State of the Union: Joe Biden pledges to make Putin pay for Ukraine invasion

The US President emphasized that US troops sent to Central Europe would be there not to attack the Russians, but to protect Nato allies

Perhaps it was to be expected that Joe Biden’s speech was wide-ranging in tone, frenziedly ambitious in its agenda, and light on specifics. Photo: Saul Loeb, Pool via AP

This year, President Biden had a particularly grim task. After months and months of negotiations with Senator Joe Manchin, of West Virginia, proved fruitless, his sweeping economic agenda, the Build Back Better Plan, appears to be dead. 

The two major voting rights bills that would have helped secure the franchise for Black Americans and protect the integrity of future elections were killed when Manchin and Senator Kyrsten Sinema, of Arizona, declined to support an exemption to the filibuster.