My mother and father brought me and my Three Sisters to south florida in the hopes of building a Better Future for us. My immigration story is one that so many here in miami are familiar with. We are a community of immigrants from all over. From cuba, to haiti, to nicaragua, and in my case, venezuela. My parents had a successful and happy life in venezuela. But our life there was getting worse every day. Leaving was not easy. They left everything behind and started from scratch here in south florida. Like many immigrant children, i remember seeing my parents at their most vulnerable, uncertain of whether or not they would be able to provide for me and my sisters. I had to grow up earlier than other kids, helping out at home and doing what i could to help my parents adjust to life in america. It is never an easy transition, but that is part of the reason why miami is so strong. Its because immigrants are tough, we are resilient, we persevere. Joe biden sees that. He knows that immigrants make america stronger. On december 20, 2019, i finally became a citizen. I remember seeing my parents that day, overcome with emotion and pride. After so many years, we were finally citizens of this country we call home. This country that we love. As soon as i became a citizen, i registered to vote. And this november, i will be casting my first vote in a president ial general election for joe biden. [applause] joe shares the values that are important to our families. Empathy, humility, faith, and compassion. That is why i am so proud to be with you here today, to introduce the woman who has shown us that love can make a broken family whole. She shows us that love makes us flexible and resilient. I know that love was what held my family together during our journey to america, and it is what will bring us together as a country. Miami, it is my privilege and honor to introduce the next first lady of the United States, a woman who will help unite us as americans, dr. Jill biden. [applause] dr. Jill biden thank you, victoria. You know, like so Many Americans, i am the granddaughter of immigrants. And the values they brought here from italy shaped our family for generations. And i know that thats your experience, and your heritage, and your commitment to this country will shape your community for the better, as well. So, congratulations for your citizenship, victoria, and thank you for your support. [applause] and hello, miami you know, it is great [cheering and applause] you know, it is so great to be back in the city that we love. Especially to be here in little haiti, seeing some of our old friends and meeting some new ones. So, how is everybody feeling today . Great . Good. Are you ready to get to work . So, over these last few years, so many parents have told me that they have more questions than answers. For example, what if i lose my job . What if a shooting occurs at my kids school . How do i tell my kids to be kind, when our leaders do not live up to that same standard . Isnt parenthood hard enough without all this chaos . You know, motherhood came to me in a way that i never expected. I fell in love with a man, and two little boys, standing in the wreckage of unthinkable loss. Mourning a wife and a mother, a daughter and sister. I never imagined that at the age of 26, i would be asking myself, how do you make a broken family whole . Still, joe always told the boys, mommy sent jill to us, and how could i argue with her . So we figured out together, in those moments that would go by too fast, thanksgiving, and state football championships, birthdays and weddings. In the mundane ones that we did not even know were shaping our lives. Reading stories piled on the couch, rowdy sunday dinners, and silly arguments, listening to the faint sounds of laughter that would float downstairs, as joe put the kids to bed every while i studied for grad the dinner dishes still waiting in the think area we found that love holds a family together. Love makes us flexible and resilient. More thanus to become ourselves, together. It cant protect us from the sorrows of life, but it gives us refuge, a home. So how do you make a broken family whole . The same way you make a nation whole, with love and understanding and with small acts of kindness, with bravery, and with unwavering faith. You show up for each other in big ways and small ones, again and again. You areat so many of doing right now. For loved ones, for complete strangers, for your cities. That is especially true in the hispanic community. So many of you are on the front lines or running the Small Businesses that keep our city strong. You remind us that the heart of this nation still beats with kindness and courage. Gods mom used to say that never gives us a cross too heavy to carry, and i saw him live out that faith. No one knows resilience like my husband. He has faced his share of tragedies. Purpose, can give you empathy that runs deep, resilience that cant be taken away, urgency to do everything you can in what little time you have. And joe put those gifts to work. He spent his entire career listening and bringing people together. He will be a president for all of us. Us,he has a plan for all of rebuildhis pandemic, to , to reimagine a future that is better than ever, but he cant do it without you, miami, because this is our moment. There are no do overs. There is no time to sit by and watch what happens. We have to decide what happens. So will you join us . Will you help us help us show that our nation will never settle for less than our highest aspirations . Will you stand with joe biden and Kamala Harris . Because when you do, we know we will win. [applause] i have to leave a little early because i am going to talk with my friends el gordo y la flaca. Im sure you know it. Before i do, i want to ask you for a commitment. I want you all to make me a promise. If you havent registered to vote, do it now. The deadline is today and then i need everyone to vote early. Finally, i want to say thank you. Thank you for all you do for your communities. Thank you for showing up now, when it matters most, and thank you for your faith in an idea that is bigger than any one of us, and that is that we will becausebetter nation, we will do this together. Thank you and congratulations, victoria. The stagewelcome to spanish] ng in good afternoon. Miami when i was nine. I am a veteran and a single mom with two teenage daughters who i love more than anything, and i am proud to serve this community as a nurse in the jackson hole system. I chose to become a nurse because my grandmother was a nurse in cuba before she came to this country for a better life. Like my grandmother, i love what i do. I love helping people. It is in my blood. I spent eight years serving my country in the Army Reserves as an operating room technician. After my time in the military, i attended Nursing School in miami and have been serving the community for 27 years. Today i work at Jackson South and i love what i do. I love my job. Hit, it hitid19 miami hard. Epicenter forn this virus, and it was difficult for our patients, but also for my fellow Health Care Workers and my colleagues. It didnt have to be this bad. I am supporting joe for president because he has a plan and he is going to beat covid19. I know joe is fighting to protect the Affordable Care act and make sure health care is a right for everyone. I know joe will look out for Health Care Workers who are on the front lines of this pandemic. I am supporting joe because i know he will be a president for working people. Working people made this country and deserve to have a seat at the table. Thats why i joined my union. Joe will bring us together as a country and, united, we can build back this country better than it has ever been. I love miami. We are a city of immigrants, working people, with many different cultures. We need a president who embraces that and will fight for us. Honor to is my introduce our next president , a man who will always have our back, joe biden. [applause] spanish]] in mr. Biden good afternoon, everyone. It is great to be back in miami. Thank you, esther. Has been, unfortunately, a considerable consumer of health care. Please all sit down. I have learned from personal experience as my sons, my daughter, my wife, my family has learned, if there are any angels in heaven, they are all nurses, male and female. Docs let you live. Nurses make you want to live. I mean it. They are there through tough times. By the way, thank you for your service in the military, but also thank you four, at the beginning of this pandemic, being a surgical nurse was not easy when there was not ppe available as you walked into operating rooms and dealt with all the problems. My soninlaw is a physician, surgeon, in philadelphia. The beginning of this process, when we should have had everything available, shortages. Thank you for your skill, courage, and bravery. I want to thank you for the care and dedication that you and all your fellow sciu members, all you nurses who show up struggling with illness or coping with the loss of loved ones during these terrible times. So many of you had to hold a phone to a patients year to say goodbye to a Family Member because they could not see them in the hospital as they passed. I want to thank victoria for sharing her familys journey with us today. Victoria and i were talking earlier. I was in south asia speaking with the president and he asked andhat made america unique i said, immigration because it is the history of this country. He looked at me funny and said, why is that . Everybodyause almost who has come here, other than those who came in chains, came because they were escaping something. It took enormous courage to leave everything they knew, everything that was familiar, sometimes leaving Family Members, to get on a boat, plane, train, to be able to leave and start a new life. To do that, you have to have optimism, courage. You have to be resilient. You have to be willing to believe you can make things change for the better. Thats what built this country, immigration. We are not figuratively a nation of immigrants. Thats why we are the most unique and strongest nation in the world. Estherske yours and have made this country what it is through hard work, faith, and perseverance. Miamichness and beauty of is built through the connection of family, culture, and values we share with our friends throughout the caribbean and latin america. Earlier this afternoon i visited little haiti. It had been some years since i had been there when the earthquake occurred and i delivered some assistance to the Haitian Community as well as making sure we had temporary protected status granted. And nowcoastal complex a site named for one of cubas most celebrated poets and thinkers. This city is living proof of the incredible strength we draw from families and communities from every culture choosing america. Thank you, victoria, for choosing us. I am really honored you are going to vote for me in your first election. I promise you i will not let you down. [applause] let me also say at the top my prayers continue to be with the president and first lady for their health and safety, as, like so Many American families, they are dealing with covid19. I was glad to see the president in recorded videos over the weekend. Now that he is busy tweeting campaign messages, i would ask him to do this listen to the scientists, support masks, support a mask mandate nationwide. Require masks in every facility. Urge every governor to do the same. We know it saves lives. The Administration Just rejected a mask mandate for Public Transportation on friday. The cta came along and said, we need to be protected, and they said no. I believe that was wrong and not very rational. Maskingsay universal could save, between now and january, 100,000 lives. Let me say that again. Between now and january, mandatory masking could save 100,000 lives. Backed that mandate months ago. He should mask it now. Since friday, more than 100,000 more people have been diagnosed with covid. This week, at least 5000 more will die. Cases and deaths are climbing in many states. Recoverye president s is swift and successful, but our nation to covid crisis is far from over. Today my prayers are with the families of the 210,000 americans who died from the virus. All those families i got up this morning and there was an empty chair at the breakfast table. Tonight, an empty chair at the dinner table where one should be husband, wife, son, daughter, mother, father. Americans million have been infected with the virus to date. This pandemic and economic collapse has hit hispanic communities particularly hard. Nationally the infection rate among hispanics is almost three times higher than white nonhispanics. Hispanics have0 died from covid19, devastating families and closeknit communities of loved ones. Hispanicsorida, where make up about one quarter of the population, they make up 37 of the covid deaths. Nearly 3 million hispanics are unemployed. ,ou break that down unemployment for Hispanic Women and hispanic youth actually went up last month. One and three hispanic Small Business owners have taken a hit and many are likely to have to close permanently. Some economists are calling this kshaped recovery. It means those at the top keep going up in their income. But everyone from the middle and lower income, it keeps going down, keeps getting merce. It means keeps getting worse. It means essential workers, so many of whom are hispanic, who have sacrificed to keep us going through this pandemic, are being left behind by the most unequal recovery in modern history. Because while workers are struggling this is shocking but true the top 100 billionaires in america have done pretty well. Since the covid crisis, they have made an additional 300 billion. Additional made an 300 billion. Everyone else, they got the bottom half of that k, downward, a downward slide. You are left to figure out how you are going to pay their bills, put food on the table, pay the rent. Or, if you are lucky enough to own a home, will you have enough money to pay the mortgage . How to balance doing your job with being a teacher to your kids because their school has gone remote . Neckre asked to risk your ,f you cant work from home where the risks of covid are mostly kept outside, because you are one of our first responders, a nurse like esther, or working in a Customer Service or tourist industry, a checkout counter, police officer, firefighter. Time, this isnt an easy but i also think this pandemic has helped us rip off the blinders in this country to how inequitable so many things are. People didnt even realize until now they have seen it. I truly believe we have a tremendous opportunity to turn a moment of crisis into a moment of great progress for the country. Thats why i have laid out a comprehensive agenda not just to rebuild our communities, but to build them back, make bold investments so we can build back better than before the crisis. The president loves talking about wall street. He never talks about moodys on wall street that pointed out they did a detailed assessment of my economic plan and his. Here is what moodys concluded. Planprojected my economic ,ill create 18. 6 million jobs seven million more jobs than the president trophy as economic plan will in four years, and 1 trillion growth more than the president s plan. Here is how it works. I am not going to raise taxes on anyone who makes less than 400,000 a year. You wont pay a penny more, i guarantee. I am going to ask the big corporations and super wealthy to pay their fair share. Its not punishment. It is about time you start paying your fair share. For makinge raise sure they pay their fair share will be invested in working people and a growing middleclass. When i announced, i said i wanted to rebuild the backbone of this country, working folks, the middle class. They were not billed by wall street. It was built by labor. Advance Racial Equity across the economy to make sure everyone is included in the deal this time. Invest,e going to invest in creating millions of good paying union jobs in manufacturing and technology, making sure our future is made in america. And infrastructure, building roads, bridges, ports, and airports, like i was able to do when i ran the recovery act, putting billions of dollars into goodort of miami, creating hardworking people with good, decent jobs. It will accommodate the new supertankers coming through the canal, generating some stability. My plan will make sure hispanic communities benefit from hundreds of billions of dollars in investments to fill the cracks in the sidewalks and install broadband, close the digital divide, create spaces to live, work, and play in safety. And clean energy. We upgrade 4 million buildings, weatherized 2 million homes. That will create at least, the estimates are, one million good paying jobs and save millions of barrels of oil. We are going to meet the threat of Climate Change and invest in strengthening Climate Resilience , where we are already dealing with the existential threat of Climate Change. I dont have to tell you in miami, south florida, warm ice state, which has the lowest sea level lowest degree of height from sea level than any state in the nation. Stronger, more frequent hurricanes. Rising tides. Flooding. No matter what the president said, dropping an atomic bomb on hurricane is not a good idea. It doesnt work. Thats not some distant future in miami or south florida. You are dealing with it right now. Do you have to get knocked in the head to understand it . We are going to make sure Small Businesses come out the other side of this crisis with access to capital and the ability to deal with their debts. My plan will get 50 billion of capital flowing to Small Businesses, which will get taxes,in employment and especially minority owned Small Businesses, and make another 100 budget dollars 100 billion dollars available in low interest loans to those businesses. You know as well as i do that they are the center of a community, whether it is a grocery store, beauty shop, barbershop, hardware store. They are the essence of a community. We are going to make investments to incomes as well. It is long past time. I have worked with Governor Cuomo to get it done in new york and other governors across the country. No one should have to work two jobs to be able to be 40 hours a week so they are above the poverty rate. In should be a minimum wage the United States, period. I amur essential workers, not just going to praise you, we are going to begin to pay you a good wage, ensure you have strong benefits. We are going to ease the burden of the major costs in your life. What are they . Health care. We are going to build on the Affordable Care act, which gave 400 Million People hispanics in this Country Health insurance, by adding a notforprofit public option. We are going to give private insurers a real competitor. We are going to increase subsidies so premiums are lower and you can afford plans with lower deductibles and lower outofpocket expenses. We are going to take on the pharmaceutical injury industry, a plan that slashes the cost of prescription drugs by 60 . You think i am making these numbers up. If we let medicare negotiate independently for the drugs we purchase, i promise the rates are going to fall through the floor, affordable and accessible. Every three and fouryearold will have access to free, quality preschool. All the studies around the country have shown that, no matter what zip code it child comes from, no matter what background, if they go to preschool not daycare preschool at 3, 4, and five years old, they increase exponentially, over 50 , the prospect they will go through all 12 years and many beyond. We will make sure low and middle income by the way, the total cost of that, the title i program, we spend 15 billion in School Districts that dont have high tax rates. You change that to 45, you can put every one of those kids in school, pay the teachers a legitimate rate, and have psychologists and social workers in those schools. We are going to make sure for child care for someone under the age of five or six, no one has to pay more than 7 of their income for Young Children to get quality childcare. If you truly want to reward work in this country, we have to ease the financial burden that families are carrying. Even before the pandemic, millions of working families faced in normas financial and personal strain trying to raise their kids and care for parents and loved ones living with a disability. It is going to sound strange, but when i first got elected, when i was 29 years old, to the senate, my wife and daughter were killed. My two sons survived but were hospitalized for a long time. I needed help to do my job. I could not possibly afford childcare, even though i was making a good salary, 42,000 a year, more than i had ever made. But i couldnt afford it. Or a a single mom or dad family that has two people working with Young Children is incredibly costly. Way, the fractional caregivers, home health workers, childcare workers were more often women, women of color, and immigrants, and too often underpaid, unseen, and undervalued. Thats why my bill back better plan will elevate the compensation of caregivers, workers, and Early Childhood educators. Thats what we are going to do. We are also going to invest in education beyond high school. If you qualified to get into community college, you will be able to go for free. If you are qualified to get into a fouryear Public School in your state and your family makes less than 125,000 a year, you get to go free. If you are buying your first home, you are going to have a tax credit up to 15,000 to get there. What happened after the great youssion, an awful lot of of a range in age from the millennials, who started off after 9 11, all the way to the people graduating this year, are not in a position to do that because your jobs have been postponed or nonexistent. But providing the opportunity to get you into the system. Protectlso going to Social Security, increase benefits for millions of seniors. We are going to do that in a partnership in lockstep with the hes been a community. The president s proposal to eliminate the tax you pay when you get your paycheck for Social Security without any means by socialo replace it, security will be bankrupt by 2023. They never liked it to begin with. So, look. The success and prosperity of hispanic americans is indispensable to the success and prosperity of the United States and all americans. It is that simple. Hispanic families are trillion offor 2. 6 our gross domestic product, and growing. A standalone economy, a country by itself, it would be the eighth largest economy in the world. Think of that. Imagine how much more that would grow if everyone had access to the tools they need to succeed by to succeed. By investing in hispanic communities, we are making the smartest investment with the greatest returns that our nation could make, period. We also need to rebuild our ability to work with our partners throughout the western hemisphere, to realize the enormous potential of this region and the world, to confront those leaders who continue to oppress the rights of their people. We should be leading the International Effort to confront the massive humanitarian crisis in venezuela. Maduro, who i have met, is a dictator, plain and simple, and he is causing incredible suffering among the venezuelan people to maintain his grip on power. Our support to recover their democracy and rebuild their country. Thats why i would immediately grant temporary protective status to venezuelans as president , so the republicans in the senate cant keep blocking it like they did again just last week. Ill make sure were supporting neighboring countries that are being overrun with immigration because of maduro, like columbia, which are caring for millions of venezuelans whove fled their country in desperation. Ill use sanctions as one of the tools for a comprehensive strategy that includes humanitarian assistance, international pressure, and support for democratic actors in venezuela to force the regime to embark on the road to a free and fair election. We also need a new cuba policy. The administrations approach is not working. Cuba is no closer to freedom and democracy than it was four years ago. The fact theres more political prisoners, the secret police are as brutal as ever, and russia is once again a major presence in cuba in havana. For my entire career, i stood for democracy and human rights, for freedom of the press, assembly and religion against dictators of the left and the right. As president , my policy will be governed by two principles. First, americans, especially cubanamericans, are the best ambassadors for freedom in cuba. Second, empowering the cuban people to determine their own future is central to a National Security interest in the United States. I think it is unconscionable that the Current Administration is deporting hundreds of cubans back to a dictatorship. There are almost 10,000 cubans languishing in tent camps along the Mexican Border because the administrations antiimmigration agenda. Thats the administration actively separating cuban families by not processing visas, through restrictions on family visits and remittances. I think we have to reverse that. The bottom line is that President Trump can not advance the democracy and human rights for the American People when he has embraced so many autocrats around the world, starting with vladimir putin. Folks, we can do this. We can reach for more as a nation. We can rebuild. We can rebuild the backbone of this country and finally bring everybody along. Americas always done best coming out of crisis. We are the only dacian that has always we are the only nation that has always come out of every crisis better than we went in. We can build a new administration that reflects the full diversity of our nation, including hispanic communities. And hispanic voters, especially in florida, can help put our nation on a new path forward. Here in florida today, as the deadline to register to vote ends today if you havent registered, go out right now because it is an obligation. Every vote will make a difference. Check and make sure your family and friends are registered, and then make sure everyone has a plan to vote. If you can vote by mail, vote by mail. If you can vote in person, vote in person. If you can vote early, vote early. You can vote early in person starting on october 19th in many places in florida, including right here in miami. Just make sure you vote. Together we can win. We cant let this pandemic change everything. Weve got to get it under control so we can get our economy working again for everyone. We can come together as a nation. Im running as a democrat. Proud of it, but i will be an american president , not a democratic president with a capital d. Ill fight as hard for you and your family whether you vote for me or whether you vote against me because theres nothing we cant do when we do it together. Folks, i have been more optimistic about our chances as a nation in the 21st century than ive been my whole career. Theres not a single solitary thing thats beyond our capacities as a nation. I mean that sincerely. The most talented workers in the world were the most incredible system in the world. We have a people, who when they stand together, have never, ever, ever, ever failed. Every time id walk out of my grandpas house up in scranton, pennsylvania, hed yell, joey, keep the faith. My grandma, when she was alive, would yell back, no, joey, spread it. Lets go spread the faith. Take back this country. Were so much better than this. God bless you all. And may god protect our troops. Thank you. Thank you. [applause] [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] correct think when the dose levels america is going to become more liberal or conservative. As joe biden has said from the moment he entered this race, its about the soul of our nation. For. E are, what we stand importantly, who we want to be. Watch the Vice President ial debate between mike pence and atala harris live wednesday 9 00 p. M. Eastern. Watch the debates live on cspan, listen live on the cspan radio app and go to cspan. Org debate for ondemand streaming of cspans debate coverage