A make-or-break State of the Union for Biden

Tonight President Joe Biden is set to deliver one of what may be his final major speeches as president: the State of the Union.

After a completely empty schedule today, the president will address both Houses of Congress — but rivals are speculating if he’ll even make it through the evening.

“Will the president be juiced enough to appear to be coherent?” Representative Darrell Issa wonders. And, “how will he deal with immigration. Those are the two issues that I think are on everyone’s mind,” he said. Prior to the speech, the House Republican Conference hosted a media row where dozens of lawmakers spoke about their expectations heading into tonight’s speech. “Border, border, border,” is what some, such as Oklahoma’s Kevin Hern, want to hear from the president. 

While Biden is expected to address the economic concerns Americans have, this will reportedly come in the form of attacking corporate greed and “shrinkflation,” while coming at the expense of American energy independence. Representative Stephanie Bice, whose native Oklahoma has no shortage of energy-dependent jobs, lamented that the president is apparently unwilling to champion jobs in her state, instead seeming to prioritize pipelines for America’s adversaries, like Putin, in Europe. 

“This administration is trying to decimate [American energy independence in] death by 1,000 cuts,” she said. “It’s not one regulatory initiative, it is 10,000 that they are going on using the rulemaking process or otherwise to try to effectuate change.” Bice wants him to cancel the ban on natural gas exports — but doesn’t sound optimistic that he’ll listen to her. 

Some in Congress are using their allotted guest tickets to emphasize the economic impact of Biden’s policies. Nebraska congressman Don Bacon is bringing an Omaha-based homeless advocate, for example who feeds thousands in their community every month. Wisconsin representative Derrick Van Orden brought in his Navy SEAL training roommate — but who is now a commercial real estate investor who faces huge delinquency problems from his tenants, who are struggling to pay him their rents as they work to make ends meet.

Other Republicans such as Hern brought local sheriffs and district attorneys who have been confronting massive influxes of drugs in their communities, which they attribute to Biden’s open border policies. For his part, Biden and Democrats are using their guests to spotlight abortion laws and in-vitro fertilization. 

Some members, like Issa, brought their guests for the big night to the media row. Issa, as he has done for over a year, is highlighting the administration’s disastrous withdrawal from Kabul, bringing Coral Briseño, the mother of Marine Corporal Humberto Sanchez, who was killed during the final days of America’s longest war. Briseño was joined by several other Gold Star Families invited by Representatives Michael Waltz, Michael McCaul and Speaker Mike Johnson.

“We’ll have at least five family members and Gold Star Family members from the failed Afghanistan withdrawal who have never met with the president, nor have they ever heard an apology,” Issa said. Aside from when President Biden repeatedly stared at his watch during the dignified transfer of their loved ones, they have never seen Biden — who is still ignoring their requests, as Christy Shamblin told CNN’s Abby Phillip earlier today.

Ignoring senselessly killed Americans was a theme at today’s preview. Georgia representative Mike Collins, fresh off of passing the Laken Riley Act named after the college student murdered by an illegal immigrant in his district, does not have a guest for the speech. He invited Riley’s family, but they understandably do not want to venture to the Capitol so soon after their daughter’s murder. Instead, he will have a vacant seat, “to honor Laken and all American victims of illegal alien crime.” 

Collins stressed that he’s unwilling to let Riley’s murder go — which he has conveyed to her parents. He told The Spectator that, as far as he knows, her family has never heard from anyone in the Biden administration to express condolences — odd from America’s supposed consoler-in-chief, but which follows a pattern the Gold Star families here are all too familiar with.

To some, the fact that the October 7 terrorist attacks happened five months ago today has not gone unnoticed. Speaker Johnson, for example, is bringing Mia Schem, a former Hamas-held hostage, as one of his guests tonight. And of the foreign policy-oriented members, many see a link between the litany of foreign policy failures under this president.

Iowa’s Ashley Hinson told The Spectator that she will be starting to answer some of the flood of calls from children directed by TikTok to call her in support of the app — to suggesting that its push for child lobbyists may not work as intended. 

While many in Congress are receiving a flood of suicide threats or assassination warnings over the phones, the Chinese Communist Party-backed left-wing protest group Code Pink has been swarming the Capitol all day, badgering members of both parties to back a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas — which has steadfastly refused to provide even updates on whether the hostages they hold are even still alive. Ironically, the temporary fencing that has gone up didn’t seem to deter these agitators much. 

In other words, Biden has an easy job ahead of him tonight, as the right criticizes him for weakness at home and abroad, and some on the left attack him for standing by Israel. He needs all the luck he can get.