Biden Rally in Raleigh, North Carolina after First Debate

Joe. Joe. Joe. Joe. Joe. Joe. Joe. Joe. Joe. Joe. Joe. Joe. Joe. Joe. Joe. Joe. Joe. Joe. Joe. Joe. Joe. Joe. Joe. Joe. Joe. Joe.

Hello.

Joe. Joe. Joe. Joe. Joe. Joe.

Wow, what a great crowd. And what great music. Let’s hear it for Fat Joe and E-40.

(00:50)
It’s great to be with you all.

I love that dress.

Some of you may have heard the story that I didn’t agree to marry Joe until the fifth time he asked me. But the truth is, I loved him from the start.

(01:11)
I’m going to repeat that line, because I think it’s the most important. I loved him from the start. I saw in him then the same character that I see in him today. Even though he has faced unimaginable tragedies, his optimism is undaunted. His strength is unshakeable. His hope is undeterred. Over the last few years, Joe has helped heal our country, helping us all recover from the chaos of the last administration. We don’t choose our chapter in history, but we can choose who leads us through it, and at this moment, with these perils the world is facing, there is no one that I would rather have sitting in the Oval Office right now than my husband.

(02:51)
What you saw last night on the debate stage was Joe Biden, a president with integrity and character who told the truth, and Donald Trump told lie after lie after lie. You’re so good. This election is about you. Joe is fighting for the families here in North Carolina and across America who are working hard to find a secure place in the middle class, the moms who worry that their daughters will grow up in a country with fewer rights than we had. As a teacher, I’m always proud…. yay to the teachers. Love the teachers who are here.

We love you, Jill.

I am always proud of the way that Joe fights for educators like our next speaker, Eric Fitz. Eric is a former public school principal, and he now works at Wake County Public Schools, making sure teachers get the support they need so that students can thrive. Eric, thank you for all that you do for your fellow educators and students, your family and your community. Ladies and gentlemen, please help me welcome to the stage Eric Fitz.

Good afternoon everyone.

Good afternoon.

This is amazing. I never could have imagined standing right here before you. Well, my name is Eric Fitz, and I’m a proud father, a proud educator here in Raleigh, North Carolina. Last night I watched with pride as President Biden won the debate, and he put forward a clear vision for making life better for our families. Donald Trump made it very clear, he’s focused on retribution and revenge. But what amazed me most was that President Biden that we saw last night on the debate stage was the same Joe I had the pleasure sharing a meal with a few months ago, right in my home with my sons Christian and Carter.

(05:57)
When we sat at my dinner table, I was able to share with him how grateful I was for his leadership and for his compassion. Because of President Biden, my student loan debt had been forgiven just a few months earlier. By forgiving the loans that enabled me to become the educator that I am today, President Biden changed my life for the better, and for the lives of my sons. With the debt erased, which I would’ve been paying off for decades, I’m able to save for my sons’ college pursuits. I’m able to invest in their futures and support their dreams.

(06:40)
What struck me most about our conversation with President Biden was the way that he listened. He made all of us feel seen, heard and valued. Afterwards, my sons told me they would never forget hearing the president say to them how proud he was of them. My children are one of the most important things to me in this world, and that’s something President Biden and I share. I know who Joe is. He’s a dad. He’s a leader. He’s a good man.

(07:23)
He wakes up every day fighting to make sure that my sons and all of our children have the future that they deserve. I’m proud Joe Biden is our president. Whether he is fighting for our rights on the debate stage, protecting democracy on the world stage, or eating burgers with me in my house in Raleigh, Joe Biden is a good and decent man who fights for our families every day. President Biden shows up for everyday North Carolinians, and North Carolina is ready to show up for him in November. We need to send him right back to the White House. Now, please join me in welcoming our guest of honor to the state of North Carolina, the President of the United States, Joe Biden.

Joe. Joe. Joe. Joe. Joe. Joe. Joe. Joe. Joe. Joe.

Thank you, North Carolina. I’ll get in trouble with my mom looking down in heaven if

… if I don’t say please excuse my back. I apologize. [inaudible 00:09:07]. It’s good knowing you have my back.

(09:17)
Eric, thank you for that introduction. We had a wonderful time spending time with your sons, Christian and Carter. They’re going to grow up to be incredible young men. You would have been really impressed the way they talked about their dad, how informed they were about what was going on. I was truly impressed. And I ate two hamburgers. And a special thanks to Roy and Kristin Cooper. Roy, you’ve been a great governor. Which makes it all the more important that North Carolina elect a great governor to replace you, Josh Stein. And when I’m re-elected again with your help, I want you to know that I’m not promising not to take Roy away from North Carolina. Whether he’ll come or not, I don’t know. And thanks to all the state and local leaders here today, and the great musicians and entertainers who performed earlier. Folks, let me tell you why I’m here in North Carolina. I’m here for one-

Four more years!

That’s okay.

Four more years!

I’m here in North Carolina for one reason: because I intend to win this state in November, and we’re going to see that happen. I think we are. And Roy is right. We win here, we win the election. And here’s how we’re going to do it. We’re going to stand up for the women of America. We’re going to restore Roe v. Wade as the law of the land. We’re going to stand up for the right to vote. We’re going to stand up for Medicare and Social Security. And we’re going to fight for childcare, paid leave and eldercare. We’re going to keep lowering the cost of prescription drugs, not just for seniors but for every single American. We’re going to keep protecting the Affordable Care Act, which is why more than 40 million Americans have health insurance today that didn’t before. We’re going to protect our children and get the weapons of war off our streets. We’re going to provide clean drinking water, affordable high-speed internet, quality education for every child in America. We’re going to secure our border and protect legal immigration.

(12:25)
And unlike the other guy, we’re going to stand up to dictators like Putin because America bows to no one. No one. No one ever. Folks, and we’re going to keep dealing with the climate crisis.

Four more years!

And more than anything, we’re going to preserve, protect, and defend our democracy because more than anything else, that is what is at stake in America this election. Your freedom, your democracy. America itself is at stake. Now, folks, I don’t know what you did last night, but I spent 90 minutes on a stage debating a guy who has the morals of an alley cat. Did you see Trump last night? My guess he set, and I mean it sincerely, a new record for the most lies told in a single debate. He lied about the great economy he created. He lied about the pandemic he botched, killing millions of people. He closed businesses, he closed schools. Losing their homes, people all over this country. America was flat on its back. So I told Trump that he was just one of two presidents of American history who left office with fewer jobs than he started. Herbert Hoover was the other one. That’s why I called him Donald “Herbert Hoover” Trump.

(14:26)
And then he lied about how great he was for veterans. But then, I told him how he had called a veteran who had given their lives in the country in World War I, he refused to go to the gravesites, he called them “suckers” and “losers”. He tried to deny it. Well, let me ask you. Are you going to believe a four-star Marine general, his own former chief of staff, John Kelly, who said he said that or the disgraced, defeated and lying Donald Trump? My son was one of those people, not in World War I, but the [inaudible 00:15:01]. Folks, look, how about the fact that 44 [inaudible 00:15:05]

Four more years!

How about the fact… That’s okay.

Four more years!

How about the fact that 40 out of his 44 top advisors, including the vice president, aren’t supporting him this time around? The people who know him best, 40 of them said, “I will not support the man I worked for this time around.” It tells you a lot about the person who knows him. Look, he lied about how great he was on crime. I had to remind him that he oversaw a record increase in murder rates in 2020. On my watch, violent crime has hit a 50-year low. There’s more to do, but 50-year low. And then I pointed out that the only convicted criminal on the stage last night was Donald Trump. When I’ve thought about his 34 felony convictions, his sexual assault on a woman in a public place, his being fined $400 million for business fraud, I thought to myself, “Donald Trump isn’t just a convicted felon. Donald Trump is a one-man crime wave.” And he’s got more trials. He’s got more trials coming up.

Lock him up!

Well, the time for that… The thing that bothers me maybe most about him, he has no respect for women or the law. He doesn’t. And then his biggest lie, he lied about how he had nothing to do with the insurrection on January the 6th. We all saw with our own eyes. We watched it on television. We saw thousands [inaudible 00:17:11] attack the Capitol. We saw police being attacked, the Capitol being ransacked, the mob hunting for Speaker Pelosi, gallows literally set up for Mike Pence. And then, he told them as he sat in the dining room, the private dining room one door off my Oval Office, he sat there for three hours watching the TV. He did not a single thing to stop it. Nothing at all. And now, he wants to pardon all those convicted criminals. But, folks, for all his lies, we learned some important truths about Donald Trump last night. We learned he’s still proud of being the person who killed Roe v. Wade. We learned

Heard he’s still proud about the pain and cruelties inflicted on America’s women. We learned he still believes that politicians, not doctors and women, should make decisions about a women’s health.

Boo!

We learned that, if he’s elected again, and the MAGA Republicans pass a national ban on abortion, he will sign it.

Boo!

Donald Trump says he thinks overturning Roe v. Wade was a beautiful thing.

No!

I think it was a nightmare.

Yes!

No, I really mean it, a nightmare.

Yes.

And I made it clear again last night that you elect me and Kamala, you give us a democratic Congress, we will make Roe v. Wade the law of the land again. He continued to lie. He said I quadrupled taxes. Where the hell has he been? Which is a simple lie. I didn’t raise a tax on anyone in America that made less than $400,000 a year, and I won’t in my second term either. We learned that Trump, who had the largest deficit in any president in four years because of a $2 trillion tax cut to the super wealthy. We learned that Trump wants to give another giant tax cut for the very wealthy and the biggest corporations.

Boo!

This time $5 trillion. Not a joke, $5 trillion. To pay for it, he is going to cut Medicare and social security. He’ll cut healthcare.

Boo.

They’ll do it all with millions of working middle-class Americans will all pay for another tax cut for the very wealthy. Then, to add insult to injury, he wants to raise taxes on the average family, 2,500 a year.

Boo!

What amounts to a new 10% sales tax on all products imported in America. That’s his new plan for food, coffee, candy, bars, and so much more. It’s going to raise the taxes on the average family $2,500 a year.

Boo!

The most dangerous thing though, we learned that Donald Trump will not respect this year’s election outcome.

Boo!

He’s still not rejecting the last time out. Well, think about it. Every court in the land ruled that it was a fair election. He’s still denying it, still telling lies. Three times Trump was asked last night by the moderators, would he respect the election results if he lost this time? Three times he refused to answer. Three times. Folks, Donald Trump refused to accept the results in 2020, and we all saw what happened on January the sixth. It’s a direct consequence of that. It was an international embarrassment. By the way, as I go these international meetings, I know every major world leader. I literally, because I’ve been around as you might have noticed, but they ask me, “Does he really mean this? Is this real?” It caused a constitutional crisis in international embarrassment. Now, Trump is making it clear that if he doesn’t win this time, there will be, in his words, “Bloodshed.” Bloodshed.

Boo!

No president has ever said anything like that. No president. His words, not mine. We’re going to let Donald Trump attack our democracy again?

No!

I don’t think so.

Four more years! Four more years! Four more years! Four more years! Four more years! Four more years! Four more years! Four more years!

Folks.

Four more years! Four more years! Four more years!

We’ve come a long way.

Four more years!

We’ve come a long way from the mess that Donald Trump left us. We came out of the pandemic. We’re a long way from where Donald Trump’s telling us to inject bleach in our skin. That COVID is not that dangerous. Today we have the strongest economy in the world without exception. 15 million new jobs. 800,000 manufacturing jobs. Unemployment under 4% for a record two years in a row. Historic Black and Hispanic unemployment down. Historic creation of small businesses, Black and all communities across the nation, particularly in rural areas. Historic economic growth. Inflation has dropped from 9% to 3, and is still going down.

(22:48)
I know we have more to do to get prices down. We have to take on corporate greed. They’re making twice the profit they were before the pandemic. We got to make housing more affordable.

Yeah!

Provide childcare.

Yeah!

Make the tax code fair.

Yeah!

16 Nobel winners of the economic Nobel Prize have looked at my economic plan this week. They issued a report, and of Trump’s plan. Here’s what they concluded. They said that my plan would continue to grow the economy and bring down inflation.

Yeah!

16 Nobel laureates. And that Trump’s plan would send the nation into a recession and inflation soaring through the roof.

Boo!

But don’t take my word for it. Folks, let me close with this. I know I’m not a young man. To state the obvious. Well, I know.

Four more years! Four more years! Four more years! Joe! Joe! Joe! Joe! Joe! Joe! Joe! Joe! Joe! Joe! Joe! Joe! Joe! Joe! Joe! Joe!

Folks, I don’t walk as easy as I used to. I don’t speak as smoothly as I used to. I don’t debate as well as I used to, but I know what I do know. I know how to tell the truth.

Yeah!

I know… I know… I know right from wrong.

Yeah!

And I know how to do this job.

Yeah!

I know how to get things done.

Yeah!

And I know like the millions of Americans know, when you get knocked down, you get back up. I know what it took to take our economy from the depths of pandemic to where it is today, the strongest economy in the world. I know what it’ll take to bring this economy to everybody. I know what it’ll take to rally the world to stand up against Putin and defend freedom, not yield to him. And I know what it’ll take to keep the world safe and free for the years ahead. Folks, I give you my word as a Biden I would not be running again if I didn’t believe with all my heart and soul I can do this job because quite frankly… The stakes are too high.

Yes you can! Yes you can! Yes you can!

The stakes are too high.

Yes you can! Yes you can! Yes you can! Yes you can! Yes you can! Yes you can!

Donald Trump… Donald Trump is a genuine threat to this nation.

Yes!

He’s a threat to our freedom.

Yes!

He’s a threat to our democracy.

Yes!

He’s literally a threat for everything America stands for.

Yes!

Look, he doesn’t understand what I think all of you do. America is the finest and most unique nation in the world.

Yes!

We’re the only nation in the world, and I mean this sincerely. It’s a fact statement, not a hyperbolic statement. It’s fact. We’re the only nation in the world built on an idea. All the nations built on ethnicity, geography, and other religion. But we’re built on an idea that we’re all created equal.

Yes!

And deserve be treated equally throughout our lives.

Yes!

We’ve never fully lived up and I’ll be damned in the year 2024, just two years, just two years before the 250 anniversary of our Declaration of Independence that I’ll let Donald Trump walk away from it.

Yeah!

I give you my word. I give my word as a Biden, we’re still a nation.

… nation. I believe we’re still the nation that believes in honesty and decency and treating people with respect. I still believe we’re a nation that gives everyone a fair shot and leaves nobody behind.

Yes!

We’re still a nation the gives hate no safe harbor.

Yes!

… and we’re still the beacon to the world.

That’s right, Joe! Yes! That’s right!

We can never give up what makes America America.

Yes!

Donald Trump is motivated by revenge and retribution-

Boo!

… but revenge and retribution never built a damn thing!

Yes! That’s right! Woo!

You and I, we Americas are a nation of hope, optimism and possibilities.

Yes!

That’s what always built America-

We love you, Joe!

… and that’s going to continue to build America today. The choice in this election is simple: Donald Trump will destroy our democracy, I will defend it!

Yes!

So folks, are you with me?

Yes!

Donald Trump’s the first president I’ve heard of that’s stood up there running for president having been one one term saying America’s a failing nation. Where the hell does he think he is?

Boo! Boo!

I’m serious, a failing… I don’t know a president who wouldn’t trade places with America in a heartbeat.

Yes! That’s right! That’s right, Joe!

He’s dead wrong!

Yes!

America is not a losing nation, America is winning!

Yes!

As I stand here today, I can honestly say I’ve never been more optimistic about America’s future in my whole career. You just have to remember who we are. We’re the United States of America!

Yes, we are! Yes!

There is nothing, nothing beyond our capacity, nothing, when we act together.

USA! USA! USA! USA! USA!

You got it.

USA! USA! USA! USA! USA!

May God bless you all, and may God protect our troops. Let’s go get ’em, North Carolina!

Woo! Woo! Yay! Yay!

(29:06)
(singing).

(29:06)
Woo! Yay! Yay! Woo!

She finally did marry me!

Woo! Yay! Woo! Yay!

(29:41)
(singing).

(29:41)
Woo! Woo! Yay! Woo! Woo!

(29:41)
(singing).

(29:41)
Let’s go, Biden! Let’s go, Biden! Let’s go, Biden! Let’s go, Biden! Let’s go, Biden! Let’s go, Biden! Let’s go, Biden! Let’s go, Biden! Let’s go, Biden!