Fact check: Biden sets high bar in first State of the Union speech

President Joe Biden argued forcefully for the power of democracy while calling out Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in a March 1 State of the Union address that soon turned to the domestic concerns of the economy, inflation, and covid-19. Biden’s one-hour speech was given to a largely unmasked crowd of lawmakers, Supreme Court justices, and Cabinet members in the House chamber, a sign of the diminished threat of the omicron variant. Speaking on the subject of the coronavirus, Biden attempted to thread the needle between being optimistic and on guard, saying the nation was entering a phase in which...