Washington
CNN
—
President Joe Biden addressed Congress and the American people on Thursday in what could be the most consequential address of his presidency, boasting about his first term but also expressing what he called a devastating blow to the nation's very existence. It is trying to warn the country about what it sees as a threat.
While the State of the Union address has typically been a president's most bridge-building opportunity to promote himself as president, the main result of Super Tuesday effectively consolidating the 2024 campaign into a two-person race. gave this year's speech a political tone. Hue.
It remains to be seen how often Mr. Biden will cite former President Donald Trump by name, or whether he will do so at all, but the 2024 general election campaign will apparently begin with Mr. Biden's speech. right.
Biden's speech will attract the attention of what will be his largest audience by November, with voters worried about his age and physical strength asking whether the 81-year-old president will continue in office for another four years. This will be an important barometer for determining whether He took the job a month after a special counsel's report found his memory and cognitive abilities were impaired.
It also gives Biden an opportunity to directly introduce his administration's biggest victories to the American people, bypassing traditional media outlets, which have obscured his own accomplishments and support base. He frequently complains.
The U.S. economy has been outperforming experts' expectations since a year ago, when many economists thought it was now in recession.
That didn't happen for various reasons. His unemployment rate has remained below 4% for the past 24 months, and it's not likely to happen anytime soon.
But Americans are not so optimistic. In survey after survey, they convey deep disapproval of the current state of the economy, and Biden is having a hard time keeping that in mind.
At the heart of their fear is inflation.
Consumer Price Index data shows Americans are paying 18% more for goods and services than they were before President Biden took office, although price increases are much slower than they were two years ago.
This is a problem that Biden has acknowledged in the past and promised to solve. Mr. Biden's comments on the economy have recently taken on a more populist tone, saying earlier this year, “Despite everything we've done to bring down prices, America still has the power to rip people off.'' There are too many companies.”
“Price gouging, junk feed, greedflation, shrinkflation,” Biden said in a speech in Columbia, South Carolina, adding that the country is “tired of being played for.”
Cookie Monster was complaining too. About feeling the pinch of his amorphous wallet.
Two days before Thursday's speech, the Biden administration launched a new strike force with the Justice Department and Federal Trade Commission “to root out and disrupt illegal corporate practices” that result in higher prices for Americans.
White House national economic adviser Lael Brainard said in a conference call Monday night that the effort will be addressed in Biden's remarks Thursday, saying he hasn't lost sight of the impact high prices are having on Americans. He said the purpose was to show that.
The Biden administration has also focused on lowering drug prices and health care costs more broadly through cost-cutting legislation and executive proposals aimed at increasing competition.
For example, in November, the administration proposed rules governing the financial incentives that health insurance companies offering Medicare Advantage and Medicare Part D drug plans can offer to brokers and agents.
The proposal would put guardrails in place to prevent schemes that offer excessive compensation to brokers and agents to lure potential enrollees to their policies rather than in the best interests of seniors. .
Border deal failure and abortion rights contrast with President Trump
After the failure of a bipartisan deal that included significant border concessions by Biden at Trump's request, the president vowed to make his case directly to the American people, addressing many Americans' biggest concerns. He directly criticized President Trump for this issue, which he said was a matter of concern. Entering November.
Biden is scheduled to unveil his biggest platform yet on Thursday.
Biden, who visited the U.S.-Mexico border on the same day as President Trump last week, extended an olive branch to his adversaries and sought to find solutions to strengthen the U.S.'s southern border and overhaul the immigration system. I begged them to cooperate.
President Trump, hoping to use illegal immigration as a political bludgeon against Biden, has not responded to a cease-fire agreement.
Biden has continued to point to the cowardice of Republicans standing up to Trump as the main reason the deal failed. He will have a chance to directly criticize congressional Republicans on Thursday.
He will also have the opportunity to explain his efforts to protect abortion rights in the United States and the threats to those rights if Trump is re-elected. Since the Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade in 2022, the president and his administration have spent much of their time blaming President Trump's decision.
Speaking directly to the Republican-controlled House of Representatives, which dashed hopes for a border deal that included funding for Ukraine and Israel, Biden detailed in vivid detail the cost of Republicans' embarrassment for additional aid to the country in his third year in office. will have an opportunity to explain. war with Russia.
Further shortages of U.S.-funded ammunition are having a severe impact on Ukrainian soldiers on the battlefield, and Mr. He frequently states that he will be killed.
The speech came weeks after Ukraine announced its withdrawal from the strategic center of Avdiivka following fighting that caused heavy casualties among Ukrainians, and other world leaders. A hypothetical Trump second term casts doubt on the future of U.S. leadership abroad.
Meanwhile, President Trump, who has always been wary of directing any kind of criticism at Russian President Vladimir Putin, has become more vocal about withdrawing the U.S. from international alliances and has threatened to attack U.S. allies who don't meet NATO spending. He said he would encourage Russia. Regarding the death of President Putin's main critic Alexei Navalny, he has not criticized President Putin in any way.
Perhaps in an effort to drive Biden home, the White House said Navalny's widow, Yulia Navalnaya, and Ukraine's first lady, Olena Zelenska, had been invited by the White House to watch Biden's speech. Announced. I was unable to participate in either.
Biden will also have the opportunity to defend his position on Israel's continued war in Gaza. Although Biden continues to support the war, he is becoming increasingly unsympathetic, and there is a fear that major progressives will turn against him.
Warning about domestic democracy and threats
Biden posted a photo on social media on Tuesday of himself reading the first page of a draft speech during preparations at Camp David.
The page featured the president's customary greetings to the Speaker of the House, members of Congress, the vice president, and the American people, but a closer look reveals that at least in early drafts, Biden The name he wanted to be called was revealed.
The first page shows President Franklin D. Roosevelt's name and the beginning of his 1941 speech to Congress in translucent text. In this speech, the nation's 32nd president famously proposed four fundamental freedoms: freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom from want, and liberty. Freed from fear, he extolled the virtues of democracy around the world.
At the beginning of his speech, President Roosevelt told members of the 77th Congress that he was addressing them “at an unprecedented moment in the history of the Union.”
President Roosevelt said, “I use the word “unprecedented'' because there has never been a time when the security of the United States has been so seriously threatened from outside as it is today.''
Mr. Biden has issued increasingly dire warnings of his own in recent months about threats to U.S. national security. But the president warned that the threat comes from within.
President Roosevelt's speech was delivered on January 6, 1941. Eighty years ago, a mob incited by President Trump stormed the building where President Biden would deliver his speech in a violent attempt to disrupt the democratic process leading up to his inauguration.
CNN's Elisabeth Buchwald and Tami Luhby contributed to this report.
