FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 2, 2020
Remarks
as Prepared for Delivery by Vice President Joe Biden in Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania
ÒI canÕt breathe.Ó ÒI
canÕt breathe.Ó
George FloydÕs last words. But they didnÕt die with
him. TheyÕre still being heard. TheyÕre echoing across this nation.
They speak to a nation where too often just the color of your skin puts your
life at risk.
They speak to a nation where more than 100,000 people have lost their lives to
a virus – and 40 million Americans have filed for unemployment –
with a disproportionate number of these deaths and job losses concentrated in
black and brown communities.
And they speak to a nation where every day millions of people – not at
the moment of losing their life – but in the course of living their life
– are saying to themselves, ÒI canÕt breathe.Ó
ItÕs a wake-up call for our nation. For all of us.
And I mean all of us. ItÕs not the first time weÕve heard these words –
theyÕre the same words we heard from Eric Garner when his life was taken six
years ago.
But itÕs time to listen to these words. Understand them. And respond to them
– with real action.
The country is crying out for leadership. Leadership that can
unite us. Leadership that can bring us together.
Leadership that can recognize the pain and deep grief of
communities that have had a knee on their neck for too long.
But there is no place for violence.
No place for looting or destroying property or burning churches, or destroying
businesses — many of them built by people of color who for the first time
were beginning to realize their dreams and build wealth for their families.
Nor is it acceptable for our police — sworn to protect and serve all
people — to escalate tensions or resort to excessive violence.
We need to distinguish between legitimate peaceful protest — and
opportunistic violent destruction.
And we must be vigilant about the violence thatÕs being done by the incumbent
president to our democracy and to the pursuit of justice.
When peaceful protestors are dispersed by the order of the President from the
doorstep of the peopleÕs house, the White House — using tear gas and
flash grenades — in order to stage a photo op at a noble church, we can
be forgiven for believing that the president is more interested in power than
in principle.
More interested in serving the passions of his base than the
needs of the people in his care.
For thatÕs what the presidency is: a duty of care — to all of us, not
just our voters, not just our donors, but all of us.
The President held up a bible at St. JohnÕs church yesterday.
If he opened it instead of brandishing it, he could have learned something:
That we are all called to love one another as we love ourselves.
ThatÕs hard work. But itÕs the work of America.
Donald Trump isnÕt interested in doing that work.
Instead heÕs preening and sweeping away all the guardrails that have long
protected our democracy.
Guardrails that have helped make possible this nationÕs path to a more perfect
union.
A union that constantly requires reform and
rededication – and yes the protests from voices of those mistreated,
ignored, left out and left behind.
But itÕs a union worth fighting for and thatÕs why IÕm running for President.
In addition to the Bible, he might also want to open the U.S. Constitution.
If he did, heÕd find the First Amendment. It protects Òthe right of the people
peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of
grievances.Ó
Mr. President: That is America.
Not horses rising up on their hind legs to push back a peaceful protest. Not
using the American military to move against the American people. This nation is
a nation of values. Our freedom to speak is the cherished knowledge that lives
inside every American.
We will not allow any President to quiet our voice.
We wonÕt let those who see this as an opportunity to sow chaos throw up a
smokescreen to distract us from the very real and legitimate grievances at the
heart of these protests.
And we canÕt leave this moment thinking we can once again turn away and do
nothing. We canÕt.
The moment has come for our nation to deal with systemic racism. To deal with the growing economic inequality in our nation. And to deal with the denial of the promise of this nation —
to so many.
IÕve said from the outset of this election that we are in a battle for the soul
of this nation. Who we are. What we believe. And maybe most important — who we want to be.
ItÕs all at stake. That is truer today than ever. And itÕs in this urgency we
can find the path forward.
The history of this nation teaches us that itÕs in some of our darkest moments
of despair that weÕve made some of our greatest progress.
The 13th and 14th and 15th Amendments followed the Civil War. The greatest
economy in the history of the world grew out of the Great Depression. The Civil
Rights Act of 1964 and Voting Rights Act of 1965 came in the tracks of Bull
ConnorÕs vicious dogs.
To paraphrase Reverend Barber — itÕs in the mourning we find hope.
It will take more than talk. WeÕve had talk before. WeÕve had protests
before.
Let us vow to make this, at last, an era of action to reverse systemic racism
with long overdue and concrete changes.
That action will not be completed in the first 100 days of my Presidency
— or even an entire term.
It is the work of a generation.
But if this agenda will take time to complete, it should not wait for the first
100 days of my Presidency to get started.
A down payment on what is long overdue should come now. Immediately.
I call on Congress to act this month on measures that would be a first step in
this direction. Starting with real police reform.
Congressman Jeffries has a bill to outlaw choke holds.
Congress should put it on President TrumpÕs desk in the next few days.
There are other measures: to stop transferring weapons of war to police forces,
to improve oversight and accountability, to create a model use of force
standard — that also should be made law this month.
No more excuses. No more delays.
If the Senate has time to confirm TrumpÕs unqualified judicial nominees who
will run roughshod over our Constitution, it has time to pass legislation that
will give true meaning to our ConstitutionÕs promise of Òequal protection of
the laws.Ó
Looking ahead, in the first 100 days of my presidency, I have committed to
creating a national police oversight commission.
IÕve long believed we need real community policing.
And we need each and every police department in the country to undertake a
comprehensive review of their hiring, their training, and their de-escalation
practices.
And the federal government should give them the tools and resources they need
to implement reforms.
Most cops meet the highest standards of their profession. All the more reason
that bad cops should be dealt with severely and swiftly. We all need to take a
hard look at the culture that allows for these senseless tragedies to keep
happening.
And we need to learn from the cities and precincts that are getting it right.
We know, though, that to have true justice in America, we need economic
justice, too.
Here, too, there is much to be done.
As an immediate step, Congress should act to rectify racial inequities in the
allocation of COVID-19 recovery funds.
I will be setting forth more of my agenda on economic justice and opportunity
in the weeks and months ahead.
But it begins with health care. It should be a right not a privilege. The
quickest route to universal coverage in this country is to expand Obamacare.
We could do it. We should do it.
But this president — even now — in the midst of a public health
crisis with massive unemployment wants to destroy it.
He doesnÕt care how many millions of Americans will be hurt— because he
is consumed with his blinding ego when it comes to President Obama.
The President should withdraw his lawsuit to strike down Obamacare, and the
Congress should prepare to act on my proposal to expand Obamacare to millions
more.
These last few months we have seen AmericaÕs true heroes. The health care workers, the nurses, delivery truck drivers,
grocery store workers.
We have a new phrase for them: Essential workers.
But we need to do more than praise them. We need to pay them.
Because if it wasnÕt clear before, itÕs clear now. This country wasnÕt built by Wall Street bankers and CEOs. It was built by AmericaÕs great middle class — by our
essential workers.
I know there is enormous fear and uncertainty and
anger in the country. I understand.
And I know so many Americans are suffering. Suffering the loss of a loved one.
Suffering economic hardships. Suffering under the weight of generation after
generation after generation of hurt inflicted on people of color — and on
black and Native communities in particular.
I know what it means to grieve. My losses are not the same
as the losses felt by so many. But I know what it is to feel like you cannot go
on.
I know what it means to have a black hole of grief sucking at your chest.
Just a few days ago marked the fifth anniversary of my son BeauÕs passing from
cancer. There are still moments when the pain is so great it feels no different
from the day he died. But I also know that the best way to bear loss and pain
is to turn all that anger and anguish to purpose.
And, Americans know what our purpose is as a nation. It has guided us from the
very beginning.
ItÕs been reported. That on the day John F. Kennedy was assassinated, little
Yolanda King came home from school in Atlanta and jumped in her fatherÕs arms.
ÒOh, Daddy,Ó she said, Ònow we will never get our
freedom.Ó
Her daddy was reassuring, strong, and brave.
ÒNow donÕt you worry, baby,Ó said Martin Luther King, Jr. ÒItÕs going to be all
right.Ó
Amid violence and fear, Dr. King persevered.
He was driven by his dream of a nation where Òjustice runs down like water and
righteousness like a mighty stream.Ó
Then, in 1968 hate would cut him down in Memphis.
A few days before Dr. King was murdered, he gave a final Sunday sermon in Washington.
He told us that though the arc of a moral universe is long, it bends toward
justice.
And we know we can bend it — because we have. We have to believe that
still. That is our purpose. ItÕs been our purpose from the beginning.
To become the nation where all men and women are not only created equal —
but treated equally.
To become the nation defined — in Dr. KingÕs words — not only by
the absence of tension, but by the presence of
justice.
Today in America itÕs hard to keep faith that justice is at hand. I know that.
You know that.
The pain is raw. The pain is real.
A president of the United States must be part of the solution, not the problem.
But our president today is part of the problem.
When he tweeted the words ÒWhen the looting starts, the shooting startsÓ
– those werenÕt the words of a president. They were the words of a racist
Miami police chief from the 1960s.
When he tweeted that protesters Òwould have been greeted with the most vicious
dogs É thatÕs when people would have been really badly hurt.Ó Those werenÕt the
words of a president — those were the kind of words a Bull Connor would
have used unleashing his dogs.
The American story is about action and reaction. ThatÕs the way history works.
We canÕt be na•ve about that.
I wish I could say this hate began with Donald Trump and will end with him. It
didnÕt and it wonÕt. American history isnÕt a fairytale with a guaranteed happy
ending.
The battle for the soul of this nation has been a constant push-and-pull for
more than 240 years.
A tug of war between the American ideal that we are all created equal and the
harsh reality that racism has long torn us apart. The honest truth is both
elements
are part of the American character.
At our best, the American ideal wins out.
ItÕs never a rout. ItÕs always a fight. And the battle is never finally won.
But we canÕt ignore the truth that we are at our best when we open our hearts,
not when we clench our fists. Donald Trump has turned our country into a
battlefield riven by old resentments and fresh fears.
He thinks division helps him.
His narcissism has become more important than the nationÕs well-being
he leads.
I ask every American to look at where we are now, and think anew: Is this who
we are? Is this who we want to be? Is this what we pass on to our kidsÕ and
grandkidsÕ lives? Fear and finger-pointing rather than
hope and the pursuit of happiness? Incompetence and anxiety?
Self-absorption and selfishness?
Or do we want to be the America we know we can be. The America we know in our
hearts we could be and should be.
Look, the presidency is a big job. Nobody will get everything right. And I
wonÕt either.
But I promise you this. I wonÕt traffic in fear and division. I wonÕt fan the
flames of hate.
I will seek to heal the racial wounds that have long plagued this country
– not use them for political gain.
IÕll do my job and take responsibility. I wonÕt blame others. IÕll never forget
that the job isnÕt about me.
ItÕs about you.
And IÕll work to not only rebuild this nation. But to build
it better than it was.
To build a better future. ThatÕs what America does.
We build the future. It may in fact be the most American thing to do.
We hunger for liberty the way Harriet Tubman and Frederick Douglass did.
We thirst for the vote the way Susan B. Anthony and Ella Baker and John Lewis
did. We strive to explore the stars, to cure disease, to make this imperfect
Union as perfect as we can.
We may come up short — but at our best we try.
We are facing formidable enemies.
They include not only the coronavirus and its terrible impact on our lives and
livelihoods, but also the selfishness and fear that have loomed over our
national life for the last three years.
Defeating those enemies requires us to do our duty — and that duty
includes remembering who we should be.
We should be the America of FDR and Eisenhower, of Rosa Parks and Martin Luther
King Jr., of Jonas Salk and Neil Armstrong.
We should be the America that cherishes life and liberty and courage.
Above all, we should be the America that cherishes each other – each and
every one.
We are a nation in pain, but we must not allow this pain to destroy us. We are
a nation enraged, but we cannot allow our rage to consume us. We are a nation
exhausted, but we will not allow our exhaustion to defeat us.
As President, it is my commitment to all of you to lead on these issues —
to listen. Because I truly believe in my heart of hearts, that we can overcome.
And when we stand together, finally, as One America, we will rise stronger than
before.
So reach out to one another. Speak out for one another. And please, please take
care of each other.
This is the United States of America. And there is nothing we canÕt do. If we do it together.