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Joe Biden
541 quotes
“We’ll certainly never forget the dark days of June 6, January 6th, excuse me,One of the dark days in history. The idea that wasn’t an insurrection — I don’t understand.”
“I made it clear to the Israelis—don’t move on Haifa.”
“He may not accept the outcome of the election? I promise you he won’t, The guy is not a Democrat with a small ‘D.”
“We'll never forget him lying about the pandemic. We’ll never forget about the rise in anti-Asian hate crimes during the pandemic...While we fight for comprehensive immigration reform, he calls immigrants rapists and murderers. He says they are not people. He says immigrants are 'poisoning the blood of our country.' Folks, my predecessor wants a country just for some of us. We want a country for all of us.”
“I say to every young man thinking of getting married, marry into a family with five or more daughters ... One of them will always love you”
“What would’ve happened if Black Americans had stormed the Capitol? I don’t think he’d be talking about pardons.”
Joe Biden (born 1942) first seen 2024 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: https://www.politico.com/news/2024/05/29/biden-trump-birtherism-black-voters-00160502 ]
“Folks — the campaign entered unchartered territory last week. For the first time in American history, a former president that is a convicted felon is now seeking the office of the presidency, But as disturbing as that is, more damaging is the all-out assault Donald Trump is making on the American system of justice.”
“It's time once again, to do what I did when I was a senator: ban assault weapons [...] Who, in God's name, needs a magazine which can hold 200 shells?”
Joe Biden (born 1942) first seen 2024 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: From a speech at Everytown for Gun Safety's annual training conference, Washington, D.C., as cited by Rebecca Shabad in "Biden talks gun safety at previously scheduled event hours after his son is found guilty on gun ch…
“The idea that he’s actually threatened retribution. This is the United States of America. Did you ever think you’d ever, ever, ever hear anything like this? Retribution, that’s what he’s going to do, he’s going to get back at people.”
“Let me say this as clearly as I can: I'm the sitting President of the United States. I'm the nominee of the Democratic party. I'm staying in the race.”
Joe Biden (born 1942) first seen 2024 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Posting on X (July 5, 2024)
“I have one job, and that’s to beat Donald Trump. I’m absolutely certain I’m the best person to be able to do that. So, we’re done talking about the debate, it’s time to put Trump in a bullseye...We can’t go another day, another day, without explaining what he’s doing, and we have to go after him.”
Joe Biden (born 1942) first seen 2023 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Statement by Biden during July 8 call with top Democratic donors, quoted in "Republican Congressman Baselessly Accuses Biden of Ordering Trump Shooting", Rolling Stone (July 13, 2023)
“For now, let me express my deepest gratitude to all those who have worked so hard to see me reelected. I want to thank Vice President Kamala Harris for being an extraordinary partner in all this work. And let me express my heartfelt appreciation to the American people for the faith and trust you have placed in me. I believe today what I always have: that there is nothing America can't do - when we do it together. We just have to remember we are the United States of America.”
“My fellow Democrats, I have decided not to accept the nomination and to focus all my energies on my duties as President for the remainder of my term. My very first decision as the party nominee in 2020 was to pick Kamala Harris as my Vice President. And it’s been the best decision I’ve made. Today I want to offer my full support and endorsement for Kamala to be the nominee of our party this year. Democrats — it’s time to come together and beat Trump. Let’s do this.”
“My fellow Democrats, my fellow Americans, nearly four years ago in winter on the steps of the Capitol, on a cold January day, I raised my right hand and I swore an oath to you and to God, to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution and to faithfully execute the office of the President of the United States. In front of me was a city surrounded by the National Guard. Behind me, a Capitol just two weeks before had been overrun by a violent mob. But I knew then, from the bottom of my heart that I knew now, there is no place in America for political violence. None.”
“Folks, I’ve got five months left in my presidency. I’ve got a lot to do. I intend to get it done. It’s been the honor of my lifetime to serve as your President. I love the job, but I love my country more. I love my country more.”
“Folks, all of us carry a special obligation. Independents, Republicans, Democrats. We saved democracy in 2020, and now we must save it again in 2024. The vote that each of us cast this year will determine whether democracy and freedom will prevail. It’s that simple. It’s that serious. And the power is literally in your hands. History’s in your hands. Not hyperbole. It’s in your hands. America’s future’s in your hands.”
“A lot happening in the Middle East. After 13 years of civil war in Syria and more than half a century of brutal authoritarian rule by Bashar Assad and his father before him, rebel forces have forced Assad to resign his office and flee the country. We’re not sure where he is, but the- — there’s word that he’s in Moscow.”
“At long last, the Assad regime has fallen. This regime brutalized and tortured and killed literally hundreds of thousands of innocent Syrians. A fall of the regime is a fundamental act of justice. It’s a moment of historic opportunity for the long-suffering people of Syria to build a better future for their proud country. It’s also a moment of risk and uncertainty. As we all turn to the question of what comes next, the United States will work with our partners and the stakeholders in Syria to help them seize an opportunity to manage the risks.”
“You know, for years, the main backers of Assad have been Iran, Hezbollah, and Russia. But over the last week, their support collapsed — all three of them — because all three of them are far weaker today than they were when I took office. And let’s remember why.”
“Iran’s own military capabilities have been weakened. Iran tried two times to attack Israel, and the United States and — built a coalition of countries to directly defend Israel and help defeat those attacks. All this made possible for Iran and Hezbollah to continue to prop up — impossible, I should say, for them to prop up the Assad regime.”
“Russia’s support for Assad also failed. And that’s because Ukraine, backed by our American allies, has put up a wall of resistance against the invading Russian forces, inflicting massive damage on the Russian forces. And that has left Russia unable to protect its main ally in the Middle East.”
“Make no mistake, some of the rebel groups that took down Assad have their own grim record of terrorism and humanit- — human right abuses. We’ve taken note of statements by the leaders of these rebel groups in recent days. And we’re — they’re saying the right things now, but as they take on greater responsibility, we will assess not just their words, but their actions.”
“These past few days have been historic, and, you know, it’s in the days ahead that will determine the future of a — this country, and we intend to approach them with strength, wisdom, and resolve.”
“You know, we've proven we don't have to choose between protecting the environment and growing the economy. We're doing both. But powerful forces want to wield their unchecked influence to eliminate the steps we've taken to tackle the climate crisis to serve their own interest for power and profit. We must not be bullied into sacrificing the future, the future of our children and our grandchildren. We must keep pushing forward and push faster. There is no time to waste.”
“I don't want anybody to give me credit for sharing any point of view George Wallace has. There are some people who oppose busing because they are racist, but the vast majority of the American people — the people of Delaware — oppose it for the same reason that the architect of the concept now opposes it.Professor Coleman, an educator, first suggested the possible benefits of busing in a 1966 report. Now in 1975 Coleman says, "Guess what? I was wrong. Busing doesn't accomplish its goal." We should be concentrating on things other than busing to provide for the educational and cultural needs of the deprived segment of our population. But we've lost our bearings since the 1954 "Brown vs. School Board" desegregation case. To "desegregate" is different than to "integrate."I got into trouble with Democratic liberals in 1972 when I refused to support a quota-system for the Democratic National Convention.I am philosophically opposed to quota-systems; they insure mediocrity. The new integration plans being offered are really just quota-systems to assure a certain number of blacks, Chicanos, or whatever in each school. That, to me, is the most racist concept you can come up with; what it says is, "in order for your child, with curly black hair, brown eyes, and dark skin to be able to learn anything, he needs to sit next to my blond-haired, blue-eyed son." That's racist! Who the hell do we think we are, that the only way a black man or woman can learn is if they rub shoulders with my white child? The point is that if we look beyond the "old" left to the "New Left," almost all the new liberal leaders and civil rights leaders oppose busing.”
“I started thinking as I was coming over here, why is it that Joe Biden is the first in his family ever to go to a university? Why is it that my wife, who is sitting out there in the audience, is the first in her family to ever go to college? Is it because our fathers and mothers were not bright? Is it because I'm the first Biden in a thousand generations to get a college and a graduate degree that I was smarter than the rest? [Of his Irish ancestors] Those same people who read poetry and wrote poetry and taught me how to sing verse? Is it because they didn’t work hard? My ancestors, who worked in the coal mines of northeast Pennsylvania and would come up after 12 hours and play football for four hours? No, it's not because they weren't as smart. It’s not because they didn’t work as hard. It’s because they didn’t have a platform upon which to stand.”
Joe Biden (born 1942) first seen 1987 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Quoted in "No Time to Cite Source, He Says : Biden Stirs Row by Using Lines From Briton’s Talk" Los Angeles Times (September 13, 1987)
“Look, you have probably the only three people in Washington here who think we should go straight to Belgrade and arrest Milošević but let's not kid each other - we're the only three people. The rest of this is malarkey. The Republican Congress won't even vote for the bombing, the NATO forces won't even go along with the idea of ground troops and whether or not the president will or will not is not relevant, the question it seems to me is what is the definition of victory. We sat in this program before, the definition of victory was all the troops out of Kosovo, the Albanians back in Kosovo and a NATO-led force in Kosovo. That's not total victory, that's not the victory I want, that's not the victory John wants, I've been saying we should go in, on the ground, we should announce there's going to be American casualties, we should go to Belgrade and we should have a Japanese/German-style occupation of that country and we should have public trials in order to strike away this mask of the Serbian victimization so the people of Serbia know what's happened. It's the only thing that will ultimately work but that's not what anyone but the three of us have been talking about from the beginning. So when the president says he's not for total victory he's not for what we're for but he never was nor was NATO nor is anybody but the three of us.”
Joe Biden (born 1942) first seen 1999 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Meet the Press - an interview with Joe Biden, John McCain, and Bob Dole, NBC Meet the Press (9 May 1999)
“Mr. President, today, in his speech to the National Endowment for Democracy, President Bush gave a vivid and, I believe, compelling description of the threat to America and to freedom from radical Islamic fundamentalism. He made, in my view, a powerful case for what is at stake for every American. Simply put, the radical fundamentalists seek to kill our citizens in great numbers, to disrupt our economy, and to reshape the international order. They would take the world backwards, replacing freedom with fear and hope with hatred. If they were to acquire a nuclear weapon, the threat they would pose to America would be literally existential. The President said it well. The President is right that we cannot and will not retreat. We will defend ourselves and defeat the enemies of freedom and progress.”
Joe Biden (born 1942) first seen 2005 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: (October 6, 2005)
“I don't think John Edwards knows what the heck he is talking about. John Edwards wants you and all the Democrats to think, ‘I want us out of there,’ but when you come back and you say, ‘O.K., John. What about the chaos that will ensue? Do we have any interest, John, left in the region?’ Well, John will have to answer yes or no. If he says yes, what are they? What are those interests, John? How do you protect those interests, John, if you are completely withdrawn? Are you withdrawn from the region, John? Are you withdrawn from Iraq, John? In what period? So all this stuff is like so much Fluffernutter out there. So for me, what I think you have to do is have a strategic notion. And they may have it—they are just smart enough not to enunciate it.”
Joe Biden (born 1942) first seen 2007 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speaking on Edwards' position for immediate withdrawal of about 40,000 American troops from Iraq (February 5, 2007), reported in the New York Observer
“Tim Russert: But, senator, we have a deficit. We have Social Security and Medicare looming. The number of people on Social Security and Medicare is now 40 million people. It's going to be 80 million in 15 years. Would you consider looking at those programs, age of eligibility— Joe Biden: Absolutely. Russert: —cost of living, put it all on the table? Biden: The answer is absolutely. You have to. You know, it's— one of the things that my, you know, the political advisers say to me is, "Whoa, don't touch that third—" Look, the American people aren't stupid. It's a real simple proposition. [...] Social Security's not the hard one to solve. Medicare, that is the gorilla in the room, and you've got to put all of it on the table. Russert: Everything. Biden: Everything. You've got to.”
“Like millions of Americans, they're asking questions as profound as they are ordinary. Questions they never thought they would have to ask: Should mom move in with us now that dad is gone? Fifty, sixty, seventy dollars to fill up the car? Winter's coming. How we gonna pay the heating bills? Another year and no raise? Did you hear the company may be cutting our health care? Now, we owe more on the house than it's worth. How are we going to send the kids to college? How are we gonna be able to retire? That's the America that George Bush has left us, and that's the America that George -- excuse me, if John McCain is elected president of the United States.”
Joe Biden (born 1942) first seen 2008 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Joe Biden's vice presidential candidacy acceptance speech at the DNC (2008)
“Vice President Cheney has been the most dangerous vice president we've had probably in American history. The idea he doesn't realize that Article I of the Constitution defines the role of the vice president of the United States, that's the Executive Branch. He works in the Executive Branch. He should understand that. Everyone should understand that. And the primary role of the vice president of the United States of America is to support the president of the United States of America, give that president his or her best judgment when sought, and as vice president, to preside over the Senate, only in a time when in fact there's a tie vote. The Constitution is explicit. The only authority the vice president has from the legislative standpoint is the vote, only when there is a tie vote. He has no authority relative to the Congress.”
Joe Biden (born 1942) first seen 2008 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Biden at the 2008 Vice Presidential debate. Biden-Palin Vice Presidential debates (October 2, 2008)
“He wanted me to understand two big things: First, that nobody, no group, is above others. Public servants are obliged to level with everybody, whether or not they'll like what he has to say. And second, that politics was a matter of personal honor. A man's word is his bond. You give your word, you keep it. For as long as I can remember, I've had a sort of romantic notion of what politics should be- and can be. If you do politics the right way, I believe, you can actually make people's lives better. And integrity is the minimum ante to get into the game. Nearly forty years after I first got involved, I remain captivated by the possibilities of politics and public service. In fact, I believe- as I know my grandpop did- that my chosen profession is a noble calling.”
“I liked to go at night when I thought there was a better chance of finding a fight. I was always looking for a fight. I had not known I was capable of such rage. I knew I had been cheated of a future, but I felt I'd been cheated of a past, too. The underpinnings of my life had been kicked out from under me... and it wasn't just the loss of Neilia and Naomi. All my life I'd been taught about our benevolent God. This is a forgiving God, a just God, a God who knows people make mistakes. This is a God who is tolerant. This is a God who gave us free will to be able to doubt. This was a loving God, a God of comfort. Well, I didn't want to hear anything about a merciful God. No words, no prayer, no sermon gave me ease. I felt God had played a horrible trick on me, and I was angry. I found no comfort in the Church. So I kept walking the dark streets to try to exhaust the rage.”
“They didn’t take on the welfare programs directly; they didn’t talk about eliminating welfare. They just kept up a steady drumbeat about welfare cheats and how the federal government was wasting the money taken from hardworking taxpayers. I’ll give the Republicans this much: It was a mercenary message, but it resonated. And they had taken the easy way out. It required a lot less energy, intelligence, and competence to run against government than to try to make government work. But there was also a blowback effect in Congress: Respect for the institution and civility among its members began to ebb.”
“I mark the last days of Hubert Humphrey as the high point of bipartisan decency in my career. Hubert Humphrey died a senator, and in his last months in the Capitol, cancer was wasting him. We all watched it happen. His hair was gone; he was emaciated. He was too diminished to take part in real debate, but he’d show up to vote. He loved the Senate. "The Senate is a place filled with goodwill and good intentions," Humphrey once said, "and if the road to hell is paved with them, then it’s a pretty good detour." In his last days it was like he didn’t want to leave the chamber. He’d stay on the floor late into the night, and he and his friend Senator Barry Goldwater would talk about things they’d accomplished together and separately in the Senate. Politically, the two men could not have been further apart. Humphrey had been the vice presidential candidate in 1964 when Goldwater ran as the Republican presidential nominee. And the Boss’s convention speech that year was a shot across the bow of Gold-waterism. He’d listed the many programs that moderate Republicans in the Senate had voted for, following each with "but not Senator Barry Goldwater." They’d unexpectedly run into each other in an airport on the campaign trail a few weeks later and stopped for a friendly greeting. As they parted, somebody overheard Goldwater say, "Well, keep punching, Hubert." By the end of 1977, it became increasingly clear that the Boss would not be around much longer. And on the Senate floor one day, Barry Goldwater walked across the aisle and enveloped Hubert Humphrey. Goldwater was so big and Humphrey so frail that Humphrey almost disappeared. The two men stood for a long moment, locked in a hug, and I could see that both men were crying. They made no effort to hide it.”
“In spite of the president's phone call, I remained a vocal critic of the Bush administration's foreign policy priorities through that summer because I didn't trust most of the people he had around him. The civilians in the Department of Defense were unlike any I'd ever seen. They seemed to think our nation was so powerful that we could simply impose our will on the rest of the world with almost no ill consequence. It seemed to me that Rumsfeld and his chief deputy at Defense, Paul Wolfowitz, were so totally in thrall to that conservative think-tank-generated ideology that they were steering the president down a dangerous path. And they were so intent on overturning President Clinton's foreign policy initiatives that they were losing sight of the bigger goal, which was keeping America safe at home and engaged in doing good in the world.”
“You can’t talk about the civil rights movement in this country without talking about Jewish freedom riders and Jack Greenberg. You can’t talk about the women’s movement without talking about Betty Friedan. I believe what affects the movements in America, what affects our attitudes in America are as much the culture and the arts as anything else. [...] It wasn’t anything we legislatively did. It was ‘Will and Grace,’ it was the social media. Literally. That’s what changed peoples’ attitudes. That’s why I was so certain that the vast majority of people would embrace and rapidly embrace. Think behind of all that, I bet you 85 percent of those changes, whether it’s in Hollywood or social media are a consequence of Jewish leaders in the industry. The influence is immense, the influence is immense. And, I might add, it is all to the good.”
“When these barbarians replicated with Steven what they did with Foley, who is from New Hampshire, they somehow think that it's going to lessen US resolve, frighten us, intimidate us. But if they think the American people will be intimidated, they don't know us very well. We came back after 9/11, we dusted ourselves off and we made sure that Osama Bin Ladin would never ever again threaten the American people. We came back Boston strong, blaming no one, but resolve to be certain that this didn't happen again. Today America may be still grieving from Jim Foley, a native from New Hampshire as I said he grew up in Rochester, but the American people are so much stronger, so much more resolved than any enemy can fully understand. As a nation, we are united. And when people harm Americans, we don't retreat, we don't forget, we take care of those grieving. And when that's finished, they should know [that] we follow them to the gates of hell until they are brought to justice, because hell is where they will reside.”
“The god's truth is, we are a melting pot. It is the ultimate source of our strength, it is the ultimate source of who we are, what we've become. It started all the way back in the late 1700s. There's been a constant unrelenting stream of immigrants. Not in little trickles, but in large numbers. .. He said they're in America looking for the buried black box, and I looked at him just like you're looking at me, like what's he talking about? He said they're looking for that secret that allows America to constantly be able to remake itself, unlike any other country in the world. I said, I can presume to tell you what's in that black box, mister president. I'm old enough now. I said one is that there is in America an overwhelming skepticism for orthodoxy. From the time a child, whether they're naturalized or they're native-born, they think about it, a child never gets criticized in our education system for challenging orthodoxy, for challenging the status quo. I would argue it's unlike any other large country in the world. There's a second thing in that black box. An unrelenting stream of immigration. Non stop, nonstop. Folks like me who are Caucasian, of European descent, for the first time in 2017 we'll be an absolute minority in the United States of America. Absolute minority. Fewer than 50% of the people in America from then and on will be white European stock. That's not a bad thing. That's a source of our strength.”
Joe Biden (born 1942) first seen 2015 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 17 February 2015 during Summit on Countering Violent Extremism
“But folks, let me tell you what I literally tell every world leader I met with and I've met them all. It's never, never, never been a good bet to bet against America. We have the finest fighting force in the world. Not only do we have the largest economy in the world, we have the strongest economy in the world. We have the most productive workers in the world. And given a fair shot, given a fair chance, Americans have never, ever, ever, ever let their country down. Never. Never. Ordinary people like us who do extraordinary things. We've had candidates before attempted to get elected by appealing to our fears, but they've never succeeded because we do not scare easily. We never bow. We never bend. We never break when confronted with crisis. No, we endure. We overcome. And we always, always, always move forward. That's why. That's why I can say with absolute conviction, I am more optimistic about our chances today than when I was elected as a 29-year-old kid to the senate. The 21st century is going to be the American century. Because we lead not only by the example of our power, but by the power of our example. That is the history of the journey of America. And god willing, god willing, Hillary Clinton will write the next chapter in that journey. We are America. Second to none. And we own the finish line. Don't forget it. God bless you all, and may god protect our troops. Come on. We're America. Thank you.”
Joe Biden (born 1942) first seen 2016 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: FULL TEXT: Joe Biden's 2016 Democratic National Convention Speech (July 27, 2016), ABC News, July 28, 2016.
“This was the diving board area, and I was one of the guards, and they weren't allowed to—it was a 3-meter board. And if you fell off sideways, you landed on the damn, er, darn cement over there... And Corn Pop was a bad dude. And he ran a bunch of bad boys. And back in those days—to show how things have changed—one of the things you had to use, if you used Pomade in your hair, you had to wear a baby cap. And so he was up on the board and wouldn't listen to me.I said, "Hey, Esther, you! Off the board, or I'll come up and drag you off." Well, he came off, and he said, "I'll meet you outside..." My car was mostly, these were all public housing behind us, my car—there was a gate on here. I parked my car outside the gate. And he said, "I'll be waiting for you." He was waiting for me with three guys with straight razors. Not a joke.There was a guy named Bill Wright the only white guy and he did all the pools. He was a mechanic. And I said, "What am I gonna do?" And he said. "Come down here in the basement, where all the mechanics—where all the pool builder is." You know the chain, there used to be a chain that went across the deep end. And he cut off a six-foot length of chain, and folded it up and he said, "You walk out with that chain, and you walk to the car and say, 'you may cut me man, but I'm gonna wrap this chain around your head.'" I said, "You're kidding me." He said, "No if you don't, don't come back." And he was right. So I walked out with the chain. And I walked up to my car. And in those days, you remember the straight razors, you had to bang 'em on the curb, gettin' em rusty, puttin' em in the rain barrel, gettin' em rusty? And I looked at him, but I was smart, then. I said, "First of all," I said, "when I tell you to get off the board, you get off the board, and I'll kick you out again, but I shouldn't have called you Esther Williams, and I apologize for that. I apologize." But I didn't know that apology was gonna work. He said, "you apologize to me?" I said, "I apologize but not for throwing you out, but I apologize for what I said." He said, "OK," closed that straight razor, and my heart began to beat again.”
Joe Biden (born 1942) first seen 2017 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Corn Pop" speech at Joseph R. Biden Jr. Aquatic Center in Wilmington, Delaware, 26 June 2017 Delaware Online. Transcript courtesy 15 September 2019 Fox News
“I was supposed to announce that there was another billion-dollar loan guarantee [for Ukraine]. And I had gotten a commitment from Poroshenko and from Yatsenyuk that they would take action against the state prosecutor. And they didn't... So they said they had — they were walking out to a press conference. I said, nah... we're not going to give you the billion dollars. They said, you have no authority. You're not the president. The president said — I said, call him. I said, I'm telling you, you're not getting the billion dollars... I looked at them and said: I'm leaving in six hours. If the prosecutor is not fired, you're not getting the money. Well, son of a bitch. He got fired. And they put in place someone who was solid.”
Joe Biden (born 1942) first seen 2018 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Joe Biden, Speech at the Council on Foreign Relations (Jan. 23, 2018), quoted in
“Lawrence O'Donnell: Let's flash forward. You're president. Bernie Sanders is still active in the Senate. He manages to get Medicare for All through the Senate, in some compromise version, the Elizabeth Warren version or other version. Nancy Pelosi gets a version of it through the House of Representatives. It comes to your desk. Do you veto it? Joe Biden: I would veto anything that delays providing the security and the certainty of healthcare being available now. If they got that through and by some miracle, there was an epiphany that occurred, and some miracle occurred that said OK, it's passed, then you got to look at the cost. And I want to know how did they find the $35 trillion? What is that doing?”
“There is no more consequential challenge that we must meet in the next decade than the onrushing climate crisis. Left unchecked, it is literally an existential threat to the health of our planet and to our very survival... We are an economy in crisis but with an incredible opportunity: To not just rebuild back to where we were before, but better, stronger, more resilient and more prepared to the challenges that lie ahead... These aren’t pie-in-the-sky dreams. These are actionable policies that we can get to work on right away... Nothing’s a hoax. Nothing’s a hoax about that. It’s a very serious subject. I want clean air. I want clean water. I want the cleanest air, want the cleanest water. The environment is very important to me.”
“Trump and Pence are running on this and I find it fascinating, quote, "You won't be safe in Joe Biden's America". And what's their proof? The violence we're seeing in Donald Trump's America. These are not images of some imagined "Joe Biden America" in the future. These are images of Donald Trump's America today. He keeps telling you if only he was president, it wouldn't happen, if he was president. He keeps telling us that if he was president, you'd feel safe. Well, he is president whether he knows it or not. And it is happening. It's getting worse and you know why. Because Donald Trump adds fuel to every fire.”
“I know how deep and hard the opposing views are in our country on so many things. But I also know this as well. To make progress, we have to stop treating our opponents as enemies. We are not enemies. What brings us together as Americans is so much stronger than anything that can tear us apart. So let me be clear. I, we, are campaigning as a Democrats, but I will govern as an American president. The presidency itself is not a partisan institution. It’s the one office in this nation that represents everyone and it demands a duty of care for all Americans. That is precisely what I will do. I will work as hard for those who didn’t vote for me as I will for those who did vote for me. Now, every vote must be counted. No one’s going to take our democracy away from us, not now, not ever. America’s come too far. America’s fought too many battles. America’s endured too much to ever let that happen. We the people will not be silenced. We the people will not be bullied. We the people will not surrender. My friends, I’m confident we’ll emerge victorious. But this will not be my victory alone or our victory alone. It’ll be a victory for the American people, for our democracy, for America. And there will be no blue states and red states when we win, just the United States of America, God bless you all and may God protect our troops. Thank you.”
Joe Biden (born 1942) first seen 2020 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Public address as 2020 US Presidential Vote Count Continues" (4 November 2020)
“My fellow Americans, the people of this nation have spoken. They have delivered us a clear victory. A convincing victory. A victory for "We the People." We have won with the most votes ever cast for a presidential ticket in the history of this nation — 74 million. I am humbled by the trust and confidence you have placed in me. I pledge to be a President who seeks not to divide, but to unify. Who doesn't see Red and Blue states, but a United States. And who will work with all my heart to win the confidence of the whole people.For that is what America is about: The people. And that is what our Administration will be about.I sought this office to restore the soul of America. To rebuild the backbone of the nation — the middle class. To make America respected around the world again and to unite us here at home. It is the honor of my lifetime that so many millions of Americans have voted for this vision. And now the work of making this vision real is the task of our time.”
“I am proud of the campaign we built and ran. I am proud of the coalition we put together, the broadest and most diverse in history. Democrats, Republicans and Independents. Progressives, moderates and conservatives. Young and old. Urban, suburban and rural. Gay, straight, transgender. White. Latino. Asian. Native American. And especially for those moments when this campaign was at its lowest — the African American community stood up again for me. They always have my back, and I'll have yours. I said from the outset I wanted a campaign that represented America, and I think we did that. Now that's what I want the administration to look like. And to those who voted for President Trump, I understand your disappointment tonight. I've lost a couple of elections myself. But now, let's give each other a chance.It's time to put away the harsh rhetoric. To lower the temperature. To see each other again. To listen to each other again. To make progress, we must stop treating our opponents as our enemy. We are not enemies. We are Americans. The Bible tells us that to everything there is a season — a time to build, a time to reap, a time to sow. And a time to heal. This is the time to heal in America.”
“Americans have called on us to marshal the forces of decency and the forces of fairness. To marshal the forces of science and the forces of hope in the great battles of our time. The battle to control the virus. The battle to build prosperity. The battle to secure your family's health care. The battle to achieve racial justice and root out systemic racism in this country. The battle to save the climate. The battle to restore decency, defend democracy, and give everybody in this country a fair shot. Our work begins with getting COVID under control. We cannot repair the economy, restore our vitality, or relish life's most precious moments — hugging a grandchild, birthdays, weddings, graduations, all the moments that matter most to us — until we get this virus under control.”