right now on a special two-hour edition of "andrea mitchell reports." for the first time in his presidency, a divided congress. two senior administration

officials telling nbc news the goal of the president's address tonight is to affirm the core promises of his 2020 presidential campaign. restoring the soul of the nation. tonight's critical address as the polling shows the president faces growing dissatisfaction at home. >> the administration is not taking care of our own people. >> you have to get these old guys out. >> i will be joined by chris jansing and katy tur. plus, looming large. the diplomatic fallout from shooting down the 200-foot tall chinese spy balloon over the atlanta expected to play heavily into tonight's address.

some of the lines of the speech referring to china were being edited in the wake of the military operation. how hard will the president go against china tonight? death toll rising. more than 5,100 people dead after two powerful earthquakes striking -- >> we were hearing voices, messages from under the rubble. we couldn't do anything. good morning, everyone. i am andrea mitchell in washington. this is the big day. we begin final preparations for the president's second state of the union, and the call for

bipartisanship will come with a different backdrop. instead of nancy pelosi sitting behind him next to vice president harris, it will be house speaker, kevin mccarthy. a reminder of the tense challenges the president faces. mike, you have been covering the president longer than anybody. what about the final preparations. what is happening in the white house? what are you learning about how the speech is coming together? >> in i learned a thing or two covering president biden over the years, one of those is that this speech is going to be tweaked and refined up right until he goes to give the speech. it's an accomplishment against

the backdrop that a lot of pain the americans feel in the economy and the after-effects of the covid-19 pandemic. that's why the aides tell me while there will be new items, the theme will be much one of joe biden over the years. optimism about this country's future, and particularly optimism about what we can accomplish if we do it together. as you laid out, andrea, it's one of the core themes of the 2020 candidacy that he will try and reconnect with, talking about the economy and rebuilding as he did in the campaign, and infrastructure and roads and bridges being built across the country, and then with china and the balloon incident, and there was already a significant portion about china in the speech. he has been talking about it as the defining of the 21st

century. and trying to reunite the country, and it's something he made a promise to voters, and before that republican congress already investigating his administration and his family, the president is going to layout areas where he thinks he can still work with them knowing it's an uphill climb and to layout his determination to do it. >> that's a perfect segue to garrett hague on the hill. what are we hearing from kevin mccarthy ahead of the state of the union speech? we know there will be a taped response, a pretaped response, of course, from donald trump. >> the reality is there's little the new house majority wants to work with president biden, and

one of the possible exceptions may be on standing up to china. we will watch that segment closely. in the last few weeks we have heard from the speaker, kevin mccarthy, trying to get president biden to the table and negotiate on the debt limit. the speaker spoke last night, and it was a sober and restrained tone, talking about the need to be adults and to sit down and negotiate as adults. republicans want that to be part of the takeaway from tonight. they want to look like reasonable and negotiating partners that the president cannot ignore. >> i won't tear up the speech, i won't play games. i'm very respectful. being speaker is an honor and i want to treat the office itself with the honor and dignity it

deserves. >> the introduction to the country was in the long speaker's race, and as to the speeches from the republican response, contrast, contrast, contrast. here's the key. sarah huckabee sanders and juan will give the spanish language speech, they want a policy contrast on every level, andrea. >> the speaker was not elected until 15 votes. can he control some of the members of his caucus, the kind of people that shouted things out in the past at the democratic president? >> the speaker reminded his members, the cameras are on and mics are hot, and outbursts will be caught on tape.

the republicans are hoping, again, they can introduce themselves to the country. this is the largest audience they are liable to have all year. they want to look like grown ups at the negotiating table as well. we will see what happens. >> thank you for starting us off. joining me in washington, josé diaz-balart, katy tur and chris jansing. so good to be together. we pass each other in the hallways, but we're altogether on the most important night of the year, and this is the kickoff of the president's re-election campaign. just a word here on foreign policy, as i do, as all of you do, but i do it 24/7, the china balloon and the fact that there

were three sightings, and i am told there's choppy waters slowing down the search, but it's a smaller debris field than northeast estimated. and they even went to nasa to ask about the dimensions of the debris field, and nasa had those dimensions, and they went to great effort. this has been a coast guard and navy operation, but as the drivers continue their search and the fbi looking at the forensics, just what was china looking for and what was their technology? was it the same balloons or launching something completely new? we had spy planes surrounding it and circling it, so we extracted a lot of data of what was on that, and they want to get the

payload. and that's the strategy against the republican idea that they should have shot the balloon down earlier, and you would not have had the possibility of retrieving the payload as you do over water. the biggest problem this president has in the poll numbers is his approval rating is low, and two-thirds of the people do not think he's handling the economy well even though the recovery is far better. but let's talk about police and gun reform? >> this is one area where i think the white house believes they can have an emotional touch point, right? there's a belief that the call the president is going to make, it's the video of tyre nichols being beaten to death, and his mother and stepfather will be sitting with the first lady. remember at the funeral when she said if you don't do this you will have blood on your hands,

this being for congress to pass the george floyd justice and policing act. we know what a long shot that is. the president will look out on a divided congress. there's more, really. 89% of the american people think their police departments could use change, but when you look at if it's a top priority, there's a new poll that shows only 29% of republicans think it's a top priority and not a majority 6 independents. that's what he is going to be facing. it's a priority for the cdc, the congressional black caucus. you will see a button that members of the cbc will be wearing, and it says 1870, that's the first known instance of police killing the first black man. the gun reform, the president

has a chance to tout progress with the historic legislation, probably the most sweeping in three decades, but he will push for the assault weapons ban, something he has been trying to do time and again. public support waned. it was 65% that he had back in 2019, and it's down to 47% in a poll in the last few weeks. i think this is going to be a question of how do you take what our emotional issues is. can he make a moment and get people motivated to care about the issues the way they did in the immediate aftermath of some of the events. >> and the gop said the george floyd policing act is a nonstarter and they are not going to go there.

does that white house understand that? are they ready to work with house republicans on the divisive issue to find some common ground. jim jordan said there's no federal law that can change what is happening. >> yeah, one of the things the white house has said is you have to start somewhere, and the president has to negotiate and how far they are willing to go to get things done is a question. there's a belief with many of the activists i talked to, if you can keep the motivation going, the civil rights didn't happen over months or weeks, it took years. >> josé, you were out in monterey park, and you know how people were reacting. on police reform you have a senator that is likely running for president, tim scott, and qualified immunity was the break

point of those negotiations. >> i just keep thinking about that, andrea. it's important because when we are talking about issues and what the president can and can't say, is there any bipartisan efforts that could come forward? i don't see how. in issues with vast support by the american people like daca -- >> it's heartbreaking. >> yet nothing can get done. i do think about that hero of monterey park that took away that weapon from that person. he already killed 12 people. i think of the 19 people killed

in uvalde. >> i thought after mother emanuel, rather sandy hook that was in new town, and he was so emotional, and 20 children and teachers -- it's just -- >> andrea, i have a question because i have been wanting to talk to you about it, but this spy balloon that china sent, was it a spy balloon or a trial balloon -- >> both. >> very similar one was flying over latin american, columbia, we were just talking about it. is it a new phase? >> that's what we are trying to determine. is this a new phase? yes, they are sending more out. they are more competitive.

what they are trying to learn is was there new equipment on it. there are balloons that can send out small drones and do all kinds of intercepts that satellites can't. >> they were saying they are not entirely sure xi jinping knew this was happening, and this could have been an intelligence freelance on the part of the chinese intelligence. from our intelligence understanding of how it works, is that even possible? when i think about it, i can't imagine xi jinping not knowing about any of it. >> they have come up with a plan at the highest levels of u.s. officials, they come up with a plan every year for x number of

hundreds of balloons, and it has been coastal as far as we know. now they are reviewing and going back to see whether, in fact, some of those ufos or aerial events that pilots have been citing at various places that were balloons. we have to do a better job of spotting these events when they happen. we have not had situational awareness. that's one thing they are working on. one of the real things to answer your question is, it's quite possible and even likely that the military came up with a plan and at their mid levels had dates that did not get briefed at all to the foreign ministry or to the president's office that it was coming days before the summit. >> americans are riveted by the story, and the question is can the president answer their questions tonight, right? >> we will take a quick break

and come back, and after the break more from the anchor panel on tonight's state of the union, including with president biden take on republicans over their hunger on investigations, even into his son. plus, a desperate search. more than 5,000 people now dead after the massive earthquakes in turkey and syria. we are in turkey live as rescuers are going through the rubble and looking for survivors. this is "andrea mitchell reports" on msnbc. on msnbc. or a double shift. make your move and get out in front of eczema with steroid-free cibinqo. not an injection, cibinqo is a once-daily pill for adults who didn't respond to previous treatments. and it's proven to help provide clearer skin and relieve itch fast. cibinqo continuously treats eczema whether you're flaring or not. cibinqo can lower your ability to fight infections, including tb. before and during treatment,

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welcome back. a key focus of tonight's state of the union address will be working together with republicans in congress. that's the president's goal, but last hour republicans launched three separate hearings leaning into democratic pressure points, including one on the threat of the chinese communist party posed to our national defense, and combating the economic

threat from china. back with us now in washington are our msnbc political panel, josé diaz-balart, katy tur and chris jansing. >> i talked to a number of key white house aides over the last few days about whether president biden will go against republicans and get ahead of them on the investigations, and they said no, this will be a unifying speech and he can get things done and there's a bipartisan way to do so. but republicans don't want to paint him as a unifier, and their effort is to make him look divisive and weaker on the foreign policy and opaque on the policy.

>> if president biden took classified documents with him and held them for years and criticized president trump during the same time they had the classified documents -- >> what happened for six years? why did joe biden have it? >> there's a pattern here of money flowing into biden's pockets and interest, it's concerning. >> we need to talk about what did the doj and fbi do, did they suppress? the answer is yes, they suppressed. >> one way we can get in front of the committee is we are not going to give a penny -- >> i think this entire episode telegraphed weakness to xi and the chinese government. >> this confirms that president

biden and vice president harris should resign. >> this is all rebutting the state of the union, and they will have their official rebuttal tonight with sarah huckabee sanders, and somebody said she will try and paint joe biden as unwilling to defend our borders and defend our skies and our people. interesting, they will have the afghan ambassador, and he will point out what happened in the withdrawal from afghanistan. they want to take away the idea that president biden is trying to bring the country together and stabilize things and make it seem like the country is still in disarray. that's the effort by republicans. don't expect to hear anything about hunter biden in the state of the union tonight.

don't expect to hear anything about the classified documents. you will hear about the spy balloon, but i am told this will not be president biden on defense. this will be him showing the american public what he has done, and they will leave the rest to republican noise. >> josé, one of the big issues of disarray is the border, because there are historic levels of migrants on the left and the right with many people on the left, certainly a lot of democrats and human rights groups really concerned about article 42. >> yeah, and what is the emigration policy of the united states? is it title 42? now are they going to remove the crisis of covid, does that include title 42? there's a pull and push of immigration. the fact is we have never seen the amount of people trying to leave their country to reach the united states of america. cuba, almost 4% of the entire

population has left that island in the last two years. 4%. haiti. the country is -- there's no functioning government. gangs are in control. it's so difficult for people to survive on a daily basis. they are going to relieve regardless of what american policy is, but maybe it should be clear. i spoke with a daca recipient and asked what she wants to hear from the president tonight. >> he promised he was going to be approaching this issue from a human side, and he was going to ensure people like myself who are daca have a path to citizenship, and he did promise he would restore asylum, and the administration is following the steps of the trump administration and ending a lot

of these -- this program, right, this path that people have to seek safety in this country. hopefully he can tell us how he will follow the promises he has not done yet. >> it's so important to underline that there are two different issues here. there's immigration reform of the 11, 12 and 13 million people that have been here, and many for decades have been participating in the economy. then there are the politics at the border, and politics intertwines the two of them. >> we have a declining birthrate and tax base that will not be supportable for future generations for social security or medicaid, and many will say it's smart and strategic and will benefit all of us and our

survival to expand the tax base and let more immigrants in. why don't i hear more about the economic reasons? >> because of the political intertwining of the human relations and the -- well, talk to the mayor of miami, and they talk about there's a need for people to work. we're in essentially a 3.2% unemployment, there's full employment in our country. >> we have 10 million open jobs and 2 million less people looking for jobs. >> the president did talk about immigration reform last year and is certainly going to talk about it this year, and what a lot of people will want to hear him say is how one can work in a bipartisan manner to get something done because it just doesn't seem possible. >> senate republicans want something done.

there was the senate that wants something done, but it's the house. >> you will hear heckling again tonight. is the president preparing for that? you see the difficulty of the speech in the conversation we are having, because a lot of these same issues are what president clinton was talking and reagan were talking about. >> yeah, since 1986, reagan was president and it was a divided congress and it was done back then. >> we have been talking about that since columbine. i covered columbine. everybody thought something would change then, and they thought it would change after new town. every time there's a horrific, and in south carolina somebody goes into a church where they are praying and kills a lot of

people. >> it's not just a divided congress, but a gerrymandering congress, and extremes are rewarded. there's not much room for bipartisan agreement any longer because what gets you elected is the more extreme position -- >> the anti-gun reform position and -- >> money from those lobbyists on gun manufacturers as well. let's do this again. >> yes, thank you. >> thank you for having us. >> maybe bring drinks. great to see you all. >> thank you. coming up next, a race against time inside the tragic search as the death toll rises from the earth quakes.

and then a security zone about the size of 15 football fields looking for the china balloon. we will talk to ruben gallego. this is "andrea mitchell reports" on msnbc. reports" on msnbc. mom. can we get a puppy, mom? please? girls, pets are a big expense. aww. [ audience cheers ] maybe try switching your car insurance to progressive. you could save hundreds. [ audience laughter ]

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the death toll from earthquakes that shock turkey and syria continues to dramatically climb. it's now more than 5,000. 5,000 people. search teams are working around the clock digging through the rubble using heavy machinery and their bare hands looking for

survivors. matt has the latest on the ground there. that part of the border with refugees has been a border zone and refugee zone, and it's now a calamity. talk to me about the search and rescue efforts. >> reporter: we are not so far from what was the epicenter, and there was more than 5,000 taken down by that earthquake, according to the turkish government. just when we arrived a couple hours ago, this place was filled with hundreds of mostly volunteers, mostly amateurs, people from the neighborhood who just felt compelled to come and help out. now, they were working all day yesterday, all night overnight under spotlights, and all day today. we spoke with some of them and they said they were exhausted, but they had to pitch in to help out their friends and family. just in the last hour we have seen a dramatic shift in that.

we have seen a bulgarian team showing up just recently, and it was remarkable. this was the first time we had seen foreign help. it was one of 70 countries who offered to help out in turkey. the bulgarians showed up and everybody was completely quiet. they kneeled down on orders of turkish authorities, and suddenly everybody quieted down and we saw the bulgarians what looked like sonar search equipment, and that's what required the quiet. now as you can see, it's mostly some volunteers but mostly professionals who are trying to find anybody that might still be alive, although that sounds increasingly unlikely as the clock ticks on into the evening.

>> matt bradley, thank you so much for being there. and navy crews in south carolina working hard to recover more debris after the spy balloon from china was shot down on saturday. the search is continuing and i am told the waters have been choppy, which slowed it down quite a bit. chinese balloon threats have gone undetected in the past, and that's after it was reported that previous spy balloons were detected during the trump administration, which we reported here on saturday. as i mentioned, the commander of norad confirming they did not detect any spy balloons dating back to the trump administration

until afterwards, and so this was not in real time. the u.s. utilized the opportunity to close intel gaps. what does it say about our lack of overall capacity and security capability to spot these things? i am told they are now looking back to see if the aerial events reported by pilots across the country in recent years have been balloons. >> yeah, well, i mean, if you consider it, andrea, it's a vast airspace that norad is responsible for, and if some of the previous incidents were not as brazen, and it's not going to be as clear-cut as something drifting over the entire continental of the united states. now i am sure what they can do is go back and look at all of their data, and they accumulate

and collect vast amounts of data, and they try to piece together what they can from that effort about chinese trade craft and the different ways china may be using balloons and other types of aerial reconnaissance to spy on the united states. >> ben, one quick question. do you think that china is using these more aggressively? are there new technologies we are concerned about, perhaps not in this case, but new technologies, these mini drones that could be emitted from a balloon that we have to improve our defenses against? >> yeah, i think so. andrea, i think we are accustomed to the u.s. trying to hack into u.s. computer systems and we are accustomed to a chinese presence in space through satellites, and china wants to get other capabilities that are closure to the ground and can pick up audio and there's a whole host of things

that china may be trying to do. it may also be the case, andrea, china likes to go tit for tat, and they see some of the things the united states does, wrongly in my view, in places like the south china sea, and they claim taiwan as their territory and the united states has a lot of presence in those regions as well, and this could be tit for tat, we are showing you we will be brazen in trying to collect information on what you are doing. i think what we are going to have to do is piece together the whole picture of what is going to be a multiyear and decade kind of intelligence. this is the kind of cold war competition we are in with china when it comes to spying on one another. >> and you have foreign policy and political experience, what the president is facing tonight in that chamber is really united republican criticism, not the

bipartisan when it comes to china. does president biden act tougher on what he would want to do? >> they are not the easiest speeches to work on, and i think the real challenge is, you don't want to get too stuck in the news cycle. right now everybody is focused on the balloon. the state of the union is one chance each year to not just speak to the people in the chamber but over their heads to the american people. yes, address this balloon and then step back and say this is what i am doing to prepare this country to compete with china economically, and from a possession of values, democracy

versus autocracy. the republican criticisms will be hyperbolic, and i think the american people themselves can sort out what is a thoughtful critique and those saying he should resign because of the balloon. his administration is pursuing a whole bunch of issues and trying to frame the issue for the next two years, because there will be a lot of noise about china. this is the one chance you have on the biggest stage possible to frame that, and i would not get stuck in the weeds of the balloon and i would talk about the bigger picture between china and the u.s. relationship. >> if they are listening, you have the experience. eight of president obama's speeches. >> thank you. and joining me is ruben gallego, and he announced he's

running for senate, challenging senator kyrsten sinema, who has become an independent and not a democrat. what do you say to your colleagues across the aisle that have knee-jerked criticism of president biden. >> the president did a calm and measured execution of his job. he did not respond to public pressure and potentially put americans in harm's way. he shot it down in an appropriate place so we could also be safe and have more recovery of goods. we know we were able to block a lot -- from what i understand, there was signals going back to china so there was no reconnaissance that was completed, so this is the type of measured response you want from a leader. i hope my colleagues will see that. he doesn't take away from the overall fact that, yes, this was

a problem, and our sovereignty was violated by china and they are a threat and we need to figure out how to meet that on all levels, including economically, which we have been failing in that regard. >> how do you know we blocked their signals back to china? >> from the public reports of what we have been seeing and reading. >> i will leave it there. that's interesting information. tonight the president is expected to layout his case, and he's not getting credit for his accomplishments. the poll shows two-thirds of americans don't believe -- approve of the economy. can he turn it around? >> the president needs to be bold in where he's going, and at the same time recognizing, you know, we still have challenges. costs are too high. you still see it in the grocery

stores in arizona. eggs are particularly still expensive. families are feeling that. he needs to highlight the successions. this is the lowest unemployment we ever had, at least in the last decade, a couple decades. when it comes to latinos in arizona, it's the lowest ever. these are great things to talk about. but he needs to move forward and offer an idea -- he actually needs let the american people know he's fighting for them. he could find bipartisan support in that regard, too. >> you have launched your senate campaign challenging kyrsten sinema. as a challenge, biden and the democratic party could lose that seat in the three-way race. why do you think you would be a

better senator than kyrsten sinema. >> no matter what, kyrsten sinema is going to be pulling for the republicans more from polling and it's better for me and the democratic ticket that i am running. i will encourage people to come out and vote whether it's young voters or latinas not voting recently, and they will make sure arizona stays in the blue column for the president. the reason why i am a better senator is because i have not forgotten where i came from. i am the son of working-class immigrants. i want to make sure everybody has the opportunity whether they are black, white or latina that i had growing up. kyrsten sinema is not with the working class families anywhere in arizona. at this point, that's what these

families need. she's not going to deliver it and neither are the republicans. i talk to them about my values and background and my experience, and i know i will be able to get that vote out and we will make sure that everybody comes together for a victory in november. >> ruben gallego, congressman, thank you very much for being with us today. >> thank you. up next, the ratings roller coaster where president biden's approval rating stands ahead of the state of the union address? will it even matter? r? thankfully, the breakthrough in prevagen helps your brain and actually improves memory. the secret is an ingredient originally discovered... in jellyfish. in clinical trials, prevagen has been shown to improve short-term memory. prevagen. at stores everywhere without a prescription.

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director of speech writing for president biden. michael, you know a lot about polling and politics and you know about speeches. have any -- have any state of the union speeches really made the difference for a president at this point in a presidency facing the election? >> usually a little later, for instance, 1996, you and i both remember it, and cody may be younger and not remember it personally, but president clinton said the era of government is over, and he felt that his profile, which was the term he used had gone too far to the left and that's the reason he lost both houses of congress in 1994, and he wanted one line that would dispel doubts about

his position and would make him seem less liberal, and it worked. he won re-election. >> cody, how important is this specific state of the union for joe biden? he's not yet announced but we expect him to very shortly. how important is it for him to layout his aims for the election campaign tonight? >> they are all important. i mean, it's the state of the union address. there's no speech that so much work goes into and has such a short shelf life. we always look at it appear as an opportunity. it's not what he needs to do but it's what he can do. what he can do is talk about a years. gas prices falling. inflation easing. legislation that will modernize the economy and help. it takes time for those things to kick in. look at the fact that he has a republican house majority.

he can point out, we passed a good chunk of bipartisan legislation. if they refuse, he can take the case to the american people in 2024. >> michael, how can he use the speech effectively at this moment in his presidency? >> by essentially saying that, i have done a lot more than you think i have. these are the things i would like to do in the future. if you like them, support me. he is not going to say this but implied, vote for me in 2024 if i run. for instance, at this point in his presidency, ronald reagan, january of 1983, has approval rating was 35%. less than two years later, he won 49 states, got re-elected. >> he was coming out of a really terrible recession, origining of -- or beginning of a recession.

37% of americans approve of the handling of the economy. that's a low number considering the jobs number, how they have so far managed to try to tamp down inflation. that's not his job. it's the fed. gas prices have come down. people are still thinking -- people are still thinking about core inflation and what they are facing when they go to the grocery store. >> it's a common frustration across all white houses that you are not getting enough credit for all the great things you are doing. he is going to keep working at this. inflation has been reezing. hopefully, it continues to go down. one other thing he could point out is, republicans are floating a 30% sales tax. on everything. from eggs to interest rate on your credit cards. there's going to be an implied choice here. keep working to make an economy that works, lifts up people's circumstances or we can cut

medicare and social security and put in a 30% sales tax. you want to frame these as a choice. republicans have been doing that for him. >> indeed. he might be as bill clinton was, just lucky who the opponents are. thinking back to 1996 and newt gingrich. they have to not overplay their hand. it's great to have the two of you. thanks so much. among the voters that president biden is hoping to reach tonight, key are the voters in pennsylvania. those in pennsylvania, a swing state crucial to helping joe biden clinch the 2020 election. dasha burns is in pennsylvania where she had a chance to sit down with some of the swing voters ahead of the speech tonight. dasha, good to see you. >> reporter: great to see you. i was listening to the conversation you had. we were talking to voters about exactly what you just touched on, which is that the numbers, the statistics point to low

unemployment, point to cooling inflation, and yet voters are frustrated. democrats and republicans both. the numbers are trending at the right direction. there's a disconnect between what the data says and how people feel on the ground. they are feeling the pinch at the pump, struggling when they see the price of eggs. while that might be frustrating four the white house, and it might take time for those things to kick in for the actions on the part of the president to take affect here, in the meantime, voters are feeling like they are hung out to dry a little built. democrats and republicans unanimously told me, they want real talk. they know, they expect the president will tout directness. they want transparency around what things will look like in the coming year.

i want you to listen to my conversation with allen, who is a republican who split his ticket in the midterms. voters are doing that more and more, trying to piece together their ticket to get to some bipartisan moderate space that they feel doesn't exist. i want you to hear from angelo, a democrat, party line voter. i gotta tell you, i was surprised by how much those two have in common. take a listen. >> what we want is a good bit of transparency. don't insult our intelligence. don't tell us it's great when it's not great. it's not as bad as my side is saying it is. it's not as good as his side is saying it is. >> i think he needs to do a better job getting the democrats and republicans to put aside the differences and to focus on just the issues for americans so that we can continue to get better. the budget. a shutdown is not helpful for everyone. >> reporter: honesty was number one. bipartisanship was number two.

in terms of what they want to hear from the president. they want to see him reach across the aisle. again, republicans and democrats. i tell you, on the ground and i talk to voters on all sides of the political spectrum, there is a lot more that they have in common than not. wanting to hear both parties try to come together and work past the stalemate is so important to all of them. >> dasha burns, back there in pennsylvania. thanks so much. we have more coming up. stay with us in the second hour of this special edition of "andrea mitchell reports," including bob menendez chairing the senate foreign relations committee on navigating our relationship with china after discovering that spy balloon and shooting it down. tonight's state of the union, of course. that's after a short break.

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right now on a special edition of "andrea mitchell reports," president biden prepares to make his first state of the union address to a divided congress and a divided nation, frustrated or inflation, concerned about policing at the brutal beating of tyre nichols and china's brazen balloon incursion across the united states. now the calamity in turkey where that massive earthquake is responsible for more than 5,000 people who have died. this hour, i will talk to senate foreign relations chairman bob menendez, former obama attorney general steve holder and steve