and at the Walter Cronkite
school of journalism at Arizona
state university.
Geoff: President Joe Biden
delivers his assessment of where
the country's been and where
it's going later tonight.
Our Lisa Desjardins and Laura
Barron Lopez join me now with
more on what to expect.
Laura, you have been talking to
white house officials.
What message does president
Biden hope to convince the
congress and the American
people?
>> White house officials told me
the country is going to say the
president needs to finish the
job he started in the first two
years of his presidency.
He is going to be exuding
optimism but there are going to
be central themes on foreign
policy, the continued defense of
Ukraine against Russian
aggression, countering China,
and the competitiveness and the
U.S. Trying to counter China's
economic rise as a rival.
On the economy, job growth.
The president is going to tout
that a lot.
The bipartisan infrastructure
bill and investments being made
across the country as well as a
number of health care actions
taken.
Finally he is going to talk
about bipartisanship and his
attempt to work across the aisle
with Republicans but also
contrast himself with the GOP,
especially on issues of
abortion, police brutality, and
gun control.
He is going to look forward,
trying to say congress should
act on areas they left on the
cutting room floor during the
first two years, like extending
the child tax credit.
Geoff: President Biden is trying
to draw a contrast with
Republicans.
How are Republicans prepared to
respond?
Lisa: There will be some
contrast and something different
from the new speaker, Kevin
Mccarthy.
This is his first time in that
national spotlight.
He told us he plans to be
respectful, to honor the day.
I think he is trying to be above
partisan politics for now,
although he has been partisan in
the past.
Who will be partisan on behalf
of Republicans?
The new governor of Arkansas,
Sarah Huckabee Sanders.
She has been governor for four
weeks.
She is going to contrast herself
as America's youngest governor
at the age of 40 with president
Biden, America's oldest
president in history.
She will lay out themes we will
see from the Republicans and
things they say president Biden
is failing at, the border, the
economy.
I believe she may bring up the
China balloon in some way.
She will present Republicans as
being more for a strong America.
That's something we are going to
see both people talk about
tonight.
Republicans will have a
spanish-language response from a
new freshman member of congress.
Interesting because Sarah
Huckabee Sanders used to be a
spokesperson for trump and he
was a trump opponent.
Geoff: There will be special
guests invited by the first lady
to attend.
Tell us who they are and what
message these invitations are
meant to convey.
Laura: One of the ones that
stood out to me, because there
will be a number of guests,
including the ambassador of
Ukraine to the United States.
Paul Pelosi has been invited to
sit alongside the first lady.
The white house noted when they
invited Paul Pelosi that he was
the subject of a politically
motivated attack and the
intruder chanted, where's Nancy
when he entered their home, a
similar chant writers used
during the January 6
insurrection.
Also Brandon tsay, who disarmed
the shooter in Monterey park
during the lunar new year
celebration.
And ro Von and Rodney wells, the
mother and stepmother to tyre
Nichols, the black man fatally
beaten by police in Memphis.
A number of other lawmakers,
congressional black lawmakers,
are going to be in the chamber.
They invited families of victims
of police brutality, notably the
father of Michael Brown, the
mother of Eric Garner, and the
brother of George Floyd.
Democrats are trying to showcase
specifically a lot of the police
brutality that has been
occurring and the issue the
country is reckoning with.
Geoff: And inject some new
urgency into the police reform
push.
Lisa, what are you watching for
in your perch in the house
gallery?
Lisa: Very honored, a special
place to be.
We will not see color blocks
like we have seen in the past,
lots of people wearing white,
for example.
We will see buttons.
Members of the congressional
black caucus will be wearing
buttons saying 1870, the date of
the first known killing of an
unarmed black man in this
country by a police officer.
I am also going to be looking
around for a new sense of normal
in the house because this is
going to be the first time that
everyone does not have to show a
covid negative test to be there.
There are no more magnetometers,
which were put in by the
Democrats.
There is a new normal outside
the capitol, eight foot tall
fencing.
That was not in place for state
of the union's before January 6.