The American People before this summers conventions. What he needs to do for a strong state of the Union Address tonight and how some allies are working Behind The Scenes to push the president to own the big stage. And within the next few hours, the city of uvalde, texas is expected to release its findings of its report on the Botched Police response to the Robb Elementary School massacre. We have a closer look at what we can expect and were learning burning more about last years Train Derailment in ohio and how the response that followed was based on a bad call. Were following these major developing stories and many more all coming in right here to Cnn News Central The Stage is set for tonights big speech from president joe biden, perhaps the biggest of his presidency. And just a few hours he sets deliver a State Of The Union dress that i have to navigate some pessimism about the economy, anxiety over record immigration, frustrations with the israelhamas war and growing concerns about him personally, about his age with those hurdles complicating bidens path to reelection and a looming rematch with former President Donald Trump dozens of top biden allies want him to a leash, unleash his inner hulk to start being more aggressive on camera when he makes the case for a second term lets start this hour at the white house with cnns mj lee. Mj biden is facing huge policy implications, huge political implications tonight, what should we expect from his speech . Thats right, boris, without a question, this is going to be one of the most pivotal speeches that President Biden delivers as president and so much of that, of course, has to do with timing and the moment that he is in in terms of the huge issues that he is confronting both abroad and here at home. And we definitely expect that throughout the speech he is going to, for one, look back on his accomplishments over the last three years and also try to paint a picture of what a second term of the biden presidency would look like. And hes going to use a lot of these policy ideas to make that point. We know that he is going to be talking about, for example situation in israel. The state of the economy of course, is expected to be a big feature of the speech. Hell talk about other things like Reproductive Rights and the situation at the border. Another critical issue that his base very much cares about, and the rest of the country, of course, has been critical about him. With him on the white house. Has we should mention teed up a number of announcements that will be unveiled in tonights speech as well, including, for example raising the Corporate Tax rate to 28 and one way in which we are going to get a pretty good sense of the top policy and political priorities for this white house in this problem president is by looking at the guess who the first lady has invited to join for tonights speech, including, of course, kate cox. This is the woman who was denied an abortion in the state of texas, will see shawn fain, the head of the uaw, just goes to that base that we were talking about and part of that Key Coalition for the president and all so a woman named jazmin cazares, she is the sister of someone who was killed at a school mass shooting. Of course, gun violence is a domestic priority that the president has talked about. A lot over the course of the first term. And keep in mind this is going to be us hearing. President biden deliver this important speech, but also president ial well candidate joe biden as well. And to that end, we do expect to hear a good amount of Finger Pointing at republicans when it comes to policy issues. And just a lot of drawing of that contrast between the vision for vision that he has for this country and the vision that he says is broken, that donald trump has for this country as well, boris andrew, we understand the white house was hoping that another israel hamas hostage deal would have been finalized before tonights speech. Obviously, that didnt happen. So how might that issue specifically about whats happening in gaza factor in tonight . Yeah. We are told by Senior Administration officials that the president will be addressing the situation in israel in a very meaningful way. Of course, this is an issue that has consumed the president and this white house for the last several months. The announcement that we are going to see the president make on this front is the us Military Setting up a port in the mediterranean in the off the coast of gaza. So as to allow more humanitarian aid to enter the strip the context here, of course, is exactly what you just mentioned a cnn reported just this morning, that the hopes of getting that hostages and temporary ceasefire deal by the start of ramadan which is set to begin this weekend. But those hopes have very much that certainly means that we dont expect to see that kind of deal announced before tonight. And that is going to make the tone that the president strikes in talking about the situation in israel so important because he is obviously cognizant of the frustration and the anger that people are feeling across the country country on that issue mj lee live for us at the white house. Thanks so much. Im jim brianna for more on the Behind The Scenes, strategizing, and then also some of the Hand Wringing in the white house and beyond. Lets bring in cnns isaac dovere isaac, you spoke to a lot of democratic insiders who want to see more fight from biden. What did they tell you yeah, thats right, brianna, a number of people saying to me that they are getting a little tired of hearing that the president is cursing about donald trump or Benjamin NetanyahuBehind Closed Doors or that at fundraisers where there are no cameras, he really rips into republicans. They want that biden out there. Tim walls, governor of minnesota, really top biden allies saying to me, you got to hear it from the candidate himself. Thats what the question is here. Its about showing is biden tough enough that he needs to answer that question, not just in tonights speech, but overall, as we head into this campaign year, and of course its all about calibration. Brian schatz and other big biden bidens supporters, senator from hawaii said to me, you cant be at 11 out of ten on the alarm scale for the next eight months. But on the other hand there needs to be this sense that biden is there is engaging, is showing that there is the enthusiasm for reelecting him. And also of course, answering some of the questions that are there about his age and whether hes up to the job is he open to this this sort of feedback that hes got coming in joe biden knows politics, he knows that hes in this campaign. He does seem to have a very clear sense of the importance of the speech at this moment when there are all these questions about him and his candidacy and what weve seen out of the white house today is people like jeff zients is Chief Of Staff at the white house, saying, youre going to have an energetic biden, an energize those are the words that are coming out from white house officials today we will see what this actually comes through. But of course last year, job biden had a pretty good speech from the view of the white house. And that moment where he engaged with republicans when they started jeering him and got them to, it seemed like g or the idea of cutting Social Security and medicare which had been part of some republicans proposals and then said, i enjoy conversion. That was really good moment in the minds of the white house aides and of the president himself. They are hoping that theyll get another moment like that tonight. My sources telling me that they looked for a couple of places where they could trap republicans into that. Well see how it all goes down. All right. Isaac dovere. Thank you so much. And just hours before the speech, the house passing a new piece of immigration legislation, the Laken Riley Act, named after the georgia Nursing Student who was murdered while jogging along a path on the University Of Georgia Campus last month, Authorities Say the man charged in her death crossed into the us illegally. We have cnns Melanie Zanona joining us live now from capitol hill with the latest on this meloche, you tell us yeah, well, this bill did pass. It was bipartisan. Every single republican voted for it and just 70 democrats supported it. Of course this comes on the eve of the State Of The Union dress, where republicans are hoping to make the border a big issue. They were even seen passing out buttons beforehand that said say her name laken riley, the house so republican conference was also passing out buttons that said biden border crisis. So clearly, they are trying to time this vote in conjunction with the state of the Union Address tonight. But democrats said this was just a way to exploit a death that happened, and that is why you saw so Many Democrats ultimately vote against it. But i talked to Marjorie Taylor greene. She is a member from from georgia where laken riley is from, and she said that all of her democratic colleagues in the state delegation voted against this bill and that she is going to make sure that voters in the state remember it so clearly republicans planning to make this issue in the campaign in november, and this is really a Starting Point as we look ahead to the general election. All right. Melanie zanona on the hill. Thank you. Boris were joined now by republican congressman Godless Human as of south florida, congressman. Great to see you. Thanks for sharing part of your afternoon with us. I do want to ask you about this Laken Riley Act the fact that it passed with a degree of bipartisan support. Whats your reaction to this news well, i think that the bipartisan support tells it all. I mean, if we had had this kind of vote, say a year, yearandahalf ago, it wouldnt have been bipartisan, but now, more and more democrats are realizing that we have a crisis at the border and while they wont admit it, that crisis was caused by the president of the United States and his actions, he took 64 different actions that actually created this crisis, this mess that we have at the border. And we need to fix it he needs to fix it. And so i expect today when he when he speaks that hes going to somehow blame that the republicans havent given him the resources needed in order to fix the problem at the border, which its completely false. Look, this first day in office, he he issued Executive Orders rescinding a lot of the Executive Orders of the Trump Administration that actually he had the border under control. Hes taken 64 different actions on the border and this is what we have as a result i think describing as the border being under control fall under President Trump isnt exactly precise to the issue of immigration has been a problem now, for generations i am curious to get your perspective on the approach. Well, lets say no, hold on. Hold on a second. Okay. No, no, no the border is completely out of control right now. And so yeah. Im regression issue yeah. But its completely out of control in a scale we have never seen an american history. And thats whats causing the problem in america. I dont i dont refute that the numbers show that there is there are huge crisis at the border. I am curious about the framing of the issue coming from some in your party because obviously, what happened to laken riley . Its a tragedy and it should never happen to anyone. The data though, when you scale back doesnt show that immigrants, whether legal or not are more likely to commit murder or more likely to commit Violent Crime than american citizens. And the way its described by folks like former President Donald Trump, whos now the republican nominee of sensibly for president. Is that Hannibal Lecter is crossing the border. The folks that are coming into the country are out just to kill and maim and rob and destroy. Being someone that comes from an immigrant community, being someone who is an immigrant yourself, from an immigrant family. Does that concern you . But that Rhetoric Damages what is supposed to be one of the key parts of the American Dream that you can come here from anywhere in a legal fashion and find success but there you go. You said it, the league and a legal fashion that you can come from anywhere in an league so fashion not an illegal fashion. And ill tell you whats, whats really happening. The problem that we have now is that immigration used to be pardons, used to be shoot on a casebycase basis. Its not being done on a casebycase basis. Dont on a mass basis. And in there in that mass, there is a criminal element thats entering United States. Look, in miami, we had a former Venezuela Police officer that was kidnapped, arrest, and taken and murdered by gang members. Something called thing that iowa, which is a gang that originated in a notorious prison in venezuela. Theyre being let lose. They go, they cross the darien, they get into the United States thats just one example of whats happening here in the United States. Were not saying that every, every immigrant coming in the United States is a criminal. I know that ive spoken to him the most the majority of coming here for the American Dream, they need to be doing it in a legal fashion. But in that, in that mass of millions of people there is a criminal element. And yes, that is putting american lives at risk and laken riley is just an example that, that poor form former Police Officer from venezuela in miami is another example of that. And they wouldnt have been killed, they wouldnt be dead. If the government had done his job ive been issued parole on a case by case basis. I do want to point out it is legal for Asylum Seekers to claim asylum once they have crossed the border just thats the point that out. Absolutely. Like but i want to get to something about, you know, no, no, no, no, it cant let you go on that one either because then theyre released into the United States on a parole basis. And thats supposed to be done on a case by thompson. Im not sure, matches. You think i said but i didnt i didnt try to get away with anything. I do want to ask you about your guests that the state of the Union Tonight. Its an activist and Human Rights Activist from cuba, pro sumeria biuh. According to the interamerican in court, her father, oswaldo paia, was killed by the cuban government, murdered by the cuban government for his desire to bring free and Fair Elections to cuba, to bring Free Expression to cuba. You have some colleagues in the house its the reason it recently visited the island, who are pushing for cuba to be removed from the list of State Sponsors of terror i dont doubt for a second that youre trying to send a message to them and to the Biden Administration by having rosa maria there at the state of the Union Tonight oh, no, its a message. Is the message to my colleagues on the house house that went to cuba supposedly on a secret mission to have conversations where the cuban government representative, iowa pal representative, omar to try to lift them from the list of State Sponsors of terrorism, a country that is actively sending soldiers to russia fight against ukraine, and a country that is actively supporting hamas. And then also to lift the embargo against against cuba, keep the regime look, this regime has been oppressing the cuban people for 64 years. 64 years. Theres no free election though, freedom of expression, no see them of religion. Youve got thousands of people that are our political prisoners. Youve got tens of thousands, not hundreds of thousands of people that may be a paris in the Florida Straits and trying to prostitute to reach our shores in the United States to find freedom. And then you have two members of congress. They want to be apologists for them and yeah, its a clear message to that and its a clear message to the Biden Administration that, hey, we should be the defenders of freedom and democracy in this hemisphere. And it starts right there. Cuba venezuela, nicaragua, and cuba is the, is the heart of it. All. Its, its the head of the snake thats actually infiltrating and corrupting and trial thank to bring their revolution, their brand or revolution to the rest of central and south america. And frankly