Have you been wondering what happened to Joe Biden’s State of the Union address?
Generally, the State of the Union address is delivered in late January to early February.
But in the first year that someone is in office, they officially call it an “address to the joint session of Congress” not a State of the Union, although most people still refer to it as a “state of the union.” It’s often been a little later, likely giving the person the chance to actually evaluate things a little bit first. Barack Obama’s speech was on February 24. Donald Trump’s was on February 28.
So, again, we go back to that question: where’s Biden’s speech?
What’s sort of interesting about this question is that Joe Biden himself apparently indicated to reporters that it would be in February, that he wanted to talk about COVID relief, according to Axios.
Some media seem to have had it tentatively scheduled for Feb. 23, as you can see from these screenshots.
Check the dates:
— Dr. Nickarama (@nickaramaOG) February 25, 2021
— Dr. Nickarama (@nickaramaOG) February 25, 2021
BLM even had an event scheduled, based on that tentative scheduling.
We’re days away from M4BL’s State of Black America broadcast where we’ll be addressing the topics that matter most to Black communities ahead of the State of the Union. Tune in Tuesday, Feb 23 at 6 pm ET/ 3pm PT.
RSVP now at https://t.co/1TNlhWzuUJ! #StateOfBlackAmerica pic.twitter.com/V0Uzo9bPvr
— Movement 4 Black Lives (@Mvmnt4BlkLives) February 19, 2021
One would think the AP and PBS had some reason to pick that date and not just pull it out of the air.
But when questioned, Jen Psaki said there were no plans for Biden to address the joint session this month and that despite what Biden had said and the tentative scheduling some media had, she claimed it “was never planned to be in February.”
Fox News’ Chad Pergram reported that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) says there won’t be an address until the COVID deal is done. In other words, Biden is giving up the opportunity to talk about the virus and the bill until after it’s passed? Alrighty, now.
Politico is now suggesting that it might be March, which as they observed would be the latest in “decades.”
Let’s face it. There’s a big problem with having Joe try to deliver a ninety-minute speech at 9:00 p.m. at night without a teleprompter in front of Congress. He has trouble just making it through basic remarks before media for a few minutes, much less a speech of that length. They must be wracking their brains to figure out how they’re going to pull it off.
As we previously reported, Biden hasn’t even had a solo press conference with the media yet. By this time, both Barack Obama and Donald Trump had done solo pressers. When Jen Psaki was asked about that earlier this week, she refused to give the media a date as to when he would be doing one, but said he would do it at some point in the future. Not exactly what you would call leadership in a time of pandemic.
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