Last Tuesday, President Joe Biden addressed the union in a content-packed speech. He covered topics from the Russian invasion of Ukraine to the LGBTQ Equality Act. 

The State of The Union Address is an annual address given by the President to Congress and the public. This year, Joe Biden covered a multitude of critical topics, both domestic and foreign.

The most pressing issue Biden addressed was the current war in Ukraine. In his speech, he further condemned Russia and its president Vladmir Putin. “Freedom will always triumph over tyranny,” he stated to thunderous applause. “In the battle between democracy and autocracy, democracies are rising to the moment, and the world is clearly choosing the side of peace and security.”

Biden also announced that the American government will ban all commercial and private Russian flights to further sanction Russia and Putin’s regime, according to a PBS article.

As well as tightening sanctions with Russia, he praised the global unity of countries sanctioning Russia, which has caused significant decay in the Russian economy. “Choking off Russia’s access to technology that will sap its economic strength and weaken its military for years to come,” Biden said in the speech.

Biden also addressed police funding. “Let’s not abandon our streets. Or choose between safety and equal justice,” Biden said. “We should all agree: The answer is not to defund the police. The answer is to fund the police. Fund them with resources and training they need to protect our communities.” 

Biden referenced that police programs need to fund more police training to prevent police violence and prejudice rather than the more popular idea of redistributing police funding to social services that will reduce crime. This statement caused very mixed reactions from lawmakers and the public, with people calling it “meaningless political theater” and pointing out the fact that he failed to mention the Black Lives Matter movement, a USAToday article shared.

Lastly, Biden used his platform to speak out against a multitude of discriminatory laws being signed in Florida, Texas, and other states across the country. “for our LGBTQ+ Americans, let’s finally get the bipartisan Equality Act to my desk.” President Biden stated in his address. “The onslaught of state laws targeting transgender Americans and their families is wrong.”

The equality act being put through congress by the Biden administration would “would amend the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to prohibit discrimination based on sex, sexual orientation and gender identity in employment, housing, public accommodations, education, federally funded programs, credit and jury service,” an article by the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) stated. 

After covering the Ukraine conflict, police funding, and the Equality act, Biden goes on to talk about a multitude of other topics about our country, like the country’s infrastructure and Biden’s nomination of Ketanji Brown Jackson to the United States Supreme Court. This was clearly a content packed State of the Union address that reminded the public of the reality of modern issues facing our country.