Speeches and Remarks

Montage Mountain Resort
Scranton, Pennsylvania

1:52 P.M. EST

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  Scranton!  (Applause.)  Hey, everybody! 

Can we hear it for Glen?  (Applause.)  Let’s hear it for Glen.

Hi, Scranton.  Good afternoon, everyone.  Good afternoon.  It is so good to be with everyone.  (Applause.)  Thank you. 

Are we ready to do this? 

     AUDIENCE:  Yes!

THE VICE PRESIDENT: We- — we’re ready to get out the vote? 

     AUDIENCE:  Yes!

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  We’re ready to win?

     AUDIENCE:  Yes!

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  All right.  Okay.  So, first, let me thank Glen.  I was — I was telling him when we were just hanging out backstage, so when I — my first office that I ran for was district attorney, and the Carpenters were the first union to endorse me.  (Applause.)  And — and I — and I’ve always — I mean, even before, but always — I will always and always have stood with labor. 

And so, I’m very proud to stand with you, Glen, with your members, with all the members of labor, as we do this together.  (Applause.) 

And as he pointed out, there’s a huge difference between me and the other guy, which everybody here knows, which is why you are here to help us get out the vote.  (Applause.) 

But I thought I would share with you — so, I was — when I was coming in, someone reminded me of — of a story I’ve shared, which is when I first ran for office as DA.  So, I — I started out at six points in the polls, right?  So, you kn- — for anyone who knows, that’s 6 out of 100.  (Laughter.)  No one thought we could win.  And I used to campaign with my ironing board.  (Laughter.)  Okay.  You are wondering, “Now, what is she talking about?”  (Laughter.)

So, I would grab my ironing board, a roll of duct tape, my pois- — my posters and my flyers, and I’d put them all in my car, and I’d drive to the local grocery stores.  And I’d pull out my ironing board and my duct tape and my posters and my flyers, and I’d walk to the front of the grocery store outside, and I’d stand up my ironing board, because, you see, an ironing board makes a really great standing desk.  (Laughter.)

And I’d use the duct tape to tape my posters on the outside of the thing, and I’d put my flyers on top of the ironing board.  And I would require people to talk to me as they walked in and out of the grocery store.  (Laughter.)

And I will tell you, that is how I love to campaign.  I don’t do it as much anymore, obviously.  But what you all are signing up to do today and what you’ve been doing, like, let’s enjoy it.  You know, and I know you do.  I can feel the mood in here.  Because it’s the best of who we are as a democracy. 

And I think we’ve kind of — (applause) — right?

And that’s what our campaign has been about.  We are a people-driven campaign, and we love the people.  And we see, in the face of a stranger, a neighbor — right? — and that’s the spirit of what we are doing. 

And over these last — you know, this whole era of this other guy, you know, it —  but it — what it’s done with all that talk that’s been about trying to have us point fingers at each other and divide each other, it makes people feel alone.  It makes them feel like there’s nobody standing with them. 

And so, the way I have always been thinking about our campaign and these next 24 hours is as we are getting out the vote, as we are canvassing, let’s be intentional about building community — about building community, about building coalitions, about reminding people we all have so much more in common than what separates us.  There is power in that.  There is power in that.  (Applause.)  And there’s lasting power in that, right?

It’s about the win, and it is about more.  It is about more.  It is about just strengthening our country and reminding each other we are all in this together.  We rise and fall together.  And that is the strength of who we are and everyone here. 

That’s the strength of Bob Casey.  We’ve got to get him back in the United States Senate.  (Applause.) 

That’s the strength of Mayor Cognetti and all that she has been doing.  Right?  (Applause.)

It’s about leadership that is the kind of leadership that we want.  Right?  They are leaders, we are leaders who understand that the measure of our strength is not based on who we beat down.  It’s based on who we lift up.  Right?  (Applause.)  And so, that’s what we’re going to do.  

And so, over these next 24 hours, I know everyone is here, including our youngest leaders — I see you over there.  I know you’re not ready to vote because you look like you’re about eight, but — (laughs) — but you tell the adults in your life why it’s important they vote.  Okay?  (Laughs.)  (Applause.)

But over these next 24 hours, let’s — let’s enjoy this moment to knock on a neighbor’s door and in their face, even if we’ve not met them, know that we have a lot that we care about in common and that we are optimistic about the future of our country, that we love our country, and that that’s what this fight is about, and about the promise of America — and the promise of America being represented by everybody who is here.  

So, I thank you all for the time that you have taken out of your busy lives.  There are a number of things that each one of you could be doing right now and — but you’re here, and we’re all here together, under this one roof, as a community of people who care and who are dedicated to the hard work that it requires.  

You know, I — I like to say that you — you know, when you love something, you fight for it.  (Applause.)  And that’s what we’re doing.  And that’s what we’re doing.  We love our country, and we are fighting for the best of who we are.  And —

AUDIENCE MEMBER:  We love you!

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  And I love you.  (Applause.)  Thank you.  I love you.

So —

AUDIENCE:  Kamala!  Kamala!  Kamala!

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  Thank you.  Thank you.  Thank you.  Thank you.

AUDIENCE:  Kamala!  Kamala!  Kamala!

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  Let’s vote.  Let’s get out the vote.  Let’s get out the vote.  Let’s get out the vote. 

AUDIENCE:  Let’s get out the vote!  Let’s get out the vote!  Let’s get out the vote!

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  Let’s get out the vote.  Let’s get out the vote.  Let’s get out the vote.   Let’s win. (Laughs.)  (Applause.)

All right, let’s get to work.  Twenty-four hours to go.  And I — I so — I — I’m so grateful for everyone here.  I — I just — I’ll end with this point.  You know, I have the — I have the privilege, I have the blessing of being able to travel around our country.  And I’m telling you guys, we’re good.  We’re good.  We’re good.  (Applause.)  We really are.  

I mean, every — I s- — I go into rooms with people who s- — again, seemingly have nothing in common and have everything in common — rooms of people of all kinds of different backgrounds, of ages coming together in this sense of just the — the collective.  We’re good.

And so, we’re going to keep doing this work with the optimism that it requires to be strong.  Everyone here knows, in the context of your family, in your life, when you believe something is possible, you put in the hard work, and you know it’s good work — hard work is good work, it’s joyful work — and we get the job done.  

Let’s get this done.  Thank you all.  (Applause.)

END                 2:00 P.M. EDT

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Jenison Field House
East Lansing, Michigan

6:04 P.M. EST

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  Hello, Michigan!  (Applause.)  Hi, everyone. 

Can we hear it for Sedrick?  (Applause.) 

All right.  We’re going to do this. 

Hello, Michigan State!  (Applause.)  It is good to be in the house of my dear friend Magic Johnson.  Go Green!  (Applause.)

     AUDIENCE:  Go White!  (Applause.)  

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  All right.  All right.  East Lansing, are we ready to do this?  (Applause.) 

Are we ready to vote?  (Applause.)

Are we ready to win?  (Applause.)

Oh, it’s good to be back in Michigan and to be with so many incredible leaders.  I want to thank Lieutenant Governor Gilchrist — (applause); Congresswoman Elissa Slotkin, and let’s send her to the United States Senate — (applause); and Curtis Hertel, and let’s send him to the U.S. House of Representatives.  (Applause.)

And we are joined today by leaders of the Arab American community, which has deep and proud roots here in Michigan.  (Applause.) 

And I want to say this year has been difficult, given the scale of death and destruction in Gaza and given the civilian casualties and displacement in Lebanon.  It is devastating.  And as president, I will do everything in my power to end the war in Gaza, t- — (applause) — to bring home the hostages, end the suffering in Gaza, ensure Israel is secure, and ensure the Palestinian people can realize their right to dignity, freedom, security, and self-determination.  (Applause.)

And we continue to work on a diplomatic resolution across the Israel-Lebanon border to protect civilians and provide lasting stability.  (Applause.)  And as president, I will work tirelessly toward a future with security and dignity for all people.  (Applause.)

So, Michigan, two days to go — (applause) — are you ready?  Are you ready? — in one of the most consequential elections of our lifetime.  And we have momentum.  It is on our side.  Can you feel it?  (Applause.) 

And we have the momentum because our campaign is tapping into the ambitions, the aspirations, and the dreams of the American people, because we are optimistic and excited about what we can do together — (applause) — and because we know it is time for a new generation of leadership in America.  (Applause.)  And I am ready to offer that leadership as the next president of the United States.  (Applause.)

Now, the race is not yet over, and we need to finish strong.  So, for the next two days, we still have a lot of work to do.  But here’s the thing: We like hard work.  (Applause.)  Hard work is good work.  (Applause.)  Hard work is joyful work.  (Applause.)

And make no mistake, we will win.  (Applause.)  We will win. 

We will win.  We will win. 

And we will win — and w- — (laughs).

     AUDIENCE:  We will win!  We will win!  We will win!

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  And we — and we will win because here’s what everyone here knows: When you know what you stand for, you know what to fight for.  (Applause.) 

And we have an opportunity in this election to finally turn the page on a decade of politics driven by fear and division.  We are done with that, and we are exhausted with it.  (Applause.)  And America is ready — America is ready for a fresh start, ready for a new way forward, where we see our fellow American not as an enemy but as a neighbor.  (Applause.) 

We are ready for a president who knows that the true measure of a leader is not based on who you beat down; it is based on who you lift up.  (Applause.)

And, Michigan, you know me.  I am not afraid of tough fights, evidently.  (Laughs.)  (Applause.)  For decades as a prosecutor and the top law enforcement officer of the biggest state, I won fights against the big banks that ripped off homeowners.  (Applause.)  I won fights against for-profit colleges that scammed veterans and students.  I won fights against creditors who abused women, children, and seniors.  (Applause.)  I won fights — I won fights against the cartels that trafficked in guns, drugs, and human beings.  (Applause.)

And — and it is my pledge to you, if you give me the chance to fight on your behalf as president, there is nothing in the world that will stand in my way.  (Applause.)  I’m here for you.

And I will get up every day to fight to make your life better, to bring down the cost of living, to ban corporate price gouging on groceries, to make housing and childcare more affordable.  (Applause.)

My plan will cut taxes for workers, for middle-class families, and small businesses — (applause); lower health care costs, including the cost of homecare for seniors — (applause) — because, by the way, I believe health care should be a right and not just a privilege of those who can afford it.  (Applause.)

And to those certain individuals who still want to get rid of the Affordable Care Act —

AUDIENCE:  Booo —

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  — and take us back to the days when insurance companies could deny people with preexisting conditions, well, you all know what we say: We are —

AUDIENCE:  Not going back!

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  — not going back.  (Laughs.)  (Applause.)  We are not going back. 

We are not going back because ours is a fight for the future.  (Applause.)  And it is a fight for freedom — (applause) — including the fundamental freedom of a woman to make decisions about her own body and not have her government tell her what to do.  (Applause.)

And when Congress passes a bill to restore reproductive freedom nationwide — (applause) — you know where I’m going — as president of the United States, I will proudly sign it into law.  (Applause.)

So, Michigan, I am here to ask for your vote.  I am here to ask for your vote.  (Applause.)  And here — and here is my pledge to you.  As president, I pledge to seek common ground and commonsense solutions to the challenges you face. 

I am not looking to score political points.  I am looking to make progress.  (Applause.)

And I pledge to listen to those who will be impacted by the decisions I make.  I pledge to listen to experts.  And I pledge to listen to people who disagree with me — (applause) — because, you see, I don’t believe people who disagree with me are the enemy.  (Applause.)  In fact, I’ll give them a seat at the table because that’s what strong leaders do.  (Applause.)

And I pledge to always put country above party and self and to be a president for all Americans — (applause) — all Americans.

So, that is my pledge to you, East Lansing.  And let me then ask: Who here has already voted?  (Applause.)  Oh, that’s fantastic.  Thank you.  (Laughs.)  (Applause.)  All right.  Okay. 

Well, now — now I’ve got to ask you: Please talk to your friends and family and neighbors — (laughter) — and share your perspective on why this election is so important.  Share your perspective on why, with the many, many other things you could be doing with your time right now, you took time out of your busy lives to be here.  Let’s connect with each other and let folks know and encourage them to make their voices heard. 

And for those of you who haven’t voted yet, no judgment — no judgment.  (Laughter.)  But please do take a moment — (laughs) — and think about your plan for when and where you will vote.  Election Day is on Tuesday, November 5th.  (Applause.)

Polls are open here in Michigan from 7:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m.  (Applause.)  And if you are not yet registered to vote, you can register and vote at your local clerk’s office now through Election Day.  (Applause.) 

It’s a very big deal.  It’s a very big deal.

So, go to IWillVote.com for all the information you need, including when and where to vote and where to drop off your absentee ballot.  But we need everyone to vote in Michigan.  You will make the difference in this election.  (Applause.)  You will make the difference.  You will make the difference.

So —

AUDIENCE MEMBER:  We love you!

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  I love you back.  (Applause.)  I love you back.

So — so —

AUDIENCE:  Kamala!  Kamala!  Kamala!

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  Okay.  So, here’s the thing.  It all comes down to this.  We are here together, this incredible mix of people from every background, every stage of life, under one roof together.  And we are here together for many reasons, including because we love our country.  We love our country.  (Applause.)  We love our country.

And when you love something, you fight for it.  (Applause.)  You fight for it.

And I do believe it is one of the highest forms of patriotism, the expression of the love we have for our country, to then fight for its ideals and to fight to realize the promise of America.  That’s what we are about.  (Applause.)  That’s what we are about. 

And I have always believed in our nation’s promise, because I have lived it.  So, I grew up as a child of the Civil Rights Movement.  My parents would take me to the marches when I was in a stroller.  And there were people there — and history has told us, there were people there from every walk of life, coming together to fight for freedom and for opportunity. 

You know, growing up, I saw how hard our mother worked to give her daughters the same chances our country gave her.  And I was blessed to have family by blood and to have family by love — (applause) — who instilled in me — who instilled in me the values of community, compassion, and faith. 

I have spent my life fighting for people who have been hurt and counted out but who never stopped believing that, in our country, anything is possible. 

I have lived the promise of America, and I will tell you, today, I see the promise of America in everyone who is here — in all of you, in all of us.  We are the promise of America.  (Applause.)  We are.  You are.  We are the promise of America. 

And I see it in the fathers and the mothers and the grandparents who work hard every day for their children’s future.  I see it in the women who refuse to accept a future without reproductive freedom.  (Applause.)  I see it in the men that support them.  (Applause.)  I see it in Republicans who have never voted for a Democrat before but have put the Constitution of the United States above party.  (Applause.) 

And I see the promise of America in all the young leaders who are here and voting for the first time.  (Applause.)  I love Gen Z.  (Laughs.)  (Applause.)  I do.  I do.

And here’s one of the things that I love about this generation — you, this incredible generation.  You all — you all are rightly impatient for change.  (Applause.)  I know that.  I know that.  I know that about you. 

And here’s the thing, because you all have only known the climate crisis and are leading, then, the charge to protect our planet and our future.  You, who grew up with active shooter drills and are fighting to keep our schools safe.  (Applause.)  You, who know — now know fewer rights than your mothers and grandmothers, are standing up for freedom. 

None of these issues for you are theoretical.  This is not political for you all.  This is your lived experience.  And I see you.  (Applause.)  And I see your power.  And I am so proud of you. 

Can we hear it for our first-time voters?  (Applause.)  Right?  Yeah.  I’m telling you, this is why I know our future is bright.  I’m just so optimistic about it.  I’m so optimistic about it.  (Applause.)

So — all right.  All right.  Two days — we got two days to get this done.  (Applause.)  And nobody can sit on the sidelines.  Let’s spend the next two days so that when we look back, we have no regrets that we did everything we could. 

So, let’s knock on doors.  Let’s text.  Let’s call the voters.  Let’s reach out to family, friends, classmates, neighbors, coworkers. 

And as we do, I have one request on top of everything else I’ve asked of you.  (Laughter.)  Let’s be true to what our campaign has been about from the very start, which is to be intentional about building community.  (Applause.)  Let’s build community while we are doing this.  Let’s build community and be intentional about it.  Let’s be intentional about building coalitions. 

Because we know, look, there’s been so much about this last decade that is just — but it’s — it’s — but the thing is is that it — the tenor of it has been to try and make people feel alone, to make people — and, you know, when you make people feel alone, it’s a way of trying to disempower people, to suggest to them you don’t have people, to suggest to them you don’t have community, which is not true.

And that’s why I say, let’s be intentional about in the face of a stranger, seeing a neighbor, and understanding that our power to lift each other up is immense.  And let us do it with the spirit of knowing the vast majority of us have so much more in common than what separates us.  (Applause.)

And we are all in this together.  (Applause.)  We are all in this together.  Because, you know, from the very start, our campaign has not been about being against something; it is about being for something — (applause) — a fight for a future with freedom, opportunity, and dignity for all Americans. 

And so, in these final hours, let us remember that there is power in knowing that we are together.  And let us remember that your vote is your voice, and your voice is your power.  (Applause.)  And you are powerful, and you remember that. 

So, today, Michigan, I ask you: Are you ready to make your voices heard?  (Applause.)

Do we believe in freedom?  (Applause.)

Do we believe in opportunity?  (Applause.)

Do we believe in the promise of America?  (Applause.) 

And are we ready to fight for it?  (Applause.)

And when we fight —

     AUDIENCE:  We win!

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  — we win.  (Applause.)

God bless you.  And God bless the United States of America.  (Applause.)

                              END                    6:27 P.M. EST

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Via Teleconference

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  Can you hear me?

     MS. MOORE:  Yes, we can hear you. 

     THE VICE PRESIDENT:  Minyon?

     MS. MOORE:  Yes, ma’am.

     THE VICE PRESIDENT:  Hi — thank — (laughs).  Good evening, everyone.  Good evening. 

Yes, I am on the tarmac.  I just landed back from East Lansing, Michigan, in Detroit.  Yesterday, I was in five states.  Tomorrow, I’m heading to Pennsylvania.  I’ll be in Pittsburgh.  I’ll be in Philly and Allentown. 

And two days to go.  And I just wanted to get on the call to thank everybody for just all the — everything: for the work; the prayers, the prayers, the prayers; for the friendship; for the sisterhood. 

Jotaka, I thank you for all you’ve been doing to organize.  Minyon, I just thank you for just being my sister and — and my dear, dear close friend.

And, everyone, thank you.  Win With Black Women — this coalition has been in my corner for the last four years and, just four months ago, immediately jumped into action with this weekly call to be the first group to organize tens of thousands of Black women in support of our brand new campaign. 

And I just — I’m so thankful, because you were the catalyst.  When others saw how the leaders on this call organize and — and empower and mobilize, then they, too, said, “Hey, we should do it.”  And — and I know that the leaders here, including and starting with Jotaka, helped other groups to organize to replicate what Win With Black Women has been doing for years now. 

And I just thank everyone.  I thank everyone for building a coalition that has been hard at work to support our campaign — many of those coalition members who are also on this call. 

And at the heart of our coalition-building is our core understanding that we all have so much more in common than what separates us, that we are all in this together, and that we can have an impact on people’s lives, that we know it is our calling.  We are driven by our faith to know that we must live a life of service in some way, whether it be because we choose to be in public office or in other ways.

But it is about lifting people up and reminding them that we are a community of people who care and have so much to be optimistic about. 

So, I thank everyone on this call for being such a part of this people-powered movement. 

And two days away from the election, I know people on this call have been out knocking on doors and calling folks and texting, and we have such momentum.  I’m telling you.  I just left East Lansing, and I was up at — at Michigan State, and these young people are just energized. 

And there were people from every generation of life, every walk of life, coming together under one roof, around a common purpose, and that is about dedicating ourselves to a new generation of leadership, and it’s about the future of our country and doing it with optimism. 

So, I thank you all.  We have more work to do.  And I know everyone here has probably voted early, but I do need your help to make sure that all our family and friends get to the polls.  And let’s mobilize our Facebook groups, our family group chats, and everyone we know. 

And I’ll just close by saying again: I’m so thankful and grateful to everybody here and for this incredible sisterhood.  And we will get this done, we will win, and it will be because we know what’s at stake, we love our country, and we know how to fight for all that is good and important for the future. 

 So, I thank you, everybody.  Minyon, again, thank you for the introduction.  And, everybody, be well.  I’ll see you out there.  Thank you.

                             END

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Greater Emmanuel Institutional Church of God in Christ
Detroit, Michigan

1:29 P.M. EST

     THE VICE PRESIDENT:  Okay.  Hi.  Good afternoon, everyone. 

     Q    Good afternoon.

     THE VICE PRESIDENT:  Okay.  Well, we’re back in Michigan and started the day in a really wonderful, joyful way.  And yesterday, of course, we were in five states.  And today, I will be spending the rest of the day here on the ground in Michigan, talking with voters and reminding them of the stakes and reminding them of the power they possess to actually determine the outcome of this election and the direction of our country. 

So, I’m very much looking forward to today and the next 48 hours.

Any questions?

     AIDE:  Todd, Detroit Free Press.

     Q    Vice President, do you have any closing argument for Arab American voters and voters in the Muslim community as to why they should vote for you in this election?

     THE VICE PRESIDENT:  Sure.  Absolutely.  Well, first of all, I’m honored to have the support of many Arab American leaders who represent the interests and the — the concerns, also, of the Arab American community.  But I also know well enough to know it is not a monolith.  There are many issues that are the issues that all Americans face and then, of course, some that are specific to what is happening in Gaza. 

And on the subject of Gaza, I have been very clear: The level of death of innocent Palestinians is unconscionable.  We need to end the war, and we need to get the hostages out.  And as president of the United States, I will do everything in my power to achieve that end and a two-state solution where Palestinians will have the right to self-determination and security and — and stability in the region. 

But again, the issues are as varied as they are for any voter.  It includes that, but it is also about bringing down the cost of living.  It is about supporting small businesses in the community.  It is about bringing down the cost of housing, groceries, extending the Child Tax Credit. 

These are issues that resonate in that community, as well as every other community.  And I will continue to speak to members of that community and to ask for their vote, which I hope I earn. 

     AIDE:  Alex.

     THE VICE PRESIDENT:  Thank you.

Alex?  Alex who?

     Q    Me?

     AIDE:  Yeah, (inaudible).

     Q    I’m Lauren.  (Laughs.)

     AIDE:  Sorry. 

     THE VICE PRESIDENT:  Okay.  There we go.

     AIDE:  You have the same last name as someone else.  (Laughter.)

     Q    Oh.  (Laughs.)

     AIDE:  Keep going.

     THE VICE PRESIDENT:  You know what, it’s 48 hours out.  Everyone is a little tired.  Who was with us last night?  (Laughs.) You’re right.  A few sleep deprived.

     Q    I guess —
    
     THE VICE PRESIDENT:  Please.

     Q    — simply, how are you feeling?  And have you submitted your ballot?

     THE VICE PRESIDENT:  I am feeling great.  I am looking forward to these next 48 hours to continue to talk with the voters and — and talk about the stakes and — and talk about the future of our country, which I think is bright when we are working with the same spirit of building community, building coalitions, and building the strength of our economy and our country.

I have.  I actually just filled out my mail-in ballot.  So, I have voted.

     AIDE:  Darlene.

     Q    Madam Vice President, have you returned the ballot to California?  And how did you vote on Prop 36?

     THE VICE PRESIDENT:  So, I have — my ballot is on its way to California, and I’m going to trust the system that it will arrive there.  And I am not going to talk about the vote on that because, honestly, it’s the Sunday before the election, and I don’t intend to create an endorsement one way or another around it, so — but I did vote. 
    
     AIDE:  Nandita.

     Q    Thank you.  Madam Vice President, Donald Trump prematurely declared victory in 2020.  Just his comments in the past weeks and days seem to suggest, you know, that he’s thinking about it.  How will you and your campaign respond if he does the same thing again?

     THE VICE PRESIDENT:  So, here we are on the Sunday before the election.  And I would ask, in particular, people who have not yet voted to not fall for his tactic, which I think includes suggesting to people that if they vote, their vote won’t matter; suggesting to people that somehow the integrity of our voting system is not intact so that they don’t vote. 

And again, I think that it is a tactic.  It is meant to distract from the fact that we have and support free and fair elections in our country.  We did in 2020.  He lost.  And the systems that are in place for this election in 2024 have integrity.  They are good systems. 

And the vote of the people will determine the outcome of this election.  And everyone must know that their vote is their power to determine the outcome of the election, and their vote will count.  It does matter. 

     AIDE:  Thank you. 

     THE VICE PRESIDENT:  Okay.  All right.  Thank you all.

                        END                     1:34 P.M. EST

The post Remarks by Vice President Harris in Press Gaggle | Detroit, MI appeared first on The White House.

PNC Music Pavilion
Charlotte, North Carolina

4:47 P.M. EDT

     THE VICE PRESIDENT:  Hello, North Carolina!  (Applause.)  Can we hear it for Tyson?  (Applause.)

     Oh, it’s good to be back.  It’s good to be back.  (Applause.)

     Charlotte, are we ready to do this?  (Applause.) 

     Are we ready to vote?  (Applause.)

     Are we ready to win?  (Applause.)

     Oh, it’s good to be back.  It is good to be back.  (Applause.)  And it is good to be back with so many friends and so many leaders. 

     And I want to thank everyone for taking the time out of your busy lives to be here.

     AUDIENCE MEMBER:  We got this, Kamala!

     THE VICE PRESIDENT:  We do.  (Applause.)  And we are here together.  And I thank you all so very much. 

     Governor Cooper, you are a dear friend.  You are an incredible leader.  I thank you.  (Applause.)

     Your next governor, Josh Stein — (applause); your next attorney general, Jeff Jackson — (applause); Congresswoman Adams; Mayor Lyles; DNC Chair Harrison; Kerry Washington — let’s give it up for all of them.  (Applause.) 

     And for Brittany Spencer and Khalid, The War and Treaty, and Jon Bon Jovi — (applause).

     All right, North Carolina.  So, we have three days left — (applause) — in one of the most consequential elections of our lifetime, and we still have work to do.  We still have work to do. 

     But here’s the thing I know about everybody here: We like hard work.  (Applause.)  Hard work is good work.  (Applause.)  Hard work is joyful work.  (Applause.)

     And make no mistake, we will win.  (Applause.)  We will win.  We will win.

     And here’s part of the deal on that.  We will win, because when you know what you stand for, you know what to fight for.  (Applause.)

     And we have an opportunity, in this election, to turn the page — (applause) — on a decade of Donald Trump trying to keep us divided and afraid of each other.  We’re done with that.  We’re done.  (Applause.)  We’re exhausted with it.  We’re done. 

     And we know who he is.  We know who he is.  He tells us every day — (laughter) — but, Charlotte, that’s not who we are.  (Applause.)  That’s not who we are. 

     And we know it is time for a new generation of leadership in America.  (Applause.)  And I am ready to offer that leadership as the next president of the United States of America.  (Applause.)

     And, North Carolina, here is the thing.  You know me.  You know me.  I’m not afraid of tough fights.  (Applause.)  For decades, as a prosecutor and a top law enforcement officer of the biggest state in our country, I won fights against the big banks that ripped off homeowners.  I won fights against for-profit colleges that scammed veterans and students, against predators who abused women and children.  I won fights against the cartels that traffic in guns and drugs and human beings.  (Applause.) 

     And I pledge to you that if you give me the chance to fight on your behalf as president, there is nothing in the world that will stand in my way.  (Applause.)  Nothing.

     And, look, we know who Donald Trump is.  This is — so —

     AUDIENCE MEMBER:  (Inaudible.)

     THE VICE PRESIDENT:  Right.  We do, don’t we?

     AUDIENCE:  Booo —

     THE VICE PRESIDENT:  And here is one of the things we know about him.  This is not someone who is thinking about how to make your life better.  And this is someone who is increasingly unstable —

     AUDIENCE:  Yes!

     THE VICE PRESIDENT:  — obsessed with revenge —

     AUDIENCE:  Yes!

     THE VICE PRESIDENT:  — consumed with grievance —

     AUDIENCE: Yes!

     THE VICE PRESIDENT:  — and the man is out for unchecked power.  (Applause.)

     So, look, in less than 90 days, it’s either going to be him or me sitting in the Oval Office.  (Applause.)  We’re going to do this.  (Applause.) 

     AUDIENCE:  Kamala!  Kamala!  Kamala!

     THE VICE PRESIDENT:  (Inaudible.)  Thank you, thank you, thank you. 

     AUDIENCE:  Kamala!  Kamala!  Kamala!

     THE VICE PRESIDENT:  So, he- — thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you.  Okay.  (Applause.)  Come on.  Thank you.  Okay, okay.  Thank you.  (Applause.)  (Laughs.)

     But — okay, but — so, how about sharing with your friends, right?  So, this is the thing that we want to share with folks, just to imagine — right? — what this means and the — the choice that is in front of us.  Imagine — and let’s ask the friends who are not here to imagine the Oval Office.  You’ve seen it on T.V., right?  Imagine the Oval Office.  And if he is elected, Donald Trump, on day one, would be sitting in that office, stewing over his enemies list. 

     AUDIENCE:  Booo —

     THE VICE PRESIDENT:  But when I am elected, I will walk in, on your behalf, working on my to-do list — (applause) — to-do.

     And at the top of my list is bringing down the cost of living for you.  (Applause.)  That will be my focus every single day as president. 

     I will give a middle-class tax cut to over 100 million Americans.  (Applause.)  I will enact the first-ever federal ban on corporate price gouging on groceries — (applause); fight to make sure that hardworking Americans can actually afford a place to live.  (Applause.)  And if you are caring for an elderly parent, my plan will cover the cost of home care under Medicare.  (Applause.)  

     (A protestor disruption can be heard.)

     AUDIENCE:  Kamala!  Kamala!  Kamala!

     THE VICE PRESIDENT:  It’s all good.  It’s all good.

     AUDIENCE:  Kamala!  Kamala!  Kamala!

     THE VICE PRESIDENT:  It’s all good.  You know what?  One of the reasons — one of the reasons we are here is because we are fighting for our democracy — (applause) — and the right of people to speak their mind.  But right now, I am speaking.  (Applause.)

     So, bringing down the cost of living for you includes making sure that we are caring for those who are caring for others. 

     AUDIENCE:  (Inaudible.)

     THE VICE PRESIDENT:  It’s okay, y’all.  Democracy can be complicated.  It’s all right.  (Applause.)  It’s all right.  It’s all right.  (Laughs.)  This is what democracy looks like.  (Laughs.)  (Applause.)

     So, included in the work we will do is ensuring that Medicare covers the cost of home health care for seniors.  And I’ll tell you, a lot of how I think about these policies is based on my own experiences. 

When my mother was — when my mother was sick, I took care of her.

     (A protestor disruption can be heard.)

AUDIENCE:  Kamala!  Kamala!  Kamala!

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  That’s all right.

AUDIENCE:  Kamala!  Kamala!  Kamala!

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  It’s all good.  It’s all good. 

AUDIENCE:  Kamala!  Kamala!  Kamala!

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  It’s all good.  Hey, listen, it’s all good. 

And, look, we all want that war in the Middle East to end.  We want the hostages home.  (Applause.)  And when I am president, I will do everything in my power to make it so.

So, so much about what I care about on your behalf is truly about dignity.  It is about dignity.  It is about the importance of lifting people up and not trying to tear them down — (applause) — which is why my plan will lower the cost of childcare, cut taxes for small businesses. 

Do we have small-business owners in the h- — (applause).  Here we do.  I love our small businesses.  You all are part of the big backbone of America’s economy.  Keep doing what you do.  I love our small businesses.  (Applause.)  You are.

And our work will include lowering health care costs, because where I come from, in terms of how I think about this, access to health care should be a right and not just a privilege of those who can afford it.  (Applause.)

On the other hand, Donald Trump’s answer to the financial pressures you face?  Same as it was last time: another trillion dollars in tax cuts for billionaires and big corporations. 

AUDIENCE:  Booo —

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  And this time, he will pay for it with a 20 percent national sales tax on everything you buy that is imported: clothes, food, toys, cell phones.  A Trump sales tax that economists have estimated will cost you an additional $4,000 a year. 

AUDIENCE:  Booo —

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  And on top of that, Donald Trump still wants to get rid of the Affordable Care Act —

AUDIENCE:  Booo —

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  — which would throw millions of Americans off their health insurance and take us back to the time when insurance companies could deny people with preexisting conditions.  You remember what that was?

Well, we are not —

AUDIENCE:  Going back!

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  — going back.  We are not going back.  (Applause.)  (Inaudible.)  We are not going back.  We’re not going back.

AUDIENCE:  We’re not going back!  We’re not going back!  We’re not going back!

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  We’re not going back.  And we are not — and we are not going back because ours is a fight for the future.  (Applause.)  And it is a fight for freedom — (applause) — like the fundamental freedom of a woman to make decisions about her own body and not have her government tell her what to do.  (Applause.)

And we all remember how we got here.  Donald Trump hand-selected three members of the United States Supreme Court —

AUDIENCE:  Booo —

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  — and — with the intention that they would undo the protections of Roe v. Wade.  They did as he intended.  And now, in America, one in three women lives in a state with a Trump abortion ban, including North Carolina and every state in the South, except Virginia —

AUDIENCE:  Booo —

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  — many with no exceptions even for rape and incest, which is immoral.

And understand, Donald Trump is not done.  He would ban abortion nationwide.  He would restrict access to birth control.  He would put IVF treatments at risk and — get this — force states to monitor women’s pregnancies. 

AUDIENCE:  Booo —

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  Just google Project 2025, which still I can’t believe they put in writing.  (Laughter.)

And I think everyone here knows: One does not have to abandon their faith or deeply held beliefs to agree the government shouldn’t be telling her what to do.  (Applause.)  Not the government, and not Donald Trump.

And when Congress passes a bill to restore reproductive freedom nationwide, as president of the United States, I will proudly sign it into law.  (Applause.)  Proudly.  Proudly.

So, North Carolina, I’m here to ask for your vote.  (Applause.)  I’m here to ask for your vote. 

And here — and here is my pledge to you.  As president, I pledge to seek common ground and commonsense solutions to the challenges you face.  (Applause.)

I am not looking to score political points.  I am looking to make progress.  (Applause.)

And I pledge to you to listen to those who will be impacted by the decisions I make.  I pledge to you to listen to experts, to listen to people who disagree with me — (applause) — because, you see, unlike Donald Trump, I don’t believe that people who disagree with me are the enemy.  He wants to put them in jail.  I will give them a seat at the table.  (Applause.)

That’s what real leadership looks like.  That’s what strong leadership looks like.  (Applause.)  Come on.

And I pledge to always put country above party and self and to be a president for all Americans.  (Applause.)

So, that is my pledge to you, Charlotte. 

And let me then ask, who here has already voted?  (Applause.)  Wow.  All right.  Well, I thank you.  (Laughs.)

So, now I’m going to ask you, just please talk to your friends and your family and your neighbors.  And, seriously, please share with them — you’ve taken such time out of all the other ob- — obligations you have.  You’ve taken such time to be here.  So, please do share with them why you have taken this time and what your perspective is on this election.  It’s so important. 

AUDIENCE MEMBER:  We love you, Kamala!

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  And please encourage people — I love you back.  (Laughs.)  (Applause.)

And let’s — let’s encourage everyone to know the strength of their voice. 

And for anyone who hasn’t voted yet, look, first of all, no judgment, but — but please do get to it.  (Laughs.)  (Applause.)

And — and please take a moment to think about your plan for voting, about when and where you will vote.  Election Day is Tuesday, November 5th.  Polls are open here in North Carolina from 6:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m.  (Applause.)

Go to IWillVote.com for any information you need about when and where to vote, because, listen, we need everyone to vote, North Carolina.  (Applause.)  You all will make the difference in this election.  You will make the difference.

So, look, it all comes down to this.  We are all here together because we love our country.  (Applause.)  We love our country.

AUDIENCE:  USA!

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  Yes.

AUDIENCE:  USA!  USA!  USA!

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  We love our country. 

AUDIENCE:  USA!  USA!  USA!

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  And here’s what we know — here’s what we all know: When you love something, you fight for it.  (Applause.)  You fight for it. 

And I do believe it is one of the highest forms of patriotism, of our love — the expression of our love for our country, to fight for its ideals and to fight to realize the promise of America — the promise of America.  (Applause.) 

And, look, I have always believed in our nation’s promise because I have lived it.  I grew up as a child of the Civil Rights Movement.  My parents — (applause) — my parents would take me to the marches when I was in a stroller.  And what we all know about that time is there were folks from every background, every walk of life, coming together to fight for freedom and for opportunity.  (Applause.)  Right?

And growing up, I saw how hard my mother worked to give her daughters the same chances our country gave her.  And I was blessed to have family by blood and family by love — (applause) — who instilled in me the values of community and compassion and faith.  And I have spent my life fighting for people who have been hurt and counted out but who never stop believing that, in our country, anything is possible.  (Applause.)

I have lived the promise of America, and today I see the promise of America in everybody who is here — in all of you, in all of us.  (Applause.)  We are the promise of America.  We are the promise of America, in the fathers and the mothers and the grandparents who work every day for our children’s future, in the women who refuse to accept a future without reproductive freedom — (applause) — and the men who support them.  (Applause.) 

I see it — I see it in Republicans who have never voted for a Democrat before but who are putting Constitution of the United States over party.  (Applause.) 

I see the promise of America every day in the young leaders who are voting for the first time.  (Applause.)  Where are you?  Where are you?  Let me see you.  Right?  I love you guys.  I love Gen Z.  I love Gen Z.  (Laughs.)  (Applause.)  I — I love this generation.

And because, you know, here’s the thing: You all are rightly impatient for change.  (Applause.)  They are impatient for change.  You are determined to live free from gun violence, to take on the climate crisis, and to shape the world you will inherit.  (Applause.)  I know that. 

And for this generation, none of these issues is theoretical.  These issues are not political.  This is a lived experience for you all.  And I see you, and I see your power, and I see your purpose.  And I am so proud of you.  Can we hear it for the first-time voters?  (Applause.)  Yeah.  Right?  See? 

I’m telling you, the future of our nation is bright.  It is bright.  We have so much to be optimistic about.

So, we got three days to get this done.  (Laughs.)  (Applause.)  And no one can sit on the sidelines.

AUDIENCE:  No!

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  Let’s spend the next three days so when we look back three days from now, we will have no regrets about what we could have done.  (Applause.)  Let’s knock on doors.  Let’s text.  Let’s call.  Reach out to your family, your friends, your classmates, your neighbors, your coworkers, your play cousins.  (Laughter.)  You know what I’m saying. 

And please, during the course of these next three days, I ask, let us please be intentional about building community.  (Applause.)  Let us be intentional about building community. 

You know, there’s something about this whole Trump era that really was to try and suggest that the strength of a leader is based on who you beat down, instead of what we know: The real strength of a leader is based on who you lift up.  (Applause.) 

Let’s be intentional about building community, and let’s be intentional about building coalitions, remembering that the vast majority of us have so much more in common than what separates us.  (Applause.)  And there is power in that.  There is power in that approach, and it will strengthen our country.

And so, I’ll leave you with this.  Let’s remember and please remind everyone: Your vote is your voice, and your voice is your power.  (Applause.)  And don’t let anyone ever take your power from you.  (Applause.)  Right?

So, North Carolina, today, I ask you: Are you ready to make your voices heard?  (Applause.)

Do we believe in freedom?  (Applause.)

Do we believe in opportunity?  (Applause.)

Do we believe in the promise of America?  (Applause.)

And are we ready to fight for it?  (Applause.)

And when we fight —

AUDIENCE:  We win!

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  — we win!  (Applause.)

God bless you.  And God bless the United States of America.  God bless you.  (Applause.)

                   END                5:13 P.M. EDT

The post Remarks by Vice President Harris at a Campaign Event | Charlotte, NC appeared first on The White House.

Atlanta Civic Center
Atlanta, Georgia

1:41 P.M. EDT

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  Hello, Georgia!  (Applause.)  Oh, it’s good to be back.

Can we hear for Justin?  (Applause.)

All right, Atlanta.  Are we ready to do this?  (Applause.)  Are we ready to vote?  (Applause.)  Are we ready to win?  (Applause.) 

Oh, it’s good to be back.  It’s good to be back and to be with so many leaders.  And I want to thank everyone here for, out of your busy lives, taking time to be here to have this conversation.  I thank you so very much.  (Applause.)  Everyone who is here, I thank you.

And I want to thank Senators Ossoff and Warnock.  (Applause.)  There’s Senator Warnock. 

Representatives Williams, McBath, Johnson — (applause) — they’re all here. 

Mayor Dickens.  (Applause.) 

Victoria Monét.  (Applause.)

Monica.  (Applause.)

Spike.  (Applause.)

And let’s give it up for Pastor Troy and 2 Chainz.  (Applause.)

All right, Georgia.  So, we have three days left — three days — in one of the most consequential elections of our lifetime, and we still have work to do.  We still have work to do. 

But here’s the thing.  We like hard work.  Hard work is good work.  Hard work is joyful work.  And make no mistake, we will win.  We will win.  (Applause.)

And we will win because when you know what you stand for, you know what to fight for.  (Applause.)

And, Georgia, we have an opportunity in this election to finally turn the page on a decade of Donald Trump, who spends full time trying to keep us divided and afraid of each other.  We’re done.  We’re done with that.  We are exhausted with that.  Enough of that.  (Applause.)  Enough.

AUDIENCE:  We’re not going back!

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  And we’re not going back.

AUDIENCE:  We’re not going back!  We’re not going back!  We’re not going back!

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  And we are not going back, and one of the reasons is because we do know the contrast.  And we know who he is, but, Atlanta, that’s not who we are.  That’s not who we are. 

And it is time for a new generation of leadership in America.  (Applause.)  And I am ready to offer that leadership as the next president of the United States of America.  (Applause.)

And, Georgia, you know me: I’m not afraid of tough fights, evidently.  (Laughs.)  For decades, I was a prosecutor.  I was the top law enforcement officer of the biggest state.  And I won fights against the big banks who ripped off homeowners, against for-profit colleges that scammed veterans and students, against predators who abused women and children, against cartels that trafficked in guns and drugs and human beings.  (Applause.)  I won those fights. 

And I pledge to you, if you give me the chance to fight on your behalf as president, there is nothing in the world that will stand in my way.  (Applause.)

And, look, we know who Donald Trump is.

AUDIENCE:  Booo —

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  And — and — because we know this is not someone who is thinking about how to make your life better.  This is someone who is increasingly unstable —

AUDIENCE:  Yes!

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  — obsessed with revenge —

AUDIENCE:  Yes!

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  — consumed with grievance —

AUDIENCE:  Yes!

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  — and the man is out for unchecked power.

AUDIENCE:  Yes!

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  And in less than 90 days, it’s either going To be him or me in the Oval Office.  (Applause.)

AUDIENCE:  Kamala!  Kamala!  Kamala!

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  And here’s the thing — so, help spread the word, because part of it is to help people imagine —  you can imagine in your mind that th- — the Oval Office, right? You can picture it.  We’ve seen it on TV.  So, just imagine, if he is elected, on day one, Donald Trump would walk in that Oval Office with his enemies list — stewing over an enemy’s list. 

When I am elected, I will walk in on your behalf with my to-do list — (applause) — my to-do list. 

And at the top of my list is bringing down the cost of living for you — (applause) — and that will be my focus every single day as president.

I will give a middle-class tax cut to over 100 million Americans.  (Applause.)  I will enact the first-ever federal ban on corporate price gouging on groceries.  (Applause.)

We need a medic over here, please.  We need a medic over here.  If everyone can just part a little bit so we can let somebody through.  Okay? 

Okay.  All right.  See, this is what we do.  We look out for each other, right?  (Applause.)  That’s how we roll.  That’s how we roll.  And that’s what leadership looks like: everybody here.  (Applause.)

And among the things also on my to-do list is to fight to make sure that hardworking Americans can actually afford a place to live.  Affordable housing: one of the highest priorities.  (Applause.)

My priorities include knowing that if you are caring for an elderly parent, we need to cover the cost of home care with Medicare — (applause) — which we will do, because I’ve been there.  I took care of my mother when she was sick.  I know what that is — what that work is.  It is about trying to cook something someone feels like eating.  It is about trying to help them put on their clothes.  It’s about trying to put a smile on their face or make them laugh from time to time. 

It’s hard work, and it’s work that is about dignity.  And it is not right that the current situation is such that you’d either have to spend down your savings to qualify for Medicaid or quit your job to be able to take care of a family member, especially if you are in the sandwich generation, which means taking care of your children while you’re taking care of your parent.  (Applause.)

A lot of what motivates me in my work is it’s about dignity — the dignity of all people, that all people deserve that dignity to be able to not just get by but get ahead — (applause) — which is why my plan will also lower the cost of childcare.  (Applause.)

We will cut taxes for small businesses.  (Applause.)  Do we have any small businesses in the house?  (Applause.)  Oh, I love our small businesses.  You all are the backbone of America’s economy. 

We will lower health care costs, because I believe health care should be a right and not just the privilege of those who can afford it.  (Applause.)

On the other hand, Donald Trump’s answer to the financial pressures you face are the same as they were the last time: another trillion dollars in tax cuts for billionaires and the biggest corporations.

AUDIENCE:  Booo —

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  And this time, he would pay for it with a 20 percent national sales tax on everything you buy that is imported. 

And it looks like we need a medic over there.  It’s hot out here, Atlanta. 

Let’s make sure we — again, everyone just try and part the way so someone can come through to help. 

All right, we’re good. 

So, talking about Trump’s plan — because, you know, economists have compared what he’s talking about to what I’m talking about, and they have indicated my plan will strengthen America’s economy.  His will weaken it, including the part about his “Trump sales tax” that would cost the average American family over 4,000 more dollars a year.

AUDIENCE:  Booo —

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  And on top of that, Donald Trump still is trying to get rid of — and still wants to get rid of the Affordable Care Act —

AUDIENCE:  Booo —

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  — which would throw millions of Americans off health care and take us back to the time insurance companies could deny people with preexisting conditions.  You remember what that was?

Well, we are not —

AUDIENCE:  Going back!

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  — going back.  We are not going back.

And we are not going back because ours is a fight for the future.  (Applause.)  And ours is a fight for freedom — (applause) — like the fundamental freedom of a woman to make decisions about her own body and not have her government tell her what to do.  (Applause.)

And we remember how we got here.  When he was president, Donald Trump hand-selected three members of the United States Supreme Court with the intention they would undo the rights under Roe v. Wade, and they did as he intended.  And, Atlanta, now, in America, one in three women lives in a state with a Trump abortion ban, including Georgia and every state in the south except Virginia —

     AUDIENCE:  Booo —

     THE VICE PRESIDENT:  — many with no exceptions for rape and incest, which is immoral.

And, look, Donald Trump is not done.  He will ban abortion nationwide.  He wants to restrict access to birth control, put IVF treatments at risk, and force — get this — force states to monitor women’s pregnancies. 

Just google Project 2025.  Look it up for yourself.

And let us agree, one does not have to abandon their faith or deeply held beliefs to agree the government shouldn’t tell her what to do — (applause) — not the government.  Not the government. 

And when Congress passes a bill to restore reproductive freedom nationwide, as president of the United States, I will proudly sign it into law.  (Applause.)  Proudly sign it into law.

So, Georgia, I am here to ask for your vote.  (Applause.)  I am here to ask for your vote.  And here — and here is my pledge to you.  As president, I pledge to seek common ground and commonsense solutions to the challenges you face.  I am not looking to score political points.  I am looking to make progress.  (Applause.)

I pledge to you to listen to those who will be impacted by the decisions I make.  I pledge to you to listen to experts and to listen to people who disagree with me, because unlike Donald Trump, I don’t believe that people who disagree with me are the enemy.  He wants to put them in jail.  I will give them a seat at the table.  (Applause.)  That’s what real leaders do.  (Applause.)  That’s what strong leaders do.  (Applause.)  

And I pledge to you to always put country above party and self, and I pledge to you to be a president for all Americans.  (Applause.) 

So, that is my pledge to you, Atlanta.  And let me ask, anybody here already voted?  (Applause.)  Oh, wow.  My — oh, my goodness.  Well, thank you.  (Applause.)  Thank you.  Thank you.  All right.

So — okay, but there’s more to do.  So, now, please just talk to your friends and your neighbors and your coworkers and your classmates and your family and share your perspective on why this election is so important.  Let them know why you decided to take this time out of your life, with your obligations, to be here together.  And encourage them, please, to make their voices heard. 

And for those who haven’t voted yet, let me just be clear, no judgment.  No judgment.  But you still have time.  (Laughs.)  So, please take a moment to think about right now what your plan will be for when and where you vote. 

Election Day is Tuesday, November 5th.  Polls are open here in Georgia from 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m.  Remember to bring your photo ID.  Go to IWillVote.com for all the information you need.  And, everyone, please help me spread the word on all of that — (applause) — because we need everyone in Georgia to vote.  You will make the difference in this election.  (Applause.)  You will make the difference. 

So, look, it all comes down to this.  We are all here together from all different kinds of walks of life.  We are all here together for one reason that we share in common — one of the most important reasons.  We are here because we love our country.  (Applause.)  We love our country.  And we know that when you love something, you fight for it.  (Applause.)

And I do believe it is one of the highest forms of patriotism, of our expression of our love for our country, to fight for the ideals of our country and to fight to realize the promise of America.  That’s what this is about. 

And I will tell you, I have always believed in our nation’s promise, because I have lived it.  I grew up as a child of the Civil Rights Movement.  My parents would take me to the marches when I was in a stroller.  And there were people there from — Atlanta knows the story.  There were people there from all walks of life, coming together to fight for freedom and for opportunity. 

You know, growing up, I saw how hard my mother worked to give her daughters the same chances our country gave her.  I was blessed growing up to have family by blood and to have family by love — (applause) — who instilled in me the values of community, of compassion, of faith. 

I’ve spent my life fighting for people who have been hurt and counted out but who never stop believing that in our country anything is possible.  (Applause.)

I have lived the promise of America.  And today, I see the promise of America in everyone who is here right now — (applause) — in all of you, in all of us.  We are the promise of America.  (Applause.)  We are the promise of America. 

It is in the fathers, in the mothers, in the grandparents who work hard every day for our children’s future.  It is the women who refuse to accept a future without reproductive freedom and the men who support them.  (Applause.)  In Republicans who never voted for a Democrat before but put the Constitution above party.  (Applause.)

I see the promise of America in all the young leaders who are voting for the very first time.  (Applause.)  Raise your hand.  Where are you?  I love Gen Z.  I love Gen Z.  (Applause.)  Oh.  Because, see, this generation, you are rightly impatient for change.  You are rightly impatient for change.  You are determined to live free from gun violence and tackle the climate crisis and shape the world you inherit. 

For this generation, none of these issues we’re talking about are theoretical or political.  It is a lived experience for you.  And I see your power, and I am so proud of you.

And to everyone, can we hear it for our first-time voters?  (Applause.)  That’s right.  That’s right.

So, Atlanta, we have three days to get this thing done — (applause) — and no one can sit on the sidelines.  Let’s spend the next three days knowing that when we look back on these three days, we will have no regrets about what we could have done.  So, let’s knock on doors.  Let’s text.  Let’s call voters.  Let’s reach out to family and friends and classmates and neighbors and coworkers and your play cousins.  Let’s reach out.  (Laughs.)

And as we do, let us please also be intentional in how we build community.  Let us be intentional in knowing that these last years of this Trump era, yes, they have been exhausting, but they have not been in the best interest of the strength of our nation.  This whole idea that we be pointing fingers at each other, the idea that we have nothing in common when we know the vast majority of us have so much more in common than what separates us. 

So, let’s be intentional about building community and building coalitions.  There is power in that, and it will strengthen our country.  (Applause.)

And let’s remind everybody that your vote is your voice, and your voice is your power.  (Applause.)

So, Georgia, today, I ask you: Are you ready to make your voices heard?  (Applause.)

Do we believe in freedom?  (Applause.)

Do we believe in opportunity?  (Applause.)

Do we believe in the promise of America?  (Applause.) 

And are we ready to fight for it?  (Applause.)

And when we fight —

     AUDIENCE:  We win!

     THE VICE PRESIDENT:  — we win.

God bless you.  And God bless the United States of America.  (Applause.)                                END                2:02 P.M. EDT

The post Remarks by Vice President Harris at a Campaign Event | Atlanta, GA appeared first on The White House.

Pfister Hotel
Milwaukee, Wisconsin

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  Hi.  Good morning, everyone.

     Q    Good morning.

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  Okay.  Well, it’s good to be back in Milwaukee.  We had a wonderful evening last night.  People are enthusiastic, and the road to the White House definitely runs through Milwaukee, and I’m honored to have the support of people here. 

I’m going to continue to remind people: Go to IWillVote.com to know where you vote and — and how you can vote, in terms of in-person and all of those other details that are very important to exercising the power of your vote in this very critical and important election. 

I also want to speak to the comments that have been recently made by the speaker of the House.  It is just further evidence of everything that I’ve actually been talking about for months now, about Trump’s intention to implement Project 2025.

We have talked repeatedly — and the American people know what’s in it.  We’ve talked repeatedly about their intention to get rid of the Affordable Care Act; now to get rid of the CHIPS Act. 

And let’s talk about manufacturing, which is a critical issue for many of the states that will make the difference in this election.  Donald Trump, when he was president, lost 200,000 manufacturing jobs.  We have created over 700[,000] new manufacturing jobs. 

It is my plan and intention to continue to invest in American manufacturing, the work being done by American workers, upholding and lifting up good union jobs, which are good-paying jobs, and doing the work of investing in American industries, including our industries of the future. 

That is the way we are going to win the competition with China for the 21st century, and that is the kind of leadership that America deserves in their president. 

     Q    Madam President, one on — Madam President —

     AIDE:  Mary.  Mary.

     Q    Oh, sorry.

     Q    What’s your message to Milwaukee voters who are saying, you know, Trump might be better for the economy, and we’re hearing that from — including Black men voters who are skeptical that things are just too expensive for them?

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  Well, first of all, let me make it very clear that I intend to earn the vote of everyone, and I don’t take anyone’s vote for granted, and my highest priority as president will be to bring down the cost because, to that point, look, I know the cost of groceries is too high still, everyone knows it.  And so, my plan includes what we’re going to do in terms of taking on corporate price gouging and having the first-ever national ban on corporate price gouging on groceries. 

My plan includes addressing the issue of affordable housing, including for first-time homebuyers, giving them a $25,000 down payment assistance so they can just get their foot in the door. 

My plan includes addressing the needs of parents — in particular, young parents — which is why I will expand the Child Tax Credit to $6,000 for the first year of their child’s life, which helps pay for everything from child care to a crib and a car seat. 

My plan includes what we’re going to do to invest in our small businesses, including increasing tax breaks for small businesses. 

And overall, my plan, which is about building an opportunity economy, has been reviewed by leading economists in our country, from Goldman Sachs to 32 Nobel laureates, all whom have said that my economic plan actually will strengthen America’s economy.  They’ve reviewed Donald Trump’s plan and have determined he will weaken America’s economy, he will ignite inflation, and he will bring on a recession by the middle of next year. 

     AIDE:  Akayla.

Q    Hi, Madam Vice President.  On the comments from the speaker, he walked back initially saying that they would repeal the CHIPS Act, but he still wants to impose changes to the bill.  Are you concerned about Republicans seeking any changes to the CHIPS Act?

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  Well, let’s be clear why he walked it back: Because it’s not popular, and their agenda is not popular. 

And that’s why people are showing up by the thousands — tens of thousands to talk about an agenda that actually is focused on lifting them up.  That’s why I have the support of, yes, Democrats and independents and Republicans, because they want a president of the United States who stops playing politics with their lives. 

They want a president of the United States who invest in affordable health care regardless of who they vote for. 

They want a president of the United States who invests in American manufacturing and American workers. 

And that’s the work I will do, and that is the work I’m committed to do, and I’m very proud to have the support of many leaders from every party who understand that that’s the kind of leadership that we need moving forward.

AIDE:  Asma.

Q    Thank you.  Madam Vice President, I wanted to ask you about your day-one agenda.  I know you said the other day — you talked about having an executive order that would eliminate college degrees for certain federal jobs. 

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  Yes.

Q    Can you tell us about some other day-one priorities?

 THE VICE PRESIDENT:  Absolutely.  Well, it — obviously —

Q    (Inaudible.)

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  — there’s more than one.

 Q    Yes.

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  And one of them is going to be to submit, basically, a package of proposals that are about bringing down costs. 

So, for example, housing.  What we need to do in terms of creating a tax benefit for folks who want homeownership, what we’re going to do to create a $25,000 down payment assistance plan, what we’re going to do for small businesses.  All of that will require a lot of work. 

And day one is also me getting on the phone with members of the Republican Party, with leaders, with the private sector.  A lot of my plan includes working with the private sector. 

My plan includes cutting through red tape on the issue of housing.  Again, that includes working with local and state leaders to cut through the red tape, as well as creating incentives for the private-sector builders and developers to actually build new housing so we can increase supply and bring down the cost. 

     AIDE:  Charles.

     Q    Madam President, thank you —

     THE VICE PRESIDENT:  Vice President.

     Q    — for making this —

     THE VICE PRESIDENT:  Three days.

     Q    Vice President.

     THE VICE PRESIDENT:  But I appreciate that.

     Q    That will go viral, I’m sure.

     Tomorrow, faith leaders in Milwaukee and across the state will be praying about this election —

     THE VICE PRESIDENT:  Yes.

     Q    — and encouraging people to get out and vote. 

     THE VICE PRESIDENT:  Yes.

     Q    I think, last week, I heard you say, “God’s power works through us.” 

     THE VICE PRESIDENT:  Yes.

     Q    What does your faith tell you about who God wants to win this election and lead our divided country?

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  My faith and my belief in God tells me that we all must think about our lives through our ability to do good works, and through those works, to lift people up, to help the needy, to help the poor, to help the elderly.  And my plan for my presidency is informed with that spirit and that approach.  And I do believe that people understand that that really is the sign of a real leader, which is not defining one’s strength based on who you beat down, but defining the strength of a leader based on who you lift up. 

     AIDE:  Thank you.

     THE VICE PRESIDENT:  Thank you.  Thank you.

                               END

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Carpenters Local 445
Scranton, Pennsylvania

1:23 P.M. EDT

THE PRESIDENT: Oh. (Applause.) Thank you, thank you, thank you. (Applause.)

It’s great to be home. (Applause.)

I know all of you folks in this area know when we say “it’s good to be home,” a lot of us mean it because we have family and our roots are here.

And I t- — my — I told my granddaughter my deceased son, Beau, who was a decorated Army veteran — anyway — and an attorney general of the state of Delaware — his daughter, who is a sophomore at the University of Pennsylvania, said, “Pop, you’re heading to Scranton. Can I come?” I wanted you to meet her. (Applause.)

This is Natalie. She’s the love of my life and the life of my love. And I tell you what, man — and she’s probably heard so many stories about Scranton growing up that she — she said, “Can I come?” She has been here before with me — been here before. But we’re not going to get to go to North Washington Avenue this time, okay? (Laughter.)

MS. BIDEN: Okay. (Applause.)

THE PRESIDENT: Folks, look, you know, I know a lot of you know folks who used to live in Scranton or don’t live here anymore but still talk about home all the time, because a lot of them had a leave for — like my dad did when coal was dying back in the late ‘40s and the ‘50s. He moved back to Delaware.

My Grandfather Biden, who died six days before I was born in Mercy Hospital in 1942 — 200 years ago. (Laughter.)

But, you know, Scranton is — Scranton becomes part of your heart. It crawls into your heart. And it — it’s real. It’s not hyperbole. It’s not a joke. It’s real.

And my relatives are here right now, the Finnegans. (Applause.) And —

And there’s — you know, I — my only regret every time I come home is that I’m — my mom’s not with me. My mom, Catherine Eugenia Finnegan Biden, one of five children. Four — she had four brothers. No one screwed around, man. (Laughter.)

And — but, anyway, I — I just — I’m so proud to be back, and I’m so proud that we finally were able, as Doug pointed out, to — to begin to build back better in a big way. We are. Scranton is coming back. (Applause.)

No — and, by the way, you know, we’ve been through a lot together. Not only have you been my allies, the labor, you’ve been my friends. Carpenters were the first outfit to endorse me in Delaware as a 1972 — as a 29-year-old kid running for the United States Senate. And as they say, you guys “brung me home.” (Laughter.)

I want to thank Doug, who’s been a great, great, great ally. You’ve always had my back, and I think I can honestly say I’ve had yours as well. (Applause.) (Inaudible.)

You understand — you understand what my dad taught me and he used to say at his dinner table, I swear to God. He’d say, “Joey, a job is about a lot more than a paycheck. It’s about your dignity. It’s about respect. It’s about the way you’re treated in the community. It’s about how you’re able to look your kid in the eye and say, ‘Honey, it’s going to be okay.’” He meant it. He meant it. And that’s it.

Three days to Election Day, and the stakes couldn’t be higher. The choice couldn’t be clearer.

A lot of politicians have trouble saying the word “union,” but I’m not one of them. (Applause.)

AUDIENCE: Thank you, Joe! Thank you, Joe! Thank you, Joe!

THE PRESIDENT: And by the way, neither is Kamala. I wouldn’t have chosen her vice president if she had that trouble.

You know, I’m proud to have been the first president who walked the picket line. (Applause.) (Inaudible.) I’ve walked many picket lines, but I didn’t realize — when I walked it as president, they said, “You’re doing that?” I said, “Yeah, damn right I am.” (Laughter.) Well, Kamala walked as well.

But the other guy, every picket line he sees he wants to cross. No, you — I hope —

AUDIENCE MEMBER: Trump is a scab!

THE PRESIDENT: Well, let me tell you something. You know, here’s what we — we know that he doesn’t. Wall Street didn’t — you’ve heard me say this a thousand times — and I mean it — my whole career. Wall Street didn’t build America. The middle class built America, and unions built the middle class. (Applause.) Period. I mean it. (Applause.)

There would be no middle class without labor. That’s the God’s truth.

That’s why Kamala and I so proud of the greatest job creation record of any single presidential term in American history — nearly 16 million new jobs so far, 900,000 construction jobs, and we’re just getting started, for real. (Applause.)

And these are good-paying jobs, my dad would say, that provide dignity. You can raise a family on. You can — you can do what — you don’t have to need a college degree to do it and — but if you want to send your kids to college, you can afford to do it.

Look, folks, one of the things that Kamala and I are proudest of is the work we’ve done to protect pensions in this country. We’re damn proud to have protected pensions for millions and millions of union workers.

And I — when I signed and — remember all the crap I got about saying not to do it? The Butch Lewis Act. And guess what? You all have — pensions are guaranteed. You’re getting reimbursed as well. (Applause.)

Including the American Rescue — not one — not one — not one Republican, Democrat, or — in the House or the Senate voted for it –not one — not a single one.

And yesterday, at the Sprinkler and Fitter fi- — the Sprinkler Fitters in Philly, I awarded Rita Lewis, Butch Lewis’ widow, the Presidential Citizens Medal. You know, Butch’s work in our nation — he was — it’s the highest honor you can give a civilian, posthumously.

To see her yesterday to talk about Butch’s story, I was reminded how ordinary people do the most extraordinary things in this country. Butch was a decorated war hero. Couldn’t have been a — could have been a professional baseball player. He was — he was, in fact, recruited, but he devoted himself to labor.

When his pension got cut, he devoted his life to righting the wrong. And so far, a million union workers have had their pensions restored and protected, including back pay. And we did that together. (Applause.)

Because of the people in this room, a strong labor force all over the country exists. But guess what? Guess what? These other guys want to take it away. And not a — it’s not a joke.

Look, folks, if you — let’s be clear about what the stakes are. I come here today not just because of all the work we’ve done together as unions, but to talk about what’s a stake for all of us: your mothers; your fathers; your sisters; your brothers; your friends; the kids you grew up with, whether it was in Minooka or Scranton or wherever it was; the folks you went to school with, who d- — who aren’t members of a union, don’t belong to a trade and find themselves in a ci- –circumstance of just struggling to get by.

This other guy doesn’t care about us. Just look at what his MAGA friends are saying about health care. They want to get rid of the Affordable Care Act.

Now, you guys have pensions and you have protection because you’re mem- — union members, and we fought like hell to make sure it gets stronger. But there are 40 million people in this country in the Affordable Care Act. Another 100 million people have health care because they have preexisting conditions. Trump wants to take it away.

I’m not — this is not personal. This is just the facts. Facts.

He wants to take away the Affordable Health Care Act. That would have a devastating impact on the kids you grew up with, the people you grew up with.

Don’t forget where you came from. (Applause.) Don’t forget who you’re with. (Applause.)

I mean it. I’m not joking. I am not joking.

Think of all the people who need that health care. Their only way to get health care, they’d lose it. Lose it. Some of your cousins, your brothers, the kids you went to grade school with, all the people who are struggling to make it — they lose it.

He also wants to eliminate the Department of Education. How can you lead the world if we don’t have the best educated pub- — public in the world, the best schools in the world?

Trump and Republicans want to get rid of the CHIPS and Science Act. Well, this bill was signed — I worked like hell to get that done. I wrote that sucker. (Applause.) B- — wh- — wait. No, it’s not like — because where I come from, the neighborhoods I grew up in.

Look, folks, we invented that computer chip — smaller than the tip of my little finger. And it’s — it’s — it — it requires every — the reason we had that recession back early on — guess what? You find out that cars need 300 of those little chips. You find out that everything from nuclear weapons to — everything we need from the watches to refrigerators, they need those chips.

We invented them. We made them better, and we lost them because they went overseas with the other guys because it was cheaper labor. Cheaper labor — that’s why they went th- — there.

And guess what? I remember the look of my fam- — and I see one of my directors here as well, the Scranton girl. You know, when I went to my staff, I said, “I’m going to go to South Korea.” They said, “What the hell are you going to South Korea for?” I said, “I’m going to get the chip industry to come here, come back home.” They said, “Not going to happen.”

Well, I went with — I met with President Moon, and I met with Samsung — the leaders. Talked them into investing over $15 billion and coming back here and investing.

Guess what? Guess what? I asked, “Why?” You know what they said? Not a joke. They said — you guys underestimate yourself. They said, “Because you have the most skilled workers in the world in America.” And — (applause). No, no, no — I’m th- — this is just the facts, man. “And secondly, because it’s the safest place in the world to be.”

Look, it’s going to —

AUDIENCE MEMBER: Thank you, Joe!

THE PRESIDENT: Well, thank — (applause).

But folks, the country owes you. Think about it. It’s going to mean tens of thousands of jobs — first of all, constructing the factories, all those carpenter jobs. And guess what? And then, when they’re open — these are like — they call them “fabs.” These great, big — they’re as big as football fields. If you have — you’ve not seen them, they’re just going to — just starting to get built — as big as football fields.

You know what the average salary is? One hundred and four thousand dollars. And you don’t need a college degree. (Applause.)

Give –I’ll give you an example. An example is Micron up in Syracuse, where they’re building one of those fabs. In fa- — and they’re building, they’re investing — Micron — investing $100 billion to build them. It’s the kind of investment that won’t — won’t just lift up labor, it’s going to lift up everybody. It’s going to grow the economy.

They want to get rid of it. They want to get rid of it. They wanted to get rid of that.

Look — why? — cheaper labor overseas, man. Cheaper labor.

There’s one more thing Trump and his Republican friends want to do. They want another giant tax cut for the wealthy.

Now, I know some of you guys are tempted to think it’s macho gu- — I — I’ll tell you what, man, when I was in Scranton, I used to — we used to have a little trouble going down the Plot once in a while — (laughter) — from Green Ridge. But I’m serious, these are the kind of guys you’d like to smack in the ass. (Laughter.)

By the way, I’m serious. Think about it. My son gave his life for this country. He was attorney general of the state of Delaware. He volunteered to go to Iraq for a year. Came back with Stage 4 glioblastoma.

When I was over there recently, in Paris celebrating the invas- — the day — the D-Day, and a general — a four-star general said Trump wouldn’t go to one of the cemeteries because — because they were “suckers” and “losers.”

They’re the guys you grew up with you want — I — I’m not joking. You know, I don’t want to get started. (Laughter.)

But, folks, look, the reason I accidentally got involved in politics was because we moved to Delaware, which was — civil rights was a big issue. We were a slave state early on. Go back to where I was.

And what happened was I — I got involved because my dad used to say, “Everyone is entitled to a shot, man. No guarantee, just a shot. Just an even shot.” Well, what are these guys doing now?

You know, we fought like hell for our pensions, right? You got it done, right? Well, guess what? For your cousins, your uncles, your aunts, the people who aren’t — are middle-class folks who are just busting their necks, guess what? What’s their pension, their Social Security?

He wants to cut Social Security. Not a joke. Not a joke. That is a pension for the vast majority of American people. They broke their neck their whole lives paying their Social Security, from the first paycheck they got as a kid went into Social Security. They want to cut it. Why? Why? They want to pay for a new tax cut.

He talks about he cuts — cuts for the middle class. How many of you guys make less than 400,000 bucks a year? Raise your hand. (Laughter.) Well, g- — I’m serious. Think about it. Think about this. That’s what they’re talking about doing.

Because, guess what? He’s the first president other than Hoo- — Herbert Hoover who came into office and left with fewer jobs than when he came into office. He left the largest deficit any president has in recent history because of a $2 trillion tax cut, which you got virtually nothing from — virtually nothing from.

You know what the average billionaire — there are a thousand billionaires in America. Do you know how much the average tax they pay — federal? 8.2 percent. Raise your hand if you’d trade places with that tax cut. (Laughter.) No, I’m serious.

And think of how many people in this country depend on Medicare. It’s an add-on for you all, because you bust your neck and we organized. But he wants to cut back on Medicare. What are we talking about? This is what your friends you grew up with are looking at.

Trump thinks tax cuts for the rich folks are more important than protecting Social Security and Medicare. You know, that’s how we take care of folks who we grew up with. We fight for the things that they — he — that they’re going to take away if, in fact, he wins.

I’m not making this stuff up. I swear to God. Check it out. I don’t care if you’re thinking of voting for Trump, you’re a Republican, just check it out what they want to do and what they don’t want to do.

Look, we’ve made a lot of progress, and Kamala will build on that progress. You know, we’ve asked a lot of each other, unions and I — unions and me. And I ask you one more thing. I’m asking you — for your support for Kamala and for Tim Walz. I’m not just asking it for me. I mean, I’m — I’m going to be gone. I’m asking you to do something for yourself and the families, for the people you grew up with, the neighborhoods you come from. That’s what the hell we’re about.

You didn’t leave anybody behind when you’re in grade school or high school. You didn’t walk away when they were attacked. You stepped up.

Well, guess what? We didn’t have a lot of money. We grew up a typical middle-class family — I guess, technically, a slightly lower middle class. We moved to Delaware. We lived in a three-bedroom, split-level home with four kids and a grandpop.

Well, guess what, man? We didn’t think we were poor, but we didn’t have anything left over at the end of the day.

My dad used to say the — the measure of whether you can make it or not is did we have anything a- — after all the bills are paid, is there a little bit left over? But our family stuck together. We looked out for each other. We believed in giving everyone just a fair shot. That’s all. Just a shot — decent chance to get a good education, to have health care so they can sleep at night and not have to roll in —

I remember that small house we lived — it wasn’t a bad house. It was a newly built home. It was a building in suburbia. And my bed was up against the headboard of my mom and dad’s bed.

I remember my dad being so restless one night. I said, “What’s the matter?” My mom said, “We just lost his — he just lost his pension, honey. Just lost his pension.”

How many people you know lie in bed awake, wondering if they really get sick, what happens to them? They going to have to sell their home? Are they’re going to have to make a change? What are they going to have to do?

Look, that’s what’s at stake in this election. So, I’m asking you to do — I’m asking you to talk to your friends and your family, union members, and brothers and sisters. Hit the phones. Knock on doors. Talk to people in your neighborhoods, your old neighborhoods. Let them know how important this election is.

I have vast disagreements with Trump and his personality, and I’m not get- — not even talking about that. What will happen? What will happen if you trade in my administration for his? No, I’m not — I’m not joking. I’m not — I’m nothing special.

AUDIENCE MEMBER: Sure, you are!

THE PRESIDENT: No, no, no. (Applause.)

AUDIENCE MEMBER: Yes, you are, Joe!

AUDIENCE: Thank you, Joe! Thank you, Joe! Thank you, Joe!

THE PRESIDENT: Well, folks —

AUDIENCE MEMBER: We love you, Joe!

THE PRESIDENT: Well, thank you. (Applause.)

Well, look, folks — so, I guess what I’m saying — I’m keeping it too long standing. But, folks, I think we’ve worked with each other like hell to secure the unions’ vote, to secure the unions’ rights, to secure everything from your health care to pensions to your right to work to pay — the whole range of things. We’ve stuck together, and you’ve done it. You’ve done it.

Labor is better off today than they’ve ever been since the 19- — early ‘30s. I’m serious. (Applause.) Because — no, because of you.

But you have another power I think you underestimate. You have the power to help all those folks you grew up with who aren’t members of unions, who didn’t get a chance to go to college, didn’t — aren’t doing well, to help them out, because all the things that they rely on, from Social Security to Medicare to the ACA to asce- — to access to education to good schools to teachers being paid, all of it depends on this — outcome of this election.

It’s not — to use a fancy word, it’s not hyperbole to suggest this is the most important election any of us have ever voted in. More is at stake in the direction of this country than ever before.

And I promise you, you may have difficulty — you may have disagreed with some of the things in the Harris-Walz administration, but I wouldn’t have picked her if I didn’t think she had the exact view I do about hardworking people. I’m serious.

And so, look, folks, we need to elect Kamala as president. Let’s remember, as I said, American labor built this country. Let’s remember who we are. We’re good, decent, honorable people, where we believe in honesty, decency, treating everyone with respect. We believe character is not only how we conduct our lives but how we expect other persons — those that lead us to have character.

I’m telling you, Kamala Harris has character to lead this nation. So, let’s remember who the hell we are. I really mean this.

This election is more consequential than any in anyone’s lifetime in this room. And don’t leave behind the people you grew up with. Don’t leave them behind. They may not be part of the unions and have the protection we’ve been able to get, but let’s make sure — let’s make sure they at least keep the Affordable Care Act. Let’s make sure we keep the Department of Education. Let’s make sure we continue to invest in them, provide access to them.

How in the hell can we be the — and, by the way, one last thing, and it’s going to sound self-serving, but I — the only advantage of being the oldest SOB to ever had this job — (laughter) — is I’ve known every major world leader. I know — have more experience with dealing with world leaders than any president has in American history.

And guess what? They’re looking at this election — or if we don’t lead the world, who does? Who do we look to to lead the world? Can we do this “America First” stuff all over again and walk away?

Folks, we’re the United States of America. There’s nothing beyond our capacity — nothing, nothing — if we work together.

So, I ask you, please, not only — I know you’re going to vote — get out the vote to people again. Go back to the people you grew up with, go back to the people you know. Let them know how important it is.

It’s not about personalities. It’s about judgment. It’s about honor. It’s about dignity. It’s about respect.

God bless you all. And may God protect our troops. (Applause.)

1:46 P.M. EDT

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Little Chute High School
Little Chute, Wisconsin

5:58 P.M. CDT

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  Can we hear it for Jennifer?  (Applause.) 

     AUDIENCE:  Kamala!  Kamala!  Kamala!

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  Thank you.  (Applause.)  Thank you.  Oh, it’s good to be back in Wisconsin.  (Applause.)  Hi, everyone.  Hi, everyone.

Jen- — I just — first, I just want — Jennifer, I want to thank you.  Jennifer and I had s- — time to visit backstage, and we first met in 2020 on a Zoom talking about the Affordable Care Act, and your son is doing well now.  You are an incredible leader.  (Applause.)  And I thank you so very much.  Let’s hear it for Jennifer, please.  (Applause.)  Thank you.  Thank you.  Thank you.

All right.  Wisconsin, are we ready to do this?  (Applause.)  Are we ready to vote?  (Applause.)  Are we ready to win?  (Applause.)

Oh, it’s good to be back.  And I want to thank all the leaders, everyone.  And thank you for taking the time out of your busy lives to be here this afternoon. 

You know, we are all here because we care and we know that this is about community and of all of us being here together at one time.  And I thank you all. 

And I want to thank my dear friend, Tammy Baldwin —  (applause) — send her back to the United States Senate — (applause); Lieutenant Governor Rodriguez — (applause); County Executive Nelson — (applause); and the chair of our Democratic Party, Ben Wikler.  (Applause.)

All right, we have work to do. 

Okay, Wisconsin, four days left in probably one of if not the most consequential elections of our lifetime, and we have work to do still.  We have a lot of work to do, but we like hard work.  Hard work is good work.  Hard work is joyful work.  (Applause.)  And make no mistake: We will win.  (Applause.)  We will win.  We will win.  We will win.

And one of the reasons —

AUDIENCE:  We will win! 

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  And — yes.

     AUDIENCE:  We will win!  We will win!  We will win!

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  We will win.  And we will win — and we will win because we are the type of people who we know when you know what to stand for, you know what to fight for — (applause) — you know what to fight for.  Right?

And in this election, we have an opportunity to finally turn the page on a decade of Donald Trump trying to keep us divided and afraid of each other. 

     AUDIENCE:  Booo —

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  We’re done with that.  We’re done.  We’re exhausted with that.  And we know that’s who he is, but, Wisconsin, that’s not who we are.  That’s not who we are.  (Applause.)  That’s not who we are.  And it is time for a new generation of leadership in America.  (Applause.)  And I am ready to offer that leadership as the next president of the United States of America.  (Applause.)

And, Wisconsin, you know me, I’m not afraid of tough fights.  For decades — clearly — (laughter) — for decades, I was a prosecutor and the top law enforcement officer of the biggest state, and I won fights against the big banks who ripped off homeowners, against for-profit colleges that scammed veterans and students, against predators who abused women and children, against cartels that trafficked in guns and drugs and human beings.  And I pledge to you, if you give me the chance to fight on your behalf as president, there is nothing in the world that will stand in my way.  (Applause.)  Nothing in the world.

And look — and on the other side, we know who Donald Trump is.  Now this is not someone who is thinking about how to make your life better.  He is someone who is increasingly unstable, obsessed with revenge, consumed with grievance, and the man is out for unchecked power.  He’s out for unchecked power. 

And in less than 90 days — you can picture the Oval Office.  In less than 90 days, it’s either going to be him or me sitting in the Oval Office.

     AUDIENCE:  Booo —

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  But with your help —

     AUDIENCE:  Kamala!  Kamala!  Kamala!

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  (Laughs.)  Okay.

     AUDIENCE:  Kamala!  Kamala!  Kamala!

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  A- — a- — (laughs) —

     AUDIENCE:  Kamala!  Kamala!  Kamala!

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  (Inaudible.)  Thank you.

     AUDIENCE:  Kamala!  Kamala!  Kamala!

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  But — but let’s help — let’s help the friends and family and neighbors who is — who are not here right now imagine that for a minute — right? 

January 20th.  Oval Office.  It’s either going to be him sitting in there, poring over and stewing over his enemies list —
    
     AUDIENCE:  Booo —

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  Or, when I am elected, it will be me walking in there on your behalf, working on my to-do list — (applause) — because we got work to do.  Because we have work to do.

And at the top of my list is bringing down the cost of living for you.  (Applause.)  That will be my focus every single day as president, including I will give a middle-class tax cut to over 100 million Americans.  (Applause.)  We will enact the first-ever federal ban on corporate price gouging on groceries — (applause) — and fight to make sure that hardworking Americans can actually afford a place to live.  (Applause.) 

And one of the things that we were talking aba- — backstage is about the importance of people being able to care for their family members, and, including and in particular, their elder family members.  (Applause.)  And some of you may know — and this is personal for me, as are so many of these issues. 

I took care of my mother when she was sick.  And I — and I know what it is in terms of taking care of someone and just trying to cook the things that they feel like eating, right?  Just trying to help them put on a sweater, trying to think from time to time, “What can I do to put a smile on their face or make them laugh?” 

It is important work, and it is work that is about dignity.  It’s about dignity, and if you are caring, then, for an elderly parent or relative, my plan is to cover the cost of home care under Medicare — (applause) — so you don’t have to worry about either spending down whatever savings you have to qualify for Medicaid or quitting your job and cutting off a source of income to be able to stay at home, in particular if you’re in the sandwich generation, meaning that you are taking care of your kids while you are taking care of a parent. 

It’s about dignity.  And my plan will also lower the cost of childcare.  Again, about dignity.  (Applause.)  About dignity.

My plan is to prioritize cutting taxes for small businesses.  Do we have small-business owners here?  I love our small businesses.  (Applause.)  You are part of the backbone of America’s economy.  And that’s the work we will do. 

We will do the work of lowering health care costs, because I believe — I believe so deeply and strongly access to health care should be a right and not just a privilege of those who can afford it.  (Applause.)

It’s about values.  It’s about values. 

On the other hand, Donald Trump’s answer to the financial pressures you face are the same as they were last time: another trillion dollars in tax cuts for billionaires and the biggest corporations, and this time, he will pay for it with a 20 percent national sales tax on everything that you buy that is imported — clothes, food, toys, cell phones.  A Trump sales tax that would cost the average American family — economists have — have measured it — more than $4,000 a year that you are not paying you would have to pay because of that tax. 

     AUDIENCE:  Booo —

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  And on top of that, as we have discussed, he still wants to get rid of the Affordable Care Act —

     AUDIENCE:  Booo —

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  — which would throw millions of people, millions of Americans, off of their health insurance and take us back to the time when insurance companies could deny people with preexisting conditions.  You remember what that was?

Well, you are correct: We are —

AUDIENCE:  Not going back!

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  — not going back.  We are not going back.  (Applause.)

     AUDIENCE:  We’re not going back!  We’re not going back!  We’re not going back!

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  And we are not going back because, just like Wisconsin’s state motto tells us, we will move forward.  (Applause.)  We will move forward.  You guys know that best.

So, ours — ours is a fight for the future, and it is a fight for freedom, like the fundamental freedom of a woman to be able to make decisions about her own body and not have her government tell her what to do.  (Applause.)

And we remember how we got here.  Donald Trump, when he was president, hand-selected three members of the United States Supreme Court with the intention that they would undo the protections of Roe v. Wade.  They did as he intended, and now over 20 states have a Trump abortion ban. 

Imagine, in America today, one in three women lives in a state with a Trump abortion ban, many with no exceptions even for rape and incest, which is immoral. 

And Donald Trump is not done.  He would ban abortion nationwide — yes, even here in Wisconsin, were that to happen — and he would restrict access to birth control, put IVF treatments at risk, and force states — get this — to monitor women’s pregnancies.

     AUDIENCE:  Booo —

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  Just google Project 2025, which I still can’t believe they put in writing.  (Laughter.) 

And let us agree, one does not have to abandon their faith or deeply held beliefs to agree the government shouldn’t be telling her what to do — (applause) — not the government.  Not the government.  Not the government.

And when Congress — and when Congress, together with Tammy’s leadership, passes a bill to restore reproductive freedom nationwide, as president of the United States, I will proudly sign it into law.  (Applause.)  I will proudly sign it into law.

So, Wisconsin, I am asking for your vote.  (Applause.)  I am asking for your vote.  And here is my pledge to you — here is my pledge to you. 

As president, I pledge to seek common ground and commonsense solutions to the challenges you face.  (Applause.)

I pledge that I am not looking to score political points.  I am looking to make progress.  (Applause.)

And I pledge — I pledge to listen to those who will be impacted by the decisions I make.  I will listen to experts.  I will listen to the people who disagree with me.  Because, you see, unlike Donald Trump, I don’t believe that people who disagree with me are the enemy.  (Applause.)  He wants to put them in jail.  I’ll give them a seat at the table.  (Applause.)  That’s what a democracy is about.  That’s what leaders do.  (Applause.)

And it is my pledge to always put country above party and self and to be a president for all Americans — (applause) — for all Americans.  That is my pledge to you, Wisconsin. 

So, let me ask — we’re four days out — who here has already voted?  (Applause.)  Oh, wow!  (Laughs.)  Oh, my goodness.  That’s great.  Thank you.  (Laughs.)

Okay.  Well, here’s what I want to ask — I want to ask a little more of you.  Please talk to your friends and family, neighbors, and — and share your perspective.  Share — share why you have taken the time out of your lives to spend this time here when there’s so many other things you could do.  Let them know, because this moment, I think, really is our opportunity to reconnect with people and remind them they’re not alone and build community.  And so, please, share with them why this election is important to you and encourage them to make their voices heard. 

And for anyone who’s not yet voted, no judgment — (laughter) — but please take a moment now to just think about what your plan will be for when and where you will vote, and please go to IWillVote.com — yes, I have a website — (laughter) — for all the information you might need about when and where you can go to vote and where to drop off your absentee ballot.  (Applause.)

And, Wisconsin, truly, we need everyone to vote here.  You, Wisconsin, are going to make the difference in this election.  (Applause.)  You will make the difference.  You will make the difference. 

And so, it all comes down to this.  We are here together because we love our country.  We love our country.  And when you love something, you fight for it.  (Applause.)  And I do believe it is one of the highest forms of patriotism, an expression of our love of our country, to then fight for the ideals of our country.  That’s what this is about.  And it is fighting for the promise of America. 

And I’ll tell you, I have always believed in our nation’s promise, because I have lived it.  I grew up as a child of the Civil Rights Movement.  My parents took me to the marches when I was in a stroller, and there were people there from every walk of life who came together to fight for freedom and for opportunity. 

Growing up, I saw how hard my mother worked to raise my sister and me and to give us the same chances that our country gave her.  And I was blessed to have family by blood and family by love who — (applause) — who instilled in me — you know what I’m talking about — and instilled in me the values of community and compassion and faith. 

And I’ve spent my life fighting for people who have been hurt and who have been counted out but who never stopped believing, in our country, that anything is possible. 

I have lived the promise of America, and I see the promise of America in everyone who is here, in all of us — in all of us — in all of us.  (Applause.)  This is the promise of America. 

This is the promise of America: In the fathers and mothers and grandparents who work hard every day for the future of their children; in the women who refuse to accept a future without reproductive freedom — (applause) — and in the men who support them — (applause); in Republicans who have never voted for a Democrat before but are putting the Constitution of the United States above party.  (Applause.)  Right? 

The promise of America is all around us.  It is in the young leaders who are voting for the very first time.  (Applause.)  Where are you?  Where are you?  (Laughs.)  (Applause.)  Oh, I love Gen Z.  I really do.  (Laughs.)

You know what I love about this generation?  You all are rightly impatient for change.  (Applause.)  You know?  You are determined to live free from gun violence, to take on the climate crisis.  (Applause.)  You guys are going to shape the world you inherit.  And for this generation, there — none of these issues is theoretical for them.  It’s not political for them. 

     AUDIENCE MEMBER:  We live it!

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  For you all, it is a lived experience.  (Applause.)  It is a lived experience.  That’s right.  And I see you, and I see your power.  And I am so proud of you when I think about the future of our nation.  So, can we hear it for our first-time voters?  (Applause.)

Right.  Right.  Right. 

All right.  So, Wisconsin, four days — four days to get this thing done.  And no one can sit on the sidelines.  Let’s spend the next four days so that when we look back on these four days, we have no regrets that we did everything that we could.  (Applause.)

So, let’s knock on doors.  Let’s text and call voters.  Let’s reach out to family and friends and classmates and neighbors and coworkers.  And as we do, please, I do ask you, let us be intentional about building community.  (Applause.)  Let us be intentional about building coalitions.  (Applause.)  Let us remind each other and others that we have so much more in common than what separates us.  (Applause.) 

Let us do that.  There is power in that.  It will strengthen our country.  And we’ll remind folks, also: Your vote is your voice, and your voice is your power.  It is your power.  (Applause.)

And so, Wisconsin, today I ask you, are you ready to make your voices heard?  (Applause.)

Do we believe in freedom?  (Applause.) 

Do we believe in opportunity?  (Applause.)

Do we believe in the promise of America?  (Applause.) 

And are we ready to fight for it?  (Applause.) 

And when we fight —

AUDIENCE:  We win!

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  — we win. 
    

God bless you.  And God bless the United States.  God bless you.  (Applause.)

                              END                 6:19 P.M. CDT

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Wisconsin State Fair Expo Center
West Allis, Wisconsin

9:22 P.M. CDT

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  Hello, Wisconsin!  (Applause.)  Let’s hear it for Adrien — (applause) — Cardi B.  (Applause.)

Oh, it’s good to be back.  Good evening.  (Applause.)

Milwaukee, are we ready to do this?  (Applause.)  Are we ready to win?  (Applause.)  Are we ready to vote?  (Applause.)  And we will win.  (Applause.)

Oh, it’s good to be back in Wisconsin and to be with so many leaders.  I thank everyone here for taking the time out of your busy lives to be here this evening.  I thank you.  I thank you.  I thank you.  I thank you.  (Applause.)

And can we please hear it for Tammy Baldwin?  Let’s reelect her to the United States Senate.  (Applause.)  County Executive Crowley, Mayor Johnson, Cardi B — let’s give it up.  (Applause.)

And can we hear it again for MC Lyte, Flo Milli, GloRilla,  Keegan-Michael Key?  (Applause.)

Oh, what a good night. 

All right, we got work to do in Milwaukee.  Okay.  Four days left.  (Applause.)  Four days left in the most consequential election of our lifetime, and we still have work to do.  (Applause.)

But here’s the thing about all of us: We like hard work. (Applause.)  Hard work is good work.  Hard work is joyful work.  And make no mistake, we will win.  (Applause.)  We will win. 

And here’s one of the reasons why: Because when you know what you stand for, you know what to fight for.  (Applause.)  And in this election, we have an opportunity to finally turn the page on a decade of Donald Trump trying to keep us divided and afraid of each other.  We are done with it.  We are exhausted with it.  We are turning the page.  (Applause.)

And it’s because we know that’s what he’s about.  He is constantly about trying to have Americans point their fingers at each other.  But that’s not who we are.  That’s who he is.  That is not who we are.  (Applause.) 

And it is time for a new generation of leadership in America.  (Applause.)  And I am ready to offer that leadership as the next president of the United States.  (Applause.)

And, Wisconsin, you know me: I’m not afraid of tough fights, obviously.  (Laughs.)  (Applause.)

For decades, as a prosecutor and the top law enforcement officer of the biggest state, I won fights.  I won fights against the big banks who were ripping off homeowners.  I won fights against for-profit colleges that were scamming veterans and students.  I won fights against predators who abused women and children.  I won fights against cartels that trafficked in guns and drugs and human beings.  (Applause.)

And I pledge to you, if you give me the chance to fight on your behalf, there is nothing that will stand in my way as I fight for you.  (Applause.)

And, look, we know who Donald Trump is.  This is not someone who is thinking about how to make your life better.  This is someone who is increasingly unstable — (applause) –obsessed with revenge.  (Applause.)  He is consumed with grievance.  (Applause.)  And the man is out for unchecked power.  (Applause.)

And, look, in less than 90 days, it’s either going to be him or me in the Oval Office.  (Applause.)

     AUDIENCE:  Booo —

     Kamala!  Kamala!  Kamala!

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  Thank you.  Thank you.

But let’s get the word out.  Let’s get the word out to the folks who are not here to just have them imagine — you know, we’ve all seen the Oval Office on TV.  Imagine, on January 20th, that day, it’s either going to be Donald Trump, if he is elected, which he will not be —

     AUDIENCE:  Booo —

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  Which he will not be.

But to help people imagine what the stakes are, it’s either going to be him there on day one, walking into that office, stewing over his enemies list —

     AUDIENCE:  Booo —

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  — or when I am elected, walking in on your behalf, with my to-do list.  (Applause.)  And I’m a hard worker.  (Laughs.)

And at the top of my list is bringing down the cost of living for you.  (Applause.)  That will be my focus every single day as president.

I will give a middle-class tax cut to over 100 million Americans.  (Applause.)  I will enact the first-ever federal ban on corporate price gouging on groceries.  (Applause.)  And I will fight to make sure that hardworking Americans can actually afford a place to live.  (Applause.)

If you are caring for an elderly parent, if you are in the sandwich generation caring for an elderly parent and young children, I will tell you, my plan will cover the cost of home care under Medicare.  (Applause.)  Because I took care of — I took care of my mother when she was sick.  And I know what you are doing, whether it be trying to cook something that they feel like eating, whether it be trying to help them put on a sweater, trying to find a moment where you can bring a smile to their face or make them laugh.  That work is about dignity.  That work is about dignity.  (Applause.)  And I’m going to make sure you have the support and they have the support they deserve.  (Applause.)

 My plan will lower the cost of childcare.  Again, it’s about dignity.  It’s about seeing the strains and the pressures. 

We will cut taxes for small businesses because our small businesses are the backbone of America’s economy.  (Applause.)  Where are our small-business owners?  Let me see our small-business owners.  (Applause.)

And we will lower health care costs, because here’s where I come from on that: Look, I believe access to health care should be a right and not just a privilege of those who can afford it.  (Applause.)  Dignity — values about the dignity of each of us and the responsibility of real leaders to, unlike my opponent, not think that the measure of their strength is based on who you beat down, but the true measure of strength of a leader based on who you lift up.  (Applause.)

And then, you got Donald Trump, who —

     AUDIENCE:  Booo —

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  And his answer to the financial pressures you face is the same as it was the last time: another trillion dollars in tax cuts for billionaires and the biggest corporations.

     AUDIENE:  Booo —

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  And this time, he will pay for it with a 20 percent national sales tax on everything you buy that is imported: clothes, foods, toys, cell phones — a Trump sales tax that would cost the average American family — the economists have measured it — more than 4,000 more dollars a year. 

     AUDIENCE:  Booo —

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  And on top of that, Donald Trump is still — still trying and still wants to get rid of the Affordable Care Act —

     AUDIENCE:  Booo —

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  — which would throw millions of Americans off their health insurance and take us back to when insurance companies could deny people with preexisting conditions.  You remember what that was like?

     AUDIENCE:  Booo —

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  Well, we are —

     AUDIENCE:  Not going back!

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  — not going back.  We are not going back.  We’re not going back. 

     AUDIENCE:  We’re not going back!  We’re not going!  We’re not going back!

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  We’re not going back, no.

AUDIENCE:  We’re not going back!  We’re not going!  We’re not going back!

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  Because — because, just like Wisconsin’s motto tells us, we will move —

AUDIENCE:  Forward!

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  — forward.  (Applause.)  Yes, we will.  I love Wisconsin.  (Laughs.)

And ours is a fight for the future, and it is a fight for freedom — (applause) — like the fundamental freedom of a woman to make decisions about her own body and not have her government telling her what to do.  (Applause.)

And we all remember how we got here.  Donald Trump hand-selected three members of the United States Supreme Court with the intention that they would undo the protections of Roe v. Wade.  They did as he intended, and now, in America, one in three women lives in a state with a Trump abortion ban.  Many —

     AUDIENCE:  Booo —

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  Right?  Man- — and the harm we’ve seen.  Many of those laws with no exception, even for rape or incest, which is immoral. 

And he’s not done.  He would ban abortion nationwide — yes, even here in Wisconsin.

     AUDIENCE:  Booo —

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  Even here in Wisconsin, it would be impacted.  And he would restrict access to birth control, put IVF treatments at risk, and force — get this — and force states to monitor women’s pregnancies.  Just —

     AUDIENCE:  Booo —

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  — google Project 2025.  Just look at it. 

And everyone here, I know, understands — and let us agree, one does not have to abandon their faith or deeply held beliefs to simply agree the government shouldn’t be telling her what to do.  (Applause.)  Not the government.  Not the government.  Not the government.  Not some people up in a state legislature, and certainly not Donald Trump.  (Applause.)

And I pledge to you, when Congress — together with Tammy’s help, when Congress passes a bill to restore reproductive freedom nationwide, as president of the United States, I will proudly sign it into law.  (Applause.)  Proudly.

So, Wisconsin —

     AUDIENCE:  Kamala!  Kamala!  Kamala!

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  Thank you. 

     AUDIENCE:  Kamala!  Kamala!  Kamala!

 THE VICE PRESIDENT:  We got work to do.  Thank you.  Thank you.

So, Wisconsin, I am asking for your vote.  (Applause.)  I am asking for your vote. 

And here — and here is my pledge to you: As president, I pledge to seek common ground and commonsense solutions to the challenges you face.  I am not — (applause) — I am not looking to score political points.  I am looking to make progress.  (Applause.)  And I pledge — and I pledge to listen to those who will be impacted by the decisions I make. 
    
I pledge to listen to experts, to listen to people who disagree with me, because, you see — (applause) — unlike Donald Trump, I don’t believe that people who disagree with me are the enemy.  (Applause.)  He wants to put them in jail.  I’ll give them a seat at the table.  (Applause.)  That’s what real leadership is about.  That’s what strong leadership is about.  (Applause.) 

And I pledge to always put country above party and self and to be a president for all Americans.  (Applause.)  All Americans.

     AUDIENCE:  USA!  USA!  USA!

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  So, that — that is my pledge to you, Wisconsin, and now I ask you a question: Who here has already voted?  (Applause.)  Oh, wow.

Okay.  Thank you.  And now I ask you to please talk to your friends and your family and your neighbors — (applause) — and share your perspective on why this is — election is so important. 

And for you who have not voted yet, no judgment.  Let me just be clear — (laughs) — no judgment at all.  But do get to it, if you can.  (Laughter and applause.) 

And for those who have not yet voted, please think about, right now, your plan for voting and think about where and when you will vote.  And if you live here in Milwaukee, remember you can vote early now through Sunday, November 3rd.  (Applause.)  And go to IWillVote.com for all the information you need, including when and where you can vote and where to drop off your absentee ballot, because we need everyone in Wisconsin to vote.  (Applause.)  You are going to make the difference in this election.  You will make the difference.  You will make the difference. 

     AUDIENCE:  Vote!  Vote!  Vote!

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  So, listen, it all comes down to this.  We are here together because we love our country.  We love our country.  (Applause.)  We love our country.  And when you love something, you fight for it.  (Applause.)  You fight for it.  And I do believe it is one of the highest forms of patriotism, of our expression for our love of our country, to then fight for the ideals of our country and to fight to realize the promise of America.  (Applause.)  That’s what this is about. 

And I have always believed in our nation’s promise because I’ve lived it.  You know, I grew up a child of the Civil Rights Movement.  My parents would take me to marches when I was in a stroller, and there were, at those marches, we all know, people from every walk of life coming together to fight for freedom and to fight for opportunity. 

You know, growing up, I saw how hard my mother worked to raise her two daughters to have the same chances that our country gave her.  And I was blessed to have family by blood and family by love — (applause) — right? — who instilled in me a sense of community and compassion and faith. 

And I’ve spent my life fighting for people who have been hurt and counted out but who never stopped believing, in our country, that anything is possible.

I have lived the promise of America, and today I see the promise of America in everyone who is here — in all of you, in all of us.  (Applause.)  We are the promise of America.  We are the promise of America. 

It’s the fathers and mothers and grandparents who work hard every day for their children’s future, in the women who refuse to accept a future without reproductive freedom — (applause) –and the men who support them.  (Applause.)  It’s in the Republicans who never voted for a Democrat before but put the Constitution of the United States above party.  (Applause.)  Right.

I see the promise of America in all the young leaders that I see right now who are voting for the very first time.  Raise your hand.  (Laughs.)  (Applause.)  I love Gen Z.  (Laughs.)  (Applause.)  I really do. 

Here’s what I love about you guys.  You are rightly impatient for change.  (Applause.)  I love that about you.  I love that about you. 

You are determined to live free from gun violence.  You are going to take on the climate crisis.  You are going to shape the world you inherit.  (Applause.)  I know that.  I know that. 

And here’s the thing about our young leaders: None of this is theoretical for them.  None of this is political for them.  It’s their lived experience.  It’s your lived experience.  And I see your power.  I see your power, and I am so proud of you. 

Can we please hear it for our first-time voters?  (Applause.)  Can we please hear it?  Yeah.  Yeah.  And those who will be first-time voters.  (Laughs.)  (Applause.)

You know, the future of our country is so bright; we just have to see it.  It’s so bright. 

So, listen, we got four days to get this thing done.  (Applause.)  Four days.  No one can sit on the sidelines. 

So, let’s spend the next four days so that when we look back on these days, we have no regrets about what we could have done.  (Applause.)  Let’s know we did everything we could do. 

So, let’s knock on doors.  Let’s text.  Let’s call.  Let’s reach out to family and friends and classmates and neighbors and coworkers. 

And here’s a request that I have in that process: And while we are doing all of that, let’s please be intentional about building community.  (Applause.)  Let’s please be intentional about building community. 

You know, there’s something about these la- — this whole Trump era, and it’s — it’s — you know, it’s — it’s been a — it’s made people feel like they have to — it — it’s been powered by this idea that Americans should be pointing their fingers at each other, you know, and — and to make people feel alone and make people feel small, when we all know that we all have so much more in common than what separates us.  (Applause.)

So, let’s be intentional about building community and building coalitions.  There is strength and power in that that will be long-lasting. 

And finally, I’ll say: Just remember, and let’s remind everybody we know, your vote is your voice, and your voice is your power.  (Applause.)  That’s your power. 

 In a democracy, that is a power that is yours.  Don’t let anyone take it from you.  Don’t let anyone take it from you.  (Applause.)

 So, Wisconsin — so, Wisconsin, today, I ask you: Are you ready to make your voices heard?  (Applause.)

Do we believe in freedom?  (Applause.)

Do we believe in opportunity?  (Applause.)

Do we believe in the promise of America?  (Applause.)

And are we ready to fight for it?  (Applause.)

And when we fight —

     AUDIENCE:  We win!

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  — we win.

God bless you.  And God bless the United States of America.  (Applause.)

                              END                  9:46 P.M. CDT

The post Remarks by Vice President Harris at a Campaign Event | West Allis, WI appeared first on The White House.

IBEW Local 890
Janesville, Wisconsin

2:58 P.M. CDT

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  Hey, everybody.  (Applause.)  Good afternoon.

Can we hear it again for Garrik?  (Applause.)

Oh, it’s good to be in the house of labor.  (Laughs.)  (Applause.)  Oh, and it’s great to be with so many leaders.  Thank you, everybody, for taking the time to be here this afternoon for this conversation.  But most importantly, thank you for all of your work.  (Applause.) 

I proudly stand with labor.  I have my whole entire career.  I always will.  This is about the dignity of work.  It is about America’s workforce.  It is about our future, and it’s just about what is right.  I thank you all so very much.  (Applause.)  Thank you.

And, Senator Baldwin — where are you? — I thank you for all you do.  Let’s reelect her to the United States Senate.  (Applause.)  Governor Evers, thank you for being such a friend and such a leader.  Peter Barca, I thank you for all your work.  Let’s send him to the U.S. House of Representatives.  (Applause.) 

     AUDIENCE MEMBER:  Go Peter! 

     THE VICE PRESIDENT:  And — (laughs) — yeah, that’s right.

And to all the labor leaders here today, including Secretary-Treasurer Noble and President Raes, I thank you all.  And all the brothers and sisters of IBEW, thank you for all the work you do. 

I will tell you — I think it’s now an open secret — I have as a dream that I will — I will visit every IBEW Local in the country.  (Laughter.)  (Applause.)  I’m — I’m on my way.  I’m well on my way.  But, you know, I got more to do.

But I am such a huge fan of what you do.  I am such a huge fan of what you do, because it is about the work you do every day and the apprenticeship programs.  You are building America and America’s future.  And it is such good, good work and exciting work to the benefit of everyone. 

So, I’m so happy to be with all of you this afternoon.  I thank all of the folks who are here.  We have autoworkers here.  We have care workers here.  We have teachers here.  I thank you all.  (Applause.)  Thank you.

     AUDIENCE MEMBER:  We love you! 

     THE VICE PRESIDENT:  So, let’s get to work.  I love you back.  (Laughs.)  (Applause.) 

So, Janesville, we have just four days left — four days left — (applause) — in one of the most consequential elections of our lifetime.  And we have a lot of work still to do, but I know who’s here.  We like hard work.  (Applause.)  Hard work is good work.  (Applause.)  Hard work is joyful work.  (Applause.)

And we will win.  And we will win.  (Applause.)  We will win.  We will win. 

 And part of the reason we will win is because we know that when you know what you stand for, you know what to fight for.  (Applause.)  And we have an opportunity in this election to turn the page on a decade of Donald Trump, who had spent full time trying to have the American people point fingers at each other, full time trying to divide us, have people be afraid of each other.  And folks are exhausted with this stuff.  (Applause.)

And we know that’s who he is.  That’s not who we are.  That’s not who we are.  (Applause.) 

     And nobody understands better than a union member that, as Americans, we all rise or fall together.  Here in Janesville and across our nation, union members have helped lead the figh- — fight for fair pay, better benefits, safer working conditions, and every person in America benefits from your work. 

I tell people everywhere I go, “Thank a union member.  Thank a union member.”  (Applause.)  Because you not — you may not be a member of a union, but thank a union member if you got a five-day workweek.  (Applause.)  Thank a union member for your sick leave.  Thank a union member for your paid vacation leave.  Thank a union member for paid family leave.  Because it is union members that work and put blood, sweat, and tears into raising the conditions of the American worker, wherever they work.  (Applause.) 

     And collective bargaining benefits our entire nation.  You know, I try to explain to some folks — I li- — you know what?  Here’s the thing about collective bargaining.  I’m going to break it down for you.  I don’t need to break it down for anybody here, but — (laughter) — but to — you know, to people who are not here.  And I say: Look, wouldn’t we all want a system that says that, in any negotiation, the outcome would be fair?  Right?  All reasonable people should want that, in any negotiation, the outcome would be fair. 

All right.  So, if you’re talking about the worker — one worker, against the company, against the corporation, is that outcome going to be fair? 

     AUDIENCE:  No.

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  No.  The disparity in power is so extreme that that negotiation, if you’re just requiring that worker to negotiate for better working conditions, better benefits, fairer pay, it’s not going to be fair.  Collective bargaining says let the collective, the workers who all stand in the same place, join together as a collective and then negotiate to better ensure just one simple thing: that the outcome is fair.  (Applause.)  That’s what is behind — that’s what is behind this.  It’s about basic fairness, but sometimes you got to fight for fairness. 

     AUDIENCE:  Yes!

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  And what we know is that when union wages go up, everybody’s wages go up.  (Applause.)  When union workplaces are safer, everyone’s workplace is safer.  And when unions are strong, America is strong.  (Applause.)  Bottom line.  Bottom line.

And everything that we have fought for is on the line in this election.  In less than 90 days, it’s either going to be Donald Trump or me sitting in the Oval Office. 

     AUDIENCE MEMBER:  It’s going to be you!

     AUDIENCE:  You!  (Applause.)

     THE VICE PRESIDENT:  But here’s the thing that we want to he- —

     AUDIENCE MEMBER:  Madam President!  Madam President!  Madam President! 

     THE VICE PRESIDENT:  (Laughs.)  I appreciate you, brother. 

     AUDIENCE:  Madam President!  Madam President!  Madam President! 

     THE VICE PRESIDENT:  Thank you.  Thank you.  Thank you.  Thank you.  Not yet.  Four days.  Four days.  We still got work to do.

     And part of what I’m trying to explain to m- —

     AUDIENCE MEMBER:  (Inaudible.)

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  I appreciate you, brother, but let me tell you — (laughter) — part of the thing that I’m trying to help people — not who are here, obviously; not the leaders who are here but others — understand, is if you’re trying to kind of figure out what the stakes are, just imagine the Oval Office.  We’ve all seen it on TV.  And just imagine on January 20th.  Because if he is elected, if Donald Trump is elected, he’s going to be sitting in that Oval Office, stewing over his enemies list, because he spends full time plenting — plotting revenge and retribution — full time.  The man is angry, right?  It — it — but you know what I’m talking about. 

So, imagine on January 20th, it’s either that — him plotting over his enemies list — or me, working for you on my to-do list.  (Applause.)  That’s what we’re talking about.  That’s what we’re talking about.  That’s what we’re talking about.

Because I like hard work, and at the top of my list is bringing down your cost of living.  And it will be my focus every single day as president.  I will always put the middle class first.  I come from the middle class, and I never forget where I come from.  (Applause.)  I never forget where I come from.  Never.

 And we know, to strengthen the middle class, we must make sure that America, not China, wins the competition for the 21st century.  (Applause.)

Under my plan, we will invest in the industries that built America, like steel, iron, the electric power industry.  (Applause.)  And we will ensure that the next generation of breakthroughs, from advanced batteries to cutting-edge solar panels, are not just invented but built right here in America by American workers — (applause) — by American workers.

And as part of that vision, we will invest in manufacturing communities across Wisconsin and across America.  And we will retool existing factories.  They’ve been built out, but we need to upgrade them.  They are where the people are, and where those people are, they don’t want to have to leave.  They want to stay home.  They want their kids and their grandkids to be where they are. 

So, we will retool those factories.  We will hire locally and work with unions to create good-paying jobs, including, by the way, jobs that do not require a college degree.  (Applause.)  Because here’s the thing.  We got to really understand and do better in understanding that a college degree is not the only measure of the skills and the experience of the qualified worker, right?  (Applause.)

And I’m telling you — so, the press is always asking me, “What are you going to do on day one?”  One of the things I’m doing on day one, because I can do it by executive order, is I will eliminate unnecessary degree requirements for federal jobs — (applause) — and then I will challenge the private sector to do the same.  (Applause.)

As we go forward, when we win, we will also continue to fight to expand the freedom to organize by passing the PRO Act — (applause) — and work to end union busting once and for all.  (Applause.)

We will protect the pensions of union workers and retirees.  (Applause.)  I’ve done it before.  I’ll do it again, because when it comes to your pension, Social Security, Medicare, those are retirement benefits that the people have earned — have earned and are due without anyone trying to take them away.  (Applause.)

And for me, look, this issue is about dignity.  It’s about the dignity that any individual who has worked hard all their lives that they absolutely deserve, which is to retire with dignity, and it is about the dignity of work.  It is about the dignity of hard work and what should then be the benefit of those years of hard work. 

But, look, Donald Trump has a very different view of it all.  Independent economists have said his plans would bankrupt Social Security in the next six years.  And we know a lot of folks are out there, their Social Security check is the only thing that they’ve got.

He called for raising the retirement age to 70.  He intends to cut Social Security and Medicare.

And remember, he said he was the only one — you know how he talks — (laughter) — he said he — he was the only one who could bring back America’s manufacturing jobs.  And then America lost nearly 200,000 manufacturing jobs when he was president, including thousands of jobs right here in Wisconsin.

And — and facts be clear: Those losses started before the pandemic — okay? — making Donald Trump one of the biggest losers of manufacturing jobs — (applause) — in America’s history.  It’s the truth.

     And his track record for the auto industry was a disaster.  As —

     AUDIENCE MEMBER:  (Inaudible.)

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  Well — (laughter).  And so, as president, he promised that the auto industry would not, quote, “lose one plant” during his presidency.  Then American auto manufacturers announced the closure of six auto plants when he was president.

Janesville, you know what those closures mean for communities: thousands of union jobs lost, factory sites sitting empty for years, other businesses in town then forced to close.

So, Wisconsin, you know all about Donald Trump’s big empty promises.  He promised to stop offshoring.  Then he cut taxes –he cut taxes for corporations that shipped 200,000 American jobs overseas during his presidency.

     AUDIENCE:  Booo —

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  And he promised to bring jobs back to the United States, like his promise that Foxconn was going to invest —

     AUDIENCE:  Booo —

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  — was going to invest $10 billion and create 13,000 manufacturing jobs in Mount Pleasant.  You remember that.  He said Wisconsin would soon be home to a manufacturing plant that he called — again, Donald Trump language — “the eighth wonder of the world.”  (Laughter.)

Yet another empty promise, typical for a person that is all talk, no walk.  (Applause.)

And all that to say, we here know Donald Trump is no friend to labor — no friend to labor.  He has been a union buster his entire career.  He has called union leaders quote, “dues-sucking” people.

     AUDIENCE:  Booo —

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  He said that he supports the so-called right-to-work laws 100 percent.

     AUDIENCE:  Booo —

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  He joked with a billionaire buddy of his about the mass firing of striking workers. 

     AUDIENCE:  Booo —

 THE VICE PRESIDENT:  And while he was president, he lowered labor standards and made it easier for companies to break labor laws and then get federal contracts, right? 

And so, part of why I’m here is to ask all the leaders here, let’s remind all the brothers and sisters of labor about who Donald Trump really is, because he’s got a lot of talk, but if you pay attention to what he’s actually done, if you pay attention to who he has actually stood with when people needed a defender and a friend, you’ll see who he really is. 

And we got to get the word out about this, because there’s a whole lot of misinformation about what he is and who he stands with.  And we know he does not stand with organized labor. 

So, here’s the bottom line.  Donald Trump’s track record is a disaster for working people, and he is an existential threat to America’s labor movement.  (Applause.)  And — and everything Donald Trump intends to do if he is reelected is spelled out in Project 2025, which I still cannot believe they put that thing in writing.  (Laughter.)  Like, they bound it, handed it out, and people read it, and now they can’t handle that.  Right?

He intends to launch a full-on attack on unions and the freedom to organize.  He will ban public-sector unions.  I know we’ve got AFSCME here, right?  He will roll back workplace safety protections.  He will make it easier for companies to deny overtime pay for workers. 

     AUDIENCE:  Booo —

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  Talk about trying to take us back.  And he will appoint a union buster to run the Department of Labor —

     AUDIENCE:  Booo —

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  — not to mention what would happen with NLRB, right?

So, I say all this to say to the friends that America, as we all know, is ready to chart a new way forward.  We are ready for a new generation of leadership for America — (applause) — and especially the leadership that together we all offer that is optimistic about what we can achieve when we are working together.

There’s a certain spirit of how we think about all this that directly relates to whether, as we move forward, we will be stronger or not.  And here’s the thing that we all know: We’re not going back.  (Applause.)  We are not going back.  We’re not going —

AUDIENCE:  We’re not going back!  We’re not going back!  We’re not going back!

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  We’re not going back.  We’re not going back.  We are not going back. 

And — and here’s the thing, Janesville: It all comes down to this.  We are here together because we love our country.  We love our country.  (Applause.)  We love our country.

And what you all know better than most is when you love something, you fight for it — (applause) — you fight for it.  And I do believe one of the highest forms of patriotism, of our expression of our love for our country, is to then fight for the ideals of our country.  And that’s what’s at play in this election.  And it is about a fight to realize the promise of America. 

So, we got four days, and we’re going to get this done, but nobody can sit by the sidelines. 

     AUDIENCE:  No!

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  We got to remind everybody.  You know, five days from now, you don’t want to look back on these four days and have any regrets about what you could have done.  And everybody here knows how to organize, so I don’t need to tell you that it’s all about talking with each other.  It’s about reaching out to each other.  It’s about, in the face of a stranger, seeing a neighbor and helping — and unity and helping people understand that the vast majority of us have so much more in common than what separates us.  (Applause.)

And labor how — knows how to do that best.  We knock on doors, know how to text and call folks — (applause) — reaching out to family and friends and neighbors.  And we’ll remind people that their vote is their voice, and their voice is their power, right?  (Applause.)

     AUDIENCE MEMBER:  We love you!

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  So, brothers and sisters, today, I ask you: Are you ready to make your voices heard? 

     AUDIENCE:  Yes!

     THE VICE PRESIDENT:  Do we believe in freedom? 

     AUDIENCE:  Yes! 

     THE VICE PRESIDENT:  Do we believe in opportunity? 

     AUDIENCE:  Yes!

     THE VICE PRESIDENT:  Do we believe in the promise of America? 

     AUDIENCE:  Yes! 

     THE VICE PRESIDENT:  And are we ready to fight for it? 

     AUDIENCE:  Yes!

     THE VICE PRESIDENT:  And when we fight —

     AUDIENCE:  We win!

     THE VICE PRESIDENT:  — we win.

     God bless you.  And God bless the United States of America.  God bless you.  God bless you.  (Applause.)                              END                3:19 P.M.

The post Remarks by Vice President Harris at a Campaign Event | Janesville, WI appeared first on The White House.

I am grateful to be back at Georgetown for the conversation and the chance to take stock of where we stand at halftime in what has been dubbed the “decisive decade” for global climate action.

In the United States, under the leadership of President Biden and Vice President Harris, we have doubled our pace of decarbonization, built 100 gigawatts – 25 million homes worth – of clean power, and catalyzed a trillion dollars of private investment, creating good jobs across the nation.

The scoreboard looks good. The fundamentals are strong. But the hard truth remains that we have more field to gain and even less time to do it. The good news is that we carry with us into the second half a fundamentally rewritten climate playbook – an approach that eschews the gloom and doom and embraces the hope and possibilities. This new playbook is the gamechanger – and why I am confident that America will meet the moment.

Together, we will meet this moment because, over the last four years, we have proven climate action as the new foundry for economic opportunity and economic growth in the United States – the figurative factory floor where we are forging a stronger American middle class and mounting the comeback of American manufacturing.

Proven because the new foundry is already delivering – rising wages, expanding apprenticeships, over 600 new clean energy factories, and union density at rates double the rest of the economy. All of this is accelerating as the foundry taps into the salient, the proximate, and the visible uplift of our communities for its fuel.

We will meet the moment because, in our new playbook, we have pulled the upside of climate action both forward and close, even as we took on a problem that is global in nature and decades in the making.

We have pursued climate action in a way that is co-located with economic opportunity and coincided with pollution reduction – a geographic and temporal alignment of benefits designed to earn the political economy to go big, go fast, and go the distance.

Georgetown Climate Center is an apt place to reflect on this playbook because that approach of co-locating with economic opportunity and coinciding with pollution reduction is impossible to execute without partnership – the kind you work to forge through your efforts here – partnership top to bottom and shoulder to shoulder. That means federal, state, local, and Tribal governments, public and private sector – everybody coming together to make a difference, one neighborhood at a time.

Today, as communities are starting to breathe easier, to turn on the faucet with greater peace of mind, and to work jobs that not only provide pay and benefits but also purpose and dignity, we are unlocking that political economy boost – while those operating the brakes on climate action have become less effective, and the politics of climate inaction are deteriorating.

It might be an unexpected assertion, but it is true – drawn from wellsprings of hope and opportunity, change and improved circumstances, that I have seen as I have traveled from coast to coast, in small towns and big cities: People want us to keep investing in climate solutions and the clean energy economy of the future. And there is a reason.

Today, for hundreds of school districts, because of investments through the Biden-Harris Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, the iconic yellow school bus is going green – Made in America, by union workers, and showing up at the end of the driveway, no longer pumping diesel pollution into the air.

Today, in communities built over the last century or two, where pipes had been buried for a hundred years and leaking for decades, pipefitters are not just bending metal but also the arc of methane emissions. That same investment is reducing energy costs and safety risks – and the receipts show the impact.

Today, on 80,000 farms and ranches across the country, a new revenue stream is now part of the ledger as the United States leads the next generation of agricultural practice – one that is smarter both in withstanding the trials of climate change and in sourcing the solutions, with farmers paid, finally, to help the land breathe in the carbon from the sky.

Whether on wheels, under our heels, or growing from the ground on which we stand, these climate solutions are now and here. They are delivering the salient, the proximate, and the visible. And, in turn, they are fueling that new foundry, forging economic opportunity and economic growth all across America.

The success of this paradigm-shifting strategy – this new playbook – also comes from harmonizing two sets of tools, the tools to deliver investments and the tools to set standards, all in support of our economic goals.  

We have seen this strategy at work: The investments from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, the Inflation Reduction Act, and the CHIPS and Science Act enhanced by a complementary architecture of federal standards that spur demand and generate the regulatory certainty needed to accelerate capital formation and encourage entrepreneurial risk-taking. 

It is an important combination, and the success of our new foundry comes from both – the catalytic public investments and tax credits and also the standards that send a signal to the market, spurring long-term investment and firming up that next bet on America.

Bringing the breadth of our tools and partners together helps as we swing for the fences in every sector of the economy. Looking for wins everywhere – power and transportation, buildings and industry, lands and agriculture – gives us a better shot at delivering for everyone. When executed well, the gains from all-in and searching-for-opportunity-everywhere climate action cascade deep through the economy.

I want to give you two examples – one more obvious and the other, hopefully, to make you smile.

Two years ago, sparked by demand from the solar industry, a former steel plant in Leetsdale, Pennsylvania, a relic of the World War II era, announced it was making a comeback. Two years later, that spark has sustained, and the plant has tripled in capacity. Hundreds of jobs in a place where, just a few years ago, opportunity seemed forever fenced out.

And then in Milford, Utah, there is Scotty’s Diner, which also got a taste of that cascading economic opportunity. In a town of just 1,500, Scotty’s got a call from a construction crew for an unusually large order – 40 burgers and 40 fries. The owner has since doubled her staff to keep up with the appetite from what she calls “the geothermal thing” – a mega, two-gigawatt geothermal project now being built in her rural community.

That one plant, by the way, permitted on our public lands, increased total U.S. capacity for geothermal generation by 50 percent and reimagined the frontier on a critical clean energy technology where the U.S. can now have the edge.

These jobs – whether at the steel plant or the diner – bring so much more with them than a paycheck. I saw that this fall when I visited a clean energy factory with Sierra Club’s Ben Jealous. Ben pointed out something that has stuck with me ever since. In the hallway out front, he told me to look at the Earth Day artwork made by the kids of the factory workers. It was what you would expect – the most colorful expressions of wonder at nature and its beauty – and conveyed so much more. The artwork captured how the kids saw their parents: not as workers who walk on the ground, but as superheroes soaring to save the planet.

It is not just about putting steel in the ground or even in the spine of the American middle class – it is about filling our wings with a sense of soaring and uplift.

Today, we should all feel that sense of soaring because America is back in the business of doing big things. Too often in our discourse, we talk as if our imaginations have shrunk, as if the Hoover Dam was the apex of our ability to blueprint and build. But this discourse ignores the facts.

Take a look off the coast of Virginia, where the utility company and workers from the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, IBEW, are building a two-gigawatt offshore wind farm. Two gigawatts – the same size as the Hoover Dam – and yet just one of 10 similar offshore wind projects that the Biden-Harris administration greenlit over the last four years. Projects that are now spurring a 50-state supply chain, with steel going into the water and clean electricity coming onto the grid. An industry that was just in our imagination a few years ago, towering high today and lifting up our workers and communities at the same time.

We see it shine through in solar as well.

Half the solar installed today came online during the last four years, and, somehow, that may be the least exciting part of the story. Because of President Biden and Vice President Harris’s leadership, a technology that was invented in America decades ago is finally being manufactured in America too. In fact, we have quadrupled our capacity to manufacture solar panels in the United States since the start of this administration, and we are set to double that capacity again in a few years.

That is not all. Thanks to tax guidance that the Treasury Department recently finalized – one of over 75 tax guidance projects completed since the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act – we are now bringing ingot and wafer manufacturing to our shores. More energy jobs, more energy security, more opportunity and growth unleashed by our new foundry.

By the way, this manufacturing renaissance is also a big deal for innovation – important for America but also for the world’s ability to race toward and reach collective climate goals.

We know this: Manufacturing is the necessary bridge between invention and impact. No country can lead on innovation without the industrial capacity to turn plans into products. That is why America’s manufacturing renaissance delivers on so many bottom lines; because American scientists and engineers can now shine a brighter light into the future. That is good news for everybody. 

Of course, whether it is geothermal, or wind, or solar, or some other fuel or technology altogether, the value proposition depends on a bigger, better grid.

That is why, since the first day of this Administration, we made this a priority. Today, the Biden-Harris administration has financially boosted or environmentally approved over 5,000 miles of new capacity transmission on the grid – adding roads to the electricity highway system, something that must remain a massive national priority. We have worked to adapt the grid to the new realities imposed by the climate crisis. On a bipartisan basis, investment is now moving to bury lines, harden poles, or lay redundant cabling. Senator Murkowski, a champion of this resilience work, talks eloquently about one of these projects – a new high voltage cable that is going to be laid between Kenai and Anchorage. The next time the community faces the prospect of an outage, that cable becomes a vehicle to allow neighbors to help neighbors.

In addition to the new lanes on the electricity highway system and the physical upgrades to boost its resilience, I am excited about another opportunity we are chasing: simply operating our existing energy highway more creatively.

I will start with something wonky: dynamic line ratings. Our grid, as it stands today, has a static speed limit for electricity across the system. But that static speed limit is designed to safeguard the grid during the worst conditions. It does not allow electricity to travel faster during most times when conditions are good. Today, thanks to better sensors and AI, we can set that speed limit through dynamic line ratings. When conditions are good, we can raise the speed limit on the grid. We can squeeze far more capacity out of our existing infrastructure.

Another way we can get more out of the grid is by repaving the roads our electricity travels on. Most transmission cables use the same design that has been in place for a century: aluminum wires that transmit electricity, wrapped in stainless steel cables for durability.

Today, newer advanced cables being made in America employ carbon fiber and superconductors instead of steel and aluminum, making them stronger, lighter, and capable of carrying far more power than a traditional cable. By “reconductoring” our transmission lines, we can quadruple the pace of power we can add to the grid.

Finally, we can use the grid in a fundamentally different fashion by co-deploying battery storage with transmission, Storage As a Transmission Asset. Batteries can help manage rush hour traffic on the grid. When demand is high and you want to move a lot of electricity through the system, you can use the electricity stored in batteries to supplement power generation. When demand is low, you can recharge them. Overall, batteries help optimize the utilization of the transmission system that you have – fewer emissions, more resiliency, lower consumer costs.

To take advantage of that opportunity, we need to make even more of those batteries here, even more cheaply.

Batteries are another example of technology invented here that we had lost the capacity to make. America once at the frontier of the technology but then, for decades, ground ceded to others. Today, thanks to our new playbook – to the investments and the standards – the United States has become a magnet for that investment. Almost overnight, we have gone from a laggard to a leader, the top nation destination for private investment in this space.

We are making the batteries and – double click on them – the anodes and the cathodes, the separators and the materials that go into them too. Earlier this week, I was with President Cecil Roberts and the United Mineworkers at Ruff Creek, where they are now training up workers to make critical inputs – the active materials that go into the cathode of a cutting-edge battery that operates without nickel and cobalt. A union that powered America’s rise in the industrial age is back on the job, ensuring our competitiveness in the global clean energy economy.

Investing in the capacity that these UMWA workers will now create is essential – because mineral security is essential to climate security. Just as the climate imperative compels us to race forward on securing raw materials, as the U.S. is now doing in places like the Salton Sea, we also have to sprint to stand up our capacities to refine and upgrade, recycle and remake these raw materials, as the clean energy economy becomes a circular economy.

Ultimately, it is not just about the grid, or the batteries, or even the inputs. Ultimately, it is about coming together and doing the work of uplift.

I saw it in Western Michigan, where a shuttered nuclear power plant is coming back to serve two rural co-ops – the Hoosiers and the Wolverines – the co-ops teaming up despite their rivaling basketball loyalties. There, I met a union worker who thought he had retired, but was now coming back – out of retirement like the plant, beaming with a sense of pride, and eager to lift up the next generation of workers who will deliver carbon-free electricity to the grid.

I felt it this summer, standing in the Oval Office as Senator Capito, the Republican Ranking Member, and Senator Carper, the Democratic Chair of the Environment Committee, walked into the Oval Office together and shook the President’s hand; as Joe Biden signed into law a bipartisan piece of legislation to advance nuclear energy, our domestic supply chains, and America’s ability to lead on the next generation of tech.

Time and again, even when folks count us out, we show our ability to come together and do the work of uplift. 

To ratify the first environmental treaty in decades, we came together – the manufacturers association joining with environmental advocates to lift up the common ground. To pass the biggest investment in infrastructure since Eisenhower, bipartisan votes gathered to lift up clean energy technologies and environmental remediation. And as we have implemented this historic agenda on climate and clean energy, governors, mayors, and leaders from all parties have come together, proving climate action as a new foundry for economic opportunity and economic growth – truly a project of uplift.

This morning, I was in sunny Philadelphia in a sandy lot for the last stop of the American Climate Corps Tour. The young people there have grown up in a world where the sky turns orange; smoke fills their lungs from fires burning hundreds of miles away; where they get push alerts on the phone warning of the next flood or hurricane barreling through. These young people have all the reason to be angry or despondent. But they have rejected that. Instead, they have answered President Biden’s call from this past Earth Day to join the first-ever American Climate Corps. Choosing to write a different story – one that ends not with doom and gloom but with hope and possibilities. We have so much work to do. But we carry with us this new playbook. We carry with us proof that climate action can be the new foundry for economic opportunity and economic growth in the United States. And we have the example of our youth, who are showing us the way. We have and we must keep coming together and doing the work of uplift. That is how we meet the moment in this decisive decade.

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Dane County Regional Airport
Madison, Wisconsin

1:36 P.M. CDT

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  Hi, everyone.  Good afternoon.  So, we are in the closing days of this campaign, and Donald Trump and I have been presenting our closing arguments to the American people.

As you’ve heard me say many times, my pledge to the American people is to pursue commonsense solutions, to listen to those — even those who disagree with me, to listen to experts, and to be a president for all Americans.

Donald Trump’s closing argument is very different.  He pits Americans against one another.  He spends full time having Americans point their fingers at one another.  And he spends a considerable amount of time plotting his revenge on his political opponents.

As of last night, just to add more, he has indicated that the person who would be in charge of health care for the American people is be someone who has routinely promoted junk science and crazy conspiracy theories, who once expressed support for a national abortion ban, and who is the exact last person in America who should be setting health care policy for America’s families and children.

And then, even worse, he has increased his violent rhetoric — Donald Trump has — about political opponents and, in great detail — in great detail, suggested rifles should be “trained” on former Representative Liz Cheney. 

This must be disqualifying.  Anyone who wants to be president of the United States who uses that kind of violent rhetoric is clearly disqualified and unqualified to be president.

Representative Tr- — Cheney is a true patriot who has shown extraordinary courage in putting country above party.  Trump is increasingly, however, someone who considers his political opponents the enemy, is permanently out for revenge, and is increasingly unstable and unhinged.  His enemies list has grown longer, his rhetoric has grown more extreme, and he is even less focused than before on the needs and the concerns and the challenges facing the American people.

 I have also thought a lot about what this means in terms of our standing in the world.  As vice president, I have represented the United States of America around the world, and what I know is that when we walk in those rooms representing the United States of America, we have the earned and self-appointed authority to then talk about the importance of democracy, the importance of rule of law.  And as a result, people around the world who are fighting for freedom and opportunity hold us up as a model.

America deserves better than what Donald Trump is offering.  America deserves a president who understands our role and responsibility to our people and to the rest of the world to be a model. 

So, I’ll end with this.  Voters are making their decisions.  Many have voted, but there are still those who are making a decision about who they’ll vote for.  And what I offer is I ask folks to, among the many issues before you, just consider who’s going to be sitting in the Oval Office on January 20th.  Either you’re going to have Donald Trump there, who will be stewing over his enemies list, or I will be there, working hard on your behalf on my to-do list. 

That is the choice, among many, that is at stake in this election, and I would be proud to earn the vote of the American people.  And I do intend to win.

     With that, I’ll take any questions. 

     AIDE:  Aamer, AP.

Q    Thank you, Vice President.  Have you had a had a chance to talk to Liz Cheney?  And then, secondly, are you concerned about her general security?  And does — concerning the situation and how tense things are, do you think that the government or the administration, in some form, needs to provide her with security in this situation?

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  So, I’ve not talked to her since this comment was made.  But I will tell you I know Liz Cheney well enough to know that she is tough, she is incredibly courageous and has shown herself to be a — a true patriot at a very difficult time in our country, where, to your point, we see this kind of rhetoric that is violent in nature, where we see this kind of spirit coming from Donald Trump that is so laden with the — the desire for revenge and retribution. 

 And Liz Che- — Cheney is a tough person.  She is an incredible American.  And I have an incredible amount of respect for her. 

     Q    Are you worried about her safety?

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  I think that Liz Cheney is courageous and that we will always make sure that we are all fighting against and speaking out against any form of political violence.

     AIDE:  Nandita, from Reuters. 

Q    Thank you.  Madam Vice President, you spoke about early voting.  What is your assessment?  What is the data that you are seeing across the battlegrounds?

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  I’m seeing the folks who are showing up at the various places where we are inviting people to come and talk with us, and where we are talking about the issues at stake.  And I’m seeing an incredible amount of enthusiasm from people of every walk of life, every generation, from our first-time voters to folks who are seniors and have a lot at stake on issues like Social Security and Medicare. 

And what I am enjoying about this moment most is that in spite of how my opponent spends full time trying to divide the American people, what I am seeing is people coming together under one roof who seemingly have nothing in common and know they have everything in common.  And I think that is in the best interests of the strength of our nation.

Q    Are you encouraged by a lot more women showing up in Pennsylvania — a lot of Democratic women, first-time voters?

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  Women, men, folks of every background are showing up.

AIDE:  Jen Epstein.

Q    Vice President, you’ve had quite a lot of interruptions during your speeches recently, a lot of pro-Gaza protesters.  And, you know, you certainly have — have spoken about democracy when responding to them.  But do you think that you need to say a little bit more about the Mid-East conflict or about what you would do to try to satisfy them? 

And are you concerned at all about how you’ll do on — in college towns and in Michigan, in particular, with them?  President Trump today is going to Dearborn, is going to a Palestinian restaurant.  He’s really — this is the second kind of Arab American restaurant he’s gone to.  He seems to be really trying to make a play for a group that would traditionally be pretty Democratic.  Do you think you’ve done enough to reach these voters?

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  Well, I’m very proud to have a significant amount of support from the Arab American community, both because of my position about what we need to do in Gaza and in the region to end the war and bring the hostages home, and my commitment to a two-state solution, but also because, within that community, there are many issues that challenge folks and that they want to hear about, including what we’re going to do to make housing affordable, what we’re going to do to bring down the cost of groceries, what we’re going to do to invest in small businesses. 

I have a plan for all of those things, and that is something that resonates within that community and with all Americans.

Q    Just for voters who say that they’re going to protest, that they want to show the administration that what they did, the — the policy and support for Israel is wrong and are going to make a statement and that they don’t care if it makes Trump the president, what would you tell them?

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  So, there’s a real contrast in this race when you look at who stands for democracy and democratic principles and who does not.  Donald Trump is talking about an enemies list.  He is talking about using the American military to turn on American citizens.  He talks in a way that suggests that there should be retribution and severe consequences just because people disagree with him. 

My point is very clear.  I believe in our democracy.  Democracies are complicated, in a wonderful way, because we like debate.  We accept and receive differences of opinion, and we work them out. 

One of the reasons I am going to have a Republican in my Cabinet is because I want different views.  I — I enjoy and benefit from diverse views, from different perspectives that allow me then to make the best decisions I can make. 

That’s a big difference between me and Donald Trump, and that’s the big difference between someone who truly is a leader and someone who is in it for themselves and wants unchecked power. 

     AIDE:  Thank you, Madam Vice President.

     THE VICE PRESIDENT:  Okay.  Thank you all.                             

END                1:45 P.M.

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Sprinkler Fitters Local 692 Hall
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

4:37 P.M. EDT

THE PRESIDENT:  Thank you.  Hello, Philly!  (Applause.)  Thank you.  Thank you, thank you, truly.

We owe — not o- — not only do we owe you the pension that was owed to you, but we owe you a lot more than that.  You know, the reason this country is working is because the middle class is growing.  The middle class built this country, and unions built the middle class.  (Applause.) 

Look, it’s always great to be working with men and women of the m- — great union movement.  You know, Wayne Miller of the Sprinkler Fitters Local 692, who tha- — thanks for hosting us today.  (Applause.)  Wayne, my staff said you even fed them.  I don’t know — I’m going to (inaudible).  (Laughter.)

And Wendell Young, UFCW 1776 — (applause); and Bill Hamilton, president of Pennsylvania Conference of Teamsters.  (Applause.)  I also want to thank the great champions of working people here.  Brendan Boyle is a hell of a guy, man.  (Applause.)  He stuck with me — no. 

And Mary Gay Scanlon — (applause) — who I tell you, I think I hurt her reputation, because you know what?  I found out — you know, once you become elected president — I’m only the second Catholic ever elected.  When I headed to Ireland, they did all this background stuff on me where I’m from.  Well, it turns out — I showed her today; I got in writing — we’re related.  (Laughter and applause.)  I tell you what and —

And Madeleine Dean — where are you, Madeleine?  (Applause.)  She’s back there.   And Donald Norcross — and Donald — (applause).   And our acting secretary of Labor, Julie Su, is doing an incredible job.  (Applause.)  

And the guy — if you’re in trouble; you’re in a foxhole, man, you want him with you — that guy right there.  What’s his name?  (Laughter.)

AUDIENCE MEMBER:  Bobby!

THE PRESIDENT:  Bobby, good to see you, Bo- — you’re great.  (Applause.)  I — I’m serious.  He’s always, always there.

Look, we know this simple truth, as I said: Wall Street and the — please, if you have seats, take them.  (Laughter.) 

Look, I’m not joking around when I say that, you know, we talk — I come from Delaware.  I represented Delaware for 36 years in the United States Senate.  And, by the way, for 36 years — each year, they list the poorest man in Congress.  (The president raises his hand.)  (Laughter.)  Oh, I’m not joking.  Thirty-six years, I was listed — House and Senate — the poorest man in Congress. 

Never felt myself poor, but I guess came from a typical middle-class family.  You’re breaking your neck — my dad used to have an expression.  He’d say, “Joey, a job is about a lot more than a paycheck.  A job is about your dignity.  It’s about respect.  It’s about being treated with respect.  It’s about being able to look people in the eye.  It’s being able to look your kid in the eye and say, ‘Honey, it’s going to be okay,’ and know it’s real.”  That’s what this is all about, man.

I’m so sick and tired — sick and tired of the corporate notion of that it all — if corporations do well, we all do well.  I want corporations to do well as long as their employees do well.  But, man, the way it’s working now and the way it’s been working has not been working so well. 

Look, and I — so, I mean what I say.  Wall Street did not build this country.  They’re not bad guys.  They’re just a little greedy sometimes, but they’re not bad guys.  But Ame- — the middle class built the country.  And it’s not a joke.  You guys built the middle class, for real.  (Applause.)   There would be no middle cl- — not a —

Look, just since I’ve been elected — and I’m proud to be listed as the pr- — most pro-union president in American history — the middle class has grown.  (Applause.)  The middle class is growing.  We have the best economy in the world right now because of you.  (Applause.)

Thank you, John Dean and John Pishko — John — both Johns, for the introduction.  And most of all, thanks for sharing your stories.  Look, think about what they just described.  You all understand it well, but the folks who may be listening don’t u- — quite understand it as much.  It’s a story of — so many union workers could tell about working for decades to raise a family, working for decades just —

I remember my dad lost a pension.  We lived in a three-bedroom house, split-level home, and — down in Wilmington, Delaware, when they’re — in a suburban area of Wilmington, when they were building, like, (inaudible) homes — the same kind of homes.  They were a decent home, but we had four kids living there and a grandpop.  And I remember how restless my dad was one night because my wall — my bedroom was up against his, when my — me and my thr- — two brothers were in that room.  And I asked mom the next morning.  I said, “What’s the matter?”  And she said, “Well, Dad, they just — he just lost his pension.  He just lost his pension.”

But, look, putting money away from paycheck to paycheck for a dignified retirement, knowing that when the time comes, that pension you’ve earned will be there is critical, just for peace of mind.  It has phenomenal impacts on how marriages work and how families hold together when you have that knowledge, because there’s so much pressure.

But then you retire and find out all those years of work and sacrifice were slashed through no fault of your own — none.  Imagine what that does financially, emotionally, and to your dignity.  It’s wrong.  It’s just s- — it’s just simply wrong.  It should have never happened — never.

But then think about what it means to be made whole again, to have your lives, your pension restored, not only h- — don’t have to worry about it but about what you’re going to be able to do.  It matters.  It matters.

Four years ago, Kamala and I inherited a pandemic that was raging and the economy that was reeling.  So, we went to work right away.  We enacted the American Rescue Plan that did a lot more than just pensions.  It’s one of the most significant economic relief packages in the history of America.  Delivered immediate relief to folks that need it most. 

But not a single — this is what’s changed.  I was in the Senate a long — I know I only look like I’m 40, but I’m a little older.  (Laughter.)  But all kidding aside, we used to have real differences in the — in — in the — in the Senate.  But at least when the critical things we’d have — we’d end up getting together.  But not anymore.  This is — this is a different — this is a different deal we’re working with.

Not a single, solitary Republican in the House or the Senate — not one — voted to help with the pensions.  Not one single one.

AUDIENCE:  Booo —

THE PRESIDENT:  No, no.  I — it’s not so much about — it’s the w- — way things have gotten.  You know, it’s like you either vote the right way of one guy wants it or you’re in trouble.  It’s wrong.  It’s not who the hell we are.  I believe a lot of those Republicans who voted no thought it was wrong, but they’re afraid to vote the right way.

As part of the American Rescue Plan, Kamala and I worked like hell to include the Butch Lewis Act to protect the pension of millions of union workers and retirees from Pennsylvania and throughout Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin — all across America. 

Simply put, the Butch Lewis Act is the most significant investment in pension security for union workers and retirees in over 50 years.  (Applause.)  And I might add, it’s not enough.  We got to do a hell of a lot more, but I’ll get to that in a moment.  (Laughter.)

And, again, e- — every — every guy on the other team voted against it — every single one.  Think about that. 

Before the Butch Lewis Act became the law of the land, union workers and retirees faced cuts of up to 70 percent or more of the retirement benefits through no fault of their own — none.  But now, because of what Kamala and I did in Congress and folks like Brendan Boyle and others — because of the labor leaders that are here, because of many of you — the pensions of millions of union workers and retirees are protected.

Food warehouse workers, truck drivers, scores of others don’t worry anymore about their benefits being cut, because now they know, because of what we’ve done, they’ll receive the full amount of their pensions they’ve worked hard for, and they’ll receive it for decades to come.

Folks, look, for all those retirees whose benefits are already cut, as you heard today — and many of you hopefully ben- — benefited as well, they’ll be made whole again — all the — all the — all you lost will be made up.  And those with benefits restored — and restored retroactively.  But, folks, that’s what I call a pretty big deal.  Folks — (applause). 

So, I came to North Philly today to announce major progress we made in implementing the Butch Lewis Act.  But this morning, the U.S. Department of Labor released a report which shows that since we passed the law in March of 2021, we’ve already protected the pensions of over 1.2 million — 1.2 million workers and retirees.  (Applause.)  And that includes over 65,000 workers and retirees across Pennsylvania alone.  (Applause.)

For retirees whose benefits were cut or at risk of being cut, we’ve paid them back more than $1.6 billion so far.  (Applause.)  That’s about $13,600 already paid back in the pockets of each retiree, and some are even more.  It’s a game changer.

Today, I’m also announcing $684 million from the Butch Lewis Act to restore pensions for an additional 29,000 members of the United Food and Commercial Workers Union.  (Applause.)

AUDIENCE:  Thank you, Joe!  Thank you, Joe!  Thank you, Joe!

THE PRESIDENT:  You earned it.  Don’t —

AUDIENCE:  Thank you, Joe!  Thank you, Joe!  Thank you, Joe! 

THE PRESIDENT:  Don’t thank me.  Thank you.  You shouldn’t have to thank anybody.  You shouldn’t have to thank anybody. 

Look, there are nearly 11,000 workers and retirees living right here in Pennsylvania. 

For years and years, union workers have been driving trucks from factories to stores, bagging your groceries, constructing your buildings, your bridges, your roads.  We need to do so much more for ironworkers, bricklayers, carpenters, laborers, plumbers, truck drivers, food workers, and more.  These workers are working hard today, and they deserve a secure retirement they’ve earned for the rest of their lives.

Folks, look, we’re just getting started.  By the way, that little — that little, big bill we passed for, you know, dealing with infrastructure?  A trillion three hundred billion dollars, that’s what that bill is worth.  (Applause.) 

Remember the last guy, when he was president, he said we’re going to have — we have re- — retired — we have infr- — anyway, he had — every week, we’re going to have “Infrastructure Week.”

AUDIENCE MEMBER:  Joe got it done!

THE PRESIDENT:  Never fin- — he didn’t do a damn thing.  (Applause.) 

But, you know, too many of them face painful cuts to the benefits they’ve worked so hard and counted on — some of you losing 40, 50, 70 percent of your pensions through your — no fault of your own.  That’s why the Butch Act — Lewis Act was so important to pass in the first place. 

And when it comes to office — wh- — when we came to the — when I came into office, I was determined to restore and guarantee pensions that were earned and paid into.  I was also determined to fundamentally transform the way the economy works for everyone. 

You know, I’ve got so sick and tired of the eco- — trickle-down economics.  Remember, that’s how it worked?  The rich, if they do well, they’ll pay their taxes, and it’ll trickle down, and we’ll all benefit.  Well, not a hel- — hell of a lot dr- — trickled down to my father’s kitchen table.  (Applause.)  No, I’m not jo- — this is — I’m dead — I’m dead earnest here.

To grow the economy, when we just sought out to change the way we did it — and if you no- — there’s no reason why you would notice, but all the international economic publications are talking about it now.  I decided we’re going to grow the economy from the middle out and the bottom up. 

When the middle class does well, everybody does well.  (Applause.)  The wealthy do well.  Put workers first.  Support unions.  Invest in all of America, in all Americans.  When we do these things, we do well. 

That’s what we’re seeing.  Sixteen million new jobs created just so far — (applause) — the greatest job-creation record of any single presidential term in American history.  (Applause.)  1.6 million manufacturing and construction jobs. 

And where is it written that America can’t lead the world in manufacturing?  I got so tick and sired [sick and tired] of hearing that we can’t — come on, man.  (Laughter.)  No, I’m serious.  Think about it.

We have the best workers in the world.  That’s not hyperbole.  That’s a fact.

When I decided to bring back the chips bi- — industry back — we invented that little chip that goes in all those computers.  We invented it.  We used to have 40 percent of the market.  We got down to 4 percent of the market.

Well, guess what?  I told my staff — and even they thought I was crazy.  I said, “I’m going to South Korea.  I’m going to sit down with them and make sure that they start — we start making this stuff home.”  I sat with Samsung.  They invested $15 billion coming back to the United States to build those chips here and build those factories here.  (Applause.)

But over $60 billion more is being inter- — is being made here, and they’re just getting started.  We’re just getting started.

These “fabs,” they call them, they’re as big as football fields.  These fabs, you know what the average salary is?  One hundred and ten thousand dollars a year, and you don’t need a college degree.  (Applause.)  And we’re just getting started. 

This past week, we did- — get very encouraging news about the economy.  Inflation continues to drop.  Remember they said, “Biden is going to get elected, there’s going to be a recession”?  Give me a freaking break.  (Laughter and applause.) 

We got it back down from close to 9 percent down to nearly 2 percent, which means people have more money in their pockets now than they did before the pandemic, and we’re continuing to see economic growth. 

Today, union workers are modernizing American infrastructure — roads, bridges, airports, ports, clean water, affordable high-speed Internet — for every Pennsylvanian — not some, every.  And thanks to the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, Pennsylvania has received $18 billion so far for 2,000 projects — (applause) — so far.  And that includes a billion dollars for the city of Philadelphia in the few months since Mayor Parker has been in office.  They already got a billion dollars to her.  (Applause.) 

Look, folks, I signed an executive order to make sure large federal construction projects use project labor agreements that are negot- — (applause) — not a joke — negotiated between union and companies before the construction began, because your con- — we make sure construction is top notch, on time, and on budget.  (Applause.)

And, by the way — by the way, employers are starting to figure it out.  Not a joke.  I told you about Samsung.  When the guy said, “Why are you coming to — back to the U- — why are you coming to United States,” he said, “Two reasons: One, you have the best workers in the world.”  (Applause.)  I — no- — not a joke — “the most qualified workers in the” —

People think — I wish union would start talking about what it takes to get — to become whatever you decide to be, whether anything from electrician to whatever.  You have to do somewhere between four and five years of apprenticeship.  It’s like going back to school, man — like going to college.  But people don’t know it.  People don’t know it. 

We got to talk more about it so people who aren’t in unions understand just how damn qualified you are and how hard you worked to get to where you are. 

You know, “Buy American” used to be the law of the land.  By the — by that, is i- — look, the way it works — supposed to work, back in the ‘30s, when they were trying to bust unions or prevent them from co- — coming into being in the first place, what they — passed a law under Roosevelt, which said that if you’re going to have — you’re going to try — if you’re going to fo- — form a union, you can’t do the following things to try to break the union. 

But there was a provision in there and that no — that nobody paid attention to.  It said, “And when the president spends money given to him by the Congress to do something for the country, he has to use American products, and he has to buy — use American workers.”  Nobody did it.  (Applause.)  No, not a joke. 

Well, every damn penny I’ve been sent by the m- — United States Congress has been gone to use American product and American workers — every one.  (Applause.)  Not a joke.  It’s why we’re growing so well.  Federal projects helping build American roads, bridges, highways are now being made with American products, built by American workers, creating good-paying American jobs.

In fact, we’re requiring those kinds of projects to pay Davis-Bacon wages av- — for every single family out there. 

Look, folks — (applause) — many of those jobs don’t require a college degree, but they — look, in fact, we — we extended the registered apprenticeship program.  Remember when the corporations said, “Don’t worry, we’ll take care of training them.  We- — we’ll take care of apprenticeships”?  Give me a break.  (Laughter.)

So, what’d we do?  We decided we were going to make sure they were available.  The result being over a million apprentices since we’ve come into office — a million new apprentices have come (inaudible).  (Applause.) 

And like I said, a lot of folks don’t realize an apprenticeship is like earning a college degree.  In an apprenticeship, you train for four or five years.  They’re some of the best workers in the world. 

Kamala and I have already believe- — always believed that National Labor Relations Board should be pro-labor.  (Applause.)  But those of you involved in leading unions, you know what it’s been under the last guy: anti-labor people put on the — on the Labor Relations Board.  Not anymore, not anymore.  (Applause.) 

That’s why we have — one of the most significant things we’ve done is appoint Na- — National Labor Relations Board members who actually believe in unions and believe in your right to organize.  (Applause.) 

As I said, I’m honored to be considered the most pro-union president in American history, and I’m proud to be the first president to walk a picket line.  (Applause.)  And Kamala is proud to have walked a picket line as well.  The other guy looks to — for picket lines to cross, but we’ve always had your back.  (Laughter.)  We’ve always had your back.

Look, let me — I don’t want to get going here.  (Laughter and applause.) 

We owe you so much.  I really mean it.  The country owes you so much.

Let me close with this.  When I was being raised in Scranton, where my dad taught me something that always stuck with me — and I mentioned to you before — that a job is a lot — about a lot more than a paycheck, and it really is.  Think about it.  Think about what it is.  It’s about your dignity.  It’s about how you treat it.  It’s about how people look at you — look up to you, not down at you.  It’s about your place in the community.  It’s about being able, as I said, to look your kid in the eye and say, “Honey, it’s going to be okay,” and mean it — mean it.

That’s the value set I learned here in Pennsylvania, the value set that’s at the core of the labor — at the core of the American labor market — union market — a movement made up of extraordinary people like you.  And I’m not just trying to be nice, man.  I’m not running again.  (Laughter.)  You’re stuck with me.  And the one thing I don’t think anybody can argue is I never haven’t done what I’ve said I’m going to do.  (Applause.) 

So — and like someone we honor today, Butch Lewis, joining us today is his wife, Rita.  Rita, where are you?  (Applause.)  Come on up here.  Come on up here. 

Rita and Butch are childhood sweethearts.  Butch played baseball — drafted by the Pirates, by the way, out of high school. 

Come over here for a minute.  We’ll walk over there in a minute.

And he enlisted in the Army instead — Special Forces Army Ranger, served in Vietnam, earned a Bronze Star and a Purple Heart.  Came back home to Rita, settled in Cincinnati, and became a Teamsters trucker and then president of his Local.  Known as an honorable, honest, decent, labor leader — that’s who he was.

Butch faced severe cuts in pensions and became a fierce advocate of protecting those pensions for fellow workers.  He died almost nine years ago.  And, Rita, you’ve carried on his legacy ever since then.  This is a woman who didn’t stop.  (Applause.)

Together with Democrats in the Congress, the Butch Lewis Act I signed into law now protects pensions for millions of American workers, and it matters.

Rita, can you please join me over here? 

Can you all hear me from here? 

AUDIENCE:  Yes.

THE PRESIDENT:  (Inaudible.)

AIDE:  The Citizens Medal is given to citizens of the United States of America who have performed exemplary deeds of service for their country or their fellow citizens. 

A fierce labor leader, Butch Lewis helped to protect hard-earned pensions of millions of Americans.  He passed up a shot at professional baseball, instead serving our nation as a decorated Army Ranger in Vietnam.  He spent 40 years as a trucker, Teamster, and union leader, fighting for the dignity of work and solidarity of workers across Ohio and the country.  A man of humility and warmth, he inspired everyone around him, embodying the simple truth that the middle class built America and unions built the middle class. 

THE PRESIDENT:  Now — (applause) — this is on the verge of being inappropriate.  (Laughter.)  But I’m going to pin this on you.

MRS. LEWIS:  Thank you so much.  I’m so grateful.  My husband would be so happy.

THE PRESIDENT:  He’s looking.

MRS. LEWIS:  (Inaudible) never give up on us.

THE PRESIDENT:  (Inaudible.) 

(The president drops the backing piece of the medal.)

MRS. LEWIS:  Oops!

THE PRESIDENT:  What am I doing here?  Hang on. 

MRS. LEWIS:  I don’t know.  (Laughter.)

MRS. LEWIS:  Do you want me to help you?

THE PRESIDENT:  Yeah, I want — see if you can put it on. 

MRS. LEWIS:  (Laughs.)  Okay.  I can’t see through these tears.  I don’t know if I can. 

THE PRESIDENT:  I tell you what, I’m not getting fresh.  (Laughter.) 

MRS. LEWIS:  Oh, I know you’re not.  You never would. 

But I’ve never had a president get fresh with me before.  That would be a first.  (Laughter.)

(The president pins the Citizens Medal.)

THE PRESIDENT:  There you go.  (Applause.)

MRS. LEWIS:  Thank you so much.  Thank you, everyone.  (Applause.)

THE PRESIDENT:  Folks, my dad had another expression.  He used to say, for real, “Remember, Joey: Family is the beginning, the middle, and the end.”

Thank you all for being loyal to one another, not forgetting where you come from, and sticking with those you need to help. 

Thank you, thank you, thank you.  (Applause.)

5:02 P.M. EDT

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Talking Stick Amphitheatre
Phoenix, Arizona

1:53 P.M. MST

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  Hello, Arizona.  (Applause.)  Hi, everyone. 

AUDIENCE:  Kamala!  Kamala!  Kamala!

 THE VICE PRESIDENT:  Thank you all.  Thank you.  (Applause.)  Okay, we have work to do.  Thank you.  Thank you.

Can we hear from Ruben Gallego?  (Applause.)

And I’ve known Ruben a long time and, of course, Arizona knows him so well.  He is a veteran of the Marine Corps, a proven leader, a champion for all of Arizona, and please send him to the United States Senate.  (Applause.)

 So, it’s so good to be back in Arizona and Phoenix.  Are we ready to do this?  (Applause.)

     Are we ready to vote?  (Applause.)

     Are we ready to win?  (Applause.)

     Oh, it’s good to be back and to be with so many incredible leaders. 

     AUDIENCE MEMBER:  I love you!

 THE VICE PRESIDENT:  I love you back.  (Laughter.)

I want to thank Governor Hobbs; Senator Kelly; Gabby Giffords — (applause); Mayors Gallego, Romero, and Giles — (applause); Ambassador Jeff Blake.  (Applause.)  I am so grateful to all of you for your support.

And to all the Tribal leaders, the elected leaders, community leaders here today — (applause) — I thank you.

And let’s hear it again for Los Tigres Del Norte.  (Applause.)

Okay, work to do.  So, Arizona, tomorrow, Friday, November fir- — by the way, Happy Halloween.  (Laughs.)  (Applause.)

So, tomorrow, Friday, November 1st is the last day to vote early in person.  And if you are voting by mail and still have your ballot, please take it to any drop box in your county or any voting location by 7:00 p.m. on Tuesday, November 5th.  And you can go to IWillVote.com to get all the information you need.

And to all the leaders here: Please help spread the word on that.  (Applause.)  Okay?

And we need you to vote, Arizona, because we have five days left — (applause) — five days left in one of the most consequential elections of our lifetime.

And we have work to do, but we like hard work.  (Applause.) 

Hard work is good work.  (Applause.)  Hard work is joyful work.  (Applause.)

And make no mistake, we will win.  (Applause.)  We will win.  We will win.  We will win. 

And we will win because we know that it’s very clear to all of us here: When you know what you stand for, you know what to fight for.  (Applause.)

And we love our country.  And we love our country.  And we know, in this election, we have an opportunity to turn the page on a decade of Donald Trump trying to keep us divided and afraid of each other.  We’re done with that.  We’re exhausted with that.

     AUDIENCE:  Booo —

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  And we know — and we know that’s who he is.  But, Phoenix, that is not who we are.  (Applause.)  That is not who we are.  And it is time for a new generation of leadership in America.  (Applause.)  And I am ready to offer that leadership as the next president of the United States.  (Applause.)

And, Arizona, many of you know me.  I’m not afraid of tough fights.  For decades, I was a prosecutor.  I was the top law enforcement officer of the biggest state in our country, and I have won fights.  I won fights against the big banks that ripped off homeowners, against for-profit colleges that scammed veterans and students, against predators who abused women and children.  And we are fighting for democracy —

     (A protestor disruption can be heard.)

     AUDIENCE:  Kamala!  Kamala!  Kamala!

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  And that’s all right.  That’s all right.  Democracy can be complicated, but we believe in democracy and the right of everyone — (applause) — to have their voices heard.  It’s all right.

 And I have fought for many who have harmed other human beings.  I have fought against the cartels that trafficked in guns, drugs, and human beings, and it is my pledge to you that if you give me the chance to fight on your behalf as president, there is nothing in the world that will stand in my way.  (Applause.)

     And look, we all know who Donald Trump is.  This is not —

     AUDIENCE:  Booo —

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  Because here’s the thing we all know: He is not someone who is thinking about how to make your life better.  This is someone who is unstable, obsessed with revenge, consumed with grievance, and out for unchecked power.  And in less than 90 days, it will either be him or me in the Oval Office.  (Applause.)

     AUDIENCE:  Kamala!  Kamala!  Kamala!

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  Yes, we’re going to get this done.  And — and I thank you.  I thank you.  And here’s the thing, because we’re really clear, and we can all picture it — we can picture the Oval Office, right?  And if he is elected, on day one, Donald Trump would walk into that office with an enemies list.  On day one, when I am elected, I will walk in with a to-do list.  (Applause.)

     And on top of my list is bringing down —

     AUDIENCE MEMBER:  (Inaudible.)

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  Sí, se puede, sí.  (Laughs.)  (Applause.)  Sí, se puede.

AUDIENCE:  Sí, se puede!  Sí, se puede!  Sí, se puede!

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  Yes.  And on top of my list, in that spirit, is bringing down your cost of living.  (Applause.)  It’s an issue that we need to address, and it will be my focus every single day as President.

I will give a middle-class tax cut to over 100 million Americans.  (Applause.)  I will enact –I will enact the first-ever federal ban on corporate price gouging on groceries.  (Applause.)  I will fight to make sure that hardworking Americans can actually afford a place to live.  (Applause.)

And if you are caring for an elderly parent — look, I took care of my mother when she was sick. 

     (A protestor disruption can be heard.)

 THE VICE PRESIDENT:  If you are taking care of an elderly parent, I understand what you are experiencing, and my plan will cover the cost of care under Medicare for the seniors in your life who need help and support.  (Applause.)

Because so much of my plan, for me, is about the dignity that all people deserve, which is why my plan inlu- — includes lowering the cost of childcare, cutting taxes for small businesses, and lowering health care costs. 

Do we have small businesses in the house?  (Applause.) 

I will focus on health care, because this is where I come from.  I believe access to health care should be a right and not just a privilege of those who can afford it.  (Applause.)

On the other hand, Donald Trump’s answer to th- —

     (A protestor disruption can be heard.)

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  Hey, guys, you know what?  Here is the thing.  Let’s talk for a moment about Gaza.  We all want this war to end and get the hostages out.  (Applause.)  And I will work on it full time when I am elected president, as I’ve been.

     AUDIENCE MEMBER:  We’ve got your back!

 THE VICE PRESIDENT:  And I have yours.  (Applause.)

So, there’s a contrast in this election on so many issues, including our plans for America’s economy.  Donald Trump’s answer to the financial pressures you face is the same as the last time: another trillion dollars in tax cuts for billionaires and the biggest corporations, and this time he will pay for it.

     AUDIENCE:  Booo —

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  And this time, his plan is a 20 percent national sales tax on everything you buy that is imported: clothes, food, toys, cell phones.

A Trump sales tax, according to The Economist, would cost the average American family an additional $4,000 a year.

     AUDIENCE:  Booo —

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  And on top of that, Donald Trump still wants to get rid of the Affordable Care Act —

     AUDIENCE:  Booo —

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  — also known as Obamacare, and he has a powerful friend in Congress, the speaker of the House, who recently said, if Trump wins, there will be, quote, “no Obamacare,” which would throw — understand the meaning of that.  It would throw millions of Americans off of their health insurance and take us back to the time, which we remember, when insurance companies could deny people with preexisting conditions.

     Well, we are —

     AUDIENCE:  Not going back! 

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  — not going back.  We are not going back.  (Applause.)  We’re not going back.

AUDIENCE:  We’re not going back!  We’re not going back!  We’re not going back!

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  We are not going back.  We’re not going back.  We’re not going back.

And we are not going back because ours is a fight for the future, and it is a fight for freedom — (applause) — like the fundamental freedom of a woman to make decisions about her own body and not have her government tell her what to do.  (Applause.) 

And remember how we got here: Donald Trump hand-selected three members of the United States Supreme Court —

     AUDIENCE:  Booo —

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  — with the intention that they would undo the protections of Roe v. Wade, and they did as he intended.  And now, in America, one in three women lives in a state with a Trump abortion ban, many with no exceptions even for rape and incest, which is immoral.  

And — and — and Donald Trump is not done.  Did everyone hear what he just said yesterday?  That he will do what he wants, quote — and here’s where I’m going to quote — “whether the women like it or not.”

     AUDIENCE:  Booo —

     Vote!  Vote!  Vote!

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  And we must vote, because this is the thing.  You know, there’s a saying that you got to listen to people when they tell you who you are — who they are.  And this is not the first time he has told us who he is.  He does not believe women should have the agency and authority to make decisions about their own bodies. 

This is the same man who said women should be punished for their choices.  He simply does not respect the freedom of women or the intelligence of women to know what’s in their own best interest and make decisions accordingly.

But we trust women.  (Applause.)  We trust women, which is why, yes, we will vote, because we also understand, if he was elected, he has been pretty clear in his behavior and his deeds.  He will ban abortion nationwide.  He will restrict access to birth control, put IVF treatments at risk, and force states to monitor women’s pregnancies. 

 And you don’t have to take my word for it.  Just google Project 2025.

 AUDIENCE:  Booo —

 THE VICE PRESIDENT:  Read the plans for yourself.

And I think everyone here knows that we can agree one does not have to abandon their faith or deeply held beliefs to agree the government shouldn’t be telling her what to do.  (Applause.)  Not the government.  Not the government.

So, Arizona, to protect your right to make your own health care decisions, I would recommend you vote yes on Proposition 139 — (applause) — and make sure you vote up and down the ballot to truly protect that right.

     And it is my pledge to you: When Congress passes a bill to restore reproductive freedom, as president of the United States, I will proudly sign it into law.  (Applause.)  Proudly.

So, Arizona, I’m here to ask for your vote — (applause) — which I would be so honored to have.  And here is my pledge to you.  As president, I pledge to you to seek common ground and commonsense solutions to the challenges you face.

I will tell you I am not looking to score political points.  I am looking to make progress. 

     I pledge to you to listen to experts, to listen to those who will be impacted by the decisions I make, and I pledge to you to listen to people who disagree with me.

And unlike Donald Trump, I don’t believe that people who disagree with me are the enemy.  Who — he wants to put them in jail.  I’ll give them a seat at the table — (applause) — because that’s how a democracy works, and that’s how real leaders work.  (Applause.)

And I pledge to you to always put country above party and above self and to be a president for all Americans.  (Applause.)  That is my sincere pledge to you.

 And so, Phoenix, with five days left in this campaign, my opponent is also making his closing argument to America —

     AUDIENCE:  Booo —

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  And you’ve probably seen a bit of it.  It is an argument that is full of hate and division.  He insults Latinos, scapegoats immigrants.  And it’s not just what he says, it’s what he will do.  If elected, you can be sure he will bring back family separation policies —

     AUDIENCE:  Booo —

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  — only on a much greater scale than last time.  And it is time then to turn the page on Donald Trump.  (Applause.)  We are done with that. 

So, five days out, and it all comes down to this.  We are here together, and you all have taken time out of all the demands on your life and your busy schedules.  You have taken the time to be here because I know we all love our country.  We love our country.  (Applause.)  We love our country.

And when you love something, you fight for it.  You fight for it. 

     AUDIENCE:  USA!  USA!  USA!

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  Yes.  Yes.  And with that spirit — and with this spirit, we know that one of the highest forms of patriotism, the love that we have for our country, is to then fight for its ideals and to fight to realize the promise of America.  That’s what this is about. 

And I have always believed in our nation’s promise, because I have lived it.  I grew up as a child of the Civil Rights Movement.  My parents would take me to marches when I was in a stroller.  And people, during that time, would come together from every walk of life, together from every background, every race, and come together to fight for freedom and opportunity.  (Applause.)

Gro- — growing up — when I was growing up, I saw how hard my mother worked to give her two daughters the same chances our country gave her.  And I was blessed to have family by blood and to have family by love — (applause) — who instilled — who instilled in me the values of community and compassion and faith.

I’ve spent my life fighting for people who have been hurt and counted out but never stopped believing that anything in our country is possible. 

I have lived the promise of America, and today I see the promise of America in everyone here, in all of you.  (Applause.)

I see the promise of America in the women who refuse to accept a future without reproductive freedom — (applause) — and the men who support them — (applause); in the fathers and mothers who work hard every day for their children’s future — (applause); in Republicans who have never voted for a Democrat before but put the Constitution of the United States before party.  (Applause.)

 And I see the promise of America in all the young leaders who are voting for the first time.  (Applause.)  Where are you?  Let me see you.

And I love this generation of leaders.  You are rightly — (applause) — I mean, you guys are rightly impatient for change.  (Applause.)  And you are determined to live free from gun violence, to tackle the climate crisis, to shape the world you inherit.  (Applause.)

And for our young leaders — here’s the thing.  None of this is theoretical for them.  It’s not political.  For you all, it is your lived experience.  And I see you, and I see your incredible power, and I am so proud of you.  So, can we hear it for the first-time voters who are here?  (Applause.) 

Although, why aren’t you guys in class?  (Laughter.)  It’s okay.

So, Arizona, we have five days to get this done, and no one can sit on the sidelines.  Let’s spend the next five days so that when we look back on these five days, we’ll know we did everything we could. 

So, let’s knock on doors.  Let’s text and call voters.  Let’s reach out to family and friends and neighbors and coworkers and classmates. 

And as we do, here is my request.  Let us please be intentional about building community.  Let us be intentional about building coalitions. 

You know, there’s been so much about these last several years that is making people feel alone, making people point their fingers at each other as though we’re not all in this together. 

 So, let’s approach this with the spirit that is about bringing folks back together, and reminding everyone, the vast majority of us have so much more in common than what separates us.  (Applause.)  So, let’s approach it that way.  Let’s approach it that way.  We will be the stronger for it.

And always remember: Your vote is your voice and your voice is your power.  (Applause.)

So, Arizona, today, I ask you: Are you ready to make your voices heard?  (Applause.)

     Do we believe in freedom?  (Applause.)

     Do we believe in opportunity?  (Applause.)

     Do we believe in the promise of America?  (Applause.)

     And are we ready to fight for it?  (Applause.)

     And when we fight —

     AUDIENCE:  We win! 

     THE VICE PRESIDENT:  — we win.

     God bless you.  And God bless the United States of America.

                             END                2:17 P.M. MST

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Reno Events Center
Reno, Nevada

5:21 P.M. PDT

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  Hello, Nevada.  (Applause.)  We’re doing this.  Happy Nevada Day!  (Applause.)

And can we please hear it for Michon?  (Applause.)

Oh, it’s good to be back.  (Applause.)  Oh, it’s good to be back.  Oh, it’s good to be back. 

It’s — I have spent a lot of time in Reno over the years, and it is so good to be back in Reno.  Are we ready to do this?  (Applause.) 

     Are we ready to vote?  (Applause.)

     Are we ready to win?  (Applause.)

Yes.  It is so good to be back and with so many incredible leaders.  And I want to just start by thanking everyone here for taking time out of your busy lives to be here this afternoon for us to celebrate — (applause) — to celebrate each other and community.  And I thank you, everyone. 

 I want to thank my dear, dear friend, Senator Catherine Cortez Masto.  (Applause.)  As you know, we were AGs together.  I was in California; she was here.  We were fighting the good fight, arm in arm, always together. 

I want to thank Mayor Schieve — (applause); DNC

chair, Jaime Harrison —  (applause); Michael Gordon with LiUNA Local 169 — (applause); and, Nevada, please send Jacky Rosen back to the United States Senate.  (Applause.)

And to all the Tribal elected and community leaders with us today — (applause) — I thank you.  I thank you.  I thank you.

So, Reno, tomorrow — well, by the way, Happy Halloween.  (Laughs.)  (Applause.)

So, tomorrow, Friday, November 1st, is the last day to vote early in person.  And if you are voting by mail, please do not wait.  Sign the envelope and return your ballot today.  Your ballot must be returned to a drop box or postmarked by Election Day, next Tuesday, November 5th.  So, please help get the word out and ask people to go to IWillVote.com if they’re not sure.  (Applause.)  Let’s spread the word.

And we need you to vote, Nevada.  You are going to make the difference in the outcome of this election.  And I thank you.  I thank you.  (Applause.)

So, okay, we got some work to do.  Okay, we have five days left in one of the most consequential elections of our lifetime.  And we do have work to do. 

But here’s the thing I know about everybody here: We like hard work.  (Applause.)  Hard work is good work.  Hard work is joyful work.  (Applause.)  And make no mistake: We will win.  We will win.  (Applause.)  We will win.

And one of the reasons we will win is because I know who the folks are here.  I know who you are.  And here’s the thing about all of us: We know that when you know what you stand for, you know what to fight for.  (Applause.)  You know what to fight for.

And we know we have an opportunity in this election to turn the page on a decade of Donald Trump trying to keep us divided and afraid of each other.  We’re done with that.  (Applause.)  We’re exhausted by it.  We’re done with that.  We’re done with it. 

And, Reno, this is the thing.  We know that this is not who we are.  That’s not who we are.  And it is time for a new generation of leadership in America.  (Applause.)  And I am ready to offer that leadership as the next president of the United States.  (Applause.)

     And, Nevada — (applause) — we’re going to —

     AUDIENCE:  (Inaudible.)

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  Thank you.  Thank you.  (Applause.)  All right.  Okay, okay.  We got work to do.  We got work to do. 

So, listen — but let me say this.  And a lot of folks here know: I am not afraid of tough fights.  For decades, as a prosecutor and as a top law enforcement officer of the — of the first cousin of Nevada, California — (laughter) — I won fights. 

I won fights with Catherine against the big banks that ripped off homeowners — (applause); against for profit colleges that scammed veterans and students — (applause); against predators who harmed women and children; against the cartels that trafficked in guns and drugs and human beings. 

And it is my pledge to you that if you give me the chance to fight on your behalf as president, there is nothing in the world that will stand in my way of fighting for you — (applause) — for the people. 

     And, look, we know who Donald Trump is —

     AUDIENCE:  Booo —

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  — because we all know he is not someone who is thinking about how to make your life better.  And this is someone who is increasingly unstable, obsessed with revenge, consumed with grievance, and he’s out for unchecked power.  And in less than 90 days, either he or I will be sitting in the Oval Office.  (Applause.)

And, listen, here’s what we can imagine, right?  We’ve all seen on TV — you’ve seen the Oval Office.  But here’s the thing.  Just — we have to get the word out to help people even just visually imagine what that day will be, because if elected, Donald Trump, on day one, would walk into that office with an enemies list.  When I am elected, I will walk in with a to-do list — (applause) — on behalf of you.

And at the top of my list is bringing down your cost of living.  That will be my focus every single day as president.  (Applause.)  I will give a middle-class tax cut to over 100 million Americans, enact — enact the first-ever federal ban on corporate price gouging on groceries.  (Applause.)  I’ve taken on that issue before.  I’ll take it on again. 

I will make housing more affordable by building more homes and taking on corporate landlords who unfairly buy up all these properties and jack up rents.  (Applause.) 

We will fight for working families by raising the minimum wage and eliminating taxes on tips for service and hospitality workers.  (Applause.)

And if you’re caring for an elderly parent — I took care of my mother when she was sick.  Listen, this is personal for me, as so many of these issues.  If you are taking care of an elderly parent, my plan will cover the cost of home health care for seniors with Medicare — (applause) — so you don’t have to deplete whatever savings you’ve got to qualify for Medicaid. 

It’s just about dignity so that seniors can stay in their homes and you can be able to do all that you need to do — especially if any of you are in the sandwich generation, raising young kids while you’re taking care of your parents.  It’s just about dignity.  (Applause.)

 My plan will lower the cost of childcare.  Same point: We will also cut taxes for small businesses.  Can I see the small-business owners who are here?  (Applause.)  Oh, I love our small businesses.

And we will lower health care costs, because here’s where I come from.  I believe that health care should be a right — (applause) — and not just a privilege of those who can afford it. 

So, this is about values, right?  How do you think about what people need to live with dignity, to live where they are able to work and know that it actually means something that is not just about getting by but getting ahead?

On the other hand, Donald Trump’s answer to the financial pressures you face is the same as it was the last time: another trillion dollars in tax cuts for billionaires and big corporations. 

     AUDIENCE:  Booo —

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  And this time, he will pay for it with a 20 percent national sales tax on everything you buy that is imported.  Just imagine — on clothes, food, toys, cell phones, — a Trump sales tax that economists have measured will cost you, on average, an additional $4,000 a year.

     AUDIENCE:  Booo —

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  And on top of that, Donald Trump still wants to get rid of the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare. 

     AUDIENCE:  Booo —

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  And he has a very powerful friend in Congress, the speaker of the House — who recently, if you noticed, said that there will be a, quote, end to Obamacare.  The words used were “no Obamacare,” which, if he were to get his way, if Trump wins, means they would throw millions of Americans off of health insurance and take us back — which would take us back to when, you’ll remember, insurance companies had the ability to deny people with preexisting conditions.

     AUDIENCE:  Booo —

     THE VICE PRESIDENT:  But, Nevada, we are not —

     AUDIENCE:  Not going back!

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  — going back.  We are not going back.  (Applause.)  We are not going back.

AUDIENCE:  We’re not going back!  We’re not going back!  We’re not going back!

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  We are not going back.  We’re not going back.

AUDIENCE:  We’re not going back!  We’re not going back!  We’re not going back!

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  We’re not going back.  And we are not going back because ours — ours is a fight for the future.  (Applause.)  And ours is a fight for freedom — (applause) — like the fundamental freedom of a woman to make decisions about her own body — (applause) — and not have her government tell her what to do.

And we all remember how we got here.  Donald Trump hand-selected three members of the United States Supreme Court to overturn Roe versus Wade.  They did.  And now one in three women in America lives in a state with a Trump abortion ban, many with no exceptions for rape or incest. 

     (A protestor disruption can be heard.)

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  You know what?  Let me say something about this.  We’re here because we’re fighting for a democracy.  (Applause.)  Fighting for a democracy. 

 And understand the difference here.  Understand the difference here, moving forward — moving forward.  Understand the difference here. 

What we are looking at is a difference in this election.  Let’s move forward and see where we are.  Because on the issue, for example, of freedom of choice —

     (A protestor disruption can be heard.)

     AUDIENCE:  Kamala!  Kamala!  Kamala!

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  That’s okay.  That’s okay.  That’s all right.  That’s all right.  That’s okay.  That’s all right.  You know what?  Democracy can be complicated sometimes.  (Applause.)  It’s okay. 

We’re fighting for the right for people to be heard and not jailed because they speak their mind.  (Applause.)  We know what’s at stake.

And on the issue of freedom, listen, Donald Trump is not done.  Did anybody hear what he had to say just yesterday?  And I’ll tell you, it was outrageous. 

So, he said on the issue of freedom of choice — reproductive freedom — he said that he will do what he wants.  Because, quote, he — this is his perspective, he will do it “whether the women like it or not.”  “Whether the women like it or not.” 

     AUDIENCE:  Booo —

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  Can you imagine?  And this is not the first time he has told us he does not believe women should have authority or agency over their own bodies. 

     AUDIENCE:  Booo —

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  This is the same person who said that women should be punished for their choices, and what we know is we — we know what we are seeing.  This is someone who simply does not respect the freedom of women or the intelligence of women to make decisions about their own lives.

And we know that what he has planned includes a national abortion ban, restricting access to birth control, putting IVF treatments at risk, and forcing states to monitor women’s pregnancies. 

     You don’t have to take my word for it.  Google Project 2025.

     AUDIENCE:  Booo —

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  Read the plans for yourselves. 

And I know we all know that one does not have to abandon their faith or reasonably held beliefs to agree that the government should not be telling her what to do with her body.  (Applause.)

So, Nevada, to protect your right to make your own health care decisions, vote yes on Question 6.  (Applause.)  And make sure you vote up and down the ballot to truly protect that right.  (Applause.)

And I will tell you, when Congress passes a bill to restore reproductive freedom nationwide, as president of the United States, I will proudly sign it into law.  (Applause.)  Proudly.  Proudly.

So, Nevada, I am here asking for your vote.  (Applause.)  I am asking for your vote.  And here is my pledge to you —

     AUDIENCE MEMBER:  We’ve got your back!

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  And — and I’ve got your back.  (Laughs.)  (Applause.)

As president, I pledge to you to seek common ground and commonsense solutions to the challenges you face.  (Applause.)  I am not looking to score political points.  I am looking to make progress.  (Applause.) 

And I pledge to listen to experts, to listen to those who will be impacted by the decisions I make, and to listen to people who disagree with me — (applause) — because that’s what real leaders do.  That’s what real leaders do. 

And unlike Donald Trump, I don’t believe that the people who disagree with me are the enemy.  He wants to put them in jail.  I’ll give them a seat at the table.  (Applause.)  That’s what leadership looks like.

And I pledge to you to always put country above party and self — (applause) — and to be a president for all Americans — for all Americans. 

So, it all comes down to this.  We are all here together — and, again, you are taking this time to be here — because we love our country.  We love our country.  And when you love something, you fight for it.  (Applause.)  You fight for it.

And I do believe it is one of the highest forms of patriotism, of our expression of our love for our country, to then fight for the ideals of our country and to fight to realize the promise of America. 

And I’m going to tell you, I have always believed in our nation’s promise, because I have lived it.  I grew up a child of the Civil Rights Movement.  My parents would take me to marches when I was in a stroller.  And at those places, people from all walks of life came together to fight for the ideals of freedom and opportunity. 

You know, growing up, I saw how hard my mother worked to give her daughters the same chance our country gave her.  And I was blessed to have family by blood and family by love — (applause) — who instilled in me the values of community and compassion and faith. 

I’ve spent my life fighting for the people who have been hurt and who have been counted out and people who never stopped, even then, believing that, in our country, anything is possible. 

I’ve lived the promise of America, and I see the promise of America in everyone here.  (Applause.)  It is in all of us.  It is in all of us.  It is in all of us. 

It is in the women who refuse to accept a future without reproductive freedom.  (Applause.)  It is in the men who support them.  (Applause.)  It is in the fathers and mothers who work hard every day for their children’s future.  It is in the Republicans who never voted for a Democrat before but have put the Constitution of the United States above party.  (Applause.)

I see the promise of America in all the young leaders who are voting for the first time.  (Applause.)  Right?  And I’ll tell you what I love about this generation, Gen Z — I’m going to shout you out.  (Laughs.)  (Applause.)

     Let me tell you, what I love about you all, you leaders, you young leaders, is you are rightly impatient for change.  (Applause.)  I love that about you.  You are determined to live free from gun violence, to take on the climate crisis, to shape the world that you inherit.  (Applause.)  I love that about you.

     And for them, I say to everybody else, look, none of this is theoretical.  This, for them, is a lived experience.  It’s not political.  It’s what they’re living. 

     And to the young leaders, and I say, I see you, I believe in you, and I see your power.  You are so powerful.  And I would just ask, can we give it up for the first-time voters who are in the house?  Can we?  (Applause.)

     Right.  See, I’m telling you: Our future is bright.  You just have to see it in front of you.  The future of our country is bright. 

     And so, to the people of Nevada, look, you are “Battle Born.”  (Applause.)  And we are ready for the hard work ahead.

     We have five days to get it done.  And so, look, nobody can sit on the sidelines.  Let’s spend the next five days so that when we look back on these days, we have no regrets.  And let us make sure that we are knocking on doors; that we are texting folks, calling folks, reaching out to family and friends and classmates and neighbors and coworkers.  

     And as we do — I have a request: As we do, please let’s be intentional about building community.  And let’s be intentional about building coalitions. 

     You know, these last many years, it’s had a way of, you know, trying to make people point their fingers at each other, trying to divide us, trying to make people feel alone.  So, let us all, in this moment, be intentional about building back up and reminding folks we have so much more in common than what separates us.  (Applause.)  So much more.  So much more.

     And so, we all know here: Your vote is your voice, and your voice is your power.  (Applause.)

     So, today, Nevada, I asked you, then: Are you ready to make your voices heard?  (Applause.)

     Do we believe in freedom?  (Applause.)

     Do we believe in opportunity?  (Applause.)

     Do we believe in the promise of America?  (Applause.) 

     And are we ready to fight for it?  (Applause.)

     And when we fight —

     AUDIENCE:  We win!

     THE VICE PRESIDENT:  — we win. 

     God bless you.  And God bless the United States of America. 

                             END                5:46 P.M. PDT

The post Remarks by Vice President Harris at a Campaign Event | Reno, NV appeared first on The White House.

Craig Ranch Amphitheatre
North Las Vegas, Nevada

9:15 P.M. PDT

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  Hello, Nevada!  (Applause.)

Can we hear it for Jennifer Lopez?  (Applause.) 

Happy Nevada Day, everybody!  (Applause.)  Happy Nevada Day.  It is good to be back.  Hello, Nevada.  Good evening.  Good evening.  Good evening.  (Applause.)  And happy Diwali to everyone celebrating. 

So, listen, Las Vegas, are we ready to do this?  (Applause.)  Are we ready to vote?  (Applause.) Are we ready to win?  (Applause.)

 All right.  All right.  It is good to be back and to be with so many incredible leaders, including, of course — and for anybody who has a seat, please do feel like sitting.  (Laughs.) 

     AUDIENCE MEMBER:  Sí, se puede! 

     THE VICE PRESIDENT:  Sí, se puede.  (Laughs.)  (Applause.)

I want to thank Senator Jacky Rosen, who we must reelect to the United States Senate.  (Applause.)  And while we’re at it, let’s reelect Representatives Horsford, Titus, and Lee.  (Applause.) 

Can we please applaud Maná?  (Applause.) 

We also have my dear husband, the second gentleman, with us this evening.  (Laughs.)  (Applause.) 

 And we are joined by Tribal leaders from across the country here for the National Conference of American Indians.  (Applause.)  And I have to say, I strongly believe that the relationship between Tribal Nations and the United States is sacred and that we must honor Tribal sovereignty always and embrace our trust and treaty obligations and ensure Tribal self-determination.  (Applause.)  And, as president, I will defend these principles always.  (Applause.)

All right.  So, Nevada, tomorrow, Friday, November 1st, is the last day to vote early in person.  And, Nevada, if you are voting by mail, please do not wait.  Sign the envelope and return your ballot as soon as possible.  Your ballot must be returned to a drop box or postmarked by Election Day next Tuesday, November 5th.  Go to IWillVote.com.  And to all the leaders here, please help get the word out.  (Applause.)

 And we need you to vote, Nevada, because we have just five days left in one of the most consequential elections of our lifetime, and we have work to do.  But we like hard work.  (Applause.)  Hard work is good work.  (Applause.)  Hard work is joyful work.  (Applause.) 

 And make no mistake, we will win.  (Applause.)  We will win.  We will win.  We will win. 

     AUDIENCE:  We will win!  We will win!  We will win!

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  And we will win — we will win because here’s what I believe: When you know what you stand for, you know what to fight for.  (Applause.)  And we all know we have an opportunity in this election to turn the page on a decade of Donald Trump trying to keep us divided and afraid of each other.  We’re done with that.  We’re done.  (Applause.)  We’re exhausted with it.

     AUDIENCE MEMBER:  We’re not going back!

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  And we know that is who he is.  That is who he is.  But, Las Vegas, that is not who we are.  That is not who we are, and it is time for a new generation of leadership in America.  (Applause.)  And I am ready to offer that leadership as the next president of the United States.  (Applause.)

 And, Nevada, you know me.  I’m not afraid of tough fights.  (Applause.)  For decades, as a prosecutor and the top law enforcement officer of our biggest state — the first cousin of Nevada — (laughs) — I won fights against the big banks that ripped off homeowners.  I won fights against for-profit colleges that scammed veterans and students, against predators who abused women and children.  I won fights against cartels that trafficked in guns and drugs and human beings. 

And I pledge to you, if you give me the chance to fight on your behalf as president, there is nothing in the world that will stand in my way.  (Applause.)

And, look, we all know who Donald — Donald Trump is.  This is not someone who is thinking about how to make your life better.  This is someone who is increasingly unstable, obsessed with revenge —

     AUDIENCE:  Yes!

     THE VICE PRESIDENT:  — consumed with grievance —

     AUDIENCE:  Yes!

     THE VICE PRESIDENT:  — and he’s out for unchecked power.

     AUDIENCE:  Yes!

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  And, look, in less than 90 days, it’s either going to be him or me in the Oval Office.  (Applause.)

     AUDIENCE:  Kamala!  Kamala!  Kamala!

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  And here’s the thing we know — and this is part of what we’re fighting for, because we can — we have the image of what it could be — it won’t be, but what it could be if he was elected.  If he were reelected, on day one, Donald Trump would walk into that office with an enemies list. 

When I am elected, I will walk in with a to-do list on behalf of you — (applause) — on behalf of you.  And at the top of my list is bringing down the cost of your living.  That will be my focus every single day as president. 

I will give a middle-class tax cut to over 100 million Americans.  (Applause.)  I will enact the first-ever federal ban on corporate price gouging on groceries.  (Applause.)  I will make housing more affordable by building more homes and by taking on those corporate landlords who unfairly buy up all those properties and then jack up your rent.  (Applause.) 

And we will fight for working families by raising the minimum wage and eliminating taxes on tips for service and hospitality workers.  (Applause.) 

And if you are caring for an elderly parent — you know, I took care of my mother when she was sick.  If you are taking care of an elderly parent — this is personal for me — my plan will cover the cost of home care for your elder parent under Medicare — (applause) — so you don’t have to spend down your savings in order to qualify for Medicaid, so seniors can get the help and care they need to stay in their homes.  And this is just a matter of dignity.  (Applause.)  Dignity. 

Dignity is why I will lower the cost of childcare, because we know families are struggling right now and folks just need a little bit to not just be able to get by but get ahead.  It’s about dignity, and it’s about values that you bring to your position of leadership. 

 And as far as I’m concerned, we’re done with the idea that the measure of the strength of a leader is based on who you beat down, when we know the real measure of the strength of a leader is based on who you lift up.  (Applause.)

We will cut taxes for small businesses.  Do I see any small-business owners in the house?  (Applause.)  I love our small businesses.  You all are part of the backbone of America’s economy. 

We will lower health care costs, because here’s the value I bring to that.  I believe health care should be a right and not just a privilege of those who can afford it.  (Applause.) 

On the other hand, Donald Trump’s answer to the financial pressures you face is the same as it was last time: another trillion dollars in tax cuts for billionaires and big corporations.

     AUDIENCE:  Booo —

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  And this time, he will pay for it with a 20 percent national sales tax on everything you buy that is imported.  Think about that: clothes, food, toys, cell phones.  A Trump sales tax, the economists say, would cost the average family an extra $4,000 a year. 

And on top of that, Donald Trump still is trying to get rid of the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare.

     AUDIENCE:  Booo —

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  And he has a powerful friend in Congress, the speaker of the House, who recently said — who recently said there will be, quote, “No Obamacare if Trump wins” —

     AUDIENCE:  Booo —

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  — which would have the effect, if they were to win, to put millions of Americans off of their health insurance — to throw millions of Americans off of their health insurance, to take us back to that time when insurance companies had the power to deny people with preexisting conditions.  Do you remember what that was?

     Well, we are not —

     AUDIENCE:  Going back!

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  — going back.  We’re not going back.  We’re not going back. 

AUDIENCE:  We’re not going back!  We’re not going back!  We’re not going back!

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  And we are not going back because ours is a fight for the future — (applause) — and it is a fight for freedom, like the fundamental freedom of a woman to make decisions about her own body and not have her government tell her what to do.  (Applause.) 

And we all remember how we got here.  When Donald Trump was president, he hand-selected three members of the United States Supreme Court with the intention that they would undo the protections of Roe v. Wade.  They did as he intended.  And now, in America, one in three women lives in a state with a Trump abortion ban, many with no exceptions even for rape and incest, which is immoral.

And Donald Trump isn’t done.  Did anybody hear what he just said yesterday?  He said — I mean, come on.  Right?  So, he said that he will do what he wants — now I’m about to quote — whether the women “like it or not.” 

     AUDIENCE:  Booo —

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  This is the same person who said that women should be “punished” for their choices. 

     AUDIENCE:  Booo —

     THE VICE PRESIDENT:  He simply —

     AUDIENCE:  Lock him up!  Lock him up!  Lock him up!

     THE VICE PRESIDENT:  Well, I hear you.  But you know what? 

     AUDIENCE:  Lock him up!  Lock him up!  Lock him up!

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  You know what?  The courts are going to handle that.  The courts will handle that.  (Applause.)  We’ll handle November.  How about that?  (Applause.)  We’ll handle November.

Because, see, we know the man simply does not respect the freedom of women or the intelligence of women to be able to make decisions about their own lives.  And we know, if he were elected, he would ban abortion nationwide, restrict access to birth control, put IVF treatments at risk, and force states — listen to this — to monitor women’s pregnancies. 

Don’t believe me.  Look at — just google Project 2025, which I cannot believe they put in writing.  (Laughter.)  And —

     AUDIENCE MEMBER:  We love you!

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  (Laughs.)  I love you back.  I love you back.  (Laughs.)  (Applause.)  I love you back. 

And on this topic, I know everyone here knows and agrees that one does not have to abandon their faith or deeply held beliefs to agree the government shouldn’t be telling her what to do — (applause) — not the government and not Donald Trump. 

So, Nevada, to make your right heard and to protect your right to make your own health care decisions, I would also recommend you vote yes on Question 6.  (Applause.)  And make sure you vote up and down the ballot to truly protect your rights.  (Applause.)

And when Congress passes a bill to restore reproductive freedom nationwide, as president of the United States, I will proudly sign it into law.  (Applause.)  I will proudly sign it into law.  So —

AUDIENCE MEMBER:  When we fight —

     AUDIENCE:  — we win!

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  So, Nevada, on that point, I am here to ask for your vote.  I am here to ask for your vote.  And here is my pledge to you.  And here is my pledge to you. 

As president, I pledge to seek common ground and commonsense solutions to the challenges you face.  I pledge to not try to score political points but to make progress — to make progress in your lives and in our country.

I pledge to listen to those who will be impacted by the decisions I make.  I pledge to listen to experts.  I pledge to listen to people who disagree with me because, you see, unlike Donald Trump, I don’t believe that people who disagree with me are the enemy.  (Applause.)  He wants to put them in jail.  I’ll give them a seat at the table.  (Applause.)  That’s what real leadership looks like.  (Applause.) 

And I pledge to always put country above party and self and to be a president for all Americans.  (Applause.)

And — and now, with five days left in this campaign, my opponent is also making a closing argument to America.  I don’t know if may- — you may have seen I — I talked in Washington, D.C., the other day.  You know, he likes to compare crowd sizes.  I had 100,000 people there.  (Applause.)  (Laughs.) 

But listen to what he’s saying as his closing argument.  It’s all about hate and division.  Jennifer talked about it.  It’s all about hate and division.  And it’s not just what he says; it’s what he will do. 

Because, if elected, you can be sure he will bring back family separation policies, only on a much greater scale than the last time.  We can imagine what he will do with unchecked power, because recall that, recently, the United States Supreme Court — now this is what’s different from 2016 and 2020 — the Court said essentially that he will be immune no matter what he does in the White House.

     AUDIENCE:  Booo —

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  And so, for all the reasons we know, it is time to turn the page on Donald Trump.  (Applause.)  Let’s turn the page. 

And it all — it all comes down to this.  You all have taken time out of your busy lives to be here tonight, and I thank you for that.  And I thank you for that.  (Applause.) 

And I know that one of the biggest reasons we are all here together tonight is because we love our country.  (Applause.)  We love our country, and we know, when you love something, you fight for it.  (Applause.)  When you love something, you fight for it. 

     And I do — and —

     AUDIENCE:  USA!  USA!  USA!

     THE VICE PRESIDENT:  And — and —

     AUDIENCE MEMBERS:  We love you!

     THE VICE PRESIDENT:  I love you.  And, yes — (laughs) —

     AUDIENCE:  USA!  USA!  USA!

     THE VICE PRESIDENT:  And here’s the thing. 

     AUDIENCE:  USA!  USA!  USA!

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  That’s right.  And I do believe it is one of the highest forms of patriotism, of our expression of our love for our country, to then fight for the ideals of our country and to fight to realize the promise of America. 

And I have always believed in our nation’s promise because I have lived it.  You know, I grew up a child of the Civil Rights Movement.  My parents would take me to the marches when I was in a stroller, where people from all walks of life came together to fight for freedom and for opportunity. 

You know, growing up, I saw how hard my mother worked to raise her daughters and give us the same chances our country gave her.  And I was blessed to have family by blood and family by love — (applause) — who instilled in me the values of community, of compassion, and faith. 

And I’ve spent my life fighting for people who have been hurt and who have been counted out but who never stopped believing in what our country can do and what is possible. 

I have lived the promise of America, and today I see the promise of America in everyone here tonight — (applause) — everyone here tonight, in all of us.

     AUDIENCE MEMBER:  Sí, se puede! 

     THE VICE PRESIDENT:  Sí, se puede.

     AUDIENCE:  Sí, se puede!  Sí, se puede!  Sí, se puede! 

     THE VICE PRESIDENT:  I see the promise of America.  (Laughs.)

     AUDIENCE:  Sí, se puede!  Sí, se puede!  Sí, se puede! 

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  And I see the promise of America in the fathers and mothers who work hard every day for your children’s future.  I see it in the women who refuse to accept a future without reproductive freedom and the men who support them.  (Applause.)  I see it in Republicans who have never voted for a Democrat before but have put the Constitution of the United States before party.  (Applause.) 

And I see the promise of America in all the young leaders who are here and are voting for the first time.  (Applause.)  Oh, I love Gen Z.  I love you guys.  (Laughs.)  I love you guys. 

And here’s what I love about our young leaders: You guys are rightly impatient.  (Applause.)  You are rightly impatient for change.  You, our young leaders who are determined to live free from gun violence, to take on the climate crisis.  You intend to shape the world you inherit. 

I love that about you, because, for you, none of these issues is theoretical.  It’s not political.  This is your lived experience.  And I see you, and I see your power.  And I’m so proud of you. 

And I want everyone here — let’s applaud our first-time voters.  (Applause.)  I’m so proud of our first-time voters and our young leaders.  Let’s applaud them, our young leaders.  (Laughs.)

And I know the people of Nevada, you are “Battle Born” — (applause) — and ready for the hard work ahead.  So, we got five days to get this done — five days.  (Applause.)  And no one can sit on the sidelines. 

     AUDIENCE:  No!

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  So, let’s spend the next five days so that when we look back on these days, we will have no regrets that we did everything we could, that we knocked on doors, that we text and we called folks, we reached out to family and friends and classmates and neighbors and coworkers. 

And as we do, I have another request of you.  In these next days, let us please be intentional about building community.  (Applause.)  Let us please — you know, these — these years, this Trump era, you know, this — this time of trying to have people point their fingers at each other, the division, the hate, the — the trying to make people feel alone, when we all know we all have so much more in common than what separates us. 

So, let’s be intentional in building community.  Let’s be intentional in building coalitions.  And let us remember: Your vote is your voice, and your voice is your power.  (Applause.)  It’s your power.  Don’t ever let anybody take your power from you. 

 So, Nevada, today, I then ask you —

     AUDIENCE MEMBER:  We love you, Kamala!  (Applause.)

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  Are you ready — are you ready to make your voices heard?  (Applause.)

     Do we believe in freedom?  (Applause.)

     Do we believe in opportunity?  (Applause.)

     Do we believe in the promise of America?  (Applause.)

     And are we ready to fight for it?  (Applause.)

     And when we fight —

     AUDIENCE:  We win!

     THE VICE PRESIDENT:  — we win.

     God bless you.  And God bless the United States of America.  (Applause.)

                        END                     9:40 P.M. PDT

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The Edgewater Hotel
Madison, Wisconsin

10:08 A.M. CDT

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  Okay.  Good morning, everyone.  Happy Halloween.

     Q    Good morning. 

     Q    Good morning.

     Q    Happy Halloween.

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  And for those of you who are without your children today, thank you for just being on the road.

So, today, we will be leaving Wisconsin, heading west.  And I’ll be, obviously, in three states again today talking with the American people about the stakes of this election and the opportunity that we, the American people, have to chart a new way forward.

I will comment on the former President Donald Trump’s remark about women and — and whether they “like it or not.”  And, listen, it’s just — it actually is, I think, very offensive to women in terms of not understanding their agency, their authority, their right, and their ability to make decisions about their own lives, including their own bodies.

And this is just the latest on a series of reveals by the former president of how he thinks about women and their agency, whether he has said, as he has, that women should be punished for their choices; whether he has talked about his pride in taking away a fundamental right from women; whether it be how he has actually created a situation in America where now one in three women lives in a Trump abortion ban state and has legal restrictions on the right she rightly should have to make decisions about her own body.

The other point I will refer to about — in the last many hours is the speaker’s comments about the Affordable Care Act.  Look, I’ve been saying throughout this campaign: Be very clear that among the stakes in this election are whether we continue with the Affordable Care Act or not.

It has been a part of Donald Trump’s agenda for a very long time.  He has made dozens of attempts to get rid of the Affordable Care Act.  And now we have further validation of that agenda from his supporter, the speaker of the House.

And what that would mean for the American people is that pharma- — that — that insurance companies could go back to a time when they would deny you coverage for health insurance based on preexisting conditions — preexisting conditions, such as you being a survivor of breast cancer, asthma, diabetes.

And what I know is that the American people, regardless of who they’re voting for, know the importance of the Affordable Care Act — of, as it is also called, “Obamacare,” in terms of expanding people’s coverage to health care based on a fundamental principle that I hold deeply: Access to health care should be a right and not just a privilege to those who can afford it.

So, there’s still a lot of work to do.  But each day, I think that there are also indications that we are receiving from my opponent that verify, validate, and reinforce the fact that, one, he is not going to be fighting for women’s reproductive rights.  He does not prioritize the freedom of women and the intelligence of women to make decisions about their own lives and bodies.  And health care for all Americans is on the line in this election as well.

I’ll take your questions. 

     AIDE:  Tam. 

Q    Oh, yeah.  You know, since the beginning stages of your campaign, you’ve described yourself as an underdog.  That language is gone from your speech now.  Has something changed in how you’re feeling?

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  No, listen, I am putting it all on the field, and it’s going to be a very tight race.  And I — I am running like the underdog, because we are.  Donald Trump has been running for the — the last decade.  I’ve been in this race about three and a half months, and the stakes are so high.

But I’ve been saying for quite some time, regardless of what the polls say, we are going to win.  I do believe that, because I do believe that this is a choice about two very different directions for our country. 

And the choice being offered by Donald Trump is about going backward, about a constant emphasis on degrading the American people in our capacity, versus a track that is about bringing the country together, knowing we have more in common than what separates us. 

And we should have a plan, which I do, to actually get things done, including bringing down the cost of living for people, investing in our small businesses, expanding access to health care, investing in American industries, including the future of American industries and American workers. 

So, there you go. 

AIDE:  Will. 

Q    So, you talked about the — what the former president said being offensive to women.  Wh- — 

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  Oh, I think it’s offensive to everybody, by the way. 

Q    Well, that — that was my question.

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  Yeah.

Q    The sort of hypermasculinity that he is talking about, do you — what do you think about it possibly resonating with men and male voters specifically?

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  You will — you — you’ve been following me, and you will see that in the tens of thousands of people who attend our rallies — which is an opportunity to talk about the issues, talk about the future of our country — right? — there are men, women, young people, people of every race, every background. 

One of the points, I think, that is a point of pride for everyone who attends — and including myself — is that our campaign really is about bringing people together, people of very different and diverse backgrounds, around a common theme that is about love of country, defending the Constitution of the United States, and investing in our future as — and rejecting the notion that we are divided or that that should be acceptable that we would be divided as a nation. 

So, I’m very proud to have the support of — of men, women, young people, people of every background.

AIDE:  Ebony. 

Q    So, we know we have five days until the election.  How are you going to continue to draw the contest with former President Donald Trump, specifically with the undecided voters, as the pool is really shrinking now?

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  I will continue — as we will do today, as we did yesterday, and so on — to talk with people where they live — so, again, here in Wisconsin, heading to Arizona, heading to Nevada — to talk with people about issues, like how we’re going to deal with price gouging — corporate price gouging as a way to deal with grocery costs; how we’re going to invest in small businesses and expand access to capital; how I will give first-time homeowners a $25,000 down payment assistance if they are a first-time homebuyer to help them get their foot in the door. 

These are the issues that the American people want to talk about, because these are the issues that affect them.  These are the issues they think about when they’re sitting at their kitchen table or when they’re trying to go to sleep at night. 

And what I know is that they want a president of the United States who, as I say, will walk into the Oval Office with a to-do list and not an enemies list. 

And so, that’s what I will continue to do over the course of these next few days to let folks know that I see them, I hear them, and I’m prepared to address their challenges with a plan that is about getting things done.

AIDE:  Thank you. 

     THE VICE PRESIDENT:  Okay.  Thank you. 

                             END       10:15 A.M. CDT

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Oval Office

12:06 P.M. EDT

PRESIDENT BIDEN:  Well, Mr. President, welcome.  Welcome to the Oval Office.

PRESIDENT CHRISTODOULIDES:  Thank you very much, Mr. President.

PRESIDENT BIDEN:  Good to see you.  Good to see you.

It was 10 years ago when I visited Cyprus last, as vice president of the United States.  And — and, as I said, there is no limit to what our nations can achieve if we work together. 

PRESIDENT CHRISTODOULIDES:  Exactly.

PRESIDENT BIDEN:  And we’ve been doing that for a long time. 

But I think that’s even more true today.  Today, we stood against Russia’s vicious onslaught against Ukraine.  We launched a strategic dialogue to increase cooperation across a range of issues, from energy security to artificial intelligence.  And we surged humanitarian aid, delivering 8,000 metric tons to Gaza. 

So, Mr. President, Cyprus made all this possible.  I want thank you for your leadership in making that happen. 

And this year also marks the 50th anniversary of the artificial division of the island.  I remember it well.  It was my first year as a U.S. senator.  I remember sitting with (inaudible) — anyway, it’s — it’s a sad day.

PRESIDENT CHRISTODOULIDES:  (Inaudible.)

PRESIDENT BIDEN:  But as a — it was a sad occasion, but I remain optimistic about the possibility that a u- — reunited Cyprus and bizonal, bicommunal federation is possible.  And the United States ready — stands ready to provide any support we can toward that goal. 

Mr. President, thank you, again, for being here, and I look forward to our conversation.

The floor is yours.

PRESIDENT CHRISTODOULIDES:  Mr. President, it’s a great honor to be at the White House.  Thank you very much for your invitation.

As you very well know, our countries have been — have built a truly strategic partnership and — and our relations — our relations are at a strategic and historical high.

At the bilateral level, we are working closely on defense and security, on energy, law enforcement, technology innovation.  There is a top potential, and there is a clear and strong political will from both countries, following also the first strategic dialogue that took place in Cyprus last week to further enhance our partnership.

Mr. President, at — at the regional level, Cyprus is a predictable and reliable partner of the United States in a region of great geopolitical importance.  We are the member state of the European Union in the region.  We have excellent relations with all of our neighbors.  And we’re working closely with the United States and other partners to face the current challenges, to send much-needed humanitarian assistance to Gaza, to evacuate third-country nationals from — from the region.

With regards to — to Ukraine, Cyprus stands on the right side of history.  And, Mr. President, it could have been different, having in mind that my country is under Turkish occupation the last 50 years.  

And, Mr. President, I count on your support and the support of the United States to resume negotiations and find a solution of the Cyprus problem — solution in line with the U.N. Security Council resolution, solution that is based on our common values and principles: democracy and respect of human rights.

So, Mr. President, once again, thank you very much.  I’m looking forward to our discussions.  Thank you very much.

PRESIDENT BIDEN:  I’m looking forward to it as well.  You’re a good friend.  (Inaudible.)

PRESIDENT CHRISTODOULIDES:  Thanks.  Thank a lot.

12:20 P.M. EDT

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Walnut Creek Amphitheatre
Raleigh, North Carolina

1:00 P.M. EDT

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  Hello, North Carolina!  (Applause.)  Hello, everyone.

     Can we hear it for Jennifer?  (Applause.)

     AUDIENCE:  Kamala!  Kamala!  Kamala!

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  Raleigh, are we ready to do this?  (Applause.)  Are we ready to vote?  (Applause.)  Are we ready to win?  (Applause.)

 Oh, it’s good to be back in North Carolina.  (Applause.)  (Laughs.)  Thank you all and all the incredible leaders who are here.  Thank you all, everyone, for taking time out of your busy lives to be here this afternoon.  (Applause.)  I thank you.  I thank you. 

And I want to thank my dear friend, Governor Cooper — Roy Cooper — (applause); Attorney General Josh Stein, who will be your next governor — (applause); Representatives Nickel, Ross, Foushee — (applause); and Mayor Baldwin.  I thank you all and all the leaders who are here.

So, Raleigh, early voting, as Jennifer said, has started.  Here in Wake County, you can vote early now through Saturday, November 2nd.  And we need you to vote early, North Carolina — (applause) — because we have just six days left in one of the most consequential elections of our lifetime, and we have work to do.  (Applause.)

But we like hard work.  (Applause.)  Hard work is good work.  (Applause.)  Hard work is joyful work.  (Applause.) 

And make no mistake, we will win.  (Applause.)  We will win.  Yes, we will.  And we will win — we will win because when you know what you stand for, you know what to fight for.  (Applause.) 

And we know we have an opportunity in this election to turn the page on a decade of Donald Trump, who has been trying to keep us divided and afraid of each other.  We know that is who he is, but, North Carolina, that is not who we are.  (Applause.)  That is not who we are. 

And it is time for a new chapter where we stop with the pointing fingers at each other.  And instead, let us lock arms with one another, knowing we have so much more in common than what separates us.  (Applause.)  It is time for a new generation of leadership in America, and I am ready with you.  I am ready to offer that leadership as the next president of the United States of America.  (Applause.)

And, North Carolina, you know, I’ve been here many, many times over the years.  And you know this: I am not afraid of tough fights.  (Applause.) 

For decades as a prosecutor and as the top law enforcement officer of our biggest state, I won fights against big banks that ripped off homeowners — (applause); against for-profit colleges that scammed veterans and students — (applause); against predators who abused women and children; against cartels that trafficked in guns and drugs and human beings.  And if you give me the chance to fight on your behalf as president, there is nothing in the world that will stand in my way.  (Applause.) 

And, look, we know who Donald Trump is.  This is not someone who is thinking about how to make your life better.  This is someone who is unstable, obsessed with revenge, consumed with grievance, and out for unchecked power. 

In less than 90 days, either he or I will be in the Oval Office.  (Applause.)

     AUDIENCE:  Kamala!  Kamala!  Kamala!

     THE VICE PRESIDENT:  Thank you.  Thank you. 

     AUDIENCE:  Kamala!  Kamala!  Kamala!

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  And here is the thing.  There are many big differences between he and I, but I would say a major contrast is this: If he is elected, on day one, Donald Trump will walk into that office with an enemies list. 

AUDIENCE:  Booo —

When I am elected, I will walk in with a to-do list — (applause) — full of priorities about what I will get done for you, the American people.   (Applause.) 

And at the top of my list is bringing down your cost of living.  (Applause.)  That will be my focus every single day as president.  I will give a middle-class tax cut to over 100 million Americans — (applause); enact the first-ever federal ban on price gouging on groceries — (applause); and fight to make sure that hardworking Americans can actually afford a place to live.  (Applause.)

And if you are caring for an elderly parent, my plan will cover the cost of home care under Medicare — (applause) — so that seniors can get the help and care they need to stay in their own homes.  (Applause.)

And my plan will lower the cost of childcare, cut taxes for small businesses, and lower health care costs, because I believe health care should be a right and not just a privilege of those who can afford it.  (Applause.)

On the other hand, Donald Trump’s answer to the financial pressures you face is the same as last time: another trillion dollars in tax cuts for billionaires and big corporations.

AUDIENCE:  Booo —

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  And this time, he will pay for it with a 20 percent Trump national sales tax on everyday basic necessities, which will cost the average American family nearly $4,000 more a year. 

On top of that, you will pay even more if Donald Trump finally gets his way and ends the Affordable Care Act, which will throw — if he were to win — which would throw millions of Americans off their health insurance and take us back to when insurance companies had the power to deny people with preexisting conditions. 

You remember what that was like? 

Well, we are —

AUDIENCE:  Not going back!

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  — not going back.  We are not going back.  (Applause.)

AUDIENCE:  We’re not going back!  We’re not going back!  We’re not going back!

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  We are not going back.  We’re not going back.

AUDIENCE:  We’re not going back!  We’re not going back!  We’re not going back!

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  Because — and we are not going back because ours is a fight for the future — (applause) — and it is a fight for freedom — (applause) — like the fundamental freedom of a woman to be able to make decisions about her own body and not have her government tell her what to do.  (Applause.)

And we all remember how we got here.  Donald Trump hand-selected three members of the United States Supreme Court —

AUDIENCE:  Booo —

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  — with the intention that they would undo the protections of Roe v. Wade.  They did. 

And now in America, one in three women lives in a state with a Trump abortion ban, including in North Carolina and every state in the South except Virginia.  Think about that.  Many with no exceptions even for rape and incest, which is immoral.

And Donald Trump — understand, he’s not done.  He would ban abortion nationwide.  He would restrict access to birth control, put IVF treatments at risk, and force states to monitor women’s pregnancies. 

AUDIENCE:  Booo —

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  Just google Project 2025.  Just google it.  Read the plans yourself. 

And let us agree, one does not have to abandon their faith or deeply held beliefs to agree the government should not be making that decision for you.  (Applause.)  Not the government. 

And when Congress passes a bill to restore reproductive freedom, as president of the United States — (applause) — I will proudly sign it into law.  (Applause.)

So, North Carolina, I am asking for your vote.  (Applause.)  I am asking for your vote.

And here is my pledge to you.  As your president, I pledge to seek common ground and commonsense solutions to the challenges you face.  (Applause.)

I am not looking to score political points.  I am looking to make progress.  (Applause.) 

And I pledge to you, I will listen to experts. 

AUDIENCE MEMBER:  (Inaudible.)

AUDIENCE:  Booo —

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  I will listen to those impacted by the decisions I make and to people who disagree with me. 

AUDIENCE:  We’re not going back!  We’re not going back!  We’re not going back!

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  And — and importantly —

AUDIENCE:  We’re not going back!  We’re not going back!  We’re not going back!

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  And — and, Raleigh —

     Q    Kamala!  Kamala!  Kamala!

     THE VICE PRESIDENT:  All right.  We’re fighting — hey, everybody. 

     Q    Kamala!  Kamala!  Kamala!

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  Okay, you know — see, this is the thing, because we know we’re actually fighting for our democracy.  (Applause.)

And unlike Donald Trump, I don’t believe people who disagree with me are the enemy.  (Applause.)  He wants to put them in jail.  I’ll give them a seat at the table.  (Applause.)

And I pledge to be a president for all Americans and to always put country above party and self.

So, North Carolina, it all comes down to this.  We are here together because we love our country.  (Applause.)  That’s why we are here.  And when you love something, you fight for it.  And I do believe it is one of the highest forms of patriotism to fight for the ideals of our country and to fight to realize the promise of America.  (Applause.)

     And I have — and I have always believed in our nation’s —

     AUDIENCE:  USA!  USA!  USA!

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  Yes.  And like all of us here, I have always believed in our nation’s promise, because I have lived it.  I grew up as a child of the Civil Rights Movement.  (Applause.)  My parents — my parents would take me to marches, when I was in a stroller, where people of every walk of life came together to fight for the ideals of freedom and opportunity. 

I’ve lived the promise of America.  (Applause.)  I saw — I saw — I saw how hard my mother worked to give her daughters the same chances our country gave her.  Growing up, I was blessed to have family by blood and family by love — (applause) — who instilled in me the values that have always defined our nation best — values like community, compassion, and faith. 

I’ve lived the promise of America, and I’ve spent my life fighting for the people — people who have been hurt and counted out but never stop believing in our country that anything is possible.  (Applause.)

I’ve lived the promise of America, and I see — (applause) — and I see the promise in all of you — in the women who refuse to accept a future without reproductive freedom — (applause); in the men who support them — (applause); in Republicans who never voted for a Democrat before but put the Constitution of the United States before party.

I see the promise of America in all the young leaders who are voting for the first time.  Let me see you.  (Applause.)  I love you guys, because you are rightly impatient for change.  (Applause.)

You, young leaders — you’ve only known the climate crisis and are leading the charge to protect our planet and our future.  You, young leaders, who grew up with active shooter drills, who are trying to keep our schools safe.  You, who have known fewer rights than your mothers and grandmothers and are standing up to fight for freedom to make your own decisions about your own bodies. 

None of this for you, young leaders, is theoretical.  This is not theoretical for you.  It is not political for you.  For our young leaders, this is your lived experience.  And I see you, and I see your power, and I am so proud of you.  (Applause.)

Can we applaud all of our first-time voters and young leaders who are here?  (Applause.)  Let’s applaud them.

See?  Our future is bright.  I’m telling you: Our future is bright.  (Applause.)

So, North Carolina, we have six days to get this done — (applause) — and no one can sit on the sidelines.  So, let’s spend the next six days so that when we look back at these six days, we will know we did everything we could.

So, right now, it’s time to go out from here and knock on some doors — (applause) — time to text and call some voters, time to reach out to family and friends and classmates and coworkers and neighbors.

And as we do, let us please be intentional about building community.  (Applause.)  Let us please be intentional about building coalitions.  Because through all of that, we strengthen our nation, because we know and will always remember the vast majority of us have so much more in common than what separates us.  (Applause.)

And we are all in this together.  So, remember, your vote is your voice and your voice is your power.  (Applause.)

So, North Carolina, I then ask you: Are you ready to make your voices heard?  (Applause.)

     Do we believe in freedom?  (Applause.)

     Do we believe in opportunity?  (Applause.)

     Do we believe in the promise of America?  (Applause.)

     And are we ready to fight for it?  (Applause.)

     And when we fight —

     AUDIENCE:  We win!

     THE VICE PRESIDENT:  — we win.  (Applause.)

     God bless you.  And God bless the United States of America.  (Applause.)

                             END                1:18 P.M. EDT

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