Biden prepares for the State of the Union address and noisy Republicans
Fueled by throat-soothing tea, guided by teleprompters and surrounded by six aides and a historian, President Biden spent hours at Camp David last weekend honing a State of the Union address delivered before the November election by one of his largest audience will be viewed.
So the pressure is great.
It should be noted that at Camp David, Mr. Biden carried a copy of “Possible: How We Survive (and Thrive) in an Age of Conflict,” a book by William Ury, an international negotiation expert.
“You’ll hear me on Thursday,” Mr. Biden said when reporters asked about his preparations on Tuesday.
White House officials have not said what topics the president will address or whether he will mention Donald J. Trump, his likely challenger in 2024, by name. But Biden will almost certainly talk about the war in Ukraine, the war between Israel and Hamas, China, abortion, immigration, trade and other topics in a speech he and his aides have been working on since December.
The final speech, which aides say will be edited until Mr. Biden delivers it, will be delivered by a president under pressure to reassure voters that he is not too old for the job and, more than on at some point in his term, the counter-political outbursts that have become commonplace during such speeches. Biden’s aides say he is prepared for Republicans to harass him, as Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene did last year.
The shaping of the speech took place, in true Biden fashion, within a circle of aides who have been close to the president for years and treat such proceedings as a state secret.
The Camp David weekend group included Bruce Reed, the White House deputy chief of staff, who helped guide policy-related additions to the speech; Mike Donilon, the aide who best understands Mr. Biden’s voice; Anita Dunn, who oversees White House communications strategy; and Jeffrey D. Zients, Mr. Biden’s chief of staff. Rounding out the group were Steve Ricchetti, an adviser to the president and a longtime friend, and Vinay Reddy, Mr. Biden’s speechwriter.
Historian Jon Meacham, who is called upon to add historical weight, was also there.
During sessions preparing for his speech, Mr. Biden goes through the material line by line, highlighting words and creating pauses to remind himself to navigate the stutter he has had since childhood. When he comes to a passage that he doesn’t think is something he would say, he highlights it. A former speechwriter described this phase as an exercise in trying to capture Mr. Biden’s improvised thoughts and put them on paper.
Ron Klain, Mr. Biden’s former chief of staff, said the president “works hard and rigorously” every year, adding that he knows “it is his one opportunity each year to deliver his agenda for progress directly to the American people to submit.’
Aides say clarity is more important to Mr. Biden than anything else. The president will scold those who include acronyms or jargon in their drafts. During preliminary sessions, he has reminded aides that he is the one with a long career in politics, meaning he knows more about Congress than his younger aides describing the relationships between Congress and legislative dynamics.
When reviewing drafts, he will often ask staff what the headline of the speech will be and – more specifically – what its position on news radio would be. One official said this was Biden’s way of ensuring the speech would be palatable to most Americans, and to get a sense of how the news media would cover it.
The key to success under high pressure, Ms. Dunn said in a text message, was simple: “Let Joe Biden be Joe Biden.”
Zolan Kanno-Youngs reporting contributed.