MSNBC anchor Joy Reid on Wednesday night criticized Sen. Tim Scott’s (D-SC) rebuttal of President Joe Biden’s address to a joint session of Congress.
Defending Georgia’s voting law, Scott said, “The state of Georgia passed a law that expands early voting; preserves no-excuse mail-in voting; and, despite what the president claimed, did not reduce Election Day hours. If you actually read this law, it’s mainstream. It will be easier to vote early in Georgia than in Democrat-run New York. But the Left doesn’t want you to know that. They want people to virtue-signal by yelling about a law they haven’t even read.”
Reid said, “I was surprised, to be honest with you. This was standard Republican pabulum. This could have been delivered by Tom Cotton or Mike Lee. I’m not sure what his purpose was. His audience to me appeared to be conservative white Republicans who are angry over certain things, of cancel culture and the same sort of cultural nods that we hear on Fox News. And he was out here to throw them a lifeline. It was disappointing. He had an opportunity to really speak about his work on the, you know, on the George Floyd Act and what he’s trying to do to offer his own amendments to it. He didn’t. He just came out and talked about the amendments he tried to offer before which were seen as inadequate by mainstream people involved in trying to do criminal justice reform, saw his previous bill as inadequate yet it failed a cloture vote.”
She continued, “He said nothing about the work he wants to do on this act for which I’d just given him credit before he started speaking in which he’s getting credit from Democrats who are working with him. People see him as trying to be genuine working on criminal justice reform. And he came out and lied about the Georgia bill saying it’s easier to vote in Georgia than in New York.”
Reid added, “I am shocked and a bit embarrassed for him. This was a lost opportunity. Tim Scott has an opportunity to make his mark on criminal justice reform, and this ain’t going to do it. This wasn’t it.”
Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN