As President Joe Biden prepares to deliver his third State of the Union address on Thursday night, all eyes will be fixed on him as he addresses pressing topics such as the economy and foreign relations in a chance to promote his mental acuity. 

Biden’s past State of the Union addresses have fallen in line with those of his recent predecessors in terms of length, but his reelection campaign has been grappling with multiple gaffes, which have raised questions about cognitive decline.

During his first three years in office, Biden gave fewer interviews to news organizations than former President Donald Trump, but the American Presidency Project recently pointed out that Biden has given 14 solo conferences, in which the president responds to questions from the media, compared to Trump, who gave nine during his first three years. 

While his past addresses have been over an hour, his recent blunders have seemingly received more attention in the last year. From confusing the names of world leaders to mixing up the wars in Ukraine and Iraq, Thursday’s address will be a test for the president to move past his latest fumbles. 

The shortest State of the Union address came from President Richard Nixon, who spoke for less than 29 minutes in 1972, and the longest came from President Bill Clinton, at nearly an hour and a half in 1995 and 2000, per the American Presidency Project. 

Biden’s speech to a joint session of Congress in 2021, which wasn’t a State of the Union address, lasted an hour and five minutes, while his first official State of the Union address in March 2022 lasted about an hour. He discussed Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which started less than a week before his address, the country’s path to recovery amid the COVID-19 pandemic, and the economy. 

One notable misstep from Biden’s speech two years ago occurred when he pledged his support for Ukraine but accidentally referred to Ukrainians as “Iranians.”

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Biden spoke for an hour and 13 minutes during the 2023 State of the Union address, the longest of his three addresses, according to the American Presidency Project from the University of California, Santa Barbara.

He spoke to the House chamber before a deeply divided Congress last year, similar to the political climate presently, and he was repeatedly heckled by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA). This year, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) has reportedly asked for “decorum” during the State of the Union address.