About this episode
At 9 p.m., President Joe Biden will deliver the type of State of the Union address he never wanted to give. Biden and his advisers had hoped to use this moment to reboot his stalled domestic agenda. Instead, the situation in Ukraine has forced the West Wing to rewrite significant partitions of his speech. Biden is expected to use his address to respond to criticism that he didn’t act quickly enough to stop Russian President Vladimir Putin. He’ll emphasize his work to build an international coalition to counter Russia, as well as imposing crippling sanctions. It won’t all be a lesson in international relations, however. Administration officials say Biden will spotlight improvements in the economy while sympathizing with the plight of struggling Americans. He’ll highlight GDP growth and historic low unemployment — but also stress that more must be done to bring costs down. Subscribe to POLITICO Playbook. Raghu Manavalan is the Host of POLITICO's Playbook. Jenny Ament is the Senior Producer of POLITICO Audio.