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President Biden Delivers Address in South Carolina. Aired 1- 1:30p ET

Aired January 08, 2024 - 13:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[13:00:01]

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Because we heard Mrs. Till's call, the mother of a 14-year-old son who was lynched and whose body was mutilated.

But the mother insisted on an open casket at his funeral, because she said: "Let the world see what I saw."

The truth matters. It always matters. We can't just learn -- choose to learn what we want to know and not what we should know. We should know the good, the bad, the truth of who we are. That's what great nations do. And we're a great nation, the greatest of all nations.

We're not perfect, but, at our best, we learn from our past and we look to the future, a nation continuously striving to be a more perfect union.

I'm here to speak to another truth. It's because of this congregation and the black community of South Carolina, and not an exaggeration, and Jim Clyburn, that I stand here today as your president, because of all of you.

(APPLAUSE)

BIDEN: That's a fact. That's a fact.

(APPLAUSE)

BIDEN: And I owe you.

(APPLAUSE)

BIDEN: And I have done my best to honor your trust.

That means rejecting the small, narrow, cramped view of America, as well as lifting up a bigger and broader view of America that holds that, if you do well, I do well. We all do well. We all do well if every race and background and small towns and big cities is doing better, when our freedoms are protected, and we deny hate as a safe harbor, where everyone has a fair shot at a life of dignity and opportunity, and where our democracy works for everybody, that benefits everybody. I don't get these guys. Everybody does better, even those folks who

disagree with us. I'm keeping my commitment to you. That's the America we're building together. Instead of erasing history, we're making history.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

BIDEN: And it starts with the administration. I committed to -- I said my administration would look like America and taps into our full talents and strengths as a nation, starting with our incredible vice president, Kamala Harris.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

BIDEN: When we came to office, the country was in the depth of a pandemic, in which we lost over 1.2 million people.

So we moved heaven and earth to get the country vaccinated, saving countless lives. When the economy on the brink, we spent -- we sent $1,400 checks into the pockets of people who were hurting badly to keep them going. I said we'd invest in all of America, all of America, and we are.

The results are clear, over 14 million new jobs, record economic growth, the lowest inflation rate of any major economy in the world, but we have more to do.

(APPLAUSE)

BIDEN: We see this progress for all Americans. We have the lowest black unemployment rate recorded in a long, long time. More black Americans have health insurance than ever, bringing peace of mind and dignity to their lives.

I remember, when I was a kid, we lived in a three-bedroom house with four kids and a grandpa. And my headboard in my room was up against -- it was a little split-level homes. It was -- we weren't poor. We were -- we weren't wealthy.

And I remember really one night hearing with my dad, restless, because the headboard was along my headboard on the other side of the wall. I asked my mom the next morning. I said: "What's the matter with dad?"

She said: "Honey, his employer just told him they were dropping health insurance."

What that does is deprive a man and a woman of their dignity. How do you look at your child and say, I can't cover you, I can't take care of you?

And now, as Jim pointed out, I won't go into it, like I was going to, because he said it better. Instead of an average of $400 a month for insulin procedures, with diabetes, we're now paying $35 a month. By the way, they're still making a profit three times. It costs $10 to make it. I have been trying to take on, as a couple of you in the audience know

from my entire career, big pharma. Finally beat them, finally, finally, finally.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

BIDEN: I have been trying to take on, as a couple of you in the audience know from my entire career, big pharma. Finally beat them, finally, finally, finally.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

We're going to go back and make sure that Medicare can negotiate prices for everybody, not just for seniors. Again, it saves the American taxpayers billions of dollars not having to pay pharma for these things.

[13:05:15]

We're growing back black wealth. But we have a lot more to do. The racial wealth gap is the smallest it's been in 20 years under my watch, more black small businesses starting up than in decades, and the opening act -- and opening new business, the opening act of hope.

We're taking on housing discrimination in many ways. So, a home owned by -- today, a home owned by a black family on one side of a highway built by the same builder on the other side of the highway and a white guy living in it, the white guy's home is valued more than the black guy's.

No, I know you know it. But guess what? That's how you build generational wealth when you're building a home. Kamala and I are leading the charge, mainly Kamala, to protect the freedom to vote and that vote -- that be counted, defending your freedom to choose.

We're keeping our commitment of providing incredible opportunities, making historic investments in HBCUs, $7 billion, $7 billion.

(APPLAUSE)

BIDEN: They're just as good as other universities. It's just only that they don't have the billionaire contributors, so they can't put the laboratories together to get the contracts to be the ones that design new aircraft carrier decks, being the ones that design -- but it's changing.

It's changing. Providing people a real shot by reducing the burden of student debt. Jim went into it. I won't go into it, as I was going to, $132 billion, 3.6 million people. A significant percentage of those students are African-American students.

Despite our friends on the other side of the table, the Supreme Court did everything they can to stop me. Replacing every lead pipe in America. Do you know how many -- not just some. Every single lead pipe in America is going to be taken out and replaced with a...

(CROSSTALK)

(APPLAUSE)

BIDEN: Why? Because the mostly poor neighborhoods, that's where those lead pipes are, and that's where kids end up with brain damage because of the lead.

There's some -- I'm not going to go into it, but, look, you can turn on the faucet for your child, and doesn't get sick from drinking the water and coming into the home. Delivering high-speed Internet that's affordable for everybody, everybody, so you don't have to sit in McDonald's parking lot for a child to do their homework, producing clean energy so you can finally breathe clean air without leaving home.

(APPLAUSE)

BIDEN: Look, I understand it. When we moved from Scranton, I was raised in Claymont, Delaware, more major refineries in any place, including, Houston, Texas and just across the border with Chester. Not a joke.

I grew up with asthma. Most of us did, because of the prevailing winds, because my mom would drive us to school in the morning in this young grade school, turn on -- when there was a frost, turn on the windchill, there'd be an oil slick on the way, because guess what? All the fence line communities get hurt. Not on my watch.

It's changing. We know there's more to do, making childcare and eldercare more affordable, which would save American taxpayers billions of dollars along the way. Early in my administration, we were out -- we cut child poverty in half, child -- black child poverty in half by getting families checks every month through the childcare tax credit.

And the other side went ahead and blocked it. But we're going to get it back, because, look, this fight isn't over. We're going to come back because no child American should ever go to bed hungry, period, period, period, period.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

BIDEN: After the historic movement for justice in the summer of 2020, I signed the most significant police reform executive order in history.

We didn't get the law passed, but guess what? I did it by executive order, a significant part. But now Congress has to step up and ask and get it -- do what I did and make it the law of the land.

Just a few days ago, the defeated former president was asked about the recent shooting in Iowa. Did you hear this one? It's hard to believe. You know what his response was, all those kids dead? "We have to get over it" -- end of quote.

I promise you. "We have to get over it." My response is, we have to stop it!

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

BIDEN: So your children, your family, your friends can leave your home, walk the streets, go to stores, go to the grocery store, and go to church to be safe from gun violence.

[13:10:05]

There's no excuse for this carnage. We have to ban assault weapons. I did it once before, and I'm going to come back again and do it.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

BIDEN: Ban high-capacity magazines.

We have to pass universal background checks. It doesn't violate the Second Amendment. It's common sense, and it saves lives.

(APPLAUSE)

BIDEN: I'm determined to continue to deliver on equal justice under the law.

I made a commitment to you to nominate the first black woman -- and Jim's already talked about it -- on the Supreme Court. And, by the way, she's smarter than the rest of these guys.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

BIDEN: Oh, her name is Ketanji Brown Jackson. But guess what? She knows what she's doing.

And, by the way, as Jim pointed out, more black women have been appointed to the federal circuit courts than every other president in American history has appointed, every single solitary one counted. And we're going to keep going.

(APPLAUSE)

BIDEN: Look, I want to make it clear, you all made this possible. Because of your voice, your voice was heard in shaping your destiny.

That's democracy. I'm proud to have led the effort to make sure your voice and South Carolina voices will always be heard, because now you're first in the primary.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

BIDEN: Look, our North Star as a nation is the very idea of America, an idea, at once the most simple, the most powerful idea in the history of the world. That's not hyperbole, but fact.

The idea is this. We're all created in the image of God equally. We deserve to be treated equally throughout our lives. That covenant -- it's the covenant we made with each other, covenant. We have never fully lived up to, but we never fully walked away from either.

And faith and history teach us that, however dark the night, joy cometh in the morning. And that joy comes with commands from Scripture. Love the lord thy God with all thy heart, all thy mind, all thy soul. And love your neighbor as thyself.

Not so easy. It's hard. But in those commands is the essence of the Gospel and the essence of the American promise. And in my life, I have tried to live my faith, and I have many times failed. But I have learned, as many of you might have learned in your path as well, we're all, we're all imperfect beings.

We don't know where fate will take us or when, but we can do our best to seek a life of light, hope, love, and justice, and truth.

Folks, let me close with this. Denmark Vesey arrived in Charleston enslaved, one of too many, too many from the distant shores wrenched from painful -- on a painful journey, not to a promised land, but to a land that promised to deprive them of freedom.

But even though they arrived on the land where the life and rife of pain and persecution, they still believed they had promise, and a black church kept them moving. They had faith. They found Scripture. Faith is the substance of things hoped for, evidence of things not seen.

Vesey had his kind of faith. He became a carpenter and a movement leader, concerned with the least among us. That's why he helped found this very church 200 years ago, only 40 years after the Declaration of Independence. And this church, your church now, a black church, has some -- has come to symbolize the faith and this purpose, to bear witness to those who are suffering, to bring the good news of a future to come, to follow its mission, to be the light in the pathway of darkness.

That's patriotism. That's patriotism, to love something so much, you make it better, no matter the struggle, a patriotism that inspired generations before us to believe that, in America, we can do anything we want to be.

In our time, there's still the old ghost of new garments. We all need to rise to meet the moment. And the moment is now.

Folks, my fellow Americans, this is a time of choosing. So let us choose the truth. Let us choose America. I know, I know we can do it together, and it's the gospel song saying, we have come too far from where we started.

[13:15:09]

Nobody told me the road would be easy. I don't believe he brought me this far to leave me.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

BIDEN: My fellow Americans, I don't think the good lord brought us this far to leave us behind.

May God bless you all, and may God protect our troops. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: You have been watching President Biden deliver his second major campaign speech of the year, once again focusing on the core principles of democracy, Biden making the case that his likely opponent, former President Donald Trump, is a threat to the Constitution, at one point reiterating something he said during his first major campaign speech on Friday, that the former president is a loser.

He argued that domestic extremism is still a threat to racial equality, specifically pointing to Republicans like the former president and former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley for trying to rewrite history, mentioning not only January 6, but also the Civil War, the speech coming at a historically black church in Charleston where nine members of that congregation were killed by a white supremacist in 2015.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: And the president notably was introduced by South Carolina Congressman Jim Clyburn, who is a Biden campaign co- chair.

South Carolina, of course, was crucial to Biden's success in 2020, but Clyburn is pretty worried now. He's worried in particular about black voter turnout for Biden this time around.

We have our political team covering all of the angles.

Let's start with Dana Bash.

What did you think about his remarks today?

DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, yes, it was a combination of hitting the person he thinks he's going to be running against, Donald Trump, on a host of issues under the umbrella of truth and lies, and calling him a loser.

As you said, he did it on Friday, but he was kind of more forceful in this setting. And also doing what Jim Clyburn said on Sunday to Jake that he needs to do more of, and Clyburn is not the only person who is saying that. I mean, the Biden campaign understands full well that the notion of a Biden -- the Biden demographics, the Biden coalition is relying really heavily, or at least did in 2020, on people of color, the black community in particular.

And he needs to shore them up. And the Clyburn criticism, which he gave in public, he also said that he told President Biden in a meeting at the White House was that the message is not getting through the MAGA wall. And this was a litany of accomplishments that Biden said that he is responsible for and his team is responsible for that helped the black community. And that's the kind of thing that the Biden campaign people who are

allied with him say that he has to do a lot more of, not just dwell on some of the things that they couldn't get done for lots of reasons, but really hit the things that they could get down to try to raise enthusiasm.

SANCHEZ: We want to take you now back to Mother Emanuel AME Church in South Carolina with CNN's Priscilla Alvarez, who was tracking the president's speech.

And, Priscilla, at one point, President Biden was interrupted by protesters who were shouting "Cease-fire now" in relation to the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas. Then the crowd started chanting "Four more years" to drown them out.

PRISCILLA ALVAREZ, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Well, Boris, that just goes to show the divisions within the Democratic Party.

As the president is selling his pitch to black voters here, there were also a handful of protesters who were calling for a cease-fire in Gaza.

Now, I will note, though, that going into this, the president wanted to make two arguments. One of them was about personal freedoms and democracy and the risk that the former president poses on both of those fronts. And he called to the painful history here in this church, talking about the poison of white supremacy because, remember, it was white supremacists that came and killed nine parishioners here in 2015.

But, in addition to that, the president also talking about the series of accomplishments, as you heard there from Dana, that the administration has delivered for black voters. That was cutting the cost of insulin. That came up a few times, and prescription drugs. It also included investments in HBCUs, as well as the low unemployment rate among black Americans.

And all of this was very important to mobilize these voters that buoyed his campaign in 2020 and the state that propelled him in the primary at that time and really turned the tide for his campaign.

Now, again, while the president, this was an extension of his remarks in Valley Forge on Friday, it was clear that the president in this moment needed to remind voters, black voters, in particular, what his administration has done.

[13:20:11]

Biden advisers say they're wholly cognizant that they need to get that message across to make sure they show up at the polls, because, even if the primary this year is not competitive, it will be the first major test for President Biden on what his standing is with black voters.

And I will just add one more thing. I spoke to Congressman Clyburn yesterday about what the president needs to do in this moment to mobilize voters. He said he needs to engage with them, because he needs to be with them and his presence is important. That's what he tried to accomplish here today.

The question is, will it pay off going forward?

KEILAR: And that moment that Priscilla is highlighting there, Dana, so much of this for Biden, whether it is his initial speech or the second one today, is about drawing a contrast with Trump.

And part of that was in how he responded to that person who was heckling him.

BASH: That, which is content and substance. It's also performance and agility and being able to sort of deal with the unexpected, let's be just frank about it, because of his age.

And any opportunity that he has to show that he can do that, his campaign is very happy about. And this was obviously not something that they welcomed, these protesters getting in and heckling him about a cease-fire. But him saying, "Hold on, I hear you," responding to them by saying what he's trying to do with the Israeli government and the war that they're prosecuting in Gaza, and then saying he understood their passion, that elicited a sort of shout-out from the audience there, obviously, a supporter, saying: "You're a good man."

That was a moment. And that's a moment that any campaign, any administration, any organization could only dream of. And it was something that happened that was positive that could have gone south very quickly.

KEILAR: He turned it around.

SANCHEZ: Yes.

BASH: Yes.

SANCHEZ: Yes, that person in the crowd saying -- quote -- "You're an understanding person. They don't realize that," talking about the protesters. "You're a good man."

Let's bring in Bakari Sellers into the conversation.

Bakari, this is obviously a congregation and a constituency, given your work in South Carolina, that you're very familiar with. How far does an event like this go to penetrating that MAGA wall that Congressman Clyburn was describing in terms of black voters for President Biden?

BAKARI SELLERS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yes, today was a good day. It was a good speech. It was a good moment. It was a good venue.

I'm not going to pay much attention to the protesters or the two people who wanted to scream from the pews there, because that is one way to not curry any favor with the backbone of the Democratic Party, particularly black voters, to stand up and scream like you have no sense in Mother Emanuel, which is a hallowed and sacred ground. So, I do think that the president's response to that is what we know

him to be. And there are some people who may be taken aback by the venue that the president chose to do this. This is a very hallowed and sacred ground. Many people don't know about the history of Mother Emanuel, but also the AME Church.

Let's talk about that for a moment. The AME Church is one of the most politically active and organized churches and denominations in the entire world. I mean, from the bishops on down, the AME Church mobilizes on a very grassroots level. The church vans are gassed up, but they also allow individuals to come into their places of worship and have meetings such as this and share their vision for the future.

And so this, all in all, was an amazing speech. He was able to hit his notes about the role that religion plays. We know who Donald Trump is, so you can cut back on some of that. We know Donald Trump is a loser. You don't really have to tell us that.

But the fact that he came to black folk in South Carolina in Mother Emanuel AME Church and said, listen, I want you to hear from my mouth what I have done for you, and that is the only way you can cut through social media and the algorithms that Elon Musk plays with on a daily basis.

This has to be the strategy for this administration. And I want to tell you something else. There's another name in that White House who can do just as good, if not better, than Joe Biden when they let her loose and let her go be free and do these same things. And her name is Kamala Harris.

And I anticipate both of them being able to do these messages, have this messaging in venues such as this and actually make sure that it's not Donald Trump we're worried about, but the couch doesn't win this election in 2024.

KEILAR: Yes, so many people and observers looking and wondering how Kamala Harris is going to be a figure and lead through this campaign as well.

I want to bring in former Congresswoman Mia Love to talk with us as well. There was this backdrop that we have seen. We saw it here today. We have seen it here in recent days about the Civil War, of course, removing the Confederate Battle Flag from state grounds following the 2015 shooting there at the church.

[13:25:12]

MIA LOVE, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Right. Right.

KEILAR: But this has factored so much lately in the discourse.

And you heard President Biden there mention it when it came to rewriting history, as he talked about it, whether it's Nikki Haley or Ron DeSantis.

LOVE: Right. KEILAR: You also had former President Trump recently talking about how the Civil War could have been negotiated.

What do you think about how this has become a theme here in this election already?

LOVE: Well, I think Biden would have fared better if he actually gave credit where credit was due with Nikki Haley.

Nikki Haley was the governor at that time and decided she was going to remove the Confederate Flag from all state grounds. I mean, she did this. Biden didn't do it. She did it. So, I just -- I think that you need to give credit where credit is due. It's one of the things that Trump could never do.

It was -- he took all of the credit for anything good that happened when Congress were writing the laws. He took credit for funding the HBCUs and making sure that the HBCUs were funded permanently. The other thing I wanted to talk about, I was really -- I was so happy when Biden was campaigning and talking about his son and his commitment to remove -- to find a cure for cancer.

And according to the CDC, compared to other races, black and African- Americans are getting and dying from all kinds of cancers. They have the highest death rate for cancer overall. I want him to keep that promise, because everybody, Democrats and Republicans, would hold hands. They would be hand in hand in trying to eradicate this country and other countries of cancer.

And there are people that are doing it, that are working, and I wish you would listen and really join efforts with them to eradicate. This would be equivalent to man landing on the moon if the United States was the country to eradicate cancer.

KEILAR: Might affect more people even.

LOVE: That would help black people quite a bit.

KEILAR: And, certainly, it's something that hits home for you, of course. It's something that hits home for the president as well.

SANCHEZ: Yes, definitely, and our own CNN family.

KEILAR: Today.

SANCHEZ: Sara Sidner, a close colleague of ours, announcing her battle with cancer earlier today.

So...

LOVE: Dana, there's one more thing that really frustrates me, and I said it before.

Government will give black people exactly what they need to stay exactly where they are, to go no further. In other words, why is it that when a black person decides to get promoted at work, get a little bit more money, if they have any government assistance, they lose all of that because they are -- they have made a little bit more money?

That's ridiculous. It definitely doesn't allow black people to progress in life, to make more, to go beyond poverty. They're trapped in poverty. We need to make it easier for people to -- for upward mobility.

SANCHEZ: It is a fascinating argument, and one that folks that are aligned with President Trump would argue should be front and center for African-American voters.

I want to go back to Priscilla Alvarez for a moment, if we can, because, Priscilla, just focusing on the fact that President Biden is out on the campaign trail is significant, because, back in 2020, in the middle of the COVID pandemic, it wasn't something he was doing very frequently. He couldn't.

So is there a sense from the White House that this is going to be critical for him, getting out on the road, especially given, as Dana noted, questions about his age and his agility?

ALVAREZ: Well, and it's the environments and the settings that he does best in.

When you go to his events, as I have done many times, when he is talking to people and he is working the rope line, that's when you see him connecting with voters the most. And that is what I spoke with Congressman Clyburn about and he sees as a strength to President Biden, is having those one-on-one interactions with people so that they can make their own decisions about his agility and his age and whether he is able to fill out a second term.

And so there is an expectation that he is going to be on the road more often. He was on the road quite a bit last year as well, but it was different. It wasn't the campaign. It was talking about the White House's accomplishments.

But this is certainly an area where advisers and campaign officials see it as a strength for him to connect with the voters directly. And you were talking about Vice President Kamala Harris earlier. That will also be her role in sending -- in working and conveying the message to voters as she too hits the road even this month to talk about reproductive rights.

KEILAR: All right.

And, Priscilla, if you can just stand by for us, we want to go now to Secretary of State Antony Blinken speaking.