President Biden's 2023 State of the Union address

In his first State of the Union address to a divided Congress, President Joe Biden will tell congressional Republicans that he wants to work together instead of “fighting for the sake of fighting” and will reiterate his focus on middle class jobs, according to excerpts of his remarks released by the White House Tuesday evening.

“The people sent us a clear message. Fighting for the sake of fighting, power for the sake of power, conflict for the sake of conflict, gets us nowhere. And that’s always been my vision for the country: to restore the soul of the nation, to rebuild the backbone of America: the middle class, to unite the country. We’ve been sent here to finish the job!"

As expected, Biden will also talk about his economic plan “investing in places and people that have been forgotten,” and “building an economy where no one is left behind.” He will also address strong economic recovery since the pandemic.

In his speech, Biden will seek to connect with his audience by saying he understands their plight.

"Amid the economic upheaval of the past four decades too many people have been left behind or treated like they’re invisible. Maybe that’s you watching at home. You remember the jobs that went away. And you wonder whether a path even exists anymore for you and your children to get ahead without moving away. I get it," he will say.

Read the full excerpts from his speech:  

"The story of America is a story of progress and resilience…We are the only country that has emerged from every crisis stronger than when we entered it. That is what we are doing again. Two years ago our economy was reeling. As I stand here tonight, we have created a record 12 million new jobs – more jobs created in two years than any president has ever created in four years. Two years ago, COVID had shut down our businesses, closed our schools, and robbed us of so much. Today, COVID no longer controls our lives. And two years ago, our democracy faced its greatest threat since the Civil War. Today, though bruised, our democracy remains unbowed and unbroken."

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"My economic plan is about investing in places and people that have been forgotten. Amid the economic upheaval of the past four decades too many people have been left behind or treated like they’re invisible. Maybe that’s you watching at home. You remember the jobs that went away. And you wonder whether a path even exists anymore for you and your children to get ahead without moving away. I get it. That’s why we’re building an economy where no one is left behind. Jobs are coming back, pride is coming back because of the choices we made in the last two years. This is a blue-collar blueprint to rebuild America and make a real difference in your lives.

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"To my Republican friends, if we could work together in the last Congress, there is no reason we can’t work together in this new Congress. The people sent us a clear message. Fighting for the sake of fighting, power for the sake of power, conflict for the sake of conflict, gets us nowhere. And that’s always been my vision for the country: to restore the soul of the nation, to rebuild the backbone of America: the middle class, to unite the country. We’ve been sent here to finish the job!"

Rahmat Mokhtar, a former Afghan interpreter who is advocating for the passage of the Afghan Adjustment Act, is among the various guests arriving in Washington, DC, to attend President Joe Biden’s second State of the Union address.

Mokhtar is a guest of Democratic Rep. Scott Peters, who said on Twitter on Monday that he is bringing Mokhtar to “amplify the need for Congress to pass [the Afghan Adjustment Act] now.” 

Mokhtar worked with US Marines for roughly four years starting in 2010 and arrived in San Diego in 2016 under the Special Immigrant Visa program, he told CNN on Monday.

As an ethnic minority in Afghanistan, Mokhtar said it was difficult for him to find work in Afghanistan after graduating college — but the US military didn’t care “about the inter-ethnic dynamics in Afghanistan,” they just cared that he could do the job. 

More on the Afghan Adjustment Act: The act was heavily advocated for by former senior military leaders and service members alike, who were pushing for Congress to include the provision in the omnibus spending bill in December. It ultimately did not make it into the bill.

While Mokhtar said his original plan when he began working with the military wasn’t to come to the US, life in Afghanistan began getting too dangerous for him because of his job. So despite still having family in Afghanistan and hope in his country, he came to the US on the SIV program and quickly made a life for himself. 

His wife joined him in San Diego just a few months later; the couple now has two boys, and Mokhtar said he became a US citizen just two months after the withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021. He has also started working with #AfghanEvac, a non-profit focused on fulfilling promises to Afghan allies. 

Shawn VanDiver, the founder of #AfghanEvac, called Mokhtar an “absolute patriot and American citizen” who works daily to help other refugees. He met with officials at the White House and State Department on Tuesday, VanDiver said, to make a case with his own words about the Afghan Adjustment Act. 

“He is an absolutely incredible human being who gives so much of himself,” VanDiver said.

Speaking with CNN on Monday, Mokhtar said he had a clear message to Congress and the Biden administration: The time to take action is now.

This year Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders will be delivering the Republican response to President Joe Biden's State of the Union address.

The tradition of the opposing party response dates back to 1966.

The first official "response" to the State of the Union by the opposing party was delivered by Republican Sen. Everett Dirksen and Rep. Gerald Ford in 1966.

Each television network offered a half-hour slot for response time, although the slots were not "roadblocked" (i.e. did not air at the same time on all networks) and did not air immediately after the President's address.

In 1976, television time was available for the opposing party's response immediately following the State of the Union.

The choice of speaker usually rotates between the opposing party's House and Senate leadership, although on several occasions, party leaders have chosen multiple speakers. 

CNN's Robert Yoon, Adam Levy and Liz Stark contributed reporting to this post.

State of the Union addresses are supposed to be a high mark of sorts for a president. The president has the nation’s attention as he describes his accomplishments and agenda going forward.

And while President Joe Biden will certainly do those things Tuesday night, he faces a tall task.

Biden’s poll numbers (both in terms of his approval rating and his 2024 prospects) continue to be lackluster heading into the beginning of the 2024 primary season.

Three polls were released in the past five days regarding how Americans view the job Biden is doing as president, and they all say basically the same negative thing.

Polls from ABC News/Washington Post, AP-NORC and CBS News/YouGov all have Biden’s approval rating in the low to mid 40s and his disapproval rating in the mid to high 50s.

The best polls that Biden has received (and that meet CNN’s standards for publication) over the past few weeks still have Biden’s disapproval rating above his approval rating.

Indeed, Biden has sported a negative net approval (approve - disapprove) rating since the end of the summer of 2021, just months into his administration. That’s nearly a year and a half in which more Americans have disliked than liked the job Biden has been doing as president.

The only other president who had a negative net approval rating for that long during this early part of his presidency was Biden’s predecessor, Donald Trump.

The good piece of news for Biden is that his approval rating does not seem to be falling. Biden’s approval rating seemed to be on a steady upclimb for much of December and into January. Then it dropped after classified documents were found at his Wilmington, Delaware, home and a Washington, DC, office he used after serving as vice president. It now looks to be up slightly, again.

Further, Biden’s base seems to be sticking with him. Almost every single poll has his approval rating with Democrats in the 80s.

No president has ever faced any real challenge for renomination when his approval rating among his own party was above 75%.

But there are other signs ahead of 2024 that are far from encouraging. Even as most Democrats like the job Biden is doing as president, they’re not ready to commit to him being the party’s standard bearer in the coming presidential cycle.

Read more of Enten's analysis here.

Members of the Supreme Court usually attend the State of the Union address and sit in the House of Representatives chamber in the front-row, center.

Chief Justice John Roberts is the only sitting justice to attend every address since joining the court in 2005. Justices Elena Kagan and Brett Kavanaugh had attended each address since they joined the court until 2021.

Roberts was the only justice invited that year due to pandemic capacity restrictions on attendance. That limitation also prevented Justice Amy Coney Barrett (who joined the court in 2020) from having the opportunity to attend her first presidential address to Congress.

Retired Supreme Court Justice Breyer has attended the speech 24 times. He only missed four speeches since joining the court in 1994 (2000, 2019, 2020, 2021). He was the sole representative of the high court during the 2001, 2003 and 2004 addresses. 

The last time all nine sitting justices attended the speech was in 1977. Retired Justice John Paul Stevens attended seven of the first eight speeches after he joined the Supreme Court in 1975 but skipped every speech for the remainder of his 26 years on the bench.

CNN's Robert Yoon, Adam Levy and Liz Stark contributed reporting to this post.

When President Biden delivers his State of the Union address on Tuesday evening, he’ll speak in front of nearly every influential federal official in Washington – including members of Congress, top military brass, US Supreme Court justices and senior officials within his administration.

But at least one top official is not expected to be in the US Capitol building for Biden’s speech, participating instead in an obscure ritual in order to maintain the line of presidential succession in the rare case that disaster strikes. That person is the designated survivor.

Last year, Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo was the designated survivor for Biden’s first State of the Union address, staying away from the Capitol in an undisclosed and secure location during the president’s prime-time remarks.

How it started: According to the National Constitution Center, the tradition of a designated survivor during the State of the Union speech began in the 1950s as a result of fears of a nuclear attack during the Cold War. But the federal government did not publicly name the designated survivor until 1981, when President Ronald Reagan’s Education Secretary Terrel Bell assumed the designation for an address to a joint session of Congress.

After the vice president, the speaker of the House, the Senate president pro tempore, and the secretaries of State, Treasury and Defense are next in the line of succession. Data analyzed by CNN shows that the attorney general, seventh in the line of succession, has been the highest-ranking Cabinet member known to have been appointed to be designated survivor. A Justice Department head has been selected for the role three times.

While not as well known, the National Constitution Center states that designated survivors have also been used during inaugurations and presidential speeches to joint sessions of Congress. Members of Congress also have been designated to skip the State of the Union as a precautionary measure, according to the center.

Ahead of President Joe Biden's State of the Union address, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy warned members during a closed-door meeting to behave themselves, reminding them that the “mics are hot” and the “cameras are on," according to a source in the room.

House GOP conference chair Elise Stefanik issued a similar warning.

McCarthy also told members to be cognizant that photographers can see their phones so be aware of what they are looking at on their screens — and be aware that boom mics can pick up their conversations, per source in room.

The source also said that McCarthy said he would not tear up Biden’s speech as Rep. Nancy Pelosi did after one of former President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address.

McCarthy also discussed and outlined the three main things he spoke to Biden about during his White House meeting last week including; that he’s not willing to raise taxes, he won’t pass a clean debt ceiling, and that Congress needs to spend less money, according to a person in the room.

“I was very clear to him: we’re not going to raise taxes, we’re not going to pass a clean debt ceiling,” he said. “I told the president we’re going to spend less money, and we also care about policy as well.”

McCarthy added that he saw Biden the next day at the national prayer breakfast, and the president remarked to him how good he thought their first meeting was.

As you prepare to listen to President Joe Biden's address tonight, catch up on some notable State of the Union milestones and facts:

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Photos: A visual history of the State of the Union | CNN Politics

CNN's Robert Yoon, Adam Levy and Liz Stark contributed reporting to this post.

US Capitol Police have been tracking social media posts about attacking the Capitol as the agency and other law enforcement around Washington increase security for Tuesday's State of the Union address. 

Among the security measures taken ahead of the address, authorities erected a non-scalable fence around the Capitol over the weekend — over the objection of the Republican House sergeant at arms — as security remains a political debate on Capitol Hill.

Intelligence analysts still believe the US remains in a heightened threat environment with possible violence directed toward lawmakers and law enforcement, according to a Capitol Police Intelligence and Interagency Coordination Division bulletin circulated in recent days.    

The bulletin also noted that calls on social media for violence targeted toward the Capitol remains prevalent.  "January 6 supporters perpetuate antagonistic commentary in social media platforms and several have called for aspirational targeting of the SOTU," the bulletin said.  

Among the examples of concerning social media posts included a post comparing the Jan. 8, 2023, insurrection in Brazil to the January 6, 2021, insurrection at the US Capitol, and criticizing the Jan. 6 rioters for failing to "finish it."   

"This was the problem with J6. You can't do it halfway," the user posted.   

Other posts speculated about the return of former President Donald Trump and called for the execution of officials in President Joe Biden's administration as well as Biden’s arrest by the House Sergeant at Arms.  

The bulletin also noted that increased scrutiny of police in the wake of incidents, such as the death of Tyre Nichols, could make the State of the Union a focal point for demonstrations.  

The bulletin did point out there were no specific credible threats related to the event.  

The fence was erected after House Sergeant at Arms William McFarland voted last week against it, according to a source familiar with the Capitol Police Board vote. The other two members of the Capitol Police Board, Senate Sergeant at Arms Karen Gibson and Architect of the Capitol J. Brett Blanton, voted for putting up the fence.

McFarland, recently appointed by House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, didn’t think the fence was necessary given a lack of intelligence suggesting a credible threat or large protests planned, the source said. Previous State of the Union addresses have been secured without a fence, the source added, and the cost “to make the campus look like a military fortress was unnecessary.”

 Two years removed from the Jan. 6 riot, the Capitol Police Board is now split, with the Democratic appointed Senate Sergeant at Arms and the Republican House Sergeant at Arms. Blanton was appointed by former President Trump in 2019.  

The political split will push different opinions about security onto the Capitol Police Board agenda, and the State of the Union presented the first test of the functioning of the new board.