WASHINGTON, D.C. – President Joe Biden will deliver his State of the Union address. Last year he talked about unity and coming together as a nation and this year, political analysts expect Biden to do damage control from recent scandals.
“One of the things that the president needs to establish that he has control, he has energy and he has competence,” said Todd Belt, the George Washington University Director of Political Management. Belt said people’s confidence in president Biden is a little shattered following the discovery of classified documents found at his home and office. Belt believes the president might not address the documents investigation but he expects the president to make a strong case that he is still up to the task of being commander-in-chief in his upcoming State of the Union address.
“He’s going to talk about the economy and he’s going to connect the policies he was able to pass from the last congress to a lot of the progress that is being made in terms of infrastructure and in terms of jobs,” said Belt. “It’s always about jobs with Biden, he’s always ‘blue collar Joe’ and that’s one of the things he’s going to tout.”
Belt said we’re seeing more layoffs happening, especially in the tech industry and some worry we could be sliding into a recession.
“Consumer confidence is going to be a big issue and I think he’s going to talk a little bit about how the things are turning around in the economy and that we don’t need to worry about that,” said Belt.
Belt said there’s one thing to also look for in his address:
“That is how the president is going to portray himself and the republican party because we know they have a number of investigations that they’re going to be mounting against him and he’s going to try to cast those as very divisive. Remember one of the things the president talked about in his last address was unity. And if he can cast republicans as very divisive and really play political games with this, that can really help him. 04:26
Newly elected Arkansas governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders (R- AR) will deliver the republican response following Biden’s speech. That responsibility is usually given to an up-and-comer in the party that does not control the White House.
