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Joe Biden during his State of the Union address

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Almond Ngan / AFP

US President Joe Biden gave a State of the Union address in Washington for the third time in his term in office.

This time it was also a campaign speech.

Because it has long been clear that the incumbent president will have to compete against his predecessor Donald Trump in this year's election.

Democracy and freedom have not been under such attack since Lincoln and the Civil War, Biden said during his appearance in Congress.

He strongly advocated continued support for Ukraine and assured that he would “not back down” in defending the country against Russia.

"My message to President Putin, whom I have known for a long time, is simple: We will not run away," said Biden on Thursday evening (local time).

“If anyone in this room thinks Putin is going after Ukraine, that's wrong.

I assure you he won’t.”

Biden is again calling on Congress to release further US aid to the country attacked by Russia.

»Ukraine can stop Putin.

If we stand by Ukraine and supply the weapons." Ukraine is not asking for US soldiers and he will not send any, Biden emphasized.

But Republicans wanted the United States to step away from world leadership.

Biden called statements made by his predecessor Donald Trump about the NATO defense alliance “dangerous and unacceptable.”

Trump recently made it clear during a campaign appearance that he would not provide American support to NATO allies with low defense spending in the event of a Russian attack.

“We have to stand up to Putin,” said Biden.

Reporters from the New York Times counted the words “my predecessor” 13 times in Biden’s speech.

This is quite unusual - and shows that Biden and his team viewed this speech as part of their election campaign.

He campaigned for re-election by promising, among other things, to lower costs for homebuyers, make health care more affordable, give public school teachers a raise and make big companies pay their "fair share."

The 81-year-old Biden tried to dispel concerns about his health by speaking particularly forcefully.

At times, Biden sounded like an auctioneer, commented a reporter from the New York Times.

However, the US President also stumbled and got confused a few times.

Biden received the usual applause on most topics, but when he spoke about the attack on the Capitol on January 6th, there was the first heckler.

Someone shouted “Lies!” after Biden said, “We all saw it with our own eyes: These rioters were not patriots.”

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