President Joe Biden assailed former President Donald Trump for kowtowing to Russia, failing to care about COVID-19 and papering over the Jan. 6 Capitol assault on Thursday in a State of the Union speech making his case for re-election in 2024.

Biden, speaking before a joint session of the House of Representatives and the Senate, opened his remarks with a direct criticism of Trump for comments inviting Russian President Vladimir Putin to invade other NATO nations if they did not spend more on defense.

President Joe Biden is delivering his third State of the Union address, one that could be among the most important speeches he gives during his presidency as he turns toward reelection.

His list of objectives was long: Tout his accomplishments in office, look ahead to a second-term agenda, allay concerns about his age and fitness and provide a contrast with Republicans, including his rival Donald Trump.

Here are some early takeaways from Biden’s annual message to Congress, which will be updated throughout the speech:

President Biden invoked former President Donald Trump, his 2024 opponent, multiple times during his State of the Union address.

Biden did not mention Trump by name, but instead, referred to him multiple times throughout the speech as his "predecessor." 

First, Biden invoked Trump related to Russia's war with Ukraine.

"My predecessor, a former Republican president, tells Putin, 'Do whatever the hell you want,'" Biden said. "A former American president actually said that, bowing down to a Russian leader."

Black members of Congress are hoping that Joe Biden will use his State of the Union Speech to speak directly to the concerns of African Americans who are feeling lukewarm about this reelection bid.

There’s not necessarily a secret formula that will win those voters over, some members say, but he at least needs to explain in clear terms what he’s accomplished for them.

President Joe Biden is not expected to announce any executive orders on the border ahead of or during Thursday’s State of the Union address, a White House official confirmed to NewsNation.

The White House has been weighing its options, but Biden will likely use the speech as an opportunity to call on Congress to act.

Immigration has become a hot-button issue this election year, and the president will likely put pressure on Congress to pass a border security bill after Republicans rejected a bipartisan proposal out of the Senate that had the White House’s backing.

President Biden during Thursday night's State of the Union address will lay out a distinctly populist vision for what economic policy in his second term would look like.

Why it matters: Next year is set to be a seismic year for U.S. fiscal policy, even if the topic doesn't get covered much, given the stakes of the 2024 election for such attention-grabbing topics as abortion and the future of democracy.

Ahead of President Joe Biden’s election-year State of the Union address to Congress, here’s a look at the data behind some of the topics and policies he could bring up Thursday evening.

A handful of Democrats plan to bring fertility doctors and patients to the State of the Union Thursday night, as part of an attempt to highlight the wide-ranging effects of the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade and remind voters about Democrats’ efforts to protect access to abortion and in vitro fertilization.

Corporate leaders who backed President Joe Biden in the 2020 election conveyed deep skepticism that the so-called billionaire’s tax Biden proposed in his State of the Union address this week would ever become law.

The plan would require households with a net worth above $100 million to pay a minimum annual tax of 20% on both their standard taxable income and on gains in the total value of their “tradable assets,” which includes stocks, bonds, mutual funds and other securities.

The best thing that can be said about President Joe Biden’s second State of the Union address last night is that a record-low number of people wasted their time watching it. It was a laundry list of nanny statism, promising that not even the tiniest detail of people's lives will be free from federal interference — not “resort fees” nor “targeted advertising” on social media.