The job. Joe, you are in statuary hall were all of it is happening. This evening is about policy and presentation and also about pomp and circumstance and atmosphere, what is the atmosphere right now . Plenty of that to go around here. Its noisy room and a festive one here in study lori hall which is just outside the door to the chamber of the house of representatives statuary hall. Speaker mike johnson just skimmed through. Many members of the house and senate Milling Around now, waiting for the president of the United States, joe biden, who will soon be piling into a motorcade and making his way to the other end of pennsylvania avenue where we are waiting. To your point, there is a lot on the line tonight. We will hear about policy, but so many people will be watching his posture, his tone, his ability to see energetic as chief of staff. And there are folks wondering whether they will find the spontaneity he found last year to work this room, and the people at home. Yvonne adlibbing with a big factor in last years address. And to what extent would it be this time around, remains an open question. Some members said it depends on what exactly the president has to say, and he well could have a lot of substance to say this evening shirley. Asked with more of what we expect to hear from President Biden is bloombergs annmarie hordern, down from new york. Annemarie, obviously this is a president who in some sense is giving the first real address of his reElection Campaign. Absolutely, this will start as a report to congress and the American People. And then it will be about his vision if granted another four years. So its not really so much what he says, but how he says it. Will he look strong. Does he look like an individual who can handle another four years, 81 years old . Continue to show that americans think he is too old. Hour. For sing states, and they will decide the election, they say 8 out of 10 voters think he is too old, our polls for citystates. Voters who voted for him and 2020 say he is, quote, just too old. Then you get to the policy and the substance. When you get to that, there is a long list of what he thinks he is better for the country than former President Donald Trump. So part of it will be about drawing the contrast. We did get some experts of the president s planned speech, and essentially he was alluding to the fact that people see things. Differently some see retribution whereas he feels it differently. We saw some remarks about reproductive rights that could be pretty telling about the stance the president s will be taking on the issue of abortion. We got three excerpts. The first was an abortion. This shows we democrats are willing to spend a lot of money and focus on the issue. The president is going to say that the Supreme Court majority wrote, quote, women are not without electoral or political power. No kiddingp clearly those bragging about overturning roe v. Wade have no clue about the power of women in america, that they found out reproductive freedom was on the ballot, and they voted about it in 2022 and 2023, and they will find out again in 2024. He is alluding to the republican losses because of abortion, ohio, kentucky and virginia. He will remind voters, the Supreme Court has three signature three conservative judges that overturned roe v. Wade, because of donald trump. Bloombergs annmarie hordern, thank you. In anticipation of tonight, we have had a lot of conversations here with politicians, posters and strategist, discussing what exactly bidenomics to accomplish in tonight speech. Here is what some of them have told us on balance of power. First is to lay out a clear vision of where he will take this country. That is incredibly important. The second thing is to start to draw the contrast between the men donald trump and the republicans. He has to paint the picture of what [chanting four more years ] joe biden will be and what the hell for more years of donald trump will be. A think he will lay out a contrast of if you want democracy and freedom for american choice and reproductive rights on your person against someone who is not . I want to hear the president talk about the issues that are front of mind for so Many Americans and suddenly that begins with fundamental freedoms. Immigration challenges. The need for Border Security and immigration reforms. American people are looking for his message on immigration and looking to see if his agent really does matter his agent really does matter. He has to be vigorous. He has to be strong. He has to be clear about what he wants to achieve in the next few years. Is the last time he will have with the whole country watching to go at it and, as he is the right man for the job. Just some of the voices we have heard the last couple of days here on bloomberg tv and radio that have brought us in the house to the house of representatives. We just had the entire senate walked past us underwear in. Mitch mcconnell walked in quietly past us on their way in. Mitch mcconnell walked in quietly. We assemble our panel in our washington bureau, rick davis with us, partner at stonecourt capital. And Jeanne Sheehan zaino, Political Science professor at iona university. Rick, you have done a couple of these in your time. It is such a contrast to me members like joshua hawley, followed by Mitch Mcconnell representing a much older style of politics and a much older style of republican conservatism. Will this be his last state of the Union Tonight . . I dont know if it is going to be his last state of the union, but this is a really historic occasion as you point out, in the land that isnt credibly provided by politics, that parties are even incredibly divided within the politics of their own parties. It is a very divisive time. You have President Biden coming into the very symbolic job of reporting to the nation the status of the nation, and doing it in a chamber where the parties dont even get along with each other nevertheless against each other. So the reality of tonight is, its not just a political speech, not just a report, but it is historic and they think you feel that in this statuary hall. Right now we are seeing Vice President , the harvest walking into the chamber and greeting members as she goes. But the Senate Majority and minority leader, Chuck Schumer and Mitch Mcconnell are behind her, followed closely by the number two republican in the senate as they make their way down to listen to the president s speech. Jean, it reminds us on how everyone is there for this moment in terms of congress, the senate, the Supreme Court justices. And this is a moment from President Biden and which has the attention of tens of millions of americans during what is frankly now a general Election Campaign. What does he most need to say to them this evening . What he needs to talk about our two big fees. Number one, economic populism. These are themes that are near and dear to joe bidens heart, issues involving the economy certainly, but giving back to the working and middle class. We will hear a lot about corporate taxes, about taxing millionaires and billionaires and using that money to Fund Programs like Social Security, medicare, medicaid, prescription drugs, all the domestic programs. That is critically important. But the other even more important seeing potentially will be freedom. Freedom at home in terms of things you were talking about as it pertains to reproductive freedoms. Also freedoms abroad. We have the swedish Prime Minister as the guest in the first ladys box. Sweden going to nato, he will talk about the need to fund ukraine. The beach will lean heavily on these issues and it showed. Economic policy and freedom. There is nothing more important in the United States to americans than liberty and freedom, and joe biden will play on that and try, in your words to contrast his vision of the United States from his predecessor and potentially future President Donald Trump who, as you said, wants to return us to a day that doesnt celebrate liberty, and he will use reproductive rights as an example of that will republicans have tried to go a from women across the country. Now seeing a light view. The speaker of the house, mike johnson and Vice PresidentKamala Harris, have both arrived in that speakers rostrums, the backdrop of President Biden speech prude there will be that his shoulder when he arrives and gives his speech. Mitch mcconnell as well, we show images of the minority leader standing alone in the chamber, on the floor ahead of the speech. Jeanne, was talking about security. The president will not collect donald trump by name, based on excerpts we got of his speech. He will say, some other people my age see a different story, an american story of resentment, revenge and retribution, rick davis, that would follow the tradition of the calling out your political opponent from the speakers rostrum. Is that a good move . I think so. So many of our political norms have been broken in the last couple of decades and it is impressive that the president is sticking to this one. It will be quite a news topic and politically to his advantage to not go after trump by name on any given issue whether it is the ukraine, or the border, talking about how the country is in decline. These are all things joe biden could do. But he will not do that tonight, he will try to create a contrast in his own terms and i think thats a good idea. I think trying to stay above the fray for as long as he can, realizing that this could be a campaign that is sort of a race to the bottom at some point in time. So his ability to stay off the bottom will be key. Absolutely. We are still seeing members coming into the chamber. Senator marco rubio, senator markwayne mullin, senator elizabeth warren, mitt romney, joe manchin, the latter two in that have announced they will not attempt to return to the senate. Both of the retiring from this body. As we awaited the arrival of the president of the United States, to this point about him not calling out trump by name, still trying though to draw the contrast. We know that one of the ways the Biden Campaign has tried to do that is to talk about the future of democracy. We have touched on this issue, but at a time when voters are very concerned with kitchentable issues like the economy, like the border, how much is the democracy argument the president might try to make tonight, going to resonate . I think the campaign believes it will resonate. They think that once people realize, of course, we are just after super tuesday when we have a presumptive nominee in donald trump, so we are just getting to the general election stage and the campaign believes that once voters have a chance to contrast these two men, they will think about things like january 6 and not take a chance that we will return to Something Like that. Because joe biden is fully convinced that if donald trump doesnt win the election, he once again will not concede and will try to revert to violence to make a stand. So they will keep talking about that. But to your point, they have to talk about issues involving the economy and things that Americans Care about, including immigration. That is something that they know. And economic populism is very much in joe bidens wheelhouse. I think he has to talk about it without using the word inflation, but talk about the cost of living and blame that on corporations who have used rising costs to drive up the costs. Well hear the president talk about that and he should. Same thing, immigration. These are issues he can talk about. But in his mind, they are all under this general theme of our democracy is at risk, and we need to save it. Jeanne Sheehan Zaino and rick davis are going to be sticking with us as we continue to bring you extended special coverage of the state of the union speech continuing, next here on bloomberg and radio. Joe this is a special Global Coverage of a state of the Union Address on bloomberg tv and radio. I am joe mathieu, live on capitol hill. Kailey leinz with us in washington along with our panel, which davis and Jeanne Sheehan zaino, back with us as we prepare for the speech from joe biden roughly scheduled for 15 minutes from now. He is making his way soon in the motorcade from capitol hill. Its a reminder, rick, we talk about a lot of stuff here in washington and this is the house full of division, as elegant see democrats as i look around and see democrats and republicans who will not agree with the president on every issue tonight. But this is an important night. The super bowl of politics the one opportunity americans will have until the Convention Comes to hear from joe biden on his vision for the future. Can you talk about how important it is what we are about to see . Rick and think everybody agrees that this is one of the advantages of incumbency, if you get this moment of the leader of the nation and of the free world, to give a report on the status of the nation. And in so many years, it is the status of the world, because so much around the worldworld affes us. It will be seen by millions of people and by the way, but even hundreds of millions of people the day after, because i think as we all learned, the day after the state of the union is usually when the debate begins. Thats when people really learn and distract what was in the speech. We will do our best to do it, tonight but we will be doing it for the violence of the weekend because there is always a much packed into these beaches and of these speeches. Tonight is more viral because it is believed that first time a sitting president has known who is opponent will be prior to the election. This is a late state of the union, normally they are at the end of january, early february. Now that the field is set, not only is this a president s task, but a candidate who knows who his opponent is going to be. Kailey and to that point, he is asking americans for another four years in addition to reflecting on what this administration already has accomplished. How does he need to split the looking backward versus the looking forward, is this more about selling what you have done, or selling your vision for the future . Rick biden has one of the lowest Approval Ratings for president at this stage going into election, so he really does have the task of convincing people that he has done more than maybe they appreciate in the last four years that, for instance, in this case the economy is much better than they think it is. He has to use the best aplomb he has. Uncle joe has to convince people that the future economics in this country is in solid footing because of his presidency. Joe we are seeing live pictures from the white house now for those of you with us on Bloomberg Television and our radio listeners, you can picture joe biden and the first lady getting into the motorcade. Its an interesting ride from one end of pennsylvania avenue to the other. They will likely be putting finishing touches on this address, a point of flourish, maybe a line they argued about in that speech being loaded into the teleprompter. We all remember that night the wrong speech was loaded into the teleprompter for president clinton. Consider spontaneity, Jeanne Sheehan zaino, which is a gift not all of us have for a room like this, at the end of a day like this for someone who has been criticized for not having the energy to do the job, how important would it be for him to find those moments like you did last year . Jeanne critically important. I am glad you mentioned last year, because that was a very strong woman for joe biden and he took on Marjorie Taylor greene and the heckling and responses from republicans. He won on that score. That quieted momentary concerns about is he up for the job and, of course, the white house of the campaign are hoping he has another moment like that tonight. That he is able to do the same thing. They keep saying he can. Let joe be joe. But of course, that comes with a lot of risks because if he stumbles, both viral moments can come back to haunt you. So this will be the big challenge for joe biden tonightm it also becomes a question of whether he will have the opportunity to ad lib. Around that because that would be reacting to something happening in the chamber. Rick, should we expect something similar to last year where he was able to elicit responses from specifically republicans listening to the address that he was able to spin in his favor . Rick i am sure the conversations in the caucus have been this week, lets not give joe biden any opportunity to take advantage of us and our politicalization of his speech during the speech itself, and take over that opportunity. Because it was really republicans who gave him the moment in his speech last year around saving Social Security. These are smart pauls. They are in that room because they have been successful in politics, and they know better than to engage the president of the United States in the midlevel election cycle, from the biggest podium in the country and allow him to take advantage of it. So my guess is tonight will be a little bit more calm than what we have seen in the past. Joe its interesting, Lauren Boebert just walked by a short time ago she walked into the chamber