State of the Union will be “biggest stage” Biden will have until the election

for more on all of this I want to bring in Erica andola immigrant rights activist and former press secretary for Latino Outreach for Bernie Sanders Mark McKinnon former adviser to George W bush and John McCain and Simone Sanders Townsen former Chief spokesperson for vice president Harris the co-host of one of my favorite shows ever the weekend here on MSNBC you got to watch it if you haven't it's really really good so Simone you actually told Vanity Fair that the speech will be as much about per

formance and delivery as the actual content what did you mean by that you know the state of the union is is going to be the biggest stage that President Biden has between now and the general election is convention speech be big but that is a a a partisan activity that does not get nearly as many eyeballs as the say the union and so for people who are tuning in who will be at their kitchen tables maybe having dinner or you know dessert after dinner because it is going to be 9:00 on Eastern Standa

rd Time or folks sitting on the couch at home this is their opportunity to see and hear the president in his own words giving an update to the American people and so so how he delivers the speech his inflection points all of those things are going to make a difference and uh in my experience before Joe Biden has done a big speech like this he practices the performance and the delivery aspect of it and puts just as much uh stock in that piece as writing the speech so you've been there right how d

oes he practice how does one practice for things like delivery inflection going through where where are the Applause lines every single every every you know principal is different but there are Applause lines written into the speech and so understanding where you're going to pause where you want to put additional inflection on how you want to what points you really want to make sure you hit home literally practicing the speech so I would absolutely expect that today um in the white house there's

going to be a mock practice if you will of you know the president delivering his State of the Union Address but not too much you know you want to save his voice it's late tonight 900 p.m. Mark how important is a speech tonight for the president it's huge uh and Simone said this is one of the few opportunities you're going to have to get a lot of people watching him and I agree with Simone it's not so much important as as to what he says is to how he says it people are looking very generally to

just see if he's up to the job this is the biggest bully pulpit can he Stand and Deliver and and I think uh again I I what people want to see is that he that he's that he's spry that he's alert uh and I think that what he ought to do or try to do is do what he did last year which is ADD live go off script show that he doesn't have to have a script I that's what a lot of people think is that Biden can't can't walk or talk without a script or chew gum so if there's some heckling or whatever it mig

ht be from the audience go off script show that he can act in the moment and that shows real mental acuity it shows that he's on top of his game and I think that's what's going to be important the other thing I would just say is is to recognize as we did in 2004 when I was working for George W bush you got a long haul you start off behind and just figure out a strategy and even if it's an imperfect strategy be consistent don't change your strategy every week or every month just because everybody

's freaking out lock in and load and Erica NBC News has learned that President Biden is unlikely to unveil any new executive actions on immigration or the Border in his address what would you like him to say about that tonight Eric I think you're on mute can you let let me get you off mute real quick sorry my apologies I would you know for me um what's important is that he doesn't continue um to basically repeat some of Republican talking points as he did when he went to the border the reality i

s that there is a a humanitarian crisis and it reflects the crisis that we have seen around the world and especially in places where people are leaving uh but we want to we want to make sure I want to hear him humanize the Immigrant community and talk about the importance of fixing our immigration system and really calling out the hypocrisy of the Republicans of how they continue to point at the Immigrant Community continue to point at what's happening at the border but don't want to do anything

to fix the broken immigration system but rather they want to use the issue to continue to run um the elections right to continue to have something to run on um and I I really hope he calls out that hypocrisy right in front of them they're going to have he's going to have him right in front of him um and to talk about why he well he's not going to do this but I hope he talks about the Immigrant Community here in the United States who he has promised he is going to fix um uh the immig the immigra

tion system for them and giv them a path to citizenship um he also hasn't talked about that anymore um so I hope he he acknowledges uh some of those promises that he made during his campaign you know Erica I don't even know how many years uh you and I have have known each other and how many years years we have been speaking about this and how many years The Plight and the um incredible hopes dreams and aspirations of millions of people who are here they don't have documents but they have us-born

children in many ways they have contributed incredibly to our economy to our society to our culture and yet and yet they are ignored ignored until it's time to talk about elections why is it so difficult Erica to humanize so so many important people it it is and the fact is that that it the issue is still here people in this country continue to be undocumented millions and millions of people including some of my family members and the fact is that you know during this election cycle Democrats h

ave forgotten about us I I mean President Biden has really forgotten how many people within the Immigrant Community people who have supported the Immigrant Community have come out to support even his his election campaigns um in previous years um people who have worked with organizations who have canvased who have done so much work to elect him as a president and all of a sudden the F the focus has completely just gone to the border and there's not even an acknowledgement of our humanity and eve

n an acknowledgement that we continue to to provide um so much uh that we continue to to help the economy of this country and that we're still the workers that are literally feeding your families by you know working uh in the in the farms and and building your your buildings right and so to me I just I really hope that there's at least an acknowledgement talking about the dreamers and all the people who haven't have never really been paid attention to in this election Simone I mean these are peo

ple that that contribute and then have the same dreams and aspirations and hopes as as everyone else and yet they are really pretty much ignored unless it's election season right and I'm just wondering how how do you talk about people that are very real contributors to our economy to our country to our society in such a polarized difficult political world I like to say that uh dreamers and everyone that we just described are Americans in every sense of the word except not on paper uh look I thin

k that this is a this is something that I the President should hit on in the speech remember the state of the union is an hour he could go last year I think he went like 104 so there are a number of things that have to be addressed in the speech and I think you are going to hear him talk about immigration but I do think that it is going to be about border security and then a nod maybe a maybe a sentence nod to what Erica spoke about but the work I think on that is that the campaign and frankly t

he White House r large the government has to do is in the weeks and days and months to come because there is a you know you can't talk about the recovery of the United States of America that recovered uh I I saw Steve Benjamin on earlier and uh former mayor of Columbia South Carolina now advisor to the president and you cannot talk about the historic recovery better than any other G7 country without talking about the way in which immigrant individuals contributed to that that is they are directl

y linked and what policies that demonize instead of humanizing people who again folks Americans in every sense of the word except on paper it's very it's going to be key and a challenge and what you heard from Erica is a a sentiment that there are voters across the country have those are voters folks going to need and want when it comes November 2024 and Mark president B is expected to point the finger Congressional Republicans when it comes to the issue of the humanitarian crisis at the border

security his chief of staff told Politico how do you think this is going to translate into a speech tonight well I think he'll emphasize the point that that Democrats and Republicans had a plan had a solution to work and that that the Republicans bailed because they wanted to just gain political points for Donald Trump in November but the other thing I'll say Jose is that Biden has to show that it's a priority that he cares and that he has a plan and what what what confounds me is that I know fr

om reading in your own uh reports from MSNBC that the DHS has had a plan on the Shelf to give resources to other cities around the country that are not just on the border so it's a shared responsibility to take in immigrants to give them resources to help them relocate Across America and we've never heard about it and that would have preempted danis and Abbot shipping all these migrants North Biden needs to show that he's got his own plans and he and the remarkable thing is he does and he hasn't

talked about him Erica andola Mark McKinnon and Simone Sanders Townson thank you so very much and Erica I always remember that you are part of the millions of American families that live in mixed status immigration in their home and uh never forget uh your impact and of your mom and of your whole family so I want to thank you again for being with us