to allies in each conflict, and a new AP-NORC poll found that everyday Republicans and Democrats have very different views about how involved the U.S. should be in global problems generally.

Overall, there isn’t much appetite for a more active role abroad: 4 in 10 U.S. adults think the country should take a less active role in solving the world’s problems or that its current role is about right (36%), and only 23% want the U.S. to take a more active role. But while the GOP was associated in the past with a more interventionist style of foreign policy, that’s not a popular outlook among rank-and-file Republicans today. About half of Republicans (53%) and independents (47%) think the U.S. should take a less active role in solving the world’s problems, while about half (52%) of Democrats say the U.S.’s current role is about right.

But Republicans, independents, and Democrats are united on one thing: Only about 2 in 10 want the U.S. to take a more active role abroad.

During the speech, the House speaker and vice president sit behind the president. But there’s been a new speaker every year under Biden. Former leader Nancy Pelosi lost the spot when Republicans secured a narrow lead in the chamber.

Then it was Kevin McCarthy, who was ousted after he backed a deal to keep the government funded.

Now, it’s Mike Johnson in the seat. He was named to the job after a stunning 21 days with no leader. It was the longest Congress was rudderless since 1962. That time it took 55 days to elect a new speaker.

Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas walked alongside fellow Biden Cabinet members onto the House floor and was greeted by some of his most harsh critics, including Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene — who led the impeachment effort against him. The Georgia Republican tried to hand Mayorkas a pin that had Laken Riley’s name on it but he turned away from her to shake the hands of Democrats awaiting him on the other side.

Republican lawmakers are wearing their border security politics – on their lapel pins.

Many Republicans are sporting bright red “Stop the Biden Border Crisis” buttons.

Others are wearing buttons in support of Laken Riley, the slain nursing student in Georgia whose death has become a focal point for
Republican criticism of border policies.

One Republican, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, is using the language of activists after the police killing of George Floyd, wearing a T-shirt that reads, “Say her name.”

Rep. Troy Nehls, R-Texas, is donning a white t-shirt with the mug shot of former President Donald Trump with the words “never surrender” underneath it. The photo was taken in August 2023, as Trump surrendered at a jail in Atlanta on charges that he illegally schemed to overturn the 2020 election in Georgia. He says he’s not guilty.

It comes amid election year rollbacks in women’s healthcare access after the Supreme Court’s decision to roll back Roe v. Wade and its constitutional right to abortion.

“Our message is clear: we won’t stop fighting until all women can access the health care they need to control their own lives and futures,” they said.

That was the lowest since the 2021 Biden address, and wasn’t even half of the nearly 67 million who watched Bill Clinton give his in 1997.

Neither President Joe Biden nor his predecessor, Donald Trump, spent the final days before Super Tuesday scrounging for primary votes. Instead, both traveled to the Texas-Mexico border.

That proves just how pivotal immigration will be, even if both sides’ approaches couldn’t be more different.

Biden used that visit — and will repeat it during the State of the Union — that this is a matter of policy.

He’s slammed top Republicans for torpedoing a bipartisan immigration package at Trump’s urging. Biden says Trump is playing politics with the border to win in November, not fix anything.

Trump counters that Biden can’t stop an ”invasion” of people crossing into the country illegally.

Polls show that voters largely trust Trump over Biden on immigration. Changing that perception, as the president will try to do tonight, won’t be easy.

Santos, who was expelled from the chamber in December and is currently facing criminal charges, arrived near the Republican side of the chamber, and quickly started talking with the few lawmakers gathered ahead of the night’s speech.

In a clip posted by C-SPAN’s Howard Mortman, the then Delaware senator strolls around his office in shirtsleeves with the camera following him as he declares that it’s time for his party to “put up or shut up.” Aides appear to be working in the background, seemingly ignoring their boss’ moment in the spotlight.

His voice is a bit higher and more nasal than its current baritone. He promises to “put this country back to work” and then quotes Great Depression-era President Franklin Roosevelt saying, “It can be done.”

In a social media post ahead of his speech, Biden chatted with actors Geena Davis, Morgan Freeman, Bill Pullman and Michael Douglas, all actors who have played the commander-in-chief on TV or in film.

The short video also gave Americans a rare glimpse inside Camp David, where he held the conference call.

“I’ve never spoken to so many presidents all at one time,” Biden said. He asked whether they had any advice.

Freeman, who played President Tom Beck in “Deep Impact,” joked that in his capacity as president, all he had to deal with was a meteor.

Donald Trump, Biden’s Republican predecessor and likely opponent in this year’s election, is 77. Majorities of U.S. adults doubt that either Biden or Trump has the mental capability to serve effectively as president, according to a new survey by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.

Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson will be in the first lady’s box as Sweden gets set to complete the formal process of joining the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

Sweden, along with Finland, moved to join NATO after Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

With talks for an immigration deal collapsed in Congress, some Latino leaders are hoping President Biden will use tonight’s speech as a chance to present concrete executive action on immigration and a path forward on negotiations with House Republicans.

“We need to have more enforcement, more officers and faster processing,” said Domingo Garcia, president of the League of United Latin American Citizens. “But we also need to do something about those immigrants who have been here for years, like the Dreamers and others who are law-abiding, tax-paying citizens who also deserve a shot at the American dream.”

Democratic women wore white, the color of the women’s suffrage movement, during Trump’s State of the Union in 2019. In 2022, some lawmakers wore blue and yellow ribbons to show their support for Ukraine. (The country’s ambassador to the United States, Oksana Markarova, was a guest as well.)

▶ Read more about how speechwriters tackle the State of the Union.

▶ Read the full excerpts from tonight’s address.

Biden is 81 and polls show that his age is a top concern, even among Democratic voters. Trump is not all that much younger at 77.

Biden has been shadowed around the country by protests over his support for Israel’s war in Gaza. Activists have also planned a demonstration in Lafayette Square near the White House before the speech.

President Joe Biden will announce during the speech tonight that he will direct the U.S. military to help set up a temporary port off the Gaza coast. It will open a sea route for food and other aid for desperate Palestinian civilians trapped in the Israel-Hamas war. That’s according to senior administration officials who spoke to The Associated Press.

Democrats, including some of his closest allies, have become increasingly vocal about the need for the U.S. to act directly to ease civilian suffering in Gaza. Sen. Chris Van Hollen, a Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told The Associated Press that he will be looking for the president to give a forceful message on the need to get humanitarian aid into Gaza.

“Obviously [Biden] is going to talk about domestic issues. He’s going to talk about Ukraine. He’s going to talk about the awful attacks of October 7, as he should and Israel’s right to self defense,” the Maryland lawmaker said. “But I also think he should couple all of that with a clear message that the United States will not stand by and tolerate people starving to death.”

President Joe Biden will focus tonight on areas that he and White House aides believe broadly unify the country. It’s an implicit nod to moderate Republicans and swing voters whom the president hopes will find a home in his political coalition.

In his speech, Biden will make an explicit appeal to the divided Congress for his “unity agenda,” which covers broadly popular initiatives such as dealing with the mental health epidemic, curbing opioid abuse, aiding veterans and improving cancer care, according to White House officials who spoke to The Associated Press ahead of the speech.

It’ll come under one broad umbrella theme — that Biden is a president for all Americans.

“Stopping fentanyl at the border, passing privacy legislation to protect children online, keeping our sacred obligation to veterans and ending cancer as we know it are priorities for everyone without regard to party,” White House deputy chief of staff Bruce Reed told the AP.

After the president delivers his speech, the Republicans respond. This year, that duty falls to Sen. Katie Britt, an Alabama senator who has become deeply involved in the state’s battle over IVF.

The Alabama Supreme Court ruled frozen embryos can be considered children under state law, a decision that has threatened fertility clinics in the state. Britt called Republican front-runner Donald Trump to tell him that the party should embrace IVF.

Republicans are struggling to find their political footing following the overturning of abortion protections by the Supreme Court, particularly as the ripple effects of the decision grow.

Within hours of their conversation, Trump issued a statement that said he would “strongly support” the availability of IVF.

Britt is 42. She was elected to the Senate in 2022. Britt has called herself a “mama on a mission” to get things done in Washington.

This is a new-ish feature. It first went up after the Jan. 6, 2021, violent riot at the Capitol, when Trump supporters stormed the building and tried to disrupt the certification of Joe Biden’s victory. The fence stayed up for months out of security concerns. It was eventually taken down, but it goes back up temporarily for major events.

However, Biden is also expected to scold Republicans for rejecting a bipartisan Senate proposal on border security last month. It would have overhauled the U.S. asylum system with faster and tougher enforcement, but Donald Trump derided the proposal as insufficient, and it was swiftly dismissed by Republicans.

▶ Read more about the Laken Riley Act.

The most high-profile guests are invited by the White House and are often recognized during the president’s speech. Biden is eager to demonstrate how the U.S. Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade has limited reproductive rights. And Kate Cox will be sitting with the first lady. She’s a Texas woman who was unable to get an abortion in her home state even though her health was in danger and her baby had a fatal condition.

House Speaker Mike Johnson invited the parents of Evan Gershkovich, a Wall Street Journal reporter imprisoned in Russia. He’s also leaning into border politics and bringing two NYPD members — a lieutenant and an officer — who were attacked by migrants in Times Square.

▶ Read more about the guests for tonight’s address.

The atmosphere in the Capitol might seem a little frosty during tonight’s speech, after months of conflict between Biden and the House GOP. And Americans don’t have a lot of confidence that Biden will be able to work successfully with congressional Republicans going forward.

According to a new AP-NORC poll, about half (52%) of Americans have “hardly any confidence at all” in Biden’s ability to work with Republicans in Congress, while 35% have “only some confidence” and 12% have “a great deal of confidence.”

Views of Biden’s ability to work with his own party in Congress aren’t overwhelmingly positive either: 34% have a great deal of confidence, 36% have only some confidence and 30% have hardly any confidence at all.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, given their skepticism about the success of Biden’s relationship with one of the governing parties in Congress, nearly half of Americans have hardly any confidence in Biden’s ability to accomplish major policy goals (47%) or effectively manage government spending (51%).

President Joe Biden’s State of the Union Address is going to take the form of an on-the-job interview this year, as the president seeks reelection and tries to quell voter concerns over his age and job performance.

Thursday will be his third State of the Union address. It’s delivered from the House Rostrum.

The stakes are substantially higher than previous years, as the nation’s oldest president uses one of the few remaining political events that is broadly watched to sell his second-term vision to a dispirited electorate that broadly believes he’s not up to the task of the presidency.

He is also going to sharpen the contrast with his predecessor and all-but-certain 2024 rival, Donald Trump.