LATEST UPDATES: Joe Biden’s State of the Union | Colorado In DC
President Joe Biden began the speech with friendly remarks to Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy. The President turned to shake McCarthy’s hand briefly.
“I don’t want to ruin your reputation, but I look forward to working with you,” Biden told McCarthy with a chuckle.
Biden urges both parties to find bipartisan unity during his speech.
Before Biden began speaking, McCarthy said he would not tear up his copy of Biden’s speech. That was a reference to Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who did just that with her copy of President Donald Trump’s 2020 speech shortly after he finished it.
THINK PINK
Pink – and its shades – seems to be the color of the evening – at the State of the Union.
There’s First Lady Jill Biden’s purple and pink pantsuit and Vice President Kamala Harris’s magenta pantsuit. And House Speaker Kevin McCarthy has a reddish-pink tie.
Aides insist it’s all just a coincidence – just the color you prefer tonight.
Keep in mind that cherry blossom season is on the horizon in Washington, so maybe it’s just a nod to the time of year.
DESIGNATED SURVIVOR
For this year’s State of the Union, Labor Secretary Marty Walsh is the “designated survivor”.
The cabinet member is not at President Joe Biden’s address in the House of Representatives chamber. Walsh is instead in an unknown location.
The idea is to preserve the succession of government in the event of an attack or other incident in the Capitol, where the president, vice president, speaker of the House of Representatives and the rest of Biden’s cabinet are gathered.
Walsh is an interesting choice. He will leave the Biden administration to lead the National Hockey League’s players’ association. Six NHL games were played Tuesday night and overlapped with Biden’s speech.
When Biden gave his first State of the Union last year, Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo was chosen for the role.
JUDGMENT IS SITTING
A majority of the nine-member Supreme Court attends the speech.
Among the Justices in the House of Representatives Chamber is Ketanji Brown Jackson, the first black woman to serve on the High Court. She was nominated by President Joe Biden.
Also present are Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Elena Kagan, Amy Coney Barrett and Brett Kavanaugh.
For the first time since 1997, retired judges are at the address.
Even wearing robes are Stephen Breyer, who retired last year, giving Biden the opportunity to nominate Jackson, and Anthony Kennedy, who retired in 2018.
Four members of the Supreme Court are missing: Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito and Neil Gorsuch.
PLAY NICE
Vice President Kamala Harris and new Speaker of the Republican House of Representatives Kevin McCarthy of California are on good terms – for now.
The two shook hands as they took their seats behind where President Joe Biden will soon deliver his State of the Union address in the House of Representatives chamber. Harris and McCarthy smiled and chatted while waiting for the speech to begin.
Last year, Harris sat alongside then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi at the first State of the Union address with two women in those positions of power.
SANTOS’ SEAT
George Santos’ lies about his resume and family background have cost him his seat on House committees and fueled bipartisan calls for his resignation.
But that didn’t stop the newly elected Republican congressman from New York from grabbing one of the main seats for Biden’s speech.
Santos grabbed a seat in the middle of the aisle in the hemicycle. That means he’s been on national television on wide camera angles and has a chance to get a close look at Biden when the president arrives to address him.
Congressmen usually sit together by party. But seats in the House of Representatives are not up for grabs during State of the Union. So Santos only had to get there early to stake out a prime location.
BIDEN BINGO
Given Biden’s penchant for frequently repeating his favorite phrases, supporters and critics are putting together bingo cards of the reliable words and phrases he’s most likely to use during the speech.
From the League of Women Voters to the National Constitution Center and Washington media outlet Punchbowl News, groups have created their versions of the cards. If “Bidenisms” appear, particularly attentive viewers can tick them off.
Some card lists are common, like People, No Joke, and Turning Point. Others are more politically oriented. Think “Ukraine”, “gas”, “inflation” and “tax cuts”.
Many versions of the cards make the middle square an empty space. But even that can come with a dose of ideology. The conservative Americans for Tax Reform bingo card described it as “a taxpayer-funded ’empty’ space.”
REPUBLICAN RESPONSE
The last time many in Washington saw Sarah Huckabee Sanders, she was tussling with reporters at White House briefings as President Donald Trump’s press secretary. Now she is the newly elected Republican governor of Arkansas, and on Tuesday night she is her party’s choice to provide the response to Biden’s speech.
In excerpts of these statements, Sanders denounces what she calls the “radical left” agenda and Biden’s policies. She uses her national platform to continue Conservative struggles on social issues, including racial education in public schools.
The Sanders-Biden contrast is more than just ideological. Sanders is 40 years old and is currently the youngest woman governor in the country. Biden is twice her age.
‘FINISH THE TASK’
Biden will ask the country he leads to give him more time to achieve his biggest goals.
“That has always been my vision for the country: to restore the soul of the nation, to rebuild the backbone of America – the middle class – to unite the country.” That’s what the president wants, according to excerpts delivered to the White House before prime time speech published, say in his State of the Union address.
And also that: “We were sent here to finish the job.”
In the coming weeks, Biden is expected to officially announce his 2024 re-election campaign. A majority of Democrats now believe one term is enough for him, according to a poll by the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.
GROUP OF PREPARATIONS
Preparations are underway at the Capitol, and the President’s State of the Union address is just hours away. And that means a spate of behind-the-scenes operations to transform the stately building for prime time.
The House of Representatives chamber is now cleared out after lawmakers have done most of their business for the day. The crews begin their work.
The gilded Hall of Statues fills with lights, cameras and broadcast crews for the many interviews that will be broadcast before and after the speech.
It is the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic that the Capitol has been fully reopened for the event. Security is strict. People have begun to fill the halls of the Capitol
THE BALLOON
Biden has relieved Republicans of much excitement over his handling of the suspected Chinese spy balloon that drifted over the United States before being shot down over the Atlantic on Saturday. GOP lawmakers had discussed introducing a resolution just as the President was due to deliver his prime-time speech that would have condemned the government on the matter.
Those plans were scrapped, and instead a bipartisan proposal to condemn China is being considered.
“It’s too important an issue. And we want to be strong against China together, rather than fighting our own internal struggles,” Rep. Mike McCaul, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, told The Associated Press. Texas Republican supports bipartisan resolution.
Not everyone is on board it seems. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, the Republican congresswoman from Georgia, showed up at the Capitol Tuesday carrying a large white balloon.
MIC DROP
“We will not make childish games to tear up a speech”
– Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy. That was a reference to his predecessor, Democrat Nancy Pelosi, who made a point of publicly tearing down her copy of President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address shortly after he finished speaking in 2020.
INVITED GUESTS
Keep an eye out for guests invited to speak by the White House and members of Congress.
Alongside First Lady Jill Biden are Tire Nichols’ family and the parents of a three-year-old girl who has a rare form of cancer. There will be U2 frontman Bono, who has campaigned to fight HIV/AIDS, and Brandon Tsay, who disarmed the accused gunman in a mass shooting in California last month.
Some Democratic lawmakers are bringing in relatives of black men and boys who have died at the hands of the police.
Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy has invited former NBA player Enes Kanter Freedom, who changed his name from Enes Kanter after becoming a US citizen in 2021. He grew up in Turkey and has criticized Turkish President Tayyip Erdoğan, saying there was a bounty on his head in that country.