State of the Union address live: Biden to mention reproductive rights and Gaza but ignore Trump | State of the Union address

Julian Borger

Hours before his State of the Union address, it emerged Joe Biden will announce the creation of a temporary port on the Gaza shoreline to be built by US forces.

Biden will say the port will be built in the next few weeks to allow delivery of humanitarian aid on a large scale, amid warnings of a widespread famine among the territory’s 2.3 million Palestinians.

“We are not waiting on the Israelis. This is a moment for American leadership,” a senior US official said on Thursday, reflecting growing frustration of what is seen in Washington as Israeli obstruction of ground deliveries of aid on a substantial scale.

The port will be built by US military engineers operating from ships off the Gaza coast, who will not need to step ashore, US officials said. The aid deliveries will be shipped from the port of Larnaca in Cyprus, which will become the main relief hub.

An Alabama mother who saw a second round of IVF canceled after the state supreme court ruled that embryos were children will attend Joe Biden’s State of the Union address on Thursday, as guests of the first lady, Jill Biden.

LaTorya Beasley of Birmingham, Alabama, is among the first lady’s 20 invited guests who “personify issues or themes to be addressed by the president in his speech”, the White House said in a statement.

Also among the guests of high-ranking Democrats are Elizabeth Carr, the first person in the US to be born via IVF; Amanda Zurawski, a Texas woman who nearly died of septic shock when she was denied a medically necessary abortion; and Kate Cox, who had to flee Texas for an abortion after she learned her fetus had a fatal chromosomal condition.

As lawmakers and officials file into the chamber of the House of Representatives, a notable fashion trend has emerged.

Many female lawmakers are wearing white, and it’s not an accident. The Democratic Women’s Caucus says its members have donned the color along with pins reading “Fighting for Reproductive Freedom”.

“Our message is clear: women must be able to access the health care they need to control their own lives and futures. That means women, not politicians, should be in charge of whether, when, and how to start or grow their families. That includes access to birth control, access to abortion, and access to IVF,” the caucus chair Lois Frankel said.

The GOP has chosen first-term Alabama senator Katie Britt, the youngest Republican woman ever to serve in the Senate, to deliver the rebuttal to the State of the Union address tonight.

At 42, Britt is also the third-youngest senator currently serving, presenting a counterpoint to the oldest sitting president.

Her rebuttal will come on the heels of a high-stakes political showdown over women’s access to in vitro fertilization in her home state.

The Guardian’s George Chidi has written more about Britt here:

Joe Biden will likely portray this election as he did in 2020: a contest between democracy and Donald Trump, whose authoritarian rhetoric has escalated since he lost the 2020 election to Biden.

It is unclear how Biden will position himself on foreign policy. His administration faces mounting pressure from the right to abandon its support for Ukraine, which for more than two years has been fighting a Russian ground invasion. And he faces calls from a progressive anti-war movement to push for a ceasefire in Gaza, where more than 30,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israel’s military campaign. During his speech, Biden is expected to announce the creation of a port on the coast of Gaza to deliver more aid to the besieged enclave.

A week ago, Biden and Trump made dueling visits to the US-Mexico border, underscoring the centrality of immigration policy to the 2024 race – and the shift to the right that Biden and other Democratic politicians have made on the issue. During his speech in Brownsville, Texas, Biden called on Trump to support the bipartisan bill to restrict immigration on the southern border, which is languishing in Congress. How, and if, Biden speaks about immigration will be a prelude to his approach during the months ahead on the campaign trail.

This speech will also offer Biden an opportunity to address abortion rights, an issue that has mobilized Democratic voters since the supreme court decision protecting abortion access, Roe v Wade, was overturned. An Alabama supreme court decision in February ruling that frozen embryos can be considered children under state law – which has led to threats to access to in vitro fertilization there – brought concerns about reproductive healthcare access back to the fore. Biden has expressed his personal misgivings about abortion on religious grounds, but has defended Roe v Wade.

Joe Biden’s State of the Union address is scheduled to begin at 9pm ET/6pm PT tonight, 7 March, and will be broadcast on the major news networks, including ABC, NBC, CBS and FOX.

It will also be carried by CSPAN and streamed live on the White House website.

Democrats have tried and failed to protect abortion rights federally ever since it became clear the supreme court would overturn Roe v Wade, as it did in 2022. The party never had the votes, but at this evening’s State of the Union address, Biden will make clear it would be a priority, if re-elected:

In its decision to overturn Roe v Wade the Supreme Court majority wrote ‘Women are not without electoral or political power.’ No kidding. Clearly those bragging about overturning Roe v Wade have no clue about the power of women in America. But they found out when reproductive freedom was on the ballot and won in 2022, 2023, and they will find out again in 2024. If Americans send me a Congress that supports the right to choose I promise you: I will restore Roe v Wade as the law of the land again.

He will also attempt to persuade Americans that the economy is doing all right:

I came to office determined to get us through one of the toughest periods in our nation’s history. And we have. It doesn’t make the news, but in thousands of cities and towns the American people are writing the greatest comeback story never told. So let’s tell that story here and now. America’s comeback is building a future of American possibilities, building an economy from the middle out and the bottom up – not the top down, investing in all of America – in all Americans – to make sure everyone has a fair shot and we leave no one behind.

Biden may at some point choose to call out Trump by name, but from what the White House has released, he’s only referring to him obliquely – and pointing out that they are not far apart in age. Here’s the line:

My lifetime has taught me to embrace freedom and democracy. A future based on the core values that have defined America: honesty, decency, dignity, equality. To respect everyone. To give everyone a fair shot. To give hate no safe harbor. Now some other people my age see a different story: an American story of resentment, revenge, and retribution. That’s not me.

Good evening, US politics blog readers. Tonight at 9pm ET, Joe Biden will deliver what could be the most important speech of his presidency: the last State of the Union address before he faces Donald Trump in the November presidential elections. The annual speech is an important one for any president, but carries extra weight for Biden because it is a major opportunity to reengage with voters who have drifted away from him over the past three years but will be crucial in defeating Trump. Democrats are jittery over Biden’s persistently bad poll numbers, which for more than two and a half years have defied anything the president does to turn the situation around. His campaign believes the struggle for abortion rights is key to turning the situation around – among the promises the president will make tonight is a pledge to codify Roe v Wade if re-elected with Democratic majorities in Congress, the White House says.

Here’s what else we are watching for this evening:

• The president has not shied away from attacking Trump as a threat to democracy in speeches since the start of the year, but this evening he’ll be in a room full of Republican lawmakers loyal to the former president. Will he bash him in front of them?

• Rightwing lawmakers like Marjorie Taylor Greene and Lauren Boebert have made names for themselves by heckling Biden at prior State of the Union addresses. Will they repeat the act tonight?

• Biden’s age has been a concern among voters and even some Democrats who worry the 81-year-old isn’t up to another four years in office. Will he address the touchy issue?