Here is the full transcript of US President Joe Biden’s speech at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago on August 19, 2024.
Listen to the audio version here:
TRANSCRIPT:
Opening Remarks
I love you. Thank you. Thank you, thank you, thank you. That was my daughter.
Thank you. I tell you what. To my dearest daughter Ashley, God love you, you’re incredible. Thank you for the introduction and for being my courageous heart, along with Hunter and our entire family, and especially our rock, Jill. For those of you who know us, she still leaves me both breathless and speechless.
Everybody knows her. I love her more than she loves me. She walks down the stairs and I still get that going, boom, boom, boom, boom. You all will know me, no, I’m not kidding.
Let’s give a special round of applause to our First Lady, Jill Biden. My dad used to have an expression, for real, he’d say, “Joey, family is the beginning, the middle, and the end.” And I love you all. America, I love you.
Folks, let me ask you. Let me ask you, are you ready to vote for freedom? Are you ready to vote for democracy and for America? Let me ask you, are you ready to elect Kamala Harris and Tim Walz, President and Vice President of the United States?
Reflecting on the Past
My fellow Democrats, my fellow Americans, 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 that 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.
You cannot say you love your country only when you win. In that moment, I wasn’t looking to the past, I was looking to the future. I spoke with the work at hand. The moment we had to meet, it was, as I told you then, a winter of peril and possibility, of peril and possibility.
Challenges and Progress
We’re in the grip of a once-in-a-century pandemic, historic joblessness, a call for racial justice long overdue, clear and present threats to our very democracy. Thank you.
And yet, and yet I believed then, and I believe now, that progress was and is possible. Justice is achievable. And our best days are not behind us, they’re before us. Now it’s summer. The winter has passed. And with a grateful heart, I stand before you now on this August night to report that democracy has prevailed.
Democracy… democracy has delivered. And now democracy must be preserved. You’ve heard me say it before, we’re facing an inflection point, one of those rare moments in history when the decisions we make now will determine the fate of our nation and the world for decades to come. That’s not hyperbole, I mean it literally.
The Battle for America’s Soul
We’re in a battle for the very soul of America. I ran for president in 2020 because of what I saw in Charlottesville in August of 2017. Extremists coming out of the woods carrying torches, their veins bulging from their necks, carrying Nazi swastikas and chanting the same exact anti-Semitic bile that was heard in Germany in the early 30s. Neo-Nazis, white supremacists, the Ku Klux Klan, so emboldened by a president then in the White House that they saw as an ally.
They didn’t even bother to wear their hoods. Hate was on the march in America. Old ghosts in new garments, stirring up the oldest divisions, stoking the oldest fears, giving oxygen to the oldest forces that they long sought to tear apart America. In the process, a young woman was killed.
When I contacted her mother, I asked about what happened. She told me when the president was asked what he thought had happened, Donald Trump said, and I quote, “There are very fine people on both sides,” my God. That’s what he said. That is what he said and what he meant.
That’s when I realized, had to listen to the admonition of my dead son, I could not stay on the sidelines, so I ran. Because I had no intention of running again. I just lost part of my soul. But I ran with a deep conviction.
Vision for America
In America, I know and believe, in an America where honesty, dignity, decency still matter, an America where everyone has a fair shot and hate has no safe harbor, an America where the fundamental creed of this nation, that all of us are created equal, is still very much alive, and a broad coalition of Americans joined with me. 81 million voters voted for us. More than any time in all of history. Because of all of you in this room and others, we came together in 2020 to save democracy.
As your president, I’ve been determined to keep America moving forward, not going back, to stand against hate and violence in all its forms, to be a nation where we not only live with but thrive on diversity, demonizing no one, leaving no one behind, and becoming a nation that we profess to be.
I also ran to rebuild the backbone of America, the middle class. I made a commitment to you that I’d be a president for all Americans, whether you voted for me or not. We have done that.
Accomplishments and Progress
Studies show the major bills we have passed actually delivered more to red states than blue, because the job of the president is to deliver to all of America. Because of you, and I’m not exaggerating, because of you, we’ve had one of the most extraordinary four years of progress ever.
Period. When I say we, I mean Kamala and me.
Just think about it. COVID no longer controls our lives. We’ve gone from economic crisis to the strongest economy in the entire world. Record 60 million new jobs. Record small business growth. Record high stock market. Record high 401Ks. Wages up and inflation down, way down, and continuing to go down.
The smallest racial wealth gap in 20 years. And yes, we both know we have more to do, but we’re moving in the right direction. More Americans have peace of mind that comes from having health insurance. More Americans have health insurance today than ever before in American history.
Healthcare Reforms
And after, as a young senator beginning to fight, beginning to fight for 50 years to give Medicare the power to negotiate lower prescription drug prices, we finally beat big pharma. And guess who cast the tie-breaking vote? Vice President, soon-to-be President Kamala Harris. And now it’s the law of the land.
Instead of paying $400 a month for insulin, seniors with diabetes will pay $35 a month. The law we passed already includes it. It started in January. Every senior’s total prescription cost can be capped at $2,000, no matter how expensive the drugs they have.
And what we don’t focus on and our Republican friends don’t seem to understand, our reforms don’t just save seniors money, they save the American taxpayers money. You know what we just passed saved? It saved $160 billion over the next decade. That’s not hyperbole.
It’s because Medicare no longer has to pay those exorbitant prices to the big pharma. But look, folks. Thank you, Kamala, too. Look, folks.
How can we have the strongest economy in the world without the best infrastructure in the world? Donald Trump promised Infrastructure Week every week for four years, and he never built a damn thing. But now, because of what Kamala and I have done, remember we were told we couldn’t get it done. Remember when we came into office, we couldn’t get anything passed?
But right now, we’re giving America an infrastructure decade not week. We’re modernizing. Our roads, our bridges, our ports, our airports, our trains, our buses. We’re removing every lead pipe from schools and homes so every child can drink clean water.
We’re providing affordable high-speed Internet for every American no matter where they live, not unlike what Roosevelt did with electricity. And so much more. We are uniting the country. We’re growing our economy. We’re improving our quality of life. And we’re building a better America. Because that’s who we are. How can we be the strongest nation in the world without leading the world in science and technology?
Revitalizing American Manufacturing
After years of importing 90 percent of our semiconductor chips from abroad, which America invented those chips, our CHIPS and Science Act meant that private companies from around the world are now investing literally tens of billions of dollars to build new chip factories right here in America. And over that period, they’ll create tens of thousands of jobs. And many of those jobs in the so-called fabs, the buildings that make the chips, are being constructed now. And guess what?
The average salary in those fabs, the size of a football field, will be over $100,000 a year, and you don’t need a college degree. Because of you and so many electeds out there, American manufacturing is back. Where did I say we wouldn’t lead the world in manufacturing? 800,000 new manufacturing jobs.
Our Republican friends and others made sure they’d go abroad to get the cheapest labor. We used to import products and export jobs. Now we export American products and create American jobs right here in America, where jobs belong. With every new job, with every new factory, pride and hope is being brought back to communities throughout the country that were left behind.
You know you’re from it, many of you. You know what it’s like when that factory closed, where your mother, your father, your grandmother, your grandfather worked. And now you’re back, providing once again, proving that Wall Street didn’t build America. The middle class built America, and unions built the middle class.
Support for Unions
It’s been my view since I came to the Senate. That’s why I’m proud to have been the first president to walk a picket line and be labeled the most pro-union president in history, and I accept it. That’s a fact. Because when unions do well, we all do well. You got it, man. You got it. I agree. I’m proud.
Climate Action and Environmental Justice
Look, remember we were told we couldn’t get anything done because we couldn’t get anything done in the Congress? Well, with your support, we passed the most significant climate law in the history of mankind. Over $370 billion. Cutting carbon emissions in half by 2030.
Launching a climate corps, similar to AmeriCorps and Peace Corps, creating tens of thousands of jobs for young people of the future, and we’re going to make sure this continues. Creating hundreds of thousands of jobs in clean energy for American workers. Including the IBEW installing 500,000 charging stations all across America. And in the process, reducing carbon emissions.
And we’re seeing it, we’re seeing to it, that the first beneficiaries of environmental initiatives are those fence line communities that have been smothered by the legacy of pollution. Louisiana and Delaware. Route 9. All the factors, all those chemical factors, are right next to the poorest neighborhoods.
They’re the ones we’re going to bring back. And how? How can we be the greatest nation in the world without the best education system in the world? Donald Trump and the Republican friends, they not only can’t think, they can’t read very well.
Education Reforms
Seriously, think about it. Look at their project 2025. Want to do away with the Department of Education. During the pandemic, Kamala helped states and cities get their schools back open. And we gave public school teachers a raise. We created apprenticeships in businesses and communities, putting students on a path to a good paying job, whether or not they go to college.
And by the way, we’re making college a hell of a lot more affordable. Increasing Pell Grants by $900. Over $15 billion to HBCUs, minority services, including Hispanic institutions and tribal colleges. We kept our commitment to provide more student relief than ever by lifting the burden of helping millions of families so they could get married, start a family, buy a home, and begin to build family wealth and contribute to the community and grow our economy. It’s not costing us, it’s creating more wealth. We fundamentally transformed how our economy grows, from the middle out and the bottom up, instead of the top down.
Economic Philosophy
You know, my dad used to say there wasn’t a whole hell of a lot to drop down on my kitchen table at the end of the month. I come from a basic middle class family, three bedroom house, four kids, a grandpop living with us, decent neighborhood, but never a penny to spare. And look, that top down notion never worked. A lot of Democrats thought it worked, but it doesn’t.
And when we did all that, what we’ve done, everybody can do well. Everybody. Donald Trump calls America a failing nation. No, I’m serious.
America’s Global Standing
But think about this. Think about this. He publicly says to the whole world, I’m going to say something outrageous, I know more foreign leaders by their first names and know them well than anybody live, just because I’m so damn old. But I’m not joking.
Think of the message he sends around the world when he talks about America being a failing nation. He says we’re losing. He’s the loser. He’s dead wrong. Many of you are very successful people who travel the world. Name me a country in the world that doesn’t think we’re the leading nation in the world. Without America, not a joke, think about it. I’m being literal.
Who can lead the world other than the United States of America? But guess what? America is winning, and the world is better off for it. America is more prosperous, and America is safer today than it was under Donald Trump.
Crime and Public Safety
Trump continues to lie about crime in America, like everything else. Guess what? On his watch, the murder rate went up 30%, the biggest increase in history. Meanwhile, we made the largest investment, Kamala and I, in public safety ever.
Now the murder rate is falling faster than any time in history. Violent crime has dropped to the lowest level in more than 50 years, and crime will keep coming down. When we put a prosecutor in the Oval Office instead of a convicted felon. And, folks, the distinguished senator from the Senate from California and I passed the first ban on assault weapons.
And guess what? It worked. If we care about public safety, we need to prevent gun violence. And it makes me ashamed when I travel the world, which I do.
More children in America are killed by a gunshot than any other cause in the United States. More die from a bullet than cancer, accidents, or anything else in the United States of America. My God. That’s why Kamala and I are proud.
We beat the NRA when we passed the first major bipartisan gun safety law in 30 years. I’m serious. That comes from here. And now it’s time to ban assault weapons again. And demand universal background checks. It’s hard. I never thought I’d stand before a crowd of Democrats and refer to a president as a liar so many times. No, I’m not trying to be funny.
It’s sad. Trump continues to lie about the border. Here’s what he won’t tell you. Trump killed the strongest bipartisan border deal in the history of the United States.
Border Security and Immigration
Now, we negotiated with the Senate Republicans and it took four weeks. Once it passed, I never acknowledged the most expansive border change in American history. He called senators to say don’t support the bipartisan bill because he said it would help me politically and hurt him politically. My God.
No, I’m serious. Think about it. Not a joke. Ask even the press who doesn’t like me. They’ll tell you that’s true. Then I had to take executive action. The result of the executive action I took, border encounters have dropped over 50%. In fact, there are fewer border crossings today than when Donald Trump left office.
And unlike Trump, we will not demonize immigrants saying they’re the poison of blood of America, poison of blood of our country. Kamala and I are committed to strengthening legal immigration, including protecting DREAMers and more. And here’s what else I believe in. Protecting your freedom.
Your freedom to vote. Your freedom to love who you love. And your freedom to choose. In his decision overturning Roe v. Wade, as you heard earlier tonight, the United States Supreme Court majority wrote the following. Quote, “Women are not without electoral or political power.” No kidding. MAGA Republicans found out the power of women in 2022.
And Donald Trump is going to find out the power of women in 2024. Watch. And where Trump and his MAGA Republican right-wingers seek to erase history, we Democrats continue to write history and make more history. I’m proud.
Diversity and Representation
I’m proud to have kept my commitment to appoint the first Black woman to the United States Supreme Court. Ketanji Brown Jackson. A symbol for every young woman in America that you can do anything. I’m proud that I’ve kept my commitment to have an administration that looks like America and that taps into the full talent of our nation.
The most diverse cabinet in history, including the first Black woman of South Asian descent to serve as vice president. And will soon serve as the 47th president of the United States. She is good. Look.
Thank you, Kamala. Folks, I’ve long said we have many obligations as a nation, but I got in trouble years ago for saying I’d make no apologies. We have only one truly sacred obligation to prepare and equip those we send to war and care for them and their families when they come home and when they don’t. That’s why I’m so proud to have written and signed the PACT Act.
Veterans’ Care
One of the most significant laws ever helping veterans and their families exposed to toxic materials like burn pits and Agent Orange. I was around during the Vietnam War. It’s hard. Nobody was able to prove that their illness was a consequence of Agent Orange.
And no one was able to prove initially that because they lived in burn pits like my son lived next to in Iraq for a year, that is the cause of their illness. But because of the PACT Act, a surviving spouse to two children is now eligible for a stipend of about $3,000 a month. And those children who lost a parent are eligible for tuition benefits to go to college and to get job training. It’s already helping over one million veterans and their families just so far.
Well, I love them and I’m so proud of my son’s service. We get it. But guess who doesn’t get it and doesn’t respect our veterans? We know from his own chief of staff, the four-star General John Kelly, that Trump, when in Europe, would not go to the gravesites in France.
The brave service members who gave their lives to this country, he called them suckers and losers. Who in the hell does he think he is? Who does he think he is? There’s no words for a person. There are not the words of a person worthy of being commander-in-chief, period. Not then, not now, and not ever. I mean that. I mean that from the bottom of my heart.
Foreign Policy and Global Leadership
Just as no commander-in-chief should ever bow down to a dictator the way Trump bows down to Putin, I never have, and I promise you, Kamala Harris will never do it. Will never bow down. When Trump left office, Europe and NATO was in tatters. Not a joke.
The America First doctrine changed our whole image in the world. What I spent, they gave the hours, about 190 hours sum total, me and my counterparts who had just stayed in Europe to strengthen NATO. We did. We united Europe like it hadn’t been united for years, adding Finland and Sweden to NATO.
Ten days before he died, Henry Kissinger called and said, “Not since Napoleon has Europe not looked over the shoulder that Russia would tread until now.” Until now. Well, guess what? Putin thought he’d take Kyiv in three days.
Three years later, Ukraine is still free. When I came to office, the conventional wisdom was that China would inevitably surpass the United States. They haven’t noticed. No one’s saying that now.
Middle East Peace Efforts
And we’ll keep working to bring hostages home and end the war in Gaza and bring peace and security to the Middle East. As you know, I wrote a peace treaty for Gaza. A few days ago, I put forward a proposal that brought us closer to doing that than we’ve done since October 7th. We’re working around the clock, my Secretary of State, to prevent a wider war and reunite hostages and their families and surge humanitarian health and food assistance into Gaza now.
To end the civilian suffering of the Palestinian people and finally, finally, finally deliver a ceasefire and end this war. Those protesters out in the street, they have a point. A lot of innocent people are being killed on both sides. Just as we worked around the clock to bring home wrongfully detained Americans and others from Russia in one of the most complicated swaps in history, but they’re home.
Kamala and I are going to keep working to bring all Americans wrongfully detained around the world home. I mean it. Folks, I’ve got five months left in my presidency. I’ve got a lot to do.
Commitment to Democracy
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. And all this talk about how I’m angry at all those people who said I should step down, that’s not true. We want Trump! We want Trump! We want Trump!
We want Trump! I love my country more, and we need to preserve our democracy. In 2024, we need you to vote. We need you to keep the Senate. We need you to win back the House of Representatives. And above all, we need you to beat Donald Trump and elect Kamala and Tim president and vice president of the United States of America. Look, they’ll continue to lead America forward, creating more jobs, growing the economy, lower the cost to American families so they just have a little more breathing room. We’ve made incredible progress, and we have more work to do.
And Kamala and Tim will continue to take on corporate greed and bring down cost of food. They’ll keep taking on Big Pharma, making insulin $35 a month, not just for seniors but for everyone in America. And capping prescription drug costs at a total of $2,000, not just for seniors but for everyone. And folks, that’s going to save America again tens of billions of dollars.
Folks, they’ll make housing more affordable, building 3 million new homes, providing $25,000 down payment assistance for the first-time homebuyer. More than the 10 we approved. Donald Trump wants new tax on imported goods, food, gas, clothing, and more. You know what that would cost the average family, according to the experts?
$3,900 a year in a tax. No, that’s a fact. Kamala and Tim will make the child care tax cut a permanent, lifting millions of children out of poverty and helping millions of families get ahead. But you know what Trump has?
He put the… He created the largest debt any president had in four years with his $2 trillion tax cut for the wealthy. Well, Trump has a new plan. He wants to provide a $5 billion tax cut for corporations that are very wealthy.
Read it. Put us further in debt. And folks, you know we have 1,000 billionaires in America. You know what their average tax rate they pay? 8.2%. If we just increase their taxes we proposed to 25%, which isn’t the highest tax rate even, it would raise $500 billion new dollars over 10 years. They’d still be very wealthy. Look, Kamala and Tim are going to make them pay their fair share.
They’ll protect Social Security and Medicare. Trump wants to cut Social Security and Medicare. Kamala and Tim will protect your freedom. They’ll protect your right to vote.
They’ll protect your civil rights. And you know Trump will do everything to ban abortion nationwide. Oh, he will. You know Kamala and Tim will do everything they possibly can. That’s why you have to elect a senator in the House to restore Roe v. Wade. The ancient Greeks taught us that character is destiny. Character is destiny.
Praise for Kamala Harris and Tim Walz
For me and Jill, we know Kamala and Doug are people of character. It’s been our honor to serve alongside them. And we know that Tim and Gwen Walz are also people of great character. Selecting Kamala was the very first decision I made when I became our nominee.
And it was the best decision I made my whole career. We’ve not only gotten to know each other, we’ve become close friends. She’s tough. She’s experienced. And she has enormous integrity. Enormous integrity. Her story represents the best American story. And like many of our best presidents, she was also vice president.
At the GOAT. But she’ll be a president our children can look up to. She’ll be a president respected by world leaders because she already is. She’ll be a president we can all be proud of.
And she will be a historic president who puts her stamp on America’s future. This will be the first presidential election since January 6th. On that day, we almost lost everything about who we are as a country. And that threat, this is not hyperbole, that threat is still very much alive.
The Threat to Democracy
Donald Trump says he will refuse to accept the election result if he loses again. Think about that. He means it. Think about that. He’s promising a bloodbath if he loses in his words. And that he’ll be a dictator on day one in his own words. By the way, this sucker means it. No, I’m not joking.
Think about it. Anybody else said that in the past, you’d think he was crazy, but you’d think it was an exaggeration, but he means it. We can’t let that happen. 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 of 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 is in your hands. Not hyperbole. It’s in your hands.
America’s future is in your hands. Let me close with this. Nowhere else in the world could a kid with a stutter and modest beginnings in Scranton, Pennsylvania and Claymont, Delaware, grow up to sit behind the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office. That’s because America is and always has been a nation of possibilities.
Closing Remarks
Possibilities. We must never lose that. Never. Kamala and Tim understand that this nation must continue to be a place of possibilities, not just for the few of us, but for all of us.
So join me in promising your whole heart to this effort and where my heart will be. I promise I’ll be the best volunteer Harris and Walz and Kam have ever seen. Each of us has a part in the American story. For me and my family, there’s a song that means a lot to us, that captures the best of who we are as a nation.
The song is called “American Anthem.” There’s one verse that stands out, and I can’t sing or dance, so I’m not going to try. I’ll just quote it. “The prayers of centuries have brought us to this day. What shall our legacy be? What will our children say? Let me know in my heart when my days are through. America, America, I gave my best to you.”
I’ve made a lot of mistakes in my career, but I gave my best to you. For 50 years, like many of you, I’ve given my heart and soul to our nation, and I’ve been blessed a million times in return for the support of the American people. I’ve really been too young to be in this Senate because I wasn’t 30 yet and too old to stay as President.
But I hope you know how grateful I am to all of you. I can honestly say, and I mean this from the bottom, give you my word as a Biden, I can honestly say I’m more optimistic about the future than I was when I was elected as a 29-year-old United States senator. I mean it. Folks, we just have to remember who we are.
We’re the United States of America! And there’s nothing we cannot do when we do it together. God bless you all, and may God protect our troops. Thank you.
