US President Joe Biden advises not to worry about what the polls say. That’s a good thing, because despite the fact that he used an address to the US Congress on Tuesday night to support his claim of another attack on the White House, Democrats don’t believe it, according to a recent poll.
In fact, according to an AP-NORC poll released on Monday, most Democrats would be happy if he left. age 86 years.
The poll shows that only 37 percent of Democrats want Biden to run again for the White House in 2024, sharply below the 50 percent support he received in the agency’s polls in October and January. He was not to be expected to broach the subject of the 2024 race directly in his annual keynote. But there are other issues on the agenda of the annual address to Congress, including Russia’s war against Ukraine.
Biden has repeatedly said the US is ready to help Ukraine fight back against Russia “for as long as it takes.” Since the conflict began, the US has provided almost $30 billion in security assistance.
Polls show that Americans generally remain in favor of Ukraine. However, Congress’s patience with the costs of war, especially among most New Republicans, will not prove endless.
The President is likely to shift US support for Kyiv as part of a broader fight against authoritarianism. But the American political website Hill believes that some US foreign policy officials will ask Biden to use the speech to chart a possible roadmap to end the conflict in Ukraine, although the White House has said Ukrainians themselves should certainly do so.
Biden will stand on solid ground and use spy balloons as evidence of China’s growing military and economic threat. And he will be pleased with the positive signals from the US economy, especially the unexpected news that America added 517,000 jobs in January. He did not go into details about inflation, which is not falling as fast as Americans would like.
He will no doubt mention the longstanding outright feud over the US debt ceiling. Republicans have refused to raise the statutory debt limit unless Biden agrees to federal spending cuts. Biden said raising the limit was non-negotiable and Congress must pay the country’s bills or face economic disaster.
Following the assassination of Tyre Nichols in Memphis due to a traffic stop, Biden will fend off growing anger at police brutality against people of color and likely highlight the need for police reform.
The ongoing horror of the mass shootings is likely to prompt him to call again on Congress to pass an assault weapons ban, despite all the benefits it would bring.
But the speech is also likely to be notable for what it will not mention. There will be no references to his predecessor Donald Trump, no accusations against the ex-president. Given Biden’s own legal troubles with mishandled confidential documents, this shouldn’t come as a surprise.
House Republicans have stepped up their vindictive investigations into the president himself in recent days, including an investigation into the behavior of the president’s son, Hunter Biden. This is also not mentioned in the speech.
What about the one that splits Congress and the country in half? Will Biden talk about culture wars?
He may feel he must. The Republican response to Biden’s speech will be presented by Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders. Sanders, a former belligerent spokeswoman for Trump, made up for lost time in her early days in office by issuing executive orders aimed at teaching critical racial theory in public schools and supporting laws to ban school classes that target sexual orientation.
She will immediately say that the Democrats have lost touch with mainstream American values. Neither now nor in 2024 can Democrats afford to refute these claims.