Joe Biden to deliver final State of the Union before election

Joe Biden will deliver the final State of the Union address of his presidential term on Thursday evening, giving the incumbent Democrat an opportunity to tout his accomplishments and pitch his re-election campaign as he prepares for a rematch against Donald Trump in November.

Biden will address a joint session of Congress to deliver the annual update on the nation’s welfare at a time when the US faces numerous challenges at home and abroad. Although the rate of inflation has eased, and unemployment is at a record low, only 27% of Americans rate the country’s current economic conditions as excellent or good, according to a Gallup poll conducted in January. Meanwhile, a growing number of Americans cite immigration as the nation’s most important problem, and support for abortion access has neared record highs even as dozens of Republican-led states have enacted severe restrictions on the procedure following the overturning of Roe v Wade.

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Biden has simultaneously had to navigate the US response to the wars in Ukraine and Gaza. The White House’s demands that Congress approve more funding for Ukraine have so far failed to produce results, and Vice-President Kamala Harris’s recent call for a temporary ceasefire in Gaza does not appear to have moved the needle in negotiations between Israel and Hamas.

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Previewing Biden’s State of the Union speech, his press secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre, said his remarks would focus on the president’s vision for the nation’s future and his legislative accomplishments. During the first two years of Biden’s presidency, when Democrats controlled the House and the Senate, Congress was able to pass a number of major bills, including the American Rescue Plan, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the Inflation Reduction Act.

“This is a president that has done more in his three years as president than most presidents have done in their two terms,” Jean-Pierre told MSNBC on Sunday. “You’re going to hear him talk about that. You’re going to hear him talk about the future, how he sees the future for the American people.”

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But the current divided Congress, in which Republicans control the House of Representatives, has been historically unproductive. As Congress has stumbled, Americans’ opinion of Biden’s job performance has similarly suffered. According to the FiveThirtyEight polling average, Biden’s approval rating now stands at just 38.1%, and surveys show him running neck and neck with Trump in the presidential race.

The State of the Union address comes one day after Nikki Haley, Trump’s last remaining rival in the Republican presidential primary, dropped out of the race following her disappointing performance on Super Tuesday. With Trump as their presumptive nominee, Republicans appear eager to capitalize on the State of the Union by highlighting Biden’s unpopularity and widespread concerns over the 81-year-old president’s age.

According to an NBC News poll conducted in January, 76% of US voters say they have concerns about Biden not having the necessary mental and physical health for a second presidential term, while 48% said the same of 77-year-old Trump.

“The numbers don’t lie – Americans know that the state of the union is weaker because of Joe Biden,” Ronna McDaniel, the outgoing chair of the Republican National Committee, said on Wednesday. “Voters do not want Biden to ‘finish the job’, which is why this will be his last State of the Union address.”

Republicans have chosen the senator Katie Britt of Alabama, the youngest Republican woman ever elected to the upper chamber, to deliver the party’s official response to the State of the Union.

As with past State of the Union speeches, the White House and members of Congress have had the opportunity to invite guests to the event, and they have used those invitations to send a message about their policy priorities.

The first lady, Jill Biden, has invited Kate Cox, who made headlines in December when she fled Texas to receive abortion care after she was denied access to the procedure in her home state. Senator Tim Kaine, a Democrat of Virginia, announced his guest would be Elizabeth Carr, the first person born via in vitro fertilization in the US. The invitation comes after the Alabama supreme court issued a ruling arguing that frozen embryos are children under the law, jeopardizing access to IVF in the state.

The House speaker, Republican Mike Johnson, has invited the parents of the Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, who remains detained in Russia. The White House invited Yulia Navalnaya, the widow of the late Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny, but she is unable to attend.