Politico | ‘It was weird’: scenes from Joe Biden’s speech
- Joe Biden’s first joint address to Congress was odd, due to the pandemic
- It was also a return to political monotony after Donald Trump’s presidency
Biden’s hopeful rhetoric on Wednesday echoed in a mostly empty – and fully masked – chamber in yet another mark of the pandemic that has gripped the nation for 14 months. Instead of colourful guests flown in from home, the House’s galleries were reserved for socially distanced lawmakers, only a fraction of whom could watch the speech in person.
It’s not just the pandemic. For a half mile in any direction, the Capitol was a fortress with police blocking roads and a fence still up around the building sacked by rioters nearly four months ago. National Guard troops patrolled virtually every entrance, on top of more security within the chamber itself – a glaring reminder of this year’s deadly insurrection more than 100 days earlier.
But in other ways, Biden’s first speech to Congress represented a return to political monotony to the dozens of senior lawmakers sitting before him after four years of Donald Trump. The carefully scripted speech- laden with policy jargon and subtle overtures to key party factions – is a stark departure from Trump’s hyperbolic assertions and made-for-TV surprises, such as last year’s mid-speech military spouse reunion or the accolades for late radio host Rush Limbaugh.
Instead, the most-viral moment from Biden’s speech may have been a snoozing Republican Senator Ted Cruz caught on the C-SPAN camera.