POLITICO 'It was weird': Scenes from Biden's speech President Joe Biden's first joint address to Congress was odd, due to the pandemic, but also a return to political monotony. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer stands and applauds as President Joe Biden addresses a joint session of Congress, Wednesday, April 28, 2021, in the House Chamber at the U.S. Capitol in Washington. | Melina Mara/The Washington Post via AP, Pool Link Copied President Joe Biden’s first joint address to Congress couldn’t have looked any more different than the one delivered by his predecessor just over a year before. 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 colorful 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.