It allowed for the inhumanity of slavery. And failed to guarantee women and even men who did not own property the right to participate in the political process. But embedded in this document was the north star that would guide future generations. A system of representative government. A democracy to which we could better realize our highest ideals. Through civil war and better struggles, we improve this constitution to include the voices of those who had once been left out. Gradually we made this country more just and more equal and more free. One Constitutional Office elected by all the people is the presidency. At the minimum we should expect a president to feel the sense of responsibility for the safety and welfare of all 330 million of us, regardless of what we look like, how we worship, who we love, how much money we have, or who we voted for. We should also expect a president to be the custodian of this democracy. We should expect that regardless of ego, ambition, or political beliefs, the president will preserve, protect and defend the freedoms and ideals that so Many Americans marched for. Went to jail for. Fought for and died for. Office withthe oval men running for president. I never expected that my successor would embrace my vision, or continue my policies. I did hope, for the sake of our country, that donald trump might show some interest in taking the job seriously. That he might come to feel a ofk of the office weight the office and discover some reference of democracy that was placed in his care. But he never did. Now, hee to four years has shown no interest in putting in the work. No interest in finding common ground. No interest in using the office awesome power of his office to help anyone but himself and his friends. No interest in treating the presidency as anything but one more reality show that he can use to get the attention he craves. Donald trump has not grown into the job because he cant. And the consequences of that failure are severe. Ead. 000 americans d millions of jobs, gone. Those at the top have taken more than ever. Our worst impulses unleashed. Our proud reputation around the world badly diminished. Threatened like never before. Now, i know in times as polarized as is, most of you have already made up your mind, but maybe you are still not sure which candidate you will vote for or whether you will vote at all. Maybe youre tired of the direction we are headed, but you cannot see a better path yet, or you just do not know enough tout the person who wants lead us there. So let me tell you about my friend, joe biden. 12 years ago, when i began my search for my Vice President , i did not know i would end up finding a brother. Joe and i come from different places, different generations, but what i quickly came to admire about joe biden is his resilience, born of too much struggle, his empathy, born of too much grief. Joe is a man who learned early on to treat every person he meets with respect and dignity, living by the words his parents taught him. No one is better than you, joe, but you are better than nobody. Decency, the that belief that everybody counts, that is who joe is. When he talks with someone who has lost his job, joe remembers the night his father sat him down to say that he had lost his. When joe listens to a parent who is trying to hold it all together right now, he does it as a single dad who took the train back to wilmington each and every night so he could talk his kids into bed. Into bed. S kids when he talks with military families who have lost their hero, he doesnt with a kindred spirit, the parent of a military soldier, someone whose heart has endured the greatest loss there is. Theeight years, joe was last one in the room whenever i faced a big decision. He made me a better president , and he has got the character and the experience to make us a better country, and in my friend, kamala harris, he has chosen an ideal partner, who is more than prepared for the job, someone who knows what it is like to overcome barriers and who has made a career fighting to help others live out their american dream. Neededith the experience to get things done, joe and kamala have concrete policies that will turn their vision into a better, fairer, stronger country into a reality. They will get this pandemic under control, like joe did when he helped me manage h1n1 and prevent an Ebola Outbreak from reaching our shores. He will expand health care to more americans, like joe and i did 10 years ago, when he helped craft the Affordable Care act and nail down the votes to make it the law. Economy,escue the which joe helped me do after the great recession. I asked him to manage the recovery act, which jumpstarted the longest stretch of job growth in our history, and he sees this moment now not as a chance to get back to where we were but to make new changes so that our economy actually makes life a little easier for everybody, whether it is the waitress trying to raise a kid on her own or the shift worker always on the edge of getting laid off or the student, figuring out how to pay for next semesters classes. Restore ourla will standing in the world, and as we have learned from this pandemic, that matters. Joe knows the world, and the world knows him. He knows that our truth strength comes from setting an example follow, world wants to a nation that stands with democracy, not dictators, a nation that can inspire and mobilize others to overcome threats like Climate Change and. Error and poverty and disease but more than anything, what i know about joe, what i know is that they actually care about every american and that they care. Eeply about this democracy they believe that in a democracy , the right to vote is sacred, and we should be making it easier for people to cast their ballots, not harder. They believe that no one, including the president , is no publiclaw and that official, including the president , should use their office to enrich themselves or. Heir supporters they understand that in this democracy, the commanderinchief does not use the men and women of our military, who are willing to risk everything to protect our toion, as political props deploy against Peaceful Protesters on our own soil. They understand that political opponents are not unamerican just because they disagree with you. The free press is not the enemy, but the way we hold officials our ability tot Work Together to solve big problems like a pandemic depend on a fidelity to facts and science and logic and not just making stuff up. None of this should be controversial. These should not be republican principles or democratic principles. They are american principles. But at this moment, this president , and those who enable him, have shown they do not believe in these things. Tonight, i am asking you to believe in joe and kamalas ability to lead this country out of dark times and build it back better. But here is the thing. Thisngle american can fix country alone, not even a president. Beocracy was never meant to transactional. If you give me your vote, i make everything better. Active and an informed citizenry. So i am also asking you to believe in your own ability to embrace your own responsibility as citizens, to make sure that the basic tenants of our democracy endure, because that is what is at stake right now. Our democracy. Look. I understand why a lot of americans are down on government, the way the rules have been set up and abused in Congress Make it easier for special interests to stop progress than to make progress. Believe me, i know it. A factorynd why worker who has seen his wages cut or his job shipped overseas might feel like the government no longer looks out for him, and why a black woman may feel like it never looked out for her. I understand why a new immigrant might look around the country and wonder whether there is still a place for him here. Why a young person might look at politics right now, the circus of it all, the meanness and the lies and the conspiracy theories and things. What is the point . The point. Is this president and those in power, those who benefit from keeping things the way they are, they knowting they cannot win you over with their policies, so they are hoping to make it as hard as possible for you to vote and to convince you that your vote does not matter. That is how they win. That is how they get to keep making decisions that affect your life and the lives of the people you love. The economy will keep getting skewed to the wealthy and wellconnected, how our Health Systems will let more people fall through the cra cks. That is how i democracy withers until it is no democracy at all, and we cannot let that happen. Do not let them take away your power. Do not let them take away your democracy. Right now for how you are going to get involved and vote. Do it as early as you can, and tell your family and friends how they can vote, too. Done formericans have over two centuries when faced with even tougher times than this, all of those quiet heroes who found the courage to keep marching, keep pushing in the. Ace of hardship and injustice last month, we lost a giant of american democracy in john lewis , and some years ago, i sat down with john and a few remaining leaders of the early civil rights movement. One of them told me he had never imagined he would walk into the white house and see a president who looked like his grandson. And then, he told me that he looked it up, and it turned out that on the very day that i was born, he was marching into a trying to end jim crow segregation in the south. What we do echoes through generations. Whatever our backgrounds, we are all the children of americans who fought the good fight, great grandparents working in sweatshops without rights or farmers losing their dreams to dust, irish and italians and asians and latinos told, go back to where you come from. Jews and catholics and muslims for the way they worshiped. Black americans chained and on for and hanged, spit trying to sit at lunch counters,. Eaten for trying to vote had a right to believe that this democracy did not work and could not work, it was those americans, our ancestors. They were on the receiving end of a democracy that had fallen short all of their lives. They knew how far the daily reality of america strayed from the myth. And yet, instead of giving up, they joined together, and they said, somehow, some way, we are going to make this work. We are going to bring those words in our founding documents to life. Have seen that same spirit rising these past few years. Folks of every age and background who packed city centers and airports and rural roads so that families would not be separated, so that another classroom would not get shot up, so that our kids will not grow ,p on an uninhabitable planet americans of all races joining together to declare, in the face of injustice and brutality, at the hands of the state, that black lives matter. No more, but no less. So that no child in this country feels the continuous sting of racism. To the young people who lead us this summer, telling us we need ways,better, in so many you are this countrys dreams fulfilled. Earlier generations had to be persuaded that everyone had equal worth. For you, it is a given, a conviction. And what i want you to know is that for all its messiness and frustrations, your system of selfgovernment can be harnessed to help you realize those us. Ictions for all of you can give our Democracy New meaning. You can take it to a better place. ,ou are the missing ingredient the ones who will decide whether or not america becomes the country that fully lives up to its creed. That work will continue long , but anys election chance of success depends entirely on the outcome of this. Lection this administration has shown it will tear our democracy down if that is what it takes for them to win, so we have to get busy building it up, by pouring all our efforts into these 76 days and by voting like never before for joe and kamala and candidates up and down the ticket so that we leave no doubt about what this country that we today and forr all our days to come. Stay this week, its the republicans turn. Watch President Trump and Vice President pence accept their nomination. Officially nominate them. Off. Vening session kicks andh live, livestreaming ondemand at cspan. Org. P. M. Cspan at 6 00 eastern for speeches by republican politicians. Pat buchanan, colin powell and condoleezzza rice. Cspan. Nly on your unfiltered view of politics. On the night joe biden accepted the nomination, some of the other speakers were keisha buttigieg. Ms, pete a bunch of federalized troops to help him get there. No one fought harder for your right to vote than john lewis. Here to speak about him and his legacy, we have one of our great mayors. Hello. I know you are recovering from the coronavirus. How are you feeling . Evening. Good i feel really good. Thank you for asking. My husband, on the other hand, is still having many of the lingering side effect that people talk about, but all in all, our family is doing great. Im glad to hear it, but i think a lot of americans are going to be dealing with that for a long time. I wanted to ask you something