It seems President Biden’s handlers at the White House have tipped their hand by admitting that there is no plan for Biden to deliver the customary address before a joint session of congress, as every president in the past 90 years has done.
“The President has made this report annually in late January or early February. Between 1934 and 2013 the date has been as early as January 3, and as late as February 12.” (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_of_the_Union#:~:text=Though%20the%20language%20of%20the,as%20late%20as%20February%2012)
That is the yearly, constitutionally-mandated address which has come to be called the “State of the Union” (except for at the beginning of a new president’s term, it’s simply called the “address to a joint session of congress,” as they have no accomplishments to speak of in the first couple weeks of their term).
Biden had said that it would happen, as he knows that it is one of the most important public events – “Next month, in my first appearance before a joint session of Congress, I will lay out my ‘Build Back Better’ recovery plan,” Biden said on Jan. 14.
Apparently there was talk within the press of it being scheduled on Feb 23, which now seem likely to be strategically planted rumors in order to stave off any questions from the press for the past 6 weeks.
When White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki was finally asked about this on Feb 16, she gave a clearly rehearsed response, starting with “we don’t know where the February 23rd date came from…”
That’s weird, as that wasn’t the question – Feb 23 wasn’t part of the question at all. The question was simply “does the president still plan to address congress this month as he has said he expects to, and do you have any more information for us on the time?“
Psaki also said there is no planned date, and also alluded to the speech not being delivered to the full congress at all, once again citing COVID as an excuse for changing the format:
We don’t know where the February 23rd date came from, it’s a great mystery, I’ve not Nancy Drew’d that one out yet, but it was never planned to be in February and we don’t have a date for a joint session at this point.
Certainly the President looks forward to addressing the public and we remain in touch with leaders in Congress about a timeline and a format and what that would look like.
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki, February 16 2021
Obviously, it won’t look like it has looked like in the past, that many of you have covered and I have attended, where you all sit on the floor of Congress and the president gives a speech, because of COVID.”
Watch:
Everyone understands that Biden is incapable of holding a press conference or answering questions in any live format (without a teleprompter), which is obviously the reason that he hasn’t held a single press conference in his first 2 months as president.
Is this really because of some fear of COVID? The president and everyone in congress has been vaccinated – COVID is zero risk to them.
Or is it because the President is simply incapable of speaking or even maintaining lucid thoughts for more than a few minutes?
The answer is obvious.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/biden-first-address-joint-session-congress
