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Vice President Kamala Harris and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi made history Wednesday as the first women to lead the House and Senate during President Biden’s address to Congress.
The two women were introduced before Biden’s address and bumped elbows when they reached the podium. Pelosi told Yahoo News that “it’s about time,” women lead both houses. President Biden wasted little time paying tribute to the historic moment in his opening remarks.
“Thank you all Madame Speaker, Madame Vice President,” Biden said before laying out his goals. “From this podium, no president’s ever said those words and it’s about time.”
Vice President Kamala Harris and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi have made history as they shared the stage during President Joe Biden s first joint session to Congress, marking the first time that two women sat behind a US president during an address to Congress. Harris, 56, who is also the first Indian-American and also the first Black woman to become America s Vice President, sat behind on the president s right side as he delivered his first speech to a joint session of Congress on Wednesday night. Pelosi, 81, who became the first woman in her role in 2007, sat behind on the President s left. Harris entered the House chamber Wednesday night to a round of applause for Biden s address to Congress.
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President Joe Biden addresses a joint session of Congress, April 28, 2021, in the House Chamber at the U.S. Capitol. (Melina Mara/The Washington Post via AP, Pool)
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The nation is still digesting President Biden s first speech to Congress on Wednesday night. It was a rather unusual one with only 200 people in the Capitol gallery as opposed to the normal 1,600 for an event like this. Plus, everyone was masked and socially distant.
Still, the president spoke for one hour and four minutes, spending the vast majority of his time talking about infrastructure, both physical and social. First, though, he touted America s progress in battling the pandemic.
US Vice President Kamala Harris and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi look at each other as US President Joe Biden addresses a joint session of Congress, April 28, 2021, in the House Chamber at the US Capitol in Washington. (Melina Mara/The Washington Post via AP, Pool)
WASHINGTON (JTA) Setting his administration’s tone in his first speech to Congress, US President Joe Biden said Wednesday that white supremacists posed the “most lethal” terrorist threat to the United States.
Biden said the terrorist threat had evolved and referred to his decision to end the US troop presence in Afghanistan after 20 years, when the United States first entered the country to pursue the Al Qaeda terrorists responsible for the September 11, 2001 attacks.