Biggest moments from Biden’s 2023 State of the Union address

President Biden delivers State of the Union address

US President Joe Biden delivers his State of the Union address during a joint session of Congress in the Chamber of the US Capitol February 7, 2023 in Washington, DC. Credit—Drew Angerer—Getty Images

Addressing Congress for the first time since Republicans won a majority, President Joe Biden opened his State of the Union address Tuesday night by celebrating how far the country’s economy has come since the peak of high inflation last summer , and recognizing the fall in unemployment.

Biden also announced a unity agenda that focuses on areas where he believes Democrats and Republicans can find common ground. “People sent us a clear message,” said Biden, behind whom was new House Speaker Kevin McCarthy. “Fighting for the sake of fighting, power for the sake of power, conflict for the sake of conflict gets us nowhere.”

The President’s speech to a politically divided Congress comes as the nation grapples with complex domestic and international issues, including economic instability, a standoff on raising the debt ceiling, the ongoing conflict in Ukraine and escalating tensions with China. Biden offered a reassuring assessment of the current state of the nation emerging from the COVID-19 pandemic with the lowest unemployment rate since 1969. The economy added 12.1 million jobs between January 2021, when Biden took office, and more jobs were added this January two years than under any previous president during a four-year term.

However, he acknowledged persistently high prices and continued fears about the future, citing the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the US Capitol and the threat to the democratic process. “Two years ago, democracy faced its greatest threat since the Civil War,” Biden said. “And today our democracy remains unbound and unbroken.”

Biden’s Tuesday night speech is a dress rehearsal for his likely re-election campaign, when the president will once again try to convince American voters that his seasoned leadership and willingness to work across the aisle make him the right leader in polarizing times. Biden hopes to tout his success over the past two years by getting some Republicans to commit to greater investment in infrastructure, boosting US engineered manufacturing and a modest gun safety bill.

These are the key moments from Biden’s 2023 State of the Union address.

What Biden wants to highlight

Rather than making flashy policy proposals like he did a year ago, Biden is expected to focus his speech primarily on what he’s accomplished in his first two years in office. With Republicans now in control of the House of Representatives, he is turning his attention to making sure voters credit him with major legislative wins, including the bipartisan infrastructure package, legislation boosting domestic semiconductor production, and climate action.

He is also expected to address raising the debt ceiling before the government runs out of money in June. Some House Republicans want cuts to programs like Medicare and Social Security in exchange for their support. Biden says he will not negotiate an increase in the limit because raising the limit only allows the US to pay bills that Congress has already approved and a default in payments calls into question the good faith and creditworthiness of the United States and making borrowing more expensive could send shock waves through the global economy.

White House officials say that not only will Biden find a way through the looming debt ceiling crisis, but he will talk about working across the aisle to lower the cost of some prescription drugs that veterans care for increase investment in cancer research and reduce opioid-related deaths. The president is also likely to promote some ideas that will resonate immediately with Republicans, including raising taxes on the wealthy, imposing a minimum corporate tax rate and banning assault weapons.

Biden’s speech comes at a time when his approval rating is about 42%, one of the lowest average second-year approval ratings of any modern president (only his predecessor, President Donald Trump, had a lower average second-year rating). A continuing drag on Biden’s ratings has been the economy, which is still suffering from high inflation. An ABC News/Washington Post poll released Sunday found that four in 10 Americans say they have been worse off financially since Biden took office. The same poll found that 62% of Americans would be disappointed or upset if Biden won a second term.

Notable guests

Each year, members of Congress and the First Lady invite guests to the State of the Union to honor them, thank them, or help raise awareness of specific issues.

Among this year’s President’s guests, seated with First Lady Jill Biden in the gallery of the House of Representatives, are the parents of Tyre Nichols, the 29-year-old black man who was beaten to death by Memphis police officers on Jan. 7; Brandon Tsay, the Californian who disarmed a gunman in the Monterey Park shooting that killed 11 on January 22; Paul Pelosi, the husband of former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who was assaulted at their San Francisco home on October 28 by a man who was looking for his wife; Oksana Markarova, the Ukrainian Ambassador to the United States; and Bono, the singer who campaigned for AIDS treatment.

Joining them in the First Lady’s box are cancer survivors, business owners, students, a young immigrant seeking legal status, a father who lost a child to a fentanyl overdose, a couple campaigning for the legalization of same-sex marriage , a Holocaust survivor and ironworker, a Navy spouse, and a woman who nearly died while pregnant after delaying treatment under Texas abortion law.

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