A Presidential Address
The 46th president of the United States, Joseph Robinette Biden, Jr., will address a joint session of Congress tonight…it starts at 8, and you can hear the speech along with the Republican response from South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott live on KXEL.
This will be in stark contrast to the last time a U.S. president addressed a joint session of Congress…which I seem to recall being President Trump’s State of the Union message last February.
The House chamber then was stuffed with lawmakers and guests. The address will be remembered likely for two things…the president awarding Rush Limbaugh the Presidential Media of Freedom during the speech, and Speaker Nancy Pelosi ripping up her copy of the speech before the president had left the podium.
Tonight, a limit on attendance…only 200 members of Congress as opposed to the maximum of 535. And they won’t just be on the floor, they’ll be scattered through the gallery as well. Those folks should all be vaccinated, but you’ll no doubt see plenty of masks thanks to the Speaker’s rules.
Never before have we had two women sitting behind a president; in addition to Pelosi, Vice President Kamala Harris will be there in her role as president of the Senate.
Most strikingly will be the message delivered by this president, as opposed to the last one. The coronavirus pandemic alone would suggest that…but the Trump view of the nation, as opposed to the Biden view, could hardly be more different…and that brings us to the thing that will be the same, last year to this: a bitterly divided population, whose reaction to the speech can be anticipated now, hours before the first word is spoken.
