President Biden's 2024 State of the Union address

Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia goaded President Joe Biden into saying the name of a nursing student in her state who was allegedly killed by an undocumented Venezuelan migrant.

While Biden was speaking on his border policies, Greene interrupted the president and appeared to urge him to mention Laken Riley's name.

Biden responded by holding up a pin that Greene gave him as he walked into the House chamber.

"Laken Riley was killed by an illegal," Biden said, adding that his heart goes out to parents who have lost children, having experienced the same loss himself.

President Joe Biden proposed taxing the country’s wealthiest people more, arguing that the money could be used to continue cutting the federal deficit and fund federal initiatives.

The president criticized Republicans — saying the last administration’s policies benefited the top 1% — and proposed raising taxes on billionaires.

“Folks at home, does anybody really think the tax code is fair?” Biden asked the crowd.

“No,” the crowd of lawmakers yelled back at the president. Biden said billionaires are taxed “far less” than the majority of Americans.

Turning to social security, Biden vowed to strengthen the system. He said it's not fair that "working people who built this country pay more into social security than millionaires and billionaires do."

House Speaker Mike Johnson, who is sitting behind Biden, started shaking his head.

"Well, that's the proposal. Oh, no? You guys don't want another $2 trillion tax cut? I kind of thought that's what your plan was," Biden said to the lawmakers.

President Joe Biden said he wants to expand education provisions, including "high-quality tutoring and summer learning" for children nationwide, raising public school teacher salaries, and increasing investments into historically Black colleges and universities.

President Joe Biden is delivering his third State of the Union address.

See some of the best photos of the night so far:

Dozens of pro-Palestinian protesters are blocking the traditional motorcade route between the White House and the Capitol ahead of President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address Thursday night.

The demonstrators are at the intersection of Pennsylvania and Constitution Avenues with a banner blocking the roadway. 

There are multiple routes to the Capitol the motorcade may take so this is more of a symbolic blockade. 

There is a large police presence on the scene. There is no word of any arrests at this point.

White House officials said they have been watching the images of the protests. Demonstrations have become very commonplace near the White House, not to mention at Biden’s speeches. 

“They’ve been out there most weeks,” one White House official said. “We’re aware of their concerns.”

We're tracking the length of President Joe Biden's speech tonight to see how it compares to his speech last year — and the shortest and longest speeches in recent history.

While President Joe Biden will be the only one speaking at the State of the Union, several members of Congress will be sending messages with their style. With all eyes on the House Chamber, here’s a breakdown of the political fashion statements to expect tonight.

Sea of white: When cameras pan across the chamber, viewers will catch a sea of white from Democratic women members unifying around reproductive rights. The Democratic Women’s Caucus has invited all members to wear white to display their “united commitment to defending reproductive freedom and support for the Biden Administration’s work to protect access to reproductive care and women’s equality.”

They’ve also been encouraged to wear “Fighting for Reproductive Freedom” buttons.

Buttoned up: Some accessories that will take a keener eye to catch are the climate pin, Ukraine caucus pin and orange ribbons for fertility awareness, as seen on Virginia Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine. Members of the Dads Caucus are wearing building block pins to show “support for policies that build a brighter future for our kids," California Rep. Kevin Mullin shared on X. 

Some Republican lawmakers will also be wearing buttons that say: “Say Her Name Laken Riley” and “STOP THE BIDEN BORDER CRISIS." The effort, led by Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, calls for stricter border measures and to honor Riley, who authorities believe was killed by an undocumented immigrant in Athens. 

Feeling the chill: One accessory that is less fashionable and more practical is blankets. The House chamber feels at least 10 degrees cooler in anticipation of the packed House this evening. As in years past, we expect a large number of members to cover themselves in blankets. 

In the run-up to the special election in New York last month for the House seat left vacant by George Santos’s expulsion from Congress, Tom Suozzi was very clear: He didn’t want to be anywhere near Joe Biden.  

It didn’t matter that Biden had carried the district in 2020. Fears of crime and the influx of immigrants, coupled with Biden’s trailing poll numbers had Suozzi scared of any kind of connection. 

Asked if he wanted the president to campaign for him, Suozzi told CNN, “I don’t think it would be helpful.”  

That, apparently, was then. Suozzi won his race, by a wider margin than most expected. Biden called to congratulate him.  

And on Thursday night, he made sure to get as close to Biden as he could. As the president made his way down the center aisle in the House chamber, the former and now re-elected congressman grabbed his attention and leaned in with his phone for a selfie. 

Suozzi is up for reelection in November, in a district that has gotten slightly safer for him as a result of new congressional maps signed into law last week by New York Gov. Kathy Hochul. 

Biden said that inflation is coming down, and he's not wrong. But prices are still going up. How can both those things be true?

That's because the inflation rate measures how fast prices rise. But just because the pace of price hikes is slowing doesn't necessarily mean that prices actually fall. They just go up more less quickly.

For a lot of people, the result is an economy in which a slowdown in the rate of inflation — which peaked at 9.1% year-over-year in June 2022 and most recently came in at 3.1%, as measured by the Consumer Price Index — still doesn't feel terribly affordable.