AMAC Exclusive – By Alan Jamison
With fewer than nine months to go until Election Day and Joe Biden continuing to slide in the polls, Biden’s upcoming State of the Union Address on March 7 presents perhaps one of the last major opportunities he will have to reset his flailing re-election campaign.
Here are five things to expect when Biden goes before Congress for what could be his final time as president.
Biden Will Blame Republicans for the Border Crisis
If Biden’s last two State of the Union addresses are any guide, Americans can expect to hear plenty of blame-shifting when Biden takes the podium next week.
With the border crisis emerging as perhaps the president’s biggest political liability, Biden’s speechwriters will almost certainly include accusations that House Republicans sabotaged a “bipartisan” border security deal in early February. As AMAC Newsline has previously reported, that deal contained numerous provisions that would have made the border crisis even worse—including a path to citizenship for as many illegal aliens as Joe Biden wants.
Throughout the first three years of his presidency, Biden attempted to largely ignore the flood of illegal aliens into the country. But with more than 7.2 million illegal crossings throughout his presidency and high-profile tragedies like the killing of a 22 year old nursing student on the University of Georgia campus by a twice-arrested illegal alien, Biden can no longer pretend the crisis doesn’t exist.
Expect the State of the Union to continue Biden’s effort to blame Republicans for the situation at the border, as ridiculous as that may seem. As part of this effort, Biden will likely call for “comprehensive immigration reform” and falsely claim that he needs action from Congress to enforce immigration laws already on the books.
Biden Will Try to Convince the Country the Economy is Doing Great
Though the White House’s “Bidenomics” push has largely died out amid serious negative feedback from the American people, the White House and Biden’s re-election campaign are nonetheless still trying to convince the country that the economy is actually doing quite well.
Expect Biden to spend plenty of time touting ostensibly strong recent jobs reports (largely a factor of ongoing recovery from the pandemic) robust gains in the stock market (although these gains are drastically reduced when correcting for inflation), and the fact that the rate of inflation has come down since four-decade highs in 2022 – although the metric still remains well above historical norms.
What anyone who tunes into Biden’s speech should not forget, however, is that there is a significant disconnect between the narrative Biden is selling and the actual experience of everyday people. 75 percent of Americans are concerned about their family’s financial security. 55 percent say they are worse off financially under Biden than Trump. Just 28 percent say their financial situation is improving, while 46 percent say it’s getting worse.
No matter what spin Biden attempts to give to the sour state of the economy, most Americans will likely be unwilling to buy it.
Biden Will Demand More Money for Ukraine Without any for Border Security
Despite Senate Democrats failing to support adequate border security measures to accompany a foreign aid bill, Biden has continued to insist that Congress pass billions more to defend Ukraine’s borders while the U.S. border remains wide open.
Biden will likely spend a few minutes scolding Republicans for not simply granting his requests to ship billions more taxpayer dollars overseas without any sort of oversight or accountability.
Biden Will Continue to Slander his Political Enemies as “threats to democracy”
Following former President Donald Trump’s landslide victory in the South Carolina Republican primary, it appears virtually inevitable that he will become the Republican nominee and face Biden in a rematch this November.
Throughout his presidency, Biden has made a habit of slandering Trump and all of his supporters as a “threat to democracy.” Absent any real policy successes to run on, Biden’s team has resorted to fearmongering and insisting that Trump would be a “dictator” if he wins a second term.
Biden likely won’t take any direct shots at Trump or mention him by name. But facing a deficit of six points or even more in some 2024 general election polls, Biden may feel the need to hit the “democracy issue” hard during the speech to hold onto his diminishing left-wing base.
Biden Will have a Major Gaffe
Axios has reported that Biden’s team views the 2024 State of the Union as a “reset moment” and “a chance to overcome or at least neutralize concerns about President Biden’s age and vitality.”
2023 was filled with plenty of gaffes and blunders for the 81-year-old president. The recent release of the Hur report, which alleged that Biden was unable to recall major events in his life, including when his son, Beau, died, and when he served as vice president, has added to the perception that Biden is unfit for office. A full 64 percent of Americans do not think Biden has the mental fitness to serve a second term.
For a president who gives precious few interviews and rarely takes questions from the press, the upcoming State of the Union may be his last opportunity to make the case that he is healthy enough to go another four years. But if Biden can’t make it through his speech or has a major stumble – and he’s sure to have at least one rough spot – the further damage to his public image could prove irreparable.
Regardless of what Biden says during his State of the Union, however, or even if he can make it through the speech gaffe-free, it may make little difference. At the end of 2023, Biden’s approval rating, just 39 percent, was lower than any president seeking re-election in the modern era.
It may well be the case that, no matter how valiant an effort Biden makes, the American people have already seen and heard enough.
Alan Jamison is the pen name of a political writer with extensive experience writing for several notable politicians and news outlets.
