President Biden Expected to Call for Unity, Express Optimism Tonight in His Second State of the Union

By Yehudit Garmaise

To fulfill his Constitutional duty to report to Americans on how the U.S. is doing under his leadership, tonight at 9pm, President Joe Biden will deliver his second State of the Union address in front of the members of both the US House of Representatives and the US Senate.

Although negative approval ratings continue to plague the president, who hit his lowest approval rating last summer, when gas prices and inflation surged, President Biden is expected to tout the country’s remarkably low unemployment rates, which have plunged to levels not seen since 1969. 

While Biden, who is 80, is expected to express optimism and call for unity between the parties, viewers will get the chance to get a sense of the president’s relationship with newly elected US Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy, (R-Calif.,) who will be sitting next to Vice President Kamala Harris, behind the president as he speaks.

With the Republicans now in the majority in the US House of Representatives, McCarthy has replaced US Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif), who infamously ripped up former President Donald Trump’s State of the Union speech after he delivered it on Feb. 4, 2020, to show her disapproval of his policies. 

Tonight, President Biden is expected to announce policies that will continue to advance the “Unity Agenda” he proposed in last year’s State of the Union, when the president chose non-controversial topics, such as ending cancer, providing for veterans; tackling the mental health crisis, and beating the opioid epidemic,” on which the two parties could work together. 

The president is also expected to address foreign policy issues, such as Russia’s war with Ukraine and the economic and national security threat posed by China: especially after the US shot down a Chinese surveillance balloon that Americans feared was sent to gather intelligence on American military installations and weaponry. 

China has insisted that the electronics-laden machine was simply a weather balloon that had drifted off course, the New York Times reported. 

photo credit: Flickr