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CNN Live Event/Special
CNN Covers The Democratic National Convention. Aired 11p-12a ET
Aired August 19, 2024 - 23:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[23:00:00]
(CHEERING)
SEN. RAPHAEL WARNOCK (D-GA): She was leading with Joe Biden when we expanded the child tax credit, cutting child poverty in America nearly in half.
(APPLAUSE)
WARNOCK: 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.
(APPLAUSE)
WARNOCK: We ought to extend it to everybody. Together, we passed an infrastructure bill, boasted American manufacturing and clean energy, energy, an investment in the House that we all share together.
(AUDIENCE CHEERING AND APPLAUDING)
WARNOCK: And I've got news for you. We are just getting started.
(AUDIENCE CHEERING AND APPLAUDING)
WARNOCK: Are you ready to win this election?
(CROWD CHANTING "YES")
(AUDIENCE CHEERING AND APPLAUDING)
WARNOCK: Kamala Harris and Tim Waltz represent the new way forward. We're not going back.
(AUDIENCE CHEERING AND APPLAUDING)
WARNOCK: We're not going back, because 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 grab a space for a woman, her doctor, and the United States government. That's too many people in the room.
(AUDIENCE CHEERING AND APPLAUDING) WARNOCK: Forward, 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.
(AUDIENCE CHEERING AND APPLAUDING)
WARNOCK: 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.
(AUDIENCE CHEERING AND APPLAUDING)
WARNOCK: 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.
(AUDIENCE CHEERING AND APPLAUDING)
WARNOCK: And in a strange way, 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 is 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 OK so that my children will be OK. I need all of my neighbor's children to be OK, 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 OK.
(AUDIENCE CHEERING AND APPLAUDING)
[23:05:01]
WARNOCK: Because we are all God's children.
(AUDIENCE CHEERING AND APPLAUDING)
WARNOCK: 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 and keep looking up.
(AUDIENCE CHEERING AND APPLAUDING)
ANNOUNCER: Please welcome, Delaware Senator Chris Coons.
SEN. CHRIS COONS (D-DE): Good evening, folks. Good evening, America. Good evening, Chicago. Are there any Democrats in the room tonight?
(CHEERS)
COONS: Folks, we are on the verge of making history. We are on the verge of an historic election, and I want to talk with you for just a few minutes about my dear friend, our president, Joe Biden.
(APPLAUSE)
COONS: Joe Biden's mom had a saying. You are defined by your courage and you are redeemed by your loyalty.
Four years ago, I had the honor of helping introduce Joe Biden to our national convention. I spoke about Joe's faith, his love of family, his determination to restore the soul of our nation. Back in 2020, America was nearly flat on our back from a deadly pandemic and economic collapse. And then in January, an assault on our democracy. All of this, all of this, because the drama and chaos of our former president had knocked us down.
But, folks, Joe Biden's courage, Joe Biden's faith in us, Joe Biden's determination to heal the soul of our nation gave us hope and gave us confidence. Someone who has himself been knocked down by life time and again. Joe Biden knows the grit and determination of the American people. He believed in us and Joe Biden helped us get back up again.
Using the incredible skills he'd developed in many years in the U.S. Senate, Joe got passed and signed into law the most consequential legislation of any president in 60 years. Helping our veterans, advancing gun safety, cutting prescription drug prices, fighting climate change, rebuilding bridges and broadband, bringing manufacturing back to America.
Together, Joe and Kamala helped rebuild our economy from the middle up. from the bottom up and the middle out, not from the top down. And they made our families safer and our country stronger at home and abroad.
Today, we are so much better off because they believed in us and our democracy. And our incredible first lady, Jill Biden.
(APPLAUSE)
COONS: Our incredible First Lady Jill Biden.
(APPLAUSE)
COONS: Our incredible First Lady Jill Biden.
(APPLAUSE)
COONS: Was at Joe's side every step of the way, fighting for education, advancing the Cancer Moonshot, determined to improve women's health care, honoring military families.
Joe and Jill, together, you have done so much for us and there is so much more you will do and we can do together.
Mr. President, thank you. Thank you for elevating a great leader in Kamala Harris.
(APPLAUSE)
COONS: Vice President Harris, thank you for choosing a great running mate with a heart for the middle class like yours in Sergeant, Congressman, Coach, Governor Tim Walz.
(APPLAUSE)
[23:10:07]
COONS: I have hope. Do you? I have hope. Do you?
AUDIENCE: Yes!
COONS: I have hope. Do you?
AUDIENCE: Yes!
COONS: And it is in no small part because of Joe Biden. I have never known a more compassionate man than Joe Biden. I have never known a man who has taken from his own loss and his own faith and delivered so much for the future of so many others.
Mr. President, you were my senator as a Delawarean. You are my president as an American, and you will always be my friend. On behalf of our nation, Joe, for your courage in fighting for our democracy, we thank you.
(CHEERING)
(APPLAUSE)
COONS: On behalf of our Democratic Party, for your loyalty in fighting for our democratic values, we thank you.
(CHEERING)
(APPLAUSE)
COONS: And on behalf of Delaware, thank you, Joe, and God bless you. We love you. We love Joe.
(CHEERING)
(APPLAUSE)
COONS: We love Joe. We love Joe. We love Joe.
(CHANTING)
COONS: Thank you all. We love Joe. God bless you, and thank you very much. (CHEERING)
(APPLAUSE)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
VIVIAN WIERWILLE, STUDENT: Hi, I'm Vivian Wierwille, and I'm a fourth- grade student at Christopher McAuliffe. I've been bouncing around all week, excited for this moment. And last night, I could barely sleep. I remember the day that we heard that president Biden had won and the whole neighborhood started celebrating. So, when I heard you were coming, I really wanted to meet you. I adore you because you embrace change from my generation and the ones to come. I look up to you.
Now, it is my honor to introduce our first lady, Dr. Jill Biden.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANNOUNCER: Please welcome First Lady of the United States, Jill Biden
(MUSIC PLAYING)
(CHEERING)
(APPLAUSE)
JILL BIDEN, FIRST LADY OF THE UNITED STATES: Thank you, thank you.
(CHEERING)
(APPLAUSE)
JILL BIDEN: Thank you.
(CHEERING)
(APPLAUSE)
JILL BIDEN: Thank you. Thank you so much. Love you, too.
Joe and I have been together for almost 50 years. And still, there are moments when I fall in love with him all over again. Like when I handed him our Baby Ashley for the first time and saw the smile that lit up his face, or on nights after an exhausting day working in the Senate when he would read one more bedtime story just because the kids asked. When he stops on a rope line because he sees someone grieving, who needs to know that everything is going to be all right one day.
[23:15:05]
Or to encourage that child with a stutter to find the confidence she needs. Those moments when I'm reminded of all he's accomplished in the name of something bigger than himself, receiving the Medal of Freedom with humility.
(CHEERING) (APPLAUSE)
JILL BIDEN: Placing his hand on our family Bible to take his oath office.
(APPLAUSE)
JILL BIDEN: And weeks ago, when I saw him dig deep into his soul and decide to no longer seek reelection and endorse Kamala Harris.
(CHEERING)
(APPLAUSE)
JILL BIDEN: With faith and conviction, Joe knows that our nation's strength doesn't come from intimidation or cruelty. It comes from the small acts of kindness that heal deep wounds from service to the communities that make us who we are, from love of a country that shines with promise and renewal. Kamala Harris knows that, too.
(APPLAUSE)
JILL BIDEN: Our son, Beau, first worked with Kamala when he was attorney general of Delaware.
(CHEERING)
(APPLAUSE)
JILL BIDEN: He told me at the dinner table one night, mom, she's special. Someone to keep your eye on. And he was right. Joe and I know Kamala. We have seen her courage, her determination, and her leadership up close. Kamala and Tim, you will win.
(CHEERING)
(APPLAUSE)
JILL BIDEN: And -- and you are inspiring a new generation. We are all a part of something bigger than ourselves. And we are stronger than we know. The future of our country is in the hands of those in this room and all of you watching at home. It's going to take all of us, and we can't afford to lose. With faith in each other, hope for a brighter future and love for our country, we will fight and we will win together.
(CHEERING)
(APPLAUSE)
JILL BIDEN: Thank you. Thank you.
(CHEERING)
(APPLAUSE)
(MUSIC)
ANNOUNCER: Please welcome first daughter, Ashley Biden.
(CHEERING)
(APPLAUSE)
(MUSIC)
ASHLEY BIDEN, DAUGHTER OF PRESIDENT BIDEN & FIRST LADY JILL BIDEN: Good evening. I have this memory. It's the eve of my 8th birthday. Dad is still in D.C., tending to urgent matters in the Senate. That night, as a surprise, mom told -- told me Beau and Hunter to get in the car. I remember pulling up to the Wilmington Amtrak Station, riding up the escalator to the platform.
The train stops, doors open, and daddy steps out. As soon as I saw him, I ran down that platform and jumped into his arms. Like magic, mom brought out a cake. They sang happy birthday, and I blew out the candles. Dad hugged me, and he said that he had to get back to work. He crossed to the southbound train and off he went to D.C.
[23:19:57]
That was a snapshot of one moment, of one day on this extraordinary journey of being Joe Biden's daughter.
(APPLAUSE)
A. BIDEN: Joe Biden is the OG girl, dad.
(CHEERING)
(APPLAUSE)
A. BIDEN: He told me I could be anything, and I could do anything. As a child, I would sit on the leather chair in his office doing my homework. And he would sit next to me doing his work, drafting the Violence Against Women Act.
(APPLAUSE)
A. BIDEN: And he wasn't just a girl dad. I could see -- and he wasn't just a girl dad, I could see that he valued and trusted women.
(APPLAUSE)
A. BIDEN: How he listened to his mother. How he believed in his sister. And most of all, how he respected my mother's career.
(APPLAUSE)
A. BIDEN: Dad was always there doing everything he could to be a true partner to her.
Dad, you always tell us, but we don't tell you enough, that you are the love of our lives and the life of our love.
(APPLAUSE)
A. BIDEN: I had my wedding reception in my parents' backyard. At the time, my dad was vice president. But he was also that dad who literally set up the entire reception.
(LAUGHTER)
A. BIDEN: He was riding around in his John Deere four-wheeler, fixing the place settings, arranging the plants, and, by the way, he was very emotional. I thought that I would be a mess, but he was the one crying and I was the one who had to comfort him.
Before he walked me down the aisle, he turned to me and said that he would always be my best friend.
All these years later, dad, you are still my best friend.
(APPLAUSE)
A. BIDEN: His example in service inspired my career. I'm a social worker in Philadelphia.
(APPLAUSE)
A. BIDEN: I support formerly incarcerated women as they heal from past trauma and they reclaim their lives.
(APPLAUSE)
A. BIDEN: Dad always told me that I was no better than anybody else and nobody was better than me. He taught me that everyone deserves a fair shot and that we shouldn't leave anyone behind. That's what you learn from a fighter who has been underestimated his entire life.
When I look at dad, I see grace, strength, and humility. I see one of the most consequential leaders ever in history.
(APPLAUSE)
A. BIDEN: And I also know that he never stops thinking about you, about your dreams, about your dignity, about your opportunity, about your families. Dad knows that family is everything.
When Hunter and I lost our brother Beau to cancer in 2015, the grief and the pain felt like it might never end. Dad had the capacity to step out of his own pain and absorb ours. And I know that Beau is here with us tonight, as he is always with us.
(APPLAUSE)
A. BIDEN: After he passed, I got this tattoo on my wrist. It says "courage, dear heart." A reminder to myself to keep going, to get back up, like my dad has always done. He has taught me that a courageous heart is a miraculous thing. A courageous heart can heal a family. A courageous heart can heal a nation and maybe even the world.
[23:24:57]
And now, this election requires the courageous hearts of all of us. In 2020, my dad selected Kamala Harris to beat Donald Trump. And he knows in 2024, she will beat Donald Trump again.
(APPLAUSE)
A. BIDEN: So tonight, I am asking you, if you stood with us in 2020, call upon your courageous heart. Stand with us today. Work harder than you have ever worked before in your life.
This is the fight of our lifetime, our freedom, our democracy, our reproductive rights. All of this, all of it is on the ballot. And I know together we can do this because my dad helped show us the way.
(APPLAUSE)
And now I would like to introduce my father, your 46th president of the United States, Joe Biden.
(CHEERING)
(MUSIC)
(CHEERING)
(APPLAUSE)
JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Thank you.
(CHEERING)
(APPLAUSE)
JOE BIDEN: Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
(CHEERING)
(APPLAUSE)
(CROWD chanting We love Joe!)
JOE BIDEN: Thank you.
(CHEERING)
(APPLAUSE)
JOE BIDEN: Thank you.
(CHEERING)
(APPLAUSE)
JOE BIDEN: Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
(CHEERING)
(APPLAUSE)
JOE BIDEN: Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
(CHEERING)
(APPLAUSE)
JOE BIDEN: Thank you.
(CHEERING)
(APPLAUSE)
JOE BIDEN: Thank you.
(CHEERING)
(APPLAUSE)
(CROWD chanting We love Joe!)
JOE BIDEN: I love you.
(CHEERING)
(APPLAUSE)
JOE BIDEN: Thank you.
(CHEERING)
JOE BIDEN: Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
(CHEERING)
(APPLAUSE)
(CROWD chanting We love Joe!)
JOE BIDEN: That was my daughter.
(CHEERING)
(APPLAUSE)
(CROWD chanting thank you, Joe!)
JOE BIDEN: Thank you.
(CHEERING)
(APPLAUSE) [23:30:00]
(CROWD chanting thank you, Joe!)
JOE BIDEN: Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
(CHEERING)
(APPLAUSE)
JOE BIDEN: Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
Thank you. Thank you. I tell you what --
(CHEERING)
(APPLAUSE)
-- to my dearest daughter, Ashley, God love you, you're incredible. Thank you for the introduction and for being my courageous heart, along with Hunter and our entire family, and especially our rock, Jill --
(APPLAUSE)
JOE BIDEN: -- who as those of you who know us, she still leaves me both breathless and speechless. Everybody knows her, I love her more than she loves me. She walks down the stairs and I still get that going, boom, boom, boom.
(LAUGHTER)
JOE BIDEN: You all know me, no, I'm not kidding. Let's give a special round of applause to our First Lady, Jill Biden.
(CHEERING)
(APPLAUSE)
JOE BIDEN: My dad used to have an expression, for real, he'd say, Joey, family is the beginning, the middle, and the end. And I love you all.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We love you --
(CHEERING)
(APPLAUSE)
JOE BIDEN: Folks, and America, I love you.
(CHEERING)
(APPLAUSE) JOE BIDEN: Folks, let me ask you --
(CROWD chanting we love you!)
JOE BIDEN: -- let me ask you, are you ready to vote for freedom?
CROWD: Yes!
JOE BIDEN: Are you ready to vote for democracy and for America?
CROWD: Yes!
JOE BIDEN: Let me ask you, are you ready to elect Kamala Harris and Tim Walz?
(CHEERING)
(APPLAUSE)
JOE BIDEN: As President and Vice President of the United States?
(CHEERING)
(APPLAUSE)
JOE BIDEN: My fellow Democrats, my fellow Americans, nearly four years ago in winter, on the steps of the Capitol, on a cold January day, I raised my right hand and I swore an oath to you and to God to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution and to faithfully execute the office of the President of the United States.
In front of me, in front of me was the city surrounded by the National Guard. Behind me, a Capitol that, just two weeks before, had been overrun by a violent mob. But I knew then, from the bottom of my heart, that I knew now, there is no place in America for political violence, none.
(APPLAUSE)
JOE BIDEN: You cannot say you love your country only when you win.
(APPLAUSE)
JOE BIDEN: In that moment, I wasn't looking to the past, I was looking to the future. I spoke of the work at hand, the moment we had to meet. It was, as I told you then, a winter of peril and possibility, of peril and possibility. We're in the grip of a once-in-a-century pandemic, historic joblessness, a call for racial justice long overdue, clear and present threats to our very democracy.
[23:35:09]
(CROWD chanting we love Joe!)
JOE BIDEN: Thank you.
(CROWD chanting we love Joe!)
JOE BIDEN: And yet I believed then, and I believe now, that progress was and is possible. Justice is achievable, and our best days are not behind us, they are before us.
(CHEERING)
(APPLAUSE)
JOE BIDEN: Now it's summer. The winter has passed. With a grateful heart, I stand before you now on this August night to report that democracy has prevailed.
(CHEERING)
(APPLAUSE)
JOE BIDEN: Democracy has delivered. And now democracy must be preserved.
(CHEERING)
(APPLAUSE)
JOE BIDEN: You've heard me say it before. We are facing an inflection point. One of those rare moments in history when the decisions we make now will determine the fate of our nation and the world for decades to come. That's not hyperbole, I mean it literally. We're in the battle for the very soul of America.
I ran for president in 2020 because one of what I saw in Charlottesville in August of 2017. Extremists coming out of the woods, carrying torches, their veins bulging from their necks, carrying Nazi swastikas, and chanting the same exact antisemitic bile that was heard in Germany in the early '30s.
Neo-Nazis, white supremacists, and the Ku Klux Klan, so emboldened by a president then in the White House that they saw as an ally. They didn't even bother to wear their hoods. Hate goes on to march in America. Old ghosts in new garments stirring up the oldest divisions, stoking the oldest fears, giving oxygen to the oldest forces that they long sought to tear apart America.
In the process, a young woman was killed. When I contacted her mother to ask about what happened, she told me, when the president was asked what he thought had happened, Donald Trump said, and I quote, "There were very fine people on both sides." My God.
(BOOING)
JOE BIDEN: That's what he said. That is what he said and what he meant. That's when I realized, I'd listen to the admonition of my dead son, I could not stay on the sidelines. So I ran.
(APPLAUSE) JOE BIDEN: Because I had no intention of running again. I had just lost part of my soul. But I ran with a deep conviction in America. I know and believe in an America where honesty, dignity, decency, still matters. An America where everyone has a fair shot and hate has no safe harbor.
(APPLAUSE)
JOE BIDEN: An America where the fundamental creed of this nation, that all of us are created equal, is still very much alive, and a broad coalition of Americans joined with me. 81 million voters voted for us.
(APPLAUSE)
JOE BIDEN: More than any time in all of history. Because of all of you in this room and others, we came together in 2020 to save democracy.
(APPLAUSE)
[23:39:51]
JOE BIDEN: As your president, I've been determined to keep America moving forward, not going back. To stand against hate and violence in all its forms, to be a nation where we not only live but thrive on diversity. Demonizing no one, leaving no one behind, and becoming a nation that we profess to be.
(CHEERING)
(APPLAUSE)
JOE BIDEN: I also ran to rebuild the backbone of America, the middle class.
(CHEERING)
(APPLAUSE)
JOE BIDEN: I made a commitment to you that I'll be a president for all Americans, whether you voted for me or not. We have done that.
Studies show the major bills we have passed actually delivered more to red states than blue, because the job of the president is deliver to all of America.
(CHEERING)
(APPLAUSE)
JOE BIDEN: Because of you, and I'm not exaggerating, because of you, we've had one of the most extraordinary four years of progress ever, period.
(CHEERING)
(APPLAUSE) JOE BIDEN: When I say "we", I mean, Kamala and me.
(CHEERING)
(APPLAUSE)
JOE BIDEN: Just think about it, COVID no longer controls our lives. We've gone from economic crisis to the strongest economy in the entire world.
(CHEERING)
(APPLAUSE)
JOE BIDEN: Record 16 million new jobs, record small business growth, record high stock market, record high 401ks, wages up, inflation down, way down, and continuing to go down.
(CHEERING)
(APPLAUSE)
JOE BIDEN: The smallest racial wealth gap in 20 years, and yes, we both know we have more to do but we're moving in the right direction.
More Americans have peace of mind that comes from having health insurance. More Americans have health insurance today than ever before in American history.
(CHEERING)
(APPLAUSE)
JOE BIDEN: And after, as a young senator beginning to fight, beginning to fight for 50 years to give Medicare the power to negotiate lower prescription drug prices, we finally beat Big Pharma.
(CHEERING)
(APPLAUSE)
JOE BIDEN: And guess who cast the tiebreaking vote? Vice President, soon-to-be-president, Kamala Harris.
(CHEERING)
(APPLAUSE)
JOE BIDEN: And now, it's the law of the land. Instead of paying $400 a month for insulin, seniors with diabetes will pay $35 a month.
(APPLAUSE)
JOE BIDEN: The law we passed already includes, starting in January, every senior's total prescription cost can be capped at $2,000 no matter how expensive the drugs they have. (CHEERING)
(APPLAUSE)
JOE BIDEN: And what we don't focus on and our Republican friends don't seem to understand, our reforms don't just save seniors money, they save the American taxpayers money.
(CHEERING)
(APPLAUSE)
JOE BIDEN: You know what we just passed saved? It saved $160 billion over the next decade. That's not hyperbole. It's because Medicare no longer has to pay those exorbitant prices to the Big Pharma.
But look --
(CROWD chanting thank you, Joe!)
JOE BIDEN: Thank you, Kamala, too.
(CROWD chanting thank you, Joe!)
JOE BIDEN: Look, folks, how can we have the strongest economy in the world without the best infrastructure in the world?
(CHEERING)
JOE BIDEN: Donald Trump promised infrastructure week, every week, for four years, and he never built a damn thing.
(CHEERING)
(APPLAUSE)
JOE BIDEN: But now, because of Kamala and I've done, remember we're told we couldn't get it done, remember when we came into office, we couldn't get anything pass. But right now, we're giving America an "infrastructure decade" not week.
(CHEERING)
(APPLAUSE)
JOE BIDEN: We're modernizing our roads, our bridges, our ports, our airports, our trains, our buses.
[23:45:00]
Removing every lead pipe from schools and homes, so every child can drink clean water. Providing affordable high-speed Internet for every American no matter where they live unlike -- not unlike what Roosevelt did with electricity. And so much more.
We are uniting the country. We're growing our economy. We're improving our quality of life, and we're building a better America.
(CHEERING)
(APPLAUSE)
JOE BIDEN: Because that's who we are. How can we be the strongest nation in the world without leading the world in science and technology? After years of importing 90 percent of our semiconductor chips from abroad, which America invented those chips. Our CHIPS and Science Act meant that private companies from around the world are investing literally tens of billions of dollars to build new chip factories right here in America.
(CHEERING)
(APPLAUSE)
JOE BIDEN: And over that period, they'll create tens of thousands of jobs. And many of those jobs and so-called fabs, the buildings that make the chips, are being constructed now. And guess what, the average salary in those fabs, the size of a football field, will be over $100,000 a year. And you don't need a college degree.
(CHEERING)
(APPLAUSE)
JOE BIDEN: Because of you and so many electeds (sp?) out there, American manufacturing is back, where the hell does it say we wouldn't lead the world in manufacturing? Eight hundred thousand new manufacturing jobs.
(APPLAUSE)
JOE BIDEN: Our Republican friends and others made sure they go abroad to get the cheapest labor. We used to import products and export jobs. Now we export American products and create American jobs right here in America.
(CHEERING)
(APPLAUSE)
JOE BIDEN: Where jobs belong. With every new job, with every new factory, pride and hope is being brought back to communities throughout the country that were left behind. You know, you're from them, many of you. You know what it's like when that factory closed, where your mother, your father, your grandmother or grandfather worked. And now you're back providing, once again, proving that Wall Street didn't build America, the middle class built America, and unions, unions built the middle class.
(CHEERING)
(APPLAUSE)
JOE BIDEN: It has been my view since I came to the Senate, that's why I'm proud to have been the first president to walk a picket line --
(CHEERING)
(APPLAUSE)
JOE BIDEN: -- and be labeled the most pro-union president in history. And I accept it. That's a fact.
(CHEERING)
(APPLAUSE)
JOE BIDEN: Because when unions do well, we all do well.
(CHEERING)
(APPLAUSE)
(CROWD chanting Union Joe!)
JOE BIDEN: You got it, man. You got it.
(CROWD chanting Union Joe!)
JOE BIDEN: I agree. I'm proud. Look, remember we were told we couldn't get anything done because we couldn't get anything done in the Congress? Well, with your support, we passed the most significant climate law in the history of mankind.
(APPLAUSE)
JOE BIDEN: There are $370 billion. Cutting carbon emissions in half by 2030. Launching a climate corps, similar to AmeriCorps and Peace Corps, creating tens of thousands of jobs for young people in the future, but we're going to make sure this continues.
(CHEERING)
(APPLAUSE)
JOE BIDEN: Creating hundreds of thousands of jobs in clean energy for American workers, including the IBEW installing 500,000, 500,000 charging stations all across America.
(APPLAUSE)
JOE BIDEN: And in the process, reducing carbon emissions.
[23:50:00]
And we are seeing it. We're seeing to it that the first beneficiaries of environmental initiatives are those fence-line communities that have been smothered by the legacy of pollution, Louisiana and Delaware, Route 9, all the factories, all those chemical factories are right next to the poorest neighborhoods. They are the ones we are going to bring back. (CHEERING)
(APPLAUSE)
JOE BIDEN: And how, how can we be the greatest nation in the world without the best education system in the world?
(CHEERING)
(APPLAUSE)
JOE BIDEN: Donald Trump and the Republican friends, they not only can't think; they can't read very well.
(LAUGHTER)
JOE BIDEN: Seriously, think about it.
Look at their Project 2025.
(BOOING)
JOE BIDEN: They want to do away with the Department of Education.
Well, during the pandemic, Kamala and I helped states and cities get back their schools back open.
(CHEERING)
(APPLAUSE)
JOE BIDEN: And we gave public school teachers a raise.
(CHEERING)
(APPLAUSE)
JOE BIDEN: We created apprenticeships with businesses and communities, putting students on a path to a good-paying job, whether or not they go to college.
And, by the way, we're making college a hell of a lot more affordable --
(CHEERING)
(APPLAUSE)
JOE BIDEN: -- increasing Pell Grants by $900, over $15 billion to HBCUs --
(CHEERING)
(APPLAUSE)
JOE BIDEN: -- minority services, including Hispanic institutions and tribal colleges.
(CHEERING)
(APPLAUSE)
JOE BIDEN: We kept our commitment to provide more student relief than ever by lifting the burden of helping millions of families, so they can get married, start a family, buy a home, and begin to build family wealth and contribute to the community and grow our economy.
(CHEERING)
(APPLAUSE)
JOE BIDEN: It's not costing us. It's creating more wealth.
We fundamentally transformed how our -- transformed how our economy grows, from the middle out and the bottom up, instead of the top down.
(CHEERING)
(APPLAUSE)
JOE BIDEN: My dad used to say there wasn't a whole hell of a lot to drop down on my kitchen table at the end of the month.
I come from a basic middle-class family, three-bedroom house, four kids, a grandpop living with us, decent neighborhood, but never a penny to spare.
And, look, that top-down notion never worked. A lot of Democrats didn't think it was -- thought it worked, but it doesn't. And when we did all that, what we have done, everybody can do well, everybody.
(CHEERING)
(APPLAUSE)
JOE BIDEN: Donald Trump calls America a failing nation.
(BOOING)
JOE BIDEN: No, I'm serious. Well, think about this. Think about this.
He publicly says to the whole world, I'm going to say something outrageous. I know more foreign leaders by their first names and know them well than anybody alive.
(CHEERING)
(APPLAUSE)
JOE BIDEN: Just because I'm so damn old.
(LAUGHTER)
JOE BIDEN: But I'm not joking.
Think of the message he sends around the world when he talks about America being a failing nation. He says we're losing. He's the loser. He's dead wrong.
(CHEERING)
(APPLAUSE)
JOE BIDEN: Many of you are very successful people who travel the world. Name me a country in the world that doesn't think we're the leading nation in the world.
Without America, not a joke. Think about it. I'm being literal. Who can lead the world other than the United States of America?
(CHEERING)
(APPLAUSE)
JOE BIDEN: But guess what? America is winning, and the world is better off for it.
America is more prosperous and America is safer today than under Donald Trump. Trump continues to lie about crime in America, like everything else. Guess what? On his watch, the murder rate went up 30 percent, the biggest increase in history.
Meanwhile, we made the largest investment, Kamala and I, in public safety ever.
(CHEERING)
(APPLAUSE)
JOE BIDEN: Now the murder rate is falling faster than any time in history. Violent crime has dropped to the lowest level of more than 50 years.
(CHEERING)
(APPLAUSE)
JOE BIDEN: And crime will keep coming down when we put a prosecutor in the Oval Office, instead of a convicted felon.
(CHEERING)
[23:55:00]
(APPLAUSE)
JOE BIDEN: And, folks, the distinguished senator from the -- senator from California and I passed the first ban on assault weapons.
(CHEERING) (APPLAUSE)
JOE BIDEN: And guess what? It worked.
If we care about public safety, we need to prevent gun violence.
(CHEERING)
(APPLAUSE)
JOE BIDEN: And what makes me ashamed when I travel the world, which I do. More children in America are killed by a gunshot than any other cause in the United States, more die from a bullet than cancer, accidents or anything else in the United States of America. My God.
That's why Kamala and I are proud, we beat the NRA when we passed the first major bipartisan gun safety law in 30 years.
(CHEERING)
(APPLAUSE)
JOE BIDEN: I'm serious. That comes from here.
And now, it's time to ban assault weapons again.
(CHEERING)
(APPLAUSE)
JOE BIDEN: And demand universal background checks.
(CHEERING)
(APPLAUSE)
JOE BIDEN: It's hard. I never thought I'd stand before a crowd of Democrats and refer to a president as a liar so many times. No, I'm not trying to be funny. It's sad.
Trump continues to lie about the border.
Here's what he won't tell you. Trump killed the strongest bipartisan border deal in the history of the United States that we negotiated with the Senate Republicans and took four month -- four weeks. Once it passed and they acknowledged the most expansive border of change in American history, he called senators to say, don't support the bipartisan bill because he said it would help me politically and hurt him politically.
My God. No, I'm serious, think about it. Not a joke. Ask even the press who doesn't like me, they'll tell you that's true.
Typically, Trump once again putting himself first and America last.
Then I had to take executive action. The result of the executive action I took, border encounters have dropped over 50 percent. In fact, there are fewer border crossings today than when Donald Trump left office.
And unlike Trump, we will not demonize immigrants, saying they're the poison of blood of America, poisoning the blood of our country?
(CHEERING)
(APPLAUSE)
JOE BIDEN: Kamala and I are committed to strengthening legal immigration, including protecting Dreamers and more.
(CHEERING)
(APPLAUSE)
JOE BIDEN: And here's what else I believe in. Protecting your freedom. Your freedom to vote, your freedom to love who you love, and your freedom to choose.
(CHEERING)
(APPLAUSE)
JOE BIDEN: In its decision overturning Roe v. Wade as you heard earlier tonight, the United States Supreme Court majority wrote the following, quote, "women are now without electrical -- not -- not allowed, not without electoral -- electoral or political power".
No kidding. MAGA Republicans found out the power of women in 2022.
(CHEERING)
(APPLAUSE)
JOE BIDEN: And Donald Trump is going to find out the power of women in 2024.
(CHEERING)
(APPLAUSE)
JOE BIDEN: Watch.
(APPLAUSE)
JOE BIDEN: And where Trump and his MAGA Republican right-wingers seek to erase history, we Democrats continue to write history and make more history.
I'm proud to have kept my commitment to appoint the first Black woman in the United States Supreme Court.
(CHEERING)
[00:00:00]
(APPLAUSE)
JOE BIDEN: Ketanji Brown Jackson, the symbol for every young woman in America that you can do anything.
