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U.S. Reports Its Highest Number Of Coronavirus Infections In One Day; Trump's Saturday Sprint: North Carolina, Ohio And Wisconsin; Sen. Kamala Harris Speaks Live At Ohio Voter Event; Barack Obama Campaigns For Joe Biden In Battleground State Of Florida. Aired 3-4p ET
Aired October 24, 2020 - 15:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ANA CABRERA, CNN HOST: Any minute now, we will hear from Obama there in Miami.
[15:00:03]
We'll bring you that live.
Also happening this hour, Biden is holding a drive-in rally with rock and roll superstar John Bon Jovi. That is happening in Pennsylvania, another state that is hotly contested this election season.
President Trump, meantime, is trying to hit not one, not two, but three key states today. He's already been to North Carolina, now it's on to Ohio, and then later, Wisconsin. The president predicting a comeback even as he is trailing in the polls and running out of time.
But his rallies, which attract crowds of mostly maskless supporters, are happening just a day after the U.S. reported its highest number of coronavirus infections in one day since the pandemic began, more than 83,000 new cases. The U.S. surgeon general now warning hospitalizations are also going up. In fact, they're up in 75 percent of jurisdictions across the country.
Let's begin our coverage with CNN's Arlette Saenz in Miami, Florida, where former President Barack Obama is scheduled to speak any moment now. And at the same time, Biden is scheduled to speak in Pennsylvania.
Arlette, these are two crucial states.
ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Ana. And Joe Biden's campaign really trying to put the focus today on Pennsylvania and Florida, two states that could help determine the fate of this election. Both of those states that President Trump narrowly won back in 2016, that they are trying to bring back to the Democratic column in November.
And you saw Joe Biden a bit earlier today, speaking in Bucks County, talking about the importance of turning out to vote, saying that Pennsylvania could be crucial to this election. And he also once again took aim at the president's response to the coronavirus pandemic, an issue Biden has been hammering away over the past few months and will be a central focus of his messaging in these final days before the election.
Take a listen to what Biden had to say earlier today in Pennsylvania.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: He tried to claim he didn't want to panic the American people. But the American people don't panic. He panicked, and he still has no plan. All he can do is double down on his Park Avenue way of looking at the world. Donald Trump can't get his own party to deliver real economic relief for working families. I don't think he wants to.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SAENZ: And along with his messaging, Biden is trying to present that contrast visibly with the types of events that he is holding. These outdoor drive-in rallies where people are socially distanced at their cars, at that event earlier today, he said that he doesn't want to have super-spreader events, referencing some of the larger packed rallies that the president has been holding himself.
And then here in North Miami, Florida, in just a short while, President Obama is hitting the stump once again for his former vice president. You heard him earlier in the week in Philadelphia. It would be quite critical of President Trump's four years in office. We will see if he comes with that same level of force here today.
But another focus for president Obama today is early voting, specifically telling Biden supporters to get out there and make plans to vote early in a state like Florida, where early voting has already been under way. And, in fact, in Florida, more than 5 million people have already voted, just showing the power of early voting, both in person and mail-in ballots as this Election Day is getting closer and closer. Ana?
CABRERA: We see those lines, images of all cars awaiting the remarks from the former president, Barack Obama, there in Miami, where you are.
Arlette, we'll check back. Thank you.
And as we await Obama's event in Miami, the day began with President Trump also in Florida, where he cast his ballot.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: It was a very secure vote, much more secure than when you send in a ballot, I can tell you that. Everything was perfect, very strict, went by the rules. When you send in your ballot, it could never be like that. It could never be secure like that. They've done a fantastic job over here, great people inside. But it's an honor to be voting. It's an honor to be in this great area, which I know so well.
I hear we're doing very well in Florida and we're doing very well, I hear, every place else. So thank you very much and you're going to be very busy today, because we're going to work you hard.
REPORTER: Who did you vote for today?
TRUMP: I voted for a guy named Trump.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CABRERA: Joining us now, former Presidential Candidate Andrew Yang. He has been hitting the trail for Joe Biden and he's also part of the campaign's advisory council on small businesses and entrepreneurship. Andrew, so glad to have you back.
And as I mentioned, we're awaiting remarks from Biden as well as former President Barack Obama, so I may have to interrupt you at any moment.
But let's talk about what we're seeing today already. The former vice president is in Pennsylvania. He has Obama in Florida. Are these the two states you think the campaign should just stay parked in for the next ten days?
ANDREW YANG, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, they're certainly two key battleground states and you can see it with the way the campaign is directing biggest assets, which are Joe himself and President Obama.
[15:05:00]
I was in Philadelphia myself last week. There's a lot of energy there. I love the early voting, Ana, because you can just keep driving votes and the total just keeps going up and up.
Pennsylvania and Florida are going to be key, but the great thing about Joe's position right now is that there are actually multiple paths to victory for Joe. His map just keeps getting bigger and better.
CABRERA: And when you talk about early voting, I just want to add some context, already, about 36 percent of the people who cast a ballot in 2016 have voted in this election and they, of course, are voting early, and that's of the 50-plus million ballots cast so far.
You know, right now, President Trump is hitting the trail hard. He was in Florida last night. As I mentioned today, it's North Carolina, Ohio, Wisconsin, tomorrow, it's New Hampshire. He is talking about all the enthusiastic support he is seeing at these rallies. Do you ever worry that the same Trump who really shocked the world in 2016 might be able to capture lightning in a bottle again with all these big rallies in the final days of the campaign?
YANG: Democrats can't take anything for granted. We have to run through the tape. But I think it's a very, very different race this time, Ana, than 2016. And I talked to thousands of Trump supporters while I was running for president and over the past number of days and weeks, and there are many, many people who voted for Donald Trump in 2016 who feel let down by him, disappointed by him and are ready to turn the page and vote for Joe or Kamala or not vote. And so I think it's a very different dynamic.
I don't think that we're going to see a recreation of 2016 because, at that time, we didn't have 2016 in our rear view that we could learn from.
CABRERA: And as we get ready to hear from Former president Obama, it is worth noting that President Trump has been mocking Obama's return to the trail for Biden in these final days. Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: You know, Obama's now campaigning.
Even though refused to support Biden, I mean, he'd never -- and then even after Biden sort of semi-won, he semi-won, he wouldn't do it. He just -- it took forever. But now he's campaigning for him.
There was nobody that campaigned harder for Crooked Hillary Clinton.
He said, he will not be our president, but before that, he said, he will not run. He didn't know me. Then I ran. Then he said, you will not get the nomination. But I got the nomination.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CABRERA: Andrew, what do you say to that?
YANG: Trump loves running against Hillary. He loves running against all sorts of people. Barack Obama remains a beloved and popular figure around the country, not just among Democrats. And the fact that he is campaigning for Joe in Florida, in Pennsylvania is an enormous boost and asset for the Biden campaign. Trump knows this and so he's doing everything he can to distract and undermine, which is his playbook.
But millions of Americans have had enough of this president. They're exhausted by it. They don't believe he can actually help address and get the coronavirus under control that's driving millions of job losses around the country that are driving many Americans into deprivation and desperation. That's what most Americans care most about right now.
CABRERA: And yet Congress can't seem to get its act together. I want to talk to you about the stimulus talks at this point. It seems really to have zero chance of passing before the election, barring a miracle of some sort. I know you felt Speaker Pelosi should have taken the $1.8 trillion deal the White House offered the other week.
So what would you say to her right now?
YANG: The negotiations seem like they're ongoing, and Speaker Pelosi said recently that, look, they're just going to keep grinding away, trying to come to an agreement. And if it passes quickly, it might not pass before the election next Tuesday, but she's hoping that they can still get relief out to families to pay rent in November. She said it's going to be retroactive. I'm not sure what she means by that, but that's exciting. And the fact they're still talking means there's still hope, even though I agree with you, Ana, it might not be realistic to get it passed by Election Day, but if they can come to an agreement any time in the coming week, that process can still take place quickly enough to help millions of struggling American families.
CABRERA: And that's what matters most, instead of the politics of all of this. The bottom line is people need the help desperately as soon as possible.
During the final debate, the president and the former vice president also laid out differing positions on the federal minimum wage. Biden wants a $15 minimum wage, a federal minimum wage, while Trump says individual states should decide. Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KRISTEN WELKER, MSNBC HOST: Do you think this is the right time to ask them to raise the minimum wage? You, of course, support a $15 federal minimum wage?
BIDEN: I do, because I think one of the things we're going to have to do is we're going to have to bail them out too. We should be bailing them out now, those small businesses. You've got one in six of them going under. They're not going to be able to make it back.
TRUMP: We have to help our small businesses by raising the minimum wage?
[15:10:01]
That's not helping. I think it should be a state option. Alabama is different than New York. New York is different from Vermont. Every state is different. It should be a state option.
I know different places. They're all different. Some places, $15 is not so bad. In other places, other states, $15 could be --
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CABRERA: When you were running, Andrew, I believe you opposed a federal minimum wage in favor of hourly wage minimums set by the states. So, do you actually agree with President Trump on this one?
YANG: I am for anything that gets money into the hands of American families and American workers, and I, as you know, champion the universal basic income that would have put money directly into the hands of workers at every level and would have recognized homemakers and stay-at-home parents and caregivers. But I'm for getting more money into Americans' hands.
And the fact is a federal minimum wage has fallen way behind the cost of living, rate of inflation. So Joe has it right on this, and he's also right that small businesses are struggling and we need to do everything we can to help workers, families, small businesses and just turn the page on the fact that we think this economy is somehow going to snap back into its previous form, pre-coronavirus, because it's not. Economists are saying, 42 percent of these jobs are gone for good.
CABRERA: The economy has been a strength of President Trump when voters are polled on this issue. And as you bring up in the primary, I think everyone knew your big economic plan, the universal basic income and those payments of a thousand bucks a month. Everyone probably recognized Senators Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders for their plans to tax the ultra-rich. Can you articulate Joe Biden's economic plan? What is it?
YANG: One reason why I think Joe is the nominee, Ana, is that Joe is not particularly ideological. He's pragmatic and solutions-oriented. He has been talking to people, including some of the people he beat, like me, about various ways we can forgive student loan debt, address climate change, get money into people's hands, build an infrastructure plan that's going to employ hundreds of thousands of Americans. That's Joe's style.
Joe looks around the table and tries to figure out what the best solution is, and then he gets behind it. And one of the great things about Joe is that if he gets behind something, it becomes mainstream awfully quickly.
CABRERA: However, for people to get behind him, doesn't he need to present his vision? And, again, when it comes to the economy, which is right now, a big, big issue for so many Americans who are feeling personally in the dumps, who are struggling to put food on the table, who maybe can't pay their rent or far behind and are getting, you know, on the verge of getting kicked out of their homes. I've talked to voters who are saying the economy is what keeps them thinking they're going to vote for Trump, those who have been on the fence, even up to this point.
So wouldn't it be beneficial for Joe Biden to say, here's exactly what I'm going to do to get your life back on track and make this economy stronger?
YANG: Joe has released detailed economic plans. As you said, I'm on small business and entrepreneurship council, and he's released $150 billion aid plan that would put not just credit lines and loan but forgivable grants in the hands of small business owners. So the plans are there.
And everyone knows that Joe cares about us, cares about families and communities and wants to help rebuild our economy from the ground up and people up. I think that there's some confusion on the economy in part because Trump has beaten this drum for so long that he's a businessman, even though now we know that his businesses often lost a lot of money and he didn't pay any meaningful taxes.
So if you look at the plans that Joe has released, he has a very detailed set of proposals on the economy that are going to help tens of millions of Americans.
CABRERA: Finally, Andrew, there's been some speculation about your political future in 2021. Do you see yourself running for the mayor of New York or would you want to roll perhaps in a potential Biden administration?
YANG: Right now, I'm laser-focused on helping Joe and Kamala win. Again, I was campaigning for them this week and I may be back out on the trail for them pretty soon, because that's the biggest way we can put our country back on the path to recovery. And after Joe and Kamala become the next president or vice president, then I'll see what roles are available to help solve problems of the American people that I ran on. But right now, business number one is getting Joe and Kamala into the White House.
CABRERA: Andrew Yang, always good to have you with us. Thank you so much for joining us.
YANG: Thanks, Ana.
CABRERA: Now back to Miami where former President Barack Obama will speak any minute in that allimportant state of Florida. We're going to squeeze in a quick break but we will bring you his speech just as soon as it begins.
Stay with us. You're live in the CNN NEWSROOM.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[15:10:00]
CABRERA: You are looking at live pictures right now from Miami where former President Barack Obama is set to speak any minute in the all- important state of Florida. We will bring you his remarks as soon as he begins.
But, first, let's go live to Biden's running mate, Kamala Harris. She is speaking live in Cleveland, Ohio, at a voter mobilization event. Let's listen in.
SEN. KAMALA HARRIS (D-CA), VICE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: -- what Donald Trump knew. But he didn't tell anybody. Instead, he lied. He lied to the American. He mocked the seriousness of it. He called it a hoax. He suggested that he keeps an agenda that determines which side of the ledger you're on based on whether you wear a mask or not. If you don't wear a mask, you're with him. If you wear a mask, you're not.
Can you imagine the president of the United States who is also the commander in chief, who has, as his highest and most important responsibility, to concern himself with keeping the American people safe?
[15:25:02]
But yet, we had a person who looks in the mirror and that is where he informs his priority instead of looking in the faces of the American people.
And so we find ourselves in the moment of crisis. We're in Ohio. We're looking at one in ten families who is concerned that they don't have enough food to put on the table to feed their family, where in Ohio, we are looking at one in six families that either could not or concerned they cannot pay the rent by the end of the moment, where in Ohio, one in five businesses has shut with no prospect of being able to reopen. We are looking a failure of an administration like we have never seen in the history of presidential administrations in our land.
And from the public health crisis, we also have endured an economic crisis that is being compared to the great depression. Over 30 million people in just the last several months had to file for unemployment. Folks in Ohio and across the country have been driving to or standing in food lines for hours, praying that by the time they get to the end of the line, there will still be food left.
In America today, one in five mothers is describing her children under the age of 12 as being hungry. We're not covering it enough in the press, but we're in the midst of a hunger crisis in America. We're looking at the fact that almost half of American workers either work for a small business or own a small business. And those doors have been shuttered.
But we have a Donald Trump who walks around and says, oh, we're turning the corner on this. He just said that this week. The nerve for him to think the American people aren't smart enough to see what's going on in their own families and neighborhoods much less than what's going on in the country.
And on the economy, as on every other issue, there are two clear choices in this election. On the one hand, you have Joe Biden who says, the way I measure the economy, if you want me to tell you how the economy is doing, then tell me how our working people doing in America. That's how Joe Biden measures the economy. How are working families doing in America?
Which is why, in a Biden/Harris administration, one, taxes will not be raised on anyone making less than $400,000 a year, but it doesn't stop there. There will be middle class tax cuts. But in addition, we know folks need support, that working families should not and therefore, will not in a Biden/Harris administration pay more than 7 percent of their income in child care.
We know that one of the greatest ways that any American family achieves economic help and intergenerational wealth is through homeownership. So we will have, for every first time home buyer, $15,000 tax credit to help you with down payment and closing costs to be able to help you buy a home.
We know for our college students, so many of our students cannot graduate because they can't afford tuition, which has nothing to do with their God-given capacity to be national and international leaders. So Joe Biden and I say and commit, if you come from a family that makes less than $125,000 a year, you go to a four-year state college for free or an HBCU public or private for free.
And when you graduate, if you go on to take a job that is about public service, community service, the kind of jobs that pay less than $125,000, we will erase your debt. Because we understand that's how you build up the economy.
So you have Joe Biden on the one hand, and then you have Donald Trump. And when you ask him, how is the economy doing, you know what he says, the economy is great. The economy is great, he says. And then you ask him, well, how so are you measuring this so-called greatness of this economy of yours? And he talks about the stock market.
Because you see, Donald Trump measures how well the economy is doing based on how rich people are doing.
[15:25:00]
That's why he passed that tax code, but that tax bill benefitting the top 1 percent in the biggest corporations in America.
Let me tell you something.
CABRERA: Now I'm going to take you from Cleveland, Ohio, with Kamala Harris, to Miami, Florida. And you can see there on the left side of your screen. Former President Barack Obama is walking on stage where he plans to make some remarks on behalf of the Biden/Harris ticket. Let's listen in.
BARACK OBAMA, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT: Hello, Florida. It's good to be back in Florida. Can everybody please give it up for George? What an outstanding young man. He is the number one senior in Miami Northwestern with a perfect GPA.
Let me just say that when I was George's age, I did not have a perfect GPA. What a remarkable young man. We're so proud of him. That's the future.
Give it up for your representative, Frederica Wilson. We've also got Debbir Mucarsel-Powell, Debbie Wasserman Schultz and your state agricultural commissioner, Nikki Fried, there in the house.
You got that horn honking good.
So ten days, Miami. Ten days until the most important election in our lifetimes. But the good news is, you don't have to wait for November 3rd to cast your ballot. You've got two ways to vote right now. Number one, you can vote early in person right now through next Sunday.
Number two, you can vote from home with a mail-in ballot. Do not wait. Put it in the mail today. Or drop it off at a drop box location in Miami-Dade County. And if you need more information, just go to iwillvote.com to find out where to early vote in person or to drop off your ballot.
And if you've already voted, what do you need to do? You've got to go help make your friends and family make a plan to vote, because this election requires every single one of them. What we do in these next ten days will matter for decades to come.
Now, I sat in the Oval Office with both of the men who are running for president. They're very different people. You know, Donald Trump, I knew he would not embrace my vision. I knew he wasn't going to continue my policies, but I did hope that for the country's sake, he'd show at least a little bit of interest in taking the job seriously.
That's not how it worked out. He hasn't shown any interest in doing the work or helping anybody except himself and his friends or treating the presidency like a reality show, to give himself more attention. And as we noted the other day, his T.V. ratings are down.
But listen, listen, Miami, the rest of us have to live with the consequences of what he's done. At least 220,000 Americans are dead, more than a hundred thousand small businesses have closed, half a million jobs are gone right here in Florida, half a million jobs.
And I understand the president is coming to Florida today. You think he's hard at work coming up with a plan to get us out of this mess? Well, I don't know because I know he's had a tough week. Everybody has been very unfair to Donald Trump this week. In his debate with Joe on Thursday night -- and, by the way, I thought Joe Biden was unbelievable this week. He was fantastic this week.
[15:30:00]
But during the debate, Trump was asked: What is your plan for the new phase of COVID? Which is a pretty good question, considering we just saw the highest number of cases spike up yesterday.
So you'd think he'd be ready for a response. Instead, he just said, it wasn't his fault and he didn't have one. He said, it's now gone in a bunch of states. Just as states are reaching new record highs nationwide.
He doesn't have a plan. He doesn't even acknowledge the reality of what's taking place all across the country.
And it gets better because he also sat down with "60 Minutes." He was asked: What's your priority in your second term?
I've run for president, Miami. I just want you to know, it's a good idea to have an answer to this question. It's a good idea if you're running for reelection to say, here's what I want to accomplish.
What did Trump say? He got mad and walked out of the interview.
(HONKING)
OBAMA: He thought the questions were too tough.
Too tough? Miami, listen, if he can't answer a tough question like, what would you like to do in your second term, then it's our job to make sure he doesn't get a second term.
(HONKING)
OBAMA: And that's why over the next 10 days, we've got to work hard to elect Biden and Kamala Harris, the next president and vice president of the United States. (HONKING)
OBAMA: I love the creative honking. It's fantastic.
Now, listen, you delivered twice for me, Florida. Now I'm asking you to deliver for Joe and deliver for Kamala.
(CHEERING)
(HONKING)
OBAMA: Twelve years ago, 12 years ago, when I chose a vice president, I didn't know Joe that well. We served in the Senate together, but we come from different places. We're part of different generations.
But I quickly came to admire and love Joe as a man, who early on learned to treat everybody with dignity and respect. Somebody who lives by the words his parents taught him, nobody's better than you, Joe, but you're better than nobody.
And that sense of empathy, that sense of decency, the belief that every single person counts, that's who Joe is. That's who he'll be.
The presidency doesn't change who you are. It just reveals who you are. It amplifies who you are.
(HONKING)
OBAMA: And for eight years, I saw Joe up close. He was the last one in the room whenever I faced a big decision. He made me a better president. He's got the character and experience to make us a better country.
And he and Kamala are going to be in the fight not for themselves but for every single one of us. And that's what you need right now, somebody who cares about you and is thinking about you.
Listen, I understand that the president, he wants full credit for the economy he inherited. And zero blame for the pandemic that he ignored.
(HONKING)
OBAMA: As a general rule, this is not a person who likes to take responsibility for anything. But the job doesn't work that way.
Just like George said, tweeting on television doesn't fix things. Inventing conspiracies don't make people's lives better. You've got to have a plan. You've got to do the work. And along with the experience of getting things done.
Joe Biden has concrete plans and policies that are going to turn our vision of a better, fairer, stronger country into reality.
We literally left this White House a pandemic play book that showed them how to respond before a virus reached our shores. It must be lost along with the Republican health care plan. We can't find it. (HONKING)
OBAMA: Eight months into this pandemic, eight months into this pandemic, new cases are breaking records. Donald Trump isn't going to suddenly protect all of us. He can't even take the basic steps to protect himself.
(HONKING)
[15:35:07]
OBAMA: There's no sense that he's coming up with a new approach, with a new plan. He doesn't even acknowledge that there's a problem.
(HONKING)
OBAMA: Just this week, he complained that the pandemic was making him go back to work. If he had been working in the first place, we never would have seen the situation get this bad.
(HONKING)
OBAMA: Listen, I have said this before. I'm going to say it again.
(LAUGHTER)
OBAMA: This pandemic would have been tough for any president because we haven't seen something like this in a hundred years.
But the idea that somehow this White House has done anything but completely screw this thing up is nonsense.
We can compare what happened in other countries to what happened in this one.
So South Korea identified its first case at the same time as the U.S. got its first case. Their per capita death toll -- what that means is the number of people who die, let's say, out of 100 people, how many people die.
Their death toll is 1.3 percent of what ours is. Nowhere near the number of people have died in South Korea because their government took care of business.
Closer to home, Canada. Their per capita death rates, just 39 percent of what ours is. Their government, faced with a difficult situation, same pandemic, they said, let's take steps to minimize the damage and harm to ordinary people and they saved lives.
So we can compare directly what happened in the United States and what happened somewhere else. What happens when a government is paying attention and what happens when a government is not.
(HONKING)
OBAMA: And then earlier this week, when he --
(HONKING)
OBAMA: -- when the president was asked would you do anything different, anything, he said, not much.
Not Much? He couldn't even acknowledge maybe we should have taken some steps earlier to start testing people. Maybe taken it more seriously and not pretend like it didn't exist.
Maybe we shouldn't have had the president get on television and say, if you put some bleach in you, that might clean things out.
(HONKING)
OBAMA: Just maybe that might have made a difference.
(HONKING)
OBAMA: And the mismanagement would be comical and ridiculous if it didn't mean people losing lives, if it didn't mean the economy not recovering.
And the pandemic has hit African-Americans and Latinos harder than anybody in Florida.
(HONKING)
OBAMA: I'll bet you could think of some things you would have liked for the government to do differently.
(HONKING)
OBAMA: So just a baseline is that Joe and Kamala take this seriously.
Joe understands how much it hurts for grandparents to not be able to see their grandkids or hug each other.
(HONKING)
OBAMA: They understand you can't effectively get the economy moving again as long as people are afraid of getting a disease.
(HONKING)
OBAMA: He's not going to screw up testing. He's not going to call scientists idiots.
(HONKING)
OBAMA: He's not going to host a super-spreader event at the White House the way this current president did.
(HONKING)
OBAMA: So Joe is going to get this plan under control in a way that makes testing free and widely available, which we should have been doing months ago. He's going to get a vaccine to every American cost-free. And he's
going to make sure our front-line heroes never have to ask other countries for the equipment they need to keep themselves safe while they're taking care of us.
(HONKING)
OBAMA: His plan will guarantee paid sick leave for workers and parents affected by the pandemic. And he's going to make sure the small businesses that hold our communities together and employ millions of Americans can reopen safely.
[15:39:59]
Now Donald Trump likes to claim he built this economy. Some people actually give him credit for it.
Listen, America created 1.5 million more jobs in the last year of Obama/Biden administration than in the first three years of the Trump/Pence administration.
(HONKING)
OBAMA: So unemployment was steadily going down during the Obama/Biden presidency. And then he gets elected and it keeps going down during his, and he says, look what I did.
Their first three years fell short of our last three.
(HONKING)
OBAMA: And that was before he could blame the pandemic.
(HONKING)
OBAMA: He did inherit the longest streak of job growth in American history that we got started. But just like everything else he inherited, he fumbled it.
(HONKING)
OBAMA: The economic damage he inflicted by botching the pandemic response means that Donald Trump will be the first president since Herbert Hoover to actually lose jobs.
(HONKING)
OBAMA: And, you know, he loves talking about black unemployment. Says he's the best president for black folks since Abe Lincoln.
(HONKING)
OBAMA: What?
Listen, listen. Black unemployment almost hit 17 percent during the great recession 10 years ago. And through a lot of hard work, Joe and I helped get it down to 7.8 percent by the time we left office.
And it just kept on going down like all the unemployment rate was going down, not because Donald Trump did anything.
(HONKING)
OBAMA: This year, it went way up. Back to 17 percent right here in Florida.
(HONKING)
OBAMA: And he hasn't had an answer for it.
The only people truly better off than they were four years ago are the billionaires who got Trump tax cuts.
(HONKING)
OBAMA: And meanwhile, he won't even extend relief to the millions of families who can't pay the rent or put food on the table in this pandemic.
And the fact he can't make that happen, won't make that happen, it's hard to understand because it's not like it's his money. He barely pays income taxes.
(HONKING)
OBAMA: He had no problem paying a ton of money in taxes to China from his secret Chinese bank account.
(HONKING)
OBAMA: I mean, who is --
(HONKING)
OBAMA: Hold up a second. Let me just see a show of hands. How many people here have secret Chinese bank accounts?
(LAUGHTER)
(CHEERING)
OBAMA: Who's got a secret Chinese bank account?
First year of the White House, only paid $750 in federal income tax.
(SHOUTING)
OBAMA: You got secretaries, you've got construction workers, you've got health care workers, nurses who pay a lot more income taxes than that.
(HONKING) OBAMA: Listen, I'm not saying that I -- on tax day, I'm just so happy about all the taxes I'm paying, but I pay more than 40 cents on every dollar I earn. So does Michelle.
(HONKING)
OBAMA: And we do it proudly because what I know is that this country has blessed me and that I want to make sure that folks like George can get a scholarship and go to college.
(HONKING)
OBAMA: I want to make sure that a senior is properly taken care of. I want to make sure that we're repairing roads and bridges and helping folks who need help and that our veterans are getting the disability rights that they have earned.
(HONKING)
OBAMA: I - I -- I'm proud to contribute and to give back, because I believe we're all in this together as Americans, as one American family.
(HONKING)
OBAMA: But apparently, that's not how this man thinks.
(HONKING)
OBAMA: He thinks that's for suckers, I guess.
[15:45:01]
But you know what? That's not how we built this country. We built this country by looking out for one another and believing in one another.
(HONKING)
OBAMA: And that's what Joe Biden believes.
(HONKING)
OBAMA: Joe Biden's got a plan to create 10 million good jobs in the energy sector, in the clean energy sector right here in America.
(HONKING)
OBAMA: And it's part of his plan to protect Florida from climate change and secure environmental justice.
(HONKING)
OBAMA: And he'll pay for it by rolling back Trump tax cuts for billionaires.
(HONKING) OBAMA: And Joe sees this as a moment, not as a chance to get back to where we were but to finally make some of the long-overdue changes so that our economy actually makes life a little easier for everybody.
(HONKING)
OBAMA: For the waitress trying to raise her kid on her own.
(HONKING)
OBAMA: For the student still figuring out how to pay for next semester's classes.
(HONKING)
OBAMA: For the ship worker who is worried about getting laid off. For the cancer survivor who's worried that her preexisting condition protections will be taken away.
(HONKING)
OBAMA: Let's talk about health care for a second.
(HONKING)
OBAMA: I know George and I share something. We lost our mothers at a way too early age.
Republicans love to say, right before an election, that they'll protect your preexisting conditions. Now, listen, Joe and I actually protected them ten years ago with the Affordable Care Act.
(HONKING)
OBAMA: Which made sure that anybody with a preexisting condition could get health insurance.
(HONKING)
OBAMA: It protected everybody. It protected folks who already had health insurance. It protected folks who might have to buy health insurance in the future.
Hispanics saw the biggest gains in coverage of anybody. Almost 93 percent of Hispanic kids got covered, an all-time high. And yet, under this administration, Hispanic kids have lost coverage.
(HONKING)
OBAMA: And throughout this process, when we were getting folks health care, Republicans fought us every step of the way.
(HONKING)
OBAMA: They've tried to repeal or undermine the Affordable Care Act, Obamacare, more than 60 times. (HONKING)
OBAMA: And when they're asked about it, they say, look, we're going to have a great replacement. It's coming. It's going to be there two weeks.
They say they've got a replacement and haven't come up with nothing.
(HONKING)
OBAMA: They've never had a replacement. I promise you I've asked. I asked back when I was president. I said, show me your replacement, and we can talk. Nothing. Nada. Zero. Zilch.
(HONKING)
OBAMA: The reason they don't show you their plan to actually provide people protections when it comes to preexisting conditions is because they don't have one and they never have. And that's just a fact.
(HONKING)
OBAMA: And instead of just fessing up that they don't want people to have health insurance, they've attacked the Affordable Care Act at every turn. They've drove up costs. They're driving up the uninsured.
Now they're trying to get the Supreme Court to take away your health care as we speak.
(HONKING)
OBAMA: In the middle of a pandemic.
(HONKING)
OBAMA: With nothing but empty promises to take its place.
Why would you want to take people's health insurance just at the very moment when people need health insurance the most? What's the rationale in that?
(HONKING)
OBAMA: And think about what that would do to families right here. Miami-Dade has the highest enrollment of any county in Florida. Florida has the highest enrollment of any state in America.
Nobody has a bigger stake in making sure those protections stay in place than folks right here in Florida.
Just this week, Trump flat-out said he hopes the Supreme Court takes your health insurance away, said it out loud.
Miami, Joe and Kamala will protect your health care. They will expand Medicare.
(HONKING)
OBAMA: They will sign up more folks on Medicaid and make insurance more affordable for everybody.
That's what they stand for and that's why you've got to get out there and vote.
(HONKING)
[15:50:05]
OBAMA: Joe understands that the first job of a president is to keep us safe from all threats, domestic, foreign, and microscopic.
When the daily intelligence briefings are flashing warning lights about a virus, the president can't be AWOL.
When Russia puts bounties on the heads of our brave soldiers in Afghanistan, the commander-in-chief can't be MIA. He can't be somebody who doesn't read the briefings.
(HONKING)
OBAMA: Joe Biden would never call the men and women of our military suckers and losers.
(HONKING)
OBAMA: He knows those troops are somebody's husbands, somebody's wife, somebody's kids, somebody's spouse, somebody's father.
And when a hurricane devastates Puerto Rico, a president's supposed to help it rebuild, not toss paper towels, withhold billions of dollars in aid until just before an election.
(HONKING)
OBAMA: We've got a president who actually suggested selling Puerto Rico.
(SHOUTING)
OBAMA: Believe it or not, it could have been worse. He once asked our national security officials if he could nuke hurricanes.
(LAUGHTER)
OBAMA: I mean, at least he didn't do that. A nuclear hurricane seems like it would have been bad. I mean, it would be funny if it wasn't.
Look, some of the rhetoric you're hearing down here in south Florida, it's just made up. It's just nonsense.
Listening to the Republicans, you'd think Joe was more Communist than the Castros.
(LAUGHTER)
(HONKING)
OBAMA: Don't fall for that garbage. Don't fall for that okey-doke.
(HONKING)
OBAMA: Joe Biden is not -- Joe Biden is not a Socialist. He was a Senator from Delaware. He was my vice president.
(CHEERING)
OBAMA: I think folks would know if he was a secret Socialist by now.
(HONKING)
OBAMA: What is true is he'll stand up for ordinary people. What is true is he'll stand up for workers. What is true is he'll stand up for a higher minimum wage. What is true is he'll stand up for affordable housing.
What is true is he'll go promote human rights in Cuba and around the world. And he won't coddle dictators the way our current president does.
(CHEERING)
(HONKING)
OBAMA: And let me tell you something else about Joe Biden. Joe Biden's tough.
(HONKING)
OBAMA: You know, something that you can't really say about this president. He likes to act tough and talk tough. He thinks scowling and being mean is tough. And being rude is tough.
But when "60 Minutes" and Lesley Stahl are too tough for you, you ain't all that tough. If you got to walk out of a "60 Minutes" interview, then you're never going to stand up to a dictator.
(HONKING)
OBAMA: If you're spending all your time complaining about how mean reporters are to you, you're not going to stand up to Putin.
(HONKING)
OBAMA: Joe Biden will restore our battered standing in the world. Because he knows that our true strength comes from setting an example that the world wants to follow.
A nation that stands with democracy, not dictators. A nation that can inspire and mobilize others to overcome threats, like climate change and terrorism and poverty and disease. And here's another thing. With Joe and Kamala at the helm, you won't
have to think about them every single day. There might be a whole day where they don't be on TV. There might be a whole day where they don't tweet some craziness.
You won't have to argue about them every day. It won't be so exhausting.
(HONKING)
OBAMA: Just having a normal president.
You'll be able to go about your lives, knowing that the president's not going to suggest injecting bleach or retweet conspiracy theories about secret cabals running the world or claiming that -- or retweeting that the claim that Navy SEALs didn't actually kill bin Laden.
We're not going to have a president that goes out of his way to insult anybody who he doesn't think is nice enough to him. We won't have a president who threatens people with jail for just criticizing him.
[15:55:04]
That's not normal behavior, Florida.
You wouldn't tolerate it from a coworker. You wouldn't tolerate it from a high school principal. You wouldn't tolerate it from a coach. You wouldn't tolerate it from a family member.
A Florida man wouldn't even do this stuff.
(HONKING)
OBAMA: Why are we accepting it from the president of the United States?
(CHEERING)
OBAMA: It's not normal behavior.
(HONKING)
And you know, you shake your head and you think, well, you know what, that's just him. But there are consequences to this. There are consequences when a president behaves that way. It emboldens others to be mean and cruel and divisive and racist.
When you have a president who cannot call out or even criticize white supremacists, that's a problem. That sends a bad message.
(HONKING)
OBAMA: It frays the fabric of all of our lives. It affects the way our children see things. It affects the way our families get along. It affects the way the world looks at America. And in the meantime, it distracts us from the truly destructive
actions that the cronies he's placed all across the government are taking, actions that are affecting your lives every single day, even when it's not reported on, even when you're not paying attention to it.
The Environmental Protection Agency that's supposed to protect our air and water, that's run right now by an energy lobbyist that's giving polluters free reign to dump polluted air and poison into our water.
The Labor Department that's supposed to protect workers right now is run by a corporate lobbyist who's declared war on workers, guts protections to keep essential folks safe during a pandemic, makes it easier for big corporations to shortchange them on their wages.
The Interior Department that's supposed to protect our public lands and wild spaces and wildlife for future generations right now is run by an oil lobbyist who's just fine selling that American treasure off to the highest bidder.
The Education Department that's supposed to give every kid a chance, young -- amazing young people like George -- right now, that's run by a billionaire who's gutted the rules designed to protect students from getting ripped off by for-profit colleges.
And stiff-armed students looking for loan relief in the middle of an economic collapse.
(HONKING)
OBAMA: The person who's running Medicaid right now is not trying to sign up more people for Medicaid to help them out. They're trying to kick them off of Medicaid so that they've got to fend for themselves at the very moment that they need protection the most.
(HONKING)
OBAMA: So, here's the thing. When Joe and Kamala are in charge, they're not going to surround themselves with hacks and lobbyists.
They're going to surround themselves with qualified public servants who actually care about looking for you --
(HONKING)
OBAMA: -- who are going to work hard to make sure that you've got a job that pays a living wage and that your family is protected and your health is protected and you've got some security and that we're protecting our planet.
And that, more than anything, is what separates them from their opponents. They actually care about every American. Even the ones who aren't going to be voting for them.
And they're going to be in the fight on your behalf every single day.
They care about you, and they care about our democracy. Deeply.
They believe that in a democracy, the right to vote is sacred. We shouldn't be making it harder for people to vote. We shouldn't ask people to wait 10 hours to vote standing in line. We should be making it easier for everybody to cast their ballot.
Joe and Kamala believe that no one, especially the president, is above the law.
They understand the protest isn't un-American. Our country was founded on protests against injustice.
(CHEERING)
[15:59:58]
OBAMA: And they understand we don't threaten to throw our political opponents in jail just because we disagree with them.
(HONKING)
OBAMA: We don't call them un-American just because they're of another political party.
