By Lambert Strether of Corrente
The State of the Union address, as ordained by Article II, Section 3 of the United States Constition, will take place in about a half an hour, at 9:00PM ET. If you like to watch:
In addition to major networks and political cable channels that will air the address, you can stream it directly on WH.gov/SOTU and on the White House or president’s social media platforms, including YouTube, X, Facebook, and — for the first time — Instagram, as the administration aims to seek a younger audience.
Not TikTok? Other media:
If you want to watch the State of the Union address through a TV channel (and commentary afterward) but don’t have cable, grab a free trial to fuboTV or DirecTV Stream. Both of these streaming services will let you watch the 2024 SOTU on channels like ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox, Fox News, CNN, and MSNBC. Both services start at $79.99 a month, but neither will charge until after their free trials, letting you watch the SOTU address for free.
Here is Trump’s announcement on Truth Social:
Newsweek says that Trump will be using TruthSocial for his play-by-play, but I can’t find a formal announcement anywhere (and I’m blocked on TruthSocial).
I don’t think there’s any point speculating on the content of Biden’s speech, unless he wants to pay me that six hundred bucks he owes me. Anyhow, the only real story is whether Biden slips a cog, or, more subtly, his general demeanor, delivery, pauses, verbal infelicities, etc. I would imagine the dose of whatever they juice him up with is timed, so I would pay particular attention to what happens when the speech is finished — assuming it indeed finishes — and Biden has to get down off the podium and then move through the crowd, shaking hands, slapping backs, and kissing babies, if any.
I looked for drinking games, but couldn’t find any good ones. You can make one up! Enjoy!
APPENDIX
Here is an interesting example of censorship from [gasp] The New York SlTimes. They mention the guests that various electeds will be bringing. For example:
Jill Biden has invited 20 guests who are intended to underscore the president’s domestic and foreign policy positions and achievements, including the prime minister of Sweden, which joined NATO earlier Thursday; a Texas mother whose petition for an abortion was denied by state courts; and a woman whose in vitro fertilization treatments were halted by the Alabama state Supreme Court decision last month.
With access to abortion and women’s reproductive health national issues that continue to mobilize Democrats, lawmakers from the party have invited a number of reproductive care providers and advocates. Senator Tim Kaine of Virginia has invited the first person born in the United States as a result of in vitro fertilization, and Representative Judy Chu of California invited the Indiana doctor who in 2022 provided an abortion to a 10-year-old victim of rape.
House Speaker Mike Johnson has invited the parents of Evan Gershkovich, The Wall Street Journal reporter who has been held in Russia for roughly one year on charges of espionage that his newspaper and the U.S. government forcefully deny.
More than a dozen family members of current and former American hostages held in Gaza after the Oct. 7 invasion of Israel will also be in attendance as the guests of lawmakers from both parties.
And after all these paragraphs, you know who they’re not mentioning? That’s right:
U.S. Rep. Thomas Massie has invited Gabriel Shipton, the brother of imprisoned Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, as his guest for this week’s State of the Union address.
The Kentucky Republican decided to bring Shipton as part of his message that the U.S. should drop Assange’s criminal charges and stop seeking his extradition.
“The U.S. government’s ongoing effort to prosecute Julian Assange threatens the First Amendment rights of Americans and should be opposed,” Massie said in a statement to The Courier Journal.
“During his term in office, I asked President Trump to pardon Mr. Assange, and I was disappointed by his failure to do so. President Biden should stop seeking Assange’s extradition and should instead drop the criminal charges currently being pursued by the Department of Justice.”
I guess the Times’ spook handlers would have looked askance. (And it’s not because Massie’s a Republican, either, because they didn’t censor Johnson inviting Gershkovich.)
