Biden to use State of the Union to stress 'historic achievements' and importance of 'saving our democracy'
Biden will deliver his State of the Union address Thursday at 9 p.m. ET
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}President Biden is expected to lay out his administration’s "historic achievements" during his third State of the Union address Thursday night, the White House said, while stressing the importance of "uniting the country" and "saving our democracy."
The president is expected to deliver his State of the Union address Thursday at 9 p.m. ET.
A White House official told Fox News Digital the president will "lay out the historic achievements he has delivered on for the American people and his vision for the future."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"President Biden got more done in the first three years than most presidents have accomplished in two terms," a White House official told Fox News Digital.
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President Biden delivered his State of the Union address at the U.S. Capitol Feb. 7, 2023. (Jacquelyn Martin/AP/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
The president is expected to discuss "protecting and implementing his agenda" during the last year of his term and in what he hopes will be a second term.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The official said Biden will discuss infrastructure and investment in U.S. semiconductor manufacturing, lowering drug prices and "getting rid of junk fees."
But, at the heart of the speech, the president is expected to discuss "whose side he is on," the official said, and "the work ahead to make life better for every American."
The president will discuss lowering costs, lowering health care premiums and "taking on the drug companies to lower the cost of prescription drugs."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Biden is also set to discuss ways he intends to put the middle class "first."
The official said Biden will also lay out strategies for "saving our democracy" and "protecting women’s reproductive health."
While the State of the Union cannot be viewed as a campaign speech, the president, who is running for re-election, will likely try to draw a contrast between his policies and Republican policies.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"Rights and freedoms are on the ballot," the White House official said, adding that Biden will discuss "uniting the country" and his "unity agenda."
That "unity agenda," according to the official, will touch on privacy and big tech, ways to curb fentanyl, helping veterans and ending cancer.
President Biden visited the U.S.-Mexico border in Brownsville, Texas, last month. (Raquel Natalicchio/Houston Chronicle via Getty Images)
"We want to get as much done as we can as soon as we can," the official said. "We're going to be pedal to the metal this year, and there’s much more to come in a second term."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}But the White House did not offer any insight into how the president will address the crisis at the southern border during his Thursday night address.
The ongoing border crisis has become a top political issue in the days leading up to the address, with Biden expected to renew his calls for the Senate to pass a border agreement unveiled earlier this year. Republicans have blamed the crisis on the policies of the administration.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The address comes after a historic year for illegal immigration, with more than 2.4 million migrant encounters in fiscal year 2023. Fiscal 2024 has been similarly overwhelming, with over 300,000 encounters in December.
The president visited the southern border last week, traveling to Brownsville, Texas. His visit came on the same day as his GOP opponent, former President Trump. Biden met with Border Patrol, law enforcement and local leaders and urged Republicans to back a bipartisan Senate bill to address the crisis.
President Biden is delivering the State of the Union March 7, the latest in-person presidential speech to a joint session of Congress ever delivered. (Getty Images )
"It's real simple. It's time to act. It is long past time to act," the president said last week. "It's time for us to move on this. We can't wait any longer."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The president's visit came just days after the murder of 22-year-old nursing student Laken Riley. Jose Antonio Ibarra, an illegal migrant from Venezuela, was arrested and charged in Riley's murder.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) confirmed the Venezuelan national entered the U.S. illegally in 2022 and had previously been arrested in New York City and later released.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Biden has not yet mentioned Riley’s name.
The president’s address also comes at a time of global uncertainty, amid ongoing wars between Israel and Hamas and Russia and Ukraine and tensions rising in the Indo-Pacific.
Last month, White House officials acknowledged a national security threat related to Russian abilities in space that could impact U.S. and global military telecommunications.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Also, last month, the United States conducted retaliatory strikes on more than 85 targets in Iraq and Syria against Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) Quds Force and affiliated militia groups and proxies. The strikes came in response to the deaths of three U.S. service members on a U.S. base in Jordan.
There have been at least 160 attacks on U.S. troops in the Middle East since mid-October.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The U.S. launches airstrikes in western Iraq in a barrage of retaliatory strikes. (Fox News)
The president's address also comes as the House of Representatives conducts an impeachment inquiry against him. GOP lawmakers are investigating whether he was involved or benefited from his family's overseas business dealings, something they say could impact U.S. national security.
His speech to the nation also comes just weeks after special counsel Robert Hur released his highly anticipated report following his months-long investigation into Biden's improper retention of classified records.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Special counsel Robert Hur's report calling out President Biden's "poor memory" sparked media coverage of the leader's mental capacity in office. (Reuters/Getty)
Hur, in his report, described the president as a "sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory," and did not bring charges against him.
Opponents of the president have raised concerns about his mental fitness for the presidency and a potential second term.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Meanwhile, White House communications director Ben LaBolt said the president, in his address, "will make the case to continue to build the economy from the bottom up and the middle out," saying his policies have "led to record job creation, the strongest economy in the world, increased wages and household wealth and lower prescription drug and energy costs."
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LaBolt drew the contrast between that of the "MAGA Republican agenda," which he claims is focused on "rewarding billionaires and corporations with big tax breaks, taking away rights and freedoms and undermining our democracy."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}But the White House’s messaging is not only focused on Thursday night’s speech. LaBolt said we live in a "fractured communications landscape" and said many Americans "won’t consume the State of the Union collectively in the same moment or through the same medium."
President Biden speaks on the phone during a National Small Business Week event in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington, D.C., May 1, 2023. (Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images)
"Therefore, we’re fanning out aggressively not only Thursday but in the weeks ahead to reach Americans where they receive the news with the president’s message about whose side he’s on," LaBolt said.
In the days following the State of the Union, Biden is expected to travel to Philadelphia and Atlanta, and Vice President Kamala Harris will travel to Arizona and Nevada.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The White House will also send cabinet secretaries to states across the nation, including Colorado, Ohio, Missouri, Kentucky, South Carolina, Massachusetts, North Carolina, Tennessee, Michigan and other states to highlight the Biden administration’s agenda.
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Following Biden’s address Thursday night, Alabama Republican Sen. Katie Britt is expected to deliver the GOP response.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Fox News' Adam Shae contributed to this report.