Good evening, everybody.
As you've seen by now, this isn't a normal
convention.
It's not a normal time.
So tonight, I want to talk as plainly as I
can about the stakes in this election.
Because what we do these next 76 days will
echo through generations to come.
I'm in Philadelphia, where our Constitution
was drafted and signed.
It wasn't a perfect document.
It allowed for the inhumanity of slavery and
failed to guarantee women -- and even men
who didn't own property -- the right to participate
in the political process.
But embedded in this document was a North
Star that would guide future generations;
a system of representative government -- a
democracy -- through which we could better
realize our highest ideals.
Through civil war and bitter struggles, we
improved this Constitution to include the
voices of those who'd once been left out.
And gradually, we made this country more just,
more equal, and more free.
The one Constitutional office elected by all
of the people is the presidency.
So at minimum, we should expect a president
to feel a sense of responsibility for the
safety and welfare of all 330 million of us
-- regardless of what we look like, how we
worship, who we love, how much money we have
-- or who we voted for.
But we should also expect a president to be
the custodian of this democracy.
We should expect that regardless of ego, ambition,
or political beliefs, the president will preserve,
protect, and defend the freedoms and ideals
that so many Americans marched for and went
to jail for; fought for and died for.
I have sat in the Oval Office with both of
the men who are running for president.
I never expected that my successor would embrace
my vision or continue my policies.
I did hope, for the sake of our country, that
Donald Trump might show some interest in taking
the job seriously; that he might come to feel
the weight of the office and discover some
reverence for the democracy that had been
placed in his care.
But he never did.
For close to four years now, he's shown no
interest in putting in the work; no interest
in finding common ground; no interest in using
the awesome power of his office to help anyone
but himself and his friends; no interest in
treating the presidency as anything but one
more reality show that he can use to get the
attention he craves.
Donald Trump hasn't grown into the job because
he can't.
And the consequences of that failure are severe.
170,000 Americans dead.
Millions of jobs gone while those at the top
take in more than ever.
Our worst impulses unleashed, our proud reputation
around the world badly diminished, and our
democratic institutions threatened like never
before.
Now, I know that in times as polarized as
these, most of you have already made up your
mind.
But maybe you're still not sure which candidate
you'll vote for -- or whether you'll vote
at all.
Maybe you're tired of the direction we're
headed, but you can't see a better path yet,
or you just don't know enough about the person
who wants to lead us there.
So let me tell you about my friend Joe Biden.
Twelve years ago, when I began my search for
a vice president, I didn't know I'd end up
finding a brother.
Joe and I came from different places and different
generations.
But what I quickly came to admire about him
is his resilience, born of too much struggle;
his empathy, born of too much grief.
Joe's a man who learned -- early on -- to
treat every person he meets with respect and
dignity, living by the words his parents taught
him: "No one's better than you, Joe, but you're
better than nobody."
That empathy, that decency, the belief that
everybody counts -- that's who Joe is.
When he talks with someone who's lost her
job, Joe remembers the night his father sat
him down to say that he'd lost his.
When Joe listens to a parent who's trying
to hold it all together right now, he does
it as the single dad who took the train back
to Wilmington each and every night so he could
tuck his kids into bed.
When he meets with military families who've
lost their hero, he does it as a kindred spirit;
the parent of an American soldier; somebody
whose faith has endured the hardest loss there
is.
For eight years, Joe was the last one in the
room whenever I faced a big decision.
He made me a better president -- and he's
got the character and the experience to make
us a better country.
And in my friend Kamala Harris, he's chosen
an ideal partner who's more than prepared
for the job; someone who knows what it's like
to overcome barriers and who's made a career
fighting to help others live out their own
American dream.
Along with the experience needed to get things
done, Joe and Kamala have concrete policies
that will turn their vision of a better, fairer,
stronger country into reality.
They'll get this pandemic under control, like
Joe did when he helped me manage H1N1 and
prevent an Ebola outbreak from reaching our
shores.
They'll expand health care to more Americans,
like Joe and I did ten years ago when he helped
craft the Affordable Care Act and nail down
the votes to make it the law.
They'll rescue the economy, like Joe helped
me do after the Great Recession.
I asked him to manage the Recovery Act, which
jumpstarted the longest stretch of job growth
in history.
And he sees this moment now not as a chance
to get back to where we were, but to make
long-overdue changes so that our economy actually
makes life a little easier for everybody -- whether
it's the waitress trying to raise a kid on
her own, or the shift worker always on the
edge of getting laid off, or the student figuring
out how to pay for next semester's classes.
Joe and Kamala will restore our standing in
the world -- and as we've learned from this
pandemic, that matters.
Joe knows the world, and the world knows him.
He knows that our true strength comes from
setting an example the world wants to follow.
A nation that stands with democracy, not dictators.
A nation that can inspire and mobilize others
to overcome threats like climate change, terrorism,
poverty, and disease.
But more than anything, what I know about
Joe and Kamala is that they actually care
about every American.
And they care deeply about this democracy.
They believe that in a democracy, the right
to vote is sacred, and we should be making
it easier for people to cast their ballot,
not harder.
They believe that no one -- including the
president -- is above the law, and that no
public official -- including the president
-- should use their office to enrich themselves
or their supporters.
They understand that in this democracy, the
Commander-in-Chief doesn't use the men and
women of our military, who are willing to
risk everything to protect our nation, as
political props to deploy against peaceful
protesters on our own soil.
They understand that political opponents aren't
"un-American" just because they disagree with
you; that a free press isn't the "enemy" but
the way we hold officials accountable; that
our ability to work together to solve big
problems like a pandemic depends on a fidelity
to facts and science and logic and not just
making stuff up.
None of this should be controversial.
These shouldn't be Republican principles or
Democratic principles.
They're American principles.
But at this moment, this president and those
who enable him, have shown they don't believe
in these things.
Tonight, I am asking you to believe in Joe
and Kamala's ability to lead this country
out of these dark times and build it back
better.
But here's the thing: no single American can
fix this country alone.
Not even a president.
Democracy was never meant to be transactional
-- you give me your vote; I make everything
better.
It requires an active and informed citizenry.
So I am also asking you to believe in your
own ability -- to embrace your own responsibility
as citizens -- to make sure that the basic
tenets of our democracy endure.
Because that's what at stake right now.
Our democracy.
Look, I understand why many Americans are
down on government.
The way the rules have been set up and abused
in Congress make it easy for special interests
to stop progress.
Believe me, I know.
I understand why a white factory worker who's
seen his wages cut or his job shipped overseas
might feel like the government no longer looks
out for him, and why a Black mother might
feel like it never looked out for her at all.
I understand why a new immigrant might look
around this country and wonder whether there's
still a place for him here; why a young person
might look at politics right now, the circus
of it all, the meanness and the lies and crazy
conspiracy theories and think, what's the
point?
Well, here's the point: this president and
those in power -- those who benefit from keeping
things the way they are -- they are counting
on your cynicism.
They know they can't win you over with their
policies.
So they're hoping to make it as hard as possible
for you to vote, and to convince you that
your vote doesn't matter.
That's how they win.
That's how they get to keep making decisions
that affect your life, and the lives of the
people you love.
That's how the economy will keep getting skewed
to the wealthy and well-connected, how our
health systems will let more people fall through
the cracks.
That's how a democracy withers, until it's
no democracy at all.
We can't let that happen.
Do not let them take away your power.
Don't let them take away your democracy.
Make a plan right now for how you're going
to get involved and vote.
Do it as early as you can and tell your family
and friends how they can vote too.
Do what Americans have done for over two centuries
when faced with even tougher times than this
-- all those quiet heroes who found the courage
to keep marching, keep pushing in the face
of hardship and injustice.
Last month, we lost a giant of American democracy
in John Lewis.
Some years ago, I sat down with John and the
few remaining leaders of the early Civil Rights
Movement.
One of them told me he never imagined he'd
walk into the White House and see a president
who looked like his grandson.
Then he told me that he'd looked it up, and
it turned out that on the very day that I
was born, he was marching into a jail cell,
trying to end Jim Crow segregation in the
South.
What we do echoes through the generations.
Whatever our backgrounds, we're all the children
of Americans who fought the good fight.
Great grandparents working in firetraps and
sweatshops without rights or representation.
Farmers losing their dreams to dust.
Irish and Italians and Asians and Latinos
told to go back where they came from.
Jews and Catholics, Muslims and Sikhs, made
to feel suspect for the way they worshipped.
Black Americans chained and whipped and hanged.
Spit on for trying to sit at lunch counters.
Beaten for trying to vote.
If anyone had a right to believe that this
democracy did not work, and could not work,
it was those Americans.
Our ancestors.
They were on the receiving end of a democracy
that had fallen short all their lives.
They knew how far the daily reality of America
strayed from the myth.
And yet, instead of giving up, they joined
together and said somehow, some way, we are
going to make this work.
We are going to bring those words, in our
founding documents, to life.
I've seen that same spirit rising these past
few years.
Folks of every age and background who packed
city centers and airports and rural roads
so that families wouldn't be separated.
So that another classroom wouldn't get shot
up.
So that our kids won't grow up on an uninhabitable
planet.
Americans of all races joining together to
declare, in the face of injustice and brutality
at the hands of the state, that Black Lives
Matter, no more, but no less, so that no child
in this country feels the continuing sting
of racism.
To the young people who led us this summer,
telling us we need to be better -- in so many
ways, you are this country's dreams fulfilled.
Earlier generations had to be persuaded that
everyone has equal worth.
For you, it's a given -- a conviction.
And what I want you to know is that for all
its messiness and frustrations, your system
of self-government can be harnessed to help
you realize those convictions.
You can give our democracy new meaning.
You can take it to a better place.
You're the missing ingredient -- the ones
who will decide whether or not America becomes
the country that fully lives up to its creed.
That work will continue long after this election.
But any chance of success depends entirely
on the outcome of this election.
This administration has shown it will tear
our democracy down if that's what it takes
to win.
So we have to get busy building it up -- by
pouring all our effort into these 76 days,
and by voting like never before -- for Joe
and Kamala, and candidates up and down the
ticket, so that we leave no doubt about what
this country we love stands for -- today and
for all our days to come.
Stay safe.
God bless.
