Biden lays out plan for America 'on the move again' in address to Congress

Scott, who drew on his own experience growing up in the South with a single mother, talked about the American dream.

"We are all in this together, and we get to live in the greatest country on Earth, the country where my grandfather, in his 94 years, saw his family go from cotton to Congress in one lifetime," Scott said.

Scott also offered a message of hope as he closed his speech, looking to America's future.

"Our best future will not come from Washington schemes or socialist dreams. It will come from you, the American people," Scott said.

Scott, the only Black Republican senator, discussed the issue of race, in a year when America has reckoned with race relations.

"America is not a racist country," Scott said. "It's backwards to fight discrimination with different types of discrimination, and it's wrong to try to use our painful past to dishonestly shut down debates in the present."

Scott also criticized Democrats, saying that race is "not a political weapon."

Scott said that Biden has not fulfilled his campaign promise of bipartisan collaboration, citing how Democrats passed COVID-19 relief along partisan lines.

"He promised to unite a nation, to lower the temperature, to govern for all Americans, no matter how we voted," Scott said. "This was the pitch. You just heard it again. But our nation is starving for more than empty platitudes. We need policies and progress that brings us closer together."

Following the president remarks, ABC News Senior White House Correspondent Mary Bruce said, "The much smaller crowd still able to keep up the applause lines but also clear that even with masks, it can't mask the displeasure from the opposition."