PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — President Joe Biden will deliver his first State of the Union address on Tuesday night. The tenor, tone and subject matter of the speech is expected to have changed since the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
"I can imagine that his speech writers right now are really scrambling," says Dr. Courtney Michelle Smith, professor and chair of history and political science at Cabrini University. She joined KYW Newsradio In Depth to talk about biggest challenges facing Biden on Tuesday night.
What should we expect to hear in the State of the Union? Listen below:
"My guess is prior to last week, they were going to use the State of the Union address to tout the accomplishments of the Biden administration thus far, and to set a narrative agenda for the upcoming midterms," Smith said.
"Now, he really has to address what is on top of everybody's mind, which is Ukraine, and what's happening in Eastern Europe. And that might cause some scrambling."
With the eyes of Congress, America, and often the world on the president, Biden's message must get extra attention.
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"Be very careful about what he says. Because if he makes a bold statement, or if he makes a bold claim, he can't later backtrack on that, because that could sow some confusion in Eastern Europe, and might give people who are directly involved in that conflict the wrong kind of impression," Smith said.
"I think he needs to set a tone of acknowledging that many people are still suffering, that the economy isn't great, inflation is bad, and people are noticing higher prices for things that they're paying for on a daily basis — while also trying to set a positive agenda for 'This is what the Democratic Party can do for you when you go and you vote for it in November,'" she added.
"At the same time, he does need to make some foreign policy statements about America's leadership role and what's happening, because America can't escape the fact that it is playing a leadership role in foreign affairs."
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Smith also dived into the ways the Russia-Ukraine war is distracting from the things Biden probably wants to focus on. And she said Biden's public speaking may put him at a disadvantage compared to other presidents.
"That war has overshadowed the fact that, on Friday, Biden nominated [Ketanji Brown Jackson] to be the first Black woman on the Supreme Court. So, it's something where it's just so rapid that people forget what Biden says," she said.
"I think Biden is also hurt by the fact that, unlike some of his predecessors, he's not a great orator. He occasionally gives a good speech, but he doesn't have that oratory power that Bill Clinton had, at times George W. Bush had, Barack Obama had. And then Trump is just Trump. Nobody else can be him. Biden doesn't quite have that kind of oratorical gravitas. So it's going to be difficult, I think, for him to make a big impression past a 24-hour news cycle."
For more of Dr. Courtney Michelle Smith's State of the Union preview, listen here:
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Listen to the State of the Union address here on Tuesday at 9 p.m.
