How long is the State of the Union? Biden’s 2023 speech, more

WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden delivered his second State of the Union speech Tuesday evening, providing an optimistic tackle the nation’s situation and calling for unity with Republicans in Congress. 

With all the things happening involving the US — financial uncertainty, a suspected Chinese spy balloon, the battle in Ukraine and abortion rights to call a couple of — the president had quite a bit to cowl in his speech, which he used to counter pessimism and level to his celebration’s main laws, all with the 2024 elections drifting nearer. 

So how did Biden’s newest State of the Union measure as much as different speeches? 

C-SPAN studies that Biden’s Tuesday speech was 1:12:41, just below 73 minutes. 

It’s longer than his first State of the Union. His first of the yearly speeches, in 2022, lasted one hour, one minute and 50 seconds. 

But neither of Biden’s speeches got here near taking the report for shortest or longest State of the Union. The shortest tackle from one of Biden’s predecessors was lower than half an hour, whereas the longest took almost an hour and a half. 

RELATED: Here are the company for Biden’s State of the Union tackle

Here are some comparisons from 1964 (the first full 12 months of Lyndon B. Johnson’s presidency; he later gave the first televised evening SOTU address) onwards by The American Presidency Project at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

Bill Clinton holds the title for the longest spoken SOTU speech on report — his 2000 tackle took one hour, 28 minutes and 49 seconds. 

While George W. Bush and Barack Obama saved their SOTU addresses to about 50 minutes and one hour, respectively, Donald Trump got here near the report. His 2019 SOTU tackle lasted one hour, 22 minutes and 25 seconds, and his common was solely about two minutes shorter.

In reality, Clinton and Trump maintain the longest seven fashionable SOTU addresses on report. Clinton holds spots 1-2, 5, and seven, whereas Trump holds 3-4 and 6. 

Biden’s first SOTU speech of roughly one hour, one minute and 50 seconds was more in step with Obama’s averages than Trump’s or Clinton’s.

A distinct former president holds the report for longest written SOTU tackle: Jimmy Carter with 33,667 words in 1981. Carter, whose spoken SOTU addresses averaged about 37 minutes and three,750 phrases, opted for a written-only model that 12 months as a substitute of the televised primetime tackle that had develop into customary. 

In minutes, Richard Nixon’s 1972 speech is the shortest spoken SOTU tackle on report with The American Presidency Project — 28 minutes, 55 seconds. 

As for written variations, George Washington had the shortest annual message to Congress at simply 1,089 phrases. The relaxation of his SOTU speeches had been lengthier, however not by a lot; his longest was nonetheless lower than 3,000 phrases.