Biden to deliver 2023 State of the Union address as he struggles in polls – live

While White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre was able to flag the Biden administration wins during an appearance on ABC’s The View ahead of tonight’s State of the Union address, she also faced a grilling over the president’s poor poll numbers.

Co-host Sara Haines noted that an ABC News/Washington Post poll found that 40 per cent of Americans felt worse off since Joe Biden took office — the highest that number has been in decades.

Ms Jean-Pierre conceded it had been a hard couple of years, the president has also “transformed” how we think about the economy from “trickle down” to “bottom up, middle out”.

She also dismissed poor polling adding that the number fluctuate too much to prioritised.

Alyssa Farah Griffin also asked about polling data saying that 58 per cent of Democrats or Democrat-leaning voters would prefer a different candidate to the president in 2024.

Noting she is unable to comment on the president’s plans for 2024 except by repeating what he has said, she said: “He intends to run.”

US President Joe Biden’s public approval rating sat at 41 per cent — close to the lowest level of his presidency — as he prepared for a major speech on Tuesday that is expected to serve as a blueprint for a 2024 re-election bid, a new Reuters/Ipsos poll showed.

The three-day national poll, which closed on Sunday, also showed 65 per cent of Americans think the country is on the wrong track – up from 58 per cent a year earlier.

In a presidency buffeted by soaring inflation and a persistent global health crisis, Biden began 2023 buoyed by unexpectedly strong midterm election results for Democrats and signs that consumer price increases were ebbing.

But he has also faced new criticism over a probe into classified documents found in his home in recent months, after he had condemned former President Donald Trump for allegedly mishandling classified documents when he left the White House in 2021.

Biden’s 41 per cent job approval is essentially unchanged from the 40 per cent recorded three weeks earlier. The Reuters/Ipsos poll has a margin of error of three percentage points either way.

It is an unpopularity that has proved remarkably persistent, drifting as low as 36 per cent in May and June of 2022 but holding near 40 per cent for most of the last year.

In past decades, presidents only occasionally went through extended periods with approval as low as that of Biden, although Donald Trump spent much of his 2017-2021 presidency with similar levels of approval and at points sank even lower, hitting 33 per cent in December 2017.

Biden, 80, is expected to launch another run for the White House in the coming weeks, and his State of the Union address on Tuesday is likely to highlight massive infrastructure and inflation laws he signed in his first two years in office.

Apparently “by popular request” former president Donald Trump will be giving a “live and full ‘play by play’ analysis” of the State of the Union address tonight.

And one of the top reasons for that call for unity is his desire to continue providing aid to Ukraine as the country fights back a brutal invasion launched by Russia’s military last year.

John Bowden reports from Washington, DC.

US Labor Secretary Marty Walsh plans to depart the Biden administration, making him the first major cabinet-level official to leave the White House this term, Bloomberg reports, citing unnamed people familiar with the decision.

Mr Walsh has reportedly been offered a role leading the National Hockey League Players’ Association, a labour organisation that represents the NHL’s athletes in the US and Canada.

Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Senator Bernie Sanders both called House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s bluff on saying Social Security and Medicare will be off the table during negotiations.

The progressive lawmakers both spoke to The Independent’s Eric Garcia.

Eric Garcia reports from Capitol Hill on who he’ll be watching from the press gallery as President Joe Biden delivers his speech.

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.

Among the parties already invited to attend this year’s event include RowVaughn and Rodney Wells, the mother and stepfather of Tyre Nichols, and Brandon Tsay, the hero of the Monterey Park mass shooting.

Here’s a guide to everyone confirmed so far.