What Went Down During President Biden’s Speech To Congress

Scott opened with the issue of school choice. There’s no question that this issue has gained steam because of the COVID-19 crisis. Although, like most issues, partisanship explained support for reopening schools during lockdowns, and the coronavirus crisis made issues around school choice more salient. So I think it’ll be an issue at the top of Republicans’ agenda for a while.

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.