Addressing his first divided Congress, Biden says 'the soul of this nation is strong'

Speaking earlier Tuesday with reporters, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy signaled that there were no security threats ahead of the State of the Union to justify the fencing put up around the Capitol as it was after Jan. 6, 2021

"I don't think you need it," McCarthy said when asked about the high, non-scalable fence installed in recent days. "There's no intel that there's any problem, any groups, or anything else," he added.

McCarthy said that while the House Sergeant at Arms did not see a need for the fencing, the Secret Service, the Senate Sergeant at Arms, and the Architect of the Capitol did.

"They'll pay for it -- take it up, take it down," he said. "I just don't think it's the right look. There's not a need."

The speaker's comments follow House Republicans moving to open the House side of the Capitol to visitors and to remove magnetometers, among other changes, after taking the majority in January.

-ABC News' Gabe Ferris

Biden is expected to announce within months that he is seeking reelection in 2024, a source previously told ABC News.

As he prepares his next move, FiveThirtyEight’s polling average shows that his approval numbers are slowly ticking up from where they were last fall. On Feb. 7, Biden hit a 43% approval rating in FiveThirtyEight’s average -- an increase of 2 points since Nov. 8, the day of the 2022 midterm elections.

This might not seem like a huge increase in the grand scheme of things, but in the current age of strong partisan polarization, any upward trajectory is likely encouraging for Biden ahead of him officially announcing another run.

On the other hand, polling does show that Biden enjoys relatively mild support for another campaign from inside his own party, with only 58% of Democratic primary or caucus voters saying they want Biden to be their nominee in 2024, according to an Emerson College poll released in late January, while 42% said it should be someone else.

That 58% is a 6-point drop from when Emerson asked Democrats the same question in June. But Biden has stronger support among some key demographic groups: According to the poll, 75% of Black Democratic voters and 72% of Hispanic Democratic voters want Biden to be their standard-bearer. White Democrats are more divided, with 51% saying someone besides Biden should be the nominee.

A new ABC News/Washington Post poll found similar concerns among Democrats about Biden being renominated in 2024.

-FiveThirtyEight's Alex Samuels

Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders will cast Biden as an unfit commander in chief when she delivers the Republican response to his State of the Union address, her team said Tuesday.

Sanders, 40, currently the youngest governor in the country, is expected to talk about a new generation of leadership as she follows an address from the oldest sitting president in American history.

She is expected to say that the choice is no longer between right or left -- the choice is between normal or crazy. She is expected to accuse Biden of not defending American borders, skies and people, according to her team.

-ABC News' John Santucci

"Finish the job" will be a common refrain in the president's State of the Union address, according to a White House official.

"This evening during the State of the Union, President Biden will speak directly to the American people and outline the historic progress we have made over the past two years and his agenda for the future," the official said. "President Biden ran for office for three main reasons: to rebuild the backbone of the country, to unite the country and to restore the soul of the nation. In the State of the Union, he’ll say that we need to finish the job."

This theme also plays into the groundwork that Biden is laying for a reelection bid.

Biden is also expected to specifically highlight the heroism of Brandon Tsay, who disarmed the Monterey Park shooter, and reference the parents of Tyre Nichols in the audience, as he calls for gun and policing reforms.

-ABC News Senior White House Correspondent Mary Bruce and Molly Nagle