Biden Gives Speech at the DNC Winter Meeting in Philadelphia Transcript

Four more years, four more years, four more years, four more years…

(00:00)
We love you Joe.

(00:00)
How you doing, sir?

Thank you.

(00:23)
My name’s Joe Biden, I’m Jill Biden’s husband. I want to be real clear, she’s a Philly girl, so there’s no way I can stand here today without saying go Eagles, fly Eagles, fly. None. I tell you what… Thank God I’m a Philadelphia professional sports fan, because if I wasn’t a fan, I’d be sleeping alone. And by the way, let’s give Kamala a round of applause. She’s a great vice president. I want to say a special thanks to Jamie for his leadership, and to all the members of DNC, for your service, for all you’ve done for the party and for the nation, because that’s why we’re in this business, for the nation.

(01:30)
Standing here, I’m reminded of just a few months ago, we entered the 2022 midterm election, with a rally here in Philly. Remember the midterms?

Yes.

Remember how our friends in the press and pundits alike and even some in our own party were predicting a giant red wave? Well, guess what? It never happened. Instead, we had a historic performance… We added democratic governors, we kept the US Senate, and we ran closer than anyone ever thought possible in the House. And we flipped control of four state legislative chambers, including the State House, right here in Pennsylvania.

(02:18)
How’d we do it? We knew what we were for, and we had great candidates like Josh Shapiro and John Fetterman, here in Pennsylvania. Both, standing up for personal freedom, the right to choose, standing for democracy, and running on our record. As of this month, we’ve created 12 million new jobs. We created more new jobs in two years than any president did in their entire term. That’s because of you. The strongest two years of growth in history by a long shot. 3.4% unemployment, the lowest in 54 years. The last time unemployment was this low was in 1969, in May of ’69. Think about that. What’s more, Black and Hispanic unemployment is near record lows.

(03:22)
More Americans applied to start small businesses, more Americans, in two years than any year on record. The biggest investment in American infrastructure since Eisenhower’s administration Interstate Highway System. Our roads are highways, bridges, ports, airports, clean water systems, high speed internet, rail, lower healthcare costs, and lower prescription drug prices… Not only including that $35 a month for insulin, but come January of next year, what we’ve already passed, no senior will have to pay more than $2,000 a year for their prescriptions. A month, a month… Some of the cancer drugs, as unfortunately many of you know, is 10, 12, $14,000 a year.

(04:10)
The first Black woman on the Supreme Court of the United States of America. Ketanji Brown Jackson.

Yeah, Ketanji.

And by the way, more appellate court judges who are Black women, than every other president combined. Every other president combined. Most significant gun control passed in 30 years. We got more to do, including getting rid of assault weapons and magazines that hold a ton more [inaudible 00:04:51]. And it has already been mentioned, the biggest investment in tackling the climate crisis, in the history of not only this country, but the history of the world.

(04:57)
Folks, that’s not even all of it, not even close, in fact, let me say something, we’re just getting started.

Hell yeah.

No, I’m telling you… I don’t think many of you believed when I told you we were going to get a lot done after the first year… All the things we said were going to do. I don’t think, some of you, although you’ve been good to me, I don’t think you really believed that we were going to do as well as we did in the off-year election… But we got a lot more to do.

Yes, yes.

(05:28)
Four more years.

(05:28)
Yes, sir.

Got a lot more to do. And, by the way, we paid for everything we did. And unlike Republicans, we cut the deficit $1.7 trillion in two years. You know how we did it? We said the super wealthy maybe should pay a little bit, and that ain’t even close yet… I intend to get it done, more done. So let me ask you a simple question, are you with me?

Yeah.

I ran for president-

Four more years, four more years, four more years, four more years…

I ran for president-

Four more years, four more years, four more years, four more years…

Thank you. I ran for president for three reasons, and I made no bones about it. The first was to restore the soul of the nation.

Yes.

Honesty, decency, dignity, rooting out racism, treating everyone with respect, giving hate no safe harbor… The second reason I said I was running, and remember, that I said I’m going to rebuild the backbone of the nation, the middle class, no more trickle-down economics. I live not far from here, in Claymont, Delaware, and before that, in Scranton…

Delaware.

Not a whole lot trickled down to my kitchen table when I was growing up. To give people who built this nation a real shot. And the third reason, which turned out many thought was impossible… And I must tell you, I was wondering for a little bit there, was to unite the country.

(07:18)
We are a democracy, you cannot govern without consensus.

That’s right.

(07:22)
Thank you, Joe.

It’s not possible. This is still the hardest thing to get done, but I refuse to give up. We can’t give up. We need to come together as a nation. Look, I came to the presidency determined to put an end to trickle-down economics. The view from Park Avenue says, when the wealthy do very well, big tax breaks are going to enable them to do that… Maybe, maybe will trickle down to everybody else.

(07:47)
Well, guess what? There’s another view, the one that I hold, and I believe a majority of the American people hold, like the folks here in Philly, like where I was born, in Scranton, like Claymont, Delaware, just a few miles from here… I really mean this. The view that American workers are ready to work harder than anyone else, they just need a shot. I really mean it, all they need is a shot. They get up every morning and go to work and bust their necks trying to make an honest living. My dad used to say, and he literally would say this, he said, “Joey, a job’s about a lot more than a paycheck… It’s about your dignity. It’s about respect. It’s about being able to look your kid in the eye and say, honey, it’s going to be okay, and he meant it, not a joke.”

(08:32)
Look, I’ve said it many times… Wall Street, important as it is, didn’t build this country. The middle class did. And by the way, unions built the middle class.

Unions did, unions did…

Folks, look, we need to build our nation, we really do have to build our economy from the bottom up and the middle out, and not from the top down. Because when the middle class does well, everyone does well. The poor have a shot, the rich still do very well, and the middle class have a little breathing room, as my dad was say. For decades, the backbone of America, the middle class has been hollowed out… I mean literally hollowed out. Good paying manufacturing jobs moved overseas because labor was cheaper and corporations went overseas… We exported jobs and imported product. Once thriving cities and towns became shadows of what they used to be. When those towns were hollowed out, something else was lost. A pride, a sense of self-esteem, a sense of self-worth… Those of you who were over 40, did you ever think we’d be in a situation where blue collar workers are voting Republican?

No.

No, no, got to be honest, man… Because they think we forgot them. They think we don’t care. They’re coming back, but that’s what they thought. When those jobs left, a lot were left out and left behind. A lot of them came to believe we stopped paying attention to working class, the way we used to. A lot of them came to believe that the Democratic Party stopped caring about them. And lots of folks feel that way today still, but we’re making inroads… We’re turning it around. My first two years in office, we created 750,000 manufacturing jobs. And by the way, where is it written America can’t lead the world again in manufacturing? Where is that written? Our economic agenda created a boom in manufacturing, from semiconductor chips to electric vehicles, advanced batteries that are going to power the vehicles, in addition to building 500,000 charging stations all across America. There have been major private investments, totaling nearly $300 billion.

(11:08)
Much of which is in just one industry, semiconductors… Generated significant job opportunities in manufacturing in America for decades… For decades we imported products and exported jobs… Now America is exporting products and creating jobs, because we’re doing something that for years and years people just talked about, we’re buying American. Buying American is not [inaudible 00:11:35], by that I mean the government is buying American. My administration, there’s a law back in the early thirties, that we never paid much attention to, and it said, when the president spends your tax dollars to put a new deck in an aircraft carrier, or build a highway, it should be built by Americans and American products. Well, guess what? My administration is doing it. Buying American is a reality.

(12:04)
We just made a lot of progress overseas as well, in the past two years… Jobs are up, wages are up, inflation is down, and COVID no longer controls our lives. But now the extreme MAGA Republicans in the House of Representatives have made it clear they intend to put it all at risk. They intend to destroy… No, I’m not a joke. Look, you may remember when, during the off year election, I started talking about MAGA Republicans in democracy, and a lot of you thought, what hell’s he talking about? Why isn’t he talking about A, B, C, or D specific issue? Well, guess what? This is not your father’s Republican Party.

(12:43)
No, really think about it. These aren’t conservatives… These aren’t conservatives, these are disruptive people. They intend to destroy the progress we made. Folks, as I said, this is not your father’s Republican Party. Just take a look at what they’re doing… They campaigned on fiscal responsibility, but the first bill to pass in the House of Representatives added $114 billion to the deficit. First one. They introduced another bill, to limit president’s authority over the strategic petroleum reserve, because they’re mad I used that authority to lower gas prices by a $1.50 a gallon, period.

(13:20)
Look, they introduced a bill… When I said this stuff in the off year, people looked at me like I was nuts. They’re nuts, I’m not the one… They introduced a bill that will eliminate the IRS and replace it with a 30% national sales tax.

Boo.

Oh no, you heard me… 30% national sales tax. So think about what that means, 30% on groceries, gasoline, clothing, school supplies, medicine, big ticket items, rent and cars… Shifting the entire burden of the working class and middle class in America. It’s not going to happen, I’m going to veto the sucker if it ever got to me. Not going to happen. I know the Republicans ran an inflation last election, I didn’t know they were trying to make it worse.

(14:11)
And of course, as they always do, they still want to cut taxes on the wealthiest and biggest corporations.

Boo.

(14:17)
[inaudible 00:14:18].

By the way, the idea… You got to be kidding me? No. billionaires should pay a lower tax rate than the school teacher or firefighter, because that’s what they… By the way, there’s 1000 billionaires and they pay an average is 3% in taxes. 3%, for God name, what is this all about? Republicans keep talking about what they’re going to do to Social Security and Medicare… Americans have been paying into Medicare since you got your first paycheck when you were 16 years old.

That’s right.

And Social Security since you started working.

That’s right.

Well, I got a better idea. I’m going to strengthen Social Security and Medicare, not gut it.

Thank you.

If people making over $400,000 a year paid at the same rate that everybody making 60, 70, 80, 90, $139,000 a year, up to, guess what? Social Security and Medicare would grow strong, without cutting benefits, without raising taxes on a single person making under $400,000. So let’s make it real simple… If Republicans try to cut Social Security, it’s not going to get by the Senate in my view, but I’ll stop them. If they try to cut Medicare, I’ll stop them… I got a veto pen. If they try to pass a 30% national sales tax, I’ll stop them. And if they send me a national ban on the right to choose, I will stop them. Look, folks, now, we’re in a situation… If Republicans want to work together to find real solutions, to grow manufacturing jobs, to build the strongest economy in the world and keep it that way, which we are now… Where Americans are paid a fair wage, make the wealthy begin to pay those share of taxes, I’m ready. I’m ready.

(16:13)
I’m not going to let anyone use the Full Faith and the Credit of the United States as a bargaining chip, the so-called [inaudible 00:16:21]. The national debt has been accumulated over 220 years… We’re paying interest on that debt that was accumulated over 220 years. And guess what? We’ve never missed a single payment.

Come on.

The United States is a nation who pays his bills.

That’s right.

And folks, for as much as we’ve gotten done over the past two years, we have some unfinished business on our agenda.

Yes.

We need to make the cost of insulin $35 a month for every American, including 200,000 kids out there. We need to pass childcare and family paid leave. We need to restore the expanded child tax credit that cut child poverty nearly in half. And we need to ban assault weapons and limit the number of bullets that can be in a magazine. I did it once before as a United States Senator and I will do it again. And by the way, yesterday, just yesterday, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals struck down a law that bars domestic abusers… And I wrote the Violence Against Women Act, bars domestic abusers who are under a restraining order to stay away from the woman or child they abused, from possessing a firearm. They struck it down.

Boo.

And by the way, you’re eight times as likely to get shot if you’re in that situation.

Exactly.

Look, the court struck down a common sense law that’s been on the books for 30 years. They’re saying it’s okay for someone under a restraining order for threatening their partner or their child to own a firearm. It’s outrageous. It’s dangerous. Abusers are five times more likely to kill his female victim if he’s armed with a gun. I respect the right of responsible gun owners, but someone who has threatened or beaten a domestic partner is not a responsible gun owner.

That’s right.

And the court should be the side of the victims of domestic violence, not on the side of the abusers.

That’s right.

(18:31)
Yes.

Look, it’s an example of why it’s so important, we’ve confirmed nearly 100 federal judges in just two years. We’re committed to keeping up the pace. We need to codify Roe v. Wade. We need to pass the John Lewis Voting Rights and Advancement Act. And the Freedom to Vote Act. Now, the tragic death of Tyre Nichols, we’re reminded once again, we have to pass safeguards that were built into the George Floyd Policing Act. This is what I did on the federal level… I signed the strongest executive order, ever, to reform federal police practices. I did my job. How many more horrible tragedies? How many more ghastly videos, needless deaths, do we have to see before Congress steps up and does its job?

(19:33)
Folks, I truly believe we’re living in an inflection point in modern history… Comes along every four or five generations. Where what happens in a short period of time, in a country or around the world, has a fundamental effect for the next three to four decades. Whether we’re talking about dealing with the climate crisis… Look, if we don’t move on the climate crisis, we’re going to see the North Pole, as the kids would say, we’re going to see those glaciers melting. You’re going to see sea levels rising up to three feet. That means we carry a heavy responsibility, and it means we have an extraordinary opportunity as well. An extraordinary opportunity to build the future we want for our children and our grandchildren. It hadn’t been available to us in the past. Extraordinary opportunity to build America, and a world that’s more fair and just and more free.

(20:36)
And that fills me with optimism. I don’t want to keep you standing much longer, just say one more thing.

[inaudible 00:20:44].

You know what? America is back and we’re leading the world again. We are. We’ve united Europe, we’ve united Asia, Japan… Japan is doing more than it’s ever done… We have [inaudible 00:21:12], dealing with everything from Australia to India. We’re uniting the world. In fact, I’ve never been more optimistic about America’s future than I am today. I’ve always believed you could define American in one world. I spent a lot of time with Xi Jinping when I was vice president, the last couple years… And Barack asked me to spend time with him, because we knew he was going to be president. It wasn’t appropriate for a president to be spending all the time.

(21:37)
No, I mean it sincerely. So I traveled 17,000 miles with him. I met with him more than any other world leader, now over 80 hours, 68 of which are in person, just me, an interpreter, and he having a simultaneous interpreter. We were in a Tibetan plateau, and he looked at me, and he said, “Can you define America for me?” And I mean it sincerely… Giving my word as a Biden. I said, “Yes, one word… Possibilities.”

That’s right.

That’s why we, in many cases, were viewed as the ugly Americans, because we think anything is possible. No, I really mean it, think about it… Can you name me one major initiative we united to do as Americans, that we didn’t get done? I mean one… Folks, look, I still believe that today. That there’s literally nothing we can’t do if we put our mind to it. We just need to remember who in God’s name we are. We’re the United States of America. Nothing is beyond our capacity. And we’re the only nation in the world that’s come out of every crisis stronger than before we went in. And that’s what we’re doing now. God bless you all, and may God protect our troops. Thank you. Thank you.