Majority Leader Schumer Floor Remarks In Advance Of President Biden’s Address To A Joint Session Of Congress And The Progress Made During The First 100 Days
Washington, D.C. – Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) today spoke on the floor regarding President Biden’s upcoming address to a joint session of Congress and highlighting the administration’s progress in first 100 days. Below are Senator Schumer’s remarks which can also be viewed here:
Tonight, President Biden will address a joint session of Congress to mark the progress of our first 100 days and talk about where we, as a country, still need to go.
I expect President Biden, unlike his predecessor, will lay out the facts and appeal to our better angels. That’s what he’s been doing over these past 100 days: restoring effective, truthful, and responsive government. Almost as important is what President Biden is not doing. President Biden is not constantly stoking division, outrage, racial animus. He doesn’t fan the flames of every single culture war. He doesn’t seek to personally dominate every single news cycle. He doesn’t insult, degrade, or constantly lie.
And it matters. Newspapers are littered with firsthand accounts of Americans who feel they can finally sleep at night without worrying about what new scandal, outrage, or unhinged tweet the next morning would bring. As one Republican operative put it recently: “Now there’s a sense of relief. Imagine there’s a car alarm that’s been going off for a long time and suddenly it’s quiet.”
Politics is an important part of American life but it’s not meant to be all-consuming. It’s not supposed to keep average citizens up at night. Politics is supposed to be where we come together to solve our differences amicably—not an arena of endless partisan warfare or a bottomless pit of chaos.
So as President Biden prepares to address the nation tonight — It’s worth noting that as much as we’ve accomplished in the first 100 days, the contrast in style, tone, and effectiveness between President Biden and President Trump is important too.
As we seek to repair the wounds left by January 6th, as we seek to restore faith in government and our democracy, it’s important—so important—to have political leaders who act with dignity, honor and have fidelity to the truth.
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