'Biden is pulling this country apart': Republican Senator Tim Scott says America is NOT racist and slams president for not giving Trump credit on vaccines and keeping schools closed in GOP rebuttal
Republican Sen. Tim Scott declared that America is 'not a racist country' as he delivered the GOP rebuttal to President Joe Biden's first speech before Congress.
Scott, the only black Republican in the U.S. Senate, used a large part of his speech to talk about race - detailing racism he's personally experienced, but making the argument that it's just as racist to teach white kids that they're 'an oppressor.'
He gave his party and its former leader, ex-President Donald Trump, credit for the COVID response - saying Biden had 'inherited a tide that had already turned' - while blasting Democrats for prolonged closures of schools and churches.
South Carolina Republican Sen. Tim Scott delivered his party's response to President Joe Biden's first address before Congress
Scott portrayed Biden as divisive while, more broadly, saying the Democrats were wrong on race
Sen. Tim Scott was captured walking through the U.S. Capitol Wednesday night before delivering the GOP's response to Biden's address
Scott also defended the GOP-backed Georgia voting bill, blasting Democrats for lying about the controversial legislation and labeling it 'mainstream.'
The South Carolina Republican started out his remarks, delivered elsewhere in the U.S. Capitol, by saying Biden 'seems like a good man,' and adding that 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,' Scott said. 'But our nation is starving for more than empty platitudes.'
Scott blasted Biden and the Democrats for 'pulling us further apart.'
'I won't waste your time tonight with finger-pointing or partisan bickering. You can get that on TV any time you want. I want to have an honest conversation,' Scott said.
Later in the speech he added, 'Nowhere do we need common ground more desperately than in our discussions about race.'
Scott talked about the racism he'd experienced as a black man in the South.
'I know what it feels like to be pulled over for no reason. To be followed around a store while I’m shopping,' he recalled.
He talked about how his grandfather would sit at the table every morning 'reading' the newspaper, only for the senator to later find out he was illiterate. 'He just wanted to set the right example,' Scott said.
'I've also experienced a different kind of intolerance,' he continued. 'I get called "Uncle Tom" and the N-word by progressives, by liberals!'
Scott said that kids are still being taught that the color of their skin defines them.
'And if they look a certain way, they're an oppressor,' he noted. 'From colleges to corporations to our culture, people are making money and gaining power by pretending we haven’t made any progress,' he claimed.
'Hear me clearly: America is not a racist county,' Scott said.
'It's backwards to fight discrimination with different discrimination. And it’s wrong to try to use our painful past to dishonestly shut down debates in the present,' he added.
Scott talked about his previous work on police reform noting how the Democrats blocked it using a filibuster.
'And, no - the same filibuster that President Obama and President Biden praised when they were Senators - that Democrats used just last year - has not suddenly become a racist relic just because the shoe is on the other foot,' Scott said.
'Race is not a political weapon to settle every issue the way one side wants. It’s too important,' he added.
Scott has been charged with leading the GOP side of negotiations as the Senate takes on police reform after the House passed the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act.
Biden said in tonight's speech he wants a bill on his desk by next month, the anniversary of Floyd's death.
'My friends across the aisle seemed to want the issue more than they wanted a solution,' Scott said. 'But I'm still working, I'm still hopeful.'
Scott pointed to the slew of bipartisan COVID-19 relief bills that were passed last year - through a Republican White House and Senate and a Democratic House.
'All five bills got 90 or more votes in the Senate. Common sense found common ground,' he stated.
He knocked Biden for passing his $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief bill with just Democratic votes.
'COVID brought Congress together five times. This Administration pushed us apart,' Scott said.
He then hit Biden for the infrastructure and family plans Republicans also view as too bloated.
On COVID, Scott sounded like Trump when he complained about shutdowns.
'Becoming a Christian transformed my life - but for months, too many churches were shut down,' Scott said.
He also said he was 'saddened' that millions of kids were kept away from schools.
'Locking vulnerable kids out of the classroom is locking adults out of their future,' he noted.
Scott also thanked Trump, giving him credit for the development of the COVID vaccines.
'This Administration inherited a tide that had already turned. The coronavirus is on the run!' Scott said.
'Thanks to Operation Warp Speed and the Trump Administration, our country is flooded with safe and effective vaccines,' he continued. 'Thanks to our bipartisan work last year, job openings are rebounding.'
But the reason why the nation is feeling 'divided and anxious,' the GOP senator said, was because the nation had a president who promised to bring the U.S. together, tearing Americans apart instead.
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