President Joe Biden will deliver his second State of the Union address on Tuesday, 7 February - his first since the Republicans took control of the House of Representatives after November’s midterms.
Mr Biden’s speech will take place at 9pm EST (2am GMT) and will be carried live across the major American news networks. It marks the unofficial start of the 2024 presidential campaign, with the Democrat discussing key areas of public concern, from police reform and the economy to Russia’s war in Ukraine.
He is expected to lay out policy priorities, champion the country’s bounceback from Covid-19 and draw contrasts between his administration’s hopes of encouraging unity post-Trump and the behaviour of certain fringe Republicans still more interested in sowing division, judging by the chaotic (and ultimately unsuccessful) resistance mounted to stop Kevin McCarthy securing the House speakership at the start of the year.
Mr Biden’s address to the joint session of Congress will also provide him with a platform from which to reassure Democrats that he is fighting fit and ready to embark on a second term, despite having turned 80 in November.
As is customary, the president will be flanked by the House speaker, Mr McCarthy, and his vice president, Kamala Harris, as he delivers his speech to the assembled members of the House and Senate, with family, friends and specially invited guests looking down from the balcony of the lower chamber.
Two parties already invited to attend this February’s event include RowVaughn and Rodney Wells, the parents of Tyre Nichols, and Brandon Tsay, the hero of the Monterey Park mass shooting.
Nichols, 29, was brutally beaten by five police officers during a routine traffic stop in Memphis, Tennessee, on 7 January and died days later of his injuries in hospital.
The officers concerned have all been dismissed and an investigation into their conduct is underway but the release of bodycam footage of the incident has provoked fresh outrage and renewed calls for reform.
The deceased’s parents were invited to attend the State of the Union by Congressional Black Caucus chairman Steven Horsford, a Nevada Democratic congressman, and have accepted.
“Like so many, I was outraged and deeply pained to see the horrific video of the beating that resulted in Tyre Nichols’ death,” Mr Biden has said of the incident.
“It has a lot to say and do with the image of America. It has a lot to do with whether or not we are the country that we say we are.”
Mr Tsay, 26, was meanwhile invited by California Democratic congresswoman Judy Chu after he heroically intervened to disarm the gunman who carried out the mass shooting at a Lunar New Year celebration in Monterey Park near Los Angeles on 21 January, saving an untold number of lives.
According to CNN, just an hour after Ms Chu extended the invitation to Washington, he was called by Mr Biden himself to make the same offer, the president having already been in touch to thank Mr Tsay for his bravery.
“I wanted to call to see how you’re doing and thank you for taking such incredible action in the face of danger,” Mr Biden had told him.
“I don’t think you understand just how much you’ve done for so many people who are never going to even know you. But I want them to know more about you.”
Mr Tsay has since been awarded a medal of courage by the Alhambra Police Department during a ceremony on Sunday.
