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House Speaker Mike Johnson invites Biden to deliver State of the Union speech on March 7

(CNN) — House Speaker Mike Johnson on Saturday invited President Joe Biden to deliver the annual State of the Union address on March 7.

Posted Updated

By
Haley Talbot
, CNN
CNN — (CNN) — House Speaker Mike Johnson on Saturday invited President Joe Biden to deliver the annual State of the Union address on March 7.

“It is my solemn duty to invite President Biden to address a Joint Session of Congress on March 7th to report on the state of our union,” Johnson wrote in a post on X.

The State of the Union address is a tradition that offers presidents a chance to highlight their priorities and agenda at the start of a new year.

This year’s address will come after Biden kicked off his 2024 campaign with an impassioned argument that GOP frontrunner former President Donald Trump could destroy American democracy.

“Donald Trump’s campaign is about him, not America. Not you. Donald Trump’s campaign is obsessed with the past, not the future. He’s willing to sacrifice our democracy, put himself in power,” Biden said.

CNN previously reported that White House aides are aiming to use the State of the Union, Biden’s largest national audience of the year, to lay out an agenda that he can quickly take out on the campaign trail – including protecting the affordable care act, expanding efforts to relieve student debt and housing costs, and fiscal measures such as a 25% minimum tax for billionaires and quadrupling the stock buyback tax.

The president is expected to specifically call on Republicans and Democrats to finally act on issues he says they should be able to agree on: tackling the fentanyl crisis, increasing assistance for veterans, addressing mental health, expanding data privacy protections and searching for a cure for cancer.

CNN’s Edward-Isaac Dovere contributed to this report.

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