Tim Scott steals the show

Tim Scott's rebuttal to Joe Biden's first address to a joint session of Congress stole Wednesday night's show. If you just read Sen. Scott's speech, you won't get the full impact of his speech. Sen. Scott opened with a sensible tone, saying "We just heard President Biden's first address to Congress. Our President seems like a good man. His speech was full of good words." Then Sen. Scott went on the attack, saying "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." In order to get the full impact, though, people need to watch Sen. Scott's speech: Then Sen. Scott ripped the politicians and special interests:

This past year, I've watched COVID attack every rung of the ladder that helped me up. So many families have lost parents and grandparents too early. So many small businesses have gone under. Becoming a Christian transformed my life — but for months, too many churches were shut down. Most of all, I am saddened that millions of kids have lost a year of learning when they could not afford to lose a day. Locking vulnerable kids out of the classroom is locking adults out of their future.

Let's be clear about this. Sen. Scott created his moment. The rebuttal to a president's State of the Union Address or speech to a joint session of Congress is difficult duty. The president usually commands a stage that rivals any stage on Planet Earth. The person delivering the rebuttal doesn't have any of those trappings. That didn't matter to Sen. Scott. Then he hit Biden and the Democrats where it hurt most:

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. 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. I'm an African-American who has voted in the South all my life. I take voting rights personally. Republicans support making it easier to vote and harder to cheat. And so do voters! Big majorities of Americans support early voting, and big majorities support Voter I.D. — including African-Americans and Hispanics. Common sense makes common ground."

The Biden administration has preached the gospel of "systemic racism." It's a touchy subject, especially for Jen Psaki: