U.S. President Joe Biden is set to deliver his last
State of the Union address for this term as he
looks towards likely November rematch with his predecessor,
former U.S. President Donald Trump.
Now this years speech will be the third State of
the Union address for Biden.
Observers believe this is perhaps the biggest speech of his
life.
This time, Byron is ready to pitch his political campaign
appealing to the voter base.
According to the White House,
the president will touch upon several top issues facing Americans,
such as the economy and the election.
Hot topic, of course, the migrant crisis.
You will hear the President layout the historic achievements he
has delivered
on on for the American people and his vision for
the future.
Looking at what President Biden faced when he came into
office and where we are now,
it is clear he's got more done in the first
three years than most presidents have accomplished in two terms.
The President hopes to discuss upon
the economy, infrastructure and manufacturing,
reproductive rights, tougher migration rules and lower drug prices.
He is likely to push to restore expanded child tax
credit for low and middle income families,
as well as push for action on aid to Ukraine,
among other issues. But as he does so,
the 81 year old president will be closely watched not
just for his message,
but for whether he can deliver it with vigor and
command.
And so his age will definitely be an issue Biden
could address.
The president has been very clear.
He's been very honest about his age.
He knows that he makes jokes about it,
right? He makes jokes about his friend Jim.
Jimmy Madison, right? He gets that
the opposing party traditionally stages its own response to the
speech,
and this year Republicans have chosen 41 year old Senator
Katie Britt of Alabama.
Many will also be waiting to see Trump's own response
here.
In a post on his social media
account, Trump promised to provide live play by play commentary
on Biden speech.
All right to get us more.
Joining us now is Voice of America correspondent Jessica Stone
joins us from the White House.
Jessica, I want to get right to it.
How do you feel President Biden is going to use
tonight's speech to convince the nation he should get a
second term?
Well, President Biden coming into this speech with one of
the lowest approval ratings of any sitting U.S.
President. In fact, a recent Economist poll shows that most
Americans surveyed believe that the country is on the wrong
track.
Now, he's expected to talk a lot about immigration,
about how tough he will be on immigration enforcement also.
That's important because the Republicans actually sank an effort to
pass by
to pass immigration reform just a couple of weeks ago.
So he's going to talk about that,
but also about the economy,
how he plans to lower costs for average Americans for
healthcare and for education.
He's also expected to call for more funding going to
Taiwan,
to Ukraine and to Israel.
And to drill down on this announcement that we heard
just a couple of hours ago from
the White House, which is that the president will order
the US military to construct a pier of temporary port
of sorts to get additional aid into Gaza to make
sure it's getting to those millions of people who are
not getting enough food and water and supplies at this
hour.
Jessica, thanks for getting that quick roundup of possible things
that Biden would be talking about Now.
Guests on the speech often indicate themes that will be
presented.
Who's invited to sit in the first ladies box here,
play into the words that the president is going to
deliver Tonight we're going to see
a woman from Texas who had to
cross state lines in order to receive an abortion.
She will be mentioned in the speech in the context
of abortion rights the president says he will fight for.
Also an Alabama woman whose embryo transfer was canceled after
the recent court decision in the state of Alabama that
determined that embryo is created through in vitro fertilization should
be treated as children. So this is an indication of
the type of conversation that the president hopes to have
on reproductive rights,
especially since the overturning of Roe V Wade in
2022. We know from polling that abortion rights is a
key issue,
especially for Democrats. And so this is an effort to
speak to that population also among the guests,
a teacher whose school loans were forgiven through the president's
efforts to reduce school loan debt and increase school loan
forgiveness.
The leader of the nation's largest auto union,
who has now endorsed President Biden after he was the
first US president,
sitting U.S. President to March on the picket lines with
auto workers
and ask for a historic pay increase.
And also we're going to see the Prime Minister of
Sweden,
Sweden, just joined today, the organization of NATO.
That's of course, in the context of what's going on
in Russia and in Ukraine and the invasion of Ukraine
by Russia.
Now, of course, Jessica, there is going to be another
keen observer here is that's the former President Donald Trump.
Now, the presumptive Republican nominee won't be at the speech
tonight,
but he's planned a response to the to the speech.
How do you see this one going?
Yeah, he has, you know,
President Donald Trump, never missing an opportunity to get more
immediate attention on himself.
He will be doing what he says,
quote, is a live Fact Check of Biden's address on
his social media site,
Truth Social. But who will give the actual response from
the Republican Party?
Alabama Senator Katie
Brit. She will actually be doing the traditional Republican response.
We already know that she's going to talk about what
she sees as the major cultural shifts in this country
and the changes that have happened with respect to democracy
and freedom. Back to President Trump though for a moment.
He did this same sort of live,
tweeting, live response last year during the State of the
Union address.
But his comments are expected,
of course, to have more impact this year as he
now is the presumptive Republican nominee.
We also know that he released a prebuttal taped video
on social media criticizing
Biden's handling of the economy and of immigration policy.
Those of course big issues that he's planning to run
against him on.
He's been hammering those on the campaign trail already.
We don't expect that to change in the foreseeable future.
Back to you.
All right. Thanks, Jessica. That was our Voice of America
correspondent Jessica Stone joining us from the White House.
Now, of course, were also joined by our correspondent Susan
Tehrani,
who's live from New York.
Susan, of course, I wanted to just understand from you,
how do you see this one going?
Abortion, immigration, economy, Of course,
these are going to be the main thrust.
There's also expected talk on the war in Gaza.
Talk to us about how do you see Biden addressing
this one.
Yeah, what President Biden says is as equally important as
how he says it.
You know, this speech comes at a time,
and not only is he the presumptive candidate,
but also because there's so much talk about his old
age,
about his mental acuity, his own Justice Department really questioned
that.
So he has to exude confidence,
leadership and he has to convince the American people that
he's on their side,
notably when it comes to those economic achievements that he
wants to talk about because there are many Americans who
just don't see it in their lives and their pocketbooks
despite what the White House says.
And then of course it's the issue of border security
and immigration,
which is a top of many voters minds.
You know, he will talk about how he wants to
get some kind of border bill passed and the Republicans
stonewalled it.
But then you really have,
you know, incidents like the killing of that nursing student
Lincoln Riley by the illegal migrant,
the assault on a 14 year old and a two
year old as well by illegal migrants.
These are going to really ring hollow
in a lot of Americans minds,
notably the Republicans moving forward,
Susan, he brought out an important point.
It's not just what he's going to say,
it's also how he's going to say at his address.
Will he fumble? How clear will he be?
Will there be a vigor in his tone?
How what kind of command will he exude while he
speaks?
Because that is going to be keenly observed,
definitely by everyone in the audience,
the entire nation, but also from the opposition.
Because Trump has already said he's going to offer a
live play by play commentary.
How do you think what?
What all do you think Trump is going to be
looking for at the moment to kind of point out
and bring out his points here?
Yeah, Trump is definitely going to
be looking at what the president says about immigration.
But you know, again, how he says it,
as you said, it's not only the opposition but the
whole country.
And even America's allies and adversaries are going to be
watching to see how this president delivers this speech.
We are told that the president is not expected to
mention the former president by name,
but he will say that there is going to be.
Now, some other people my age see a different story,
an American story of resentment,
revenge and retribution. Of course,
he's talking about Donald Trump.
He's not going to name him.
But what? It'll be interesting to see how the former
president would respond to something like that.
Remember, this is a State of the Union,
but it's also borderline a campaign speech for a president
that's very unpopular right now.
All right, Susan, we let you go for now.
We are going to talk to you a little later
in the day once again,
once the speech starts. And that was Susan Tehrani joining
us from New York.