When President Joe Biden delivers his State of the Union address Tuesday night, he will face a challenge that also confronted each of his four immediate predecessors: responding to an election that ended his party’s unified control of Congress.
Like Biden, Donald Trump, Barack Obama, George W. Bush and Bill Clinton all entered the White House with their party also controlling the House and Senate. That initially allowed all of them to drive an aggressive legislative agenda. But like Biden, each of them during their presidency saw voters send a signal of discontent by shifting control of one or both congressional chambers to the other party.
In their first State of the Union after that defeat, each president grappled directly with the new power alignment in Washington. But in their reaction to that uncomfortable reality, Biden’s predecessors offer contrasting models for how he may approach Tuesday’s speech. CONTINUED
Ronald Brownstein, CNN
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