'I believe in America': Fired-up Biden uses State of the Union to skewer GOP, his 'predecessor'
The president made the case for why he deserves a second term.
President Joe Biden delivered his State of the Union address at the U.S. Capitol on Thursday night.
The speech provided Biden one of his biggest audiences of the year as he made his case for a second term and contrasted his vision of the country's future with Republicans ahead of what's expected to be a lengthy general election fight with former President Donald Trump.
ABC News live-blogged every major moment and highlight from the speech, with 538 providing analysis and a closer look at the polling and data behind the politicians.
Key moments:
Biden on Jan. 6: 'Dagger to the throat of American democracy'
Biden reflected on the Jan. 6 attack, which took place in the same House chambers in which he is currently delivering his State of the Union address.
After saying "history is watching" in regards to the Russia-Ukraine war, Biden said, "Just like history watched three years ago on Jan. 6 when insurrectionists stormed this very Capitol and placed a dagger to the throat of American democracy."
Biden called the push to overthrow the 2020 election he won over Trump the "gravest threat to U.S. democracy since the Civil War."
Referencing the former president without referring to him by name, Biden said, "My predecessor and some of you here seek to bury the truth about Jan. 6."
"I will not do that," he added. "This is the moment to speak the truth and to bury the lies."
Biden tells Congress: 'Guarantee the right to IVF!'
Biden pointed to his State of the Union guests impacted by restrictions placed on reproductive rights at the state level.
"History is watching another assault on freedom," he said.
He told the story of Latorya Beasley, a Birmingham resident who successfully had a daughter through in vitro fertilization and decided to try for one more child. Her treatments were halted when the Alabama Supreme Court ruled last month that frozen embryos are children under state law, which temporarily upended IVF access until Alabama legislators passed a new law.
Biden called for a similar federal bill.
"She was told her dream would have to wait. What she went through should never have happened," he said. "Unless Congress acts, it could happen again. So tonight, let's stand up for families like hers. To my friends across the aisle, don't keep this waiting any longer. Guarantee the right to IVF!"
Read more from ABC News' interview with Beasley before Thursday night's address.
Biden calls out conservative Supreme Court justices on abortion
Biden briefly called out the Supreme Court's conservative-leaning justices over the loss of constitutional abortion protections, saying that women will be motivated to turn out to vote later this year.
"In the decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court majority wrote the following, and with all due respect, justices -- 'women are not without electoral or political power,'" Biden said
The president was referencing the 2022 majority decision reversing Roe v. Wade's nationwide guarantee to abortion access which stated that “women are not without electoral or political power." Since then, abortion access has won as an issue in a variety of elections around the country.
Biden to Putin: 'We will not bow down'
Biden called on Congress to send him a bipartisan national security bill amid Russia's ongoing war in Ukraine.
"If the United States walks away, it will put Ukraine at risk. Europe is at risk, the free world will be at risk," he said.
Biden also had a message for Russian President Vladimir Putin: "We will not walk away," he said to applause.
"We will not bow down! I will not bow down! In a literal sense, history is watching," Biden said.
Many Republicans have been increasingly skeptical of foreign aid to Ukraine versus spending on domestic priorities like the southern border. Biden and the GOP have not been able to agree on new immigration changes, despite a Biden-backed deal in the Senate.