An optimistic President Joe Biden will seek to lift the spirits of a tense nation Tuesday with a State of the Union address showcasing his efforts to rebuild the US economy — and setting the stage for the 80-year-old’s bid for re-election in 2024.
After two years of managing the exit from the Covid pandemic, an end to the 20-year Afghan war debacle, the Western response against Russia’s Ukraine invasion, and extreme US political tensions, Biden feels he has much to celebrate.
“I want to talk to the American people and let them know the state of affairs,” Biden said Monday. “Just have a conversation with the American people.”
On Capitol Hill, he’ll address the full Congress, nearly every senior government member, and a vast television audience, buoyed by news that the economy is recovering strongly from the pandemic, with the lowest unemployment in 50 years.
“This is a president who is incredibly optimistic,” White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said.
But the dramatic downing on Saturday of a huge Chinese balloon by a US Air Force fighter leaves the unstable relationship with the communist superpower literally looming over the Biden administration.
And there are troubles closer to home, with two new polls showing that well over half of voters do not want Biden, the oldest person ever in the presidency, to seek a second term in 2024.
Biden spent the weekend at the presidential retreat Camp David, huddled with top advisors and speech writers to finesse the speech. Tweaks continued “until the last minute,” Jean-Pierre said.
Early Tuesday, the White House announced the guests of First Lady Jill Biden for the speech. These include Ukraine’s ambassador, Oksana Markarova and rock band mega star and HIV/AIDS campaigner Bono.
The most eye-catching, though may be Brandon Tsay, the 26-year-old man who disarmed the gunman in January mass shooting in California, and RowVaughn and Rodney Wells, the parents of Tyre Nichols, a man whose death after a prolonged police beating in Memphis, Tennessee, shocked the nation.
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By: Miss Cherry May Timbol – Independent Reporter
