South Carolina Republican Senator Tim Scott, the designated cannon fodder taking on a task that has frequently led to the speaker’s political downfall, recited a series of popular Republican talking points without outlining a single Republican policy to pursue going forward.

In a slight to President Joe Biden, Scott began his response by saying, “Our president seems like a good man,” before claiming that Biden has failed to reach out to Republicans in a show of unity.

“Our nation is starving for more than empty platitudes,” Scott continued before embarking on a series of platitudes about how he wanted to “have an honest conversation” and transitioning to his origin story as he grew up poor and became a member of the Senate.  (See previous SOTU responses from Nimrata Haley, Joni Ernst and Piyush Jindal.)

Claiming that “Republicans support everything you think of when you think of infrastructure,” citing roads, bridges, airports, ports, broadband and education, Scott went on to claim only 6% of the American Jobs Plan went to roads and bridges, eliminating funding for the other parts of the infrastructure he just cited.  He also failed to mention the power grid and water supply, which Biden said were important parts of his plan.

Without reference and disjointedly, Scott said, “Now [Biden] says your tax dollars should fund abortion.  And he wants to pack the Supreme Court.”  In fact, Biden never mentioned either abortion or the Supreme Court.

Scott also declared “America is not a racist country” after detailing times that he’s been harassed because of the color of his skin.  He claimed that a new type of racism is developing, with children being told they’re racist because of their skin color.  He complained that no Democrat supported his so-called plan to reform criminal justice, which was essentially just an outline of a number of studies that had no plan for addressing any racist policies that may be found.

Scott, one of two Black Republicans in the entire Republican caucus, made the astonishing claim that the voting suppression laws proposed by Republicans in Georgia and other states will actually expand voting ease.  He claimed that the Georgia bill would make voting in the state easier than voting in New York, a claim that will obviously be fact checked to Scott’s detriment.

Throughout Scott’s entire response, he failed to outline one policy Republicans are advocating, neglecting to outline the infrastructure plan put forth by some GOP Senators.  He also didn’t mention anything about criminal justice reform, although he did mention God three times and praised the previous administration for Operation Warp Speed, which didn’t plan for distribution of vaccines.