Report: Biden Team Seeks Reset in State of the Union

President Joe Biden's reelection team is looking to his State of the Union speech to help reset his 2024 presidential bid as polls show him trailing former President Donald Trump in a hypothetical one-on-one matchup.

According to Axios, Biden officials see the State of the Union address March 7 as an inflection point that could help quell the clamor over the 81-year-old Democrat incumbent's mental fitness.

"Everyone around him is well aware of the need to jack this campaign up," a source close to Biden told Axios. "The only way to deal with the negative aftershocks of the special counsel's report [criticizing Biden's age] is for the president to be out there, to be visible — to be strong of presence and strong of voice."

Sources told Axios that officials close to Biden are hoping to recapture the magic of his 2023 State of the Union speech. In that address, which the officials felt showcased his alertness, Biden discussed Social Security and panned Republicans, the sources said.

In the coming days, Biden officials will reportedly spend time putting the finishing touches on his speech and helping him physically prepare.

Concerns about Biden's cognition have dogged him after special counsel Robert Hur's report.

According to Axios sources, Biden is mulling taking executive action on the southern border crisis to dramatically stem the flow of migrants into the U.S. before the speech to score political points at the expense of Republicans.

The discussion about the need to change Biden's campaign calculus through a strong State of the Union performance comes after the RealClearPolitics average showed Trump ahead of Biden by 4.3 percentage points on Jan. 26 — his largest lead yet. The president hasn't led his likely Republican challenger in the RealClearPolitics average since September.

In addition, Biden is trailing Trump, the likely GOP presidential nominee, in several key battleground states.

A Feb. 6 NBC poll found that at least 76% of American voters have concerns about Biden's age and health, while 54% of Democrats are worried about his fitness for a second term.

A female Democrat poll respondent from Wisconsin told NBC that she thinks Biden's health and age "kind of get in the way of his ability to be a good president of the United States." She told the outlet she voted for Biden in 2020.