It begins with heavy eyelids, then a gradual drop in your neck, followed by a slight hop that jolts you awake. That’s when you know you’ve fallen asleep accidentally. When we are tired, it is a natural phenomenon in humans. If you’re a senator slap-boxing with sleep during the president’s speech to Congress, though, your moment could easily go viral. Senator Ted Cruz is a perfect example of this. President Joe Biden addressed Congress on Wednesday evening, outlining a number of programs and proposals to help the American people. This is standard procedure for sitting presidents. Network cameras from around the country usually span to Democratic and Republican politicians to capture reactions. Cameras filmed Ted nodding off at the end of President Biden’s hour-long address. Ted’s eyelids seemed to slowly open before rolling back into his head in several of the videos posted online. This went on for a few moments. Unfortunately for Ted, his notorious moment occurred just as Joe was urging all political parties to communicate on important topics including immigration. According to People magazine, immigration is a “primary problem” in Ted’s home state of Texas. Ted reacted to the viral moment with a retweet of the sleepy time clip after the speech. In response to his thoughts on Biden’s speech, he captioned his post “#BoringButRadical.”
Biden addressed important topics in his speech, including raising the minimum wage to $15 per hour. “No one working 40 hours a week should live below the poverty line,” he said. The national minimum wage is $7.25, as previously announced, and has not been adjusted since 2009. Biden also used the occasion to pay tribute to George Floyd and call for police reform. “My fellow Americans, we have to come together to rebuild trust between law enforcement and the people they serve, to root out systemic racism in our criminal justice system, and to enact police reform in George Floyd’s name that passed the House already…we need to work together to find a consensus, but let’s get it done next month by the first anniversary of George Floyd’s death,” President Joe Biden said. George’s murderer Derek Chauvin was convicted on three counts of murder and manslaughter early last week. Derek’s sentencing date is set for June 2021.
