Sen. Tim Scott delivers Republican rebuttal to Biden's address to Congress
South Carolina Republican responds to president's remarks to joint session of Congress
CNN was quick to trash the GOP rebuttal given by Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C. after fawning over President Biden's first joint address to Congress.
After CNN anchor Jake Tapper kicked off the conversation about Scott's "inspiring and hopeful" speech and acknowledging that both Scott and Biden are "partisan," his colleague Abby Phillip tore into the senator.
"This was an extraordinarily partisan from Tim Scott," Phillip began. "Especially on the issue of policing, which is something that he is actively right now working with Democrats on, he really strongly criticized Democrats on the issue in a way that I thought was surprising given that he apparently finds it worthwhile to actually work with them right now to get something done."
Phillip continued, "So in some ways, the speech kind of read to me or sounded to me what any generic Republican would say in this particular moment, but Tim Scott, who's trying to have a slightly different brand, it didn't really seem to fit for him and that's the part that was little bit disjointed for me with this speech."
Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C.
CNN commentator Van Jones said it was "smart" for Republicans to have Scott, who he referred to as the "Biden of his party" for coming across as "warm" and "authentic."
"The problem isn't the messenger. The messenger was great. But the message was nonsense," Jones told a panel. "Somehow we forgot to notice that Biden is dividing the country? I mean, that doesn't make any sense."
Jones then claimed that Scott "lost a lot of American Americans by the tens of millions" for saying America is not a "racist nation."
"Look, you can say that we're getting better, you can say we've come a long way, but when you look at these numbers, when you look at these statistics, it is very clear that this country is still struggling with racism," Jones continued. "So I thought he did himself a disservice by jumping, you know that shark unnecessarily."
CNN chief political analyst Gloria Borger slammed the senator for "refusing" to give Biden "any credit" on the response to the coronavirus pandemic.
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"He was refusing to give Joe Biden any credit on COVID-19. He said, 'The tide had already turned' on COVID-19 when Biden became president," Borger said before accidentally saying that Operation Warp Speed "happened under Joe Biden," but stressed that "getting vaccines into arms was a Biden operation."
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