Read the transcript of President Joe Biden’s address to joint session of Congress
Updated Apr 29, 2021;
Posted Apr 29, 2021
President Joe Biden addresses a joint session of Congress, Wednesday, April 28, 2021, in the House Chamber at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, as Vice President Kamala Harris, left, and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of Calif., look on. (Melina Mara/The Washington Post via AP, Pool)AP
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President Joe Biden, a Delaware Democrat who served as vice president and a senator for three decades, said it was “good to be back” in House chambers of the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday, this time at the podium to deliver his first presidential address to a joint session of Congress.
9:06 P.M. EDT
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you. (Applause.) Thank you. Thank you. Good to be back. And Mitch and Chuck will understand it’s good to be almost home, down the hall. Anyway, thank you all.
Madam Speaker, Madam Vice President (applause) no President has ever said those words from this podium. No President has ever said those words, and it’s about time. (Applause.)
First Lady (applause) I’m her husband; Second Gentleman; Chief Justice; members of the United States Congress and the Cabinet; distinguished guests; my fellow Americans: While the setting tonight is familiar, this gathering is just a little bit different a reminder of the extraordinary times we’re in.
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There are hucksters out there who use overly simplistic readings of history to confuse people and make them disbelieve what their own eyes tell them to be true.
And Sen. Rand Paul is one of the hucksters. To hear all these Democrats shouting Jim Crow, Jim Crow, do they not realize the history of the Democrat Party was Jim Crow, that not any God-fearing Republican voted for Jim Crow?” Paul said. “That Jim Crow throughout the South was done by Democrat legislators, that the people who were beating up John Lewis and pummeling him on the bridge in Selma were all Democrats?
Transcript: Joe Biden delivers speech to joint session of Congress
Key moments from Biden’s 1st presidential address to Congress
Replay Video UP NEXT President Joe Biden delivered his first speech to a joint session of Congress on Wednesday night, just one day prior to 100 days in office. The setting was very different from a typical address, though. Due to the pandemic, tickets were limited and social distancing rules were in place. But the message from Biden was one of progress and a return to normalcy from more than a year under limitations.
The transcript of Biden s speech was as follows: