Joe Biden delivered his first speech to Congress on Wednesday night. It was low energy and no one learned anything new.
Biden went through all of his usual tropes about taxes and spending, gun control, immigration and so forth.
Here’s one clip that sums up the entire experience:
BIDEN: "We have to do more than just build back better. We have to build back better." pic.twitter.com/K3fEDzK3Yu
— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) April 29, 2021
Republican Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina delivered the GOP response.
And he knocked it out of the park.
Here’s a partial transcript from U.S. News & World Report:
Good evening. I’m Senator Tim Scott from the great state of South Carolina.
We just heard President Biden’s first address to Congress. Our President seems like a good man. His speech was full of good words. But President Biden promised you a specific kind of leadership. He promised to unite a nation. To lower the temperature. To govern for all Americans, no matter how we voted. That was the pitch. You just heard it again.
But our nation is starving for more than empty platitudes. We need policies and progress that bring us closer together. But three months in, the actions of the President and his party are pulling us further apart.
I won’t waste your time tonight with finger-pointing or partisan bickering. You can get that on T.V. any time you want. I want to have an honest conversation. About common sense and common ground. About this feeling that our nation is sliding off its shared foundation, and how we move forward together.
Growing up, I never dreamed I’d be standing here tonight. When I was a kid, my parents divorced. My mother, my brother, and I moved in with my grandparents. Three of us, sharing one bedroom. I was disillusioned and angry, and I nearly failed out of school. But I was blessed.
First, with a praying momma. Then with a mentor, a Chick-Fil-A operator named John Moniz. Finally, with a string of opportunities that are only possible here in America.
This part was fantastic:
When America comes together, we’ve made tremendous progress. But powerful forces want to pull us apart. A hundred years ago, kids in classrooms were taught the color of their skin was their most important characteristic — and if they looked a certain way, they were inferior. Today, kids again are being taught that the color of their skin defines them — and if they look a certain way, they’re an oppressor.
From colleges to corporations to our culture, people are making money and gaining power by pretending we haven’t made any progress. By doubling down on the divisions we’ve worked so hard to heal.
You know this stuff is wrong. Hear me clearly: America is not a racist country.
Watch the whole thing below:
Rebuttal speeches are usually pretty weak.
Not this one. Tim Scott was the star of the night.
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