- I'm Joe Biden.
This is the Wired Autocomplete Interview I'm about to do.
[upbeat music]
- [Interviewer] Have you ever Googled yourself before?
- No, I try not to.
[upbeat music]
First card here.
Is Joe Biden a Democrat or Republican?
What a silly question, man.
What else would you be but a Democrat.
I'd have to change my name if I weren't a Democrat.
My grandfather Finny would come back from his grave.
All right, is Joe Biden running for President?
Yes, I am.
I'm running for President.
Is Joe Biden going to win?
As my grandfather would say,
the grace of God, the goodwill of the neighbors,
and the crick not rising, yes, I'm gonna win.
[laughs]
Is Joe Biden a billionaire?
Unfortunately, I'm not.
Okay.
Is Joe Biden religious?
I do not proselytize but I'm a practicing Catholic, yes.
Is Joe Biden Irish?
Absolutely.
My mom's side 100% Irish and my dad's side half Irish.
We don't admit to the other part.
Is Joe Biden in "Parks & Rec?"
Yes, I was in "Parks & Rec."
As long as I didn't have to do anything other than
play myself, I said I'd do it.
Met a lot of good people.
Is Joe Biden left handed?
No, that's why I'm having trouble pulling these off
with my left hand.
Is Joe Biden a vegan?
No, Joe Biden's not a vegan,
although my wife is pushing me.
Most of the meals I eat, quite frankly, don't have meat.
A lot of chicken, a fair amount of fish,
I'm big on ice cream.
And that puts me in real trouble, you know what I mean?
So after all these years, it's very disappointing
to be known for two things.
My Ray Bans and ice cream.
It's pretty dull.
Okay, does Joe Biden have a brother?
I'm lucky, I have two younger brothers.
I'm the oldest of three and I've got a sister
who's the love of my life.
Does Joe Biden have a dog?
I have two dogs.
I have two German shepherds, one I got
when I got named Vice President
of the United States by Barack.
It was bribery on the part of my family,
they said if you agree, we'll get you a dog again.
So I have a dog named Champ, he's getting to be an old guy.
And to keep him young, we went out and got another dog
from the rescue center and his name is Major.
Does Joe Biden have a law degree?
Yes I do.
I have a law degree from Syracuse University
and I practiced law for a while here in Delaware.
Did Joe Biden ever serve in the military?
No, I haven't but we're a military family.
My son, Beau, served in the military.
Passed away, spent a year in Iraq,
won the Bronze Star, Conspicuous Service medal,
and a number of other accommodations.
Did Joe Biden ever have a job?
[laughs]
Yeah, I've had a job.
I used to be a lifeguard for years
and when I ran for the United States Senate, they said,
"Why do you want a 29 year-old guy
"who's only been a lifeguard?"
Well the truth was I was a practicing lawyer.
I'd been a public defender and I had my own small law firm.
But I got elected when I was 29
and then I had another job, although I guess people
don't consider being a Senator a job.
But that was my other job.
Did I go to college?
Yes, I did go to college.
I went to the University of Delaware
and I enjoyed it, it's a great school.
That's where my sister went, and my brothers as well.
I had two majors, I majored in History and Political Science
and had a minor in English.
Did Joe Biden used to be a Republican.
No.
Never, never, never.
But I tell you what, it did happen,
when I came back to Delaware from law school,
my city was occupied by the National Guard
because of the fact that Dr. King had been assassinated.
The Democratic party at the time was much more conservative
than the Republican party, so I couldn't bring myself
to register as a Republican because I wasn't big
on Richard Nixon and I registered as an Independent.
But shortly thereafter, I helped change the Democratic party
to be a mainstream Democratic party.
It was a fairly conservative party when I first got back.
Can Joe Biden--
this oughta be good--
play sports?
[laughs]
I told my son when I died, I wanted only four words.
Father, son, brother, athlete.
I was a pretty good athlete in high school,
played a little bit in college, played football and baseball
in a couple leagues when I got out of school.
Yes, I love sports.
Can Joe Biden eat ice cream?
Well some people think that's all I do is eat ice cream.
You know, my mom, when my dad passed away,
she moved in with us reluctantly because
she wanted her independence and I'd stop and see her
before I'd go upstairs
and my wife would say,
"You've been with your mother, I can smell ice cream."
[laughs]
Anyway, the point is I love ice cream, always have.
My favorite, by the way, is chocolate chip.
Can Joe Biden yell?
Well I don't yell very much.
I can yell
when I'm cheering for my kids and my granddaughters,
they're good athletes but that's about it.
Was Joe Biden a Vice President?
Yes, I was.
I served with a great guy, Barack Obama.
It was one of the great honors of my life.
He's a man of significant integrity and I...
One of the best things I ever did.
Was Joe Biden in a fraternity?
No, I never joined a fraternity.
Was Joe Biden an actor?
You can tell by this, no, Joe Biden's not an actor.
I'm not very good at playing anything but myself.
I used to be a very bad stutterer when I was a kid
and all through high school.
That wasn't the reason I wasn't an actor,
but I've always felt self-conscious
about trying to be something that I wasn't.
And acting requires you to be able to do that.
Okay.
What is Joe Biden's immigration policy?
Keep families together.
Immigration built this country.
We're all, with the exception with the original sin
of slavery, we are all immigrants.
It's the reason why we're the great country we are.
We've been able to cherry pick the best of every culture
in the world.
For someone to come here like my great-great-grandfather
getting on a coffin ship in the Irish Sea,
back in 1848, it took courage, it took optimism,
it took determination.
That's why we're who we are.
We're a nation of immigrants and proud of it.
What is Joe Biden's
plan for improving the economy?
You know, there used to be a basic bargain in America.
If you contributed to the wellbeing and the operation
you worked for, you got to share in the benefits.
That's changed in the last 20 years
because of corporate greed, because of a range
of other things, and because of particularly now
in this administration, the way in which it doesn't take
care of people who bust their neck.
My dad used to say
everyone, everyone is entitled to be treated with dignity.
And how can you have dignity if you're working 40 hours
a week and you can't afford healthcare?
You can't afford to take care of your children,
you can't afford housing.
That's the reason I'm running for President,
because I'm gonna change that.
We're gonna rebuild the middle class
and this time, bring everybody along.
What is Joe Biden's view on education?
My wife, Jill, has a great expression.
She's a doctor of education and she's been a teacher
for years and she'd say
any country that out educates us will out compete us.
And so that's why I strongly believe we should
at both ends of the spectrum change it
so that every child, three, four, and five years old
can go to school.
School, not daycare.
School.
And all the studies show that increases exponentially
their chance at success.
And at the other end of it, we should have
free community college.
Free college for...
four years of college of a state university
if you come from a family making less than $125,000.
And we should be investing in apprenticeships
across the board.
We can do anything when we put our minds to it.
What is Joe Biden saying about
impeachment?
Obviously the President didn't learn anything from
being impeached and not convicted.
The reason he got impeached was he went to another country
to ask them to get involved in our political process,
which is an impeachable offense.
He got impeached but then Republican Senate refused,
even though some acknowledged he did what he said,
that it didn't warrant being kicked out of office.
We are really not following the law very well these days.
What's Joe Biden's stance on gun control?
Number one, assault weapons are weapons of death.
They have no rationale for being owned by individuals
on the street.
They should be outlawed.
They were eliminated, they came back.
We had a 10 year elimination of them.
From the very beginning, you weren't allowed
to have certain weapons.
You weren't allowed to own a cannon
during the Revolutionary War as an individual.
Anybody think you should be able to go out
and have a machine gun these days.
And the answer is no, we have a rational policy.
No amendment to the Constitution is absolute.
Secondly, everyone should have a universal background check
in order to determine whether they're capable
of owning a weapon.
Whether they should own a weapon.
Okay.
Why is Joe Biden
running for President?
I'm running for President for three reasons.
One, to restore the soul of this country.
This president started off dividing us
based on race, religion, ethnicity.
One of the reasons I decided to run this time,
I hadn't planned on it, was what happened in Charlottesville
when those folks came out of the woods carrying torches,
carrying swastikas, and then when a young woman was killed,
he was asked to comment and he said
there were fine people on both sides.
No president has ever said anything like that.
We have to restore the soul of this country.
We the people.
We hold these truths to be self-evident.
He's walked away from that.
The second reason I'm running is to restore
the backbone of this country, the middle class.
And this time bring everybody along.
Black, white, all colors, all backgrounds,
men, women, gay, straight.
Everyone, everyone deserves a shot.
And the third reason I'm running is to unite the country.
This is not who we are.
We're better than this.
We're better than what we have now
and the American people I think know that
why is Joe Biden a good candidate?
Well I've always said when I won the first time as a kid
running for the Senate at 29,
people would come along and say,
"What's the secret?"
Like there had to be a secret if I won at that age.
I'd say,
"Look, if you're gonna run for office,
"figure out what you're willing to lose over.
"Say what you mean, mean what you say,
"and don't rationalize.
"Tell the truth and let the cards fall where they may."
Why would you want the job unless you did that?
Why is Joe Biden a Democrat?
Because we start off with the proposition
that anybody given a half a chance
has the capacity to do anything.
But they need a chance.
It's all about having a chance.
My dad used to say,
"Joe, I don't expect the government to solve my problems,
"but I expect them to understand my problems."
Give me a fighting chance, no guarantees.
A lot of people have not had much of a fighting chance
and you're seeing that in this pandemic.
Look at the people carrying us on their backs.
Those people making seven, eight bucks an hour,
those people in the grocery story stacking product,
those people driving the trucks,
those people who are out there as nurse's aids,
those people who are putting on garbage bags
because they didn't have the protective equipment.
I hope that the blinders have been taken off here.
The very people showing up to help you,
the very people who save your lives,
the very people who are working for ya
are people who in fact are of all backgrounds,
all colors, and all interests.
And so we gotta unite the country.
Thank you.