US Vice President Kamala Harris, from left, President Joe Biden, and House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Republican from Louisiana, during a State of the Union address at the US Capitol in Washington, DC, US, on Thursday, March 7, 2024. — Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images
(WASHINGTON) — President Joe Biden delivered his third State of the Union address in the House chamber Thursday night, making a number of key proposals, from taxes for the wealthy to mortgage relief and abortion rights.
The speech also reiterated a commitment to a two-state solution for Israel, restoring Roe v. Wade, expanding border security and taxing billionaires living in the U.S.
Israel-Hamas war
With family members of American hostages being held by Hamas sitting in the chamber, Biden pledged to the families, “We will not rest until we bring their loved ones home.”
Biden addressed the “gut-wrenching” months since the Oct. 7 attack in Israel and expressed sympathy for the Israelis, Palestinians and Americans affected by the ongoing conflict in the Middle East.
Biden called for a two-state solution — as he has in the past — and said it was the only “real resolution” to guarantee Israel’s security and democracy.
During his speech, Biden said he directed the U.S. military to lead “an emergency mission” to establish a temporary pier off the coast of the Gaza Strip that “can receive large ships carrying food, water, medicine and temporary shelters.”
The pier would enable a massive increase in humanitarian assistance, the president said, signaling to Israel that humanitarian aid cannot be a “secondary consideration or a bargaining chip.”
Roe v. Wade and in vitro fertilization
Biden also highlighted abortion in his speech. Without naming former President Trump, Biden said his predecessor came into office wanting to see Roe v. Wade overturned, saying, “In fact, he brags about it.”
Biden vowed if he were to take office again, he would restore Roe v. Wade as the “law of the land.”
He called on Congress to pass a bill that would legalize abortion services nationwide, as he has for nearly two years since Roe v. Wade was overturned, and called Republicans out for blocking a vote that would’ve implemented national protections for IVF.
“To my friends across the aisle, don’t keep this waiting any longer. Guarantee the right to IVF! Guarantee it nationwide,” Biden said.
Cost of housing, taxes and inflation
While outlining his plan for economic growth and tax policy goals for his second term, President Biden called out the tax breaks the wealthy and corporations received under the prior administration.
He vowed to tax American billionaires 25%, claiming it would “raise $500 billion over the next 10 years.” And he vowed to raise the corporate tax rate to 21%.
Under his proposal, he claimed that any American making under $400,000 will not pay any new federal taxes.
Biden also proposed a tax credit to give some Americans $400 a month to put toward their mortgage for two years. The credit would apply to those buying their first homes and those who “trade up for a little more space.”
He also said his administration was working to eliminate title insurance fees for federally backed mortgages.
Border security
Biden used his speech to call on Congress to send him the border bill that has been stalled, “We can fight about the border, or we can fix it. I’m ready to fix it.”
The bill would allow 1,500 border security agents and officers to be hired as well as 4,300 asylum officers.
The legislation, he said, would allow asylum cases to be resolved within six months instead of six years.
Under the bill, Biden said he could stem the tide of fentanyl by deploying 100 high-tech drug detection machines to increase the ability to screen and stop vehicles.
President Joe Biden delivers the State of the Union address in the House Chamber in Washington, Mar. 7, 2024. — Shawn Thew/POOL/AFP via Getty Images
(WASHINGTON) — President Joe Biden delivered an alternately fiery and forceful State of the Union address on Thursday night under what may have been the brightest spotlight of the year so far — just as he gears up for a general election campaign against former President Donald Trump.
Biden, whose time in office has been increasingly clouded by public concerns over his age and fitness, offered a vociferous defense of his record and a new spin on the value of his 81 years.
He also took congressional Republicans and Trump — though, in the latter’s case, conspicuously not by name — to task over their opposition to his administration and their own policies on abortion, the border, democracy, taxes and more.
Biden specifically hit on several foreign policy flashpoints, including Israel’s war with Hamas and Ukraine’s defense against Russia’s invasion, while pushing for action on domestic issues like reproductive health care and high immigration.
“Above all, I see a future for all Americans,” he said. “I see a country for all Americans.”
Meanwhile, Alabama Sen. Katie Britt, a rising GOP star, gave the Republican response to Biden’s address, which was dismissed by House Speaker Mike Johnson as “a campaign speech — and a pretty vitriolic one.”
Here are seven takeaways from Thursday night’s remarks:
Biden seemed eager to tangle with Republicans
Thursday’s State of the Union was the source of much anticipation — and Democratic hand-wringing — as polling shows that even many Democrats think that Biden is not up for four more years in the White House.
The president’s speech sought to put those worries to bed.
Across roughly 70 minutes before Congress, Biden kept his well-known habit for verbal stumbles to a minimum while at times virtually shouting, despite Republicans’ attacks painting him as a “diminished” leader.
Biden also goaded conservatives in the crowd and appeared ready to parry boos from the rowdy members of the other party.
After drawing outcry for claiming Republicans would “gut” Social Security and cut taxes for the ultra-wealthy, Biden, in a flashback from the 2023 State of the Union said, “Oh, no? You guys don’t want another $2 trillion tax cut? I kinda thought that’s what your plan was. You’re not gonna cut another $2 trillion for the super wealthy? Well, that’s good to hear.”
He also engaged with Republicans in the crowd when he lambasted them for tanking a bill that would have combined aid to Israel, Taiwan and Ukraine with an overhaul of border reforms that was stricter than Democrats have previously backed.
“Oh, you don’t like that bill, huh, that conservatives got together and said was a good bill?” he said when lawmakers booed. “I’ll be darned, that’s amazing.”
Toward the end of his speech, Biden also directly addressed his age to cast himself as wise.
“I know I may not look like it, but I’ve been around a while,” he joked. “And when you get to my age, certain things become clearer than ever before.”
“My lifetime has taught me to embrace freedom and democracy,” he said. “A future based on the core values that have defined America: Honesty. Decency. Dignity. Equality. To respect everyone. To give everyone a fair shot. To give hate no safe harbor.”
The performance soon had some Democrats jubilant ahead of an election that is likely to be in part determined by perceptions of Biden’s stamina and fitness compared to Trump, with Tim Lim, a Biden fundraiser, telling ABC News it “should calm down the anxious chattering class.”
“Republicans made the floor for this speech so low, but Joe Biden showed up dancing on the ceiling,” said Jesse Ferguson, a Democratic strategist working with pro-Biden outside groups this election cycle.
Biden touts his own agenda — with little push for bipartisanship
Biden also rolled out a full-throated defense of his own agenda that left little room for cooperation with Republicans — leaving behind a hallmark of bipartisanship that he frequently promised during his 2020 campaign.
Speaker Johnson, reacting later Thursday, criticized that.
“The country needs to be united. This commander in chief is unwilling or incapable of doing that. And I think that’s what the American people saw tonight,” Johnson told reporters. “And, you know, it was unfortunate, I really regretted the way they went down.”
But rather than pitch areas of future compromise, the president touted how his administration has focused on kitchen-table issues, including tackling so-called consumer junk fees, protecting and expanding the Affordable Care Act and focusing on middle-class jobs and investment.
Gone were the pronouncements of lawmakers working together on Capitol Hill, replaced instead with election-year suggestions that Republicans would roll back progress on many issues dear to Americans.
“Folks, Obamacare, known as the Affordable Care Act is still a very big deal. Over 100 million of you can no longer be denied health insurance because of pre-existing conditions. But my predecessor and many in this chamber want to take that protection away by repealing the Affordable Care Act. I won’t let that happen. We stopped you 50 times before and we will stop you again,” he said.
Beyond parrying Republicans’ boos on policy, the president also went straight back at the GOP on an issue that is sure to animate his campaign: democracy itself.
“My predecessor and some of you here seek to bury the truth of Jan. 6. I will not do that,” he said, in one of the repeated instances in which he cited Trump without naming him. “This is a moment to speak the truth and bury the lies. And here’s the simplest truth: You can’t love your country only when you win.”
Democratic observers relished that approach.
“Biden did exactly what he needed to do, it was a great speech, and he delivered it with force and compassion,” said Karen Finney, who worked on Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign. “He also made it clear he is not going to shrink from tough fights, either political or policy. And honestly his realistic optimism is such a strong contrast with Trump. Also, framing the GOP agenda as old ideas is very effective.”
Ukraine a top priority
Biden started his speech by drawing parallels to then-President Franklin Roosevelt’s 1941 State of the Union, delivered less than a year before the U.S. entered World War II.
The comparison was clear, in Biden’s words: U.S. military assistance to Ukraine, under current funding, is nearly at an end amid Republican skepticism of its importance and without more help, Kyiv’s defenses against Russia could crumble.
“President Roosevelt’s purpose was to wake up the Congress and alert the American people that this was no ordinary moment. Freedom and democracy were under assault in the world,” Biden said.
He warned of issues both at home and abroad.
“Overseas, [President Vladimir] Putin of Russia is on the march, invading Ukraine and sowing chaos throughout Europe and beyond,” he went on to say. “But Ukraine can stop Putin if we stand with Ukraine and provide the weapons it needs to defend itself. That is all Ukraine is asking … But now assistance for Ukraine is being blocked by those who want us to walk away from our leadership in the world.”
He also posed a stark contrast to his response to the war with that of Trump, who recently floated that he would not come to NATO allies’ defense if they too were invaded, citing frustrations with their contributions to shared defense.
“My message to President Putin … is simple: We will not walk away. We will not bow down!” Biden said. “I will not bow down!”
Biden tries to walk the line on Israel, Gaza
Biden walked a narrower tightrope on Israel, as he looked to voice support for Jerusalem while urging it to provide more aid for Palestinians civilians caught in the middle of fighting with Hamas in Gaza, where tens of thousands have been killed, according to Hamas health authorities.
The president promoted himself as a “lifelong supporter of Israel and the only American president to visit Israel in wartime” while insisting that the country has “has a right to go after Hamas.”
However, he noted that Israel “also has a fundamental responsibility to protect innocent civilians in Gaza,” urging leaders there to not view humanitarian aid to Gaza as a “secondary consideration or a bargaining chip.”
Putting a finer point on that argument, Biden announced an emergency mission to build a port on Gaza’s Mediterranean coast to get aid to civilians — a significant escalation of America’s humanitarian contributions that also brings the military closer but not directly involved in the conflict.
“This temporary pier would enable a massive increase in the amount of humanitarian assistance getting into Gaza every day. But Israel must also do its part,” he said.
The push came as liberal and pro-Palestinian critics of his response to the war have made their voices heard with protest votes in some early Democratic primary states, chiefly in Michigan, where more than 100,000 people who voted in the nominating race there backed “uncommitted.”
Reproductive rights still a top issue for Democrats
Reproductive rights have been a top issue for Democrats since the U.S. Supreme Court scraped constitutional protections for abortion in 2022 — and Thursday’s speech indicated that dynamic won’t change before November.
Biden took Republicans to task for not codifying abortion protections or access to in vitro fertilization into federal law after Alabama’s Supreme Court threw that procedure into jeopardy in the state by ruling that embryos are children.
The point was also made in a White House guest list that included Kate Cox, a Texas woman who had to go to New Mexico for an abortion to end what she called a life-threatening pregnancy, and Latorya Beasley, a social worker from Birmingham, Alabama, trying to have a second child via IVF.
“What her family has gone through should never have happened as well. But it is happening to so many others. There are state laws banning the right to choose, criminalizing doctors and forcing survivors of rape and incest to leave their states as well to get the care they need,” Biden said, referencing Cox’s story.
“Many of you in this chamber and my predecessor are promising to pass a national ban on reproductive freedom. My God, what freedoms will you take away next?” he said.
Biden mixes it up with Republicans on immigration
Beyond Biden’s age, immigration is one of the top issues Republicans are looking to tie around the president’s neck this year — as polls also show it is a major problem for him — and they came in on the offensive Thursday night.
Many GOP lawmakers had pins honoring Laken Riley, the nursing student who was killed in Georgia last month, allegedly by an immigrant who entered the U.S. illegally. Some conservatives have blamed Biden’s policies for her death.
When heckled by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., to say Riley’s name during his speech, Biden picked up one of the buttons, calling her an “innocent young woman who was killed by an illegal” (a remark that drew its own criticsim from Democrats).
He then looked to her parents, saying, “My heart goes out to you having lost children myself.”
Biden used the opportunity to pivot to the bipartisan bill combining foreign aid and border restrictions, saying the legislation would curtail the incentives for people to illegally cross the border.
Britt paints dark picture of the country
Britt, who first won her seat in 2022 as the youngest Republican woman elected to the Senate, used the Republicans’ official response to the Statue of the Union to paint a bleak picture of the country under Biden.
“Right now, the American dream has turned into a nightmare for so many,” she said.
“Tonight, the American family needs to have a tough conversation because the truth is we are all worried about the future of our nation. The country we know and love seems to be slipping away, and it feels like the next generation will have fewer opportunities and less freedoms then we did,” she said. “I worry my own children may not even get a shot at living their American dream.”
Despite Biden’s animated speech, Britt raised worries over the president’s fitness and jabbed at him as “not in command.”
“The free world deserves better than a dithering and diminished leader. America deserves leaders who recognize that secure borders, stable prices, safe streets and a strong defense are the cornerstones of a great nation,” she said.
Addressing “moms and dads” who were watching, Britt said, “You are why I believe with every fiber of my being that despite the current state of our union our best days are still ahead.”
Other Republicans also cast the speech as one of hope, noting that voters will be presented with a choice this November.
“While Biden ignored his role in rising crime, the border crisis, and Bidenflation, Senator Britt delivered a message to American families that was full of hope, reminding a new generation of Americans that our country can be saved with commonsense, conservative leadership,” said outgoing Republican National Committee Chair Ronna McDaniel.
(WASHINGTON) — A week after Hunter Biden testified in closed-door proceeding before the House Oversight and Judiciary Committees, Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer has invited the president’s son to return to Capitol Hill later this month, fulfilling Comer’s pledge to have him testify in public as the next phase of his impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden.
On Wednesday, Comer called on Hunter Biden to appear for a public hearing on March 20 alongside three of his former business associates who expressed varying degrees of contempt for the first family in recent closed-door depositions before the committee.
Referring to Hunter Biden’s overseas business pursuits, Comer said in a statement Wednesday, “During our deposition and interview phase of the investigation, Hunter Biden confirmed evidence about Joe Biden’s involvement, yet his testimony conflicts with other witnesses’ testimonies.”
In his closed-door deposition last week, Hunter Biden acknowledged making mistakes in his personal and professional life and spoke openly about his years’ of addiction, but vehemently and repeatedly denied that his father had any involvement in his business life.
Comer added that “given the president son’s repeated calls for a public hearing,” he “fully expects” him to attend.
A representative from Hunter Biden’s legal team told ABC News Wednesday that they had “received Rep. Comer’s letter late Thursday and will respond in writing.” Prior to his closed-door appearance, the younger Biden had expressed a willingness to testify in public.
Republicans also suffered an embarrassing setback with the indictment of ex-FBI informant Alexander Smirnov, after prosecutors allege that his bribery allegation against Joe and Hunter Biden, which had served as a central tenet of House Republicans’ claims of impropriety, was a lie.
Comer’s overture comes at a turbulent time for Republicans as their faltering impeachment inquiry into the president faces renewed criticism. After more than a year of investigation, Comer and his colleagues have yet to uncover firm evidence to substantiate claims that the president behaved improperly or illegally to benefit his family’s business endeavors. Republicans also suffered an embarrassing setback with the indictment of ex-FBI informant Alexander Smirnov, after prosecutors allege that his bribery allegation against Joe and Hunter Biden, which had served as a central tenet of House Republicans’ claims of impropriety, was a lie.
As part of the committee’s planned March 20 hearing, which Comer has dubbed “Influence Peddling: Examining Joe Biden’s Abuse of Public Office,” Republicans invited former Hunter Biden business associates Devon Archer, Jason Galanis, and Tony Bobulinski — each of whom has since turned into a critic of Hunter Biden and the Biden family.
Matthew Schwartz, an attorney for Archer — who is preparing to report to prison for defrauding a Native American tribe — said that, “If and when representatives of the committee contact Mr. Archer, we will be happy to discuss the parameters of his continued cooperation.”
Mark Paoletta, an attorney for Galanis — who is currently serving a 14-year prison sentence in Alabama for securities fraud — said his client “is willing to testify at this hearing to provide his firsthand knowledge of then-Vice President Joe Biden helping his son Hunter Biden in his business dealings.”
A representative for Bobulinski did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
President Joe Biden delivers his State of the Union address, Tuesday, Feb. 7, 2023, on the House floor of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. (Official White House Photo by Adam Schultz)
(WASHINGTON) — President Joe Biden is expected to spend a large part of Thursday’s State of the Union address in Washington, D.C. addressing the economy as he renews his calls for increased taxes on corporations and billionaires, eliminating student debt and highlighting the economic rebound the U.S. has had since he became president.
Biden is also expected to tout other aspects of the economic recovery such as adding nearly 15 million jobs, rising wages, an unemployment rate below 4% for the past two years and an inflation rate that is steadily dropping.
“We were in the midst of a raging pandemic. Tens of millions of Americans were unemployed, hundreds of thousands of small businesses were at risk of closing and supply chains were badly broken,” National Economic Advisor Lael Brainard said on a call previewing the SOTU.
The president is also expected to highlight his administration’s efforts to crackdown on “junk fees” across a number of sectors — from air travel, to concerts, banks, credit cards and health care and call out companies for “shrinkflation.”
Biden will also push his plans to change the tax system by repeating his call to raise the corporate minimum tax to 28% and propose a 25% minimum tax for billionaires. He will argue that the GOP plan would add more than $3 trillion to deficits over 10 years if they make the Trump tax cuts permanent, while providing tax cuts for those making over $4.5 million.
In this Sept. 21, 2023, file photo, President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden welcome President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky and his wife Olena Zelenska to the White House in Washington, D.C. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — The White House on Wednesday confirmed that Ukraine’s first lady and Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny’s widow were invited to the State of the Union but declined to attend.
Press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre declined to provide details.
The Washington Post reported that the White House intended to seat Olena Zelenska and Yulia Navalnaya near first lady Jill Biden but that the presence of Navalny’s widow caused discomfort for the Ukrainians because of his reported past statements suggesting that Crimea, which Russian President Vladimir Putin annexed in 2014, belonged to Russia, even while condemning Putin’s aggression.
When asked how President Joe Biden is going to address foreign policy issues in Thursday’s State of the Union address and whether he’s going to press House Republicans to support more Ukraine aid, she said: “The president’s going to continue to make his case that House Republicans need to move forward. The speaker needs to put the national security supplemental on the floor.
“We know that it would get overwhelming support … we can’t let politics get in the way of our national security, so, the president is going to make that clear,” she said.
Republican presidential candidate, former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley speaks at a campaign rally on March 4, 2024 in Fort Worth, Texas. (Emil Lippe/Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — President Joe Biden on Wednesday quickly maneuvered to court Nikki Haley’s supporters moments after she ended her presidential campaign against Donald Trump, with his team projecting confidence they will be able to sway some of the former governor’s supporters as the race pivots toward the general election.
“Donald Trump made it clear he doesn’t want Nikki Haley’s supporters,” Biden said in a statement Wednesday. “I want to be clear: There is a place for them in my campaign.”
“I know there is a lot we won’t agree on,” the president continued, adding, “I hope and believe we can find common ground” on the “fundamental issues” of preserving democracy and NATO, standing up to foreign adversaries and treating others with respect.
Trump, for his part, swiped at Haley in a social media statement after she exited the race but also asked her voters “to join the greatest movement in the history of our Nation.”
Biden’s campaign is publicly confident they will be able to convince Haley backers to vote for him later this year in a matchup with the former president.
While history suggests otherwise — as a party’s voters often rally back to their nominee after a messy primary — Biden’s team insists that Trump is seriously vulnerable with the relative moderates and independents drawn to Haley and potentially crucial in the fall.
They point to exit polling and results from Super Tuesday in what they say is a “major warning sign” to Republicans for November.
“Donald Trump’s path is limited and his coalition is hemorrhaging,” Jen O’Malley Dillon and Julie Chavez Rodriguez, Biden’s campaign chair and campaign manager, respectively, argued in a memo on Wednesday.
“[Trump’s] extreme agenda has lost him critical votes in suburban and exurban areas in key battlegrounds, which his primary contest with Nikki Haley has only reinforced,” they added.
Biden faces his own string of poor or mediocre polling, widespread public concerns about his age and fitness for another term and disapproval on a range of issues like the economy and the border.
But his campaign contends Trump’s fractured party is its own problem.
Exit polls show many of Haley’s voters likely don’t align with Trump’s core supporters: Across California, North Carolina, and Virginia, they gave Biden a 41% job approval rating on average, compared with 95% of Trump supporters disapproving; and 79% of them said Trump wouldn’t be fit for office if convicted of one of his 91 criminal charges. (He denies wrongdoing.)
Further, 80% of Haley voters in North Carolina, 69% in California and 69% in Virginia were unwilling to say they’ll support the GOP’s nominee whoever it is.
In her speech ending her campaign on Wednesday, Haley reminded Trump of those people.
“It is now up to Donald Trump to earn the votes of those who did not support him and I hope he does that,” she said.
She did not endorse Trump in her remarks.
In a statement following Haley’s announcement, Biden praised Haley for forcefully going after Trump in recent months.
“It takes a lot of courage to run for President – that’s especially true in today’s Republican Party, where so few dare to speak the truth about Donald Trump,” he said.
Biden was also quick to highlight Trump’s past insults of Haley as he wooed her supporters.
“You don’t have to agree with me on everything to know MAGA extremism is a threat to this country. We need everyone on board,” he wrote in a fundraising appeal to Haley voters.
That message included a screenshot of a January social media post by Trump that went after Haley’s backers, in which he said, “Anybody that makes a ‘Contribution’ to [her] … will be permanently barred from the MAGA camp. We don’t want them, and will not accept them.”
Pivot to the general election
Following Trump’s near sweep on Super Tuesday — he lost only Vermont — Biden said the American people now have “a clear choice,” echoing what is expected to be his main campaign message to voters.
“Are we going to keep moving forward or will we allow Donald Trump to drag us backwards into the chaos, division, and darkness that defined his term in office?” Biden contended in a statement.
Primary Pivot, a super PAC that was supporting Haley in the primary by encouraging Democrats and independents to cast votes for her for the GOP nomination, made its choice.
The group announced on Wednesday it would rebrand to Haley Voters for Biden.
In a statement, the group said they will target Georgia, Michigan and North Carolina, three battleground states seen as critical in the coming election.
Vice President Kamala Harris said in her own statement that their Super Tuesday victories — only losing the caucuses in the territory of American Samoa — and Biden’s State of the Union address on Thursday will “serve as a springboard for the next, critical phase of the campaign.”
In the days following his speech to Congress, Biden plans to travel to Georgia and Pennsylvania, while Harris plans to be in Arizona and Nevada.
(WASHINGTON) — Seeking to spotlight national issues such as in vitro fertilization and the conflicts oversees in Israel, Gaza and Ukraine, lawmakers invited a host of guests to attend the State of the Union on Thursday, including the parents of detained Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich and the first American person born using IVF.
Members of Congress typically invite guests with specific backgrounds and stories that are important to them both personally and politically — people they want to thank, to honor or even to highlight a particular issue.
Lawmakers will be hoping to draw attention to two particular issues this year: women’s reproductive health care rights, and the ongoing conflict in Israel and Gaza.
Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., announced in a statement that Elizabeth Carr, the first person in the country to be born through IVF, will be his guest for President Joe Biden’s annual address.
In February, the Alabama Supreme court ruled that frozen embryos were children, prompting fears about IVF’s future and other fertility treatments.
“It’s more important than ever that we commit to protecting access to IVF services nationwide,” Kaine said. “We must work to safeguard IVF so the Elizabeth Carrs of the world can continue to be born.”
The family of an American hostage being held in Gaza by Hamas (which the U.S. has designated as a terrorist group) is also expected to attend Thursday as guests of North Carolina Sens. Ted Budd and Thom Tillis.
“It is an honor to partner with Senator Budd to invite the Siegel family to this year’s State of the Union,” Tillis said in a statement. “Keith and Aviva Siegel were horrifically taken from their home and kidnapped by Hamas during the October 7th attack. While it is a great relief that Aviva has been released, we are still working to secure Keith’s freedom from Hamas captivity.”
Rep. Nanette Barragán, D-Calif., announced in a statement that health care advocate and rapper Fat Joe will be her guest. Last year, the Grammy-nominated artist came to Capitol Hill and lobbied for transparency in hospital billing in order to combat the overwhelming amount of medical debt many Americans face.
“Fat Joe’s bipartisan work to highlight the need for price transparency at hospitals, from insurers, and other parts of our healthcare system is a vital way to ensure that American families aren’t blindsided by huge bills every time after they visit the hospital,” she said in a statement.
Speaker Mike Johnson’s guests
The parents of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich will attend the State of the Union as Speaker Mike Johnson’s guests, ABC News has confirmed. A freed Israeli hostage and two New York police officers will also attend as Johnson’s guests.
“We are grateful to Speaker Johnson for inviting us to attend the State of the Union and for providing the opportunity to highlight Evan’s wrongful detention,” Ella Milman and Mikhail Gershkovich — Evan Gershkovich’s parents — said in a statement to The Wall Street Journal.
Gershkovich has been imprisoned in Russia for nearly a year on espionage charges that The Wall Street Journal, the U.S. and dozens of international media organizations have denied. He faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted.
In a statement, Johnson said “I’m honored to host Ella Milman & Mikhail Gershkovich for the State of the Union, shining a spotlight on the unjust detention of their son, Evan. The US must always stand for freedom of the press, especially in places where it is under assault. The Admin must bring Evan home.”
Johnson also invited Mia Schem, a freed Israeli hostage, to attend the annual address.
Schem, who is 21 years old, was kidnapped by Hamas after fleeing the Nova music festival during the Oct. 7 attack in Israel.
In a statement on X, Johnson said “I am proud to stand with Mia and join her in demanding the release of all hostages held captive by Hamas.”
However, despite voicing support for Ukraine and Israel, Johnson refuses to take up the bipartisan national security supplemental, which provides aid to those countries. The Senate passed the legislation last month and the White House has repeatedly pressed the speaker to hold a vote on it.
Johnson also jointly invited two New York Police Department officers: Zunxu Tian with Rep. Anthony D’Esposito, R-N.Y., and Lt. Ben Kurian with Rep. Nicole Malliotakis, R-N.Y. The officers were attacked near Times Square in January.
Last month, seven people were indicted in connection with the assault on the officers.
(WASHINGTON) — President Joe Biden will deliver his State on the Union address — his third — on Thursday night.
But this year, the traditional annual update to Congress and the nation could have additional significance — coming in the middle of a presidential election.
Here’s what you need to know about the speech and how to watch.
When is it?
Biden will address a joint session of Congress at the Capitol on Thursday at 9 p.m.
The State of the Union is a presidential act defined in the Constitution, which calls the president to “give to the Congress Information of the State of the Union.”
Speaker Mike Johnson extended the formal invitation for the president to address Congress, which Biden accepted in January.
“In this moment of great challenge for our country, it is my solemn duty to extend this invitation for you to address a Joint Session of Congress on Thursday, March 7, 2024, so that you may fulfill your obligation under the U.S. Constitution to report on the state of our union,” Johnson’s invitation said.
How can I watch?
ABC News will air the State of the Union live, ABC News Live will stream coverage and ABC News Digital will have a live blog starting at 7 p.m.
You can also watch the speech live on the White House website as well as on its YouTube, X and Facebook pages.
What’s at stake?
The State of the Union address can be a bit of political theater, but this year it could be more consequential as Biden aims to project confidence and connect with voters in an election year.
Presidents often use the State of the Union speech to unveil new policy proposals. In 2022, Biden used the speech to announce his “unity agenda for the nation,” which included expanded health care benefits for veterans.
Earlier this week, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre gave reporters a brief preview of what to expect, saying “it’s going to be an important moment.”
Jean-Pierre made it clear that during his State of the Union, Biden will drive home the message that his administration has and will continue to fight for lower costs for Americans.
“Our administration’s action to ban hidden junk fees will save Americans more than $20 billion a year,” Jean-Pierre said Tuesday. “The president will make clear in his State of the Union that he will continue fighting to lower costs for families.”
While not going into detail, the White House acknowledged that Thursday’s address to American voters comes at a critical moment.
“He knows how important it is for the American people to hear directly from him,” Jean-Pierre said.
Biden will be taking his State of the Union message straight from Capitol Hill to the campaign trail, traveling to Pennsylvania and Georgia this weekend with two campaign remarks currently on his schedule.
Who will be there?
The State of the Union marks one of the rare times all branches of government are under the same roof. The president, members of Congress and Supreme Court justices attend.
The speaker of the House and vice president sit behind the president while he speaks. This will be the first time Speaker Johnson has sat behind the president during the address.
Invited guests also attend the event.
The White House and members of Congress typically invite guests with specific backgrounds and stories that are important to them both personally and politically — people they want to thank, to honor or even to highlight a particular issue.
Lawmakers will be hoping to draw attention to two particular issues this year: women’s rights to reproductive health care, and the ongoing conflict in Israel and Gaza.
This year we’re told guests include women who have fled their home states to receive abortion care; a doctor who provided abortion care for a 10-year old; the first American person born via in vitro fertilization; Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich’s parents; families of the hostages being held in Gaza; a Palestinian doctor and grad student who lost 35 family members in the current Gaza/Israel conflict; an advocate for radiation victims; health care advocate and rapper Fat Joe, to name a few.
Johnson has also invited two Gold Star parents who lost children in the Kabul airport bombing during the chaotic U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021.
Who is speaking for the Republican Party?
Since 1966, the opposition party has a televised response to the president’s State of the Union speech. This year, freshman Alabama Sen. Katie Britt will deliver the Republican response.
Britt, the youngest female senator at 42 years old, will be a sharp contrast to Biden, the oldest sitting president in American history, Johnson said.
“She is a champion for strong families, a secure border, national defense and a vibrant economy with stable prices and opportunities for all. The American people will tune in as the youngest Republican woman ever elected to the Senate turns the page on the oldest President in history,” Johnson said in a statement.
Britt is from Alabama — the state at the center of a battle over IVF. In the wake of an Alabama Supreme Court decision calling frozen embryos “children” and calling IVF access into question, Sen. Britt called for protecting “continued access to IVF services.”
Rep. Monica De La Cruz will deliver the Spanish language Republican address following the State of the Union.
ABC News’ Mariam Khan and Noah Minnie contributed to this report.
(WASHINGTON) — Former President Donald Trump is now the last major candidate standing in the Republican presidential primary field after rival Nikki Haley suspended her own campaign in the wake of a string of Super Tuesday losses.
That means Trump has essentially clinched the Republican nomination for president in the 2024 race — though he’s still days away from winning enough delegates — setting up a rematch between himself and President Joe Biden in November.
The Republican National Committee declared him the party’s “presumptive nominee” in a statement on Wednesday.
Reacting to the news of Haley suspending her campaign, Trump took another shot at her and labeled her supporters as “Radical Left Democrats” before inviting them “join the greatest movement in the history of our Nation.”
Haley has argued that Trump can’t win in a general election because he’s losing too many Republican voters.
“It is now up to Donald Trump to earn the votes of those in our party and those beyond it to support him,” she on Wednesday as she ended her 2024 bid. “I hope he does that.”
Trump has played that argument down.
“Oh they’ll vote for me again, everybody. And I’m not sure we need too many. I’m not sure,” he told reporters in New Hampshire before that state’s January primary. “I think that Biden is the worst president in the history of this country. But … they’re all coming back.”
With Haley out of the race and the general election fully in view, Trump is also pushing for an overhaul of the RNC at a party gathering later this week in Houston where current Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel and the co-chair, Drew McKissick, are expected to resign from their positions, clearing the path for Trump-endorsed Michael Whatley and Lara Trump, the former president’s daughter-in-law, to replace them.
Donald Trump has called them “highly talented, battle-tested, and smart.”
Chris LaCivita, a Trump senior campaign adviser who is set to serve as the RNC’s chief operating officer, said his primary focus of the party committee will be election integrity, one of Trump’s central campaign issues as he continues to spread baseless claims about the 2020 race that he lost.
“Now that we get in there, this is not our first rodeo, so we have a pretty good idea of what we want to do,” LaCivita told reporters at Trump’s Super Tuesday watch party. “First and foremost it’s about putting together real ground game operations that are built around early states.”
One of the biggest advantages of Trump merging his campaign operation with the RNC is expected to be their joint ability to raise money, as both the Trump campaign and the party committee lag behind their respective Democratic counterparts that are raising together.
During the 2020 presidential election cycle, the Trump campaign and the RNC were together raising hundreds of millions of dollars a quarter, their joint fundraising operation with various local party committees allowing them to rake in north of $800,000 per donor.
Top Trump campaign officials wrote in a memo released last month that the campaign and the RNC should begin “convention planning, fundraising, strategy, and state party tactics” with the top Republican congressional campaign groups as soon as possible, as should their fight for the general election.
Lara Trump said that “every penny” of the party’s funds should be prioritized toward Donald Trump’s reelection, but his campaign insists that RNC funds would not be used to cover his legal fees — a point that has been controversial among some Republicans.
Haley has decried Lara Trump becoming a key leader of the national Republican Party, warning over the weekend that if he succeeds “the RNC now is just going to be about Donald Trump” and would morph into his own “legal slush fund.”
Several sources familiar with the matter confirmed to ABC News that a draft resolution that would prevent the RNC from covering Donald Trump’s legal fees has died.
The resolution failed to garner enough support from enough states to bring to a vote in Houston.
LaCivita, the Trump adviser, confirmed to ABC that there was no longer a standing resolution. He also reiterated his “emphatic point” that a reworked national party would not be paying Trump’s millions of dollars in legal bills.
After Haley announced she was suspending her campaign on Wednesday morning, Trump called for Haley supporters to coalesce behind him. But over the last couple months, Trump has been disparaging Haley and her supporters, even saying Haley’s donors from now on would be “permanently barred from the MAGA world” after she continued on with her campaign after her New Hampshire defeat — though Trump’s campaign and fundraisers downplayed the comment, saying it’s not likely going to be strictly enforced.
Haley, who in recent days has suggested that she no longer feels bound by an RNC pledge that would obligate her to support the eventual GOP nominee, did not endorse Trump while ending her campaign.
On Monday, Trump said he doesn’t care if Haley is not committed to support him, going on to suggest she’s irrelevant and not newsworthy.
Trump has already been focusing much of his attention this primary cycle on President Biden; however, now with officially no big Republican challengers remaining, the Trump campaign now says their focus is “100%” on the general election.
In his attacks, Trump has taken specific aim at Biden’s immigration and economic policies, criticizing him for the withdrawal from Afghanistan and the current situation at the southern border and blaming him for high inflation. He has also made disparaging towards Biden about his mental acuity
The Biden campaign has centered its message on threats to democracy, pointing to Trump’s attempts to overturn the 2020 election. In a memo sent to reporters, Biden’s campaign indicated they may make an attempt to appeal to Haley supporters who tended to be relatively more moderate or independent voters.
“Primary after primary has exposed deep divisions among Republicans to Donald Trump’s detriment — particularly with moderate and suburban voters who will be critical to victory in November,” the campaign chair, Jen O’Malley Dillon, and campaign manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez wrote.
Biden then reaffirmed that pitch in a statement, saying “there is a place for them in my campaign.”
Looking toward the general election, Trump will have to continue to split his time between the campaign trail and the courtroom as the first of his four expected criminal trials — the hush money case in New York — is expected to start later this month. He denies all wrongdoing.
“We’ll just have to figure it out,” Trump said outside a New York courtroom last month. “I’ll be here during the day, and I’ll be campaigning during the night.”
ABC News’ Nicholas Kerr contributed to this report.
(WASHINGTON) — House Speaker Mike Johnson tells ABC News that his guests at Thursday’s State of the Union address will include Gold Star parents who lost children in the Kabul airport bombing during the chaotic U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021.
“President Biden’s hasty, unconditional withdrawal from Afghanistan was a failure for America and its allies. It led to the tragic deaths of brave American servicemembers, including Marine Corps Staff Sergeant Taylor Hoover and Cpl. Hunter Lopez,” Johnson said in a statement to ABC News, echoing election-year arguments made by many Republicans.
Johnson invited Alicia Lopez and Darin Hoover, who both lost children in combat during the withdrawal from Afghanistan. Cpl. Hunter Lopez and Marine Corps Staff Sgt. Taylor Hoover were both killed in Kabul, Afghanistan, at Abbey Gate. Taylor Hoover was the oldest of the 13 service members killed that day.
“Taylor and Hunter are great men, dedicated Marines and incredible sons who made our families proud every day. They paid the ultimate sacrifice along with the 11 others killed and 45 wounded for our great country, but more than two years since their death, the President has left us without answers,” Darin Hoover and Alicia Lopez said in a joint statement.
“As parents, we deserve transparency and we demand justice. We’re grateful to be joining Speaker Johnson at the State of the Union to commemorate our sons and demand accountability from this Administration,” they added.
Since the start of the 118th Congress, House Republicans have been investigating the Biden administration’s withdrawal from Afghanistan. Just this week, the House Foreign Affairs Committee is expected to consider holding Secretary of State Antony Blinken in contempt of Congress for allegedly failing to cooperate with a subpoena seeking documents related to the U.S. withdrawal.
Biden denounced the attack and vowed to hunt down those responsible.
The U.S. military admitted a tragic mistake occurred when a drone strike days later — against what was believed to be a car bomber — instead struck three adults, including the Afghan employee of an American aid organization, and seven children.
“We need a President who shows strength — not weakness — on the global stage,” Johnson said in a statement to ABC News.
