'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:
Americans are worried about democracy
Biden spoke early about Jan. 6 as a threat to democracy, referring obliquely to Trump as “my predecessor,” and polls show most voters agree with him that democracy is in trouble.
Only 28% of American adults said they were satisfied with the way democracy in the U.S. is working in a Gallup poll from December. In a December Navigator poll, two in three Americans were concerned about a repeat of the insurrection. In an August Morning Consult/Bipartisan Policy Center poll, 82% of voters said they were worried about U.S. democracy.
But Republicans, who remain convinced Trump is innocent of the 91 criminal charges he faces across four cases in different states (as he denies wrongdoing), are worried for different reasons. They believe the criminal cases against him are politically motivated. And Trump has continued to sow doubt about American institutions and the electoral process, undermining voters’ trust in institutions.
All of this could have major impacts for how the November elections go down.
-Monica Potts, 538
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 calls on Congress to send him border bill
Biden urged Congress to send him a bill that would combine foreign military aid to Israel, Taiwan and Ukraine with stricter border reforms than Democrats have historically supported.
The bill initially had buy-in from top Republicans but was killed in the Senate after former President Donald Trump came out against it. The chamber later passed a bill that included the foreign aid but not the border component, though that bill too is languishing in the House of Representatives.
"Look folks, we have a simple choice. We can fight about fixing the border, or we can fix it. I'm ready to fix it. Send me the border bill now," he said.