Personally, if I were Biden, I wouldn't go in person, and just have Harris or a Cabinet member (maybe someone with no Presidential ambitions, like Garland or Austin) deliver the State of the Union.
If Biden gives a damn about his public image, this would be a terrible idea. The idea behind the SotU speech is that it's a chance for the president to connect with their government and, at least for contemporary addresses, the people. Biden hiding behind his VP or some relatively unknown cabinet member would definitely give off a message of opaqueness, and Biden's public image is currently too fragile to consider such a risky move. Any dumb gaffe that Mr. You-Know-The-Thing would perform would do far less damage to his public image than pussying out altogether.
Biden's also running a much higher risk of getting murdered than any President before him, and multiple House members openly carry guns on the House floor (Boebert for example). What's stopping one of them from openly shooting him during the State of the Union?I'm sure Secret Service would love to have Congressmen openly carry their guns around the President, although if Boebert seriously wanted to take out the illegitimate puppet president, she probably would've done it a long time ago, especially without the cameras rolling. Regardless, though, there's a reason why the line of succession and the designated survivor both exist.
The chances of a Congressman going postal for whatever reason is far too low to warrant Biden severely scarring his public image whilst tarnishing one of government's most prized traditions.
