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Joe Biden
541 quotes
“As I pushed through to the podium, I could hear people murmuring under their breath: "There he is... Goddam Biden.... Kill the sonofabitch." And these were my voters- working-class Democrats.”
“Just because our political heroes were murdered does not mean that the dream does not still live, buried deep in our broken hearts.”
“No matter how well intended our country is, we cannot expect other nations to trust us as much as we trust ourselves.”
“I, too, believe there are natural rights that predate any written political or legal documents; we have these rights merely because we're children of God.”
“I believe all Americans are born with certain inalienable rights. As a child of God, I believe my rights are not derived from the Constitution. My rights are not derived from any government. My rights are not denied by any majority. My rights are because I exist. They were given to me and each of my fellow citizens by our creator, and they represent the essence of human dignity....”
“My own father had always said the measure of a man wasn't how many times or how hard he got knocked down, but how fast he got back up.”
“I think you're a damn war criminal and you should be tried as one.”
“There is never a time when a president can act to stop a tragedy from occurring without being held politically accountable one way or the other. If he does it and fails, he's wrong. If he does it and succeeds, he was never right because it didn't happen. If we go in and stop an act of genocide, we can't prove what we stopped.”
“I learned later that the surgeon who put Dole back together after he was so badly injured in World War II was an Armenian whose family had deep memories of the genocidal campaign the Turks had waged against them.”
“The carnage was over, but there was still a bitter taste in my mouth.”
“These were al-Qaeda fighters, the first I'd ever seen up close, and they looked like badasses. As I passed on the outskirts of the grid, many of the prisoners stared directly at me. None of them cowered. I've been in a lot of prisons, but these guys showed a ferocity and a hatred unlike any I'd ever seen.”
“Given Iraq's strategic location, its large oil reserves, and the suffering of the Iraqi people, we cannot afford to replace a despot with chaos. It would be a tragedy if we removed a tyrant in Iraq only to leave chaos in its wake.”
“I made a mistake. I underestimated the influence of Vice President Cheney, Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld, and the rest of the neocons; I vastly underestimated their disingenuousness and incompetence. So George W. Bush went to war again, and just the way the neocons wanted him to- without significant international backing.”
“Things never got better, and Rumsfeld and Cheney never got any wiser. It became increasingly clear that those two men had eroded our country's claim to any moral high ground by flouting the Geneva Conventions. They forced policy decisions that allowed the hideous prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib in Iraq and encouraged the mistreatment of Muslim prisoners at our facility in Guantánamo in Cuba. I wasn't shy about hammering Rumsfeld.”
“It was that hard; I still feel that way. But I believe that President Bush failed to lead. History will judge him harshly not for the mistakes he made- we all make mistakes- but for the opportunities he squandered.”
“For the world to follow, we must do more than rattle our sabers and demand allegienace to our vision simply because we believe we are right. We must provide a reason for others to aspire to that vision. And that reason must come with more than the repetition of a bumper-sticker phrase about freedom and democracy. It must come with more than the restatement of failed policy. It must come with the wisdom to admit when we are wrong and resolve to change course and get it right.”
“My memory is not as good as... Chief Justice Roberts.”
Joe Biden (born 1942) first seen 2009 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Remarks while administering oath of office for White House senior staff; poking fun at memorable incident in which John G. Roberts misplaced words while swearing-in President Obama at the presidential inauguration the p…
“Ties between our two countries are literally, literally unbreakable.”
Joe Biden (born 1942) first seen 2010 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: addressing the 2010 General Assembly of the Jewish Federations of North America on relations between the United States of America and the State of Israel, 2010-11-07, in New Orleans, Louisiana, United States of America
“No President of the United States could represent the United States were he not committed to human rights. If you don't understand this, you can't deal with us. President Barack Obama would not be able to stay in power if he did not speak of it. So look at it as a political imperative. It doesn't make us better or worse. It's who we are. You make your decisions. We'll make ours.”
Joe Biden (born 1942) first seen 2011 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: To Jinping Xi (2011-2012), as quoted in "Born Red: How Xi Jinping, an unremarkable provincial administrator, became China’s most authoritarian leader since Mao." (6 April 2015), by Evan Osnos, The New Yorker.
“ISIS has nothing to do with Islam. Let me tell you one or two things about Islam.”
Joe Biden (born 1942) first seen 2014 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in "Notable & Quotable" (23 November 2014), The Wall Street Journal.
“Look, I am Vice President of the United States of America. The president sets the policy. I am absolutely comfortable with the fact that men marrying men, women marrying women, and heterosexual men and women marrying another are entitled to the same exact rights, all the civil rights, all the civil liberties. And quite frankly, I don't see much of a distinction beyond that.”
Joe Biden (born 1942) first seen 2012 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: In response to the question, "You're comfortable with same-sex marriage now?" Meet the Press (May 6, 2012)
“I resent when they talk about families like mine that I grew up in. I resent the fact that they think we're talking about envy: it's job envy, it's wealthy envy; that we don't dream. My mother believed and my father believed that if I wanted to be president of the United States, that I could be, I could be vice president! My mother and father believed that if my brother or sister wanted to be a millionaire, they could be a millionaire! My mother and father dreamed as much as any rich guy dreams! They don't get us! They don't get who we are!”
Joe Biden (born 1942) first seen 2012 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Criticizing Mitt Romney and the Republican Party, campaign speech in Youngstown, Ohio (May 16, 2012)
“Make sure of two things. Be careful — microphones are always hot, and understand that in Washington, D.C., a gaffe is when you tell the truth. So, be careful.”
“Even the oil companies don't need an incentive of $4 billion to go out and explore. As my grandpop would say, 'They’re doing just fine, thank you'.”
Joe Biden (born 1942) first seen 2012 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech to national conference of the National Association of Black Journalists, Washington, D.C. (June 20, 2012), quoted in {{citation
“We got a real clear picture of what they all value. Every Republican's voted for it. Look at what they value and look at their budget and what they're proposing. Romney wants to let the — he said in the first hundred days he’s going to let the big banks once again write their own rules, 'unchain Wall Street'. They're going to put y'all back in chains.”
“No dates until you're thirty.”
“Stop talking about how you care about people. Show me something. Show me a policy. Show me a policy where you take responsibility.”
Joe Biden (born 1942) first seen 2012 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Joe Biden's alpha-male display leaves Paul Ryan overwhelmed in VP debate (Fri 12 Oct 2012 08.08 BST) by Oliver Burkeman
“It's harder to use an assault weapon to hit something than it is a shotgun, okay? So if you want to keep people away in an earthquake, buy some shotgun shells. .. And so what would happen is the response time, in fact, may have saved one kid's life. Maybe if it took longer, maybe one more kid would be alive. .. I'm making the argument this way: There's no sporting need that I'm aware of that has a magazine that holds fifty rounds. None that I'm aware of. And I'm a sportsman.”
Joe Biden (born 1942) first seen 2013 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 24 January 2013 via CNN political ticker taken from White House Hangout video on YouTube, referencing Sandy Hook where magazines with thirty rounds were used
“The Jewish people have contributed greatly to America. No group has had such an outsized influence per capita as all of you standing before you, and all of those who went before me and all of those who went before you ... You make up 11 percent of the seats in the United States Congress. You make up one-third of all Nobel laureates ... I think you, as usual, underestimate the impact of Jewish heritage. I really mean that. I think you vastly underestimate the impact you’ve had on the development of this nation.”
“We need it badly from a purely – purely economic point of view .. constant, unrelenting stream of immigrants .. not dribbling, significant flows”
Joe Biden (born 1942) first seen 2014 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 10 June 2014 comments to National Association of Manufacturers, reported later that day by Benjamin Goad of The Hill
“thirdly we need to pass an immigration bill, look at Germany, look at the rest of the world, we're the only non-xenophobic nation in the world that's a major economy”
Joe Biden (born 1942) first seen 2014 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 10 June 2014 from same speech, YouTube audio excerpt via the DC Examiner
“Remember—no serious guys till you're thirty!”
“In the 21st century, nations cannot; and we cannot allow them to redraw borders by force. These are the ground rules. And if we fail to uphold them, we will rue the day. Russia has violated these ground rules and continues to violate them. Today Russia is occupying sovereign Ukrainian territory. Let me be crystal clear: The United States does not, will not, never will recognize Russia’s attempt to annex the Crimea. (Applause.) It’s that saying -- that simple. There is no justification.”
Joe Biden (born 1942) first seen 2015 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Remarks by Vice President Joe Biden to The Ukrainian Rada (9 December 2015).
“Article Two of the Constitution clearly states, whenever there is a vacancy in one of the Court's created by the Constitution itself, the Supreme Court of the United States, the president shall — not may — the president shall appoint someone to fill the vacancy with the advice and consent of the United States Senate. And advice and consent includes consulting and voting!”
Joe Biden (born 1942) first seen 2016 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech (24 March 2016) quoted in WATCH: Biden Says Biden Rule Doesn't Exist (19 September 2020), Bronson Stocking, Townhall
“Israel will not get everything it asks for... I firmly believe that the actions that Israel's government has taken over the past several years — the steady and systematic expansion of settlements, the legalization of outposts, land seizures — they're moving us, and, more importantly, they're moving Israel in the wrong direction”
“You know, shortly after I graduated in '68, Kent State, 17 kids shot dead. And so, the younger generation now tells me how tough things are—give me a break! No, no, I have no empathy for it. Give me a break. Because here's the deal, guys—we decided we were going to change the world, and we did. We did. We finished the civil rights movement to the first stage. The women's movement came into being. So my message is "Get involved.”
“Paul Ryan was correct when he did the tax code. What's the first thing he decided we needed to go after? Social Security and Medicare. We need to do something about Social Security and Medicare.”
“What happened today to @JussieSmollett must never be tolerated in this country. We must stand up and demand that we no longer give this hate safe harbor; that homophobia and racism have no place on our streets or in our hearts. We are with you, Jussie.”
Joe Biden (born 1942) first seen 2019 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 29 January 2019 by Joe Biden
Also quoted by: Jussie Smollett
“I'm sorry I didn’t understand more. I'm not sorry for any of my intentions. I'm not sorry for anything that I have ever done. I have never been disrespectful intentionally to a man or a woman. So that's not the reputation I've had since I was in high school, for God's sake.”
“The rest of the world is wondering what’s going on... Eight years of this and I think we’ll have a phenomenal dislocation occur around the world. I think you’ll see the end of NATO and a whole range of other things...”
“I mean, we may not want to demonize anybody who has made money. The truth of the matter is, you all, you all know, you all know in your gut what has to be done. We can disagree in the margins but the truth of the matter is it’s all within our wheelhouse and nobody has to be punished. No one's standard of living will change, nothing would fundamentally change.”
“Poor kids are just as bright and just as talented as white kids.”
“Student: How many genders are there? Biden: There are at least three. Student: What are they? Biden: Don't play games with me, kid.”
“This guy climbed down a ravine, carried this guy up on his back, under fire, and the general wanted me to pin the Silver Star on him. I got up there- this is the God's honest truth, my word as a Biden. He stood at attention. I went to pin it on him. He said, "Sir, I don't want the damn thing. Do not pin it on me, sir. Please, sir. Do not do that. He died! He died!”
Joe Biden (born 1942) first seen 2019 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: {{citation |date=29 August 2019
“Corn Pop was a bad dude, and he ran with a bunch of bad boys.”
“You get a tax break for a racehorse, why in God's name couldn't we provide an $8,000 tax credit for everybody who has childcare costs? It would put 720 million women back in the workforce. It would increase the GDP, to sound like a wonk here, by about eight-tenths of one percent. It would grow the economy.”
“Putin knows that when I am president of the United States, his days of tyranny and trying to intimidate the United States and those in Eastern Europe are over”
Joe Biden (born 1942) first seen 2019 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: October 2019, quoted in
“Why should we allow people to have military-style weapons including pistols with nine-millimeter bullets and can hold ten or more rounds?”
Joe Biden (born 1942) first seen 2019 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: prior to 15 November 2019 per Seattle Times reporter Jim Brunner
“If you notice, I have more people supporting me in the black community that have announced for me, because they know me.”
Joe Biden (born 1942) first seen 2019 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 21 November 2019
“You should vote for Trump. You should vote for Trump.”