My hope is to use about half of the time to talk about questions ive got for these two, then spend the other half taking questions that you have. If theres one thing i hope you take from this whole session, it is that being a president ial speechwriter is exactly what you would think it would be on the west wing. Thats it. Im kidding, it is much more like veep. Since this is the president ial ideas festival, i will start with a question about the relationship between ideas and speeches. Sometimes what starts off as an idea ends up in a speech, sometimes the speechwriting process starts before you have the idea. Just curious, sarah, what do you think, what would you share about that process, how an idea becomes a speech. I think in a weird way as speechwriters, we are not coming up with the ideas. There are much smarter people in the building that are developing those ideas. But in a way i think that these ideas kind of they dont get crystallized until theyre litigated on the page. So a
State of the Union Address. Our Special Coverage begins two hours from right now. The beat with ari starts right now. Hi, nicolle. See you soon. See you soon. Welcome to a Special Edition of the beat on State Of The Union night. You know how it works. Were looking at the capitol where people will be gathering soon. This is the final State Of The Union of the president s first term. They could not be sure that these primaries would be over or what else would be happening in the country when they scheduled this, but the primaries did functionally end yesterday, as nikki haley dropped off republican race, so tonight, the president speaks to the a largest audience. As that reality sets in for many, you watch the news, but a lot of people dont follow this every day. Theyre hearing this week, we got a rematch, yep, trump has cleared the field, yeah, its going to be this, and at this Pivotal Moment that, like it or not weve seen on both sides not a ton of excitement, but its whats happening.
world headquarters in new york. a busy hour ahead. right now, president biden is on his way to wisconsin on an unofficial post state of the union tour after his rousing address before the joint session of congress last night. imploring lawmakers to finish the job, the president defended his record and called for more bipartisanship. but did manage to tangle with republicans at times. some republicans want medicare and social security sunset. i m not saying it is a majority. anybody who doubts it, contact my office, i ll give you a copy. i ve give you a copy of the proposal. coming up, we ll talk about how president biden may use those gop outbursts to his advantage. plus, the drama on the floor before the president even walked out. what senator mitt romney is saying about this moment, the moment when he called out george santos to his face on the house floor, with cameras rolling. he shouldn t have been there. he shouldn t be in the look, he s a sick puppy. also t
good to be with you, i m kay katy tur, the chinese spy balloon is still hanging over the white house. why they didn t know about it sooner and what the u.s. was able to gather about the balloon while it was still in the air. the gang of eight is waiting for a full briefing. the white house has offered one and it s expected to get on the schedule next week. house intel chair republican mike turner said the balloon exposed a weakness at the top. clearly this was an attempt by china to gather information to defeat our command and control of our sensitive missile defense and nuclear weapon sites and that certainly is an urgency that this administration does not recognize. i ll know the answer to that question this week when we actually get briefed on the decision making process about when and how to take down the balloon. there s an awful lot of people like me coming to absolutely rock solid conclusions based on very few facts. none of us know what the decision making process
herschel walker at this point. but he has helped us distill a trend growing clear for decades among the gop. for republicans winning is the only thing. that s about blunts, unambiguous message conservatives have conveyed to the american people this week as they closed ranks i m around a man whose alleged life choices so thoroughly and fundamentally contradict the values they purport to stand for, it actually boggles the mind. the most recent development, the new york times reporting that the same woman who alleged herschel walker paid for her abortion in 2009 also alleged that walker urged her to terminate a second pregnancy two years ago, or two years later, excuse me. herschel walker has denied those allegations, saying he has never paid for or pressured a woman to have an abortion. this october surprise, which at one point would have ended other candidates chances, just didn t seem to matter to the right wing. we are full speed ahead in georgia, said the president of mitch