Biden to deliver final State of the Union address before rematch with Trump in 2024 election: Live updates

President Joe Biden will seek to lay out the case for his re-election and address a range of pressing issues both domestic and international when he delivers his latest State of the Union address to a joint-session of Congress on Thursday evening.

The Democrat is expected to tout his achievements in the White House, allay concerns about his age and warn of the threat to democracy posed by Donald Trump and hard-right Republicans across the country as he readies for a crucial election year.

The president’s address is likely to cover the economic recovery and infrastructure wins he has overseen from the Oval Office and feature a call for greater cooperation in the House of Representatives on spending deals to avert another looming government shutdown and to resolve the illegal immigration crisis at the southern border.

He is also expected to stress the need for international unity in the face of conflicts raging in Ukraine and Gaza.

House speaker Mike Johnson has meanwhile said he has sent a “very clear” message to his fellow Republicans to “turn the temperature down” and show “decorum” to avoid some of the more raucous scenes of recent years.

Key Points

• State of the Union: Biden to unveil new healthcare and tax relief plans

• What time is the president's address and how can you watch it?

• Who has been invited to watch the SOTU speech?

• House passes $460bn package of spending bills, with Senate expected to act before shutdown deadline

• Haley pulls out of Republican presidential race

Even after $91m verdict, Trump won’t stop defaming E Jean Carroll

Sunday 10 March 2024 20:30 , Ariana Baio

Despite recently posting a $91.6 million bond to appeal the case where he was found liable for sexual abuse and defamation, former president Donald Trump continues to defame writer E Jean Carroll.

During a rally in Georgia on Saturday, Mr Trump attacked Ms Carroll, her lawyers and the judge who oversaw the case – claiming the lawsuit was politically motivated and funded by “Democratic operatives”.

“I just posted a $91 million bond on a fake story. Totally made up story,” Mr Trump said. “Based on false accusations made about me by a woman that I knew nothing about, didn’t know, never heard of it. I know nothing about her.”

“Her lawyers are big Democratic operatives. The judge was a disaster. But Democratic operatives funded and directed her, they gave her the money to pursue the case,” Mr Trump told supporters.

The assertions are familiar ones that the former president has made countless times before. They’re the same ones that landed Mr Trump with a $83m bill which he was ordered to pay Ms Carroll after defaming her when she came forward with accusations that the former president sexually assaulted her in the 1990s.

Biden says he regrets using the term ‘illegal’ to describe suspected killer of Laken Riley

Sunday 10 March 2024 20:00 , Vishwam Sankaran

President Joe Biden said on Saturday that he regretted using the term “illegal” to refer to the suspected killer of Georgia nursing student Laken Riley.

Mr Biden apologised after some people from his political party expressed frustration with the president using the term to describe people who arrived in the US illegally.

“I shouldn’t have used illegal, it’s undocumented,” he said in an interview with MSNBC’s Jonathan Capehart taped in Georgia’s capital city Atlanta.

Riley, a 22-year-old nursing student, was murdered while she was jogging on the campus of the University of Georgia.

Police detained a 26-year-old man from Venezuela named Jose Ibarra, allegedly an undocumented immigrant who has been charged with felony murder, kidnapping, and false imprisonment.

Riley’s murder has become a hotly debated topic in the lead-up to the 2024 presidential election, with Republicans rallying over the Biden administration’s handling of the immigration crisis at the US-Mexico border.

Bernie Sanders urges people to vote for Biden amid Gaza controversy

Sunday 10 March 2024 19:00 , Ariana Baio

Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders told Face the Nation that despite his differences with President Joe Biden on his handling of the war in Gaza, people still need to vote for him.

“The fight continues to change Biden’s policy in Gaza. But the contrast between Biden and Trump is day and night. The election of Trump would be a disaster for this country and in my view the world,” Mr Sanders said on Sunday.

Mr Sanders has called for a humanitarian ceasefire and demanded the US stop sending military aid money to Israel – a contrasting opinion to Mr Biden who continues to support Israel while trying to send humanitarian aid to Gaza.

Here’s every member of Congress who isn’t seeking re-election in 2024

Sunday 10 March 2024 18:30 , Kelly Rissman

If a presidential election year wasn’t enough in Washington DC, this year will also see a lot of new faces in Congress, as many members have decided to not seek re-election, with many citing frustration with the chambers’ productivity as their reason for stepping down.

Eight Senators and 43 Representatives have announced their intentions to step down from their current post in 2024, with some running for different elected positions and others leaving politics altogether. Some of those could still run for their current seats if they do not win primary elections.

Read more from Kelly Rissman:

Here’s every member of Congress who isn’t seeking re-election in 2024

Biden says Netanyahu is disregarding innocent lives

Sunday 10 March 2024 18:00 , Ariana Baio

Following a hot mic moment from the State of the Union address, President Joe Biden told MSNBC that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is “hurting Israel” by disregarding “innocent lives being lost” in Gaza.

On Thursday, Mr Biden was caught speaking about a “come to Jesus” meeting with Mr Netanyahu.

The president later explained that it “is an expression used in the southern part of my state, meaning a serious meeting.”

“I’ve known Bibi for 50 years and he knew what I meant by it,” Mr Biden said.

Mr Biden has stopped short of criticizing Mr Netanyahu for the war Israel is waging in Gaza, though more recently he has urged the Israeli Prime Minister to pay attention to the innocent people being killed in Gaza.

"He must, he must, he must pay attention to the innocent lives being lost as a consequence of the actions taken,” Mr Biden said.

From Premium: Trump v Biden 2 is on – and nothing is going to stop them

Sunday 10 March 2024 17:30 , Andrew Feinberg

There has been a great deal of speculation about other candidates replacing the two frontrunners in this year’s election. The past week has taught us that those thoughts are nothing more than fantasies

Read more from Andrew Feinberg:

Trump v Biden 2 is on – and nothing is going to stop them

Biden campaign raises $10m after SOTU

Sunday 10 March 2024 17:00 , Ariana Baio

President Joe Biden’s re-election campaign brought in $10 million within the first day after the State of the Union address, NBC News reported.

More than 113,000 contributors donated to Mr Biden’s campaign, a senior campaign advisor told NBC News.

“We thank our grassroots supporters who are motivated more than ever to reelect President Biden and Vice President Harris. The President’s State of the Union address reminded so many of our supporters who is fighting for them, and the stakes of this election for our freedoms, our rights, and our democracy,” the Biden campaign manager, Julie Chavez-Rodriguez said.

“We send our condolences to the other guy and his flailing, poor campaign. Turns out attacking women’s rights, cutting taxes for the rich, and attacking American democracy isn’t exactly a winning message.”

SNL parodies Katie Britt speech

Sunday 10 March 2024 16:30 , Ariana Baio

Senator Katie Britt’s overdramatic rebuttal to President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address expectedly became the butt of a joke featured on Saturday Night Live (SNL) this weekend.

With the help of actress Scarlett Johansson, the late-night sketch show featured highlights from Ms Britt’s speech in their cold open: an empty kitchen, Ms Britt’s wide emotional range, her questionably re-telling of a graphic human trafficking story, a noticeably shiny cross necklace and of course, a lot of drama.

“Tonight I’ll be auditioning for the part of scary mom and I’ll be performing an original monologue called ‘This country is hell’,” Johansson said playing Ms Britt.

Aired directly from a “strange, empty kitchen” Johansson maintained unsettling eye contact with the camera while playing up the dramatics in parodying Ms Britt’s speech about the future of the country and the border crisis.

“Republicans wanted me to appeal to women voters and women love kitchen,” Johnasson joked.

Trump and Biden trade barbs in competing campaigns in swing state of Georgia

Sunday 10 March 2024 16:00 , Vishwam Sankaran

Donald Trump and President Joe Biden traded barbs on Saturday as they both campaigned in Georgia, signifying the key role the state may play in November’s general election.

The former US president was campaigning in right-wing firebrand congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene’s hometown of Rome on Saturday.

Mr Biden, who was campaigning in the state capital Atlanta, called out the ex-president for entertaining Hungary’s right-wing nationalist prime minister Viktor Orban, accusing him of “sucking up to dictators and authoritarian thugs all around the world”.

“When he says he wants to be a dictator, I believe him,” the US president said.

Trump and Biden trade barbs in competing campaigns in swing state of Georgia

Biden says he believes Trump ‘wants to be a dictator'

Sunday 10 March 2024 15:40 , Ariana Baio

During President Joe Biden’s campaign rally in Georgia on Saturday, he criticized Donald Trump’s cozying-up to authoritarian leaders – suggesting the former president would take leadership inspiration from them.

“It can tell you a lot about a person who he keeps company with,” Mr Biden said. “And yesterday he was hosting, at his club, Viktor Orban who says he doesn’t think Democracy works. He called him a ‘fantastic leader’. Seriously.”

Mr Trump hosted Mr Orban, the leader of Hungary, at his Mar-a-Lago golf club in Palm Beach, Florida.

“When he says he wants to be a dictator, I believe him,” Mr Biden said.

Trump mocks Biden’s stutter during Georgia rally

Sunday 10 March 2024 15:18 , Ariana Baio

On Saturday, Donald Trump launched attacks at President Joe Biden during his rally in Rome, Georgia, going as far as to mock Mr Biden’s stutter.

Mr Trump insulted Mr Biden’s State of the Union address, suggesting Mr Biden’s speech was ineffective at uniting the country because of the president’s stutter.

“Bring the country to-to-to together. I’m going to bring it together,” Mr Trump said mockingly.

The crowd of Trump supporters erupted into laughter.

Katie Britt accused of mischaracterising story in State of the Union rebuttal

Sunday 10 March 2024 14:00 , Ariana Baio

Katie Britt, the Alabama Senator who delivered the Republican’s rebuttal to President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address, is being accused of misrepresenting a graphic story about a human trafficking survivor in Mexico to criticise Mr Biden’s border policy.

During her speech on Thursday, Ms Britt elevated Republicans’ rhetoric and concerns about the US-Mexico border by recounting the time she travelled to Del Rio, Texas in 2023 and met with a young woman who was allegedly trafficked by Mexican cartels at the age of 12.

Though Ms Britt did not name the individual she was speaking about, an independent journalist, Jonathan Katz, said that it appeared she was speaking about Karla Jacinto.

Read more here.

Analysis: It’s not what Biden said at the State of the Union that matters. It’s how he said it

Sunday 10 March 2024 13:00 , Ariana Baio

As the nation’s political elite filed into the United States House of Representatives for this year’s State of the Union address, Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene wasn’t expecting much from President Joe Biden. “I would love to take bets and hear from doctors on what kind of medical cocktail they’re giving him to be able to do this tonight,” Ms Greene, a Republican and staunch ally to former president Donald Trump, told The Independent as she entered the House.

Eric Garcia and Katie Hawkinson write:

It’s not what Biden said at the State of the Union that matters. It’s how he said it

Government shutdown narrowly avoided after late night Senate vote

Sunday 10 March 2024 12:00 , Ariana Baio

A partial government shutdown was narrowly avoided when the Senate passed a six-bill package to ensure funding through September.

The Senate voted 75 to 22 on Friday night just before a midnight deadline. Joe Biden then signed the bill into law on Saturday.

The package provides $460bn in funding for parts of the government.

Graig Graziosi reports:

Government shutdown narrowly avoided after late night Senate vote

Texas students urge Supreme Court to intervene in drag show ban

Sunday 10 March 2024 11:00 , Ariana Baio

A group of Texas students have asked the US Supreme Court to intervene in a campus ban on drag shows, alleging that the school’s president is infringing on their First Amendment rights.

Spectrum WT, a student-led LGBT+ organisation at West Texas A&M University, as well as two of its student leaders, claim that the public university’s president Dr Walter Wendler engaged in viewpoint-based discrimination when he suddenly cancelled the group’s planned charity drag show event last year.

The plaintiffs, represented by the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, allege Dr Wendler invoked his “personal opinion” of drag shows to prevent them from putting on the event, just 11 days before it was due to take place on campus.

Dr Wendler sent a 700-word email to the campus community barring drag shows because they “stereotype women in cartoon-like extremes” and “are deceive, divisive and demoralizing”, the students say.

Now, they’re asking Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito to pause the ban immediately so that they can host the on-campus event this 22 March and to also limit public college and university officials from censoring expressions based on personal opinion.

Watch: Joe Biden jokes about age in new campaign advertisement

Sunday 10 March 2024 10:00 , Ariana Baio

ICYMI: Key moments from Biden’s State of the Union

Sunday 10 March 2024 09:00 , Ariana Baio

President Joe Biden’s final State of the Union address in his first term in office renewed his promise of American “possibilities” with a fiery rebuke of anti-democratic threats from the man he refused to mention: his “Republican predecessor”.

Looming throughout the president’s remarks was Donald Trump, framed as the man often standing in the way of legislation blocked by a Republican-dominated chamber of Congress that Mr Biden often depicted as captivated by the party’s increasingly likely candidate for the November election.

Read more from Alex Woodward here

Biden says he regrets describing suspected Laken Riley killer as ‘illegal’

Sunday 10 March 2024 08:00 , Vishwam Sankaran

President Joe Biden said on Saturday that he regretted using the term “illegal” to refer to the suspected killer of Georgia nursing student Laken Riley.

“I shouldn’t have used illegal, it’s undocumented,” he said.

Riley was murdered while she was jogging on the campus of the University of Georgia, following which police detained a 26-year-old man from Venezuela named Jose Ibarra, allegedly an undocumented immigrant.

The murder has become flash point in the lead-up to the 2024 presidential election, with Republicans rallying over the Biden administration’s handling of the immigration crisis at the US-Mexico border.

Read more about Biden’s latest statements on Riley’s murder here

Biden says he regrets calling suspected killer of Laken Riley ‘illegal’

ICYMI: George Santos is running for Congress again

Sunday 10 March 2024 07:00 , Kelly Rissman

Serial liar and former congressman George Santos was expelled from the House in December following a series of scandals including a damning Ethics Committee report accusing him of committing “uncharged and unlawful conduct,” 23 criminal counts at the federal level, and a plethora of lies about his past.

His latest stunt came on Thursday night when he turned up to President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address and announced he would be running for Congress once again.

Even this announcement came with a characteristic series of surprises.

The former lawmaker-turned-Cameo star claimed that he left office “arbitrarily,” adding to his parade of lies that got him into trouble in the first place given an expulsion from Congress is far from arbitrary.

Mr Santos also announced that he would be switching districts. He previously represented New York’s third congressional district for less than one term after flipping his district red. In a February special election, his seat flipped back to blue when the district elected Democrat Tom Suozzi to replace him.

What Biden did (and didn’t say) about the climate crisis during the State of Union

Sunday 10 March 2024 06:00 , Louise Boyle

At a fiery State of the Union address, President Joe Biden put his case to the American people on why they should return him to the White House for a second term, touting his record on the economy, immigration, gun safety and reproductive freedoms.

Yet on the climate crisis, which remains a politically divisive issue in the US despite increasing impacts, Mr Biden made few remarks, and attempted to appeal to as broad a base as possible.

Here’s six climate takeaways from SOTU night.

State of the Union: What Biden did (and didn’t say) about climate crisis

‘Is that a UFO?’ Oklahoma family spot bizarre other-worldly sighting in night sky

Sunday 10 March 2024 04:00 , Amelia Neath

A bizarre other-wordly object was captured on camera by an Oklahoma family in the night sky on Monday night.

A TikTok video that has amassed almost half a million views, shows a bright, slow-moving object in the sky.

Steve Aragona was outside with his kids and his neighbours when the video was captured on Monday at 7.30pm.

In the full-length video given to KFOR by Mr Aragona, people question what the unexplained object could possibly be. A child asks if it is a shooting star, to which an adult responds that it is moving too slowly to be one.

Mr Aragona told KFOR, “Everybody was playing out front, and my neighbour Kevin says, ‘Steve, take a look at this.’”

“I looked up, and this white thing appeared in the sky. Everybody had their opinions about what it was.”

In the TikTok comments, some theorised that it could have been the Space X mission that also occurred on Monday, that set satellites up into orbit on their Falcon 9 rocket from Florida.

However, the satellites took off at 6.56pm ET, an hour and a half after the video was purportedly shot at 7.30pm CT.

The National UFO Reporting Centre, a non-profit based in Washington, often receives reports of possible UFO sightings, or what the US government calls them, UAPs – unidentified anomalous phenomena. They recently reported that between 20 December 2023 to mid-February 2024, they had 566 new reports, received via their online report form.

Is surfer town Huntington Beach really the Maga stronghold Californians fear?

Sunday 10 March 2024 02:00 , Ariana Baio

Huntington Beach – located around 50 miles south of Los Angeles and known locally as “Surf City” – has all the laid back characteristics of a typical southern California beach town; bright sunshine, palm trees, with cafes and bars lining the front.

However, though the pro-Trump sentiment is palpable, locals dispute previous portrayals of the city as a “Maga stronghold” at the heart of the historically liberal Golden State, and say that the Republican presence is not as aggressive as is being made out.

Whether or not the enclaves of supporters for Mr Trump along the west coast will remain as passive as the US general election November rolls around, perhaps remains to be seen.

Mike Bedigan reports:

Is Huntington Beach really the Maga stronghold Californians fear?

Biden’s plan to build floating port for Gaza aid could take 60 days

Sunday 10 March 2024 00:00 , Graig Graziosi

The floating port Joe Biden plans to build in an effort to deliver much needed humanitarian aid to Gaza could take up to 60 days to complete, according to the Pentagon.

The Pentagon presented the timeline on Friday in the wake of Mr Biden’s State of the Union speech.

The port — intentional or not — will likely serve as an olive branch from Mr Biden’s administration to Democratic voters who feel his staunch support of Israel is implicit approval of the civilian displacement and deaths caused by the Israeli Defence Forces.

The UN has issued a warning that Gaza Strip is likely to suffer widespread famine if urgent action is not taken. That famine could begin as early as next week, according to a UN analysis.

It warned that once a famine has been declared, it is typically already too late to help many of the affected.

“This is not a logistics problem; it is a political problem,” Avril Benoît, executive director for Médecins Sans Frontières [Doctors Without Borders], told Reuters. “Rather than look to the US military to build a work-around, the US should insist on immediate humanitarian access using the roads and entry points that already exist.”

Despite the looming threat of famine and further civilian deaths, the port is still in its planning stages, according to the Pentagon.

Republican delegates tracker so far

Saturday 9 March 2024 23:00 , Ariana Baio

Next week, four states will host primaries or caucuses in the race for the 2024 presidential election.

Georgia, Mississippi and Washington will have primaries on Tuesday, March 12th. The same day, Hawaii will host a Republican caucus.

Here is where the Republican delegates are as of now.

Protestor interrupts Biden speech

Saturday 9 March 2024 22:55 , Ariana Baio

An Israel–Gaza conflict protestor interrupted President Joe Biden’s speech in Atlanta, calling the president “Genocide Joe”.

Mr Biden, who appeared slightly shocked at first, responded: “I don’t resent his passion, there’s a lot of Palestinians who are being unfairly victimized.”

The protestor was removed from the rally.

Trump endorsed Lauren Boebert in a heavily MAGA district. It still might not be enough

Saturday 9 March 2024 22:00 , Ariana Baio

Right-wing provocateur Rep. Lauren Boebert began a weekend Colorado candidate event with an endorsement from Trump – but still ended with a third-place straw poll finish. The hardline conservatives she hopes to represent, many with generational ties to the land, are still not convinced by her district switch, litany of controversies and overall brand,

Sheila Flynn reports:

Trump endorsed Boebert in a heavily MAGA district. It still might not be enough

US denies responsibility for airdrop that killed 5 in Gaza, including two young boys

Saturday 9 March 2024 21:00 , Mike Bedigan

The US State Department has denied responsibility for an airdrop that reportedly killed five civilians – including two young boys – in Gaza.

A spokesperson for the department said that “every reasonable precaution” was taken with airdrops to ensure the safety of the public.

The incident reportedly occurred on Friday in the Al Shati camp west of Gaza City, according to a journalist on the scene, per CNN. At least five people were killed and 10 others injured when airdropped aid packages fell on them.

It is believed the chutes on the packages did not open properly. Muhammad Al-Sheikh, Head of Emergency Care Department at Al Shifa Medical Complex in Gaza City confirmed to CNN that five people were killed in the incident.

“We express our condolences to the families of those who were killed,” a spokesperson for the State Department said in a statement shared with media outlets. “Our understanding is that this was not a US airdrop.”

Biden releases statement on soldiers death at border

Saturday 9 March 2024 20:30 , Ariana Baio

President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden have released a statement following the death of two soldiers and a Border Patrol agent at the US-Mexico border.

“Yesterday, Jill and I learned of the tragic deaths of two National Guardsmen and one U.S. Border Patrol agent whose helicopter crashed while they were conducting routine operations near Rio Grande City, Texas.

A third Guardsman was badly injured in the crash and is hospitalized. These brave Americans dedicated their lives to protecting our nation. They signed up knowing the risks and believing in the mission of serving their fellow Americans by keeping our nation safe. Our gratitude is profound, and their sacrifice will never be forgotten.

We extend our deepest condolences to their families and loved ones, as well as their colleagues in the National Guard and U.S. Border Patrol. We pray for the injured Guardsman’s swift recovery.

As we investigate the circumstances of this crash, we continue to stand with our service members, border agents, and their families, whose contributions to our nation are vital to our security.”

Republican Katie Britt’s SOTU rebuttal is the butt of the joke

Saturday 9 March 2024 20:00 , Ariana Baio

Alabama Senator Katie Britt slammed President Joe Biden on border security, calling him a “dithering and diminished leader” in her response to the State of the Union.

But, it was her own emotional and indignant speech that was widely mocked as “dramatic,” “creepy,” and “insincere” online.

Ms Britt, who at 42 is the youngest Republican woman to serve in the US Senate, was chosen to deliver the opposition party’s rebuttal speech to the president’s address.

Ms Britt sat at her kitchen table as she eviscerated Mr Biden on a wide range of issues, including the conflicts in the Middle East, the economy, and the “American dream” becoming a “nightmare”.

Gustaf Kilander and Mike Bedigan report:

Republican Katie Britt’s SOTU rebuttal is the butt of the joke

Trump’s grip on RNC tightens as Michael Whatley and Lara Trump become new leaders

Saturday 9 March 2024 19:30 , Ariana Baio

Donald Trump has finalised his takeover of the Republican National Committee as the campaign organisation elected former North Carolina GOP chair and RNC general counsel Michael Whatley as its new chair following the departure of Ronna McDaniel.

Mr Trump’s daughter-in-law, Lara Trump, was elected vice-chair of the RNC, cementing the Trump family’s control of how Republican campaign cash gets spent.

Members of the RNC met in Houston, Texas to appoint Mr Whatley and Ms Trump to the top posts.

In her departing remarks, Ms McDaniel, who has been in the post since 2017, said “We cannot put our heads in the sand and ignore abortion and the Dobbs decision” in reference to the Supreme Court decision that ended the constitutional right to abortion.

Gustaf Kilander reports:

Trump’s grip on RNC tightens as Michael Whatley and Lara Trump become new leaders

Pentagon reveals cause of 1960s uptick in ‘extraterrestrial’ activity

Saturday 9 March 2024 19:00 , Martha McHardy

A spike in UFO sightings since the 1960s was caused by the US military testing spy planes and space technology, according to a Pentagon report.

The report, which was presented to Congress on Friday, also found that there is “no evidence” that the US government had interactions with aliens, adding that most sightings of UFOs or “unidentified anomalous phenomena” (UAP) were ordinary objects.

It added that public opinion surrounding UFOs has been influenced by pop culture.

“The proliferation of television programmes, books, movies, and the vast amount of internet and social media content centred on UAP-related topics most likely has influenced the public conversation on this topic, and reinforced these beliefs within some sections of the population,” the report said.

The report lists classified government programmes including the Manhattan Project and the secret development of the Air Force’s stealth drone, the RQ-170 Sentinel, that may have contributed to increased reports of unidentified objects or phenomena.

In pics: Biden departs for Georgia rally

Saturday 9 March 2024 18:30 , Ariana Baio

The next Supreme Court abortion rights battle is coming for the most common form of care

Saturday 9 March 2024 18:00 , Ariana Baio

A wave of state-level anti-abortion laws that followed the Supreme Court’s 2022 decision to reverse the decades-long precedent established by Roe v Wade appeared to fuel an increase of “advance provision” prescriptions of medication abortion drugs across the country.

But another looming Supreme Court decision on abortion rights threatens the availability of a widely used abortion drug that was approved by the federal government more than 20 years ago – and is used in more than half of all abortions nationwide.

Read more from Alex Woodward:

The next Supreme Court abortion rights battle threatens the most common form of care

Biden and Trump hold competing campaign events in Georgia

Saturday 9 March 2024 17:09 , Ariana Baio

President Joe Biden and former president Donald Trump are hosting competing campaign rallies this weekend in the state where Mr Biden narrowly won in 2020.

Mr Biden will hold an event in Atlanta while Mr Trump will host a rally in Rome – a city approximately 50 miles northwest of Atlanta.

Georgia is expected to be a competitive state for both candidates, just as it was four years ago. This time, the stakes are even higher, especially for Mr Trump who was criminally indicted for allegedly trying to overturn election results in the state in 2020.

Mr Trump, who is expected to be the Republican National Committee’s (RNC) nominee, is defending himself criminally in the state while also trying to pick up support from moderate-conservative voters who initially supported Nikki Haley.

Meanwhile, Mr Biden, who is expected to be the Democratic National Committee’s (DNC) nominee, is coming off a firey State of the Union address where he launched attacks at the former president. Mr Biden has taken a more aggressive campaign approach in recent weeks as polling shows voters are skeptical of the president’s age.

Trump and Biden’s foreign leader choices this week reveal how they would govern

Saturday 9 March 2024 16:30 , Ariana Baio

It’s basically an aphorism at this point that American voters almost never make a decision about their choice for president based on foreign policy. The only exception comes when Americans are in harm’s way, as Lyndon Johnson, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, George W Bush and Barack Obama can all attest.

At the same time, presidential candidates’ foreign policy reveals plenty about how what they value at home. Harry Truman’s desegregation of the US military reflected Democrats’ larger shift away from being the party of Southern racists to becoming the party of civil rights. Reagan’s ardent opposition to communism abroad reflected his desire to slash government spending at home.

That makes President Joe Biden and former president Donald Trump’s choices of foreign heads of state to meet this week particularly interesting. They reflect much about what values they want to promote at home.

Eric Garcia reports:

Trump and Biden’s foreign leader choices this week reveal how they would govern

Watch: Joe Biden shares how he proposed to Jill five times before she accepted

Saturday 9 March 2024 16:00 , Ariana Baio

Biden addresses his age in a new ad

Saturday 9 March 2024 15:25 , Ariana Baio

President Joe Biden is embracing criticism about his age in a new Biden campaign advertisement by addressing the issue head-on.

“Look I’m not a young guy, that’s no secret. But here’s the deal I understand how to get things done for the American people,” Mr Biden says in the advertisement.

The ad features the Biden administration’s accomplishments over the last four years, like steering the country through the Covid-19 pandemic, lowering prescription drug prices, passing infrastructure legislation and more.

Mr Biden’s new ad comes just as recent polling reveals Americans are uneasy about Mr Biden’s re-election given he is the oldest president in history.

Biden faces ‘beyond disappointed’ Democrats after calling suspected killer ‘an illegal’

Saturday 9 March 2024 15:00 , Alex Woodward

Immigrants’ rights groups and Democratic officials have criticised President Joe Biden’s off-script description of an undocumented immigrant as “an illegal,” drawing comparisons to Donald Trump’s dehumanising language and warning that the administration is bending to Republican pressure on immigration.

Responding to jeers from far-right US Rep Marjorie Taylor Greene in the middle of his State of the Union address on Thursday, the president echoed Ms Greene by calling the Venezuelan immigrant who allegedly killed Laken Riley “an illegal”.

“An innocent young woman who was killed by an illegal. That’s right,” Mr Biden said. “But how many thousands of people, being killed by legals? To her parents I say, and my heart goes out to you, having lost children myself, I understand.”

Though he appeared to be referencing Ms Greene’s remarks, Latino members of Congress and members from immigrant backgrounds reminded the president that “no human being is illegal.”

Mr Biden’s own campaign chair Mitch Landrieu agreed that “he probably should’ve used a different word, and I think he would know that.”

“But what you should notice about that is not that he made a small mistake,” he told CNN on Friday. “The big thing that he didn’t write, and this is what this president always does, is express empathy to people, he expressed kindness to people. He understands because, as you know, he lost a number of children in his life.”

Democratic US Rep Chuy Garcia, among Latino members of Congress who criticised Mr Biden’s remarks, said he was “beyond disappointed” to hear the president’s use of the word “illegal” as a noun.

“Beyond this, the president missed an opportunity to unite our country on immigration. He did not lay out a plan that addresses the root causes of what brings people to our border or ensures immigrants are treated with dignity and respect in our communities,” he added.

Progressive members of Congress have urged the White House to step back from Republican pressure to militarise the US-Mexico border as immigration becomes the GOP’s election-year wedge issue, championed by likely nominee Donald Trump.

“Republicans will never be satisfied with this rightward march on immigration, and that should not be our goal,” Mr Garcia said. “They have no interest in serious reform.”

READ MORE

Biden wastes no time laying into Trump as he comes out swinging in fiery State of the Union address

Saturday 9 March 2024 13:00 , Andrew Feinberg

President Joe Biden had barely started giving his State of the Union address from the House of Representatives rostrum when he laid into his predecessor and likely 2024 election opponent, former president Donald Trump, for threatening to allow Russia to run roughshod over the democracies of the West while simultaneously castigating the Republican-led Congress for failing to authorise more defence aid to Ukraine.

Invoking Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s speech in 1941 warning of Hitler’s armies being “on the march” in Europe, Mr Biden said he’d come to the same chamber to tell the nation that it is facing an “unprecedented moment in the history of the Union” and to “wake up the Congress and alert the American people that this is no ordinary moment”.

“What makes our moment rare is that freedom and democracy are under attack, both at home and overseas, at the very same time overseas, Putin of Russia is on the march, invading Ukraine and sowing chaos throughout Europe and beyond,” he said.

“If anybody in this room thinks Putin will stop at Ukraine, I assure you, he will not. But Ukraine can stop Putin if we stand with Ukraine and provide the weapons it needs to defend itself.”

Mr Biden’s denunciation of Mr Trump and the GOP for refusing to support Ukraine’s fight against Russia was just an opening salvo in what became a full-throated defence of his administration’s policies and repeated exhortations to the assembled legislators to take up bipartisan legislation that has been blocked at Mr Trump’s behest. In a fiery address he challenged his opponents over the border, women’s health and Republicans’ efforts to rewrite history over the January 6 riot.

The president stressed that Ukraine isn’t asking for Americans to give their lives overseas, and said he is working to keep American soldiers from having to fight there. But he warned that funding for Ukraine is being blocked by “those who want us to walk away from our leadership in the world,” referring to Republicans who oppose aid to Kyiv because it would be a political win for the president.

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Biden vows to restore Roe v Wade during 2024 State of the Union address

Saturday 9 March 2024 09:00 , Gustaf Kilander

It’s not what Biden said at the State of the Union that matters. It’s how he said it

Saturday 9 March 2024 07:00 , Eric Garcia and Katie Hawkinson

As the nation’s political elite filed into the United States House of Representatives for this year’s State of the Union address, Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene wasn’t expecting much from President Joe Biden. “I would love to take bets and hear from doctors on what kind of medical cocktail they’re giving him to be able to do this tonight,” Ms Greene, a Republican and staunch ally to former president Donald Trump, told The Independent as she entered the House.

Ms Greene had plenty of reason to make such a snide remark. Polling has consistently shown that most voters have serious doubts about whether Mr Biden, who turns 82 in November, could actually be up to the job of president.

(Those voters have the same concerns, however, about Mr Trump, according to the polls.)

Polling has also consistently shown the president trailing Ms Greene’s political benefactor, Mr Trump. A report from special counsel Robert Hur about Mr Biden’s handling of classified documents mentioned the president’s age and portrayed him as a senile man who could not remember the date of his eldest son Beau’s death.

But there were no signs of Grandpa Joe during his State of the Union on Thursday evening. Rather, Mr Biden chose to confront anxieties about his age head-on and showed a side of himself that many political observers –including in his own party – thought had faded in his advanced years.

“Let me close with this: I know I may not look like it, but I’ve been around a while,” Mr Biden told the nation. “And when you get to my age certain things become clearer than ever before. I know the American story. Again and again, I’ve seen the contest between competing forces in the battle for the soul of our nation.”

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Biden faces down Republican heckling, urges action on border bill

Saturday 9 March 2024 05:00 , Gustaf Kilander

Trump attacks, the border, abortion and Gaza: Key moments from Biden’s State of the Union

Saturday 9 March 2024 04:00 , Alex Woodward

President Joe Biden’s final State of the Union address in his first term in office renewed his promise of American “possibilities” with a fiery rebuke of anti-democratic threats from the man he refused to mention: his “Republican predecessor”.

Looming throughout the president’s remarks was Donald Trump, framed as the man often standing in the way of legislation blocked by a Republican-dominated chamber of Congress that Mr Biden often depicted as captivated by the party’s increasingly likely candidate for the November election.

The president offered his plans for an economy fuelled by a thriving middle class and a vision of an equitable society, ending with a demand for humanitarian aid and support for a six-week ceasefire in Gaza.

In the one-hour address, he also warned against threats to democracy at home and abroad, vowed to enshrine abortion rights into law, pleaded with lawmakers to protect the right to vote and labour rights, sparred with Republican hecklers, and forecast an era where “trickle-down economics are over”.

Here are the five main takeaways from the night.

President Biden reacts to Marjorie Taylor Greene’s MAGA hat at State of the Union

Saturday 9 March 2024 03:00 , Gustaf Kilander

‘Dramatic,’ ‘creepy’ and ‘insincere’: Republican Katie Britt’s SOTU rebuttal is the butt of the joke

Saturday 9 March 2024 02:00 , Gustaf Kilander, Mike Bedigan

Alabama Senator Katie Britt slammed President Joe Biden on border security, calling him a “dithering and diminished leader” in her response to the State of the Union.

But, it was her own emotional and indignant speech that was widely mocked as “dramatic,” “creepy,” and “insincere” online.

Ms Britt, who at 42 is the youngest Republican woman to serve in the US Senate, was chosen to deliver the opposition party’s rebuttal speech to the president’s address.

Ms Britt sat at her kitchen table as she eviscerated Mr Biden on a wide range of issues, including the conflicts in the Middle East, the economy, and the “American dream” becoming a “nightmare”.

But her main focus, as it is for many Republicans, was the US’s southern border with Mexico.

“President Biden inherited the most secure border of all time. But minutes after taking office, he suspended all deportations, halted construction of the border wall, and announced a plan to give amnesty to millions,” she argued in her rebuttal.

Mr Biden has lambasted Republicans for rejecting a border security deal with some tough measures to stem the flow of border crossings, after former president Donald Trump came out against it – not wanting to hand Mr Biden another bipartisan legislative accomplishment ahead of the election.

“We know that President Biden didn’t just create this border crisis. He invited it with 94 executive actions in his first 100 days … President Biden’s border crisis is a disgrace. It’s despicable. And it’s almost entirely preventable,” Ms Britt said.

Her speech was mocked online, with journalist Aaron Rupar calling it “overly dramatic” while another X user said: “This is so creepy and insincere. Worst acting I’ve ever seen.”

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Stephen Colbert says George Santos ‘can’t just go back to the old job’

Saturday 9 March 2024 01:00 , Gustaf Kilander

Trump allegedly held onto 70 boxes of classified documents – while telling staffer to claim all were returned

Saturday 9 March 2024 00:00 , Gustaf Kilander

Donald Trump allegedly held onto 70 boxes of classified documents while telling one of his staffers to claim that they were all returned.

In a Thursday filing in the US District Court for the Southern District of Florida in West Palm Beach, the Department of Justice opposed Trump staffer Walt Nauta’s motion to “suppress evidence”.

The prosecutors noted that Mr Nauta “had been a valet in the White House during Trump’s administration” and that he “previously held a high-level security clearance and received training in handling classified documents”.

“During his presidency, Trump used dozens of boxes to accumulate and store records in an informal filing system,” they added. “At the end of his presidency in January 2021, around 85 to 95 of these boxes were removed from the White House and transported to Mar-a-Lago, Trump’s residence in Palm Beach, Florida, where they were later placed in a storage room.”

Mr Nauta was part of the team that moved the boxes, prosecutors say.

In 2021, the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) had discussions with Mr Trump regarding the documents.

“Trump wanted to review his boxes before providing them to NARA, and employees (including Nauta) brought two to four at a time to his personal residence in Mar-a-Lago for him to review,” the Department of Justice said in the filing. “After the employees (including Nauta) brought about 15 to 17 boxes, Trump instructed them to stop, and on January 17, 2022, employees handed over 15 boxes to NARA.”

“Trump indicated to his staff that the 15 boxes were the only boxes that would be going to NARA and that there were no more, and he instructed an employee to tell one of his lawyers there were no more boxes at Mara-Lago,” they added. “But about 70 to 80 boxes remained in the storage room.”

The judge in charge of the case, US District Judge Aileen Cannon, has set a hearing for next week for legal arguments while a trial date is yet to be set.

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