Cspan, your unfiltered view of politics. Democratic president ial candidate joe biden was also in minnesota. The first day of mailin ballot is for minnesotans in the 2020 election. He was introduced by senator tina smith and amy klobuchar. This is 40 minutes. Good afternoon everyone. I am glad to be with you all. I thank the comforters to welcome us to this amazing Apprenticeship Program. Im excited to be here. We are all here because we all understand that when people have the right to come together collectively, to organize for better working conditions, better wages, safer places to work they do better and their families to better and everybody in this country does better. What ive learned from talking to hardworking people all over minnesota is that what they want is the freedom and opportunity to build the lives that they want and they know that good jobs and their labor union help them do that. So i think about what is happening here in this amazing a apprenticeship facility that the Vice President has had a chance to tour the distant great work is creating pathways for people to have good jobs and good careers with pensions and this is what is so important for making this country work and making peoples lives work. We know what to do to make this country work for everybody and not just those that are at the top. Involves making sure wages are good. We need a 15 hour minimum wage and make sure we have paid family medical leave and we need to make sure people work hard and that they can count on their pensions being there when they retire. This is a real challenge for a lot of people these days. Ive talked to people in duluth who have told me that they have done everything right. Worked on weekends, work on holidays, paid into their pension, and are now being told the pensions might not be there. Think about what that means. A woman said to me i dont have a plan b, i dont have another thing to do here. One thing i am proud to stand with Vice President biden on, and senator klobuchar, standing up for the right for people to have the pensions they earned. If we think about this most important election, theres no doubt about who is standing with working people in minnesota and all across this country. Thats Vice President biden. Thats where i stand. A couple of days ago, Vice President biden said i think the whether you are from scranton or park avenue. Is this about scranton or park avenue . I know what side i come down. I come down on scranton and on the side of Vice President biden. So thank you all so much for being here. Im excited to be a part of the celebration of the hard work and what that hardware can deliver for families in terms of opportunities to build the lives they want. Thank you so much. [applause] now, senator amy klobuchar. Hello everyone, it is wonderful to be here. Thank you to the carpenters for hosting us. Friend tina smith, whos doing such a great job. Im so proud to have her as a colleague and a real friend. People say friend in washington all the time but for us it is true. And also to be here and welcome back Vice President biden to northern minnesota. He has been here with me. He has been up here with our steelworkers. He is been up here because you he has been up here because he did did such great work on Domestic Violence and came to duluth to talk about it and now he is here with the carpenters. I was just talking to the Vice President backstage and recounting my background here. I think you all know my dad grew up in northern minnesota, my grandpa was a miner. He worked 1500 feet underground his entire life. He never got to graduate from middle school or high school because he had nine brothers and sisters. It was unions that made my grandpas life safer. My dad still remembers those bodies in the Catholic Church at Saint Anthonys because it was not safe. Even when my debt was going up even when my dad was growing up, that was happening. The unions pushed for safer rules and better wages. Its one of the only reasons and standing up here today. So we know theres Something Else going on in our country where we need someone to have our back. I am sick and tired of hearing donald trump say that he is somehow making us more safe. When we have a pandemic raging across our country, where i go visit my dad, who is 92 at assisted living, and he has covid and im looking at him through a glass door like i was two months ago, and i dont know if im ever going to see him again. That is not safe. And its not safe when people are scared economically and they dont know if theyre going to have their job back. What i love about joe biden and my friend, kamala harris, is they are looking at not just how we get through this pandemic but also looking at the day after tomorrow and how we are going to train our workers. What jobs we have available now and what jobs we have available in the future. We need a president who will fight for those who lost their jobs, because this administration is selling American Workers out when we need to buy american. We need a president who will fight for the people and workers of northern minnesota and not go down to the maralago and tell all of his rich friends after he passes the tax bill that you just got a lot richer. I dont think one person from northern minnesota was in that room in florida when he said that. We need a president who knows we do not have a shortage of ceos. We have a shortage of plumbers. A shortage of construction workers. We have a shortage of people that build things. That really build things. Joe biden is going to be a president for all of america. I was so proud to endorse him after starting my campaign in the middle of a blizzard in minnesota. I got to end it by endorsing joe biden. I cannot think of a more joyful way to end a campaign. One last thing i want to say. It was the Obamabiden Administration that came up here in the face of dennis mcdonough, the chief of staff of president obama, and made sure we did something about chinese steel dumping. They went to work, enforced the laws, we passed new laws, and the number of our iron ore mines reopened. It was there administration that got results. So if youre worried about your family and your job, youve got a home with joe biden. If youre worried about the cost of prescription drugs or childcare, youve got a home with joe biden. And if youre worried about the divide in this country and having a president that just keeps adding more fuel to the flames, youve got a home with joe biden. Because he wakes up every morning and thanks how can i lead this country and bring people together . Just like the carpenters, we are not afraid to roll up our sleeves. I have this vote mask because this is the first day of early voting and minnesota. Letss go out there, vote, lets roll up our sleeves, and get to work and elect joe biden as president of the United States. Thank you very much. And now, please welcome carpenter Training Institutes directortutes matt campanario. Thank you, i would like to welcome you all to the carpenter training institute. Our mission is to prepare our registered apprentices 2500 registered apprentices for successful career as a professor of professional in the construction industry. We also provide continuing education for all of our membership. Our partner contractors rely on the continued success of our programs and our members in order to thrive. On behalf of the northcentral state Regional Council of carpenters, the Carpenters Training institute and our membership, i would like to think Vice President joe biden for taking the time to learn more about what the ubc members in our region do and also hear what issues are important to us. Without further delay it is my pleasure to introduce Vice President joe biden. Mr. Biden hello, minnesota. It is good to be back. As amy was saying, i have been here a number of times up in the iron range and is in a magnificent part of the world. A magnificent part of the world. I want to thank you so much, amy and senator. You have been a great friend and a great, great senator and senator smith, you are Something Else. I can tell you what. Thank you for the job youre doing and im counting on it to continue for another six years. I know you are both fighting aroundthe clock to take care of minnesotans who are hurting in these multiple crises we face today. We have everything from covid to unemployment to a country that is divided along or is being divided along racist lines and we have institutional racism we are dealing with, a whole range of things. The people of minnesota know that they have two of the best senators in the country on their side. Matt, thank you so much for the introduction and for showing me around today. This incredible Apprentice Program at the Carpenters Training center. What a lot of people do not know if they are not involved with labor is that Apprenticeship Program is not only training the best workers in the world and im not being facetious, that is a fact. But they get paid while they are doing it. They are getting paid not for full wages, but theyre getting paid while they are doing it and that is why these Apprenticeship Programs are so so so critically important that they stay this way. It matters. People can still make it while they are learning a trade. A trade that will put them in good stead for the rest of their lives. It was great to see some of the practical handson experience that apprentices and journeymen and women here receive. As i said, while earning a wage as a benefit. It is a bit quieter here than usual because of covid19 restrictions, but the pride of these workers who are learning the skills that will carry them throughout their careers is still unmistakable. My father i apologize to the press who followed me for warrants this, but it saying every time, my dad used to have an expression. He said joey in jobs by a lot more than paycheck. It is about your dignity. Its about your respect. Your place in the community. Looking a kid in the eye and say its going to be ok and mean it was that is the lesson i have never forgotten. It is the way i grew up surrounded by hardworking families in scranton pennsylvania and a lot of steelworkers in delaware and all those jobs are gone now. A lot of those jobs are gone now, though still working jobs. And that is what i saw here this training center. Dedicated women and men investing in their dignity. In their dignity. Here in the iron range, we can see the resilience in the grip of the communities that have built america, the metal that it is made of, and fortified by the strength of union power, worker power. I think i was saying to you, matt, that my dad has another expression. Deal with theo abuse of power is with power and the only were real power for workers in america is union power. You are the people that keep the barbarians on the other side of the gate and make sure people can make a decent living. Folks, here like everywhere else, times are hard. Unemployment is way up due to the pandemic, few workers can be on the job at one time in order to abide by social distancing rules, and the Economic Outlook for next year including for the Building Trades is more uncertain than it need be. Here in minnesota and all across the country, there are plenty of people here who are hurting. They are worried about making the next mortgage payment. They are worried about keeping the rent payments in check. They see the people at the top of the heap doing very well. An incredible number. Billionaires in america during this pandemic have made another 300 billion. Did you hear what i just said . In the middle of a pandemic. You are left to wonder as the consequence, who is looking out for the ordinary folks . That is been the entire story of Donald Trumps presidency. Now in the midst of this unprecedented National Crisis donald trump has given up on even pretending to do his job. Almost 200,000 lives lost in the last six months and experts tell us now the same studies that we relied on, the administration relied on to predict whats coming next, that we will lose another 215,000 lives between now and january 1. The United States has lost , has another 36,000 new covid cases per day. Per day. Another average 1000 deaths a day. Just across the border, and figuratively speaking, a stones throw indicated that, one day earlier this month the United States the United States had a had 1000 deaths of covid, and canada had zero. Just three days ago, i believe it was, america had 1200 deaths, canada had nine. Nine. So many lives lost unnecessarily because the president is only worried about the stock market and his reelection. He refused to do what you are doing right here in this program. Social distance, wear masks, sanitize. Youre protecting your apprentices. He is not protecting america. It is estimated by the scientists that if we just wore masks nationally, we would save 100,000 lives between now and january 1. Let me say that again. If we just wore masks nationally, we would save 100,000 lives between now and january according to the same study. It was estimated by great medical school, the columbia medical school, that if the president had just started one week earlier in march then he did, we would have 36,000 more people sitting at the dinner table tonight. Or being able to put your arm around grampa or grandma tonight. Again, in his own words, recorded by bob woodward, the president knew back in february that this was an extremely dangerous, communicable disease. Think about it. How many people across the iron range, how many empty chairs around those dinner tables, because of his negligence and selfishness . How many lies said and lives lost . Imagine if he had just, at the state of the union that year spoke up and said we have a problem and we can handle it and heres what we have to do. I cannot think of any president who has ever acted, in my view, so selfishly about his own reelection instead of his sworn obligation to protect and defend the American People. As i said last night in my hometown, i view this campaign betweeneen as scranton and park avenue. All trump sees from park avenue is wall street. That is why the only metric of the American Press for him is the value of the dow jones. Like a lot of us but a lot of my life with guys like donald trump looking down on me. Looking down the people who make a living with our hands, people who take care of our kids. People who clean our streets. Maybe what bothers me most is the way he talks about, is reported to talk about, and confirmed by many outlets. Where he is talked about the men and women who join the military and gave full measure to their country as suckers and losers. Unless you think it is made up, remember how he talked about john mccain. A political opponent, but a close friend and i gave his eulogy. John mccain was no sucker or loser. He was a hero. My son who volunteered to spend a year in iraq and won the bronze star. He wasnt a loser or sucker. He was a proud patriot. These are the guys who thought they were better than me, better than us because they had a lot of money. Guys who inherit everything theyve got and still manage to squander it. I have to admit, which i guess is coming out and it is pretty obvious, particularly related to trump. I have a little bit of a chip on my shoulder about these guys. Recently i probably should not have said that last night recently, i read some stories i was asked questions by leading columnist. It went like this. Beyou get elected, you will the first guy in a long time elected president without an Ivy League Degree. Like somehow, a kid who went to the State University can qualify to be president of the United States without an Ivy League Degree . Let me tell you something. I know how to do the job of being president. It is pretty clear. No matter how wealthy donald trump is or how much he doctors, if he does, his tax returns. He does not have a clue how to be president. One of the lessons my mother taught me, not a joke, a long time ago, taught me and my siblings and one that you were probably taught to here in minnesota. She said joey, remember nobody is better than you but everybody is your equal. Nobody is better than you, but everybody is your equal. We dont measure people by the size of their bank accounts. I dont respect people based on how big their house they live in is. I dont look down my nose at people who are busting their necks just making a living. Trump says, by the way, everybodys in the stock market and thats why he cares about the stock market. What the hell is he talking about . People who i grew up with in scranton and claymont didnt have money in stocks. Every penny we made was to pay the bills and take care of the families. Put clothes on their back and roof over their head. In the market . That is why i have a different measure by which i judge the health of the american economy. My measure is scranton, duluth, hermantown, places where i grew up and so many people i know grew up. I see hardworking women and men just trying to earn an honest decent living and take care of their families. They just have a little bit of confidence, a little bit of confidence to just see around the corner. They dont have to live literally from paycheck to paycheck. Most do. But hope for a little bit of space. Now, the American People are seeing these women and men, the essential workers, workers who stock the shelves in the middle of this crisis and drivers who drove the trucks and deliver the food. Farmworkers, nurses who risk their lives and in many cases gave their lives