President Joe Biden will try to rally Americans in a State of the Union speech Tuesday hailing his role shaping Western unity against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and promising to overcome soaring inflation and crime at home.
The twin focuses come as Biden tries to battle back from approval ratings in the low 40 percent range and lead a deeply divided country from its coronavirus pandemic slump.
The Russian invasion of Ukraine has given the annual State of the Union speech — typically a chance to address top US domestic questions — a burning foreign focus this year, with the massive transatlantic effort to push back on the Kremlin.
According to excerpts released by the White House, Biden will say that President Vladimir Putin launched an “unprovoked” war, thinking “the West and NATO wouldn’t respond” and that he “could divide us here at home.”
“Putin was wrong. We were ready,” Biden was to declare at the joint session of Congress. “Dictators” need to “pay a price for their aggression.”
Just hours before his address, Biden held a more than 30 minute phone call with President Volodymyr Zelensky to discuss further US help in arming Ukraine’s military. Symbolizing Washington’s pledge of support, First Lady Jill Biden was hosting Ukrainian Ambassador Oksana Markarova in her VIP box at the speech, which takes place in the US Capitol.
Beyond Ukraine, though, Biden, 79, is juggling a mountain of domestic problems.
One year into his presidency, the Democrat faces an increasingly disappointed and often outright angry electorate. Republicans — many still in thrall to Donald Trump — are forecast to seize control of the legislature in the November midterm elections.
And at the heart of that malaise is the highest inflation in four decades, an issue the White House said Biden will tackle head on.
The White House said he would outline his plan to fight inflation by encouraging a “make it in America” policy “instead of relying on foreign supply chains.”
“I call it building a better America,” he was to say.
As crime rates soar across the country, Biden was also to stake out centrist ground by making clear he does not support leftist “defund the police” advocates.
“He’ll make clear that the answer is not to defund the police, it’s to put more police — with better training and more accountability — out to take back our streets and make our neighborhoods safer,” a White House official said.
– Ukraine opportunity? –
While the Ukraine war is one of the most dangerous global moments in decades, it may offer Biden a chance to recast the way Americans see him.
While some Republicans are reflexively blaming Biden for Russia’s invasion, he is receiving widespread kudos for the determined strategy to shame the Kremlin with warnings weeks ago that an invasion was imminent, even as some European allies and Ukraine’s leaders themselves cast doubt.
Now that the invasion has begun, Biden will highlight “the importance of the United States as a leader,” Press Secretary Jen Psaki said.
He is likely to refer to his frequent broader warning that the world’s democracies and autocracies are in an existential struggle for the future — and that the United States needs to take the initiative.
And Biden does come to the State of the Union with two strong cards.
Last Friday he nominated Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to be the first African American woman in history to sit on the Supreme Court.
Biden will also have a shot at pivoting the country into a more optimistic, post-pandemic future, putting the long national coronavirus nightmare into the rearview mirror.
His speech comes as infections rates are plummeting and just days after the Centers for Disease Control finally eased mask recommendations for most Americans.
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© Agence France-Presse
