At the white house, right now, President Joe Biden preparing to Face Congress and the American People and deliver a speech that could have huge consequences for his reelection campaign. Theyll soon leave for the us capitol to give his state of the Union Address. Less than 48 hours after his long anticipated rematch with donald trump became a reality. Welcome to a Special Edition of ac360. Im Anderson Cooper and im jake tapper. About an hour from now, President Biden will walk into the House Chamber under enormous pressure to forcefully and successfully sell his vision for america and his argument for a second terme. Mister President Biden needs to take advantage of this opportunity with tens of millions of americans watching to make his case and perhaps, perhaps the most important speech of his decades long career in public life, this will be a critical test of the 81 year old commander in chief. He will try to convince skeptical voters that they have benefited from his presidency, and
he s now saying, look, you ve heard this since the january 6th anniversary speech. it s time to recognize the threats to democracy, the threats to this country and let s get moving. so there s a period for talking about the aspirations of a presidency in the very beginning and then a time for meeting people where they are in their experience right now and that s what today is really about. abby, what is the message right now overall that we re hearing from biden and the democrats when it comes to what they are delivering? i think it s fair to say that they have been saying, not without reason, that there are questions about how much the republican party right now believes in expanding the vote, democracy, those kind of fundamentals. but beyond that. beyond donald trump trying to steal the election, what are they suggesting people support them for? like what are they offering? well, the president wanted to pass a major expansion of the social safety net in this country.
but the next election i would be fortunate if i had that same man running against me. let s bring in maya wylie. jonathan is back with us. he would be fortunate, jonathan. what do you make of his confidence against he who shall not be mentioned and the mentioning of him without mentioning him? yeah. president biden rarely does invoke his predecessor by name. let s recall the january 6th anniversary speech. but this tracks with what ores have said privately sometime now. president biden declared that he is going to run again in 2024. we should take him at the word for that. of course even if were not to do that he wouldn t broadcast it now.
pulled his endorsement of congressman brooks yesterday, he said that brooks had gone woke when he told him to put the 2020 election behind him. the guy who had trump s back for years, right, objected to the january 6th electoral college count, he had spouted lies at the stop the steal rally. brooks said this in a statement. i have not changed. i am the only candidate who fought voter fraud and election theft when it counted between november 3rd and january 6th. and then here s what else he told vaughn hillyard. okay, first, there s no one in alabama with the brain size of a pea or larger who would believe that i m a woke liberal. what is your take, luke, on the incredible irony of trump calling mo brooks woke? well, i mean, who knows what woke even means anymore
is still with us. you write in the times that congressman brooks s revelation marks the first time that trump asked for actions that were they possible would violate federal law. now, congressman brooks has told nbc he has not spoken to the january 6th committee, but how major could it be if he s willing to testify to that? well, that could be a big breakthrough for the committee. as you know, they ve been trying very diligently to try to get members of congress who plotted and planned with donald trump to try to overturn the election to come in for an interview, but each time, they have been rebuffed. jim jordan rebuffed them. scott perry rebuffed them. but now he s mo brooks, who s one of the key planners to the objections on january 6th, to try to rule out the victory for