The State of the Union Address
by Kitty Felde
Our Founding Fathers thought the State of the Union address was so important, they put it in the Constitution:
The President “shall from time to time give to the Congress Information of the State of the Union, and recommend to their Consideration such measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient.
George Washington delivered the first State of the Union address. At the time, it was called the Annual Message and Congress was meeting in New York City. He combined his Inaugural Address with the Annual Message on April 30, 1789. A year later, he delivered the first first regular Annual Message to a Joint Session of Congress, again in New York City.
(image courtesy of the National Portrait Gallery)President John Adams also showed up in person to deliver his message to Congress. But Thomas Jefferson was a better writer than a speaker, so he just sent over a paper copy in 1801. He wasn’t the only one. Other Presidents, including Calvin Coolidge (1924-1928), Herbert Hoover (1929-1932), Franklin Roosevelt (1944, 1945), Harry Truman (1946, 1953), Dwight Eisenhower (1956, 1961), Richard Nixon (1973), and Jimmy Carter (1981) didn’t make the trek down Pennsylvania Avenue to address Congress in person.
Lyndon Johnson delivered the first televised State of the Union address in 1965.
While there is no record of a bird pooping on the president during the State of the Union address, there has been misbehavior of other sorts. During President Biden’s State of the Union address in 2022, Republican Congresswomen Marjorie Taylor Greene and Lauren Boebert grumbled and tried to start a chant during the speech. Two years earlier, Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi tore up her copy of the speech delivered by President Trump. In 2009, Congressman Joe Wilson yelled, “You lie!” at President Obama during his State of the Union address.
Fina would not approve.