Transcript for President Trump to call for bipartisan unity in SOTU address

So it is a huge night in Washington with the state of the union now rescheduled happening tonight. And the president trumps theme is going to be unity but we already understand that he has been tweeting about that. He said today IT's humor is already criticizing my state of the union speech even though he hasn't seen it yet. He's just upset that he can win the senate after spending a fortune like he thought he would. Too bad we were given more credit for the senate win by the media. So the theme unity and for that we had into they'll White House and the war. An epicenter of it all ABC's Karen Travers Karen unity really. Yes that was the president's first overture in unity as part of his state of the union on he might have to work on some of the messaging but tonight. The White House says the president is going to issue that call for bipartisanship. In a very bitterly divided Washington he's speaking for the first time. To a divided congress so the really little different than when he spoke there last year when he that Republicans have the majority in the house and senate. Tonight he will have the house democratic majority in front of him and looming very large right behind him over his shoulder will be House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. The White House says the president is going to talk about ways that the White House can work together we Democrats on policy issues but. On that's a very big challenge right now given that we're just a couple of days removed from a 35 day government shut down. And there's another thread of the shutdown looming at the end of next week over the issue of border security the president has certainly been hinting that he may declare a national emergency to bypass lawmakers. Get a pool of money to build the border wall right now no indication he's going only that out to. And we'll be searching is. Majority leader Nancy Pelosi space as she sits right there if you say over the presidential and we're not expecting a formal rebuttal from her instead of going to be coming from Stacey Abrams who actually doesn't hold. An elected office right now she had run for the governor's race in Georgia but lost there till the first African American woman to ever give the rebuttal what can you tell us about that care and that says a lot about what the Democrat. See as the message they want to put out after the president gives his remarks usually you have somebody is coming off a triumphant victory. Somebody who's seen as the future of the party because of the position they just want Stacy Abrams law passed in her race to be the governor of Georgia but as you say she's the first African American women. To deliver the state of the union rebuttal they certainly see her as a rising star in the Democratic Party and then put forward a message. About the party that they are in contrast that with what they say the vision of the president and Republicans block that it is a very very difficult speech to get I mean most of the time when we're talking about the rebuttal. It's because of some awkward moment everybody remembers Martin regalia water. You know you can pick which is the worst day did do these days in the city is state of the union rebuttal or the Super Bowl halftime show we'll see you would Stacey Abrams does tonight they sentence all the criticism Maroon 5 on Sunday. Absolutely well in the other thing of course we want going to be watching you and I will be talking about. Are the people that are the invited guests tell us about what you know about any in the invited guests that are going to be the first lady's box. This is an annual tradition of the White House brings people to come and sit with the First Lady to help the president make policy points during his remarks and tonight we are expecting that there will be. Several family members who lost relatives. It's your crimes at the White House says are committed by undocumented immigrants as the president makes his push for border security and the wall he wants in the US Mexico border were also expecting to see the first person released after that historic criminal justice bill the president signed into law late last year president will be violating that as a bipartisan accomplishment. Use that as a say right let's try and do it again on another issue. Another person that's gonna get a lot of attention alana is a young boy named Joshua and from who's in sixth grade boy from Delaware. Of course very famous last name not related to the president Stanley says he was bullied because of his last name the First Lady will be bringing into the state of the union tonight is part of that. Monuc critics pounced on this instead of all the things you can bring somebody to make a message about bullying. The administration is choosing to do one that involves the president and his last name but certainly that will be a moment we'll see what the president says about him tonight. Thank you Karen we'll be watching all of that I hope that you'll be watching with us we'll have live coverage here at 834. Special union. Coverage or special coverage of the state of the union.

This transcript has been automatically generated and may not be 100% accurate.