Few people wore masks in the House chambers during President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address Tuesday night.

Most members of Congress, Supreme Court justices and Cabinet members left their face coverings at home for the president’s address, in accordance with the masks-optional guidance issued by the Capitol’s attending physician earlier this week. A handful of Democratic members of Congress showed up sporting face coverings anyway.

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Madam Speaker, Madam Vice President, our First Lady and Second Gentleman. Members of Congress and the Cabinet. Justices of the Supreme Court. My fellow Americans.

Last year COVID-19 kept us apart. This year we are finally together again.

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Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo will be the designated survivor for President Joe Biden’s State of the Union speech Tuesday night, a White House official said, according to a press pool report.

Presidents typically pick a top official to keep the government running in the event of a disaster that wipes out the line of presidential succession when they gather in a single location for the speech. Raimondo would be No. 10 in the line of succession behind Biden.

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The White House is planning to unveil its wide-ranging strategy for the next phase of the pandemic response on Wednesday morning, according to an internal document obtained by POLITICO.

The Covid-19 strategy is expected to lay out how the nation can safely ease public health restrictions and restore some sense of normalcy as the U.S. enters what officials hope will be a less disruptive endemic stage of the virus.

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As President Joe Biden prepares to deliver his State of the Union address on Tuesday night, fewer than half of Americans approve of the job he’s doing as president.

While 41 percent of Americans approve of the job Biden is doing, 56 percent disapprove, according to a new POLITICO/Morning Consult poll. The numbers diverged even more when Americans were asked about the state of the country: Just 33 percent of Americans said the U.S. is going in the right direction, while 67 percent said the country is on the wrong track.

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Democrats are hoping President Joe Biden’s prime-time address on Tuesday effectively hits the reset button ahead of the November election after months marked by legislative breakdowns.

Biden will be delivering his first State of the Union speech to a nation that’s largely skeptical of his leadership at the moment. His approval ratings are near the lowest of his presidency as Americans remain immersed in anxiety over the pandemic, the economy, and now, a Russian invasion of Ukraine that’s increasingly demanding U.S. attention.

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Where and when is Biden delivering the 2022 State of the Union?
President Joe Biden is scheduled to appear before a joint session of the 117th Congress in the chamber of the House of Representatives to deliver the 2022 State of the Union address at 9 p.m. EST on Tuesday.

How can I watch this year’s SOTU?
All major networks and cable news channels will broadcast the speech live. The White House will stream it live on its website, as will news networks through Facebook. POLITICO will carry a live feed on its site.

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Coronavirus cases are plummeting. Mask mandates are coming to an end. And for the first time in months, the pandemic threat that hung over Joe Biden’s presidency appears to be receding.

But as he readies his first State of the Union address, Biden isn’t planning a victory declaration — at least not yet.

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White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Sunday that President Joe Biden's State of the Union address on Tuesday will take on a different tone because of Russia's invasion of Ukraine last week.

"That is certainly something that is present in all of our lives and certainly in the president's life in this moment," she said on ABC's "This Week."

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When Joe Biden walks out to the House chamber on Tuesday evening to deliver his first State of the Union address, it will come amid a cacophony of major domestic developments and geopolitical crises. An escalating war in Ukraine, the nomination of a historic justice to the Supreme Court, the lingering Covid pandemic, and a stalled-out domestic agenda will all serve as dramatic backdrops.

And yet, it still may not qualify as the strangest context for a State of the Union address in modern memory.

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A member of the liberal “Squad” is delivering a formal response to President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address Tuesday.

In the speech, given on behalf of the left-wing group Working Families Party, Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) is expected to hammer moderate Democrats who have stymied Biden’s social spending and climate change package.

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Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Friday invited President Joe Biden to deliver his first State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress on March 1.

In her brief letter, Pelosi (D-Calif.) thanked Biden for his “bold vision and patriotic leadership” and highlighted several achievements over his first year as president.

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CIA Director Gina Haspel’s attendance at President Donald Trump’s State of the Union on Tuesday—and her decision to stand and clap at certain lines—has surprised former senior intelligence officials who say the agency director should consistently appear nonpartisan.

Haspel entered the House chamber for Trump’s speech on Tuesday—for the second year in a row—with other members of the president’s Cabinet, including political appointees like Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin. And she stood, as they did, at Trump’s comments about Medicare and Social Security, abortion, paid family leave and immigration. She clapped at his line about rebuilding infrastructure.

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It was the snub seen around the country — and in Democrats’ view, President Donald Trump's State of the Union only went downhill from there.

As Speaker Nancy Pelosi extended her hand just before the start of Trump’s address, the president quickly pivoted and turned his back, leaving the speaker hanging.

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In the House chamber Tuesday night, President Donald Trump stood before the lawmakers who had voted to impeach him only 48 days ago.

Then he spoke right past them.

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Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer hit back at President Donald Trump’s “blue collar boom” Tuesday night in her Democratic response to the president's third annual address before Congress.

The Democratic governor, who was selected by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to deliver the Democrats' answer to Trump’s address, focused on economic issues to counter the president’s message of unprecedented economic growth.

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The State of the Union address featured an epic ceremonial clash on Tuesday night.

President Donald Trump appeared to ignore House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s outstretched hand at the top of his annual address. At the end of the speech, Pelosi tore up her copy of his prepared remarks.

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The White House on Tuesday released the names of the guests President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump have invited to attend the president’s third State of the Union address before a joint session of Congress.

The invite list is comprised of a broad array of 11 Americans who symbolize the administration’s various policy priorities — including so-called “school choice” initiatives, the killing of an Iran’s top military commander, hardline immigration enforcement measures, the Opportunity Zone program created by the 2017 Republican tax overhaul, and opposition to Venezuelan strongman Nicolás Maduro.

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President Donald Trump's impeachment trial is entering its third week Monday, and the Republican-controlled Senate is expected to acquit him by Wednesday.

After the Senate on Friday voted along party lines — with a couple ofexceptions — to kill a motion to hear witnesses in the trial, the trial is all but certain to finish with Trump's acquittal.

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On Tuesday night, Donald Trump will relaunch his 2020 campaign.

Likely clear of imminent threats to his presidency, the president plans to use his annual State of the Union speech as a fresh start for his reelection bid, according to seven senior administration officials and White House allies who spoke to POLITICO about the upcoming address.

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