Things. Voices on the road on cspan. Democratic president ial candidate joe biden spoke to voters at a town hall in New Hampshire as part of his final Campaign Swing through the state this year. After taking questions, he met enter pickers with some of his supporters. Thank you. I tell you what, i love this state for real. You heard me say that. I go back a long way with a lot of folks who represented this state. And some of you have heard me say it before. It reminds me of my home state of delaware in one important respect Everybody Knows everybody. And thats a good thing. Matter of fact, first time i ran for the united dates senate, i was 29 years old, wasnt old enough to be sworn in. Judge broderick, i have to be very careful in front of him. I may be called before the court. A great friend for a long time. But when i ran, my state was a yours, down around the massachusetts border, a little competition. But i remember, i started off my campaign in the southern part of the state of delaware. They speak with a thick accent, for real. We were a border state, wasnt sure what side we want to fight on in those days, for real. The southern part of the state is very southern. They talk at you like youre a good old fella. So the way you go in delaware, you work your way from south to north. They said, be careful what you say because everyone is related down here. I remember there was a guy called edgar c. Bennett you couldnt call him ed, it was edgar c. If youre not invited to stay in someones home in delaware and have to go to a hotel, you know youre not really that welcome. Edgar c. Seemed a lot more conservative than i was, but were happy to have me to go. So we went to mass and then he wanted me to go to his church in a town called selby ville. It was a beautiful old church, methodist church, and it had the graveyard in the front like the Old Catholic Church i belong to in upstate delaware, st. Josephs. You walk through the headstones and the entrance to go up. And the minister was very kind to me when i showed up at the church with him. And he said we have with us joe biden, running for the United States senate. Hopefully, he will greet the parishioners as they walk out. I did not expect that, but i was very flattered. So i stood there with the minister shaking hands with everybody. Edgar c. Was standing under these big oak trees that took up the whole church area. Afterwards, i walked up and said, it went ok. Except for that horses tail over there. He said oh, thats my first cousin, edgar. [laughter] mr. Biden true story. So i guess its like that in New Hampshire, anyway. Look, theres a lot to talk about so i want to get your questions, so i will be relatively brief. Number one, theres an overwhelming amount of issues that we have to deal with right now, but the single most consequential issue, as you know, mr. Mayor, if we get four more years of donald trump, it is going to change who we are as the character of our country. That is not hyperbole, i believe that to be true. So, it matters a lot what were going to do and who were going to pick. And so, when i announced for the senate, i did the same thing when i announced for president , state clearly why i was running for president. And theres three reasons. One was to restore the soul of this country, because i think whats happened, especially after you saw what happened in charlottesville, with those people coming out of the woods, screeching, their veins bulging, a young woman got killed and they asked the president what he thought, and he said there were very fine people on both sides. No president s never said anything like that, i mean for real. Maybe Andrew Jackson said Something Like that before the civil war, but no president has ever said Something Like that. Thats one of the reasons im running, to restore a sense of decency and honor. We hold those truths to be selfevident. Weve never walked away from them before. The president has this administration has walked away from them, because every time, every generation has moved the arc of inclusion wider and wider and its being shut down now. I think its being corrosive for the country. The second reason i said i was running was to restore the middle class. The middle class has taken a beating. We used to be the wealthiest middle class in the world. We are no longer the wealthiest middle class in the world. And almost all the data shows that 60 of the American People believe that their children will never have the standard of living may have had. Weve never thought that way before in the last century. Weve never lost that sense of optimism before, and a lot of people are worried. This time when we rebuild the middle class, weve got to bring everybody along. Everybody along. From the disabled to people of color, as well as hardworking people who just my dad would say, im not looking for a handout, joey. I just want them to understand my problem, the government. Just give me a shot. The third reason i was running is because we had to unite the country. And i was pretty roundly criticized by a number of my colleagues, all 900 running from no,f for the primary there are actually some really good people. They really are. Theyre good people. They would say yeah, joe biden used to be able to put everything together before, remember . He did the arms control treaties. He did and they would go through all the things i have done, but that was the old days. And this Republican Party is different. Its different, but it was only three years ago that we did a lot of these things. I think unifying the country is absolutely critical. I dont think its naive i understand this new republic and party well. Ive been on the receiving end of Donald Trumps billion dollars of ads trying to this merge my only surviving son, going after my family, going after me i understand them. I understand them well. But its not about me. Its about you. Its about the people in this room. Its about the people around the country. And president s should not hold grudges. President should run and represent all the people. And i mean that sincerely. John knows me well. I mean it. All the people. Immigrants, republicans, and democrats, republicans, and independents, because if we cant come together we can do cant do anything. This country is designed to require consensus. Without it, there is nothing that can get done other than the abuse of power by a president who says i cant get it done so im just going to go ahead and do it. So i dont think its naive at all to talk about uniting the country and the need to do it. I believe we can because i refuse to accept the proposition some of the people im running with in this nomination say to accept the notion that we will be forever at war with one another. It cannot be sustained in america. It cannot be sustained. Its not who we are. [applause] mr. Biden so we have to. We cant surrender the notion. Its going to be hard. Its going to be hard. But ive gotten a lot of hard things done before. Doesnt mean its not going to be hard this time. Heres the deal. You can get republican sometimes in the house and senate to vote with you, and when you dont, you go out and beat them. And i dont mean by going after their personalities. I dont mean the dirty politics of going after their motives. Look whats happened in american politics. Even small states that are close like yours and mine. What happens . I come to you and i say, look. I think youre in the pocket of big business. I think youre immoral. I think youre this by the way, lets work out a deal on how were going to workout Climate Change. Fat chance. I learned a long time ago from a guy named mike mansfield, the majority leader from montana, he was called iron mike, more integrity in his Little Finger than most people had in their whole body, for real. He said joe, its not always appropriate to question a man or womans motives, but its always appropriate to question their judgment. You dont know their motives. Question their judgment. Then you can get something passed. When in fact a lot has changed with this president. When the carnie show comes through town and you find out there are no peanuts under the three shells, you usually dont bet on him a second time. He was going to take care of the forgotten people and then he forgot that they forget. [laughter] mr. Biden but heres the deal. When, in fact, so much has changed, i think the environment is so right for us to do so much more, not as democrats or republicans, but as a nation. We can own the 21st century. We have what it takes. Ive never been more optimistic in my life about the prospects of this country. Folks, look. If you think about it, were in a situation where weve got to give when the republicans disagree with us, when im your president , if im your president , heres the deal. We take it to them in their districts. Campaign. For example, i went to 24 states and campaign for 67, 69 im not sure the number of candidates last time out in 2018. Im the only guy invited in all the states, from alabama to montana to colorado to pennsylvania, state that we lost and or were close. And guess what we did . We didnt go after the personalities of the people we ran against. We said were going to win 41 seats and were going to take back the house. We won 41 seats. By the way, four academy graduates, one the first marine fighter pilot, dropping bombs. You know, this is an incredible group. But whatd we do . We said, all of a sudden when people realized, remember, we lost the house when we passed obamacare. Everybody said you lost because its not popular. Then what happened . Then along came the republicans in this state and others and said, were going to take away obamacare. Were not going to cover preexisting conditions anymore. You cant keep your child on your healthcare policy until hes 26 anymore, etc. And all of a sudden everybody said whoa, what . Because people didnt even know it was obamacare. I said to the president i keep on picking on john, but john knows mr. President , you ve got to take a victory lap here. You have to explain it. Remember, i got in trouble for saying we should have a fireside chat remember that . But the president said, we dont have time. Theres too many things we have to face to take a victory lap. But it wasnt until people started to take it away that people started to realize, whoa. So all we did was go out and say your state rep, governor, your senator, your congressman wants to take away this thing you have. People said no. And we won. When you cant convince, you go out and make the case. And so people know im concluding with this and ill go to questions, because there are so many issues i want to talk to you about, from education to Climate Change, to anything you want to talk to me about. Climate change through a whole range of issues, the violence against women act, which they re trying to kill, a whole range of things. Everybody who knows who donald trump is im not being facetious. This is not political. This is reality. Even the supporters know who he is. They know who years. People like him. They know who he is. None of them are arguing that they want their kids to grow up with the same character, but they know who he is. They decided they like him because of things he did or because of things democrats didnt do or whatever. Weve got to let them know that who we are, however. Weve got to let them know that we choose hope over fear. Because he feeds on feeding fear to people. Fear. We have to choose truth overlies. Over lies. Thats his theory, eventually if you say it and say it and say it. We choose truth over lies. We choose science over fiction. Over fiction. [applause] mr. Biden for real. We got a lot of work cut out for us. And i want to start off by thanking everybody under the age of 15. We owe you big, kiddo. I dont know how you got here, but thank you. Thank you, thank you, thank you. But after this is over, come up and talk to me. Everybody under 15, you get Something Special today, because this has got to be boring, boring, boring for you. Thank you. [laughter] mr. Biden anyway, my mother would often say joey, hush up and take some questions. So fire away. We have people in the audience, give the microphone to them hello, thank you so much for being here today. I just want to say thank you for your work on the aca. My child was born super sick and before the aca lifted lifetime insurance caps, and so i really appreciate it. Im just wondering with all these efforts to dismantle the aca, what are you going to ensure that all children receive the health care that they need and can access all the medical services they require . Mr. Biden what was your first name . Sarah. Mr. Biden sarah. You know, you could hear a crack in sarahs voice there, because many of you have experienced the same thing sarah has. Also was a significant user of health care. When i first got elected, before i got sworn in, i was in washington and a tractortrailer blindsided my wife and daughter christmas shopping, and killed my wife and daughter. But my sons survived. Anyway. But what happened was, i have insurance. I had the peace of mind that i would be able to get them good doctors. And then, you know, i got hospitalized years ago with a cranial aneurysm. I was hospitalized a couple of times. They took the top of my head off the second time, said they could nt find my brain the first time. [laughter] mr. Biden but it was my nurses that gave me hope. And my son, beau, attorney general, a decorated war hero for real. A year in iraq, six months in cozumel before that. He came home and was diagnosed with glioblastoma, given months. It wasnt could he would he live, it was when. Run out of coverage. Suffer in peace. Youre on your own. One of the things my dad used to say is that everyone is entitled to be treated with dignity. How can a parent maintain their dignity when they have a dying child and theres not a damn thing you can do about it . How can a parent maintain their dignity when theyre in a situation where they have a talented child in school and cant figure out a way to pay to get them there. Health care should be a right, not a privilege. So heres what i suppose. And i wont go into excruciating detail, but if you want me to do more, let me know. Number one, i take obamacare and further subsidize it so it costs less to get into obamacare for everyone, no matter what your income is, so you can get what you call a gold plan, and if you can afford, that is, if you have good income, you can buy into it and in fact, youll not have a deductible more than 1000 ever. Thats the gold plan. You dont have to buy that plan. You can buy a cheaper plan if youd like. For those who cant afford health care plan, i provide what barack and i wanted are i usually would call him president , but i dont want to confuse him with the other guy. [applause] mr. Biden i mean it. I dont want to get them mixed up. We talked about the need to add a public option, a public option that provided medicare, a medicarelike option for people who in fact wanted to buy into a medicare option if they wanted to do it. And if they wanted to do it, and if they couldnt afford it, if they qualify for medicaid, they would automatically be enrolled in this medicare option. Its medicare for those who want it, because we have 160 Million People nationwide who in fact like the Health Care Plans they have negotiated, many of them with the unions and companies, that are very expensive plans that they like. And, in fact, they gave up significant salary concessions in order to get that coverage. And you shouldnt have to give it up if you want to keep it. Like medicare for all, you must, as a matter of law, you cannot have any private insurance. You have to give it up. Barack promised you could keep your doctor and it turned out not to be right. You can keep your plan as long as your company has the plan. They could turn around and say, were not going to do it anymore. Then youre able to buy into obamacare, the obamabiden plan, that relates to having this public option. And my plan i dont want to kill you, what does it cost . Cost a lot of money, 750 billion over 10 years. But it doesnt cost 30 trillion over 10 years, and it leaves you with the option of keeping what you have if you want it or buying in if you dont want it. Everybody in my state, like yours, if im not mistaken, unless god bless his memory. Unless you all i know hes a republican how do you pay for it . I lay out in detail how i would pay for the plan and Everything Else i call for, and we ought to be able to get you these charts. And these are the tax increases for the very, very wealthy, because we now have 1 trillion, 800 billion, 900 billion additional deficit because of the tax proposals the president put forward, trump, that overwhelmingly takes care of the top 1 of the American People. For example, what i do is i take Capital Gains and i treat them as ordinary income. Nothing wrong with that. If you want to do that. But if youre in and id raise the tax bracket back up to 39. 6 for the wealthiest. If youre in that tax bracket, you pay 39. 6 on the Capital Gains instead of 20 . That alone would raise 800 billion, that one thing. Id raise the Corporate Tax rate. I come from the corporate state of america. More corporations are incorporated in my state than in the rest of the world. Thats not a joke. Its gigantic. Guess what . Barack and i thought these Corporate Tax rates should be lowered from 38 to 28 , but not to 20 . So if you take it back up to 28 , which is a rational position, that raises about 720 billion. Im not going to go through it all. And ending the fossil fuel production tax break, that raises about 25 billion right off the bat. Theres a whole range of things. So i pay for everything i call for, everything i call for. And still will reduce the deficit in the process. Because you dont need all this money to pay for the things i call for in health care, education, etc. So thats probably more than you wanted to know. Theres a lot more to say, but you should not have to worry. If you have, for example, when gale introduced me you know, let me say it another way. How many of you in this room, if you dont want to answer your you dont have to, obviously, how many of you have lost a son, daughter, husband, wife, mother, or father to cancer . Were father to cancer . Raise your hand. Thats what happens when you dont have coverage. And if you have to sell your house to get the coverage, how many have i wont go through it. Anyway, so theres a lot we can to do, and heres the biggest deal. I admire the intention of my friends who fought for medicare for all, but the minimum number is 30 trillion over 10, most people think its 40 trillion, but thats 3. 5 trillion a year. Thats more money than we spend on every single thing the government does. You could wipe out the pentagon, satellites in the sky, everything. You can wipe out department of education. You can wipe out the entirety of the civil service, wipe it all out. It doesnt add up to 3. 5 trillion a year. And i think the most important thing in running against donald trump is we have to have truth in lending here. No, no, the worst thing you can do against this guy, running against him, is assert something thats not accurate or so preposterous to get done that hes able to have a field day. Dont underestimate. Dont underestimate this guy. Dont underestimate him. He brags about an economy that is growing, and it is growing. Except if youre in the bottom 96 of the country. [applause] mr. Biden no, no, but look, the stock market is as high as it has ever been. Unemployment is incredibly low. Its real. It has grown. But theres no rational distribution of the growth in terms of increases in income and other things. I will answer questions shorter now if you ask me less complicated questions. [laughter] mr. Biden i like the plaid cap. What are you looking for in qualities for a running mate . Mr. Biden you available, sir . [laughter] mr. Biden look, the only thing i know a lot about is the vice presidency. [laughter] mr. Biden and one of the things that has been written about by a lot of president ial and Vice President ial scholars of late, is that they argue that there has never been a Vice President or president closer than barack and i. Now, that didnt happen by accident. We didnt know each other that well when it started. I got to know him. And when he moved his family to washington after some time, i set him up with my son hunter and his family, and they talked and became friends. Michelle became friends with my daughterinlaw. Our granddaughters, my granddaughters and his daughters are each others best friends. Maisie, who is a freshman at penn, and his daughter, same one who picked michigan over yale, theyve been best friends since grade school because they went to grade School Together in a small school of washington. So, they became very close. But it didnt happen accidentally. It happened because we agreed at the frontend that we would be completely honest with one another. And when the president is asked by his friend from chicago, what is it like having joe around, he says its like having an older brother. Like having an older brother with him. What we agreed on, when he first asked me to be Vice President , i say this because its Public Knowledge now, is that i said i didnt want to be Vice President , because i thought i could help him more being a senior senator that had some influence in congress. And i know Vice President s are usually standby equipment. I asked him, he came back and said to meet with my family about it, and he came back. He knows my family well. To my surprise, my deceased son and my son hunter strongly argued i should do it, and the coup de grace was delivered by my mother, who was then 92 years old. She would not move into the house with us, because we were in a four bedroom house with three kids and a grandpa. She was not going to move and even though we had a room for her. There is a little garage that we turned into a nice apartment at the top of the driveway, and she said that was ok. But after we had this meeting on the back porch, he said get back to me in 48 hours, ok, about whether i could be vetted and check me out, with 10 lawyers looking at me, as someone very tactfully said, like a public colonoscopy. [laughter] mr. Biden so what happened was, we went through this meeting for about one hour, and my mom i won the gene pool. I had a mom that everyone wished could be their mom. My mom heard everyones confessional all the time, let us out, you had to be in by 12 00, and if my mom was in confession with one of my friends, she would go like this dont stop, keep moving. Should i sit, you have not said anything. She said joey, remember when i called you a couple months ago and asked you to come up to the house, and asked about barack, and he said he was a man of great integrity and brilliant . I said, yeah. She said, remember when you were a kid and they desegregated the adjacent neighborhood and sold a home, a real estate guy sold a home to an africanamerican couple, and people were protesting at night, it was in the summer, i told you not to go down there, you went down and got arrested by police were standing on the porch with the black couple . I said, yeah, i remember that. She said, remember when you had a country club job, but wanted to work at the city pool and be the only white employee in the projects . Yeah, mom. She said, remember when you had that good job at a law firm and you became a public defender because the city was occupied . I said, yeah, what is the point . She said, let me get this straight, the first africanamerican man in history who has the chance to be president offered you to work for him and you told him no . [laughter] mr. Biden dammit all, mom. True story. [applause] mr. Biden best decision my mother ever made for me. The point was this. We sit down and discuss who to pick there are so many qualified people to be president. Who you pick as a Vice President , no matter if you are 36 years old, you should pick someone who, if god for bid something happens, they can step in and become president. There are a number of people who are very qualified, but here is the coup de grace that needs to be had. With barack and i, we knew we were intellectually simpatico on the issues. We did not disagree fundamentally on any issue, for real. We disagreed on tactic, not substance, and we would argue like hell with one another privately. I have made it clear, everybody knew, he is president , he decides. But he wanted somebody who had a differing view, who would would come in, in his phrase, not be intimidated when they walked in the over office. It has to be someone who shares, if i am elected, my value set and my priorities. Otherwise it makes it very hard, because here is the deal. The days of picking someone to balance the ticket are the days that are basically gone because the responsibility of a president is so immense, no one woman or man can handle the job. They have to delegate significant responsibility. Not a joke. The president did that with me, whether it was dealing with iraq or working on the recovery act, which was 900 billion. When he gave me an assignment, he gave me the authority. I could hire and fire, pick people throughout the cabinet, do exactly as if i were the president. For real. It takes a lot of courage for a president , he has to be confident or she has to be confident enough that they can give significant authority and not have the press say, so and so is doing it for him. But no one ever questioned whether he was brilliant, they never question whether or not he would be able to delegate authority. Im looking for somebody, if i get to be the nominee, who is somebody simpatico, comfortable with me, will argue at me and holler at me when i disagree, for real. The other thing is, we agreed we would meet for lunch once a week, and every single day, when we were in session and both in the country, we met in the oval office in the morning, every single day. It has to be someone, that old expression, you dont miss anything between the cup and the lid. There are a lot of people who are qualified. I can think off the top of my head, not a joke, of seven women, off the top of my head. Not a joke. Who are capable of being president tomorrow if they started off as Vice President. I have a couple in your state that are not bad, number one. Number two, there are a number of africanamericans, male and female. As you know, i have overwhelming support in the africanamerican community, but there is a number of africanamericans who, in could and it would be people being considered by me and anybody else who becomes the president of the United States. We have a great cadre of people to pick from, and we have a lot of really good young people who are out there. And it is not a bad training ground, being Vice President. So that is as honest as i can be with you. Im going to go to yes no. [laughter] thank you, mr. Next president of the United States. [applause] we have a common and very good friend in greg. He is a very dear friend of mine. He says to say hello. Thank you for coming. Those children under 15, they are our grandchildren and children. Mr. Biden they are yours . Oh. And we are celebrating our 46th wedding anniversary today, my wife and myself. [applause] and her name is jill. Thank you, and thank you for bringing hope back to the soul of america. [applause] the question i have lets hear it for the next president [applause] the least of us who you have always stood up for is what brings people great hope in our hearts. Speak a minute about the native americans and how deeply they need our help. Mr. Biden by the way, first of all, my sympathies. [laughter] mr. Biden that is what everybody says to jill. Everybody knows, i am known as in washington, jill husband, and i am proud of it. You have to be really patient with grandpops. We are difficult to raise. First of all, they are indian nations. Other than africanamericans, who were brought over here in chains on the bottom of slaves ships, many of whom died before they got here that is the original sin of this country, the stain on our soul what we have done over the years to they got here that is the native americans has been equally as consequential. I learned early on from a fellow who was a great friend of mine and a wonderful senator who supported me wholeheartedly and helped raise me a little bit was a senator from hawaii. And senator when he left. They were giant supporters of indian nations, and any time someone would say, indians, native americans no, joe, indian nations. What has happened to them has been devastating over the years. What is happening in some states where we are, and that is maybe up in your state a little bit and in my state, in delaware, is that the commitments that have been made have been walked away from, a lot of them. One of the things i have done it to give an example, when i wrote the violence against women act, what i did was changed the legislation that would allow the same procedures that are available to women in indian nations who are victimized a lot, by the way, where if a man walked on and engaged in a forced sex with another man, which happens about 4 of the time, they should be able to be tried in indian court. They should have the authority to try in their courts, on their land, if it is on the land of an indian nation. We have to finally begin to make good on what we said we believed, that in fact it was a commitment made, if we moved you away and did all these things like jackson did years ago, that we would begin to try to make it right. Im not talking about reparations, i am talking about dealing with what continues to be basically systemic racism that exists for not only the africanamericans, but also for indian americans. Thank you. Yes, maam . Do we have time for one more question . Mr. Biden can i take a couple more . Ask me about Climate Change, man. It is the number one issue. [applause] [inaudible] if we do not stop using fossil fuel mr. Biden we are all dead. We are all dead. Any other issue is secondary to that. What do you plan to do about Climate Change . Mr. Biden by the way, you can tell he really cares about Climate Change, because i mention it when i start off, and he does not ask a question, he holds up a sign. It is the existential threat that exists. There are three things right off the bat that i would do. The first thing i would do is immediately rejoin the paris climate accord. [applause] mr. Biden and by the way, i helped with that together. I am the guy who convinced our team that china would join because i spent more time with xi jinping than anyone had and he was embarrassed at having to be part of it. Number two, i would take the most egregious the deal when we did the paris climate accord, every nation that signed up would in fact move to deal with Climate Change as science dictated it. They all set standards, we set standards across the board, and in the meantime, we learned things were even more dangerous. I would call in the first 100 days a meeting with all the major polluters in the world, to washington, d. C. To up the commitments. Those who did not, they would find themselves in a position where the rest of the world would exact economic penalties for failure to do that. Look at what the chinese are doing now. Their belt and road proposal. They are exporting more dirty coal around the world in the name of their own interests, but not doing it in their own country. They would be held accountable for that under the economic right now, for example, one of the reasons it worries me so much about the president walking away from our international responsibilities, you know because you know this area the , largest carbon sink in the world is the amazon, in the world. I am one of the guys who came along with the proposal years ago, debt for forest preservation. In case you are my bona fides, you can check later fact. I introduced the first Climate Change bill and it was said it was a game changer and i pushed on it. When we did the recovery act of 990 billion, we put 100 billion in bringing down the cost of producing solar and rationalehere is no to build coal. The point is what we have to do, more carbon from the air, the thing breaking through and causing global warming, is absorbed in the amazon than is emitted by every single vehicle driven of any type in the United States of america. It is burning. I have been pushing, not alone, but i have been pushing along with john kerry, a big supporter and friend of mine, pushing that we should be saying to brazil, you have got to fix it and we will help you, pay you to stop it. Not 2 billion. More like 40 billion. If you do not, you pay economic price or every other export you have, no matter what. There has to be consequences. The second thing we have to do maybe we can talk tell me when im going to much. ,he second thing we have to do right off the bat immediately, in 2021, january, when i say join and rejoin the paris accord, i introduced the proposal, we get to zero missions by 2050. Some people have 2049 and some people talk about 2030. If you are a scientist, you know it is virtually impossible to get there in 2030. We only make up 15 of the problem. Your forest is still going to find insects and evergreens the summer. Your winters will get warmer. You will see pollution and the water supply. The shore taking out a land where people are living. Your winters will get warmer. 85e in the rest of the world. It requires someone who knows how to bring together the world. Not a joke. Be able to have a foreignpolicy vision that you once again are trusted so on day one, the next president will have to be able to take command of the world stage. When he or she speaks, the world will know who that person is and know that person those who they are, what their weaknesses are. What they are like. So you can demand certain standards are kept. We can do it but we have to get back in the business. We are the leader not only of the free world, the leader of the world. In this effort. When we say there is no such thing as Climate Change, and we already deforested our land over the last 300 years and have done well by it, and the rest of the world says you keep it up, come on. It will not happen. We have to be able to bring the world together and it will be hard. Really hard. The third thing we have to do is set down guide rails now. Between the years 2021 and 2030, it is irreversible the path we have set ourselves on. Getting rid of subsidies for fossil fuel. Number two, holding them reliable for what they have done, particularly in underserved neighborhoods. And when they do not, put them in jail. I am not joking about this. [applause] mr. Biden right now, we had a program where we give a tax credit for doing the right thing. For example, this building this cityowned building i assume . The city would be able to borrow money and get directed to direct aid to replace all the windows. And the doors and insulation so you are not emitting from the building heat or air conditioning, costing much more money. If we took every public and Federal Building in the country, which the plan started off doing tanked it, we could reduce this hundreds of millions of barrels of oil to be consumed every year or every other energy consuming it. We should term farmer turn farmers into the net zero emitters in the world. Significant conservation property, having them plant deeper roots to absorb the carbon out of the air. Biofuels is the nearterm transition. We can do so much. The first thing i would do is reestablish mile standards. Eight billion gallon barrels of oil. Auto companies agreed to it. I call for every new infrastructure has to be green. So we do not build to what it is before, but what it is now. I mean this sincerely. I have gone on too much. I will stop with this. Make sure that, i want to install 550,000 charging stations on all of our highways. We should own the ev market of electronic vehicles. Experts point out on my plan that we can create 10 million new jobs. Serious jobs, not 15 an hour. 45 an hour before you Start Talking about benefits. We are the only nation in the world has ever taken a crisis and turned it into an opportunity. This opportunity is gigantic. The last thing i will say i will talk and give you the whole plan if you are interested. What we should be doing is dealing with this in a way that it is. An existential threat, not a joke. If we do not make change, we are in deep trouble. The planet is in trouble. It is real. Hundreds of species are gone and will not come back. Delaware is three feet above sea level. Not a joke. In 15 years, a lot of them will be gone. The last thing i will say, when president obama and i got elected, the first week or 10 days, we were invited to the pentagon to the most secretive place in the pentagon, below ground, completely secure, and the joint chiefs wanted to tell us what the greatest threat to our security was. You know what they said . Climate change. The military, Climate Change. They put the maps on the wall. If we do nothing and the sea level rises two feet, you will have millions of people migrating from all the islands in the south pacific, across the world. You saw what happened in darfur. Muslims, africanamerican and arab muslims going to war with each other. Killing people. Why . For land, fighting over what is left. This is not about, i like it warmer in new hatcher in the winter it is not like that at all. Fundamental changes. Think what happened with afghanistan and iraq and libya. With the migration of more people in europe than any other time including world war ii. What did it cost . It changes political attitudes. It is the reason we have brags it, this new brex nativism going on in hungry, poland, around the world. You are coming here, youre not coming here. Remember all of those photographs of afghanis trying to get into hungary . Look what happened in the democratic republic of germany. The most powerful and most enlightened leader in the world at the time, angela merkel. Her party got clobbered. It is fear. A lot is at stake. I will give you a copy of the whole plan, and thank you. [applause] mr. Biden i know you have to go and im supposed to go. If you ask me an easy question, if you give me something, i will try and do it in 25 words or less. You, maam, give her the mic. What is your plan for addressing gun violence . [applause] mr. Biden that is really important. When i said the soul of the nation, think about what it says about our soul when you send your child or grandchild off in first or second or third or fourth grade, and they learn how to duck and cover. Building new schools so you can hide behind them in case a shooter shows up. The generation that is most uneasy and has the greatest anxiety of any generation in america is the z generation, ages 717. Know what the greatest fear is . Getting shot in school. Talk about a sick soul. I am the only guy who has ever beaten the nra nationally. I have beaten them twice. I got the brady bill passed. Background checks. I am the guy who got the assault weapons ban passed. I could only get it for 10 years and it had to be renewed. Because of some hanging chads in florida, a guy named bush let it expire. Your state and mine, a lot of hunters, that is fine. But anybody who needs a magazine with 100 rounds in it, you should not be hunting. You are a danger to yourself. Not a joke. Anybody that needs an ar15, there are not a lot of deer wearing a kevlar vest. My deceased son and my son were bird hunters. There is big bird hunting in the delaware peninsula. I have a 12 gauge shotgun. They are locked up. You lock them up. Were the only country, the only industry in the nation not able to be sued, the gun manufacturers. How would that have been the case when i was pushing to go after the pharmaceutical companies for opioids . Because we were able to sue them for the damage they were doing, we were able to change the whole thing and it is still changing. You cant do that with gun manufacturers. One of my objectives, i will probably not be able to get it done. There are even democrats voted to give exemptions to gun manufacturers. But i will work like hell to try to eliminate that exemption. Lastly, we talk about technology. The fact is we have the , technology now. That the only person who can pull the trigger on any weapon would be one whose biometric marker matched what the gun was sold to. It is james bond stuff but it is real and it exists. Out in silicon valley, and met with this group of experts on how they could do that. It came along and they came up with several pistols that do that. They started to sell them and advertised that way. Youre not violating anyones Second Amendment right. If im able to buy the gun on a background check, i should be the only one able to fire the gun. Because look what happened up in connecticut. The mom had the gun and the kid picked it up. He would not have passed a background check. There is no violation of the Second Amendment to say pass a background check. You can in fact have a gun. Certain guns, not every gun. What happens . They put them in stores and the nra and the gun manufacturers said if you continue to sell them, we will boycott your stores and put you out of business. So theyre not on the shelves at all now. What is going on . This is wrong. There are so many avenues we can go without violating anyones basic right. To own a gun. For those of you who are members for those of you who are members of a group who say the tree of liberty is watered with the blood of patriots, you need a fighter jet if you will protect yourself against the government. You need something a lot more if that is the rationale. Extreme people argue that the reason why the Second Amendment exists is so we can defend ourselves against the government. You need a couple of flamethrowers. All kidding aside. These people tell me you cannot limit the type of weapons. Can anyone here, like they did with a former dupont guy, well, you want to take on the government, you better get a personnel carrier or something. You will not do it with ar15. We have been able to say you cannot own a machine gun and that is the law. You cannot own a machine gun or bazooka. I know it sounds silly, but the idea that you cannot say there are certain types of weapons you cannot own is not at all inconsistent with the Second Amendment. From the beginning, from the beginning, every single amendment of the constitution has an exception. Freedom of speech. If anyone stood up and yelled fire, we could put you in jail with people running out of fear of people getting hurt and there is no fire. You dont have the freedom of speech to yell fire. You do not have the freedom if you are a convicted felon or terrorist to go buy a weapon. Period. One reasons why, and this is the best way to conclude it, i talk about the violence against women act. I wrote that, i did it myself. It took four years to get it passed. It has had a profound impact on changing the culture of america. We have a long way to go. Every several years it has to be reauthorized. The house passed overwhelmingly, it is sitting in the senate. Why . It cuts out what they call the boyfriend exception. The biggest fight i had to get it reauthorized the second time was that if you were the subject of abuse by a husband or someone you live with, and that person was convicted, they could not own a gun, a weapon. What happened was they worked out an exemption, the boyfriend exemption. If you do not have a child with a person beating you up, or you do not live with him, that person can own a weapon. The vast majority of women who are killed by their abusers are killed with a gun. Know what the greatest loss of life is with a gun . Suicide. Over 20 of all people who die because of a bullet are people committing suicide. And we say we will not allow the police to know whether or not someone has a serious Mental Illness that maybe should not be able to purchase a weapon . It is not an easy problem because people are entitled to the right of privacy, but that is why we have not brought along the violence against women act to be passed and reauthorized and we will lose enormous protections, it has cut down by well over 60 over the age of 30. The reports are way up. People are willing to come forward. The nra and gun manufacturers are much too powerful and they do not represent a rational reading of the Second Amendment. I taught constitutional law for 22 years. I promise you. They dont. Thank you for being here. I appreciate it. [applause] [indiscernible] mr. Biden thank you, man. [indiscernible] [indistinct conversations] thank you very much. [indistinct conversations] mr. Biden i really mean it. [indistinct conversations] thank you. [indistinct conversations] [indistinct conversations] [indistinct conversations] [indistinct conversations] [indistinct conversations] vice pres. Biden how old are you . [indistinct conversations] [indistinct conversations] [indistinct conversations] [indistinct conversations] [indistinct conversations] [indistinct conversations] [indistinct conversations] thank you. Thank you. [indistinct conversations] any kid who sit through all of this deserves some ice cream. Thank you. He is a wonderful young boy. You should be proud. Thank you. Thank you very much. Where in france . Are you living there now . Good to see you. Im part french too. My great, great grandfather came indiscernible] vice pres. Biden how old are you . [indistinct conversations] [indistinct conversations] is that right . The difference between the french and the spanish, when i try to speak french and spanish, they make fun of me. Latin america, they clap when we ont get it right. [indistinct conversations] oh, my god i spent 40 years in the army. [indistinct conversations] [indistinct conversations] you have to remind me, ok . [indistinct conversations] had to get down to walter reed for a 13hour operation. Idnt give much of a chance. [indistinct conversations] [indistinct conversations] [indistinct conversations] take care of daddy now, ok . Come on. [indistinct conversations] [indistinct conversations] [indistinct conversations] [indistinct conversations] [indistinct conversations] campaign 2020. Watch our live coverage of the president ial candidates on the campaign trail and make up your own mind. Cspans campaign 2020, your unfiltered view of politics. Today 2020 democratic president ial candidate andrew hall rally in wn New Hampshire. Cspan or c span. Org or listen free online on the cspan radio app. In dubai, you compare it to being on the jetsons. Well, it is not there yet. Thats the vision. The vision is to have flying air ships early in this coming decade and not just a few of them carrying around rich people to golf courses and luxury hotels. They want to have these flying air ships carrying all kinds of people and they want to have a flying network, the metro system with little stops all over duwith flying machines carrying people back and forth. Steven baker whose latest book looks at how technology is changing transportation