What Went Down During President Biden’s Speech To Congress

We’re covering the Republican response, of course, but it’s worth noting that these tend to only be remembered if something weird happens. I suspect people might remember Sen. Rubio’s response to Obama in 2013, but not because of what he said, but because he stopped it the middle to drink water. And people might remember former Gov. Steve Beshear’s response to Trump in 2017, but mainly because it was with the weird backdrop of a diner in Kentucky.

The only thing I can think about as I watch this rebuttal is past years when there were a whole bunch of competing rebuttals. It wasn’t just Republicans — Democrats also got into rebuttal-mania.

Now we are hearing Scott give his rebuttal to Biden’s address. As we saw with Biden, when most politicians address a primetime audience, they avoid hyping their bases with controversial topics. For example, as we mentioned, Biden emphasized the economy over racial inequality. Scott is the only Black Republican in the Senate, and part of his role is to talk to a nation, the majority of which, according to polls, thought the last Republican president was racist. His presence in prime time aims to undercut that view of the Republican Party.