Raphael Warnock speaks at Democratic National Convention

Well, hello America.

Warnock, Warnock, Warnock, Warnock, Warnock, Warnock, Warnock

Thank you so very much. On January 5th, 2021, the people of Georgia did an amazing thing. They sent a black kid who grew up in public housing and the Jewish son of an immigrant to the United States Senate in one fell swoop. And among those Georgians was my then 82-year-old mother. She grew up in Waycross, Georgia. Do you know where that is? It’s way cross Georgia. She grew up in Waycross, Georgia where she picked other people’s cotton and other people’s tobacco. But because this is America, the 82-year-old hands that used to pick somebody else’s cotton and somebody else’s tobacco, picked her youngest son to be a United States Senator. This is my America. Thank you mom. Thank you Georgia. Thank you America for raising your voice and using your vote.

(02:05)
A vote is a kind of prayer for the world we desire for ourselves and for our children. And our prayers are stronger when we pray together. So together, together we flip the Senate, held the house and we sent Joe Biden and Kamala Harris to the White House. Together. Together we vaccinated our citizens, we fortified our cities and our towns, and we stood by our small businesses. Together we set out to heal the land. A nation besieged by a deadly pandemic and beset by the awful and divisive rhetoric of a man too small for the office entrusted him or the task set before him.

(03:13)
The day after my January 5th election, he instigated an insurrection, a violent assault on our nation’s capital and the peaceful transfer of power, all driven by the big lie. But behind the big lie was an even bigger lie. It is the lie that this increasingly diverse American electorate does not get to determine the future of the country. The lie and the logic of January 6th is a sickness. It is a kind of cancer that then metastasized into dozens of voter suppression laws all across our country. And we must be vigilant tonight because these anti-democratic forces are at work right now in Georgia and all across our country. And the question is, who will heal the land? And so here we are America. Are you ready?

Yes.

Are you ready to stand up in this moral moment? Stand up for the best in the American covenant? Elections are about the character of a country and we must decide, again, we are the latest generation of Americans who get to decide what kind of country we want to be. And we must choose between the promise of January 5th and the peril of January 6th. A nation that embraces all of us or just some of us. Donald Trump’s America is the America of January 6th. People who have no vision, traffic in division. He does not know how to lead us and so he wants to divide us. America, make no mistake, Donald Trump is a plague on the American conscience. He is a clear and present threat to the precious covenant we share with one another.

(06:04)
And yes, I saw him. I saw him holding the Bible and endorsing a Bible as if it needed his endorsement. He should try reading it. It says, “Do justice, love, kindness, and walk humbly with your God.” He should try reading it. It says, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” It says, “In as much as you’ve done it unto the least of these, you have done it also unto me.”

(06:45)
I choose the American covenant [inaudible 00:07:05] out of many one, I choose January 5th. I choose a nation that provides a path for ordinary people and gives every child a chance. And that’s Joe Biden’s America, and he’s been fighting for it for more than a half century. President Biden America is so much better because of you, a true patriot who has always put the people first. Thank you, Joe. Thank you, Joe.

Thank you Joe. Thank you Joe. Thank you Joe. Thank you Joe.

But I’ll tell you something else. Not only is that Joe Biden’s America, that’s Kamala Harris’ America. She was leading with Joe Biden when we expanded the child tax credit, cutting child poverty in America nearly in half. We ought to renew it. She cast a tie breaking vote for my bill, capping the cost of insulin to no more than $35 per month for seniors. We ought to extend it to everybody. Together we passed an infrastructure bill, boasted American manufacturing and clean energy, an investment in the house that we all share together. And I’ve got news for you. We are just getting started. Are you ready to win this election?

Yes.

Kamala Harris and Tim Walz represent the new way forward. We’re not going back.

(09:31)
We’re not going back because-

We’re not going back. We’re not going back. We’re not going back.

… we are the United States of America, we always dream about the future. And so forward on women’s reproductive rights because we believe that a patient’s room is too small and crammed of space for a woman, her doctor, and the United States government, that’s too many people in the room. Forward on worker rights, because most people do not mind working, they just want to share in the prosperity that they are creating for others. Forward on voting rights. Forward on affordable housing and access to healthcare. We are moving forward.

(10:23)
And so I’m inspired tonight. I’m inspired by all of you. I’m inspired by the resilience of an American spirit that has rebounded from the pandemic and is holding at bay the forces that are trying to divide us. And I’m inspired tonight by the memory of my late father, a preacher, and a junk man. Monday through Friday, he lifted old broken cars and put them on the back of an old rig. But on Sunday morning, the man who lifted broken cars, lifted broken people whom other people had discarded and told them that they were God, somebody. My dad discovered strength in the broken places. A power made perfect in weakness. And so I’m convinced tonight that we can lift the broken even as we climb. I’m convinced tonight that we can heal sick bodies. We can heal the wounds that divide us. We can heal a planet in peril. We can heal the land.

(12:07)
And in a strange way, the pandemic taught us how. A contagious airborne disease means that I have a personal stake in the health of my neighbor. If she’s sick, I may get sick also. Her healthcare is good for my health. I’m just trying to tell you that we are as close in our humanity as a cough. I need my neighbor’s children to be okay so that my children will be okay. I need all of my neighbor’s children to be okay. Poor inner city children in Atlanta and poor children of Appalachia. I need the poor children of Israel and the poor children of Gaza. I need Israelis and Palestinians. I need those in the Congo, those in Haiti, those in Ukraine. I need American children on both sides of the track to be okay, because we’re all God’s children. And so let’s stand together. Let’s work together. Let’s organize together. Let’s pray together. Let’s stand together. Let’s heal the land. God bless you. Keep the faith.