Arent from south side, welcome to the south side of des moines, or as the rest of us like to call it, gods country. [laughter] you are part of a family when you are in the south side, because we on the south side are really a working class family. We are a workingclass family who believes that if you work hard for a living, played by the rules, do what is right, you deserve a little dignity in your life. Absolutely. [applause] with are a diverse family, irishns living next living next to latinos living next africanamericans living next to straits, length thing next to immigrant living next to immigrants, living next to naturalborn citizens, and we are a family who truly believes this diversity makes us a stronger family. [applause] we are a family that looks out for each other. We may not get along all the goingbut by god, we are to make sure our neighbors are cared for and looked out for. We may fight a little bit, but by god, if you come after us, we are coming after you in force. [applause] that if youelieve take on one of us, you have taken on all of us. So welcome to the south side, because the south side is family. Then that means we are all family. And we all values, need to be looking out for one another. This is the america we left this is the america that we are going to, and that is why we need joe biden for president. [applause] about his ago my mother passed away, and my wife betty and i were in minnesota with her for two weeks before she passed away. And the night after she passed, tocame back to des moines get our funeral clothes and sleep in our own bed, and the next morning we headed back to minnesota. On our way up there, we got a phone call, it was a blocked call and i thought i had won a free trip to orlando, or the irs was after me or something. [laughter] but for some reason, answered the phone call, and it was joe biden calling. The Vice President of the United States took time out of his day to make sure i was doing all right, because that is what family does for one another, and that is what america should be doing for one another. Of america. Soul compare that to our current president. [laughter] [jeering] no, we dont do that in america, but that is why joe biden is running for president. [applause] joe biden is running for president to restore the soul of this nation, to rebuild the backbone of this country, and to bring this family back together again, as family and as americans. Trumpake a look at donald. Now turn away, now turn away. [laughter] but then look at joe biden. [applause] sight, butt better the strange thing is, putin doesnt want joe biden to be president. And donald trump is obviously scared to run against him in a general election. [applause] because joe biden, in joe bidens words, will beat donald trump like a drum. [applause] even better, once joe biden is elected president , he will bring leadership to the world stage. And even more importantly, dignified leadership here at home. [applause] for overown joe biden 10 years now, and i can tell you one thing. He is what he is. And that means that if joe biden tells you something, you can take it to the bank. You may not like it all the time, but you wont have Mick Mulvaney coming out the next day and saying, that is not what he said. [laughter] because you know his word means something, he is a man of integrity and morals that have been a Guiding Force through this world for years on end. Force will be a guiding to this world and to this country and another year. [applause] in another year. [applause] that is what a leader is all about. Unlike donald trump, joe biden understands what it is like to struggle and to keep moving forward as a family, and as america. He knows the problems of everyday people, and as president he will work to create a pathway to the middle class and restore the family that is america. That is why i am so honored to heroes,e my friends, my and the next president , first lady lady, and first grandchild, [laughter] of the United States of america, joe, jill, and natalie biden. [applause] [crowd chanting] joe, joe, joe. You, bruce, and thank you for all you have done as a representative in the house and as an advocate for labor here. As a teacher, i want to thank you for trying to make college more affordable for our students. How many teachers are in the audience . Wow. Thank you for coming out. I appreciate that. And congratulations on your recent vacation. I know how important that was. [laughter] there are many things about my husbands career that i am proud of, from the bills that he passed in the senate, to truly critical work that he did sidebyside with president obama for eight years. Womenanded justice for through the violence against women act. Who stood up to the nra and won, twice. Fought for the final votes to get the Affordable Care act passed. [applause] and he led the moonshot effort to end cancer as we know it. But so many of the things that make me proudest of him werent covered by the news, or arent recorded in the congressional library. Wasexample, once when joe making his way through the west wing on his way to prepare for a major speech, there was a tour going through. You know, they take tours through the white house, and so he stopped to talk to them. And one of the little boys on that tour had a stutter. Now, many of you that joe had a stutter when he was a young kid as well. So he pulled the little boy and his moms, and he invited them to come to the speech prep. And for the next hour, he talked to the little boy about how much fear he used to have about his own impediment, and how he learned to overcome it. He showed him how he marked up his speech, and how he used rhythm and music to control the cadence. Then he encouraged him, and he kept saying, you can do it too. He kept telling him that he believed in him, and that that little boy wasnt defined by his stutter area and that is not the only time that he did Something Like that. Just like bruce said, joe is the. Ne who makes the calls he stops and he takes time when he sees people who are hurting. He fights for the people who feel left out. And even as Vice President , he was never ever to busy to call a friend or make a visit to the hospital. His kindness, his character. It is a part of everything he does. It is why he worked so hard to pass the violence against women act and the aca. It is why he had the courage to take on the nra. It is why he will never stop fighting for families who need help with College Tuition and medical bills, and hope for better jobs. About a month ago i was in woman came up to me and she had tears in her eyes. And i always brace for that, because i know or feel that it is usually somebody who has lost a child, or is suffering with cancer, so i kind of had to brace myself to talk to this woman. But her story wasnt a sad story. She was overwhelmed with gratitude. Had suffered with a stutter all his life, but he had met joe, and joe kept in touch with him, he called him every so often. And thanks to joes encouragement, he built up his confidence and overcame his fears of failing. To her astonishment, her son, just like joe. Her son,ered his just like joe, had conquered his impediment, focused on his studies, and is now headed to college. [applause] in a time when our nation is drowning in cynicism and corruption, and lets face it, cruelty, we need a man like joma than ever. Can you imagine what it must feel like, or what it would feel president that we can feel proud of again . [applause] [applause] so picture it is 2021. It is a morning like this morning, a beautiful fall morning. You are sipping your coffee and you pick up the morning paper, and the headline isnt about some late night tweet storm. [laughter] story aboutis a children who will benefit from universal prek. Andturn on the television, the anchors are talking about how we are going to build on the Affordable Care act and reporting that finally, someone is standing up to the nra and keeping our schools and our children safe again. [applause] and when they cut to the president of the United States, you dont turn the channel. You call your kids in from the other room, the president is on the tv, because you want your children to hear what the president has to say, a president who brings people together, not tears families apart, president who believes that our best days are ahead of us, and that is joe biden. [cheering] want,s the future that i and i know that is the future that you all want too, but it is up to us, all of us here in this room and your friends and your families, to make this happen. We have to stand up. We have to speak up. We have to sign commitment cards. And you have to bring your friends out to knock on doors, and we half to do it now and we have to do it now. Joe tells the story about how he asked me to marry him five times. [laughter] is, i have fallen in love with him many more times than that. And of course he has to beautiful boys, natalies daddy and hunter. And i feel so proud to stand the roles in all of he has played, father, grandfather, senator, Vice President and soon, with your help, president of the United States. [applause] joe, joe. E, folks, i want to say thank you. Thank you, to jail. She never says that to me at home. [laughter] thank you, honey. I appreciate it. This is a woman who has been a professional educator for her whole life, and has been a professor at a Community College the last avril decades. Before that she taught high school. The last several decades. Before that, she taught high school. [laughter] for a long time. [laughter] one of the interesting things is, it is all about the way we were both raised. We both could have come from the south side, not a joke. I may be irish, but im not stupid. Oppasied dominic giac granddaughter here. Although its not a different, nation, we same we came from the same neighborhood into different states. I want to introduce our granddaughter. I have five grandchildren, four granddaughters, and they love me more than anything in the whole world, right . Oldest,is our son bos and she has all that he was made of, and a lot more. So she has been coming out when she can, she was able to play a little bit of hooky yesterday to come out, so i just want to thank her for being here. And im grateful. [laughter] [applause] look, folks. First of all, thank you all for being here. I want to thank bruce and betty, i want to thank them both. Betty, thank you very much. We have been friends a long, long time. Folks, this is all about a basic, basic point. My dad used to say for real, you know, you remember the things your father said, your mother said more than once. He would say, joey, no one is better than you, but everyone is your equal. That was a mantra in my house. No one is better than you, but everyone is your equal. I was raised. W i was raised to believe that everybody deserves a shot. Towns asom two little a kid in scranton, pennsylvania. If you listened to barack, you would think i climbed out of a coal mine with a lunch bucket in my hand. When coal died, my dad was a whitecollar sale person and everything died economically. They moved to claymont, delaware, we had over 4000 steelworkers in that town, and i grew up feeling selfconscious. I came from an irishcatholic neighborhood in scranton and grew up selfconscious i wasnt polish or italian because that is every buddy who worked in the clay mine. Worked in claymont. But everybody believed that if you were tarred and played by the rules, there wasnt anything you could do. You had a chance to make it. Person in my immediate family to go to college. And it was a big deal to my dad, but it was like, this is what you can do. Heres the point. What is going on right now really, we really are in a battle for the soul of the country. This is not who we are, the way this man and his administration is conducting world affairs, and or affairs at home, pitting people against each other based on race, religion, sexual orientation, whether they are male or female, and i think he says, when he talks about people, is just disgraceful. There is no other way of saying it. As my grandmother used to say, if you spoke like that, we would wash your mouth out with soap. I really mean it. Everybody anybody ever imagined we would hear Something Like this. I dont think anybody thought we would hear anything like this. The reason i talk about restoring the soul of the country, we cant do what we need to do if we dont restore the basic sense of dignity and decency with which we treat one another. At sounds corny to say it, but the fact that it it sounds corny to say it, but the fact is we were organized on a principal, we all these truths to be selfevident, all men are created equal. We have never walked away from it before. This man has fundamentally walked away from it, and his word cannot be taken at home or abroad. He has abandoned friends, embraced dictators, but heres the deal. As democrats, we have a lot of good people running, a lot of good people running. I met some folks in the back and they said, talk about your vision. Wantsk, and the press very much, and some of the opponents want to characterize views in terms of whether you are thinking big, and if you criticize something you think is outlandish, you must be a republican, and that you either think big or small. Ladies and gentlemen, the vision i have for this country, there is nothing small about it. It is like going to the moon. Universalvide for health care. My vision is, no one goes to bed worriesdad did with about how he is going to take care of his family. The votive young people in this country. Let her go. Let her go. Let her speak. This is not republican time. Please, let her speak. Let her speak. Take on the oil and gas lobby and not be tied down by campaign donors. Which side are you on . [crowd singing] now,ich side are you one which side are you on . [crowd chanting] we want gel. We want joe. We want joe. Mr. Biden if you notice, they left before i could answer the questions. Number one. Number two, this is what is going on that is wrong with our party right now, that everything is taken in the contexts that are not accurate. Plans we have, and you are going to help me implement, our boulder than any plans that have come along. Every Single Person in america is entitled to health care, but i am able to provide that health care, i know how to get it done and pass it, and i know how to cover it. [applause] some of oure, opponents, our good people, are struggling how in gods name they are going to pay for anything. I tell you straight up how we are going to pay for it, and how much it is going to cost, and how it is going to get done, and i have done it. The second thing that is going on is that we need to fundamentally, radically change our education system, but we can do that. We can do that, without making a promise that we are going to cover everybodys debt no matter what it is, no matter how it was acquired, whether you finished school or not, etc. Everybody knows if you start off in a title i school, you find yourself at a slight disadvantage to begin with, because you come from a community that has fewer resources. So i go out and i triple the amount of resources from 15 billion to 45 billion to let every buddy go to preschool, teachers get salaries at 60,000, you bring in School Psychologists and social workers, and every single study in your great universities around the country show that if you do that, it exponentially increases the prospect of a child being able to go beyond high school. [applause] the vision i have is that everybody qualifies for youunity college, whether lost your job at age 50 and have to find a new way to make a living, or whether you are right out of high school, can do it for free. We can afford it. It is a 6 billion project. 6 billion. All we have to do is cut just one of the one trillion tax loopholes out there. Im not promising anything crazy. It is a vision, a vision of how we can get things done. For the president , my president , president obama, about the jobs of the future. Right now, six in 10 jobs require something more than a High School Degree just to get the job, today. Today. Though there are rational ways to do this, but it is a bold vision, it is a bold vision. We can also have people pay off their student debt and have student debt forgiven if they do what we have always done, engage in charitable or volunteer work. If you are a teacher, working a womens shelter, are involved in the peace corps or domestic policy, there is a lot of ways you can write off that debt if you volunteer. Public service, that is the point. Something you did as a senator, you made it for people like myself for firsttime College Goers to go on capitol hill and the white house. Mr. Biden god love you. You know. [applause] the other thing is global warming. The idea that somehow we make these assertions, you can eliminated into years, the fact is that we know how to get to zero emissions, net zero emissions in the United States by 2050 and by 2030 we can lock in systems you cant get out of so we can get there and guarantee it. But we only make up 15 of the worlds problem. The remaining 85 is that group i helped put together called the paris climate accord, with 173 other nations that in fact make up 85 of the problem. So there are two things we have to do. The first thing i will do as president is i will rejoin the thing i helped put together, number one. [applause] and number two, within the first 100 days, have those 173 countries and their leaders come to the United States for a conference on how we are going to up the ante, how we are going to get this done. I know how to do that. That is what i have done my whole career, bringing nations together as well as passing things in the congress of the United States of america. The point im trying to make is, we have to resist the temptation opponentsze any of my who are running for the nomination. What we have to do is understand that the way we win is unify, we come together as democrats. We all have basically the same hopes and dreams. [applause] the question is, practically, how do we get there . It is not a lack of a vision. My vision is more extensive than anybodys out there, but it is made to look out look like biden is coming out with some moderate proposal. There is nothing moderate about making sure everybody has health care and can afford it. Theres nothing moderate about that nero admissions. There is nothing moderate about changing the School Systems of americus we can fundamentally compete in the 21st century, i could go on and on. Youare all here to help, will be working on this campaign. I dont want anybody attacking any other democrat, even when they say not so enlightening things. Us,ven when they attack because that is not who we are. That is not who i am. I have never run a negative campaign and i dont want to do that now. I want to make sure that we are able to compete honestly and fairly. I gotample, jill and started late in this campaign because we were not sure about whether to run. We werent sure because i campaigned like the devil for hillary, 84 events for her around the country, she would have made a great president , but when i saw those folks coming out of the fields in charlottesville, i decided i couldnt remain silence. But we knew this was going to be a very Ugly Campaign with this guy. Hard to find an ounce of decency in the manned. So we knew the ugly. And we knew it would be hard for our children. But my granddaughter and her are also ourwho grandchildren, we have a rule in our family. Anybody can ask for a family meeting. It goes back to my dad and my family. So the kids called and asked for so i got a call for my eldest granddaughter, naomi, she is now in her last year of law school in new york and she said, can we have a family meeting . Sure. Said, that was in a thursday. We met on a sunday, one of our grandchildren came down from school in new york, one from school in pennsylvania, one from a school in washington and both children that live a mile from us. , youhey started and said have to run for president , you have to do it. And they said, we know it is going to be ugly, we know is going to be mean. Their whole life, their dad has been either an attorney general redecorated major in the United States army at the same time, so they understand. And by other grandchildren, the , i haveree girls, were been a u. S. Senator or Vice President their entire lives, and they are sophisticated, they know what it is like. And it started off with her younger brother, now in eighth grade, natalie is in ninth grade, showing me something on the internet. Im not saying it was trump, i dont know where came from, and they said, we know it is going to be mean, pop, we know is going to be ugly. Im looking at this kid who is just getting out of seventh grade and im thinking, why do we have to do this . And he takes out his phone and shows me a picture of us walking on an the church, my hand american flagdraped coffin of my son, her daddy, and im reaching around and have my arm around him whispering, and the bottom line was, biden molesting another child. Up, ien each of them came wont go through what each of them said, with what they knew was going to happen, but the point is they said, you have to run, pop. That is when we decided to go ahead and do it. The point i am making is this. We dont want to get down into a position where we are dealing with other democrats in a way other than how we want to be dealt with, no matter what they say and do. At the end of the day, we have to unite this party, we have to bring it together, we have to win. [applause] in the good news is, now that we have been doing this a while, just last month, this is the second full quarter we have been engaged in raising the money for our campaign, well, we raised 20 5. 3 million online at or less a crack. Things are moving. [applause] folks, we are going to be competitive because of you. It gets down to a simple proposition. Do we get people to show up at a caucus . It is more difficult to show up at a caucus more than anything else because you do it mostly in the middle of week the middle of the week, at night and some gymnasium somewhere, and it is cold. Very cold. [laughter] but i have a little bit of a good luck charm, and sat is that it is beau birthday on february 3. [applause] we are going to work like the devil to earn the support of the youle of iowa, and we need because this is hand to hand, you have to get people to the caucuses. And i know your commitment. Concluding point. Learned, and ive know a representative said it, but it is true, the reference to putin not wanting to be president. Facebook has acknowledge that. There are thousands of socalled bots put on the internet by the russians, misrepresenting who i was. They had pictures of people from iowa or pennsylvania or wherever, and there is a picture of an american and below there is text saying, biden is a no good so and so, he is a bad man, and effect. And they took them all down. Why is it Vladimir Putin doesnt want me to be the president . Because i have forgotten more about Foreign Policy than about everybody else running for this office, including the president of the United States of america. [applause] and this guy knows me, he knows me, i have spent time with him and he knows i know who he is and he knows hes going to have to face somebody who is not going to take any of his malarkey. [applause] the second thing we have learned that donald trump really doesnt want me to be the nominee. Have you ever heard of a time that a year out from a general election, a president has his cronies out there, not only making quid pro quos and holding andblackmailing countries, prepared to say, if you want our military help from killing more ukrainians, then you have to say you are going to investigate joe biden. Not a single, solitary shred of evidence has come forward, and every major News Organization around the country and the world has acknowledged it. I did my job as it was supposed to be done as Vice President of the United States, and my son did nothing wrong. They argue about appearance, and my son dealt with that by getting off the board and making it clear that he if he had known what he knows now about folks like Rudy Giuliani and what they do that he would never have gone from a law firm that was negotiating with these folks in help and what they referred to as the time at the time as corporate management. They are going to spend, and you are going to get more of it, somewhere between 10 million and 50 million attacking me and just flat lying. Most networksmost networks wont their ads on the air because they know they are flatout lies. [applause] but there is a reason why he is doing it, a straightup reason, because every single pole shows me beating him, as i said, like a drum, and states that we have to win, pennsylvania, minnesota, ohio, north rolinatexas, etc. Dont be swayed by him. Dont worry about it. We are going to compete with this guy. The reason i am running is twofold. We have to believe restore in the world a sense of who we are. Our reputation around the world has been absolutely eviscerated. We let the word by not just the power the example of our power, but by the power of our example. That is how we have done it. [applause] we have put together alliances that make us safer, b because we keep our word that he doesnt keep. The world doesnt trust him anymore to keep his word as to what he is going to do. Wo things i can bring to the presidency if elected, with your help. To gets, i know how things done in the United States congress. Im the only one that has ever done a number of major initiatives. The violence against women act. I got it passed. I go down the line because i dont demonize the opposition. I dont go after motive, i go after good judgment. We argue about judgment. Think of all the things we were able to pass when we have a problem. Who got sent to capitol hill when we had a problem . Me. They say that now things have changed. If we cant talk across the aisle and get things done, we are in big trouble. We will see the abuse of power extend. The second thing is, the commanderinchief on day one, day one, there is going to be no chance for onthejob training. Not a joke, no job for nash no no timethejob for onthejob training. Whoever we nominate has to be ready on day one to look at the rest of the world and say i know him, he knows who he is, i understand, and i understand whether you are a friend and are going to stay with us or if you are a foe, resist us. I have met every major world leader in the last 35 years. There is a few that are new now, recently elected, that i dont know. I dont know the president s cousin of the new Prime Minister of great britain, anyway, im joking. [laughter] but there is so much we can do. We have so much to look forward to. The capacity of this country is limitless now compared to the rest of the world. With donald trump out of the way, there is not a thing we cant do. [applause] to compete is incredible. We are the wealthiest country in the history of the world. We have more Great Research universities in america than the rest of the world combined. Every major, lifechanging thing that has come up in the last 25 years has come out of those universities. We have the greatest researchers in the world. Our workers are literally three times as productive as workers in asia. Why are we Walking Around like, my god, what are we going to do . We are in trouble because of trump. With trump out of the way, we have never been in a better position to lead the world in the 21st century and restore america integrity and word around the world. So folks, that is why i am running. That is what i hope we are going to do. We have enormous capacity. Thank you for being here. I promise you, you are going to see more of me than you want to see, but i plan on winning iowa. Thank you. [applause] [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2019] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] please to meet you, sir. Mr. Biden . . What is your name mr. Biden what is your name . Deborah. Here we go. Awesome. U. N. Pete buttigieg of my favorites. Yes, buttigieg are my favorites. Yes, you are. [laughter] how are you . Mr. Biden good to see you. [indiscernible chapter closed chatter]nible of got it, right here. I have got it, right here. Kumon democratic president ial candidate andrew yang holds a town hall meeting in marshalltown, iowa sunday. Easternverage at 2 30 on cspan, cspan. Org or listen with the free cspan radio app. Pulls adent Trump Campaign rally monday in lexington, kentucky. Live coverage starts at 7 00 eastern on cspan. On thursday, california representative katie hill came to the floor to talk about her decision to resign from the u. S. House. She said it was the First Time Since intimate photos of her were released without her knowledge. The firstterm critical was the firstterm democrat was critical of what she called the culture and doubles standard. Representative hill this is the last speech i will give from this floor as a member of congress, and i wasnt ready for my time here to be over so soon