State of the Union analysis and key moments: Biden aggressively makes his case for a second term

The former president’s attempt to react to the State of the Union was interrupted when his TruthSocial site suffered an outage.

The Biden campaign offered a one-word statement: “Sad.”

Stephanie Ruhle speaking on MSNBC moments ago:

We saw Mike Johnson, who is representing family values voters, when the president says, “I’d like to see teachers get raises. We’d like every child to be able to read when they’re in the third grade, and we should expand tutoring.”

Mike Johnson’s response? He sat on his hands. So it’s extraordinary when you think about what pro-life means when the president goes on to talk about family life in America and things that are important to families. Those Republicans are saying nothing.

These comments have been slightly edited for length and clarity.

Lawrence O’Donnell just made a great point on air with his praise of Biden’s ad-libs tonight, saying that the president had turned the State of the Union into an interactive experience.

That stuck out to me, too. After the speech, I noticed Rep. Gregory Meeks, D-N.Y., and Sen. Raphael Warnock, D-Ga., each praising Biden for delivering a speech that sounded like a sermon. And I think the ad-libs are a major part of what gave this speech preacher vibes. Biden had Republicans laughing at his jokes, he and Democrats had a little call-and-response portion, he let the audience cut in, and he improvised retorts on the fly. Very ministerial at times.

Ultimately, Biden was very skilled with his improvisation tonight. He certainly dispensed with the idea pushed on the right that he’s some senile dullard who can’t put sentences together.

Jen Psaki speaking on MSNBC moments ago:

I was very struck, because I’ve been a part of maybe nine, 10 of these — they almost always start on the economy because that’s what you’re trying to speak to your audience about, to people who are sitting at home. It’s rare for it to start on something else.

This was intertwined democracy, intertwined with the power in speaking against authoritarian dictators like Putin. That’s a choice, and that’s a choice the president makes. It’s not like they just give him a speech and he says, “Sounds great. I’ll deliver this.” He made the choice to book this on democracy, which speaks to the moment that we’re in. That is rare.

I was also struck by the Supreme Court moment. Joe Biden is an institutionalist, and the fact that he ad-libbed — “With all due respect, justices” — tells you that this is bothering him. He’s mad at the Supreme Court. That was not written into the speech.

The third thing I would say is his evolution on how he talks about abortion. This is an important thing to remember. I mean after Roe, a lot of the women’s rights groups and pro-choice groups were upset that he wasn’t being as vocal. He kind of was a little bit awkward in how he talked about it. He has a pro-choice record, but he is somebody who was very Catholic and not super comfortable talking about it. He really made some strides. He had a pretty bold message here on abortion rights and abortion access, and all of the issues around it, which I think is striking if you look back at his language two years ago.

These comments have been slightly edited for length and clarity.

Only three months after his fellow members of Congress booted him from office, and with a federal trial looming, George Santos announced tonight that he’s running for office again. 

It is hard to tell who he thinks his base is, given that he allegedly bilked many of them during his last campaign, spending their donations on Sephora and OnlyFans. But if he wants to try to beat the clock to get elected to Congress before a potential conviction forces his colleagues to vote to expel him again, well, that’s between him and the fine people of New York’s 1st Congressional District.

Lawrence O’Donnell speaking on MSNBC moments ago:

There’s so many things in this speech that we’ve never seen before in the State of the Union address. One of them is the 13 times he referred to the candidate he’s going to be running against for president. That’s normally impossible to do in the State of the Union address. 

But this time, when you get to say “my predecessor,” that makes it a presidential issue. Now you are comparing your governing to what came before you and what you’re correcting. It was extraordinary.

A moment that I think we all remember was the way he attacked the Supreme Court to their faces. The camera goes to this shot of the six Supreme Court Justice, three of whom he was very specifically attacking. That’s never been done before. The president always tries to find the most polite possible language for doing that. This was not the night for that.

The thing that isn’t really known about this, and it doesn’t seem obvious, is it’s a tough crowd. If you’ve actually sat in among the senators and House members as I have many times when I was working there, the general feeling is boredom. It is very, very hard to ignite them, to capture them. And he had them every step of the way in a very well-written speech. It really flowed in a very smooth way. It was what they wanted to hear, had surprises in it, had an energy level. I think I’ve never brought that much energy to the 10 p.m. hour.

These comments have been slightly edited for length and clarity.

As Rachel Maddow just mentioned on air, Britt spent much of her State of the Union response on immigration. “President Biden didn’t just create this border crisis,” she told viewers from her kitchen. “He invited it.”

To help construct that case, she omitted the legislative history that Biden mentioned in his address. After the White House and a bipartisan group of senators negotiated a border bill, Britt joined with other congressional Republicans to oppose that deal.

Agree or disagree with the president’s immigration policies, passing a border security bill sure is an odd way to “invite” a border crisis.

Rachel Maddow speaking on MSNBC moments ago:

My first impression is that it was an incredibly pugnacious speech. Biden came out with both proverbial barrels blazing right at the top, talking about democracy being threatened at home and abroad, talking about needing to stand up for Ukraine, talking about needing to never let lies take over the truth when it comes to what happened on Jan. 6, and the threat to our own democracy, talking about reproductive rights very early on.

He really was not shying away from talking about the former president, who he kept calling “my predecessor,” and who of course is his opponent in the general election campaign this year.

He was yelled at a few different times. There were some outbursts from Republicans. I don’t think any of that will be substantively memorable. I think what will be memorable about those outbursts is the way the president handled them, how he was seemingly energized by them and sort of almost looked forward to them.

These comments have been slightly edited for length and clarity.

From nearly the first word, the president came out swinging. From Jan. 6 to IVF to Medicare to taxes, he hammered “my predecessor” and the GOP. Republicans on social media and Fox News are already complaining that this address was too angry — a campaign speech, not a State of the Union. But Biden and his team understood that a campaign speech is precisely what was needed. 

This speech was almost laser-targeted at voters who backed him in 2020 but might be wavering. In most polls, especially those showing him behind, Biden is losing a chunk of those voters, while Trump maintains his high floor but low ceiling. The fury, the energy and the callbacks to Trump’s record addressed these concerns head-on. 

The great irony is that Biden’s predecessor, in fact, made his job easier. By fanning concerns about Biden’s age — concerns that credulous reporters have also amplified — the former president lowered the bar for the current president right to the floor. But Biden would have easily cleared expectations without Trump’s unintentional assistance. There was the occasional error in the ad-libs — the use of the label “illegal” was especially objectionable. But Biden, his team and Democrats can feel very, very good about tonight.

Britt used part of her response to hit Biden on not leading on national security. As part of that, she cited Putin’s brutality in Ukraine — but it’s very worth noting that Britt was one of 25 Republicans to vote against a package of aid to fund both Ukraine and Israel. So, really, that’s not the best of attack lines out of her.

This is a small point, but it’s clear that Harris and Johnson can’t actually leave the dais at the front of the House Chamber until Biden is done schmoozing. Katie Britt is almost done with her GOP response. But given how much the president loves gladhanding, the two of them may still be up there.

Pushing right-wing talking points accusing liberals of being soft on crime, Britt claimed: “The result is tragic but foreseeable — from our small towns to America’s most iconic city streets, life is getting more and more dangerous.”

Except it’s not. As crime analyst Jeff Asher reported in December, the violent crime rate actually decreased in 2023 and is near its lowest level in 50 years. Britt and her Republican colleagues clearly want Americans to think otherwise. As does Fox News, it seems. And to a degree, they’ve all been successful in some regard. But when you look at the big picture, the numbers don’t lie here.

Over the past decade, scoffing and taunting at the State of the Union has gone from a monocle-cracking breach of decorum to an expectation. It would be easy for someone less skilled at commanding a room to crumble like Muppet funnyman Fozzie Bear. But tonight, the would-be hecklers yelling at Biden, like Statler and Waldorf from their balcony, must have been disappointed to see how quick and sharp the president appeared. He was more than ready to clap back, not in anger, but with a puckish energy that belies his 81 years. (You might even say that he wocka-wocka’d the walk as well as talked the talk. I’m sorry.)

“I know I may not look like it,” said the president to begin the final section of his speech, “but I’ve been around a while.” Perhaps anticipating that some media outlets will talk about his age regardless of what happened tonight, Biden took it on directly. He pointed out that he was once seen as too young for the job, and positioned his decades in Washington as wisdom and experience. It was reminiscent of 73-year-old Ronald Reagan’s famous quip in the 1984 presidential debate, when he promised “not ... to exploit, for political purposes, my opponent’s youth and inexperience.”

When Trump dumped on the two-state solution while he was in office, it felt like an affront, a breaking of international order and norms. I mean, it was — he was backing the idea that Israel should continue the occupation of the West Bank indefinitely.

So when Biden said tonight that the two-state solution is the only way forward for Israel and Palestine, it gave me pause. Because Israel under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has demonstrated that the apartheid of the occupation would continue against Arab-Israelis and Palestinians even if a Palestinian state is finally established.

So is that really the only solution? Is a single, truly democratic state really off the table? I don’t know — but I’d rather have Biden back Palestinian sovereignty than Trump’s support of subjugation.

The speech was a little more than an hour and seven minutes tonight. For those keeping track at home, that makes his 2024 address neither his longest nor his shortest State of the Union. Now begins the (very) long walk back up the aisle and, eventually, the (very) short journey back home to the White House.

One of the first lady’s guests tonight is Jazmin Cazares, whose sister Jackie was murdered in the shooting at Robb Elementary in Uvalde, Texas. Growing somber, Biden condemned Trump’s suggestion, after the deadly school shooting in Iowa in January, that Iowans would have to “move forward” and “get over” yet another mass shooting.

Then, drawing a contrast, Biden raised his voice. “I say, stop it!” he shouted. "Stop it! Stop it! Stop it!”

After commemorating the victims of the Oct. 7 attack and promising to help bring the hostages home, Biden said, “Israel must also do its part” in lessening the “heartbreaking” humanitarian toll in Gaza.

Any president openly making demands of Israel would have been nigh unthinkable 10 or 15 years ago. That Biden — hardly an anti-establishment politician — did so shows how much views on Israel and the Palestinian territories have shifted in recent years.

It’s really wild how many of the wish list items that Biden has listed tonight — like boosted funding for child care and eldercare and passing the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act — would have been successes if it weren’t for Sen. Joe Manchin. The West Virginia Democrat withheld the final vote needed to pass the Build Back Better Act, which contained most of Biden’s economic agenda. And his protection of the filibuster helped Republicans block an expansion of voting rights.

There was an interesting camera cutaway just now, when Biden was touting the benefits of the bipartisan immigration bill Republicans are currently blocking. As many Republicans booed, Oklahoma GOP Sen. James Lankford was shown nodding his head in agreement with Biden, and appeared to be mouthing: “It’s true.” Lankford, of course, was a key negotiator who helped make the immigration bill as conservative as it was … and he was broadly attacked by Republicans for his efforts.

Republicans booed Biden when he called out their desire to expand the Trump tax cuts and highlighted the hole it will blow in the federal deficit. Biden, much as he did last year, took their anger and used it to box them in. “You don’t want to add $2 trillion to the deficit?” he asked gently. “I kinda thought that’s what your plan was.”

Same for when the GOP booed the Senate immigration deal that they tanked. “Oh, you don’t like that? You don’t like that conservatives got together and said this was a good bill?”

Look, I didn’t love this bill’s border provisions, but I do love Biden telling obstructionist Republicans: “I know you know how to read!”

Biden puts “my predecessor” on full blast for Jan. 6:

Funny moment: Biden self-censors the classic line he told former President Obama after the passage of the Affordable Care Act. At the time Biden called it a big … uhh … effing ... deal. 

This time, touting the record number of Americans who have health care, he toned things down a bit. Obamacare is still a “very big deal,” he says. Got a lot of laughs, too. Biden’s in his bag tonight.

Sanders, as an 82-year-old, is definitely at higher risk than most of the public for getting Covid. It’s nice to see him refusing to take chances with his health at a time when the CDC’s guidance for preventing the spread of Covid is basically “good luck.”

Mike Johnson can’t possibly be a good poker player. Sitting behind the president, he could hardly contain his resentment. His rolling his eyes as Biden discussed the deadly Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol and shaking his head in denial as Biden talked about lawmakers who refuse to tell the truth about Trump’s 2020 election loss will surely get replayed on the morning shows tomorrow.

Biden’s condemnation of the attacks were the most forceful parts of the speech yet. He raised his voice and really channeled the fury of Americans still disgusted with the scenes from that day.

“The state of our union is strong and getting stronger.” — Joe Biden at 9:46 p.m. ET

Democrats are probably getting tired of jumping up to applaud as Biden lists off ways the American economy has been improving.

Republicans, including Johnson, have been much more reticent, especially when Biden dinged them for being very happy to tout infrastructure spending they voted against that’s being used to employ people in their districts. “If any of you don’t want that money in your district, just let me know,” Biden told the Republicans.

I somehow doubt that anyone is going to take him up on that.

For the first time in more than a century, a president is giving a State of the Union while running against a previous occupant of the Oval Office. Biden has opted to navigate this unusual situation by referring to Trump repeatedly — but not by name. It’s a smart choice. He’s hitting Trump’s record, while not letting his name cloud the address.

White dresses aren’t the only political statements being made through fashion this evening. Democratic Reps. Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, Summer Lee of Pennsylvania and Cori Bush of Missouri are all sporting traditional keffiyehs, a traditional Arab headdress that some wear as a sign of solidarity with Palestinian civilians amid Israel’s bombardment of Gaza. Tlaib in particular has been intensely critical of the Biden administration throughout the bombardment.

Biden choosing to open with Ukraine and NATO really says a lot about how eager he is to finally get that bill passed. The Senate did so last month but it’s still being held up in the House, despite it being clear that the votes are there for it to pass. 

Some tea leaf reading though for you: Speaker Mike Johnson was nodding subtly as Biden told Congress to send the bipartisan national security bill to his desk. He was also applauding along with the president’s promise that he “will not bow down” to Putin. We know that Johnson supports the bill that would give assistance to Ukraine and Israel, but is hesitating to put it on the floor because of far-right opposition. We’ll see if this pushes him to bring the bill up anyway.

Biden took his time walking through the crowd of legislators to start his speech, but wow is he making up for lost time. I don’t know if his aides slipped him a Red Bull in the limo on the way over to the Capitol, but I’m into it.

The president opened his speech by hearkening back to Jan. 6, 1941, when President Franklin Delano Roosevelt addressed Congress just after being elected to an unprecedented third term. In that address, Roosevelt made the case for sending aid to Britain in its fight against Nazi Germany.

Today, it’s best known as the “Four Freedoms” speech, for Roosevelt’s invocation of “four essential human freedoms” — ​​freedom of speech, freedom of worship, freedom from want, and freedom from fear.

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., was right on the aisle as Biden walked in, lurking over him and imploring him to “say her name,” a reference to Laken Riley. She was also wearing a rather obnoxious “Make America Great Again” hat, which is expressly against the House rules:

Not exactly the picture of decorum.

Since the president, vice president, heads of the legislative branch, the military, and members of the Supreme Court are all in the same room, one Cabinet member gets appointed as the “designated survivor” during each year’s State of the Union. You know, in case something catastrophic happens and there needs to be someone who can take over the government in the chaos.

This year it’s Miguel Cardona, the secretary of education. And if that doesn’t make you think of “Battlestar: Galactica,” well, good news: You have a great show to start binging once the speech is over.

About a quarter past the hour, Biden has arrived. Those on the aisle are in prime position for a quick handshake and a greeting as he makes his way down toward the dais, where the House speaker and vice president await.

Ten years ago, then-Vice President Biden provided one of the highlights of the 2014 White House Correspondents Dinner when he did a video with Julia Louis-Dreyfuss’ fictional vice president, Selina Meyer. Earlier today, Biden went back to the Hollywood well, posting a video of himself soliciting advice from fictional presidents. Those represented: Morgan Freeman (“Deep Impact”), Bill Pullman (“Independence Day”), Geena Davis (“Commander in Chief”) and Tony Goldwyn (“Scandal”).

“Well, sir,” said Freeman, “in my capacity as president, all I had to deal with was a meteor.” If only that were all that faced us now.

For the last 50 years there’s been relatively little change about how the State of the Union is delivered each year, aside from the person delivering it. It doesn’t have to be like that, though, argue Victor Shi and Jill Wine-Banks, who are in favor of Biden switching things up:

You can read their full essay here.

When this man is a voice of reason in a major political party, you know things have gone wrong:

Incidentally, he's sitting next to Rep. Lauren Boebert.

OK, yes, obviously House Speaker Mike Johnson has attended other State of the Union addresses. But tonight is the first time he’ll be doing so sitting on the dais behind Biden, next to Vice President Kamala Harris. The real question will be whether he’ll be doing this again next year or if, like his predecessor, former Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., he’ll only get one chance to sit in the speaker’s chair while the president updates the nation.

Rachel just mentioned the Democratic congresswomen wearing white on the floor to show their support for reproductive freedom. You’ll see various members in this attire scattered throughout the crowd. But check out a group photo of the Democratic Women’s Caucus, posted by Rep. Sylvia Garcia of Texas:

— Latorya Beasley, a woman directly affected by the Alabama Supreme Court’s in-vitro fertilization ruling

— Kris Blackley, an oncology nurse and the director of patient navigation for the Atrium Health Levine Cancer Institute

— Jazmin Cazares, sister of 9-year-old Jackie Cazares, who was killed in the Uvalde elementary school shooting

— Kate Cox, who was denied emergency abortion care by Texas courts and traveled out of state for the procedure

— Samantha Ervin-Upsher, an apprentice with the United Brotherhood of Carpenters Local 432 in Pittsburgh

— Shawn Fain, the United Auto Workers president, who led strikes against Ford, GM and Stellantis and secured historic contract deals

— Bettie Mae Fikes, the singer and civil rights icon

— Steven Hadfield, a patient with diabetes and a rare blood cancer who is benefiting from Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act

— Garnett L. Johnson, the mayor of Augusta, Georgia

— Keenan Jones, a middle school educator whose student loan debt was paid off thanks to the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program

— Natalie King, the founder and CEO of Dunamis Charge, the first Black women-owned electric vehicle charger manufacturing company in the U.S.

— Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson

— Gov. Stephen Roe Lewis of the Gila River Indian Community in Arizona

— U.S. Navy Cmdr. Shelby Nikitin

— Justin Phillips, the founder and CEO of Overdose Lifeline, a nonprofit that helps people with substance addiction

— Kameryn Pupunu, a police officer from Lahaina, Maui 

— Maria Shriver, a journalist and the founder of the Women’s Alzheimer’s Movement

— Dawn Simms, a member of United Auto Workers Local 1268

— Rashawn Spivey, the founder and owner of Hero Plumbing in Milwaukee

— Tiffany Zoeller, a military spouse and medical coder at Fort Liberty’s Womack Army Medical Center

Rachel Maddow speaking on MSNBC moments ago:

We are thinking about what the president is going to say and how it sets up the campaign and how he tries to address the legislative priorities of the people who mean the most to him. 

We’re also like [gasps] “What are Republicans gonna do?” There is anticipation of what weirdness may come from the Republican opposition. I don’t know if Speaker Johnson has the ability to calm them down or talk them out of it, but I think it’s telling that that’s a big part of how we brace for nights like this.

These comments have been slightly edited for length and clarity.

Sen. John Fetterman won’t be with his fellow senators in the House chamber for tonight’s speech. Instead, the Pennsylvania Democrat will be watching from the comfort of his office — but it’s not meant to be a snub against Biden, Politico reports:

This really just makes clear to me that Congress needs to invest in the best live-captioning software available, if for no other reason than to increase accessibility for visitors who may have hearing issues as well.

— Ella Milman and Mikhail Gershkovich, parents of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, who is in Russian detention

— New York police Lt. Ben Kurian and officer Zunxu Tian, who were attacked by a group of people in Times Square

— Darin Hoover and Alicia Lopez, parents of two members of the Marine Corps who were killed in an attack at the Hamid Karzai International Airport while supporting the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan in 2021

— Orna and Daniel Neutra, family members of Omer Neutra, an American citizen and Israel Defense Forces soldier currently being held hostage by Hamas

— Mia Schem, a French-Israeli citizen who was taken hostage by Hamas on Oct. 7 and released in December

— Kristina Gill, the wife of Mike Gill, a former Trump administration official and resident of Washington, D.C., who was recently killed during a carjacking

— Riley Gaines, a former University of Kentucky swimmer who is an anti-trans activist

— Janet Durig, the executive director of Capitol Hill Pregnancy Center

— Tammy Nobles, the mother of Kayla Hamilton, a 20-year-old woman with autism who was killed by an alleged MS-13 gang member

— Stefanie Turner, who founded Texas Against Fentanyl after her 19-year-old son Tucker Roe died of fentanyl poisoning

— Ketsia, Miriam and Caleb Corbett, children of Ryan Corbett, a U.S. citizen who has been held hostage by the Taliban since August 2022

— Talia Khan, a Jewish graduate student at MIT who has spoken out about rising antisemitism on college campuses in recent months

— Chloe Cole, an activist who has campaigned against gender-affirming youth care

— Enes Kanter Freedom, a former NBA player who has criticized China’s human rights abuses and the basketball league’s ties to the Chinese government

— Wayne D. Lewis Jr., president of Houghton University in New York and a former commissioner of education for Kentucky, who publicly opposes trans athletes’ participation in women’s sports

— Jonathan Wheelis, a Chesapeake Energy employee in Haynesville, Louisiana

— The Rev. John Fream of Johnson’s home church, the Cypress Baptist Church in Benton, Louisiana

Polls from CBS News/YouGov and The New York Times/Siena College panicked some Democrats earlier this week, in both cases showing Biden trailing Trump by 4 percentage points (just outside each survey’s margin of error). But the president will enter the House tonight with much better polling news in the last few days, as frequent MSNBC guest Simon Rosenberg noted. 

• Morning Consult gives Biden a 1-point lead, a swing of 5 points from a month ago. 
• Emerson gives Biden a 2-point lead, after Trump led by a point last month.
• And a KFF tracking poll gives Biden a 3-point lead.

Of course, much can and almost certainly will change between now and the election. (At this point four years ago, for example, the country hadn’t yet shut down because of the pandemic.) But this could be a sign that the president is gaining as voters come to terms with the GOP renominating Trump. On that score, NBC News reports that the Biden campaign raised $1.5 million in the 24 hours after Super Tuesday, one of its biggest hauls of this election cycle.

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg speaking on MSNBC moments ago:

This conversation in tonight’s address is going to be about the future, not just about the past — as it should be. I think when you hear the president talk about what’s been achieved already, it’s to authenticate his vision for what is going to come next. 

Take $35 insulin. He was able to get that done for every senior in America — but he could get it done for every person in America if congressional Republicans would change course and help him do that. There’s so many examples like that where we’ve achieved a lot, could do more. But we would need cooperation from Congress. I think he’s going to lay that out tonight.

These comments have been slightly edited for length and clarity.

If we’re keeping it 100, it’s kinda wild that tonight’s speech is happening with only a minor shutdown threat hovering overhead, instead of an imminent shutdown threat looming over everything. The House managed to pass a spending package of six appropriations bills last night that will avoid a partial shutdown on Friday. The Senate still has to take up the measure, which is facing stiffer prospects than initially suspected as conservatives jockey for influence in the race to replace outgoing Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.

There’s also the little matter of the second round of spending bills that need to be finalized and passed before a March 22 deadline. Those bills are set to be even more contentious — but funding for the legislative branch is good until then, letting Biden deliver tonight’s speech without fear that the lights may turn off midway through.

Different presidents have different styles when it comes to their speeches, with some preferring more complete drafts and others preferring outlines that build in more space for spontaneous riffing. President Bill Clinton’s speechwriters carefully crafted outlines that anticipated these kinds of rhetorical digressions. The Arkansas native and amateur saxophone player “used to liken it to playing a jazz solo and then he’s going back to the score,” Clinton speechwriter Michael Waldman told The Associated Press.

We’ll have to see how unscripted Biden gets tonight. The president’s candid commentary can be both a blessing and a curse on the campaign trail, but he garnered praise last year for a spontaneous SOTU moment on Medicare and Social Security.

In a high-stakes election year, both Democrats and Republicans invited guests who represent their party’s priorities.

Some are more well-known, like journalist Maria Shriver, the former first lady of California who founded the nonprofit Women’s Alzheimer’s Movement, and singer and civil rights activist Bettie Mae Fikes. Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson of Sweden will also attend — on the same day his country officially joined NATO, shoring up its protection from Russian aggression.

Kate Cox, the mother who sued Texas for the right to emergency abortion care and lost, will also be in attendance. She is one of several guests who will reflect Democrats’ messaging on abortion rights. 

Riley Gaines, a swimmer who has advocated against trans athletes’ participation in women’s sports, will be a guest of House Speaker Mike Johnson, representing the GOP’s focus on anti-trans legislation.

Family members of Israelis taken hostage by Hamas, including Orna and Daniel Neutra, will be in attendance. Intimaa Salama, a Palestinian student at St. Louis University who has had 35 family members in Gaza die amid Israel’s siege, will also be there as a guest of Rep. Cori Bush, D-Mo.

And rapper Fat Joe, who has advocated for transparency in health care costs, will attend as a guest of Rep. Nanette Barragán, D-Calif.

Axios is reporting that none other than former Rep. George Santos plans on making a return to Congress tonight, just three months after the New York Republican was expelled from the House. You may be wondering how that’s even possible, especially considering that House Republicans probably are mad that he lost them a seat. Well, look no further than the House rules.

Rule IV governs who has access to the Hall of the House, aka the House Chamber, and that includes former members. There are some exceptions, though, including any former member who “has been convicted by a court of record for the commission of a crime in relation to that individual’s election to, or service to, the House.” Well, while the charges against Santos specifically focus on the lies he told and fraud he allegedly committed during his run for the House, he has not been convicted.

Loophole!

Ari Melber speaking on MSNBC moments ago:

President Biden tonight will be the first president to deliver a State of the Union while facing off against a former president who has four different criminal indictments. We don’t know whether the president will directly address those legal issues, but we should know past presidents have really gotten into it.

Consider how Ford and Carter spoke about the aftermath of White House crimes and Watergate. President Carter argued that Watergate-related Nixonian turmoil had hobbled their ability to deal with problems. Many people watching tonight, including Republicans, privately will say the same about Trump’s legal dramas. 

These comments have been slightly edited for length and clarity.

As the White House has spent the past week and change highlighting the need to protect liberal democracy, the conservative movement has been signaling its allegiance to a more authoritarian, proto-fascist (if not outright fascist) form of government. 

Here’s a picture that Kevin Roberts, president of the ultraconservative Heritage Foundation, posted of himself with Hungary’s illiberal leader, Viktor Orbán. 

Trump is set to host the overtly bigoted and antidemocratic prime minister at his Mar-a-Lago estate on Friday. Republicans and Democrats alike are signaling the type of government they hope to uphold if they’re in the White House next fall. It should alarm everyone that right-wingers are being so blatant about their thirst for authoritarianism.

Jen Psaki speaking on MSNBC moments ago:

I would be surprised if Biden calls out the Supreme Court specifically, because he’s a traditionalist. Just like I don’t expect him to call out Trump by name. Although, he certainly alludes to him in the speech excerpts when he says “clearly those bragging about overturning Roe v. Wade.” We know who he’s talking about. He can allude to it without naming names. I just don’t think he’s going put the Supreme Court on the spot because a lot of it’s wrapped up in presidential politics.

These comments have been slightly edited for length and clarity.

The White House has said that Biden is steeling himself for interruptions from GOP lawmakers — remember last year’s unruly spectacle? — but House Speaker Mike Johnson reportedly has urged members of his party to exercise restraint.

Several GOP House members told Axios that Johnson pleaded with fellow Republicans at a closed-door meeting Wednesday to “be professional” and “respectful” of the president tonight.

Whether that will help rein in the more antagonistic figures in his party remains to be seen.

Biden is reportedly planning on using tonight’s speech to hit major corporations for not paying their fair share, a frequent refrain from him over his term. This time around, he’s focusing on their refusal to bring down prices as inflation cools — and, as I wrote earlier in the week, CEOs are making it easy for him to take them to task: 

“Recently, in a particularly tone-deaf comment on CNBC’s “Squawk on the Street,” Kellogg’s CEO Gary Pilnick suggested the cereal aisle for families struggling with high food prices ...

Bear in mind that Pilnick makes $1 million a year from his salary alone and gets up to $4.4 million in bonuses. Also, consider that Kellogg’s boosted its profit outlook last year — cereal in particular has gone up 28% in price over the last four years, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data. As you’d imagine, Pilnick’s comments went down about as well as expired milk in a bowl of Frosted Flakes.”

Rep. Mike Collins, R-Ga., has arguably been the most shameless of all Republicans who’ve politicized the killing of Laken Riley, a woman killed in Georgia by an undocumented immigrant named Jose Ibarra.

Republican lawmakers and conservative media have been highlighting the story to fearmonger about a supposed wave of “migrant crime” (a bigoted claim that isn’t supported by evidence).

Though Riley’s family declined Collins’ invite to tonight’s speech, the congressman refused to give up the opportunity to grandstand. On social media, he wrote that “the seat reserved for my guest will remain vacant to honor Laken and all American victims of illegal alien crime.”

The right-wing hysteria about a deadly migrant “invasion” continues.

It has to be frustrating for Biden that despite only being about 3½ years older than Trump, he’s the one who’s constantly getting knocked for being too old. That’s the best explanation we were able to come up with as to the context of this excerpt from tonight’s speech that the White House released:

When I first read that quote, I was surprised to see Biden go so hard on the baby boomers as a generation. It took another read (and my fellow blogger James Downie pointing it out) before I realized just who Biden was referencing when he said “other people my age.” And, yes, trying to draw a contrast between himself and Trump’s character and similarity in age makes much more sense.

Not surprisingly, one of the excerpts released by the White House ahead of tonight’s address showcases fighting rhetoric from the president on abortion rights:

The enduring power of abortion as an issue was most recently demonstrated after the Alabama Supreme Court’s ruling that frozen embryos are legal persons. As a result, in-vitro fertilization providers paused procedures and Republicans scrambled to defend their views on IVF, often in pretzel-like contortions. Though Trump has tried to avoid talking about the issue, he has privately indicated that he would support a nationwide abortion ban — a stance Biden would eagerly highlight in the fall.

In a newly released excerpt from tonight’s address, Biden is hoping to brighten the country’s dim view of the economy under his watch:

The gulf between the usual economic indicators — which show that the U.S. is doing surprisingly well after the pandemic — and the public’s view of how things are going is one of the biggest challenges Biden faces in his re-election bid. The good news is that Americans are becoming slightly more positive about the economy’s prospects in the future. The bad news is that a recent NBC News poll found that, as things stand, Trump holds a 20-point advantage over Biden when people were asked who would better handle the economy.

I hope artificial intelligence gets more than just a passing mention tonight. Presently, algorithm-driven social media platforms are being used by some to promote hate speech and misinformation, and by others to engage in sexual predation of children. Law enforcement agencies are using AI in disturbing ways that have already trampled on civil rights. And nearly every industry — from truck driving to filmmaking — is likely to be altered by AI during the next presidential term. Let’s see if that comes up at all this evening.

The State of the Union can be an awkward affair for Supreme Court justices. Only some of them show up, and the ones that do have to sit there appearing nonpartisan while presidents talk about their priorities and accomplishments and politicians on either side of them alternately cheer and jeer. Sometimes the justices inject themselves into the proceedings, such as in 2010, when Justice Samuel Alito famously mouthed “not true” in response to President Barack Obama criticizing the Citizens United ruling for opening the floodgates to special interests influencing elections.

So, what (if anything) will Biden say tonight about the Republican-dominated court that overturned Roe v. Wade, struck down his student debt plan and has had a hand in multiple appeals affecting his likely opponent in November?

The president explained to Nicolle Wallace on “Deadline: White House” last year why the court is, in his view, “not normal,” citing the justices’ doing “more to unravel basic rights and basic decisions than any court in recent history.” The justices have only continued their aberrant behavior since then. Will Biden call them out on it? And how? And how will they respond if he does?

In the past two decades, these speeches have gone on for roughly an hour, give or take a few minutes.

In his first official State of the Union address in 2022, Biden — who Politico said had a history of being “long-winded” — ended his speech after just shy of 62 minutes. Last year, he came in at 72 minutes.

According to The American Presidency Project, the shortest State of the Union address in the past 60 years was delivered by Richard Nixon in 1972, at a succinct 28 minutes and 55 seconds. The longest was Bill Clinton’s nearly 89-minute speech in 2000. (Trump’s longest came in at more than 82 minutes.)

The president of the United States has a constitutional duty to “give to the Congress Information of the State of the Union,” meaning Biden couldn’t get out of tonight’s high-stakes event even if he wanted to.

But how that information is presented is not stipulated in Article II, Section 3, and indeed has varied widely over the centuries. Various presidents have addressed Congress in person and via written letters. Some speeches were broadcast over the radio, with the first televised address occurring in 1947.