Biden will go out to sell his agenda

President Biden and his team plan to fan out after Thursday night’s State of the Union address to amplify his message and sell his agenda with visits to key battleground states, kicking off a month of campaign-like storms as the general election battle has begun in earnest.

Mr. Biden will go to Philadelphia on Friday and Atlanta on Saturday for campaign speeches, hitting two of the six swing states he won in 2020 and counting on defeating former President Donald J. Trump again in November. Vice President Kamala Harris will travel to Arizona and Nevada, two other states in the same category.

The Cabinet will also join the effort, as the secretaries of the Treasury, Interior, Agriculture, Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, Energy and Veterans Affairs, as well as several agency directors, are heading out. These senior officials will promote the administration’s achievements in everything from job creation to clean energy, while talking about policy goals such as protecting abortion rights.

“As with any State of the Union address, the President will use the energy and momentum to travel the country and speak to voters about what his agenda is and how it will deliver for their communities,” said Kevin Munoz, a spokesperson for the Biden. -Harris campaign. After Philadelphia and Atlanta, Mr. Biden will have “additional travel throughout the month — rallies, coalition events, campaign events, shopping stops and more.”

The president’s team didn’t even wait for the speech to publicize it. A row of television cameras from ten local stations from all over the country was set up just in front of the West Wing on Thursday. White House officials such as Ben LaBolt, the White House communications director, and Karine Jean-Pierre, the White House press secretary, could move from one to the other to plead the administration’s case in a kind of Washington version of speed dating.

The White House also invited radio hosts, Spanish broadcasters, influencers and digital media publishers to spend part of the day at the White House for interviews. Ms Harris was due to give a briefing to digital news media and creators ahead of the speech.