Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., in his Wednesday night response to President Biden's address before Congress attributed his success to his mother, the United States and a Chick-fil-A store operator named John Moniz.

Moniz, who died suddenly of a heart attack in 1985 when Scott was 19, owned a Chick-fil-A location at Northwoods Mall in North Charleston, where the now-senator spent his childhood.

"Growing up, I never dreamed I’d be standing here tonight," the senator said during his Wednesday speech. "When I was a kid, my parents divorced. My mother, my brother, and I moved in with my grandparents. Three of us, sharing one bedroom. I was disillusioned and angry, and I nearly failed out of school."

Scott added that he was "blessed" with "a praying momma"; a "mentor, a Chick-fil-A operator named John Moniz"; and "a string of opportunities that are only possible here in America."