Good evening, everyone.
It's a hard time, and everyone's
feeling it in different ways.
And I know a lot of folks
are reluctant to tune
into a political convention
right now
or to politics in general.
Believe me, I get that.
But I am here tonight
because I love this country
with all my heart,
and it pains me to see
so many people hurting.
I've met so many of you.
I've heard your stories.
And through you, I have seen
this country's promise.
And thanks to so many who came
before me,
thanks to their toil
and sweat and blood,
I've been able to live
that promise myself.
That's the story of America.
All those folks who sacrificed
and overcame so much
in their own times because they
wanted something more,
something better for their kids.
There's a lot of beauty
in that story.
There's a lot of pain in it,
too,
a lot of struggle and injustice
and work left to do.
And who we choose as our
president in this election
will determine whether or not
we honor that struggle
and chip away at that injustice
and keep alive
the very possibility
of finishing that work.
I am one of a handful of people
living today
who have seen firsthand
the immense weight
and awesome power
of the presidency.
And let me once again
tell you this.
The job is hard.
It requires
clear-headed judgment,
a mastery of complex
and competing issues,
a devotion to facts and history,
a moral compass,
and an ability to listen.
And an abiding belief
that each of the 330 million
lives in this country
has meaning and worth.
A president's words have
the power to move markets.
They can start wars
or broker peace.
They can summon
our better angels
or awaken our worst instincts.
You simply cannot fake your way
through this job.
As I've said before,
being president
doesn't change who you are.
It reveals who you are.
Well, a presidential election
can reveal who we are, too.
And four years ago,
too many people chose to believe
that their votes didn't matter.
Maybe they were fed up.
Maybe they thought the outcome
wouldn't be close.
Maybe the barriers
felt too steep.
Whatever the reason.
In the end, those choices sent
someone to the Oval Office
who lost the national popular
vote by nearly 3 million votes.
In one of the states
that determined the outcome,
the winning margin averaged out
to just two votes per precinct.
Two votes.
And we've all been living
with the consequences.
When my husband left office
with Joe Biden at his side,
we had a record-breaking
stretch of job creation.
We'd secured the right to health
care for 20 million people.
We were respected
around the world,
rallying our allies
to confront climate change.
And our leaders had worked
hand-in-hand with scientists
to help prevent
an Ebola outbreak
from becoming a global pandemic.
Four years later, the state of
this nation is very different.
More than 150,000 people
have died,
and our economy is in shambles
because of a virus
that this president
downplayed for too long.
It has left millions
of people jobless.
Too many have lost
their health care.
Too many are struggling
to take care of basic
necessities like food and rent.
Too many communities have been
left in the lurch to grapple
with whether and how
to open our schools safely.
Internationally,
we've turned our back,
not just on agreements forged
by my husband,
but on alliances
championed by presidents
like Reagan and Eisenhower.
And here at home,
as George Floyd, Breonna Taylor,
and a never-ending list
of innocent people of color
continue to be murdered,
stating the simple fact
that a Black life matters
is still met
with derision from
the nation's highest office.
Because whenever we look to this
White House for some leadership
or consolation
or any semblance of steadiness,
what we get instead is chaos,
division,
and a total
and utter lack of empathy.
Empathy.
That's something I've been
thinking a lot about lately.
The ability to walk
in someone else's shoes.
The recognition that someone
else's experience
has value, too.
Most of us practice this
without a second thought.
If we see someone suffering
or struggling,
we don't stand in judgment.
We reach out because,
"There, but for the grace
of God, go I."
It is not a hard concept
to grasp.
It's what we teach our children.
And like so many of you,
Barack and I have tried our best
to instill in our girls
a strong moral foundation
to carry forward the values
that our parents
and grandparents poured into us.
But right now, kids in this
country are seeing what happens
when we stop requiring
empathy of one another.
They're looking around wondering
if we've been lying to them
this whole time about who we are
and what we truly value.
They see people shouting
in grocery stores,
unwilling to wear a mask
to keep us all safe.
They see people calling
the police
on folks
minding their own business
just because
of the color of their skin.
They see an entitlement
that says
only certain people belong here,
that greed is good,
and winning is everything
because as long as you
come out on top,
it doesn't matter
what happens to everyone else.
And they see what happens
when that lack of empathy
is ginned up
into outright disdain.
They see our leaders labeling
fellow citizens
enemies of the state
while emboldening torch-bearing
white supremacists.
They watch in horror as children
are torn from their families
and thrown into cages,
and pepper spray
and rubber bullets
are used on peaceful protestors
for a photo-op.
Sadly, this is the America
that is on display
for the next generation.
A nation that's underperforming
not simply on matters of policy
but on matters of character.
And that's not just
disappointing.
It's downright infuriating.
Because I know the goodness
and the grace that is out there
in households and neighborhoods
all across this nation.
And I know that regardless
of our race, age,
religion, or politics,
when we close out the noise
and the fear
and truly open our hearts,
we know that what's going on in
this country is just not right.
This is not who we want to be.
So what do we do now?
What's our strategy?
Over the past four years,
a lot of people have asked me,
"When others are going so low,
does going high
still really work?"
My answer -- going high
is the only thing that works,
because when we go low,
when we use
those same tactics of degrading
and dehumanizing others, we just
become part of the ugly noise
that's drowning out
everything else.
We degrade ourselves.
We degrade the very causes
for which we fight.
But let's be clear.
Going high does not mean
putting on a smile
and saying nice things
when confronted
by viciousness and cruelty.
Going high means
taking the harder path.
It means scraping and clawing
our way to that mountain top.
Going high means standing fierce
against hatred
while remembering that we are
one nation under God,
and if we want to survive,
we've got to find a way
to live together
and work together
across our differences.
And going high means
unlocking the shackles of lies
and mistrust with the only thing
that can truly set us free --
the cold hard truth.
So let me be as honest and clear
as I possibly can.
Donald Trump is the wrong
president for our country.
He has had more than enough time
to prove that he can do the job,
but he is clearly
in over his head.
He cannot meet this moment.
He simply cannot be
who we need him to be for us.
It is what it is.
Now, I understand
that my message
won't be heard by some people.
We live in a nation
that is deeply divided,
and I am a Black woman speaking
at the Democratic Convention.
But enough of you know me
by now.
You know that I tell you
exactly what I'm feeling.
You know I hate politics.
But you also know that I care
about this nation.
You know how much I care
about all of our children.
So if you take one thing from
my words tonight, it is this.
If you think things cannot
possibly get worse,
trust me, they can --
and they will if we don't make
a change in this election.
If we have any hope of ending
this chaos,
we have got
to vote for Joe Biden
like our lives depend on it.
I know Joe.
He is a profoundly decent man,
guided by faith.
He was a terrific
vice president.
He knows what it takes to rescue
an economy,
beat back a pandemic,
and lead our country.
And he listens.
He will tell the truth
and trust science.
He will make smart plans
and manage a good team.
And he will govern as someone
who's lived a life
that the rest of us
can recognize.
When he was a kid,
Joe's father lost his job.
When he was a young senator,
Joe lost his wife
and his baby daughter.
And when he was vice president,
he lost his beloved son.
So Joe knows the anguish
of sitting at a table
with an empty chair,
which is why he gives his time
so freely to grieving parents.
Joe knows what it's like
to struggle,
which is why he gives
his personal phone number
to kids overcoming
a stutter of their own.
His life is a testament
to getting back up,
and he is going to channel
that same grit and passion
to pick us all up,
to help us heal
and guide us forward.
Now, Joe is not perfect.
And he'd be the first
to tell you that.
But there is no perfect
candidate,
no perfect president.
And his ability to learn
and grow,
we find in that the kind
of humility and maturity
that so many of us
yearn for right now.
Because Joe Biden has served
this nation his entire life
without ever losing sight
of who he is.
But more than that, he has never
lost sight of who we are,
all of us.
Joe Biden wants all of our kids
to go to a good school,
see a doctor when they're sick,
live on a healthy planet.
And he's got plans to make
all of that happen.
Joe Biden wants all of our kids,
no matter what they look like,
to be able
to walk out the door
without worrying about being
harassed or arrested or killed.
He wants all of our kids
to be able to go
to a movie
or a math class
without being afraid
of getting shot.
He wants all our kids
to grow up with leaders
who won't just serve themselves
and their wealthy peers
but will provide a safety net
for people facing hard times.
And if we want a chance
to pursue any of these goals,
any of these most
basic requirements
for a functioning society,
we have to vote for Joe Biden
in numbers
that cannot be ignored.
Because right now,
folks who know they cannot
win fair and square
at the ballot box
are doing everything
they can to stop us from voting.
They're closing down
polling places
in minority neighborhoods.
They're purging voter rolls.
They're sending people out
to intimidate voters,
and they're lying about
the security of our ballots.
These tactics are not new.
But this is not the time
to withhold our votes in protest
or play games with candidates
who have no chance of winning.
We have got to vote like we did
in 2008 and 2012.
We've got to show up
with the same level of passion
and hope for Joe Biden.
We've got to vote early,
in person if we can.
We've got to request
our mail-in ballots right now,
tonight, and send them back
immediately and follow-up
to make sure they're received.
And then make sure our friends
and families do the same.
We have got to grab
our comfortable shoes,
put on our masks,
pack a brown-bag dinner
and maybe breakfast, too,
because we've got to be
willing to stand in line
all night
if we have to.
Look, we have already
sacrificed so much this year.
So many of you are already
going that extra mile.
Even when you're exhausted,
you're mustering up
unimaginable courage
to put on those scrubs
and give our loved ones
a fighting chance.
Even when you're anxious, you're
delivering those packages,
stocking those shelves,
and doing all
that essential work
so that all of us
can keep moving forward.
Even when it all feels
so overwhelming,
working parents
are somehow piecing it
all together
without child care.
Teachers are getting creative
so that our kids
can still learn and grow.
Our young people
are desperately
fighting to pursue their dreams.
And when the horrors
of systemic racism
shook our country
and our consciences,
millions of Americans
of every age,
every background rose
up to march for each other,
crying out for justice
and progress.
This is who we still are.
Compassionate, resilient,
decent people whose fortunes
are bound up with one another.
And it is well past time
for our leaders
to once again
reflect our truth.
So it is up to us to add
our voices
and our votes to
the course of history,
echoing heroes like
John Lewis who said,
"When you see something
that is not right,
you must say something.
You must do something."
That is the truest form
of empathy.
Not just feeling, but doing.
Not just for ourselves
or our kids,
but for everyone,
for all our kids.
And if we want to keep
the possibility of progress
alive in our time,
if we want to be able to look
our children in the eye
after this election,
we have got to reassert
our place in American history.
And we have got to do everything
we can to elect
my friend Joe Biden
as the next president
of the United States.
Thank you all.
God bless.
