Dem
51
GOP
49
Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA), apparently as part of the kumbaya spirit of the budget negotiations (though see below), will not engage in any gamesmanship around the State of the Union Address. He (with the assent of Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-NY) has invited Joe Biden to deliver the speech on Thursday, March 7, and Biden has accepted.
This is a little bit late on the calendar, as SOTUs usually happen in January or February. More interesting, however, is that the speech will happen just two days after Super Tuesday. If things go according to form, then Super Tuesday is when Donald Trump's renomination will become inevitable, and the other wannabe Republican presidents will have reached the end of the road. Normally, a sitting president does not comment directly on the ongoing presidential campaign in a SOTU. But these are not normal times, and Biden is already aiming body blows at Trump. So, there could be some fireworks.
The Republicans have not yet chosen the person who will respond to Biden. Usually, that "honor" falls to an up-and-coming member of the party who needs some exposure, or to a respected elder of the party. If the GOP goes with the former, well... we don't know who they might choose. None of the hotly contested U.S. Senate races are going to have a clear-cut GOP nominee or frontrunner by March 7, except for Arizona. And we doubt that the Party wants to give Kari Lake a national platform and 20 minutes to say whatever comes into her mind. As to the latter, we can't think of a respected Republican elder who wouldn't get booed off the screen by the MAGA crowd, except Donald Trump. Could he be the pick? Maybe...
The designated survivor has not been picked yet, either, and usually isn't revealed until the speech is over. That said, we're pretty sure it won't be Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin. (Z)