Key events
Joe Biden will likely portray this election as he did in 2020: a contest between democracy and Donald Trump, whose authoritarian rhetoric has escalated since he lost the 2020 election to Biden.
It is unclear how Biden will position himself on foreign policy. His administration faces mounting pressure from the right to abandon its support for Ukraine, which for more than two years has been fighting a Russian ground invasion. And he faces calls from a progressive anti-war movement to push for a ceasefire in Gaza, where more than 30,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israel’s military campaign. During his speech, Biden is expected to announce the creation of a port on the coast of Gaza to deliver more aid to the besieged enclave.
A week ago, Biden and Trump made dueling visits to the US-Mexico border, underscoring the centrality of immigration policy to the 2024 race – and the shift to the right that Biden and other Democratic politicians have made on the issue. During his speech in Brownsville, Texas, Biden called on Trump to support the bipartisan bill to restrict immigration on the southern border, which is languishing in Congress. How, and if, Biden speaks about immigration will be a prelude to his approach during the months ahead on the campaign trail.
This speech will also offer Biden an opportunity to address abortion rights, an issue that has mobilized Democratic voters since the supreme court decision protecting abortion access, Roe v Wade, was overturned. An Alabama supreme court decision in February ruling that frozen embryos can be considered children under state law – which has led to threats to access to in vitro fertilization there – brought concerns about reproductive healthcare access back to the fore. Biden has expressed his personal misgivings about abortion on religious grounds, but has defended Roe v Wade.
Joe Biden’s State of the Union address is scheduled to begin at 9pm ET/6pm PT tonight, 7 March, and will be broadcast on the major news networks, including ABC, NBC, CBS and FOX.
It will also be carried by CSPAN and streamed live on the White House website.
Democrats have tried and failed to protect abortion rights federally ever since it became clear the supreme court would overturn Roe v Wade, as they did in 2022. The party never had the votes, but at this evening’s State of the Union address, Biden will make clear it would be a priority, if re-elected:
In its decision to overturn Roe v. Wade the Supreme Court majority wrote “Women are not without electoral or political power.” No kidding. Clearly those bragging about overturning Roe v. Wade have no clue about the power of women in America. But they found out when reproductive freedom was on the ballot and won in 2022, 2023, and they will find out again in 2024. If Americans send me a Congress that supports the right to choose I promise you: I will restore Roe v. Wade as the law of the land again.
He will also attempt to persuade Americans that the economy is doing alright:
I came to office determined to get us through one of the toughest periods in our nation’s history. And we have. It doesn’t make the news, but in thousands of cities and towns the American people are writing the greatest comeback story never told. So let’s tell that story here and now. America’s comeback is building a future of American possibilities, building an economy from the middle out and the bottom up – not the top down, investing in all of America – in all Americans – to make sure everyone has a fair shot and we leave no one behind.
Biden may at some point choose to call out Trump by name, but from what the White House has released, he’s only referring to him obliquely – and pointing out that they are not far apart in age. Here’s the line:
My lifetime has taught me to embrace freedom and democracy. A future based on the core values that have defined America: honesty, decency, dignity, equality. To respect everyone. To give everyone a fair shot. To give hate no safe harbor. Now some other people my age see a different story: an American story of resentment, revenge, and retribution. That’s not me.
Good evening, US politics blog readers. Tonight at 9pm ET, Joe Biden will deliver what could be the most important speech of his presidency: the last State of the Union address before he faces Donald Trump in the November presidential elections. The annual speech is an important one for any president, but carries extra weight for Biden because it is a major opportunity to reengage with voters who have drifted away from him over the past three years but will be crucial in defeating Trump. Democrats are jittery over Biden’s persistently bad poll numbers, which for more than two and a half years have defied anything the president does to turn the situation around. His campaign believes the struggle for abortion rights is key to turning the situation around – among the promises the president will make tonight is a pledge to codify Roe v Wade if re-elected with Democratic majorities in Congress, the White House says.
Here’s what else we are watching for this evening:
The president has not shied away from attacking Trump as a threat to democracy in speeches since the start of the year, but this evening he’ll be in a room full of Republican lawmakers loyal to the former president. Will he bash him in front of them?
Rightwing lawmakers like Marjorie Taylor Greene and Lauren Boebert have made names for themselves by heckling Biden at prior State of the Union addresses. Will they repeat the act tonight?
Biden’s age has been a concern among voters and even some Democrats who worry the 81-year-old isn’t up to another four years in office. Will he address the touchy issue?