President Joseph R. Biden, Jr., the 46th President of the United States of America will deliver the State of the Union address tonight at 9 p.m. Along with a large portion of the country, Atlantans will be watching and listening to annual address, with some looking for answers to questions that affect their lives.
Former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, the Senior Advisor to the President for Public Engagement, along with former New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu, Senior Advisor to the President and Infrastructure Coordinator and Shalanda Young, Director of the United States Office of Management and Budget attended a Zoom call this morning to brief Black media on the address.
Bottoms, a native Atlantan, opened the conversation by crediting the Biden administration and the president’s leadership for $6 billion in support for Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU), the work currently taking place to clean drinking water in places like Jackson and Mississippi, amongst other things.
About the address, Bottoms said, “This evening will be an opportunity to hear from the President of the United States on what has been accomplished and what needs to be done to finish the job.”
Under the Biden administration Black unemployment is down to 5.4% from 9% when he took office. “We need to grow the economy from the bottom up and not from the middle out,” said Young, who added that Americans are starting to feel the impact of Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act (2022).
She also added that there have been over 12 million jobs created during the Biden administration’s tenure in office.
Bottoms was asked what Atlantans should look to hear in the speech that could directly affect them and their families. She said that Atlanta has experienced “our own pain in Atlanta,” referencing the deaths by police of Rayshard Brooks and Kathryn Johnson.
“Atlantans should pay close attention to what the president has to say as it relates to police accountability and the economy,” she said. Bottoms also added the capping of insulin prices, something that fellow Georgian and HBCU graduate Senator Raphael Warnock (Ga.-D) has championed during his two senatorial campaigns, and was going to be a part of the president’s address.
“Anything and everything the president says tonight should interest the people of Atlanta,” said Bottoms.
The State of the Union Address will air at 9 p.m. ET on all major networks.