On cusp of Biden speech, a state of disunity, funk and peril
By CALVIN WOODWARD and ZEKE MILLER
Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — In good times or bad, American presidents come to Congress with a diagnosis that hardly differs over the decades. In their State of the Union speeches, they declare “the state of our union is strong,” or words very much like it. Whatever phrase President Joe Biden uses in his State of the Union speech Tuesday night, American unity and strength are being sharply tested on multiple fronts. Biden faces domestic discord and division. And now, from afar, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has turned Biden overnight into a wartime president in someone else’s war as he leads the West’s response.