good evening our great nation is now living in an
unprecedented moment we're facing the worst public health
crisis in a hundred years and the worst economic collapse since
the great depression we are confronting systemic racism and
the enormous threat to our planet of climate change
and in the midst of all of this we have a president
who is not only incapable of addressing these crises
but is leading us down the path of authoritarianism
this election is the most important in the modern history
of this country in response to the unprecedented crises we face
we need an unprecedented response a movement like never before of people
who are prepared to stand up and fight for democracy
and decency and against greed oligarchy and bigotry and we need
joe biden as our next president let me take this opportunity to say
a word to the millions of people who supported my campaign
this year and in 2016. my friends thank you for your trust
your support and the love you showed jane
me and our family together we have moved this country
in a bold new direction showing that all of us
black and white latino native american asian american gay and straight
native-born and immigrant yearn for a nation based on the
principles of justice love and compassion
our campaign ended several months ago but our movement continues and is
getting stronger every day many of the ideas we
fought for that just a few years ago were
considered radical are now mainstream but let us be clear
if donald trump is re-elected all the progress we have made
will be in jeopardy at its most basic this election is about preserving our
democracy during this president's term the
unthinkable has become normal he has tried to
prevent people from voting undermined the u.s postal service
deployed the military and federal agents against peaceful protesters
threatened to delay the election and suggested
that he will not leave office if he loses
this is not normal and we must never treat it like it is under this
administration authoritarianism has taken root
in our country i and my family and many of yours know the insidious way
authoritarianism destroys democracy decency and humanity as long as i
am here i will work with progressives with moderates and yes with
conservatives to preserve this nation from a threat
that so many of our heroes fought and died to defeat
this president is not just the threat to our democracy
but by rejecting science he has put our lives and health in jeopardy
trump has attacked doctors and scientists
trying to protect us from the pandemic while refusing to take strong action to
produce the masks gowns and gloves our health care workers
desperately need nero fiddled while rome burned
trump golfs his actions fanned this pandemic resulting in over a
hundred and seventy thousand deaths and a nation
still unprepared to protect its people furthermore trump's negligence has
exacerbated the economic crisis we are now
experiencing since this pandemic began over 30
million people have lost their jobs and many have lost their health
insurance millions of working families are wondering
how they will feed their kids and they're worried
that they will be evicted from their homes
and how has trump responded instead of maintaining the six hundred dollar a
week unemployment supplement that workers
were receiving and the twelve hundred dollar emergency
checks that many of you received instead of helping small businesses
trump concocted fraudulent executive orders that do
virtually nothing to address the crisis while threatening the very future of
social security and medicare but the truth is
that even before trump's negligent response to this pandemic
too many hard-working families have been caught
on an economic treadmill with no hope of ever getting ahead together
we must build a nation that is more equitable
more compassionate and more inclusive i know
that joe biden will begin that fight on day one let me offer you just a few
examples of how joe will move us forward joe
supports raising the minimum wage to 15 an hour this will give 40
million workers a pay raise and push the wage scale up
for everyone else joe will also make it easier for workers to join unions
create 12 weeks of paid family leave fund universal pre-k for three and
four-year-olds and make child care affordable for
millions of families joe will rebuild our crumbling
infrastructure and fight the threat of climate change
by transitioning us to 100 percent clean electricity over the
next 15 years these initiatives will create
millions of good-paying jobs all across our country as you know
we are the only industrialized nation not to guarantee health care for all
people while joe and i disagree on the best
path to get universal coverage he has a plan that will greatly expand
health care and cut the cost of prescription drugs
further he will lower the eligibility age of medicare
from 65 down to 60. to help reform our broken criminal
justice system joe will end private prisons and
detention centers cash bail and the school to prison
pipeline and to heal the soul of our nation joe biden will end the
hate and division trump has created he will
stop the demonization of immigrants the coddling of white nationalists the
racist dog whistling the religious bigotry and the ugly
attacks on women my friends i say to you
to everyone who supported other candidates in the primary
and to those who may have voted for donald trump in the last election
the future of our democracy is at stake the future of our economy is at stake
the future of our planet is at stake we must come together defeat
donald trump and elect joe biden and kamala harris
as our next president and vice president my friends the price of failure
is just too great to imagine thank you