Biden's speech to Congress

Biden was flanked by two women for his State of the Union address, the first of whom was a woman.

AFP

For the first time in the United States, two women were seated behind Joe Biden during his major policy speech at the Congress on Wednesday evening: his vice-president Kamala Harris and the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi.

A unique perspective that accompanied other historical firsts.

This important annual meeting in American politics was held in front of a very clear and masked audience due to pandemic.

The US president remained in the hémicycle that had attempted to compel pro-Trump assailants on January 6th. He mentioned a menacing assassination for the first time.

«As we gather this evening, visions of a vicious horde assaulting the Capitol, threatening our democracy, remain vivid in all of our minds», Joe Biden declared to the legislators who had to flee the hémicycle the day before, protected by gas masks.

«The insurgency was an existential crisis, a challenge to see whether our democracy could survive. And she did», he added at the conclusion of his speech.

He'd had her attention by emphasizing the evening's historical significance:

Under the applause of the audience, he addressed Nancy Pelosi and Kamala Harris as "Madame Speaker, Madame Vice-Presidente." «No president has ever spoken these words. It was the right time.»

With 81 years on the job, the Democratic Party's leader in Congress has also sat in on a number of presidential speeches since taking office.

In February 2020, she made headlines by interrupting Donald Trump's speech on the state of the union in front of the cameras.

But, for the first time, with Kamala Harris at his side, the two women have etched their names into America's almost 245-year history.

L'ex-sénatrice et ancienne procureure de 56 ans, l'immigrante, d'origine indienne et jamacaine, est la première femme vice-presidente des États-Unis.

«Like so many other women, I am overjoyed at the prospect of being represented in this way», tweeted Barbara Lee, a member of the Chamber of Deputies. «Cela should have been a long time ago».

Joe Biden's speech, delivered in front of about 200 members of Congress and a few administration officials, provided an eye-catching contrast to his predecessor Donald Trump's remarks.

And, even more importantly, with the atmosphere of this annual gathering, are the presidential addresses on general policy, delivered for the past four decades to an estimated 1 500 guests who throng the seats of the House of Representatives in a joyful bouillonnement upon their arrival, followed by a respectful silence punctuated by tonitruant applause.

In the tribunes, his wife Jill Biden sat this time at a safe distance due to the Covid, the epoux of Kamala Harris, Douglas Emhoff, in a balcony devoid of any other guests.

Returning from a year marked by the pandemic, the tumultuous end to Trump's presidency, and the traumatism of the Capitol assassination, Joe Biden has wanted to present himself as a rallying point once more, as he has done during his campaign.

«Nous avons contemplated the abyss of insurgency and autocracy, pandemic and suffering, and the people have not flanched», declared the democrate, referring to the American Constitution's preamble.

«We are the United States of America,' he said, quoting one of his most popular campaign slogans. «There is nothing we can't do, nothing we can't do if we do it together.»

Source: AFP