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The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
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Tom McCarthy

State of the Union 2016: Obama targets Trump and fear, returning to a future of hope – as it happened

Obama launches new effort to cure cancer in State of the Union address

Summary

We’re going to wrap up our live coverage of President Barack Obama’s seventh and final State of the Union address. Thanks for joining us. Here’s what we learned:

  • The president called for an end to poisonous partisan politics. He said its growth was a “regret” of his presidency. He said maybe Lincoln or Roosevelt could’ve done better to bring the country together but in any case he was going to keep trying.
  • Obama framed the upcoming presidential election as a dangerously polarising battle for the soul of America.
  • Obama did not mention two US ships reportedly taken captive by Iran in the Persian Gulf Tuesday. Neither did his Republican respondent, South Carolina governor Nikki Haley.
  • Haley’s speech was praised for its moderation and inclusion – and she attacked Donald Trump with calls for religious and racial inclusion, signaling a deepening Republican party split.
  • Obama slammed Trump several times, including when he said that insulting Muslims “betrays who we are”: “It’s just wrong. It diminishes us in the eyes of the world. It makes it harder to achieve our goals.”
  • Obama called for closing the US prison at Guantánamo Bay, again.
  • Obama called for an end to gerrymandering, to excessive and dirty money in politics and to attacks on voting rights.
  • The gist of the president’s take on foreign policy was that “The United States of America is the most powerful nation on Earth. Period,” which elicited chants of “USA! USA!” in the chamber. Perhaps a SOTU first.
  • The president did a bit of celebrating in the end zone, touting the Paris climate deal, the economic recovery, and his health care law.
  • The president paid tribute to wounded veterans and to the work of the armed services but made scant mention of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan (not to mention Syria).
  • Obama derided climate change deniers. “Look, if anybody still wants to dispute the science around climate change, have at it. You’ll be pretty lonely,” he said.
  • Obama said the administration would launch a “moonshot” to beat cancer and that vice president Joe Biden was in charge.
  • The president bravely attempted a couple jokes, poking fun at Republican senators’ political ambitions and at the job security that sometimes comes with being a member of Congress. Was the speech hilarious? No.
  • The president said US economic decline is “a fiction” but that because of wage stagnation, an education gap and other factors, many Americans had not partaken in the economic recovery.
  • The speech made only passing mention of guns and gun violence.
  • The president embarks tomorrow on a trip to drive his message home that will take him to Omaha, Nebraska, and Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
  • The first lady’s guest box, usually filled to capacity, included an empty seat this year to symbolically account for victims of gun violence. During the speech the Guardian Twitter account put names and faces to the statistics:
  • The speech was met with lukewarm to not-warm reactions on the Republican side:

Updated

Guardian political reporter Ben Jacobs writes that “Nikki Haley’s response to the State of the Union has drawn overwhelming praise from many in the media and many in Republican politics.”

However, it has been met with withering scorn among those conservatives who have long been violently opposed to the so-called Republican establishment, Ben reports:

Talk radio host Laura Ingraham jibed on Twitter , [liberal pundit and former Obama White House aide] Van Jones just praised Nikki Haley speech. Enough said.” Conservative author Michelle Malkin tweeted “Everything wrong with GOP #SOTU response in 4 words: Nikki Haley tells Americans tired of being ignored to “turn down the volume.” And, as always, Ann Coulter went farthest, tweeting “Trump should deport Nikki Haley.”

The problem was Haley’s speech contained very thinly disguised digs at Republican frontrunner Donald Trump. The South Carolina governor said mournfully, “during anxious times, it can be tempting to follow the siren call of the angriest voices” and insisted the United States must welcome “properly vetted legal immigrants, regardless of their race or religion.” While she gave her response just as even Ted Cruz is starting to go on the offensive against Trump, she still revealed a glaring divide within the Republican Party.

Laughing at you, Donald.
Laughing at you, Donald. Photograph: Randall Hill/Reuters

There is now a fully formed populist wing that is stalwart on immigration to the point of nativism and is contemptuous of anyone who opposes them. It doesn’t matter that Haley praised the Tenth Amendment and condemned “union bosses” in her response. She veered from their orthodoxy on immigration and thus a RINO and an apostate.

This divide, exacerbated by Trump’s successful campaign, has long been building within the GOP. But, those curious how deep it went, Haley’s response Tuesday night provided a Rorschach test.

We’ve dished you a lot of words. How about some pictures?

Here’s the Narciso Rodriguez dress Michelle Obama wore. It’s neither mango nor tangerine, as we clumsily speculated earlier. It’s marigold (duh).

Marigold. Dr Biden’s in... fuschia?
Marigold. Dr Biden’s in... fuschia? Photograph: Michael Reynolds/EPA

The dress is now sold out, no joke. (h/t: @scottbix)

So what do I say about those boats?
So what do I say about those boats? Photograph: Michael Reynolds/EPA
Finito!
Finito! Photograph: POOL/Reuters

Updated

Data editor Mona Chalabi with another instant look at the numbers:

Remember guys, feeling chipper is no reason to ignore the facts.

Data shows (and has shown for a very long time) that the Americans most likely to be Republican are Evangelicals, white and older people. Those young and “diverse” supporters? They’re most likely to vote Democrat.

Demographics
Demographics Photograph: Pew

The top-tweeted moments of the State of the Union, according to the folks at Twitter, were around these lines:

1. “I stand here confident that the State of our Union is strong.” (Closing)

2. “We have to reduce the influence of money in our politics.”

3. “I will keep working to shut down the prison at Guantanamo. It’s expensive, it’s unnecessary.”

The most-tweeted topics during the speech, according to Twitter, were:

1. Foreign Affairs

2. Energy & The Environment

3. The Economy

From Guardian US opinion editor Megan Carpentier:

Despite his staff’s insistence that this would be a new kind of State of the Union, the speech felt the same as every other year except that Obama (thankfully) did away with the 34-year-old tradition of pointing at somebody in the gallery to illustrate a political point. (Though Congresswoman Barbara Lee did have Black Lives Matter co-founder Alicia Garza up there.)

And maybe there was less gratuitous applause – but there were also less gratuitous applause lines.

But tonight’s State of the Union was neither a defiant call to action in front of a recalcitrant legislative branch, nor a victory lap for a triumphant president. Perhaps, in trying to re-invent the traditional, stultifying State of the Union, Obama and his staff realized that there’s nothing new under the sun.

“It’s easier to be cynical; to accept that change isn’t possible, and politics is hopeless, and to believe that our voices and actions don’t matter” the president intoned. Maybe after promising hope and change and that we could and then finding out that we definitely couldn’t with this crop of Republicans in the legislative branch, he was reminding himself as much as anybody.

Former top Obama political adviser David Axelrod thinks Haley had a good outing:

We won’t apply the verb “thinks” to whatever it is conservative firebrand Ann Coulter is expressing here, but we do want to make sure as many people as possible read what she says, because then maybe we could come up with a logical argument to rebut her and she would change her mind:

Updated

What do you think? How’d Haley do? Did she push back effectively?

Her speech was notable for conceding Republican fault what she described as problems facing the country; for her description of her own immigrant experience and her call for inclusiveness over the “siren call of the angriest voices”; her discussion of the Charleston church massacre and the Confederate flag controversy of last summer; and her concluding list of what positive leadership and policy goals Republicans had to offer.

A moderate speech, an inclusive speech, an approachable speech.

Republican response wraps

Haley concludes:

We have big decisions to make. Our country is being tested.

“But we’ve been tested in the past, and our people have always risen to the challenge. We have all the guidance we need to be safe and successful.

“Our forefathers paved the way for us.

“Let’s take their values, and their strengths, and rededicate ourselves to doing whatever it takes to keep America the greatest country in the history of man. And woman.

“Thank you, good night, and God bless.”

Fact-check: Republican response edition!

Data editor Mona Chalabi with another instant look at the numbers:

Governor Haley seemed to be focusing her rhetoric in the Republican party’s official response on national security and the threats to it.

That’s a smart move.

More than half of Americans say they are worried that they or a member of their family will become a victim of terrorism, according to Gallup. The last time that number was so high? You guessed it: 2001.

Fear
Fear Photograph: Gallup

Haley switches gears, to sell what positive contributions Republicans have to offer, on taxes, the economy, education, etc:

If we held the White House, taxes would be lower for working families, and we’d put the brakes on runaway spending and debt.

“We would encourage American innovation and success instead of demonizing them, so our economy would truly soar and good jobs would be available across our country.

“We would reform education so it worked best for students, parents, and teachers, not Washington bureaucrats and union bosses.

“We would end a disastrous health care program, and replace it with reforms that lowered costs and actually let you keep your doctor.

“We would respect differences in modern families, but we would also insist on respect for religious liberty as a cornerstone of our democracy.

Updated

Haley seems to be loosening up a bit. Her teeth are clenched less, her head is moving more. She delivers a moving summation of last year’s church massacre in Charleston as a morality tale:

This past summer, South Carolina was dealt a tragic blow. On an otherwise ordinary Wednesday evening in June, at the historic Mother Emanuel church in Charleston, twelve faithful men and women, young and old, went to Bible study.

“That night, someone new joined them. He didn’t look like them, didn’t act like them, didn’t sound like them. They didn’t throw him out. They didn’t call the police. Instead, they pulled up a chair and prayed with him. For an hour.

“We lost nine incredible souls that night.

“What happened after the tragedy is worth pausing to think about.

“Our state was struck with shock, pain, and fear. But our people would not allow hate to win. We didn’t have violence, we had vigils. We didn’t have riots, we had hugs.

Haley: resist temptation of 'angriest voices'

Haley sounds closer to Obama here than to the rightward third of her party – or at least she appears to be equally aligned against Trump, and similarly takes care to single him out, if not by name:

“My story is really not much different from millions of other Americans. Immigrants have been coming to our shores for generations to live the dream that is America. They wanted better for their children than for themselves. That remains the dream of all of us, and in this country we have seen time and again that that dream is achievable.

“Today, we live in a time of threats like few others in recent memory. During anxious times, it can be tempting to follow the siren call of the angriest voices. We must resist that temptation.

“No one who is willing to work hard, abide by our laws, and love our traditions should ever feel unwelcome in this country.

From Guardian US opinion editor Megan Carpentier:

Everyone south of the Mason-Dixon line (or who ever lived there) heard that twist in the beginning of Haley’s speech coming from a mile away. It’s hard to believe that she managed to actually avoid saying, “Bless his heart.”

They’ve put Haley in a soft-lighted office setting with a flag and a picture of her family in the background. She is speaking deliberately, almost slowly, and looking extremely directly at the camera. She seems to be clenching her teeth a bit.

She says Republicans share some of the blame for “the problems facing America”:

We need to be honest with each other, and with ourselves: while Democrats in Washington bear much responsibility for the problems facing America today, they do not bear it alone. There is more than enough blame to go around.

“We as Republicans need to own that truth. We need to recognize our contributions to the erosion of the public trust in America’s leadership. We need to accept that we’ve played a role in how and why our government is broken.

“And then we need to fix it.

Haley begins with some words of praise for Obama. But there’s a “but”, it turns out:

Barack Obama’s election as president seven years ago broke historic barriers and inspired millions of Americans. As he did when he first ran for office, tonight President Obama spoke eloquently about grand things. He is at his best when he does that.

“Unfortunately, the President’s record has often fallen far short of his soaring words.

Haley delivers Republican reply

How long till Governor Haley delivers the reply?

There she is now!

Former Arkansas governor and current terrible Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee thought Ryan looked bored up there, sitting behind the president.

Oh wait – no he didn’t. He thought Ryan looked like he wanted to ride rollercoasters with an international cocaine and heroin trafficker. You know the look.

Somebody liked tonight’s speech:

Clinton earlier today published a web video embracing the president’s legacy, called “I’m with Him”:

We didn’t keep precise track, and we’re going to revisit the tape, but by our lights that speech weighed in at around 70 minutes long, 10 more than last year.

Not long enough, apparently, for Speaker Ryan and Veep Biden, who are still standing up there on the rostrum, chatting.

The tough guy line of the night out of the president: “If you doubt America’s commitment — or mine — to see that justice is done, ask Osama bin Laden.”

Fact-check: Who hates Obama, really?

Once more from data editor Mona Chalabi, with polling:

At times like this, when there’s a lot of clapping, it’s easy to get caught up in the emotion of Obama’s incredible oratory skills.

Polling data puts a little cold water on all that. As of December 2015, only 46% of Americans approve of this president’s job performance, according to the Pew Research Center.

That’s not the lowest that Obama’s approval ratings have ever been (just 41% in November 2013) ,but it’s a long way off his all-time high (64% in February 2009).

That doesn’t make Obama the most popular president of the past 60 years, but it makes him one of the most consistent ones – although GHW Bush reached a staggering 89% in March 1991, he also plummeted to 29% less than two years later.

Obama approval
Obama approval Photograph: Pew

Bored people at President Obama’s historic seventh State of the Union address, Marco Rubio / Trey Gowdy edition:

Updated

Did Kim Davis grow bored over the course of the president’s barely hourlong speech? Actually nobody in this shot looks particularly inspired.

From Guardian US columnist Richard Wolffe:

So the final theme of the final State of the Union was citizenship. It’s easy to miss because it sounds so motherhood and apple pie.

But it means something big for President Obama. Citizenship is his social contract: the concept that balances individual and collective responsibility. For Obama, government should be there to help – as long as you are ready to help yourself. Citizens need to stand up and demand a better political system. And a better political system will encourage better citizenship.

Talk about “that hopey changey thing”: citizenship won’t get you elected in 2016 - at least not with this field of candidates.

That’s all folks. Get ready for some hot takes.

Here’s one:

Some slightly more thoughtful analysis from our columnists and reporters, coming soon.

What did you think?

Obama wraps

Here’s the big finish:

That’s the America I know. That’s the country we love. Clear-eyed. Big-hearted. Optimistic that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word. That’s what makes me so hopeful about our future. Because of you. I believe in you. That’s why I stand here more confident than I have ever been that the State of our Union is strong.

Thank you, God bless you, and God bless the United States of America.

Obama pays tribute to the “quiet sturdy citizenship” that can save the United States:

They’re out there, those voices. They don’t get a lot of attention, nor do they seek it, but they are busy doing the work this country needs doing.

I see them everywhere I travel in this incredible country of ours. I see you. I know you’re there. You’re the reason why I have such incredible confidence in our future. Because I see your quiet, sturdy citizenship all the time.

Now the president is running through a list of stock characters from the collective dream of American heroism. They include:

worker on the assembly line

Dreamer who stays up late

American who served his time

young cop walking the beat

the soldier who gives almost everything

the nurse who tends to him

son who finds the courage to come out as who he is

elderly woman who will wait in line to cast her vote

Ha. It’s true, he’s not Joe Wilson – and he’s not there:

Fact-check: do Americans like when politicians insult Muslims?

Difficult truths here from data editor Mona Chalabi:

Obama, in another not-so-subtle allusion to candidates in the 2016 presidential election, references ‘when politicians insult Muslims’ and says ‘it betrays who we are as a country’.

However true that might be, polling data shows that Obama’s words of support for Muslim Americans will fall on at least some deaf ears.

A great number of Americans – Democrats as well as Republicans – hold an unfavorable view of Islam.

Anti-muslim sentiment
Anti-muslim sentiment Photograph: The Guardian

Obama begins to turn the corner towards his conclusion. He says the country “can’t afford” to succumb to “voices urging us to fall back into tribes”:

As frustration grows, there will be voices urging us to fall back into tribes, to scapegoat fellow citizens who don’t look like us, or pray like us, or vote like we do, or share the same background.

We can’t afford to go down that path. It won’t deliver the economy we want, or the security we want, but most of all, it contradicts everything that makes us the envy of the world.

The president calls for an end to gerrymandering:

We have to end the practice of drawing our congressional districts so that politicians can pick their voters, and not the other way around.

He goes on to call for reducing money in politics – and then for the protection of voting rights. “This is America,” he says:

We’ve got to make voting easier, not harder, and modernize it for the way we live now. And over the course of this year, I intend to travel the country to push for reforms that do.

From Guardian US columnist Richard Wolffe:

Forget the stuff about fear. The long paragraph admonishing the Republican presidential candidates for targeting Muslims – especially Donald Trump and Ted Cruz , though not by name – was the most pointed presidential interjection in the 2016 election so far.

To boost his point, President Obama cites the backing of the Pope himself. “When politicians insult Muslims, when a mosque is vandalized, or a kid bullied, that doesn’t make us safer,” he said. “That’s not telling it like it is. It’s just wrong. It diminishes us in the eyes of the world. It makes it harder to achieve our goals. And it betrays who we are as a country.”

Paul Ryan nodded, subtly but clearly. No applause and no standing ovation, but a strong hint at some reasonable support. That may be the best we can hope for from the House Speaker.

From Guardian US columnist Lucia Graves:

Obama was positioning himself as the anti-Trump, laying out his vision of a politics fashioned against fear. “The world respects us not just for our arsenal; it respects us for our diversity and our openness and the way we respect every faith.”

It was an obvious reference to Trump’s bigoted language around banning all Muslims from entering the US – a move that’s been widely denounced within the Republican field. Obama, for his part, sought to underscore just how mistaken Trump’s tactics are: “When politicians insult Muslims, when a mosque is vandalized, or a kid bullied, that doesn’t make us safer.”

It’s a line Hillary Clinton has used in presidential debates, when she went so far as to say terrorist groups were using Trump’s anti-Muslim rhetoric in recruiting videos. Tonight, Obama backed her up.

Obama calls partisan rancor 'regret' of his presidency

This is a surprisingly self-criticial set of remarks, in which Obama judges himself to have fallen short of the example of FDR and Lincoln, comparisons to whom he did not discourage at the start of his presidency:

Too many Americans feel that way right now. It’s one of the few regrets of my presidency — that the rancor and suspicion between the parties has gotten worse instead of better. There’s no doubt a president with the gifts of Lincoln or Roosevelt might have better bridged the divide, and I guarantee I’ll keep trying to be better so long as I hold this office.

But, my fellow Americans, this cannot be my task — or any President’s — alone. There are a whole lot of folks in this chamber who would like to see more cooperation, a more elevated debate in Washington, but feel trapped by the demands of getting elected. I know; you’ve told me. It’s the worst-kept secret in Washington. And if we want a better politics, it’s not enough to just change a Congressman or a Senator or even a President; we have to change the system to reflect our better selves.

It would have been difficult for Obama to have not mentioned the prison Guantanamo Bay, the detention facility he vowed on his first day in office to close. Obama says that he remains committed to that promise – “it’s expensive, it’s unnecessary, and it only serves as a recruitment brochure for our enemies”.

But the past eight years have shown just how difficult that ambition has been.

The number of releases and transfers from Gitmo has slowed to a crawl in recent years:

obama gitmo

Obama gets to his fourth big question, “and maybe the most important thing I want to say tonight.”

It’s a call to “fix our politics”:

The future we want — opportunity and security for our families; a rising standard of living and a sustainable, peaceful planet for our kids — all that is within our reach. But it will only happen if we work together. It will only happen if we can have rational, constructive debates.

It will only happen if we fix our politics.

This line resonates:

Democracy grinds to a halt without a willingness to compromise; or when even basic facts are contested, and we listen only to those who agree with us.

Obama: Insulting Muslims 'betrays who we are'

Obama appears to hit Trump and his ilk again, with a call “to reject any politics that targets people because of race or religion.”

This isn’t a matter of political correctness. It’s a matter of understanding what makes us strong. [...]

When politicians insult Muslims, when a mosque is vandalized, or a kid bullied, that doesn’t make us safer. That’s not telling it like it is. It’s just wrong. It diminishes us in the eyes of the world. It makes it harder to achieve our goals. And it betrays who we are as a country.

Surprisingly robust applause for that line.

Fact-check, America-is-still-at-war edition

There’s another promise to close Gitmo. And another vague reference to Trump. But first! Data editor Mona Chalabi on war and peace:

Obama has mentioned both Afghanistan and Iraq in this State of the Union - while the images released by the White House to accompany the speech state that 160,000 troops have now returned from combat duty abroad.

Especially since 2010, troop numbers have fallen considerably ... but the past year has seen little change in Afghanistan troop deployments – and it seems unlikely that will change soon.

US troops deployed in Afghanistan
US troops deployed in Afghanistan Photograph: The Guardian

From Guardian US columnist Trevor Timm:

The President just said that closing Guantanamo prison is a “kind of leadership depends on the power of our example”, adding “it’s expensive, it’s unnecessary, and it only serves as a recruitment brochure for our enemies.”

That sounds great, but Obama has literally been saying that from day one of his administration, and passed up several opportunities to actually do it early in his first term. Now seven years later, Congress has thrown up roadblocks and there are still over 100 detainees in Guantanamo with no sign that there is a comprehensive plan to get them out of there by January 2017. It’s been one of the most disappointing (in)actions of his presidency.

Obama repeats call for closing Guantánamo

The president is riffing on the meaning of American leadership. Then he delivers a true perennial line for this speech:

That is why I will keep working to shut down the prison at Guantanamo: it’s expensive, it’s unnecessary, and it only serves as a recruitment brochure for our enemies.

Like usual, the members applaud.

Obama: Syria policy part of 'smarter approach'

Obama warns against wars and “quagmire”:

We also can’t try to take over and rebuild every country that falls into crisis. That’s not leadership; that’s a recipe for quagmire, spilling American blood and treasure that ultimately weakens us. It’s the lesson of Vietnam, of Iraq — and we should have learned it by now.

Then the president gets into a defense of his foreign policy, describing a “smarter approach” and giving both Syria and Iran as examples:

Fortunately, there’s a smarter approach, a patient and disciplined strategy that uses every element of our national power. It says America will always act, alone if necessary, to protect our people and our allies; but on issues of global concern, we will mobilize the world to work with us, and make sure other countries pull their own weight.

That’s our approach to conflicts like Syria, where we’re partnering with local forces and leading international efforts to help that broken society pursue a lasting peace.

That’s why we built a global coalition, with sanctions and principled diplomacy, to prevent a nuclear-armed Iran. As we speak, Iran has rolled back its nuclear program, shipped out its uranium stockpile, and the world has avoided another war.

No mention of the captive boats, in the end, indeed.

From Guardian US columnist Richard Wolffe:

This is how politics have changed in Washington. There was a time, not so long ago, when a president could brag about killing terrorists and the whole Congress felt it had no choice but to stand and applaud.

But that was back in the days when there was a Republican President.

Today, President Obama bragged about killing terrorists – including Osama bin Laden – and the standing ovation came only from his own cabinet and his own party. “When you come after Americans, we go after you,” Obama said. “It may take time, but we have long memories, and our reach has no limit.” And the chamber was only half full of congratulations.

How times have changed.

From Guardian US columnist Trevor Timm:

Obama just called on Congress to finally pass a bill declaring war on Isis (as he did a couple months ago in his address to the nation on Isis). However, he then quickly remarked “but the American people should know that with or without Congressional action, ISIL will learn the same lessons as terrorists before them,” as if to say it actually doesn’t matter what Congress does, he’ll just keep up the same war that the US military has been fighting without authorization for over a year. It’s a war that is, no matter how justified you may think it is, is illegal in the minds of many constitutional experts across the political spectrum - given Congress’s failure to authorize it.

From Guardian US columnist Richard Wolffe:

Professor Obama just went into his lecture on Foreign Policy 101. Bit of an overview here for those of you who didn’t do your Christmas reading – yes, I’m looking at you, GOP presidential candidates: Russia is propping up its old satellite states; the post-war consensus is struggling; Isis (or Isil, as the Professor likes to call it) is not capable of starting World War Three. So stop talking it up and get back to your textbooks, class. Senator Lindsay Graham looks like he wants to talk to a Sunday talk show as soon as he can.

In what has become an annual tradition, the president calls on Congress to take a vote to authorize the use of military force against Isis:

If this Congress is serious about winning this war, and wants to send a message to our troops and the world, you should finally authorize the use of military force against ISIL. Take a vote.

Then Obama comes out with a kind of tough guy line about killing Osama bin Laden:

If you doubt America’s commitment — or mine — to see that justice is done, ask Osama bin Laden. Ask the leader of al Qaeda in Yemen, who was taken out last year, or the perpetrator of the Benghazi attacks, who sits in a prison cell. When you come after Americans, we go after you. It may take time, but we have long memories, and our reach has no limit.

From Guardian US columnist Trevor Timm:

It’s telling and commendable that Obama decided to wait until more than half-way through his speech to talk about Isis, given how little the terrorist organization affects day to day life in the United States (not that you would know that from the hysteric, wall-to-wall coverage on cable television and in the presidential debates)

And among the best lines of the President’s speech tonight was him pushing back against the idea that ISIS is some sort of Godzilla monster that’s going to destroy entire cities in the United States and that we shouldn’t be upending our lives and uprooting your values to combat them: “But as we focus on destroying ISIL, over-the-top claims that this is World War III just play into their hands. ... We don’t need to build them up to show that we’re serious, nor do we need to push away vital allies in this fight by echoing the lie that ISIL is representative of one of the world’s largest religions.”

As I wrote recently, Obama is virtually the only national politician these days who is not stoking the completely irrational Isis-is-going-to-kill-us-all fears.

Obama: terrorists 'have to be rooted out, hunted down and destroyed'

Now Obama admonishes Republicans and others who have called the fight against Isis a clash of civilizations or World War III. Such rhetoric ‘just play[s] into their hands,’ he says:

But as we focus on destroying ISIL, over-the-top claims that this is World War III just play into their hands. Masses of fighters on the back of pickup trucks and twisted souls plotting in apartments or garages pose an enormous danger to civilians and must be stopped. But they do not threaten our national existence. That’s the story ISIL wants to tell; that’s the kind of propaganda they use to recruit.

We don’t need to build them up to show that we’re serious, nor do we need to push away vital allies in this fight by echoing the lie that ISIL is representative of one of the world’s largest religions. We just need to call them what they are — killers and fanatics who have to be rooted out, hunted down, and destroyed.

Updated

Fact-check: immigrants and entrepreneurs edition

Data editor Mona Chalabi on the truth about startups:

The president is proud of America’s record of entrepreneurship, stating:

‘That spirit of discovery is in our DNA… We’re every immigrant and entrepreneur from Boston to Austin to Silicon Valley racing to shape a better world.’

Well, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development might beg to differ. Their latest numbers on startups per capita show that America is bottom of the class – or almost, there’s always the Canadians to offer some comfort.

OECD Enterprise Birthrate
OECD Enterprise Birthrate Photograph: OECD

From Guardian US columnist Lucia Graves:

Obama doubled down on a line that’s been a favorite of Bernie Sanders on the trail: that climate change is closely our security is linked to the rest of the world. It’s a line he’s been ridiculed for by Republicans, but Sanders has stood by it. And slowly, that argument is gaining wider acceptance. Obama’s words were only the most recent boost.

Obama: 'going after terrorists' is 'priority number one'

Priority number one is protecting the American people and going after terrorist networks. Both al Qaeda and now ISIL pose a direct threat to our people, because in today’s world, even a handful of terrorists who place no value on human life, including their own, can do a lot of damage. They use the Internet to poison the minds of individuals inside our country; they undermine our allies.

From Guardian US columnist Richard Wolffe:

And we have it. Paul Ryan finally stood to applaud the nation’s servicemen and women. The irresistible force of pride in the US military can overcome even the strongest self-control of a Tea Party-backed, weight-lifting House Speaker. There is indeed no red America, and no blue America, when it comes to the military of the United States of America.

Obama lays out a theory of the quality of the most urgent international challenges facing the country.

“In today’s world,” he says, “we’re threatened less by evil empires and more by failing states”:

The Middle East is going through a transformation that will play out for a generation, rooted in conflicts that date back millennia. Economic headwinds blow from a Chinese economy in transition. Even as their economy contracts, Russia is pouring resources to prop up Ukraine and Syria — states they see slipping away from their orbit. And the international system we built after World War II is now struggling to keep pace with this new reality.

It’s up to us to help remake that system. And that means we have to set priorities.

He’s already well into his third big question of four – but the president has already drawn to within 20 minutes of last year’s speech duration of about one hour.

Will he really keep this one shorter? Stay tuned.

Obama: 'US is the most powerful nation on Earth. Period'

The president is on to the “third big question”: “how to keep America safe and strong without either isolating ourselves or trying to nation-build everywhere there’s a problem.”

He kicks off with a big brag about American strength that not only draws rabid applause – it elicits chance of “USA! USA! USA!” in the chamber. Oof.

I told you earlier all the talk of America’s economic decline is political hot air. Well, so is all the rhetoric you hear about our enemies getting stronger and America getting weaker. The United States of America is the most powerful nation on Earth. Period. It’s not even close.

We spend more on our military than the next eight nations combined. Our troops are the finest fighting force in the history of the world. No nation dares to attack us or our allies because they know that’s the path to ruin. Surveys show our standing around the world is higher than when I was elected to this office, and when it comes to every important international issue, people of the world do not look to Beijing or Moscow to lead — they call us.

From Guardian US contributor and founder of 350.org Bill McKibben:

Remember, this is a president who flat out did not mention climate change during the 2012 election, till Hurricane Sandy made it impossible to ignore in the final days. It’s evidence of the sea change in public opinion that he’s now not-very-daringly daring the GOP to keep denying it.

But the set of prescriptions in this State of the Union seem opaque at best. He says we will “change the way we manage our oil and coal resources so that they better reflect the costs they impose on taxpayers and the planet.” That could mean, for instance, that the US will stop leasing coal from the Powder River Basin at cut-rate prices – and if so, it’s one more nail in the coffin of the coal industry, and a sign that perhaps he’s beginning to take the supply side of the fossil fuel equation more seriously. The pressure on him from activists to “Keep It In the Ground” has been steadily building

The president didn’t – as in past States of the Union – boast about how much new fossil fuel the US is now drilling and mining; his constant “all of the above” refrain about energy sources seems finally to have disappeared, thank heaven. But he did boast about two dollar per gallon gasoline, which is right now fueling a boom in SUVs and driving down the average mileage of American cars. Cheap gas is addictive for American politicians – even Al Gore wanted it during his 2000 campaign – but this brag, irresistible though it may have been, seems discordant at best if he’s serious about climate change.

From Guardian US columnist Richard Wolffe:

There was a genuine, sustained bipartisan ovation for the moon shot of curing cancer and for Vice-President Joe Biden personally. Until recently, the National Institutes of Health received year after year of funding increases: something all members of Congress supported. Since the recession and the federal budget cuts, NIH funding has stagnated. Cancer research is normally a vote-winner, particularly among older voters. It will be interesting to see whether Biden can win budget support for this from the House GOP. Memories of the standing ovation will fade very quickly.

Obama is touting advances on clean energy, and ends with a stab at a folksy joke:

We’re taking steps to give homeowners the freedom to generate and store their own energy — something environmentalists and Tea Partiers have teamed up to support. Meanwhile, we’ve cut our imports of foreign oil by nearly sixty percent, and cut carbon pollution more than any other country on Earth.

Gas under two bucks a gallon ain’t bad, either.

For the record, this blogger very recently paid over $2.50. Pricey!

Updated

Biden already has a document up on Medium describing the new anti-cancer initiative he will lead.

“Tonight, the President tasked me with leading a new, national mission to get this done,” he begins.

It’s personal for me. But it’s also personal for nearly every American, and millions of people around the world. We all know someone who has had cancer, or is fighting to beat it. They’re our family, friends, and co-workers.

Guardian US reporter Scott Bixby chimes in with some context on Obama’s cancer “moon shot”:

President Obama has pledged a “new national effort” to find a cure for cancer in his final State of the Union address.

“Last year, Vice President Biden said that with a new moonshot, America can cure cancer. Last month, he worked with this Congress to give scientists at the National Institutes of Health the strongest resources they’ve had in over a decade.”

“Tonight, I’m announcing a new national effort to get it done. And because he’s gone to the mat for all of us, on so many issues over the past forty years, I’m putting Joe in charge of Mission Control. For the loved ones we’ve all lost, for the family we can still save, let’s make America the country that cures cancer once and for all.”

Inspired and led by Biden, who lost his eldest son, Beau, to brain cancer last year, the pledge follows the path laid forward by the vice president when he declined to run to replace Obama in the White House.

“I’m going to spend the next 15 months in this office pushing as hard as I can to accomplish this,” Biden said from the White House Rose Garden in October. “Because I know there are Democrats and Republicans on the Hill who share our passion, our passion to silence this deadly disease.”

“If I could have been anything, I would have wanted to be the president that ended cancer,” Biden added. “Because it’s possible.”

Only hours before the president’s announcement, a coalition of drugmakers and insurers announced the formation of the Cancer MoonShot 2020, a group with the goal of speeding the development of new approaches to treating cancer.

From Guardian US columnist Lucia Graves:

Obama sought to dispel the false boogiemen of the right, observing to applause that food Stamp recipients didn’t cause the financial crisis: recklessness on Wall Street did. Similarly, he adds, “immigrants aren’t the reason wages haven’t gone up enough.” This has been a favorite line of Republicans (and even some Democrats) on the campaign trail, who frequently blame foreigners or immigrants for the disappearance of jobs in America, when the data suggests no such thing.

Updated

Obama ridicules climate change deniers. Paul Ryan has a hard time keeping a straight face through this:

Look, if anybody still wants to dispute the science around climate change, have at it. You’ll be pretty lonely, because you’ll be debating our military, most of America’s business leaders, the majority of the American people, almost the entire scientific community, and 200 nations around the world who agree it’s a problem and intend to solve it.

Actually instead of a straight face, Ryan has opted for more of a bemused grin. The grin got tighter through that last bit.

Obama calls for 'new moonshot' on cancer

“Last year, Vice President Biden said that with a new moonshot, America can cure cancer,” Obama says:

Last month, he worked with this Congress to give scientists at the National Institutes of Health the strongest resources they’ve had in over a decade. Tonight, I’m announcing a new national effort to get it done. And because he’s gone to the mat for all of us, on so many issues over the past forty years, I’m putting Joe in charge of Mission Control. For the loved ones we’ve all lost, for the family we can still save, let’s make America the country that cures cancer once and for all.

Big, sustained – and for once, sort of bipartisan – applause there. Biden lost his son, Beau, to cancer last year.

Updated

Fact-check: immigrants-and-wages edition

Data editor Mona Chalabi again:

Obama is taking this on himself when he directly says ‘immigrants aren’t the reason wages haven’t gone up enough’. This question was (perhaps surprisingly) answered by George W Bush. In a June 2007 report, the President’s Council of Economic Advisers who concluded that immigrants ‘have an overall positive effect on the American economy as a whole and on the income of native-born American workers’.

Obama moves to his second big question: How do we reignite that spirit of innovation to meet our biggest challenges?

He immediately scores with a resonant applause line about ingenuity versus denial:

Sixty years ago, when the Russians beat us into space, we didn’t deny Sputnik was up there. We didn’t argue about the science, or shrink our research and development budget. We built a space program almost overnight, and twelve years later, we were walking on the moon.

It feels like there’s a partisan barb in there, too.

From Guardian US columnist Richard Wolffe:

Oh come on Speaker Ryan. Not a nod for the President’s shout out on your anti-poverty plans? Not a shared comment with Joe Biden? No applause? This is a Speaker who still can’t afford to look like he supports President Obama. Even when the President supports him.

Obama dabbles a bit in class warfare, saying that the culpable actors in the economic meltdown were not “food stamp recipients,” immigrants or “the average family watching tonight.”

“The rules should work for them,” Obama says:

Food Stamp recipients didn’t cause the financial crisis; recklessness on Wall Street did. Immigrants aren’t the reason wages haven’t gone up enough; those decisions are made in the boardrooms that too often put quarterly earnings over long-term returns. It’s sure not the average family watching tonight that avoids paying taxes through offshore accounts. In this new economy, workers and start-ups and small businesses need more of a voice, not less.

Was this really a line worthy of standing applause? Who are we to judge. It got standing applause, the most sustained yet:

I believe a thriving private sector is the lifeblood of our economy. I think there are outdated regulations that need to be changed, and there’s red tape that needs to be cut.

As the president concludes a brief defense of the Affordable Care Act, he acknowledges, “Now, I’m guessing we won’t agree on health care anytime soon.”

Somebody claps, bringing the president up short. Obama smiles and chuckles. “A little applause right there,” he says, enjoying the awkwardness.

Then he continues:

But there should be other ways both parties can improve economic security. Say a hardworking American loses his job — we shouldn’t just make sure he can get unemployment insurance; we should make sure that program encourages him to retrain for a business that’s ready to hire him.

Economics analysis, Americans-still-need-a-raise edition

Some context – with moving maps! – from business reporter Jana Kasperkevic:

Obama: ‘Let me start with the economy, and a basic fact: the United States of America, right now, has the strongest, most durable economy in the world.’

The last two years - 2014 and 2015 - were the best two years of job growth since the late 1990s. Overall, the US economy added 14.1 million jobs over the last 70 months. And, yes, the unemployment rate has remained steady at 5% for the past three months of 2015, a seven-and-a-half year low.

However, despite the tightening job market, American wages have remained stagnant and the US Department of Labor has repeatedly referred to wages as the “unfinished business of this recovery”.

In 2015, the US wages grew by just 2.5%. In order for low-income Americans to feel the impact of the economic recovery, the US wages would have to grow between 3% to 4%, according to the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute.

Here’s what that looks like, in one quick video:

Despite Obama’s repeated calls on US Congress to increase the federal minimum wage - first to $9, then to $10.10 and most recently to $12 - it remains stuck at $7.25.

The federal minimum wage has been $7.25 an hour since July 2009. An American working full time – 40 hours a week, 52 weeks a year – at that wage would earn about $15,080 a year.

Additionally in 2014, the US Census found that the median household income was $53,700 – which is basically what Americans were earning back in 1997, when the median household income was $53,551.

Much more here:

From Guardian US columnist Richard Wolffe:

“Anyone claiming that America’s economy is in decline is peddling fiction”, Obama said, and Paul Ryan blinked a few times. You know why? Because he has argued for several years that the economy is in decline. That’s more than awkward. It’s kind of personal.

And then that swipe at job security for members of Congress led to what is surely the most embarrassed laugh of the night from a handful in the House chamber: “After all, it’s not much of a stretch to say that some of the only people in America who are going to work the same job, in the same place, with a health and retirement package, for 30 years, are sitting in this chamber.”

You can see why the Congress doesn’t feel warm and fuzzy for this president.

Laugh line!

The setup is a call for “benefits and protections that provide a basic measure of security” for Americans.

The punch line:

After all, it’s not much of a stretch to say that some of the only people in America who are going to work the same job, in the same place, with a health and retirement package, for 30 years, are sitting in this chamber.

We’d note that the laughter was uncomfortable.

Fact-check, education edition

More from Mona Chalabi on Obama’s line that his administration has “lifted high school graduation rates to new high”. Verdict? True.

The latest figures from the Department of Education show good reason to be proud. In 2013-14, the high school graduation rate was 82% – that’s higher than ever before. And although black graduation rates still trail 15 percentage points behind white ones, the racial gap has narrowed considerably.

US High School Graduation Rates
US High School Graduation Rates Photograph: The Guardian

This is the fourth straight year that graduation rates have risen. The figures have raised hope about US education systems – but they’ve raised eyebrows, too. Last year, NPR produced a large investigation showing that in some cases, statistics had been manipulated to make schools look more successful.

We’ve published detailed numbers below broken down by state and racial/ethnic group so you can see the figures that are most relevant to you.

In exploring the underside of the American economic expansion, the president recognizes trends that “have squeezed workers, even when they have jobs; even when the economy is growing.” He focuses on wage stagnation, lack of educational opportunity and a shortage of teachers.

“And we have to make college affordable for every American,” the president says, in perhaps the biggest applause line of the night so far. “Because no hardworking student should be stuck in the red.”

He calls for cutting the cost of college and two years of free community college. “I’m going to keep fighting to get that started this year,” he says.

“It’s the right thing to do,” he says, going briefly off script.

Updated

From Guardian US columnist Lucia Graves

A key line from the speech focused on something that’s been at the heart of the 2016 race these past weeks: fear. “Will we respond to the changes of our time with fear, turning inward as a nation, and turning against each other as a people? Or will we face the future with confidence in who we are.” Though his rhetoric is lofty, or at least above the fray, it’s a not-so-subtle jab at Trump, whose ad last week played on American’s economic anxieties and xenophobia.

And from Guardian US columnist Richard Wolffe:

Some context for the Obama-Trump cage fight over fear versus hope, it’s worth recalling this smackdown from the White House Correspondent’s dinner in 2011. Take it from someone who was sitting close to Trump at the time: the property developer-turned-reality start was not amused.

Fact-check: Jobs? Jobs.

Data editor Mona Chalabi checks in for the first time of many:

Obama has focused specifically on this sector of the economy - “manufacturing has created nearly 900,000 new jobs in the past six years”. Figures from the Bureau of Labor Statistics do indeed point to impressive growth but employment in this sector is nowhere near pre-recession levels.

manufacturing jobs

Obama: US economic decline a 'fiction'

Obama falls into a section in which he touts the continued economic recovery. “We’re in the middle of the longest streak of private-sector job creation in history,” he says.

Strong evidence for it – 292,000 new jobs were created in December and the 2.65 million were created in all of 2015.

“Anyone claiming that America’s economy is in decline is peddling fiction,” Obama says.

What is true — and the reason that a lot of Americans feel anxious — is that the economy has been changing in profound ways, changes that started long before the Great Recession hit and haven’t let up.

Obama: country faces 'four big questions'

The president lays out “four big questions that we as a country have to answer”:

  • First, how do we give everyone a fair shot at opportunity and security in this new economy?
  • Second, how do we make technology work for us, and not against us — especially when it comes to solving urgent challenges like climate change?
  • Third, how do we keep America safe and lead the world without becoming its policeman?
  • And finally, how can we make our politics reflect what’s best in us, and not what’s worst?

From Guardian US columnist Richard Wolffe:

After all these years of strife in Washington, there’s still so much hope and change from the president. But even that vision of a better future appears to have no impact on Steny Hoyer, the curmudgeonly House minority whip who has been Nancy Pelosi’s right-hand man for so long. Hoyer does a great impression of someone who feels such crushing boredom that he looks on the verge of falling asleep.

[Ed note: He’s not the only one.]

Obama sees choice between fear and confidence

Obama says the country faces a fundamental choice between fear and confidence:

But such progress is not inevitable. It is the result of choices we make together. And we face such choices right now. Will we respond to the changes of our time with fear, turning inward as a nation, and turning against each other as a people? Or will we face the future with confidence in who we are, what we stand for, and the incredible things we can do together?

The president moves through a section on American exceptionalism. This should please everybody:

Our unique strengths as a nation — our optimism and work ethic, our spirit of discovery and innovation, our diversity and commitment to the rule of law — these things give us everything we need to ensure prosperity and security for generations to come.

Now come some applause lines, as the president touts what American exceptionalism has accomplished in the last seven years:

It’s how we recovered from the worst economic crisis in generations. It’s how we reformed our health care system, and reinvented our energy sector; how we delivered more care and benefits to our troops and veterans, and how we secured the freedom in every state to marry the person we love.

From Guardian US columnist Richard Wolffe:

Paul Ryan passed his first real test as Speaker of the House with a fractious GOP caucus: making no gesture of approval for anything the President says he still wants to do. Let’s see how long he can keep that up until – presumably – some mention of the United States military summons applause from his otherwise rock steady hands.

The section of the speech perceived to be a tacit criticism of Trump and like-minded doomsayers drops early in the speech.

When Obama says the lines aloud, the Lincoln quote pops. “We did not, in the words of Lincoln, adhere to the ‘dogmas of the quiet past.’”:

America has been through big changes before — wars and depression, the influx of immigrants, workers fighting for a fair deal, and movements to expand civil rights. Each time, there have been those who told us to fear the future; who claimed we could slam the brakes on change, promising to restore past glory if we just got some group or idea that was threatening America under control. And each time, we overcame those fears.

We did not, in the words of Lincoln, adhere to the “dogmas of the quiet past.” Instead we thought anew, and acted anew. We made change work for us, always extending America’s promise outward, to the next frontier, to more and more people. And because we did — because we saw opportunity where others saw only peril — we emerged stronger and better than before.

Obama: 'I want to focus on our future'

Obama: “But for my final address to this chamber, I don’t want to talk just about the next year. I want to focus on the next five years, ten years, and beyond.

I want to focus on our future.

Obama started there with a gambit, praising Republicans for passing a budget and calling for further cooperation.

But will they cooperate with him on the agenda he is now laying out?

But tonight, I want to go easy on the traditional list of proposals for the year ahead. Don’t worry, I’ve got plenty, from helping students learn to write computer code to personalizing medical treatments for patients. And I’ll keep pushing for progress on the work that still needs doing. Fixing a broken immigration system. Protecting our kids from gun violence. Equal pay for equal work, paid leave, raising the minimum wage. All these things still matter to hardworking families; they are still the right thing to do; and I will not let up until they get done.

Business reporter Jana Kasperkevic has her blackboard ready for that one:

Updated

Ryan gavels the chamber to order and presents Obama. The members and guests rise in extended applause.

Oh yes, the applause. The State of the Union. The power and the glory.

Obama starts off with lines read exactly as prepared – with one exception, in bold:

Mr. Speaker, Mr. Vice President, Members of Congress, my fellow Americans:

Tonight marks the eighth year I’ve come here to report on the State of the Union. And for this final one, I’m going to try to make it shorter. I know some of you are antsy to get back to Iowa.

I’ve been there. And I’ll be shaking hands after this if you want any tips.

I also understand that because it’s an election season, expectations for what we’ll achieve this year are low. Still, Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the constructive approach you and the other leaders took at the end of last year to pass a budget and make tax cuts permanent for working families. So I hope we can work together this year on bipartisan priorities like criminal justice reform, and helping people who are battling prescription drug abuse. We just might surprise the cynics again.

From Guardian US columnist Richard Wolffe:

And they say President Obama can’t do the backslapping stuff. The 44th commander-in-chief does an admirable job of pretending like he loves everyone in Washington, earning a warm embrace from the Notorious RBG as well as sundry members of the House whom few could identify in a line-up. At this point, the drama now switches to how many standing ovations he gets from the Democrats versus how many seated protests he gets from the Republicans.

The president continues to be greeted and to greet. He’s looking sharp in a striped blue-and-purple tie. He finally gets to the speaker and his vice president. Shakes hands. Turns around. Waits for the applause to die down.

Here he goes.

Updated

'Let's talk about the future': Obama begins final State of the Union address

If you’re just joining us – welcome to our live coverage of this year’s State of the Union address. You can watch the speech in the video player at the top of this blog or on the White House web site here.

According to text of the president’s speech, which we’ve already read, Obama will call on Americans to work together to achieve “the future we want,” which he shorthands as “opportunity and security for our families; a rising standard of living and a sustainable, peaceful planet for our kids.”

No major spoilers here (just instant analysis on every major moment), but the president will express regret.

The address – which Obama promises to keep short – will highlight accomplishments from Obama’s first seven years in office. The speech is expected to highlight election-year issues for Democrats, including gun violence, immigration reform, climate change and wealth inequality.

But the speech wades more deeply than that into the 2016 presidential election. A line from the speech excerpts appears to directly target one Republican candidate in particular: Donald Trump.

“There have been those who told us to fear the future; who claimed we could slam the brakes on change, promising to restore past glory if we just got some group or idea that was threatening America under control,” the president plans to say. “And each time, we overcame those fears.”

There is talk of fear and confidence – and, yes, hope and change – as a grayer Obama, looking back, begins to profess his legacy.

Obama appears, in part, to be preparing to offer a contrasting vision of hope to Trump’s diagnosis of doom. Which vision will Americans buy, come next November?

Thanks for joining us – all 15 of us, columnists and Washington correspondents and experts and fact-checkers. Now let’s follow the big speech, live!

Obama enters House chamber

The sergeant-at-arms announces the president, who enters and begins making his way toward the rostrum, through a phalanx of well-wishers who want to shake his hand / hug him / appear on television.

As we wait for the president – what else is in these prepared remarks? Twitter is sifting them:

Obama gets fancy, saving the money line for the very end of the speech:

That’s why I stand here confident that the State of our Union is strong.

It’s strong!

Prepared remarks do not mention boats captive in Iran

The full text of the State of the Union, as prepared, contains two references to Iran – and no references to an unfolding situation there in which two small US boats were being held or are being held by Iran.

Here’s the Iran graph, according to prepared remarks:

That’s why we built a global coalition, with sanctions and principled diplomacy, to prevent a nuclear-armed Iran. As we speak, Iran has rolled back its nuclear program, shipped out its uranium stockpile, and the world has avoided another war.

From Guardian US columnist Richard Wolffe:

The Supremes have arrived. They walk! On camera! Justice Breyer offering a nice guiding hand to the Notorious RBG. She may be frail, but she has inspired tattoos and bobble heads. Don’t mess with Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

And there is first lady Michelle Obama, taking her place in her viewing box. She’s wearing a sleeveless tangerine (mango?) dress, if anyone cares.

Here come members of the Cabinet.

You now ought to be able to see the live feed of the House chamber up there atop the blog. If you have a look you’ll see mingling, conversating, handshaking, and, yes, clapping. Hey there’s chief justice John Roberts!

From Guardian US columnist Richard Wolffe on the pre-game show:

The Beast (the president’s limo) has arrived on Capitol Hill. Now comes the long walk through the bowels of the building and the grand entrance in the House chamber. This is the very best part of the State of the Union. The body language of the greeters, the fake enthusiasm, the photos for the voters back home. The speech is frankly less insightful in terms of the politics of the nation’s capital.

State of the Union: full text

For a second consecutive year, the White House has posted the full prepared text for the State of the Union on Medium.

Great news right at the top: He says he’s going to keep it short!

Tonight marks the eighth year I’ve come here to report on the State of the Union. And for this final one, I’m going to try to make it shorter. I know some of you are antsy to get back to Iowa.

Full text here.

The president has left the White House and is on his way to the House of Representatives, according to live television coverage. He doesn’t look nervous.

The Guardian’s Scott Bixby notes that while Senator Marco Rubio “may be getting flack for his dismal attendance record - he had the worst vote participation rate in the entire US Senate last year - he has taken time out of his busy campaign schedule to show up for one congressional obligation: President Obama’s final State of the Union address.

In an interview with CNN’s Dana Bash, Rubio said that “I thought it was important to be here,” and denied the implication that he was only attending the State of the Union to belay criticism of his attendance.

In an ironic role reversal, the perpetually truant Rubio will be the sole Republican presidential candidate in attendance tonight. Senators Ted Cruz and Rand Paul have both declined to attend the address, with Paul telling conservative Breitbart News that “I’ve seen it and heard it before, and I’m not sure he has anything new to offer - I really think that his is a failed presidency.”

Kerry: Americans to be released 'very soon'

Another snippet from Kerry’s red carpet moment:

The dignitaries are beginning to filter into the House chamber. Vice president Joe Biden has just ascended the rostrum to great House speaker Paul Ryan, who is already in place. There’s your backdrop for tonight, folks.

What’s next for Obama? As in, immediately next?

Big plans: tomorrow morning, according to a White House advisory, Obama is to travel to Omaha, Nebraska (this blogger’s hometown, irrelevantly). The White House explains:

While in Omaha, the President will engage with Americans about the real progress the American people have made to move our country forward, and how we can continue taking action to address the challenges and opportunities in the years ahead. The President will hold a living room discussion with a family at a private residence in the Omaha area and then deliver remarks at University of Nebraska Omaha.

Later in the afternoon, the President will depart Nebraska en route Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The departure from Offutt Air Force Base and arrival at Baton Rouge Regional Airport are open to pre-credentialed media.

The president is to remain overnight in Baton Rouge.

Homeland security secretary to sit out speech

Department of Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson has been designated as the Cabinet member who will not attend the State of the Union address this evening, according to a White House pool report.

Homeland security secretary Jeh Johnson in Times Square for New Year’s. Tonight he’s partying with Orrin Hatch.
Homeland security secretary Jeh Johnson in Times Square for New Year’s. Tonight he’s partying with Orrin Hatch. Photograph: Eduardo Munoz Alvarez/Getty Images

The State of the Union is traditionally a venue for, among other things, fashion ambushes.

Last year, Senator Marco Rubio got asked “who are you wearing tonight?” This year, secretary of state John Kerry took the question, in a moment captured by NBC News.

Kerry looks taken aback. As if he doesn’t know exactly whom he’s wearing tonight.

Governor Haley, who will deliver this evening’s Republican response, is apparently in rehearsal.

She better get comfortable. She’s got at least a half-hour wait till what will be at least an hourlong speech starts. Does that chair even have a back?

Stay hungry, my friend:

We posted this classic photo in our SOTU blog last year. We’re posting it again this year with even more enthusiasm:

The president may be about to say that the State of the Union is strong, but according to polling averages maintained by Real Clear Politics, most Americans think the State of the Union is stink-o.

Only 25.2% think the country is headed in the right direction, on average, while 65% say the USA is on the wrong track. That’s a -39.8% split.

On the bright side, the great deal of negativity out there about where America’s headed is nowhere near the all-time low of Obama’s presidency. The split hit -60 in October 2011, at the height of Occupy Wall Street fervor.

Barack Obama appears in Facebook video ahead of State of the Union address - video

Here’s video of Obama’s Facebook preview of tonight’s speech (see earlier). Obama says he’ll make sure America knows he plans to “leave it all on the field.” In other words, he’s going to sprint through the finish and leave everything in the ring. Just do it, Mr President.

Twitter serendipity: the Guardian’s Dan Roberts and David Smith are photographed in the wild, in a chance snapshot from the Capitol Press Gallery. That’s them center and [obscured] left. Almost go time! (h/t @geordiedav)

Updated

Ryan calls on Obama for Iran update

More from Guardian politics reporter Sabrina Siddiqui, who reports that House speaker Paul Ryan has called on the president for an update on the unfolding situation with US boats apparently held by Iran:

Our top priority is the safety and security of our servicemembers detained by Iran,” Ryan said. “I am closely monitoring the situation, and I hope the president will soon update the American people. As we gather tonight for the State of the Union, let us pause to thank all the brave men and women around the world working to protect this great country.”

Guardian politics reporter Sabrina Siddiqui is following Republican presidential hopeful Marco Rubio, who had little to say in anticipation of Barack Obama’s final State of the Union address, she reports:

The Republican presidential candidate said he was instead focused on how to take Obama’s place in the same spot next year.

“I’m actually optimistic cause Barack Obama’s going to be gone in a year,” Rubio said in an interview with Fox. “On my first day in office, I will begin to reverse and revoke all of the damage that the president has done to this country.”

“We’re going to turn this country around. But we’re going to have to deal with him for the next 12 months, that’s the only part I worry about.”


Rubio is currently polling among the top three Republicans in the primaries.

Waiting in the wings?
Waiting in the wings? Photograph: Chris O'Meara/AP

A quick jag away from the proceedings at hand, to bring you this news from a Donald Trump rally in Cedar Falls, Iowa, via our politics reporter Ben Jacobs:

Why is the Republican frontrunner reading lyrics to The Snake to Iowa Republicans?

When a buffalo goes out of his enclosure to the edge of the abyss, his horns and his head and his hoofs all pass through, but why can’t the tail also pass?

Here’s the first verse (full lyrics here):

On her way to work one morning

Down the path along side the lake

A tender hearted woman saw a poor half frozen snake

His pretty colored skin had been all frosted with the dew

“Oh well,” she cried, “I’ll take you in and I’ll take care of you”

“Take me in oh tender woman

Take me in, for heaven’s sake

Take me in oh tender woman, “ sighed the snake”

What we’ll see tonight is prescribed in Article 2 of the Constitution:

[The president] shall from time to time give to the Congress Information of the State of the Union, and recommend to their Consideration such Measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient…”

The modern custom of a president’s delivering a speech before Congress began with President Woodrow Wilson in 1913. For a century and change before that, the president merely submitted a letter. Maybe we can go back to that?

We’ve written elsewhere about the five most influential moments in State of the Union history. Dig in, history buffs!

The state of the union is that we’re not in a World War, no matter <a href=what Rick Santorum says." width="1000" height="601" class="gu-image" />
The state of the union is that we’re not in a World War, no matter what Rick Santorum says. Photograph: AP

Interestingly, speakin’ of history, the State of the Union has not always been, according to the president, “strong” – although that’s the word that presidents going back to 1994 have chosen (see a list of examples from every year meanwhile here).

Updated

Want to relive the excitement of recent State of the Unions, as they unfolded? We have you covered.

Here are links to our live coverage of the president’s last three SOTUs: 2013, 2014 and 2015.

Barack Obama’s legacy on lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights will be front and center during his final State of the Union address on Tuesday evening, writes Guardian reporter Scott Bixby:

Jim Obergefell, the named plaintiff Obergefell v Hodges, the landmark supreme court case that legalized same-sex marriage across the country last year, will be joining first lady Michelle Obama in her personal box during the address.

Obergefell is one of two dozen guests whom the White House says “represent the progress we have made since the president first delivered this speech seven years ago”.

After the president’s prolonged “evolution” on the issue of same-sex marriage – he was for it before he was against it before he was for it – some exasperated gay men and lesbians speculated that Obama had lost the faith of a minority that had anticipated faster and more thorough action on its legislative priorities.

But according to the activists, attorneys, plaintiffs and community leaders who helped make the dreams of gay and lesbian Americans a reality, Obama’s record on the expansion of LGBT liberties has been nothing short of miraculous.

Read the full piece here.

Minoo Vafai at a rally in Montgomery against Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore on Tuesday. Moore has sought to impose limits on marriage licenses for same-sex couples.
Minoo Vafai at a rally in Montgomery against Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore on Tuesday. Moore has sought to impose limits on marriage licenses for same-sex couples. Photograph: Albert Cesare/AP

Barack Obama will look back on 2015 as a banner year for climate change in his final State of the Union address on Tuesday evening, writes Guardian US environment correspondent Suzanne Goldenberg.

But 2016 will see the president back in the trenches, fending off law suits and Republican attacks that could undo his climate plan, and scrambling to get to key items on his to-do list before exiting the White House. [...]

2015 was Obama’s biggest year for climate change with the finalisation of the clean power plant rules, rejection of the controversial Keystone XL pipeline, ban on Arctic drilling and, in December, the forging of an historic global agreement in Paris to limit warming below 2C – all of which are expected to get a mention in Obama’s speech.

Read the full piece here.

At least it still snows? Looking over the Eden Valley towards Cross Fell from Tailbridge on the B6270 above Kirkby Stephen.
At least it still snows? Looking over the Eden Valley towards Cross Fell from Tailbridge on the B6270 above Kirkby Stephen. Photograph: Wayne Hutchinson/Alamy

Updated

Guardian #EmptySeat project

We wrote earlier about the empty seat the White House has left in the first lady’s guest box, to commemorate victims of gun violence.

Tonight the Guardian will be putting names and faces to those victims, with a series of tweets from our @GuardianUS account. Here’s the first one:

Preview: the Republican reply

To the pleasure of Americans everywhere, State of the Union Night doesn’t end when the president stops speaking. By long tradition there has been a bonus after-party speech, in which a representative of the opposition party replies to what the president said.

Three of the last seven presidents – Gerald Ford, George HW Bush and Bill Clinton – were once assigned by their parties to deliver the response. But it’s not necessarily a stepping stone to stardom: in 2009, Republicans tapped Louisiana governor Bobby Jindal, an early dropout in this year’s presidential race.

Delivering the GOP reply this year will be South Carolina governor Nikki Haley, a popular two-term executive whose national profile grew last summer when she supported a drive to remove the Confederate battle flag from the grounds of the South Carolina capitol.

I for one am not persuaded by the president’s speech.
I for one am not persuaded by the president’s speech. Photograph: Erik S. Lesser/EPA

What follows are some excerpts of Haley’s planned speech, just released (h/t @scottbix).

“The President’s record has often fallen far short of his soaring words,” Haley is to say:

As he enters his final year in office, many Americans are still feeling the squeeze of an economy too weak to raise income levels. We’re feeling a crushing national debt, a health care plan that has made insurance less affordable and doctors less available, and chaotic unrest in many of our cities. Even worse, we are facing the most dangerous terrorist threat our nation has seen since September 11th, and this president appears either unwilling or unable to deal with it. Soon, the Obama presidency will end, and America will have the chance to turn in a new direction. That direction is what I want to talk about tonight.” [...]

“If we held the White House, taxes would be lower for working families, and we’d put the brakes on runaway spending and debt... We would make international agreements that were celebrated in Israel and protested in Iran, not the other way around. And rather than just thanking our brave men and women in uniform, we would actually strengthen our military, so both our friends and our enemies would know that America seeks peace, but when we fight wars we win them.”

“We have big decisions to make. our country is being tested. But we’ve been tested in the past, and our people have always risen to the challenge. We have all the guidance we need to be safe and successful. Our forefathers paved the way for us. Let’s take their values, and their strengths, and rededicate ourselves to doing whatever it takes to keep America the greatest country in the history of man.”

Updated

Speaking of guests, the first lady is not the evening’s only hosts. Members of Congress get to invite guests too, with some members really showing a special talent for it. Last year, for example:

This year, an early contender for Invited ‘Best’ Guest is Representative Jim Jordan of Ohio, who invited Kim Davis, the county clerk in Kentucky who refused to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples in defiance of a Supreme Court ruling.

First she met the pope – now this! It’s a big year for Kim Davis.

You’re invited!
You’re invited! Photograph: Timothy D. Easley/AP

For extra points, Jordan reportedly did not even know he had invited her. Here’s Matt Fuller of the Huffington Post:

There’s a reason the secret was kept so well. Jordan did not know he had invited Davis until The Huffington Post asked him about it and he checked with his staff.

In other guest news, Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell said he had invited a Kentucky coalminer who lost his job when his mine shut down, in a walking critique of new environmental emissions caps and other energy policies put in place by Obama last year.

Speaker Paul Ryan’s guest for the evening is bringing some social media game:

Update: And wait! There’s more!

Updated

First speech excerpts released

The White House has released initial excerpts of tonight’s speech. One passage that jumps out: a critique of certain unnamed individuals who have claimed in the face of American insecurity that “we could slam the brakes on change, promising to restore past glory if we just got some group or idea that was threatening America under control.”

As in, Make America Great Again, by Building Walls and Banning Muslims?

Here are the excerpts, As Prepared for Delivery:

“We live in a time of extraordinary change – change that’s reshaping the way we live, the way we work, our planet and our place in the world. It’s change that promises amazing medical breakthroughs, but also economic disruptions that strain working families. It promises education for girls in the most remote villages, but also connects terrorists plotting an ocean away. It’s change that can broaden opportunity, or widen inequality. And whether we like it or not, the pace of this change will only accelerate.

America has been through big changes before – wars and depression, the influx of immigrants, workers fighting for a fair deal, and movements to expand civil rights. Each time, there have been those who told us to fear the future; who claimed we could slam the brakes on change, promising to restore past glory if we just got some group or idea that was threatening America under control. And each time, we overcame those fears. We did not, in the words of Lincoln, adhere to the “dogmas of the quiet past.” Instead we thought anew, and acted anew. We made change work for us, always extending America’s promise outward, to the next frontier, to more and more people. And because we did – because we saw opportunity where others saw only peril – we emerged stronger and better than before.”

-----

“The future we want – opportunity and security for our families; a rising standard of living and a sustainable, peaceful planet for our kids – all that is within our reach. But it will only happen if we work together. It will only happen if we can have rational, constructive debates.

It will only happen if we fix our politics.

A better politics doesn’t mean we have to agree on everything. This is a big country, with different regions and attitudes and interests. That’s one of our strengths, too. Our Founders distributed power between states and branches of government, and expected us to argue, just as they did, over the size and shape of government, over commerce and foreign relations, over the meaning of liberty and imperatives of security.

But democracy does require basic bonds of trust between its citizens.”

Updated

Obama says he'll 'leave it all on the field'

Obama is previewing his speech tonight in a live video appearance on Facebook – fresh.

The president is speaking from his desk in the Oval Office as he finalizes the text of the speech, the AP reports. Reworking the Iran bit, perhaps?

Obama will use his last State of the Union address to make sure Americans understand he plans to “leave it all on the field,” he says. He’s big on sports analogies, having said last year that he was in the “fourth quarter” of his presidency.

More from the AP:

Obama says he wants Americans to understand the proposals he thinks are necessary to ensure opportunity and security for the US. He says it’s important at a time when major changes are taking place around the world.

Can you imagine Donald Trump, the Republican presidential frontrunner, delivering a State of the Union address?

NBC news put the question to Barack Obama today. “Well,” the president quipped, “I can imagine it — in a ‘Saturday Night (Live)’ skit.”

Humor-wise, that’s not bad for Obama, who is capable of much worse. But with the question, the gauntlet had been thrown: what would a Donald Trump State of the Union sound like?

The state of our union is strong as shit, because me.
The state of our union is strong as shit, because me. Photograph: Jim Cole/AP

Steps in the Guardian’s Adam Gabbatt, who once tried to get Trump to produce his passport records and got called “stupid.” Adam has written, but not delivered before Congress, an entire Trump State of the Union address, of which we excerpt two paragraphs here for your delectation:

Already, my fellow Americans, the effects of the Trump presidency are visible. In one of my first moves I rebranded the White House as the Trump House. Then, I rebranded the Capitol as the Trump Capitol. Next week, signage will be completed on the new Trump monument.

I promised I would introduce a temporary ban on Muslims entering the United States. After consultation with key aides I decided to extend that ban to Muslims and Hindus and Buddhists and all the other religions that my base of angry white men mistrust. No longer will the United States be overrun by monks and joss sticks and those little statues of the fat man with the big ears.

Updated

Meet the guests

Ever since the Reagan years, the president and first lady have invited guests to the State of the Union address whose life stories inform and underscore themes from the speech. The 23 invited guests this year “represent the progress we have made since the President first delivered this speech seven years ago,” the White House said in a statement.

Perhaps the most poignant entry on this year’s guest list is not a guest at all, but “a vacant seat for the victims of gun violence.”

“We leave one seat empty in the First Lady’s State of the Union Guest Box for the victims of gun violence who no longer have a voice – because they need the rest of us to speak for them,” the White House said.

In minutes, we will be launching an #emptyseat project of our own, to run through the night. More on that momentarily.

Two members of Congress, meanwhile – Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz and close pal Steve King, the Iowa Representative – have replied to the missing entry in the White House guest list with a vow to leave their own seats empty – on behalf of aborted fetuses.

For now, here’s a bit about who IS invited:

A full list of guests invited by the White House is here. They include Americans associated with the president’s initiatives on health care, community policing, economic recovery, student tuition, climate change, veterans affairs and more. Here’s a video the White House produced to introduce them:

Updated

Well, that didn’t take long.

Cory Gardner, a Republican senator from Colorado, suggested Barack Obama delay the start of tonight’s State of the Union address amid reports that American sailors were being held by the Iranian military.

“I think the White House needs to be honest and transparent as quickly as possible with the members of the House and the Senate – perhaps that even means a delay to the start of the State of the Union tonight to talk about exactly what happened,” Gardner told CNN.

“This continues apparently a pattern of aggravating action by Iran,” he added. “This is a serious enough event that we shouldn’t proceed with the festivities of tonight until we have enough answers.”

Updated

Here’s one wistfully anticipated absence on TV screens this year: no John Boehner. As House speaker, Boehner sat behind the president on the House rostrum with vice president Joe Biden every year since 2011.

This year we get Paul Ryan, the Wisconsin Republican and new speaker following Boehner’s retirement last year.

Who will prove better at projecting unpleasant discomfort at the president’s words without yet giving over into the kind of outright disapproval that would be inappropriate to the gravity of the occasion?

Ryan released a statement today saying that he had been practicing his po po po poker face po po poker face:

Boehner last year, more po-faced than poker-faced.
Boehner last year, more po-faced than poker-faced. Photograph: Mandel Ngan/AP

Updated

Iran assures 'prompt' release of US ships – Pentagon

Some breaking news with just hours to go before the president delivers a State of the Union address that the White House has said will highlight Obama’s achievements: Two small American craft briefly went missing on Tuesday after transiting the Persian Gulf.

Here’s the top of our news report:

US officials say they have received assurances from Tehran that the crew of two small US navy ships – currently in Iranian custody – will soon be allowed to continue their journey.

The two small craft briefly went missing on Tuesday after transiting the Persian Gulf from Kuwait to Bahrain. The Pentagon said that the crews ended up in Iranian custody, sparking immediate fears of escalating tensions during a week when Iran is expected to receive the first wave of sanctions relief from the landmark nuclear accords.

But a US Defense Department official downplayed the incident, saying the Iranians have sent indications of the “safety and wellbeing” of the sailors.

“We have received assurances the sailors will promptly be allowed to continue their journey,” the official said.

How will this affect the president’s talk tonight? How many words had he planned to spend talking up last year’s nuclear deal with Iran? Or to hail a new era of bilateral comity?

How early in the speech does he need to acknowledge an incident with echoes, if extremely mild at this point, of the Iranian hostage crisis that helped define the legacy, in a negative way, of an earlier Democratic president with sharp critics among the foreign policy hawks?

Updated

Ten mere minutes ago we highlighted our analysis of how well president Obama has kept the 132 separate pledges he has made in his State of the Union and inaugural addresses.

Separately, Dan Roberts and Mona Chalabi have contributed a not-to-be-missed write-through of what Obama’s promises hit-rate means for his legacy. The key bit:

In some respects, the 44th president does rival Democratic legend Franklin D Roosevelt for his progressive accomplishments. Healthcare reform and action on climate change would alone be worthy of historic comparison. An unprecedented period of job growth since the banking crash breaks records even among Republicans.

But few have laboured under the weight of such expectation, or helped add to it with such soaring poetry...

Guardian Washington bureau chief Dan Roberts will be in the House chamber for the big speech.

He sends us a shot from outside the chamber, half petrified patriarchs and half hardworking newshounds. And a disproportionate share of bald guys?

Promises, promises: Obama's hit rate

The state of the union notoriously is a brimful vessel of presidential promises that spill out of the TV and across the land – only to disappear by morning.

But how many past SOTU promises, exactly, has Obama made good on?

Dan Roberts and Mona Chalabi have reviewed 132 separate pledges in 27 key policy areas in the president’s six preceding state of the union speeches, two inaugurals and Obama’s first address to Congress in 2009.*

The analysis reveals:

a steady decline in both the number of policy pledges made by him, and their success rate, during an ambitious presidency marred by fierce battles with lawmakers.”

He really came out promisin’.
He really came out promisin’. Photograph: The Guardian

The full piece, highly commended to you, can be found here. And for more on rating past Obama promises, feast on this:

*Any president’s first State-of-the-Union-style address is technically a joint address to Congress and not a fully fledged State of the Union.

Updated

Senator Hatch sits out

If a giant chasm opens under the Capitol on Tuesday night during the State of the Union and swallows the building whole, the next president will be Utah senator Orrin Hatch, Ben Jacobs writes:

While the nation’s political leadership gathers in the House chamber to listen to Barack Obama’s speech, Hatch will be far away. And, if unimaginable tragedy strikes, he will become president.

Senator Orrin Hatch: watching on TV. Presumably.
Senator Orrin Hatch: watching on TV. Presumably. Photograph: Eric Draper/AP

Many interesting tidbits in Ben’s write-up:

The Utah senator would also make history as the first Mormon to ever occupy the Oval Office. In addition, Hatch would join James Buchanan to become only the second president ever born in Pennsylvania.

Correction: This post has been corrected to remove reference to Hatch as the night’s “designated survivor,” a cabinet member designation, in tonight’s case Homeland Security secretary Jeh Johnson.

Updated

Five things to expect at Obama’s final State of the Union address

We’d submit that there’s no better way to begin building toward your ecstatic enjoyment of tonight’s State of the Union address than to watch the following video, “Five things to expect at Obama’s final State of the Union address.”

The video is perched atop this blog for the moment, but we’re putting it here, too, because it will lose its place of prominence when the action kicks off.

Not on the list: Orrin Hatch.

Hello, and welcome to our live-wire coverage of Barack Obama’s final State of the Union address.

It’s his last one, his peace-out, his Parthian shot, his doch-an-dorrach. Cheers! In 12 short months, Obama will step aside, making way for the historic presidency of [TBD].

The speech is scheduled to begin at 9pm ET; we’ll stick a video player atop this blog when the time comes, for your viewing pleasure.

One of the president’s goals tonight is to try to influence the selection of President TBD, by framing 2016 as a crucial year for key Democratic issues such as gun violence, immigration reform, climate change and wealth inequality.

(But could anyone, even a president with an expected home audience of some 30 million-plus, really influence the direction of the rambunctious 2016 presidential campaign? Maybe he could begin his speech by placing a call to Donald Trump from the rostrum? That’d get on YouTube.)

I could call him up and say ‘you’re fired’ – people love that joke.
I could call him up and say ‘you’re fired’ – people love that joke. Photograph: Carolyn Kaster/AP

Former Obama speechwriter Jon Favreau has called the state of the union an “annual speechwriting shitshow”. So what other shit will be in tonight’s show? The White House hasn’t said much, except that tonight’s speech will be less about policy proposals for the year ahead and more about political cajoling and accomplishment touting.

The White House did on Monday publish a “supercut” of past Obama SOTUs, which must be the most slow-moving video ever to bear the name. Can you get through all three minutes? (Remember, these are the highlights.)

Pitching in on our coverage this evening – and joining us here on the blog – will be:

  • Washington bureau chief Dan Roberts and Washington correspondent David Smith in the chamber
  • Humorist Adam Gabbatt, channeling Donald Trump
  • Data editor Mona Chalabi and business reporter Jana Kasperkevic, fact-checking the president’s speech
  • Reporters Scott Bixby, Ben Jacobs and Sabrina Siddiqui on all the news in between
  • Columnists Lucia Graves, Trevor Timm and Richard Wolffe, writer-at-large Dave Schilling, opinion editor Megan Carpentier ... and special guest Bill McKibben to comment on whatever the president says about the environment

Plus we’ll have a powerful conversation on gun violence, here and on social media, throughout the evening. Stay tuned for more on that.

Meantime it’s the president’s night to soar, Congress’s night to clap and America’s night to toggle between speech coverage and Making a Murderer. Thank you for making our blog part of your evening’s infotainment.

Updated

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