Make the American People see why this is a gigantic mistake. Mayor lyles good afternoon. Or good morning. Its still good morning, i believe. I want to say thank you for coming out on this fabulous charlotte fall day to have a very important conversation with a very important person that we will hope to see in january, on a stage, being inaugurated as the next president of the United States. I think thats why were here. [applause] but before i talk about the seriousness of this conversation, what id like to do is make sure that everyone recognizes where we are. We are in camp north end, but more importantly, were in a place where creativity flourishes. The artists that have worked on the art that youre going to see today, we have to recognize them. Theyre people that give so much, and they dont get paid enough. And thats the kind of thing that were beginning to see. In a pandemic, we ought to be rewarding people that are doing the work that makes us better people, and thats what artists do. So i want to recognize dammit wesley. Okay. Wheres gianna . Gianna . Carla aaronlopez, marcus kaiser, frank, and john harrison. They have done the mural that says, camp north in charlotte, North Carolina build back better. And we all know whose plan that is. So thank you very much for being here this morning. I am going to say that i would like to introduce someone that youre all familiar with, someone that you probably dont know that is a big professional bowling fan, that likes minor league baseball, but ill let you figure out what you really know him for. So thank you, lets welcome our next guest. Chris how yall doing . How yall doing . Hank you so much Vice President biden, welcome to charlotte, North Carolina. It feels so good to be home. You guys know i was in a bubble for a while recently. Man, this is important. This is extremely important, and thats why im glad to be a part of this conversation. Being born and raised in North Carolina, this is home for me. Always will be home for me. And so to be a part of this conversation and to just have real conversations, we had a conversation in the back and i just thought about how grateful and privileged i am to be a part of these tough, difficult conversations, especially during this time. Being a parent, have an 11 year old son, a eight year old daughter, these times are very crucial and very important. I cant explain enough how much it means to talk about the things that have to be discussed. And you guys being here, everything is about respect. Everything is about respect. So teaching my kids about respecting the office, having these conversations, and thats why this election is important. A lot of times people say, my vote doesnt count. I come from Humble Beginnings where a lot of people where you live and stuff say, it doesnt matter. As black people, it doesnt matter. You know, if i vote, whats going to really change . We still got the same corners. Ts on the we dont have the benefits of having places to eat. You know, our homes, thats not going to change, right . So the only way that we can really enforce our power is by voting. Voting. So this conversation is unbelievably important. So glad you guys are here so that we can ask some real questions. So without further ado, i would like to introduce the next president of the United States, joe biden. Joe biden hello, hello, hello, hello. My name is joe biden. Im trying to get a job with chris. He is mr. President. Hes president of the union. Mr. President , i was kidding him. You know, the hardest thing, only thing harder than being president of a union is being the mayor of a beautiful city. Folks, thanks for taking the time to be here today. I really appreciate it. And we even have an astronaut in our house and i tell you what, thats pretty cool. First of all, i want to thank chris and the mayor for being here, and all of you for being here. You know, these are tough times. Over 200,000 americans have passed away. Over 200,000, and the number is still rising. The impact on communities is bad across the board, but particularly bad for africanamerican communities. Almost four times as likely, three times as likely to catch the disease, covid, and when its caught, twice as likely to die as White Americans. Its sort of emblematic of the inequality that exists and the circumstances that exist. One of the things that really matters to me is what we could do. It didnt have to be this bad. You have 30 Million People on unemployment, you have 20 Million People figuring whether or not they can pay their mortgage payment this month, and what theyre going to be able to do or not do as the consequence of that, and youve got millions of people who are worried that theyre going to be thrown out in the street because they cant pay their rent. Although theyve been given a reprieve for three months, but they have to pay double the next three months when it comes around. How are people going to do that . And the way, in fact, the Democratic House and the senate passed, stepped up and passed a significant amount of money to help people get through the process, including keeping businesses open and the like. Well, guess what . They insisted there being a thing called an inspector general, somebody watching where every dollar went. The first thing the president of the United States did is fire that inspector general. There is no inspector. Hes fired. Fired. And so you got 40 of, only 40 of the money intended for Small Businesses going to Small Businesses. Only 40 of it. 60 has gone to the maralago crowd. In addition to that, we find ourselves in a circumstance where the idea that were going to continue to provide for Unemployment Insurance for people is very much in doubt, although the house just passed a package today. My generic point is, that the university of columbia pointed out, that if in fact the president had acted, even though we know now he knew exactly how bad the pandemic was back in , hes on tape with bob woodward saying he knew how bad it was, and he didnt say a thing. He didnt say a thing. If he had spoken, as i said, they said at columbia, one week earlier, 37,000 more people be alive today. Were going to have another influx of cases, just between now and january, its expected that were going to have somewhere between, depending on which estimate you take, between 138,000 and 178,000 more deaths. And if people just do what were doing here, and when youre at a social distance, as i am, you can take a mask off, but wear a mask. They estimate that would save to 90,000e to 89,000 people. And so, its about being responsible. Its about being responsible. And were not being very responsible. But what i want to talk to you about today is that we have to break a cycle. The cycle that exist is that the Africanamerican Community by and large finds itself at the bottom of the economic heap, businesses and others, when things are good. When things get bad, theyre the first ones in the hole. And when things get better, theyre the last ones out. In addition to that, we have a criminal Justice System that needs significant repair. And were just only beginning, slightly, to make some progress now. And thirdly, if youre a business person, let me put it this way. Every person out there wants an opportunity to make it for their family. My dad used to have an expression, everybodys entitled to be treated with dignity. And then he said, joey, a job is about a lot more than a paycheck. Its about your dignity. Its about respect. Its about your place in the its about being able to hold community. Its about being able to hold your head up. Its about being able to look your kid in the eye and say, honey, everythings going to be okay. For too many people, particularly in the Africanamerican Community, they cant say that. Thats not able to be done. So one of the things that i want to talk with you about today, is how do we build wealth . Because ultimately, ultimately the Africanamerican Community only is going to have its place equal to everyone else when theyre in a position to be able to build wealth, be able to build wealth. And that goes for everything from access to being able to purchase a home, access to jobs, access to just being able to have an even shot. And thats what i hope were going to talk a little about today. It goes to education, as well as access to education, access beyond. Everything from a lot of poor whites and africanamericans, poor africanamericans and hispanic live in title i districts, meaning that they live in School Districts that have a very low tax base. And right now we spent 15 billion a year to compensate for that low tax base. I increased that to 45 billion. What it does, it keeps teachers in schools because were short teachers significantly. 125,000 teachers short right now. Be over half a million by 2023. In addition to that, we find ourselves in a circumstance where we used to have in our schools, in the old days, used do have 1 right now we dont have any, we virtually have no School Psychologists in our schools. And so teachers come in to school and theyre expected to solve every problem. Well, theres one School Psychologist for every 1,507 kids in school. It should be closer to one to we can do that by increasing the 500. Money i just talked about from 15 to 45. And send every single child thats three years old, four years old, and five years old, not to daycare, but to school. All the studies of the great universities in this state and every other have pointed out in the last eight years, thatll increase by 58 their chances of going all the way through school, no matter what the zip code they come from, no matter where they are, and be able to do it without getting themselves in trouble. And then were going to talk about, i think a big issue here is access to apprenticeships and access to Community Colleges and college, and the student debt requirements that are there. Hope we can talk about that. But i want to talk about basic one big important thing. Dynamic . Change that this is a gigantic opportunity. As bad as things have gotten, the blinders have sort of been taken off the American People now. They look out there, and we have the pandemic, unemployment. We have Race Relations that are just been drawn into focus and everything from Police Brutality to lack of access. But the American People have all of a sudden, average people have gone, my lord, holy mackerel, i didnt know it was this bad. A lot of them didnt know. Allotted but a lot didnt know it was this bad. Well, i wont go into it. Im talking too much now in my opening statement, but heres the point. The point is, i believe we have a gigantic opportunity, a gigantic opportunity to fundamentally change the systemic racism and the systemic problems that exist in our system. And i think we have to do it, but only one way to do it. Weve got to show up and vote. But i believe the American People are not going to be turned off. I believe no matter what the administration does to try to make it hard to vote for everyone, not just people of color, but everyone, no matter what, i think theyre going to vote. You see whats happened in virginia, early voting. They have four hour lines in the first day, and were over 40 days out. People are going to show up and vote. They will not be dissuaded. And so thats why im optimistic. I was asked by one of the foreign leaders when i was overseas, when i was the Vice President , they said, can you define america for me . I said, yes, i can, in one word. Possibilities. Possibilities. Were the only country that believes anythings possible. But its about time we make it possible for everybody . Thats what this is all about. I think we got a gigantic opportunity in the year 2020 to and with that, as my mother make these changes. And with that, as my mother would say, im going to hush up and take any questions you all and ive got to get out of the have. And ive got to get out of the way here. Mayor lyles the first question were going to ask, our hometown star. [inaudible] chris far from a star, but appreciate it. My first question, you sort of spoke about education. And for me, im the only person in my family to go to an hbcu. And you, right down the street from johnson c. Smith, North Carolina is known for having a lot of hbcus. My question would be, theres a lot thats not properly funding, sort of going under, so what would you sort of like to see, or what could you do for the historically black colleges and universities . Mr. Biden i was kidding chris inside. I was saying as long as i can say what the best hbcu is in america, Delaware State University. But thats another issue. Thats a joke, but its not a joke theyre great. Thats how i by the way. , i went to the university of delaware. But the reason i got involved in politics in the first place is because of what was going on in my state in terms of segregation and in terms of dr. King being assassinated. Part of the, major part of our city was burned to the ground. Thats how i got engaged. And a lot of my support came out of that hbcu. Look, right now, one thing all the data shows is that, given an opportunity, an equal opportunity, theres not a single thing that an africanamerican cant do that a White American can do, that a hispanic american, an asian american. I mean, not a single thing. And so, whats happened . Its about access to opportunity and access to good jobs. Now, an awful lot of universities like, Great University like unc or wake forest, a lot of schools, they have endowments, and the endowment allows them to provide for the circumstance to bid for these major federal initiatives that allow them to bring into the school a technology or a program that is able to bring in outside sponsors, as well as government sponsors, and then have students work in those areas. For example, cybersecurity. Cybersecurity is a big deal, but you have to and as a future, theres going to be millions of, over time, good paying jobs in the area of cybersecurity. But because the hbcus, for example, most of them dont have the economic, they dont have the endowment to be able to build the facilities that can attract the environment, the government funding, as well as private endowment. They dont get to set these up. For example, when i was Vice President , we went down to roanoke and we provided funding for an hbcu to have a cybersecurity proposal. They did it. They got the contract. And now what theyre doing are training young women and men wholl get out and good starting jobs, jobs where you can end up being paid more than 100,000 a year. And theyre fully, totally, thoroughly capable. Proposed,done is ive and well get this done, i proposed a 10year program for 70 billion for hbcus, 70 billion. And that 70 billion will be available through the hbcus based on their competition to get access to it, but everyone will qualify, every hbcu. And theyll be able to do the kinds of things that other universities do. For example, Delaware State University is a Great University. The president of the university is a young man who used to work for me in my senate office. Now, brilliant guy. Hes a doctorate. The end result of it is though when the university of delaware makes an application for dealing with solar energy, because it has a significant base, it gets this significant injection of technological capability, or, for example, light metals. They took over an old facility, it used to be a ford facility long, long time ago. They took over a facility used to be a chrysler facility and got shut down. And now what do they have at that facility . They have people in that facility who are now doing metallurgy that relate to making lightweight aluminum and metal decks for aircraft carriers. Well, its a multimillion dollar and will end up being a billiondollar project. And so the people who get to work on that, the very students in that University Get to work on it, theyre the ones that are going to go out and get these great jobs. So thats the first thing im going to do for hbcus. Secondly, we have to look at, and we have been looking at, the idea that we have to bring in hbcus to engage in more of what we are doing in terms of our national dialogue. And for example, i kid two of the guys that are on my cosponsors of my campaign, africanamericans, theyve talked about themselves as morgan men. Im a morgan man. Well, theres a lot of great universities including right here, but we have an opportunity to provide for, youre able to those universities. How can you do it . Well, im going to see to it that any family, anyone who comes from a family that makes a total income of less than 125,000 a year gets free college education. They dont get in. If they get in and qualify, they pay nothing to go to college. Secondly, there are also programs that exist now that if you provide for the work, that you will volunteer to do something in the public interest, and you do it for five years or more, you can deduct 10, 000 a year up to 50,000 off of that debt you have. And you have an awful lot of young africanamericans that have graduated. The average debt is about 19,000 a year. Well, its hard as hell to get started. Hard to get started when you have that debt hanging over your head. The average debt is even higher. Its up to 28,000 a year, someone graduating from a four year school. And thats why the economists had predicted prior to, and ill end with this, im telling you too much, but because im pretty passionate about this. What happens is that if, it was pointed out before the covid crisis, that were going to have an economic slowdown because the entire generation, this from 9 11 generation through to the generation now, and coming out of this, this godawful circumstance were in, they, in fact, are not going to have the wherewithal because of student debt to be able to borrow the money to buy a home, buy a new vehicle, buy an apartment, and spend the money and capital, where a significant portion of our economy is driven by consumption, by consumption. And this generation, this whole new generation from 9 11 on, that in fact is, theyre not in a position to be able to do it. So theres a whole lot of reasons that economically this will benefit. This isnt just draining money. And by the way, i pay for every one of these things by the way, i deal with the tax structure. But thats another story. So thats a piece of what i think we can and should be doing with hbcus. And secondly, i will, in my administration, elevate, elevate the standing of hbcus by the people in my administration as well. Mayor lyles thank you, mr. Vice president. The Vice President would like to hear from you, so id like to recognize someone that might have a question for this forum. Yes . Hi, im hannah bonaparte. I just was like wondering what are you going to do about minimum wage . Mr. Biden were going to raise it to 15 an hour nationally. Ive been deeply involved in raising it as ive gone around the country working with cities and counties that in fact have raised it, including new york city and out on the west coast, as well. Heres the deal. If you make less than 15 an hour working 40 hours a week, youre making a wage under the poverty level. No one in america should be working for a 40hour week job and still be living in poverty. It should not exist. Number one. Number two, it also demonstrates that if we pay people 15 an hour as a minimum wage, you grow the economy. The idea that this somehow puts people out of business, theres no evidence of that. What happens is you have people, if youre making 15 bucks an hour instead of 7 an hour, youre able to buy more things. Youre able to pay more bills. Youre able to do more that ends up increasing the gdp, the growth of the whole economy. So its not only a good thing for the person who is going to be making a decent wage from the beginning, but going to be good for the economy as a whole. Mayor lyles next question. Yes, please. Hi, im andrea brown. Im a second grade teacher. Nice to meet you. Mr. Biden my mother would say, god love you, dear. Its been difficult, but thank you. Thank you, chris, for bringing up education and the hbcus, but as far as k12 education, how do you plan to push access to Educational Equity . Mr. Biden well, it is a simple proposition for me, i dont exaggerate as a second grade teacher, why youre so important. If i had only 1 to spend in education and i could spend it postgraduation or prekindergarten, id spend it prekindergarten. Not a joke. Because you know as well as i do based on your educational background, that 60 of a childs brain is already developed by the time theyre three, four, five years old. Right. Mr. Biden and so what happens is, people start off based on their zip code and their family background. They may start off way behind the curve. You know you have a lot of students who they come into , school, if they come from a very poor background in a community raised by a single mom or a single dad, through no fault of their own, they will have probably heard 1 million fewer words spoken by the time they get to first grade. That by itself is an impediment. Nobodys forced that on anybody, but weve got to change it. And so the way to change it is threefold. Number one, as i said, provide for early education, starting at three years of age, and its not this is you think, oh my lord, why we have a threeyearold go to school . They learn as rapidly as a sixyearold, a 12yearold, a 14yearold. And they just suck it all up. They just suck it all up. Number one. Number two, to make sure that we pay teachers enough money to stay in the business of teaching. My wifes a fulltime teacher. My wife has never stopped. As first lady, as the second lady, i should say, she taught 15 credits every semester at a community college. Before that, she taught juniors and seniors in high school for 25 years. I think it was 25. My point is, a long time. Although, im not allowed to tell the exact number because my wife is 30 years younger than i am. [laughter] i started off not quite that much. Theres no woman in the entire biden family as old as any man, but thats another issue. All kidding aside, the fact is these children they are all of our children. They are the kite strings that lift our National Ambitions aloft. Its bizarre, crazy for us. In every single empirical study done, the more money you spend, the better you educate a child throughout the process, the better the community as a whole is. Everybody. Across the board so that is why we also have to make sure that we provide for more direct funding for specific programs in schools. Federal funding. As you know better than most , will know, the bulk of all the funding, if your school uses local funding. Its not national funding. Its not federal funding. But federal funding can focus on particular needs within schools. One of those is access to equal education in the early grades and not be determined by your zip code. That requires us to spend more money on schools that in fact, and teachers, look, im not going to ask you what you make. One of the other things that all the studies have shown is that when youre in a student body where theres students of color, it makes a gigantic difference if there are teachers of color, particularly male teachers of color. Definitely. Mr. Biden a gigantic difference. Its just a factual predicate. So we have to encourage schools of education to attract more people of color to get in and teach. The only way to do that is to raise the salaries. Raise the salaries. The idea that a teacher is out there after several years making 40,000, you have, probably, a student debt larger than that. For real. Thats why the last piece of the student debt. Anybody who has a student debt who teaches, that counts as working for the national interest. You get to deduct 10,000 of that student debt per year for five years, and up to 50,000 if youre teaching. Thats amazing. Mr. Biden and we can afford this by the way. , this is not something that we just to give you a little idea. I carry this card with me because everybody says, well, bidens going to raise all these taxes, and everybodys going to be in trouble, and what were going to do here lets see if i can find it. If i have it here. Anyway, i have a list of how i will fund every single thing that im talking about. For example, if we just made corporations not pay 21 , and 91 of the fortune 500 Companies Pay no tax zero, zero, okay, none , if we just made them pay 28 , it used to be 38 , we make them pay 28 , and everybody had to pay it, that would raise a total of 1,370,000,000,000. Im not trying to punish anybody. Its time for everybody to start paying their fair share. Right. Mr. Biden the has a new proposal. Some of you may like it. I dont know anybody in my neighborhood know it works very well, and that is another 30 billion tax cut for billionaires. You think im making it like billionaire. I sound like bernie sanders, billionaires are bad. Thats not the problem. The problem is in reducing the Capital Gains tax, if you make your money off investments as opposed to sweating your brow or walking up and getting a paycheck, right . He thinks you should only have to pay 15 of your income. So you will pay more as a School Teacher than somebody making 20 million bucks. Its all coming from investments. Its not right. Dont want to punish anybody. Just about time everybody pays their fair share. In the way i do that is i raise the tax back for millionaires and billionaires to 39. 4 . Not what they are talking about 90 . , thats not true. It was 39. 4 when bush was president. You just raise that tax rate back up to 39. 4 . That raises 6 . That raises 90 billion. Just to give you an example. Theres much more i could talk, but my point is and by the way, i went to undergraduate and graduate school. But i was very flattered that i think it is 14 Nobel Laureates in economics, just endorsed me, and said my plans make sense. All this stuff about bidens going to bankrupt the country and biden is going to spend 400 billion, and youre going to raise your taxes, not true. We can do it all by just Somebody Just starting to pay your fair share. Thats all. Thats all. Give people who need a break, a break. Thank you. Mr. Biden thank you. Mayor lyles we have time for one more question. Well, i think were going to have time for two more questions, if thats okay, mr. Vicepresident. Mr. Biden maybe three. [laughter] i know im in trouble. I apologize. Mayor lyles maybe three. Hello. Nice to meet you. My name is subrina collier. My husband and i, chef greg collier restaurants here in charlotte. One, uptown yolk, and one here in camp north end, leah and louise. As you know, the restaurants have been hit severely hard the past i think it be seven months now . A lot of us, which are Small Business owners and small minority business owners, didnt receive as much relief, nationally. The city of charlotte has been amazing with offering grants and things that we can float us over and still pay our employees, but we still had to cut staff. We still had to cut hours. What would be the relief for a Small Business owner, specifically restaurants . Is there a plan to give us some type of relief . I dont know, a tax cut, anything. Mr. Biden yes. There was a big plan to do it. Theres a modal plan. First of all, the c. A. R. E. S. Act, which passed out of the house and senate, which was a total of 2 trillion overall, twice, was supposed to provide what they called the main Street Lending program. For four months, it didnt lend a penny. None of the money went out, number one, because you got 20 republicans in the senate who said they dont want to spend anything on anything, for real. The president who has, as i said, fired the inspector general, so you dont know where the money is going for certain. Secondly, on the Early Program for Small Businesses, and a Small Business is defined of fewer than 50 employees. Now, most Small Businesses that are neighborhood Small Businesses are 10 or fewer employees. So, what i propose is we focus on making sure that the money goes directly to those businesses that in fact provide for being able to keep their employees on the payroll for the 10 or fewer employees. Thats a priority, and then 50 and under. Heres whats happened. Whats happened is that not only has that not occurred, a lot of the money has gone to very big businesses that didnt need it to stay alive. Even when they got it, what did they do . The commitment that i proposed, and we thought we had done, is that right now, if you get a government bailout, quote, unquote, loan to stay alive, what you cannot do is take that money and either buy back your own stock and, or increase your salaries with that money. Its to keep people employed, keep them on a payroll. Secondly and that is what a lot of the businesses have done. They buy back their own stock, increasing the net worth of the people who own the stock, and in fact, pay their salaries based on stock. They should not be allowed to do that, number one, with government money bailing people out. Secondly, a lot of you dont know the circumstance. Now theres no National Standards as to how to open. How do you open safely . President says, just put up a sign. Come on in. Well, you know your employee. Beyond your employees, your customers are going to go, i dont know. I mean, does everybody have to have the mask . Do they have dividers in the restaurant . Tell me how the sanitary conditions are working. Well, you need money to pay for all that stuff. Thats why we proposed to have a multibillion Dollar Program where businesses are able to get the money, not borrow the money, get the money to be able to open in the middle of this pandemic, including fixing the testing fiasco. You should be in a situation where your employees can, in 24 hours, get a test to determine whether or not theyre positive or negative. You need to do that for your own protection, and the public likes to know that is protection that that there is protection against anything that happens within your restaurant. The bottom line is the money is already there. The president is just not releasing it. Department is not releasing the money. Its all done in order to be able to keep the economy moving. Right now, we have over 30 Million People on unemployment, over 30 million in unemployment. How in gods name are we going to generate Economic Growth unless we can figure out how to keep these people back and help you get back in business . Its the same way with schools. How many schools are not opening because there are no National Standards set . No National Standards set. For example, there is an outfit am i telling you too much . You want me to stop . [laughter] mayor lyles no, no. [laughter] mr. Biden okay. Im really good at this. This drives me crazy. Right now, were in a situation where if you take a look, there is no National Standard for how to open schools, how to open them safely, because the president says, i have no responsibility. Thats not my response literally, that is his phrase. Its not my responsibility. Im not the blame for any of this. Let the governors or the mayors take care of it, and then without the financial help thats needed to be able to take care of it. Ive laid out in detail back in july, what wed have to do to open safely and includes providing the protective ppe, the mask, and other things that are needed, gloves, et cetera, for the schools, the School Teachers, and for the children coming to school. Secondly, you have to reduce the number of students in one room. You have to have modules that are smaller. For that, you need more teachers, not fewer teachers. You got to pay more teachers. Number three, youve got to be able to sanitize the schools, whether its everything from the water fountain to the lavatory, or just the surfaces that are touched, and what is breathed on by people. That costs a lot of money to do that, like it would for a restaurant as well for you to have to do that. The money is there, available, to do that, but the president refuses. What he says is just open up and make sure that school should just open up. It also relates to how far down youve got the reinfection rate. If its down below one, then its rational. You can, with those protections, go ahead and open a school, but watch it very closely. It requires testing and tracing to make sure youre still on course there. Look, the other thing is that if you think about it, the fema, they had agreed that they were going to provide masks for schools. They started to hand them out to schools. Well, guess what . The president didnt like that, or somebody didnt like that. So they said, though ruling was made, opening schools safely is not a national emergency, so they stopped it. Refusing to even provide masks for schools because its not a national emergency. Well, if this isnt a national emergency, i dont know what the hell is. The way were doing this is the way i will end with this. The president was in ohio, i guess a couple of days ago at a rally. I dont want to misquote him. And he said at the rally and i wrote this down, he said that we virtually turned the corner. Nobody is really dying. He said, yeah, elderly people are dying and theyre dying because they have heart conditions, or other, but quote unquote, virtually, theyre virtually nobodies. Theyre the only ones dying. So you go home and your mom is gone, your dads gone. Hes a virtual nobody . The idea, the way were talking about people, and this is all within our power to do something. The virus wasnt his fault, but the way hes handled it has been close to criminal. And so many people, breaking their necks and by the way, my deceased wife, when i first got married, i married a beautiful woman from syracuse, new york, skaneateles, new york. And i got elected and i was 29yearsold. I come from a very modest family. Not bragging about it, but i was listed as the poorest man in congress for 36 years. Because i didnt think you were supposed to earn any money while youre there other than your salary. And then when i got elected Vice President , one of the press outlets said, its probable no man has ever been assuming the office of Vice President with fewer assets than joe biden. I hope they werent talking intellectual assets. When i got elected when i was 29, i was in washington before i was sworn in and i got a phone call from my Fire Department saying my wife and daughter have just been killed. And my two boys were not likely to make it. A tractor trailer broadsided them while they were christmas shopping. At the time, my wifes father, my fatherinlaw, he came home from world war ii and he had owned a restaurant. He was a cook in world war ii in the navy and he ended up opening up a restaurant in a place called auburn, new york, a town of about 20,000 people, just south of syracuse. And it became the Meeting Place for everybody. Its a place that doctors would start off the morning getting their coffee and the lawyers would have their lunch and kids after graduations would come to the restaurant called hunter dinerant, and then he opened up other restaurants. And in order to try to convince me to stay i dont blame him, i would do the same with my daughter, he tried to convince after he graduated to take a job in upstate new york, rather than go back to delaware. He offered me his prize diner. And he was making at that time, i would have made five times what i made as a lawyer. In starting lawyers salary is 6,000 and it was 30,000 a year. But the problem was for three five years, i watched how hard he worked. I dont know how you do it. You got to love it. Even in good times they think youre crazy. Its 24 hours a day, but you deserve a break and your employees deserve a break. And the fact that youre fighting so hard to keep them on a job is a testament to the kind of people you are. But i promise you, i guarantee you if im elected, youll get both the ppe, also the money to be able to open and the additional money, not only to maintain your employees, but to maintain an open place that you in fact can. Ive met with a lot of restaurateurs up and around the country so they can open up and do everything from having plastic shields in front of the cashiers, to a lot of things you can do to make it safe, make it safe, and youll get the help. Thank you so much. Mr. Biden thank you. I can really do yes or no if you ask me the easy questions. Mayor lyles all right, so we have one more easy question. Mr. Biden whatever you want to ask. Mayor lyles an easy question. This is one of my colleagues he serves on the Charlotte City council, Malcolm Graham with me. Mr. Biden i used to be a city councilman i ran for the senate because it was too hard. They know where you live. [laughter] Malcolm Graham exactly. First, i want to thank you. You honored me and my family by sending a Video Tribute for my sister, Cynthia Graham hurd. Mr. Biden oh my lord, i apologize. I didnt know. Im sorry. Malcolm graham no, no, no, no, no. She was, as you know killed at , the Emanuel Ame Church shooting in charleston. And so my question is how do you reimagine the Justice Department and specifically the civil , Rights Division after four years of trump . Mr. Biden well, first of all, and i guess ill just say it. This has been the most corrupt administration in modern american history. The Justice Department has turned into the president s private law firm. He actually has them representing him on women who accused him of rape. I mean where does that come , from . And the Justice Department under my administration will be totally independent of me. I will not direct them who to prosecute, how to prosecute, what to prosecute. I will not enter their decisions based upon the judgments they make about what cases they bring and they dont bring. With regard to the civil Rights Division, i would significantly increase two things. One, civil rights presence in the Justice Department elevated so it has access to and transparency to all Police Departments activities across the country. Just so they are aware that its transparent whats going on. I would also make sure that i elevate the Justice Department, excuse me, the civil Rights Division to have a direct office with inside the white house. When, for example, im the guy that wrote the violence against women act when the president asked me what i wanted as Vice President , i said, i want to have jurisdiction over that act inside the white house. Because it elevates the standing of whatever that office that comes inside the white house. So i would make sure theres a combination of the civil Rights Division having more direct authority inside the Justice Department, and being able to investigate than in fact it has now. But most of all, most of all, i would have an attorney general who understood his oath of office. Its not a joke. The attorney general has the oath of office that in fact could do and move on what the professionals in the department thought had to be pursued without my interfering to say, no, theyre my friends or i know them or go after this person. Go after hillary, you know what i mean . This kind of stuff. I get asked the question all the time by the press that travels with me, although im not sure the same ones that are traveling today have asked it, but i get asked the following question. If in fact you get elected, would you prosecute trump . Would you pursue prosecuting trump . And the answer is, im not going to pursue prosecuting anybody. Im going to do what the Justice Department says should be done, should be done and not politicize it. Its the most dangerous thing thats happened so far is the politicization of the department of justice. Its become the department of trump, and thats wrong. Mayor lyles thank you mr. Vice president for the very, very heartfelt feelings, but more importantly for having policies that really follow who you are as a person. So on behalf of all of the people that are here today, thank you for giving us your time, but more importantly, giving us the changes that you see for our country. We really appreciate that. Mr. Biden thank you. Whos the fellow who runs 26 organizations for housing . Public . I know we didnt get a chance to talk. Because i think what youre doing is incredibly consequential. And i would like to give you a paper on the way out all what i think we can and should do. It is very detailed. And id love your feedback. Ill put a phone number on it, okay . Because it is a gigantic, gigantic, gigantic undertaking. And unless we can get people into housing, unless we can provide for housing, unless we can stop the gentrification where people are left out, then were going to be in real trouble. And what youre doing is really im not trying to boost him. Ive never met the gentleman, but i did read your bio and what youre working on. And id really like your input and may be call you, if i could come after you get what im proposing in detail and see what we can work out. Part of the reason i do this and what i miss about being able to do larger engagements is this is where i learn. Im a tactical guy. I mean, id rather be shaking your hand and looking you in the eye and you telling me what needs to be done. But i would like your and dont be reluctant at all to criticize my plan if you think it doesnt make sense. I think its pretty good. Ive worked on it really, really hard. It goes from section 8 housing all the way to firsttime home buyers, to the whole notion of these anyway, im going to give it to you before i leave, okay . Youre very polite to sit here all this time. Thank you. Thank you, everybody. I really appreciate it. Mayor lyles thank you very much. Well, mr. Vice president , i understand were going to have a group photo, so everybody has their mask on and im going to follow the instructions of the photographer on top of the ladder. So does everyone turn and mr. Vice president chris . Mr. Biden dont jump. [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2020] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy, visit ncicap. Org] [chatter] mr. Biden is this still on . I want to thank you again, every time i would walk out of my grandpas house in scranton, he would yell joey, keep the faith. And my grandmother would yell no, joey, spread the faith. Go spread it. We can do this. We can really do this. Thank you. [applause] the first president ial debate between President Trump and former Vice President joe biden is tuesday night at 9 00 eastern from cleveland. Watch live on cspan. Biden is recklessly campaigning against this vaccine. His campaign is very reckless. And all of this is for political reasons. Political reasons. Biden, his whole deal is catastrophic shutdown. And again in his own words, reported by bob woodward, the president knew back in february that this was an extremely dangerous communicable disease. Think about it. How many people across, how many empty chairs around those dinner tables . Because of his negligence and selfishness . Watch the first president ial debate live from cleveland tuesday night on cspan. Stream live or ondemand on cspan. Org debate or listen live on the cspan radio app. With the ongoing Global Pandemic and many schools shifting to online learning, competitiondentcam continues to provide students a platform to engage international conversation. We are asking middle and High School Students to provide a documentary exploring the issues they most want the president and new congress to address in 2021. The framers of the constitution were invested in as shown incas the fifth and eighth amendment. Becoming voters and engaged citizens. Because democracy must be learned. From in equity to a tumultuous path to citizenship for children who are born here but their parents individually migrated here, immigration system has failed many people. We are awarding 100,000 in total cash prizes, including a grand prize of 5,000. The deadline to submit videos is january 20, 2021. For competition rules and more information on how to get started, go to our website, studentcam. Org. Look at our live coverage on thursday. On cspan, the house is back at 9 00 a. M. For general speeches followed by legislative business at 11 00. Members are considering nearly 100 amendment to a bill that establishes clean energy initiatives. On cspan2, the Senate Returns at 10 00 a. M. To vote on the nomination of Broderick Young to be a u. S. District judge for eastern virginia. On cspan three, treasury secretary Steven Mnuchin and fed chair Jerome Powell appear on capitol hill for the second time this week to justify on the Economic Impact of the coronavirus. That the Senate Banking hearing gets underway at 10 00 a. M. Eastern. There are several events streaming live in our website tuesday. At 10 00 a. M. , fbi director Christopher Wray testifies before the Senate HomelandSecurity Committee about worldwide threats. At 1 00 p. M. , ehouse agriculture said committee looks at Wildfire Response and recovery efforts. And our campaign 2020 coverage includes President Trump hosting a rally in florida. That is all live at cspan. Org. Journal, on washington we discussed North Carolinas role as a battleground state this Election Year with Political Science professor jason