WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden is signaling an election-year shift to the center to help protect fragile Democratic majorities in Congress, even as key voices across his party’s sprawling political coalition threaten revolt.
In his first State of the Union address, the president embraced Republican calls to strengthen the nation’s southern border, barely mentioned climate change, glossed over voting rights and bluntly disavowed the Black Lives Matter push to “defund the police.”
The message marked an effort to reset the Democrats' political standing as polls suggest Biden is losing support with control of Congress at stake in November.
But in Biden’s bid for bipartisanship, he risks alienating the African Americans, young people, progressive and independents who delivered the White House.
