President Joe Biden has spent the last five days preparing for his State of the Union address, trying to cover every possibility: tea to keep his throat soft, a printout of his remarks – in giant letters – in case he turn off the teleprompter, and hours of practice sessions.
But the fear among attendees is that all preparations could be overshadowed by the unexpected: boos in the form of Republican lawmakers, a presidential freeze during remarks or, in the worst case, Biden stumbling walking down the chamber hallway. of the camera.
This would revive all questions about the 81-year-old’s fitness for office. And it would happen in front of millions of viewers who are deciding whether to support Biden or his rival Donald Trump in the 2024 elections.
President Joe Biden delivers his State of the Union address Thursday night, above the president delivering his 2023 address.
Your staff is projecting confidence.
“The president has this,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said at her Wednesday press briefing.
The State of the Union address comes in the shadow of the presidential race. The two nominees are decided. Voters know who their choice is. And Trump will do so on his Truth Social on Thursday night, offering commentary on his opponent’s comments.
Biden’s re-election team is aware that the prime-time State of the Union address will provide a huge platform for the sitting president to make his case for a second term.
They are aimed particularly at undecided voters and supporters of Nikki Haley, who dropped out of the Republican primary on Wednesday. Exit polls showed that many voters who chose Haley were actually voting for someone other than Trump.
That gives Biden’s re-election campaign hope that it can win over those voters.
What they should be wary of Thursday night, however, is that many voters won’t watch the full State of the Union address, but instead will watch clips. And that could magnify a big Biden line or a massive stumble.
“Voters for the most part don’t watch full speeches, but they do watch clips,” said Timothy Naftali, an associate clinical professor at Columbia University.
“In this tiktok world, people will actually watch segments and clips,” he noted.
Since the new staff mantra is to let ‘Joe be Joe,’ sometimes being Joe means the president mixes up the names of world leaders, inserts random adlibs that are off-topic, and gives snappy responses to things he doesn’t like. .
President Biden reading the text of his 2024 State of the Union address in this photo released by the White House.
Donald Trump said he will provide comments during Biden’s speech on his Truth Social account
The pressure will come Thursday night, and not just because of the presidential election in November.
The speech will take place in the House chamber at the Capitol and the audience will be packed with Republican lawmakers loyal to Trump.
And it could get noisy.
The White House points out how well Biden behaved in last year’s speech, when he quickly applauded Republicans’ boos over his claim that they wanted to cut Social Security and Medicare.
As Republican lawmakers began booing him, Biden quickly pivoted to say, “As we all apparently agree, Social Security and Medicare are no longer on the books.”
In fact, Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson has asked his lawmakers to remain in control during the president’s remarks.
Johnson, at a closed-door Republican conference meeting on Wednesday, called for “decorum” toward the president, axios reported.
Overall, the White House’s goal is present Biden, 81, as energetic enough to get the job done and turn questions about his age into an argument for his experience.
“He has one to counter the stereotype of the old man that Trump uses to criticize him and to encourage his own people, particularly young people who have real doubts about him, to go out and vote,” Naftali said.
Advisers have long tried to counter perceptions about the president’s age. Biden often uses the lower staircase to board Air Force One, which has fewer stairs. He tripped twice on the grand staircase.
He wears sneakers, more stable footwear than his dress loafers, when he travels. He prefers black Hokas.
He even wore them during an event at the White House on Tuesday, something unusual since he normally wears dress shoes inside the complex. He probably hadn’t taken them off since the day before, when he had traveled from Camp David on Marine One.
His exercise routine includes exercises to help his balance and stiff gait.
Biden aides hope the president will avoid major mistakes and not fall, as he did in June 2023 at the Air Force Academy Graduation Ceremony.
Biden’s 2023 State of the Union address, where he was interrupted by Republicans
The president has been meeting with aides working on the speech, in which he will reiterate his past accomplishments, lay out his agenda for the year and make some criticisms of Trump.
He had no public events on his agenda for Wednesday.
And he spent the weekend holed up at Camp David working on his remarks with his senior staff: White House deputy chief of staff Bruce Reed, his former aide Mike Donilon, communications adviser Anita Dunn, chief of staff Jeff Zients , Councilor Steve Ricchetti and speechwriter. Vinay Reddy.
In preparation sessions, Biden reviews the text, marks words and creates pauses to remind himself to overcome the stutter he has had since childhood, the New York Times reported.
He will cut passages that he doesn’t think reflect his voice.
It will touch on a variety of topics: economics, taxes, reproductive rights, China, trade, immigration, the war between Israel and Hamas, and the fighting in Ukraine.
Reproductive health care “will be a key component of his comments,” a senior administration official told reporters on a conference call Wednesday. “It will focus on the fact that American freedoms are in danger.”
Democrats are using the abortion issue to rally their base after it was a successful rallying cry for the party in the 2022 midterm elections, where its candidates fared better than expected, largely thanks to abortion rights issues on the ballot.
The president will also present a vision for the country that offers the tough choices facing the United States and will be the driving theme of Biden’s third State of the Union address, his advisers said. NBC News.
In his remarks, Biden will ask Americans if they want Reduce health care costs, democratic freedoms and prevent Ukraine from being absorbed by Russian leader Vladimir Putin? Or do they want to side with pharmaceutical company profits, tax breaks for the rich, and Putin?
The underlying argument will be that Biden is on the right side of these issues, unlike Trump.
Biden will edit his comments until he makes them. A photo of the president, posted by the White House on its social media accounts, showed him holding a folder with the text, whose large font made the opening of it easy to read.
After the president’s speech, he and his team will fan out across the country to redouble their message.
Biden will go to Pennsylvania and Georgia. Vice President Kamala Harris will travel to Arizona and Nevada. Other Cabinet officials will travel to other swing states, including Colorado, Ohio, Michigan, North Carolina and Tennessee.