Democrats Nervous About The State of the Union

The State of the Union tonight may be Joe Biden’s last chance to reset the general election and prove that he’s up to the challenge physically and mentally to be president for another four years. 

For weeks now, Biden supporters have pointed to the speech as the president’s big moment. “Biden’s SOTU address played well last year — he seemed agile and riffed about the GOP and Social Security. Officials close to him, needing a repeat triumph, will spend hours on everything from the text to his physical preparation to exploit the prime-time moment,” according to Axios.

“Everyone around him is well aware — well aware — of the need to jack this campaign up,” a source close to Biden told the outlet. “The only way to deal with the negative aftershocks of the special counsel’s report [slamming Biden’s age] is for the president to be out there, to be visible — to be strong of presence and strong of voice.”

The Washington Examiner reported that several Democratic lawmakers are getting a little worried about tonight’s late-night speech in front of the entire world. 

Several House Democrats have expressed concerns about whether President Joe Biden will have a “senior moment” during this year’s State of the Union as questions swirl around his mental capability to serve as president.

“We are all nervous,” one unnamed House Democrat told Axios. The Democrat pointed to long-running concerns about Biden’s “ability to speak without blowing things.”

Democratic lawmakers are nervous about possible gaffes but not about his energy — something the president has shown he has plenty of when he can take the time to prepare for an event.

“Listen, [Former President Donald] Trump has made rhetorical slips. … Biden is going to make rhetoric slips. I think the key is his energy level,” an unnamed House Democrat said.

Biden kicked off his preview of tonight’s speech by posting the wrong year and month on social media. 

Earlier in the week it was revealed that Biden intends to focus his reelection not on what he’s done to help the American people, but rather “defending democracy” talk that he and his closest aids have become fixated on. 

USA Today reported that it’s not sitting well with fellow Democrats. “Stirring anxieties among Democrats, Biden’s fundamental reelection message − that the “battle for the soul of America” isn’t over − hasn’t clicked yet for the majority of voters: Trump leads Biden in most polls nationally and in battleground states that will decide the election.

Not surprisingly, Biden will make protecting American democracy and restoring women’s reproductive rights major themes of his remarks, according to the White House. Biden has blamed Trump’s three Supreme Court nominees for overturning Roe v. Wade’s constitutional right to an abortion and cast Trump, who tried to overturn the 2020 election, as a continued threat to democracy.

Biden will have a chance to renew his call for Congress to pass bipartisan border legislation that congressional Republicans killed at the urging of Trump. Last week during a visit to the U.S.-Mexico border in Texas, Biden challenged Trump to “join me” in pushing for the bill, which includes some of the strongest border enforcement measures intact in a generation.”

Biden’s claim that he needs Congress to do something on the border will likely fall on deaf ears. On Monday, the former head of Border Patrol told “60 Minutes” that “I’ve never had one conversation with the president or the vice president, for that matter,” Ortiz said. “I was the chief of the border patrol. I commanded 21,000 people. That’s a problem.”

[Read More: Biden Appears To Freeze During Meeting]

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