At previous annual conferences, Biden has promised to restore America’s reputation, but he has ended up spending more time defending his own record, the Washington Examiner’s Naomi Lim reported.

In 2021, Biden spoke after 13 service members were killed in a suicide bombing at the Kabul airport during the chaotic withdrawal process in Afghanistan. He spoke in 2022 after Russia began its invasion of Ukraine. Last year’s speech came after a Chinese spy balloon was found floating over American airspace. This year, the Middle East is embroiled in an increasingly volatile conflict, with Israel defending itself against threats from Hamas, Hezbollah, and Iran, as well as a humanitarian crisis escalating in the Gaza Strip.

Still, senior administration officials told reporters yesterday that today’s address would stress American leadership.

“We have a story to tell about what we’ve done to rally the world to defend Ukraine’s sovereignty, uphold principles of the U.N. Charter, what we’ve done to manage responsibly our competition with other countries, including China, and also what we’re doing to deal with the ongoing and serious conflicts in our world in places like Gaza, where the president has worked tirelessly to get a hostage ceasefire deal, and conflicts like Sudan, where you have absolutely unprecedented displacement and a really serious crisis that we think needs to get more attention,” one official said.

Critics don’t buy it, Naomi reported.

“As president for the last four years, as vice president for eight, and then, before that, a 36-year career in the Senate, he actually doesn’t have a lot to show for it when it comes to lasting accomplishments,” Gabriel Scheinmann, who spearheads an international affairs membership organization, told the Washington Examiner.

Richard Goldberg, a senior adviser at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told Naomi that Biden’s term was more like a “four-year case study indicting an ‘American Last’ foreign policy.” He argued the administration invited Russia’s invasion of Ukraine through an “appeasement strategy combined with his disastrous Afghanistan withdrawal.”

Biden will make his address at 10 a.m.

Click here to read more of our analysis of Biden’s international policy.

Cassidy warns of port strike’s ‘devastating consequences’

Our Zach Halaschak scooped that Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) is sending a letter to the Biden administration, urging it to intervene before dockworkers go on strike next week.

The U.S. Maritime Alliance is in negotiations with the International Longshoremen’s Association for a new contract, their first in six years. The union is looking for a wage hike and protections from automation. If they don’t reach a solution by Oct. 1, 25,000 workers are set to walk off the job on East Coast ports, which could snarl supply chains and cost billions of dollars.

In the letter, addressed to Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, Cassidy said the strike would have “devastating consequences” for the public, particularly around the holiday season, and accused the administration of being more interested in having a “pro-union” legacy than being “pro-worker.”

“American families should not pay the price for your administration’s ‘pro-union’ favoritism,” Cassidy said. “Your refusal to act prioritizes convenience over the needs of the American people. You have the tools to act and avoid a harmful strike — all that is missing is leadership.”

The Biden administration last week said it would not move to block the strike, with one official saying, “We’ve never invoked Taft-Hartley to break a strike and are not considering doing so now.”

The Taft-Hartley Act, enacted in 1947, subjected unions to the National Labor Relations Board’s unfair labor prices, restricting the power of labor unions.

The union negotiations aren’t going very well, Washington Examiner’s Annabella Rosciglione reported.

“We are very far apart,” Harold Daggett, the union president, said earlier this month. “Mark my words, we’ll shut them down Oct. 1 if we don’t get the kind of wages we deserve.”

Read more about Cassidy’s letter and what else you need to know about the looming strikes.

Democrats roll out the red carpet for Zelensky

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky came to the United States to address the U.N. General Assembly in New York City but made a stop in Pennsylvania to tour an ammunition plant in Scranton. Some Republicans see the move as campaigning for the Democrats, who have been united in sending aid to Ukraine, particularly since the visit was to Biden’s hometown, Senate Reporter Ramsey Touchberry wrote.

“I think it’s an abuse of taxpayer funds and trying to support Democrat candidates and using military aircraft to do so,” House Republican Conference Chairwoman Elise Stefanik (R-NY) said.

Gov. Josh Shapiro (D-PA), who has been a vocal ally for Harris and was under consideration for the vice presidential slot, greeted Zelensky as he arrived on a U.S. Air Force C-17.

Zelensky framed the visit as a way to thank American munition workers. The factory he visited received a big chunk of the $60 billion for Ukraine assistance passed earlier this year to help in the fight against Russia’s invasion.

However, Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-MO) said in a post that Zelensky was “openly campaigning for Democrats in battleground Pennsylvania.”

Not all Republicans had such a sinister view of the visit. Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL), who is vying to be the next Senate GOP leader and opposed Ukraine aid earlier this year, said, “The way I look at is, he’s just thanking people for — he needs a lot of ammunition.”

Click here to read more about Zelensky’s visit.

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For your radar

Biden will address the U.N. General Assembly at 10 a.m. in New York City and hold a bilateral meeting with Secretary-General António Guterres. He will also speak at the Global Coalition to Address Synthetic Drug Threats at 1:45 p.m. and then deliver remarks on climate at the Bloomberg Global Business Forum at 4:30 p.m.

Harris doesn’t have any public events on her schedule.

Former President Donald Trump will hold a rally focused on economic proposals in Savannah, Georgia, at 1 p.m.