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

Biden will deliver his second State of the Union in a matter of hours, raising the question: What did he promise last year, and was he able to achieve what he laid out?

Among the top priorities he outlined last March were rallying American support for Ukraine in its effort to repel the Russian invasion and efforts to fight record-setting inflation. He said the State of the Union was strong "because you, the American people, are strong."

Yet, a new ABC News/Washington Post shows just 36% of Americans think Biden has accomplished a great deal or good amount as president; 62% say he's accomplished not very much or nothing at all.

And with Biden appearing poised to run for a second term -- and looking to use this year's speech to make his case -- nearly six in 10 Democratic-aligned adults don't want to see him nominated again -- and his approval rating after two years in office is well below average compared with the previous 13 presidents. Only one, former President Donald Trump, has lower numbers.

Click here are highlights of what Biden said last year and how things turned out.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell slammed Joe Biden for what he called the nation’s economic woes under two years of Democratic control -- just hours ahead of the president’s State of the Union address.

The Kentucky Republican appeared to rely heavily on new ABC News/Washington Post polling -- while not citing the data directly -- in remarks on the Senate floor, claiming Biden has created an America in which only 16% of citizens feel they are in a better financial situation than they were in two years ago.

"For 84 percent of Americans, one party Democratic control of Washington either failed to live up to its consequences or actively made life worse,” McConnell said.

McConnell hit Biden on inflation, immigration, the Afghanistan withdrawal, school choice, and more in the lead up to Biden's speech tonight.

He also criticized the administration for its handling of the Chinese spy balloon, arguing that it was "ludicrous to suggest that Canada and the United States had no choice but to let this thing traipse across the continent from coast to coast. "

–ABC News’ Allie Pecorin

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