The White House is aware of the significance of the State of the Union address, acknowledging it as a high-stakes moment for President Joe Biden.
Biden is approaching a rematch with former President Donald Trump in November with a persistently low job approval rating. Thursday’s address offers an opportunity for the president to address voter concerns regarding his age and lay out his agenda for a second term, which some question if he can carry out.
White House chief of staff Jeff Zients expressed to multiple outlets that Biden is prepared to rise to the occasion during his address.
“States of the Union are big moments,” Zients told Politico. “You could argue that this is a particularly big moment, and I think there’s no one better at handling high stakes than President Biden.”
“You’re going to see a very energized president,” he added. “This is a big moment. And this president rises to those big moments.”
Biden is set to touch on several topics that have left his base dissatisfied and damaged his reputation in national polling.
Zients laid out three urgent items Congress needs to act on, including spending bills, immigration, and delivering foreign aid.
“We can not have a shutdown of the government waiting around the corner every few weeks,” Zients told Punchbowl News.
“Second: We need to support Ukraine, Israel and the Palestinian people,” Zients added.
Biden and Republicans have blamed each other for the border crisis, and Zients took a jab at the GOP ahead of the address.
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“Congress needs to provide the resources to manage the border. We do not have enough border patrols, we don’t have enough asylum officers and immigration judges. And we need to fund the border so we can manage the border and also make changes to the policy so that we can secure the border,” Zients said.
“Some Republicans I think prefer the chaos at the border, the political issue rather than actually doing the right thing,” Zients added.
