Republicans responded to Joe Biden’s speech on Capitol Hill: “America is not a racist country.”

Republican Senator Tim Scott, his party’s only African-American lawmaker in the U.S. upper house, said on Wednesday that the country was not racist, in his response to President Joe Biden’s speech.

“When the United States unites, we make tremendous progress, but powerful forces want to separate us,” said Scott, who did not specify which forces he was referring to, minutes after Biden finished his first speech to both houses of Congress.

The president presented his government plan on Wednesday, on the eve of the completion of a hundred days in power.

Scott recalled that a hundred years ago children were taught in school that their skin color was their most important characteristic, and if their appearance was in a certain way, they were considered inferior.

Noted that if the same thing is happening now, it is because “there are people who earn money and take power by pretending that there has been no progress at all and by redoubling the divisions” .

“Listen to me clearly, America is not a racist country”, Scott’s sentence.

He also criticized the $ 1.9 trillion bailout that Biden promoted and approved in Congress in March, without a single Republican vote.

Scott called the law “partisan” and accused the administration of separating the Americans.

In addition, he accused the president of reneging on his promise to unite the nation and rule for all Americans.

President Biden, who came to Congress wearing a mask, was greeted with applause as he took the stage for his first joint session speech amid a pandemic. The place was with many of its seats empty, a sample of the security measures for the coronavirus: instead of the 1,600 people who usually attend, the capacity was 200.

On the eve of completing the first 100 symbolic days in power, Biden presented his project for “American families”, which contains a “historic investment” in education and children, for an amount close to $ 2 trillion.

This is the first time that a US president has addressed a bicameral session flanked by two women., Vice President Kamala Harris and Speaker of the Lower House, Nancy Pelosi.

“After 100 days, I have come to say that America is on the move again,” he said at the start of his speech.

The Democratic President assured that promised 100 million vaccines in 100 days, “but we gave 220 million vaccines in 100 days”, He said.

Biden said the healthcare system needs to be more accessible to all and has promised to better control drug prices in the United States, which he says are among the highest in the world.

On the other hand, the Democratic president He vowed that this year his administration would find a way to cut child poverty in half.

(With information from EFE)

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