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Chita Rivera fue una de las grandes del teatro musical estadounidense de todos los tiempos, una pionera y perfeccionista cuyas actuaciones magnéticas en decenas de producciones de Broadway trajeron alegría a millones y capturaron la valentía y la gracia de Estados Unidos.

Con un espíritu incontenible, era la tercera hija de servidores públicos –su madre era empleada del Pentágono y su padre clarinetista de la Banda de la Marina de los Estados Unidos–, se mudó a Nueva York para bailar a los 15 años. Durante las siguientes siete décadas, construyó una carrera deslumbrante, protagonizando papeles de mujeres icónicas y fuertes en clásicos desde West Side Story, Bye Bye, Birdie, Chicago y Kiss of the Spider Woman, abriéndole el camino a generaciones de artistas latinas.

Chita ganó tres premios Tony, el Kennedy Center Honors y la Medalla Presidencial de la Libertad, pero nunca dejó de poner el trabajo en primer lugar. Superó altibajos con resiliencia, incluido un devastador accidente automovilístico que le destrozó la pierna y la dejó con tornillos de metal en los huesos, solo para verla volver a la cima y llevar a cabo actuaciones que le valieron nominaciones al Tony hasta bien entrados los 70 y 80 años.

El trabajo de Chita, fascinante bailarina, cantante y actriz, fue más que entretenimiento: refleja parte de quiénes somos como estadounidenses y como seres humanos, y ha ayudado a moldear la forma en que nos vemos unos a otros y a nuestro mundo. Chita sabía lo que saben los grandes estadounidenses: lo importante no es la fuerza con la que caes, sino la rapidez con la que te levantas. Su deslumbrante encanto vivirá en el alma de nuestra nación.

Nuestro amor hoy para la hija de Chita, Lisa; a los hermanos de Chita, Julio, Armando y Lola del Rivero; y a sus generaciones de fans.

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The post Declaración del Presidente Joe Biden ante el Fallecimiento de Chita Rivera appeared first on The White House.

Chita Rivera fue una de las grandes del teatro musical estadounidense de todos los tiempos, una pionera y perfeccionista cuyas actuaciones magnéticas en decenas de producciones de Broadway trajeron alegría a millones y capturaron la valentía y la gracia de Estados Unidos.

Con un espíritu incontenible, era la tercera hija de servidores públicos –su madre era empleada del Pentágono y su padre clarinetista de la Banda de la Marina de los Estados Unidos–, se mudó a Nueva York para bailar a los 15 años. Durante las siguientes siete décadas, construyó una carrera deslumbrante, protagonizando papeles de mujeres icónicas y fuertes en clásicos desde West Side Story, Bye Bye, Birdie, Chicago y Kiss of the Spider Woman, abriéndole el camino a generaciones de artistas latinas.

Chita ganó tres premios Tony, el Kennedy Center Honors y la Medalla Presidencial de la Libertad, pero nunca dejó de poner el trabajo en primer lugar. Superó altibajos con resiliencia, incluido un devastador accidente automovilístico que le destrozó la pierna y la dejó con tornillos de metal en los huesos, solo para verla volver a la cima y llevar a cabo actuaciones que le valieron nominaciones al Tony hasta bien entrados los 70 y 80 años.

El trabajo de Chita, fascinante bailarina, cantante y actriz, fue más que entretenimiento: refleja parte de quiénes somos como estadounidenses y como seres humanos, y ha ayudado a moldear la forma en que nos vemos unos a otros y a nuestro mundo. Chita sabía lo que saben los grandes estadounidenses: lo importante no es la fuerza con la que caes, sino la rapidez con la que te levantas. Su deslumbrante encanto vivirá en el alma de nuestra nación.

Nuestro amor hoy para la hija de Chita, Lisa; a los hermanos de Chita, Julio, Armando y Lola del Rivero; y a sus generaciones de fans.

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The post Declaración del Presidente Joe Biden ante el Fallecimiento de Chita Rivera appeared first on The White House.

Chita Rivera was an all-time-great of American musical theater, a pioneer and perfectionist whose magnetic performances in scores of Broadway productions brought joy to millions and captured the grit and grace of America.
 
The irrepressible third child of public servants – her mother was a Pentagon clerk and her father a clarinetist in the U.S. Navy Band– she moved to New York to dance at age 15. Over the next seven decades, she built a dazzling career, originating the roles of iconic strong women in classics from West Side Story, to Bye Bye, Birdie, to Chicago, to Kiss of the Spider Woman, while blazing a trail for generations of Latina performers.
 
Chita won three Tony Awards, Kennedy Center Honors, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom, but she never quit putting the work first. She rode highs and lows with fierce resilience, including a devastating car crash that shattered her leg and left her with metal pins in her bones, only to see her climb back to the top and turn in Tony-nominated performances well into her 70s and 80s.
 
A mesmerizing dancer, singer, and actor, Chita’s work was more than entertainment – it reflects part of who we are as Americans and as human beings, and it has helped shape how we see each other and our world. Chita knew what great Americans know – it’s not how hard you get knocked down, it’s how quickly you get back up. Her dazzling charm will live on in the soul of our nation.
 
Our love goes out to Chita’s daughter, Lisa; to Chita’s siblings, Julio, Armando, and Lola del Rivero; and to her generations of fans.

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The post Statement from President Joe Biden on the Passing of Chita Rivera appeared first on The White House.

Chita Rivera was an all-time-great of American musical theater, a pioneer and perfectionist whose magnetic performances in scores of Broadway productions brought joy to millions and captured the grit and grace of America.
 
The irrepressible third child of public servants – her mother was a Pentagon clerk and her father a clarinetist in the U.S. Navy Band– she moved to New York to dance at age 15. Over the next seven decades, she built a dazzling career, originating the roles of iconic strong women in classics from West Side Story, to Bye Bye, Birdie, to Chicago, to Kiss of the Spider Woman, while blazing a trail for generations of Latina performers.
 
Chita won three Tony Awards, Kennedy Center Honors, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom, but she never quit putting the work first. She rode highs and lows with fierce resilience, including a devastating car crash that shattered her leg and left her with metal pins in her bones, only to see her climb back to the top and turn in Tony-nominated performances well into her 70s and 80s.
 
A mesmerizing dancer, singer, and actor, Chita’s work was more than entertainment – it reflects part of who we are as Americans and as human beings, and it has helped shape how we see each other and our world. Chita knew what great Americans know – it’s not how hard you get knocked down, it’s how quickly you get back up. Her dazzling charm will live on in the soul of our nation.
 
Our love goes out to Chita’s daughter, Lisa; to Chita’s siblings, Julio, Armando, and Lola del Rivero; and to her generations of fans.

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The post Statement from President Joe Biden on the Passing of Chita Rivera appeared first on The White House.

On Tuesday, January 30, 2024, the U.S.-EU Trade and Technology Council (TTC) held its fifth ministerial meeting in Washington, D.C.  Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo, U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai, and senior National Security Council Staff were joined by EU TTC co-chairs European Commission Executive Vice Presidents Margrethe Vestager and Valdis Dombrovskis.  European Commissioner for Internal Market Thierry Breton also joined the discussions.

Building on the progress from the May 2023 TTC ministerial meeting in Lulea, Sweden, the U.S. co-chairs stressed the importance of fortifying our collective economic security, including by further de-risking and diversifying of our economies, building resilient supply chains, employing outbound investment mechanisms to safeguard national security-related technologies, enhancing and better coordinating our export control regimes to prevent the exploitation of dual-use technologies, and jointly countering the use of economic coercion and non-market policies and practices by authoritarian actors. They also discussed expanding collaboration to counter the misuse of technology, including countering foreign information manipulation and interference (FIMI) and attacks against human rights defenders online while safeguarding freedom of expression. 

The U.S. co-chairs also discussed the importance of expanding transatlantic cooperation in critical and emerging technologies, including artificial intelligence (AI), and jointly promoting innovation, security, and trustworthiness across digital ecosystems, including for maintenance and repair of network components.  They noted progress made through the TTC Joint Roadmap on Trustworthy AI and Risk Management and resolved to continue to promote interoperability in our emerging approaches to AI governance.  They also noted the quickening pace of technological innovation and the essential role the TTC plays in developing responsible rules of the road for critical and emerging technologies, including creating compatible and interoperable standards that reinforce the work of international standards development organizations.

The United States and EU also hosted two stakeholder events on the margins of the TTC: a “Roundtable on the Legacy Semiconductor Supply Chain,” where U.S. and EU industry leaders discussed the current state of the industry, how companies can improve supply chain resilience and transparency, and how governments can help address non-market policies and practices that lead to excessive dependency on any one producing country for legacy semiconductors; and a Transatlantic Initiative for Sustainable Trade (TIST) Stakeholder Event on “Crafting the Transatlantic Green Marketplace,” where participants discussed how to strengthen the transatlantic marketplace as a key factor in the development of sustainable and net-zero economies on both sides of the Atlantic.  

The TIST stakeholder event also included a workshop on the “Promotion of Good Quality jobs for a Successful, Just and Inclusive Green Transition,” which focused on labor and business stakeholders exchanging best practices and discussion on ensuring good jobs are outcomes of climate policy and investments. In addition, the United States and European Union received a briefing by the 6G Smart Networks and Services Industry Association and the Next G Alliance on their U.S.-EU Beyond 5G/6G Roadmap, which will inform efforts by U.S. and EU governments to develop common vision on 6G.  The United States and EU also welcomed the signing of the U.S.-EU Joint CyberSafe Products Action Plan on the margins of this TTC. With this Action Plan, the two partners look to create a transatlantic marketplace that sets a standard for the cybersecurity of Internet-connected products, ensuring the devices our citizens use in their homes and offices are secure.

The co-chairs intend to convene the sixth TTC ministerial meeting in Belgium in the spring of 2024 to review progress to inform priorities, identify new areas for collaboration, and further deepen the transatlantic partnership on shared priorities.

###

The post Readout of U.S.-EU Trade and Technology Council Fifth Ministerial Meeting appeared first on The White House.

On Tuesday, January 30, 2024, the U.S.-EU Trade and Technology Council (TTC) held its fifth ministerial meeting in Washington, D.C.  Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo, U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai, and senior National Security Council Staff were joined by EU TTC co-chairs European Commission Executive Vice Presidents Margrethe Vestager and Valdis Dombrovskis.  European Commissioner for Internal Market Thierry Breton also joined the discussions.

Building on the progress from the May 2023 TTC ministerial meeting in Lulea, Sweden, the U.S. co-chairs stressed the importance of fortifying our collective economic security, including by further de-risking and diversifying of our economies, building resilient supply chains, employing outbound investment mechanisms to safeguard national security-related technologies, enhancing and better coordinating our export control regimes to prevent the exploitation of dual-use technologies, and jointly countering the use of economic coercion and non-market policies and practices by authoritarian actors. They also discussed expanding collaboration to counter the misuse of technology, including countering foreign information manipulation and interference (FIMI) and attacks against human rights defenders online while safeguarding freedom of expression. 

The U.S. co-chairs also discussed the importance of expanding transatlantic cooperation in critical and emerging technologies, including artificial intelligence (AI), and jointly promoting innovation, security, and trustworthiness across digital ecosystems, including for maintenance and repair of network components.  They noted progress made through the TTC Joint Roadmap on Trustworthy AI and Risk Management and resolved to continue to promote interoperability in our emerging approaches to AI governance.  They also noted the quickening pace of technological innovation and the essential role the TTC plays in developing responsible rules of the road for critical and emerging technologies, including creating compatible and interoperable standards that reinforce the work of international standards development organizations.

The United States and EU also hosted two stakeholder events on the margins of the TTC: a “Roundtable on the Legacy Semiconductor Supply Chain,” where U.S. and EU industry leaders discussed the current state of the industry, how companies can improve supply chain resilience and transparency, and how governments can help address non-market policies and practices that lead to excessive dependency on any one producing country for legacy semiconductors; and a Transatlantic Initiative for Sustainable Trade (TIST) Stakeholder Event on “Crafting the Transatlantic Green Marketplace,” where participants discussed how to strengthen the transatlantic marketplace as a key factor in the development of sustainable and net-zero economies on both sides of the Atlantic.  

The TIST stakeholder event also included a workshop on the “Promotion of Good Quality jobs for a Successful, Just and Inclusive Green Transition,” which focused on labor and business stakeholders exchanging best practices and discussion on ensuring good jobs are outcomes of climate policy and investments. In addition, the United States and European Union received a briefing by the 6G Smart Networks and Services Industry Association and the Next G Alliance on their U.S.-EU Beyond 5G/6G Roadmap, which will inform efforts by U.S. and EU governments to develop common vision on 6G.  The United States and EU also welcomed the signing of the U.S.-EU Joint CyberSafe Products Action Plan on the margins of this TTC. With this Action Plan, the two partners look to create a transatlantic marketplace that sets a standard for the cybersecurity of Internet-connected products, ensuring the devices our citizens use in their homes and offices are secure.

The co-chairs intend to convene the sixth TTC ministerial meeting in Belgium in the spring of 2024 to review progress to inform priorities, identify new areas for collaboration, and further deepen the transatlantic partnership on shared priorities.

###

The post Readout of U.S.-EU Trade and Technology Council Fifth Ministerial Meeting appeared first on The White House.

Private Residence
Miami, Florida

6:27 P.M. EST

THE PRESIDENT: Well, Chris, thank you. And I have to tell you, I’m not going home. (Laughter.)

Folks — I want to thank you for chairing the — the Biden Victory Fund. You’re a great friend, traveling all across the country to bring so many folks into the process. And I mean that. We’re lucky to have you on the campaign trail with us.

And thanks to all of you for the support you’ve given us.

I’ll start with the simplest message: From the bottom of my heart, thank you, thank you, thank you. You’re the reason I’m President of the United States. Not hyperbole. You’re the reason. (Applause.)

Kamala Harris is a — you’re the reason Kamala Harris is the first — historic Vice President, first woman to be in that position. (Applause.) You’re the reason Donald Trump is a defeated former President. (Applause.) And you’re the reason we’re going to continue to make him a loser again. (Laughs.) (Applause.)

Folks, in 2020, I ran because I thought this country stood at a — for — everything I believed in was at stake. I really mean it. I thought it was at risk.

I made a couple speeches I got criticized for, saying I thought our democracy was at stake. I think people thought I was being hyperbolic at the time. “Joe, what do you mean democracy is at risk? What do you mean we’re in a battle for the soul of America?” Well, people don’t say that anymore.

You know, I don’t think anyone today doubts democracy was at risk in 2020. And thank God, because of you and supporters like you, we won.

Just think back to the mess that Donald Trump left this country in: a pandemic that was raging, an economy that was reeling.

Look how far we’ve come. We vaccinated America to get through that pandemic. Less than 2 million people were vaccinated when we came into office. Today, 270 million Americans have gotten that COVID vaccine. (Applause.)

We created 14 million new jobs — new jobs — more than any president has in the first term — to get this economy going strong.

We passed the American Rescue Plan to put $1,400 in people’s pockets at the time, who were in real trouble, and $300 checks per child for families — of hardworking families — with thousands of dollars in people’s pockets through the re- — what was then a real crisis. And that money helped cut child poverty in half.

And we have to do more. Everyone is feeling the consequences of these investments and progress — not everybody is feeling it yet. And yet, inflation is now lower in America than in any other country [major economy] in the world.

In recent weeks, we’re starting to see real evidence that American consumers are beginning to feel confidence — renewed confidence in the economy we’re building. Just this morning, we learned that consumer confidence surged to its highest level in two years.

The Washington Post headline from this weekend is: Falling inflation ri- — rai- — rising growth in U.S. gives world the best — gives U.S. the best recovery in the world.

Look, let me tell you who else is noticing: Donald Trump. He recently said, “When the crash occurs, I hope it’s in the next 12 months.” “When the crash occurs, I hope it’s in the next 12 months.” It’s unbelievable. It’s un-American.

How can a former President or anyone say that an economic crash that would devastate millions of people is a good thing?

Here’s what he really means: Donald Trump knows the economy we’ve built is strong and getting stronger. And he knows that, while it’s good for America, it’s bad for him politically.

Trump also said one of the — one president does not — he said, “I’m the one guy that doesn’t want to be a Her- — Herbert Hoover.” Well, I’ve got news for him — bad news. He’s already Herbert Hoover. (Laughter.) The only president other than Donald Trump that lost jobs during an administration was Herbert Hoover. So, Donald “Herbert Hoover” Trump is — (laughter) — is moving right along.

Folks, I promised we’d beat Big Pharma. You know, they charge more for prescription drugs in America than they do anywhere else in the world. You have a prescription — the same exact prescription taken to a drug store here, I take you to one in Toronto, Berlin, anywhere around the world, and it’s somewhere between 60 and 40 percent less.

We said we’d beat them, and we did. Thirty-five-dollar-a-month insulin for seniors with diabetes instead of $400 a month. We tried to make it 35 bucks a month for everyone because it only costs 10 bucks to make and — and the total packaging cost 13 bucks. And they’re still making a significant progress [profit]. But our Republican colleagues pushed back on everybody having it. But with your vote in 2024, we’re going to make it available to everyone.

Out-of-pocket costs for seniors for prescription drugs, beginning in 2024 [2025], are capped at $2,000 a year, no matter how big they are. You all know somebody who is taking a cancer drug. It could be $12-, $15-, $16,000. Well, it’s going to be capped at $2,000 maximum. And it matters.

I promised we’d help ease the accumulated student debt in America that Americans carried during this economic crisis and pandemic. The Supreme Court blocked me, but it didn’t stop me. I found another way, a legal way, to do it. That is three m- — 3.7 million people, $130 billion relief and counting.

Here’s what we did. We went back and fixed what’s called the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program, which was designed to help public servants — like teachers, nurses, firefighters, social workers — get their student loans forgiven. If they make 10 years of payments without miss and they’re involved in public service, they get their debt forgiven.

By the time I took office, the program had been in place nearly 15 years. Behind red — because of red tape, only 7,000 borrowers had been helped.

Thanks to — today, we have 700,000 borrowers helped. And guess what? It’s growing the economy. (Applause.) They’re out buying homes. They’re out paying their debts. They’re out doing things that make a difference.

And all of you here in Florida knew how lucky America would be when I kept my promise to appoint the first Black woman to the Supreme Court. (Applause.) Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson of Miami, Florida — she’s making us proud.

And, by the way, I’ve appointed more Black women to the federal appeals courts than every other president in American history combined — every single one combined. (Applause.) All told, we’ve gotten 171 federal judges confirmed, and two thirds of them are women. (Laughs.) (Applause.) Well, it’s real simple. I got it right. All the women in my family are smarter than all the men, so I figure. (Laughter.)

Look, the fact is that we have a lot more work to do, but I’ve never been more optimistic about our future. I mean it.

An example: Thanks to the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law that I signed, there are 40,000 infrastructure projects all across America.

How in God’s name can we be the most important country in the world, the most economically prosperous, and be ranked number 14 in infrastructure? It’s not possible.

We’re rebuilding our roads, our bridges, our ports, our airports. And we’re bringing affordable high-speed Internet everywhere in America; ripping out every poisonous lead pipe that exists so every child in America can turn on a faucet and drink it without having any brain damage. (Applause.)

We passed the most significant gun safety law in decades. And I will not stop until I once again ban assault weapons in this country. (Applause.)

We’re saving the planet with the most significant investment in climate change ever, anywhere in the history of the world. We’ve tripled sales of electric vehicles, built a national network of 50,000 [500,000] EV charging stations, put on a path to carbon emissions — to reduce by 50 percent by 2030. I could go on, but you’re standing. (Laughter.)

Now imagine the nightmare if Trump returned to office.

At a recent — at a recent deadly school shooting in Perry, Iowa, three people died, including one sixth grader and the school principal. You know what Trump said? It’s hard to believe he said it, but he said it. You just got to “get over it.” You just got to “get over it.”

I’m not going to get over it. I’m going to stop it. I’m going to stop it. (Applause.)

Trump and his MAGA friends want to repeal the historic climate legislation. Maybe they don’t think climate is a real problem, but the rest of us know it is.

I’ve spent more time traveling the world — traveling the United States in the three years, looking at the forest that had been burned to the ground and is equivalent to the entire state of Maryland, burned to the ground. Now after — and you see what the rising tides are doing. You see what’s happening here in Florida. And we’re trying. And we’re trying.

Failing more than 60 times —

You know, look, how can I — I want to be — I don’t want to lose my temper here and say something I shouldn’t.

After trying and failing more than 60 times, Trump and his MAGA friends are promising to get rid of the Affordable Care Act, the only law that exists for people of modest means to be able to get insurance and not be denied because of preexisting condition. And they want to take that away.

Seniors here in Florida and all across America should know this: Trump and the MAGA Republicans are determined to take away the $35-a-month insulin payment and make it no longer the law, as well as the $2,000 cap on all prescription drugs.

Instead of saving Social Security and Medicare, Trump and his MAGA friends want to give another massive multibillion-dollar tax cut and not pay for it at all.

Look, you know, Trump and his MAGA friends are determined to take away your freedom as well. Today, they’re attacking voting rights — voting rights all across the country.

And now Trump is bragging about having overturned Roe v. Wade, taking away a woman’s right to choose. And now they’re planning a national ban on the right to choose. You know it here in Florida from your governor.

I made it clear: If MAGA Republicans try to pass a national ban on the right to choose, I will veto it. It will never go into effect. (Applause.)

And if you reelect me and Kamala and a Democratic House and a bigger Senate majority, we will restore Roe v. Wade as the law of the land everywhere — everywhere. (Applause.)

Look, you’re all standing for a long time, running out of po- — let me close with this.

Trump and his MAGA friends are dividing us, not uniting us; dragging us back into the past, not leading us to the future; refusing to accept the results of a legitimate election; seeking, as Trump did — says, to “terminate” elements of the Constitution; embracing political violence — embracing it.

I sit, next to my office, in the Oval Office — two — two doors — literally, doors to my office down is that dining room where he sat and watched on the 6th of — of January, watched that riot go on, watched those people being killed — watched the cops being killed, watched what’s happening.

You know, I was — shortly after that, I was — as President, I was in London — outside of London at a G7 meeting. And I sat down, and I said, “America is back.” And the French President looked at me, and he said, “For how long? For how long is it back?”

And then, Olaf of Germany looked at me — the Chancellor — and he said, “What would you say, Mr. President” — true story — “What would you say, Mr. President, if we woke up tomorrow morning and here in the London Times said, ‘A thousand people stormed the gates of Parliament, broke down the doors to the House of Commons, and stopped the election of a Speaker — of a Speaker — stopped the election of a Prime Minister’?”

And I started thinking about it. What would we think? What would we think had happened? The rest of the world — everywhere I — I know I’ve — because I’ve been around a while — I know I don’t look it, but I’m a little older. (Laughter.) But I’ve been around. I know every one of these former and present presidents of nations. I mean it sincerely. I’ve been in over 140 countries. I know them personally.

Every meeting I go to, from the G20 on, as I’m leaving, one of them pulls me aside and says, “Joe — Joe, you’ve got to win. You can’t let him back. My country is at stake.”

No, I — no, and a lot of you travel internationally. Find me some other leader in the — in the free world that is rooting for Trump to come back.

Folks, there’s a truth and there’s lies. We have to make clear we stand with the truth and we’re going to defeat the lies. We must make clear that America still — we believe in honesty, decency, dignity, respect. We believe that we’re all created equal. We’ve never fully lived up to it, but we’ve never walked away from it before. We’ve never walked away from it before.

You know, we leave nobody behind. We believe everybody deserves a fair shot. We don’t give hate a safe harbor. We believe in America.

I mean, it sounds corny, but think about it. We believe in the idea of America.

I know what’s at stake. We must keep the White House, keep the Senate, and win back the House. And then to win up — (applause) — up and down the ticket at state and local offices.

Here in Florida, we have to organize, mobilize, and vote. And if we do, we will win Florida. (Applause.)

When we do that, we’ll be able to look back and say something few generations can say: America’s democracy was at risk, like it was in 2020, but we saved it.

We just have to remember who we are. We’re the United States of America. (Applause.) And there is nothing — nothing beyond our capacity when we do it together. And that’s what we have to do.

So, God bless you all. Sorry to make you stand for so long. Thank you, thank you, thank you. (Applause.)

May God bless you all. And may he protect our troops.

Thank you, thank you, thank you. (Applause.)

All the way back there, thank you. Thank you, thank you.

AUDIENCE: Four more years! Four more years! Four more years!

THE PRESIDENT: Thank you. I don’t want to go home. Thank you. Thank you, all. Bye-bye.

6:42 P.M. EST

The post Remarks by President Biden at a Campaign Reception | Miami, FL appeared first on The White House.

Private Residence
Miami, Florida

6:27 P.M. EST

THE PRESIDENT: Well, Chris, thank you. And I have to tell you, I’m not going home. (Laughter.)

Folks — I want to thank you for chairing the — the Biden Victory Fund. You’re a great friend, traveling all across the country to bring so many folks into the process. And I mean that. We’re lucky to have you on the campaign trail with us.

And thanks to all of you for the support you’ve given us.

I’ll start with the simplest message: From the bottom of my heart, thank you, thank you, thank you. You’re the reason I’m President of the United States. Not hyperbole. You’re the reason. (Applause.)

Kamala Harris is a — you’re the reason Kamala Harris is the first — historic Vice President, first woman to be in that position. (Applause.) You’re the reason Donald Trump is a defeated former President. (Applause.) And you’re the reason we’re going to continue to make him a loser again. (Laughs.) (Applause.)

Folks, in 2020, I ran because I thought this country stood at a — for — everything I believed in was at stake. I really mean it. I thought it was at risk.

I made a couple speeches I got criticized for, saying I thought our democracy was at stake. I think people thought I was being hyperbolic at the time. “Joe, what do you mean democracy is at risk? What do you mean we’re in a battle for the soul of America?” Well, people don’t say that anymore.

You know, I don’t think anyone today doubts democracy was at risk in 2020. And thank God, because of you and supporters like you, we won.

Just think back to the mess that Donald Trump left this country in: a pandemic that was raging, an economy that was reeling.

Look how far we’ve come. We vaccinated America to get through that pandemic. Less than 2 million people were vaccinated when we came into office. Today, 270 million Americans have gotten that COVID vaccine. (Applause.)

We created 14 million new jobs — new jobs — more than any president has in the first term — to get this economy going strong.

We passed the American Rescue Plan to put $1,400 in people’s pockets at the time, who were in real trouble, and $300 checks per child for families — of hardworking families — with thousands of dollars in people’s pockets through the re- — what was then a real crisis. And that money helped cut child poverty in half.

And we have to do more. Everyone is feeling the consequences of these investments and progress — not everybody is feeling it yet. And yet, inflation is now lower in America than in any other country [major economy] in the world.

In recent weeks, we’re starting to see real evidence that American consumers are beginning to feel confidence — renewed confidence in the economy we’re building. Just this morning, we learned that consumer confidence surged to its highest level in two years.

The Washington Post headline from this weekend is: Falling inflation ri- — rai- — rising growth in U.S. gives world the best — gives U.S. the best recovery in the world.

Look, let me tell you who else is noticing: Donald Trump. He recently said, “When the crash occurs, I hope it’s in the next 12 months.” “When the crash occurs, I hope it’s in the next 12 months.” It’s unbelievable. It’s un-American.

How can a former President or anyone say that an economic crash that would devastate millions of people is a good thing?

Here’s what he really means: Donald Trump knows the economy we’ve built is strong and getting stronger. And he knows that, while it’s good for America, it’s bad for him politically.

Trump also said one of the — one president does not — he said, “I’m the one guy that doesn’t want to be a Her- — Herbert Hoover.” Well, I’ve got news for him — bad news. He’s already Herbert Hoover. (Laughter.) The only president other than Donald Trump that lost jobs during an administration was Herbert Hoover. So, Donald “Herbert Hoover” Trump is — (laughter) — is moving right along.

Folks, I promised we’d beat Big Pharma. You know, they charge more for prescription drugs in America than they do anywhere else in the world. You have a prescription — the same exact prescription taken to a drug store here, I take you to one in Toronto, Berlin, anywhere around the world, and it’s somewhere between 60 and 40 percent less.

We said we’d beat them, and we did. Thirty-five-dollar-a-month insulin for seniors with diabetes instead of $400 a month. We tried to make it 35 bucks a month for everyone because it only costs 10 bucks to make and — and the total packaging cost 13 bucks. And they’re still making a significant progress [profit]. But our Republican colleagues pushed back on everybody having it. But with your vote in 2024, we’re going to make it available to everyone.

Out-of-pocket costs for seniors for prescription drugs, beginning in 2024 [2025], are capped at $2,000 a year, no matter how big they are. You all know somebody who is taking a cancer drug. It could be $12-, $15-, $16,000. Well, it’s going to be capped at $2,000 maximum. And it matters.

I promised we’d help ease the accumulated student debt in America that Americans carried during this economic crisis and pandemic. The Supreme Court blocked me, but it didn’t stop me. I found another way, a legal way, to do it. That is three m- — 3.7 million people, $130 billion relief and counting.

Here’s what we did. We went back and fixed what’s called the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program, which was designed to help public servants — like teachers, nurses, firefighters, social workers — get their student loans forgiven. If they make 10 years of payments without miss and they’re involved in public service, they get their debt forgiven.

By the time I took office, the program had been in place nearly 15 years. Behind red — because of red tape, only 7,000 borrowers had been helped.

Thanks to — today, we have 700,000 borrowers helped. And guess what? It’s growing the economy. (Applause.) They’re out buying homes. They’re out paying their debts. They’re out doing things that make a difference.

And all of you here in Florida knew how lucky America would be when I kept my promise to appoint the first Black woman to the Supreme Court. (Applause.) Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson of Miami, Florida — she’s making us proud.

And, by the way, I’ve appointed more Black women to the federal appeals courts than every other president in American history combined — every single one combined. (Applause.) All told, we’ve gotten 171 federal judges confirmed, and two thirds of them are women. (Laughs.) (Applause.) Well, it’s real simple. I got it right. All the women in my family are smarter than all the men, so I figure. (Laughter.)

Look, the fact is that we have a lot more work to do, but I’ve never been more optimistic about our future. I mean it.

An example: Thanks to the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law that I signed, there are 40,000 infrastructure projects all across America.

How in God’s name can we be the most important country in the world, the most economically prosperous, and be ranked number 14 in infrastructure? It’s not possible.

We’re rebuilding our roads, our bridges, our ports, our airports. And we’re bringing affordable high-speed Internet everywhere in America; ripping out every poisonous lead pipe that exists so every child in America can turn on a faucet and drink it without having any brain damage. (Applause.)

We passed the most significant gun safety law in decades. And I will not stop until I once again ban assault weapons in this country. (Applause.)

We’re saving the planet with the most significant investment in climate change ever, anywhere in the history of the world. We’ve tripled sales of electric vehicles, built a national network of 50,000 [500,000] EV charging stations, put on a path to carbon emissions — to reduce by 50 percent by 2030. I could go on, but you’re standing. (Laughter.)

Now imagine the nightmare if Trump returned to office.

At a recent — at a recent deadly school shooting in Perry, Iowa, three people died, including one sixth grader and the school principal. You know what Trump said? It’s hard to believe he said it, but he said it. You just got to “get over it.” You just got to “get over it.”

I’m not going to get over it. I’m going to stop it. I’m going to stop it. (Applause.)

Trump and his MAGA friends want to repeal the historic climate legislation. Maybe they don’t think climate is a real problem, but the rest of us know it is.

I’ve spent more time traveling the world — traveling the United States in the three years, looking at the forest that had been burned to the ground and is equivalent to the entire state of Maryland, burned to the ground. Now after — and you see what the rising tides are doing. You see what’s happening here in Florida. And we’re trying. And we’re trying.

Failing more than 60 times —

You know, look, how can I — I want to be — I don’t want to lose my temper here and say something I shouldn’t.

After trying and failing more than 60 times, Trump and his MAGA friends are promising to get rid of the Affordable Care Act, the only law that exists for people of modest means to be able to get insurance and not be denied because of preexisting condition. And they want to take that away.

Seniors here in Florida and all across America should know this: Trump and the MAGA Republicans are determined to take away the $35-a-month insulin payment and make it no longer the law, as well as the $2,000 cap on all prescription drugs.

Instead of saving Social Security and Medicare, Trump and his MAGA friends want to give another massive multibillion-dollar tax cut and not pay for it at all.

Look, you know, Trump and his MAGA friends are determined to take away your freedom as well. Today, they’re attacking voting rights — voting rights all across the country.

And now Trump is bragging about having overturned Roe v. Wade, taking away a woman’s right to choose. And now they’re planning a national ban on the right to choose. You know it here in Florida from your governor.

I made it clear: If MAGA Republicans try to pass a national ban on the right to choose, I will veto it. It will never go into effect. (Applause.)

And if you reelect me and Kamala and a Democratic House and a bigger Senate majority, we will restore Roe v. Wade as the law of the land everywhere — everywhere. (Applause.)

Look, you’re all standing for a long time, running out of po- — let me close with this.

Trump and his MAGA friends are dividing us, not uniting us; dragging us back into the past, not leading us to the future; refusing to accept the results of a legitimate election; seeking, as Trump did — says, to “terminate” elements of the Constitution; embracing political violence — embracing it.

I sit, next to my office, in the Oval Office — two — two doors — literally, doors to my office down is that dining room where he sat and watched on the 6th of — of January, watched that riot go on, watched those people being killed — watched the cops being killed, watched what’s happening.

You know, I was — shortly after that, I was — as President, I was in London — outside of London at a G7 meeting. And I sat down, and I said, “America is back.” And the French President looked at me, and he said, “For how long? For how long is it back?”

And then, Olaf of Germany looked at me — the Chancellor — and he said, “What would you say, Mr. President” — true story — “What would you say, Mr. President, if we woke up tomorrow morning and here in the London Times said, ‘A thousand people stormed the gates of Parliament, broke down the doors to the House of Commons, and stopped the election of a Speaker — of a Speaker — stopped the election of a Prime Minister’?”

And I started thinking about it. What would we think? What would we think had happened? The rest of the world — everywhere I — I know I’ve — because I’ve been around a while — I know I don’t look it, but I’m a little older. (Laughter.) But I’ve been around. I know every one of these former and present presidents of nations. I mean it sincerely. I’ve been in over 140 countries. I know them personally.

Every meeting I go to, from the G20 on, as I’m leaving, one of them pulls me aside and says, “Joe — Joe, you’ve got to win. You can’t let him back. My country is at stake.”

No, I — no, and a lot of you travel internationally. Find me some other leader in the — in the free world that is rooting for Trump to come back.

Folks, there’s a truth and there’s lies. We have to make clear we stand with the truth and we’re going to defeat the lies. We must make clear that America still — we believe in honesty, decency, dignity, respect. We believe that we’re all created equal. We’ve never fully lived up to it, but we’ve never walked away from it before. We’ve never walked away from it before.

You know, we leave nobody behind. We believe everybody deserves a fair shot. We don’t give hate a safe harbor. We believe in America.

I mean, it sounds corny, but think about it. We believe in the idea of America.

I know what’s at stake. We must keep the White House, keep the Senate, and win back the House. And then to win up — (applause) — up and down the ticket at state and local offices.

Here in Florida, we have to organize, mobilize, and vote. And if we do, we will win Florida. (Applause.)

When we do that, we’ll be able to look back and say something few generations can say: America’s democracy was at risk, like it was in 2020, but we saved it.

We just have to remember who we are. We’re the United States of America. (Applause.) And there is nothing — nothing beyond our capacity when we do it together. And that’s what we have to do.

So, God bless you all. Sorry to make you stand for so long. Thank you, thank you, thank you. (Applause.)

May God bless you all. And may he protect our troops.

Thank you, thank you, thank you. (Applause.)

All the way back there, thank you. Thank you, thank you.

AUDIENCE: Four more years! Four more years! Four more years!

THE PRESIDENT: Thank you. I don’t want to go home. Thank you. Thank you, all. Bye-bye.

6:42 P.M. EST

The post Remarks by President Biden at a Campaign Reception | Miami, FL appeared first on The White House.

Council on Foreign Relations
Washington, D.C.

MR. SULLIVAN:  At least I had the bravery to give that speech at Brookings rather than at CFR.  So — (laughter) —

Mike, I want to say thank you for having me back at CFR.  And to Susan and Kurt and Charlene and Steve, thank you for having me back at the UCSD China Forum, which I’ve had the privilege of actually attending since its inauguration.  I would say San Diego in January is a little nicer than D.C. in January, but we’ll make do here.
 
My aim today is not to try to unveil a new China strategy, but something more straightforward: to share with you behind the curtain how we’ve tried to implement our strategy over the last three years and then what we might expect here in 2024.  And in the course of that, without directly answering the questions Mike has posed, perhaps provide a little grist for the mill that can help over the next couple of days as you grapple with these very difficult questions.
 
I want to start by taking a step back.
 
Before serving in the Biden administration, many of us who are now in government — including myself and Kurt and others — were revisiting the assumptions behind our longstanding China policy in writing and in conferences like this one.  And once in government, we immersed ourselves in the latest intelligence, expertise, and analysis.
 
We determined that the PRC was the only state with both the intent to reshape the international order and the economic, diplomatic, military, and technological power to do it.  We saw that the PRC sought to “catch up and surpass” the United States in high technology; that it was pursuing the largest peacetime military buildup in history; and that it was more repressive at home and more assertive abroad, including in the South and East China Seas as well as the Taiwan Strait.  We saw the PRC working to make the world more dependent on China while reducing its own dependence on the world.  And we saw it taking steps to adapt the international system to accommodate its own system and preferences.
 
We also saw something that really stood out, which is that the PRC believed the United States was in terminal decline — that our industrial base had been hollowed out, that our commitment to our allies and partners had been undercut, that the United States was struggling to manage a once-in-a-century pandemic, and that many in Beijing were openly proclaiming that “the East was rising and the West was falling.”
 
When we came into office, we inherited an approach from the previous administration that had updated the diagnosis of the scope and nature of the China challenge but had not adequately developed the strategy and tools to address it.  That approach was at times more confrontational than competitive, and too often undervalued the allies and partners critical to sustaining an effective China strategy.
 
But we did not want to return to an earlier approach with the PRC, one based on more optimistic assumptions about its trajectory and that sometimes prioritized avoiding friction over pursuing the American national interest.  So we developed our own approach, which Secretary Blinken laid out in a speech a couple of years ago — invest, align, compete — that sought to strengthen our competitive position and secure our interests and values while carefully managing this vital relationship.
 
And over the past three years, we’ve implemented that approach.  We’ve made far-reaching investments in the foundation of American strength at home with historic legislation on infrastructure, chips and science, and clean energy, all while addressing the PRC’s non-market practices and taking steps to ensure that the United States would lead in the sources of technological and economic growth. 
 
We believe our approach has generated results.  Large-scale investments in semiconductor and clean-energy production in the United States are up 20-fold since 2019.  Construction spending on new manufacturing projects has already doubled.  And looking out over the next decade, we’re estimating $3.5 trillion in new public and private investment, unlocked by the investments made in the historic legislation I just referenced. 
 
Abroad, we’ve tried to strengthen our ties with Indo-Pacific allies and partners in ways that would have been unlikely, even inconceivable, a few years ago.  We launched AUKUS.  We elevated the Quad.  We upgraded our relationship with Vietnam, the Philippines, India, Indonesia, and others.
 
We launched a historic trilateral with Japan and the Republic of Korea that culminated in a historic summit that President Biden hosted at Camp David. 
 
We held summits — multiple summits — with the leaders of the Pacific Islands as well as with ASEAN.
 
Our regional allies and partners, for their part, are betting on American economic vitality.  They’ve announced almost $200 billion of investments into the United States since the start of the administration.
 
We’ve also worked to connect our European and Indo-Pacific alliances.  And together with our G7 partners, we’ve aligned on collective steps to de-risk our economies and diversify away from strategic dependencies rather than decoupling.  And alongside our allies and partners, we’ve stressed the importance of maintaining peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait.
 
We’ve also worked hard to ensure that advanced and sensitive technologies our companies are developing do not become a source of vulnerability.  We implemented carefully tailored export restrictions on key technologies; focused on advanced semiconductor manufacturing tools — a topic, by the way, that was central to one of the earlier UCSD forums when I first really got immersed in this question of semiconductor manufacturing equipment; supercomputing capabilities; and the most advanced chips critical to military modernization.
 
We also took steps to regulate outbound investments of concern in technology and to strengthen CFIUS’s focus on critical technologies to make sure inbound investment actually addresses evolving national security challenges — the screening regime for inbound investment.
 
These steps are not about protectionism, and they’re not about holding anybody back.  They’re critical for our national security over the long run.
 
Now, the backdrop to these actions was the strongest post-pandemic recovery and among the lowest inflation of any leading economy in the world.  For years, economists were predicting that the PRC would overtake the United States in GDP either in this decade or the next.  Now those projections are moving further and further out.  And with the PRC facing its own set of challenges, some say that moment may never come.
 
And this brings me to a critical point: America, in this moment, is once more showing its capacity for resilience and reinvention.
 
But this is not the whole story.  And that’s what’s really critical about the remarks I want to give today.
 
As we took these steps to improve our competitive position, we aimed to do so in a way that built stability into one of the world’s most consequential relationships — perhaps the world’s most consequential relationship.  And, in fact, we believe our investments at home and our work to deepen ties with allies and partners abroad actually created the conditions for more effective diplomacy with the PRC.
 
A sustainable China policy is about holding in one’s head multiple truths at the same time and working iteratively to reconcile them.  We are clear-eyed about the competitive structural dynamics in our relationship with the PRC.  But we’re also keenly aware that the United States and the PRC are economically interdependent and share interests in addressing transnational problems and reducing the risk of conflict.
 
We realize that efforts, implied or explicit, to shape or change the PRC over several decades did not succeed.  We expect that the PRC will be a major player on the world stage for the foreseeable future.  That means that even as we compete, we have to find ways to live alongside one another.
 
Competition with the PRC does not have to lead to conflict, confrontation, or a new Cold War.  The United States can take steps to advance its interests and values and those of its allies and partners on the one hand, while responsibly managing competition on the other.  Being able to do both of those things is at the heart of our approach.  And in fact, the United States has decades of experience talking to and even working with our competitors when our interests call for it. 
 
Over the last year, we’ve called on that experience.  And while “managing competition” can feel like an abstract slogan, the best way to understand how it translates into action is to “zoom in” on 2023.
 
The year began with the relationship at a historic low point.  A year ago this week, a Chinese spy balloon traveled across the United States.  We were, and remain, deeply concerned about the PRC providing Russia with lethal aid in its invasion of Ukraine.  And after historic and unprecedented — and not historic in a positive sense — PRC military exercises in August of 2022, it seemed a series of cross-Strait crises loomed over the horizon.
 
All of this set back the progress from the Bali summit between President Biden and President Xi.  High-level communication halted, to say nothing of military-to-military ties or cooperation on counternarcotics or climate — all of which the PRC had frozen.
 
We set out to stabilize the relationship without sacrificing our capacity to strengthen our alliances, compete vigorously, and defend our interests.
 
Beginning in May of last year, we launched a period of intensive diplomacy.  It was an all-hands-on-deck effort across the Cabinet spanning the full range of our relationship with the PRC.  The goal was not to paper over our differences.  Our aim instead was to address misperceptions and miscommunication, to avoid major surprises, to reopen defunct channels, and to more clearly signal to each other about our respective positions and interests.  And we sought to increase not just the quantity but the quality of our communication.
 
In May, I spent two days with Director Wang Yi in Vienna to help restore some normalcy to the relationship.  In Vienna, we reached consensus on a rough roadmap for high-level engagement to carry out the agenda that President Biden and President Xi had set forward in Bali — one both sides hoped at that time would ultimately culminate in a leader-level meeting in San Francisco at APEC later in the year. 
 
In the months that followed, we held a series of critical meetings.
 
In June, Secretary Blinken traveled to Beijing and met with President Xi and senior foreign policy officials, working to stabilize after a period of tension.
 
In July, Secretary Yellen traveled to Beijing to build relationships with the PRC’s new economic leadership.  In that same month, Special Envoy for Climate John Kerry traveled to reopen climate channels that had stalled for months.
 
Then, in August, Secretary Raimondo visited the PRC to advance our commercial ties and underscore our commitment to protect critical technologies with national security implications without severing the economic relationship between the U.S. and China.
 
Critics said at the time that this travel was one-sided, but our strategy was to use those meetings to open up a two-way flow of exchanges, and that’s exactly what happened.
 
This intensive diplomacy was about managing tough issues rather than patching up the relationship.  We were direct about our differences, including PRC support for Russia’s war against Ukraine and cross-Strait issues.  
 
We did not pull back from national security-focused measures, like restrictions on outbound investment and updates to our export controls.  Instead, we used these meetings as opportunities to explain what these measures were, but almost as importantly, what they were not, which was an attempt to undermine the PRC’s prosperity and development.  That is not what those measures were, and we explained that clearly to our counterparts in these sessions. 
 
We also used these meetings to find space to coordinate on issues where our interests overlapped.
 
In September, Director Wang Yi and I met in Malta for another round of meetings.  We charted the course for a leader meeting in San Francisco and laid out what we hoped to accomplish on issues like counternarcotics and mil-mil channels. 
 
Over the following weeks, Majority Leader Schumer led a bipartisan delegation to the PRC, and the PRC sent a stream of officials to the United States, including the Vice President, the Vice Premier, and Director Wang Yi, who came for two days of meetings with Secretary Blinken and myself.
 
And all of this culminated, as you heard from Mike, in the meeting — the summit — between President Biden and President Xi in Woodside, California, which saw progress on three major issues.
 
First, President Biden and President Xi restarted counternarcotics cooperation.  Since then, we’ve seen Beijing take initial steps to stem the flow of precursor chemicals used to make fentanyl, progress that we hope and need to see continue.  The first interagency counternarcotics working group between the U.S. and the PRC met today in Beijing, and our aim is to open up law enforcement cooperation on fighting this terrible drug.
 
Second, President Biden and President Xi announced the resumption of military-to-military communication that had been frozen for more than a year.  The Chairman of our Joint Chiefs of Staff has now spoken with his counterpart, and we’ve restored a number of critical operator-level mechanisms.  The question now is whether that will continue even in the face of future turbulence.  We, for our part, will continue to make the case that military-to-military communication is critical at all times but especially in times of tension. 
 
And third, the Woodside summit saw our leaders announce a new dialogue aimed at managing the risks of artificial intelligence, which will start in the spring.
 
As Mike mentioned, this past weekend I met with Director Wang Yi in Bangkok to follow up on the Woodside summit and to advance efforts in each of these three areas. 
 
Detailed, dogged diplomacy is necessary to manage the friction that is endemic to a strategic competition between two major powers.  Some risks to that effort may be unforeseeable, may be surprises.  Other risks are more recognizable, including friction in the South and East China Sea and economic and technology moves and countermoves.
 
The most significant risk would be a crisis in the Taiwan Strait, especially given Beijing’s increased military activity in and around its air and waters.  Here, too, intensive diplomacy matters.
 
Just a few weeks ago, Taiwan held historic elections without any major cross-Strait incident, in part because all sides — Washington, Beijing, and Taipei — worked to reduce miscommunication and misperception about their respective intentions.  That is an outcome few may have foreseen in August of 2022, when most expected the cross-Strait situation to grow more tense, not less.  But it’s no guarantee of future trends, and the risk remains real.  So we have to keep working at this by intensifying both diplomacy and deterrence. 
 
Over the next year, as we have for the last three, we’ll continue to take action on human rights abuses, forced labor, and nonproliferation.  We’ll be vigilant about the PRC’s support for Russia’s war against Ukraine and its efforts to help Russia reconstitute its defense industrial base, and we’ll take necessary measures to respond.
 
If PRC provocations continue in the South and East China Seas and the Taiwan Strait, we’ll work closely with allies and partners to push back and speak out about the risks to peace and stability in the world’s most important waterways.  We’ll continue to uphold freedom of navigation in the region by flying, sailing, and operating wherever international law allows.  And we’ll continue to pursue tailored national security measures designed to protect our national security.
 
And even as we do so, we’ll aim to continue the pace of intensive interaction with the PRC that has helped both sides manage areas of difference and unlock cooperation on areas where our interests align.
 
We’re not planning to recreate the now outdated structures and mechanisms from an earlier period in the bilateral relationship.  And we’re definitely not interested in dialogue just for dialogue’s sake.  But we do see value in launching and shepherding a select number of working-level consultations in discrete, carefully chosen areas to advance our interests and achieve results.  That’s the approach we use today on counternarcotics — an approach rooted in the here and now rather than in the nostalgia of the past.
 
In the period ahead, we hope we can work with the PRC to deepen crisis communication mechanisms to reduce the risk of conflict.  We’re ready to coordinate on climate, health security, global macroeconomic stability, and new challenges like the risks posed by artificial intelligence.  We’ll also talk to Beijing about challenging regional and global issues, from the Red Sea to the Korean Peninsula.  And we’ll work to advance progress on a range of bilateral issues too, including people-to-people ties.
 
Let me conclude by noting that none of this will be easy, and there will be times of tension.  That’s inevitable in a competition like this that is simply not going to resolve in a neat and decisive end state.  And as I noted, one thing is certain: There will be surprises along the way.
 
We’ll keep working to manage the competition as we have over the last year.  We’ll continue to invest in our strength at home and to deepen our global networks of alliances and partnerships abroad.
 
The approach I’m describing to you is not some big strategic shift.  It’s an effort we began building from the day we came into office.  It’s also not something new to American statecraft.  Far from it.  It’s an approach that is itself uniquely American and rooted in decades of history, diplomacy, and hard-won experience.  It’s also rooted in bipartisanship, because when the United States deals in a strategic competition from a position of strong bipartisan support, of all pulling together in service of the country, we always come out stronger for it. 
 
So we intend to stick with this strategy.  We intend to do what we need to do to protect our interests and defend our allies, while at the same time effectively managing competition with China to the good not just of the United States, but to the good of global stability as well.  That is our commitment.  That’s what we’ve tried to do. 
 
And today my goal was simply to walk you through how we’ve tried to execute that in practice so we can get beyond the kind of broad slogans and down to the actual day-to-day hard work that an incredible team of people across the entire U.S. government, both career and appointed, have been working.  And we’ve done so, I must say, looking around this room, with the support and advice of a huge number of people here from both parties, from the private sector and the public sector, and across a range of walks of life.  And that is the only way we’re going to continue to succeed in this effort as we go forward. 
 
So thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak today, and I look forward to the conversation.  (Applause.)
 
MR. HADLEY:  Jake, thank you for being with us.  Thank you for your remarks.  I think we’re all much better informed about what you’ve been building in terms of China policy and the successes that you’ve had. 
 
What we’re going to do is I’m going to ask three or four questions to Jake, up here.  And then we’re going to turn to the audience to take questions from you.  This is all on the record.  And we will try to end promptly at 7:45.  And I will proceed with the rest of the activities of the evening. 
 
Let me begin by asking you if — what, if anything, you would feel comfortable telling us about your recent meeting with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Thailand.  Any great breakthroughs to report here tonight?  (Laughter.)  Any news you want to make before the assembled multitude?
 
MR. SULLIVAN:  Well, first, we had a very nice meal.  So that was good.  (Laughter.) 
 
You know, this is my third extended round of conversations with Wang Yi — the first in Vienna, the second in Malta, and then this one in Bangkok.  And with each successive round, I think we have increasingly gotten to the point of setting aside the talking points and really having strategic conversations. 
 
In terms of next steps, the main things coming out of the meeting were actually to, you know, kind of fix the launch of this AI dialogue, where the U.S. and China will work together to manage risk.  And that will get going this spring.  So we talked through what the elements of that would look like. 
 
Second, we had the opportunity to go deep on cross-Strait issues and to share our respective positions.  And I’ll be cautious.  As you know very well, this is littered with landmines to speak about publicly.  And also, I want to respect the discretion of the channel.  But I think it was a very useful, direct, and candid set of conversations on that topic. 
 
And then, we obviously also had the opportunity to talk about current events — current events in the Red Sea, current events on the Korean Peninsula, concerns that we have about instability in both places.  And I would say the quality and character of those conversations and a rather direct and, in some ways, intensive conversation about the war in Ukraine, I think helped both of us leave feeling that we didn’t agree or see eye-to-eye on everything but that there was a lot of work to carry forward. 
 
Last point I would make: We agreed that President Biden and President Xi should speak and should speak by telephone relatively soon.  And I think the acknowledgment coming out of Woodside that there really is no substitute for leader-to-leader conversation — I mean, it became so apparent over the course of that meeting at Woodside how central that ingredient has to be to an effective stewardship of U.S.-China policy.  And so, both of us agreed that we would report back to our leaders and we would get them on the phone sooner rather than later.
 
MR. HADLEY:  Great.  Let me ask you on the Taiwan question.  They recently, of course, had elections in Taiwan.  A lot of commentary by some of the people in this room about the significance of those elections.  How do you see them?  And what impact do you think the results might have on our ability to manage the cross-Strait relationship?
 
MR. SULLIVAN:  Well, you know, we were explicit and direct, publicly and privately, with all stakeholders that we were not taking a position in those elections; we remained studiously neutral throughout.  We congratulated the winner.  We congratulated the — Tsai Ing-wen on, you know, an effective democratic election.  And now, you know, we’ve made clear we would like to see a smooth transition. 
 
And otherwise, from the United States’ perspective, Taiwan exhibiting this vibrant, democratic character is a positive thing.  And our policy remains constant through it.  As it was before, it will be going forward — the One China policy, the Taiwan Relations Act, the Six Assurances, and all of the issues that people in this room know so well. 
 
And President Biden has been clear that, you know, we remain committed to the One China policy.  And I was clear on that with Wang Yi as well. 
 
I was also clear that we continue to have concerns about elevated levels of aggressive military activity around the Strait.  We don’t regard that as conducive to peace and stability.  And we generally want to see, as I think the rest of the world does, peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait.  And we are committed to doing everything we can to support that.
 
MR. HADLEY:  Thank you.  I want to ask a little bit about the Chinese economy.  There’s a lot that has been written about the structural problems of the economy, a lot of speculation that the administration in Beijing has neither the ability nor the willingness to address those underlying structural problems.  A fairly gloomy view about the prospects for the Chinese economy. 
 
And I wonder whether that negative — whether that narrative is too negative.  And I’d ask you how you see the prospects of the economy and the ability and willingness of Xi and his team to address some of the structural problems that we all know about in terms of the real estate sector, indebtedness, and all the rest.
 
MR. SULLIVAN:  You know, in the last couple of times I went to the UCSD China Forum — it was before I came into government — I made a habit of going up to the smartest people I know on China and on economics, and buttonholing them and saying, “Tell me about the economy in China.”  And I would hear a, kind of, general answer from one and I would think, “Okay, that’s the answer.”  And then I would talk to someone else, and they would have quite a different answer. 
 
And the spectrum of opinion on whither China’s economy among incredibly informed, like, right-thinking people is quite broad.  And so, I’m humble enough to not really be able to characterize the likely future trajectory of that economy because I think if you would have asked people that question two years ago, they might have a different answer than they have today.  Frankly, if you asked people about the U.S. economy one year ago versus where they are today, people would have a different answer. 
 
So what we’re focused on fundamentally is thinking about what we can do to invest in the sources of our own strength here in the United States.  And I talked about that some in my speech.  And we kind of reject what I believe was a kind of common view that somehow, you know, it was a story of inexorable rise on the one side and inexorable decline on the other side.  Choices matter in both Beijing and Washington.  We’re trying to make the right choices.  And of course, it’s up to Beijing how they choose to make choices on their side. 
 
How’s that for not really answering your question?  (Laughter.)
 
MR. HADLEY:  It’s good.  It’s good.  You know —
 
MR. SULLIVAN:  I’m learning from Tony Blinken how to be a diplomat.  (Laughter.)
 
MR. HADLEY:  I’m going to go off script for a minute and ask one question about how you frame the policy, because you made clear that our goal is not to hold back or undermine the Chinese economy.  That’s not the objective of what we’re doing.  We’re doing things to protect our own national security interests. 
 
But don’t we have to be candid with China that some of the things we are doing to protect our own national security interests are actually having an adverse and will have an adverse effect on the Chinese economy?  It’ll have an adverse effect on our economy in terms of economic growth and the like.
 
Have we been candid enough with the Chinese about what it is we’re doing, why we’re doing it, and what impact it’s going to have on China?
 
MR. SULLIVAN:  I mean, one thing that we really tried to embark on — and I alluded to this in my speech a year ago — was to be much more direct and transparent about what the nature of the measures we were undertaking both were and would be, because we were telegraphing to them, as well, “This is where we are going on outbound investment or on updates to semiconductor export controls.  This is why we’re doing it.  This is how we’ve tailored it.  This is the rigorous process we put in place.  And this is the rationale.”  And then heard their response to that.
 
And Wang Yi and I had an opportunity in Bangkok to talk about how each of us, China and the United States, see the boundary between economics and national security.  And obviously, we don’t have completely converging perspectives on that question.  But I think it’s really important to recognize that, for a very long time, the PRC has taken measures on explicit grounds of national security that have had an adverse impact on American workers, American businesses, the American economy.  And so, this cannot be a one-way street of a conversation. 
 
You know, China will come to the table with its concerns about what the United States is doing.  And the United States has an obligation on behalf of its citizens to come to the table with our concerns about what China has been doing for quite a long time.  And I certainly came to the table prepared to do that when we were in Bangkok.
 
MR. HADLEY:  Good for you.
 
I’m going to give you one more chance to make some news.  (Laughter.)
 
Should we — on this issue of technology in particular, should we expect further steps by the Biden administration to de-risk the U.S. economy from its overdependence on China?  And in what areas are we likely to see further action?
 
MR. SULLIVAN:  So first, to answer your question, I probably won’t make news. 
 
I just want to take a minute on what we mean by de-risking.  And, in fact, I’ve said this directly to my Chinese counterparts.  It basically has three elements. 
 
First, investing in America’s industrial and innovation capacity.  A big way to de-risk is to have more capacity ourselves to be able to, you know, operate at the technological innovation edge. 
 
The second is to diversify supply chains so that we’re not dependent on any single point of failure.  And that’s not all about China.  That’s a lesson we learned from COVID.  But the PRC is a part of that. 
 
And the third is to have a series of tailored measures so that American technology cannot be used to undermine the security of the United States and our allies.  And in this category, we have been transparent that we’ve taken a series of steps already, and we will take further steps as we go forward, all according to the basic principle that we are going to tailor them and target them in a way that they really are aimed at our national security concerns and not at a broader effort to decouple our technological ecosystems or our economies.  But I will leave for a later day what exactly the nature and timetable of additional measures will be. 
 
One more thing I will say is: In October of 2022, we did a first round of export controls on advanced semiconductors and semiconductor manufacturing equipment.  In October of 2023, we updated them.  I think the world can expect that will be part of the process going forward, because as the technology evolves, our controls have to evolve.  It doesn’t mean the standards underlying our controls evolve — those remain constant — but they have to be applied to technology as it advances.  And that will require updates to existing controls, even as we add, you know, targeted, tailored controls in other areas as well. 
 
MR. HADLEY:  If I were a man from Mars coming down, I would say, listening to you and observing the relationship, that these two countries are trying to maintain some stability in the relationship and have made some tactical shifts, but strategically, China is continuing with a series of policies they’ve been pursuing for some time.  And the Biden administration is going to continue, as you just suggested, with the policies done.  There seem to be a lot of centripetal forces pulling at this relationship — and that’s before you get to the United States Congress.  Can you really keep it kludged together?  What’s the way to keep it (inaudible)?
 
MR. SULLIVAN:  Look, it’s a fair question.  And obviously, we’ve gone through periods of considerable tension, even during President Biden’s tenure.  But he is determined to hold these two things in his head at the same time.  As I said before, that, yes, there are structural, competitive dynamics in the relationship, and we should be clear-eyed about that, and we should look at that — stare at that square in the face.  And on the other hand, we have an obligation for our own national interest to ensure that that competition does not veer into conflict, that we manage it to a point of stability, and that we also find areas where we can work together where our interests align. 
 
Now, that recipe is, I think, relatively easily distilled in words.  It is harder to put into action.  And it requires a level of intense diplomacy of the kind I really tried to walk through in my speech and care — you know, basically constant gardening.  And even then, whether foreseen or unforeseen, risks and tensions could boil over.  We cannot — you cannot deny that.  But it is — you know, we don’t have to be fatalistic about it, either. 
 
Our job is to try to understand, in a clear-eyed way, what those risks and inherent tensions are, and do our very best to manage them without compromising on our fundamental values and without walking away from the defense of the American national interest and the interest of our allies and partners. 
 
And part of the reason that I tried to give these remarks in more of a way of, like, “let’s actually just talk about 2023 and what we did through the year” is it’s there’s a lot of aphorisms in the U.S.-China relationship — “manage competition,” and, you know, “invest, align, compete.”  At the end of the day, it really comes down to a set of actions that we take here domestically, a set of investments we make in our allies and partners, and then just direct, dogged diplomacy with China built on the proposition that, yes, we’re going to compete but we also are going to inhabit the same planet, and we have to work together to ensure that we don’t end up tipping over into conflict. 
 
That’s what this is about.  It doesn’t really reduce to a bumper sticker.  But I think it’s a kind of common-sense strategy that can secure bipartisan support and that people — if you kind of look at American attitudes on the PRC, I think that’s basically where the American people are.  They want us to be tough and stand up for our interests and push back against aggression or actions that harm Americans, but they also are not looking for war.  And so that’s what we’re trying to work towards.
 
MR. HADLEY:  Last quick question from me.  We have a session tomorrow on the China forum about the internal political situation in China, both its resilience and its fragility in its political system.  Anything you want to say about that —
 
MR. SULLIVAN:  No.  (Laughter.)
 
MR. HADLEY:  — in terms of how you —
 
MR. SULLIVAN:  I’ll refer you to Beijing to comment on it. 
 
MR. HADLEY:  So we’ll all have to tune into the session tomorrow.
 
MR. SULLIVAN:  Exactly.
 
MR. HADLEY:  I guess Jake is deferring to that.
 
Let’s go to the audience if we can.  I want to remind everybody this is an on-the-record session, and I’d like to invite folks from the audience to engage in this conversation.  So please raise your hand and I will call on you. 
 
Let’s start with this gentleman here.
 
AUDIENCE MEMBER:  Thank you very much.  My name is Marc Rotenberg.  I’m with the Center for AI and Digital Policy. 
 
And you talked about artificial intelligence in your remarks.  I wanted to begin by saying I think it was very good that China participated in the UK AI Summit.  That was not originally anticipated.  But clearly, as you’ve said, it’s important to maintain discussion about the risk of AI in warfare. 
 
But at the same time, there are also clearly two different forms of government.  And AI can support an open and pluralist government or AI can support a more closed, constrained form of government. 
 
And it seems to me that there is a policy debate playing out right now regarding the governance of AI and, frankly, some concerns about the U.S. position.  So, presently, at the Council of Europe, a treaty on AI is being negotiated.  The mandate of the Council of Europe is to promote fundamental rights, democratic institutions, and the rule of law.  And many of our democratic allies are looking for a robust treaty that safeguards fundamental rights in this era of AI. 
 
Concerns have been expressed about the U.S. position.  And my question is: Will the U.S. government support a robust treaty on AI that safeguards fundamental rights?
 
MR. SULLIVAN:  So, we have been very actively engaged in the negotiations over the treaty at the Council of Europe because our basic vision for the governance of AI is rooted in the idea of the protection of fundamental rights and the empowerment of people lifting them up rather than holding them down. 
 
And we do have a very different vision of AI governance than the PRC does, which is why our dialogue with them will really vector in on our, kind of, responsibility as significant countries and major AI players to manage the risks of AI as we go forward. 
 
And we’ve put forward voluntary standards that we’ve gotten some of the biggest AI players in the world to sign up to.  We’ve issued an executive order that reflects many of the core values and principles that are at the heart of your question. 
 
Where things ultimately land on the treaty in the Council of Europe is not going to be whether the U.S. is for or against the treaty that is strong on fundamental rights.  It’ll be on more specific provisions that may cut across particular interests we have. 
 
So I can’t predict how that treaty negotiation will turn out, but I can tell you that however it turns out, it will — the United States’ basic commitment to this broader vision, which we have articulated ourselves and have now begun infusing in international institutions including an effort at the U.N. General Assembly to have a resolution on AI, that work will be active and the United States will play a leadership role in it.
 
AUDIENCE MEMBER:  Thank you.
 
MR. HADLEY:  Yes, ma’am.
 
AUDIENCE MEMBER:  Hi.  Thank you so much for being with us today.  I’m Wafa Ben-Hassine.  I’m at the Omidyar Network.  I’m also a UC-San Diego alum, political science.  So thank you to the CFR for bringing San Diego to us, even if you couldn’t be there. 
 
My question actually takes us to a different geography.  In Africa, we see China moving beyond the Belt and Road Initiative and the Digital Silk Road.  We see them have relatively nuanced interventions in how they attempt to influence policy, such as, by way of example, supplying Huawei phones to all sorts of nonprofits and independent media groups and outlets. 
 
I’m curious if you could illuminate a little bit about the U.S.’s positioning in Africa and how we would potentially like to secure our national security and also promote human rights in Africa in response to these types of interventions.  Thank you.
 
MR. SULLIVAN:  So, first, my sister is actually a UCSD alum as well; she went to UCSD medical school.  So I got to hang out there with her.  It’s a beautiful campus, a wonderful place to go to school. 
 
One thing that Kurt and I wrote in our Foreign Affairs piece in 2019 that I have felt, like, really important to keep us disciplined in this is that we cannot treat the rest of the world as proxy battlegrounds the way that I think the U.S. and the Soviet Union too often did during the Cold War. 
 
So, looking at Africa, our question should not be how do we gain relative advantage over China in this country, because that becomes a warping and distorting factor that, frankly, in a way, can also undermine our overall position.  So the question we pose instead is: How do we offer a better value proposition? 
 
And I would say one of the areas that, frankly, is a gap that we are trying to fill now quite actively is mobilization of capital for investment in the things that African countries are looking for for their development — in infrastructure, in clean energy, in digital.  And that’s about money.  And it’s about public-sector money leveraging private-sector dollars by buying down political risk, currency risk. 
 
And we have worked very closely with the new head of the World Bank, who President Biden, you know, played an active role in helping get into the job, Ajay Banga.  We’re trying to expand the World Bank’s capacity to do this.  We’ve worked with the G7 through PGI, the Project [sic] on Global Infrastructure and Investment, to do this. 
 
And we’re increasingly looking to work on a bipartisan basis with the Congress to try to have the resources necessary to unlock these kinds of investments.  Because you can’t beat something with nothing.  China is coming with a substantial amount of capital and also, as you said, other tools to be able to bring to bear.
 
And for the United States, our view should not be, you know, in any given country, you know, what’s just the way we get a one-up.  It should be: how do we actually show up and offer something that will respond to the legitimate development needs of that country. 
 
And I think I would grade us as incomplete on this.  It’s work that we have begun to do quite actively in this administration, and we have a lot more work to do.  That’s going to require Congress working with us to unlock some of these resources that in turn can unlock a much larger share of resources from the private sector to deliver the value proposition we want to deliver.
 
MR. HADLEY:  Dan Rosen.
 
MR. SULLIVAN:  Dan can talk about the Chinese economy.  (Laughter.)
 
AUDIENCE MEMBER:  But people have heard enough of me talking about it, Jake.  So that’s where I want to circle back to you.
 
So you come to the conference, and one economist thinks one thing.  Another, another.  But isn’t that true of political scientists and security experts out here too, that you’re going to have a whole spectrum?
 
And to fight a — to wage a systemic competition, don’t you have to come down to a sort of point of view about how their economic system is doing in order to figure out how well we’re performing in that competition? 
 
And while there’s probably diversity here in the audience, I hope within USG you guys managed to come to a net assessment about how that Chinese economic system is performing. 
 
MR. SULLIVAN:  So, first, you’ve just completely exploded my artful dodge of Steve’s question.  (Laughter.)  So, I appreciate that. 
 
Second, in fact, Dan — as Dan knows, we brought in a group of experts, who have immersed themselves in the Chinese economy, to the White House.  Maybe it was a year ago or so.  And there was a diversity of opinions among that group, you know, with quite — quite sharp disagreements. 
 
First, I would say there is a bit of a difference.  I don’t find the diversity of opinion on just basic underlying strategic diagnosis.  There’s a lot of debate about what we should do about it on the political and security side.  Less spectrum on kind of what are we dealing with, what are we looking at, though there are some. 
 
Secondly, yes, we do need to have an operating assumption.  But I think the point I’d like to make is that operating assumption has to be humble, because — and it has to be adaptable to the reality of what we see as new economic data comes out or as various trends that we’ve all been watching manifest themselves. 
 
So we are operating according to a certain set of assumptions.  I will now for the second time try and dodge laying out exactly what they are because I just don’t see a huge amount of upside in the U.S. National Security Advisor kind of holding forth as an armchair analyst on China’s economy.  (Laughter.) 
 
But I would say that we also need a multidirectional strategy that can apply if our assumptions turn out to be wrong.  And I would also say that this has been a uniquely difficult time, to be quite precise on this, because of COVID-19, the pandemic, how all the pieces fit into place. 
 
But broadly speaking, what I said in my remarks and what I said in answer to Steve’s question I would just reinforce, which is we came into office not accepting what I think was a kind of broad-based conventional wisdom about relative trajectories of the U.S. and the PRC.  The President didn’t accept that.  I didn’t accept that.  Our team did not.  And we continue to push back against this idea about inexorable rise, terminal decline as being central — a central characteristic of the relationship. 
 
And I guess I should stop talking now because otherwise I’ll get myself into trouble.  (Laughter.)  So that’s what I’ll do.
 
MR. HADLEY:  Yes, ma’am.  Please.
 
AUDIENCE MEMBER:  Hey, Jake.  Kim Dozier, CNN analyst and CFR member.
 
I wanted to ask what your message was regarding China’s continuing support for U.S. adversaries, specifically Russia, including Beijing helping Moscow avoid some of the technology sanctions and providing, while not weapons, but basic equipment like heavy-duty trucks for Russia’s war on Ukraine, and China’s support for Iran with rising petroleum purchases, whereas you’ve recently blamed Iran for supporting the deadly attacks that cost the lives of U.S. troops this past weekend.  Thanks.
 
MR. SULLIVAN:  So, as I referred to in my speech, the war in Ukraine has been a through-line of my conversations with my Chinese counterparts going back to before Wang Yi, with Yang Jiechi, in the early months, you know, where we sent a clear message about our concern that China might provide lethal aid for use against civilians in Ukraine.  We have not seen the provision of lethal aid. 
 
But as I said in my remarks, and as you noted in your question, we have seen support from Chinese companies to help Russia reconstitute its defense industrial base.  And we have been clear and direct about our concerns.  And I noted in my remarks that as we watch this happen, we’re prepared to take steps to respond to that kind of activity, because we believe that Russia’s defense industrial base is basically building up to continue to support an imperial war of conquest in Europe.  And that’s a fundamental national security interest of the United States.  And I made no bones about that in my conversations with my counterpart. 
 
And the President has recently signed an executive order that gives him additional tools and authorities to deal with this challenge.  It’s not directed at the PRC.  It is general to countries that are supporting Russia’s defense industrial base, but it gives us tools in this regard. 
 
With respect to Iran, one of the areas of substantial focus in the discussion was about the continuing Houthi attacks in the Red Sea and the disruption of a vital artery of maritime commerce, undermining of supply chain security in the global economy, and frankly, disruption to China-Europe trade, which the Red Sea is obviously, you know, critical to.  And made the case that, you know, China is a responsible player; as a U.N. Security Council member, has an obligation to use the influence it has in Tehran to get those in Tehran to use the influence they have with the Houthis to push back against this kind of behavior. 
 
And I won’t, you know, characterize the response because I’ll leave that to Wang Yi to do for himself, but I will just say that was a detailed and substantive conversation, because it is a matter where we believe that countries, particularly permanent members of the U.N. Security Council, have unique responsibilities and should step up to those responsibilities.
 
MR. HADLEY:  I’ll take one or two more questions.  This gentleman here and then this woman back there.
 
Sir.
 
AUDIENCE MEMBER:  Thank you, Jake.  Art Collins with theGROUP. 
 
Talk to us a little bit about the trilateral relationship with South Korea and Japan.  As we know, you mentioned it earlier, the Prime Minister of Japan will be here in the spring for a state visit.  Japan is obviously increasing — in fact, maybe doubling — its military budget.  But what else do we expect from our partners in that regard, in both South Korea and Japan?  And what are we prepared to do, beyond what we’ve already done, with that critical relationship?
 
MR. SULLIVAN:  Well, you know, first, I think it’s important to recognize that the security dimension of that trilateral relationship is critical.  It has been a source of propulsion for pulling the three countries together.  And it manifests in closer intelligence coordination, closer defense cooperation, exercises, joint deterrence, particularly when it comes to the Korean Peninsula.  And we’d like to see that continue to evolve. 
 
But I would also point out that the trilateral partnership expands well beyond that.  First, it expands beyond the region.  If you look at support for Ukraine, Japan and Korea have both stepped up in significant ways to stand with a fellow democracy in Europe.  And the Japanese prime minister has been particularly articulate in explaining that what happens in Ukraine matters in the Indo-Pacific.  And President Yoon has reinforced that. 
 
And then finally, the relationship extends to economic coercion, the intersection of technology and national security, innovation, economic investment and vitality — all areas where the three countries have a huge amount of complementary capacity to support and lift one another up.
 
When you put all that together, that is a formidable partnership of three countries with shared values; huge capacities across economics, technology, national security; and global reach. 
 
And so, you know, we’re very proud of the work that we’ve done so far, but it is very much a work in progress and has to be built on from strength to strength as we go forward. 
 
I was just recently in Seoul for a trilateral meeting of national security advisors to convert this into the details of how we work together on things like early warning for missile defense and also to think about areas where we can work together — for example, to answer the question that was posed earlier: How do we collectively have a value proposition in the developing world with three large ODA budgets from our three countries?
 
So, you know, that is not — that trilateral partnership is not about any country.  It’s not about China.  It’s not about North Korea.  It’s about being for something — a vision for the world, for the region, but for the world writ large.  And we feel that it has helped create a huge amount of momentum behind shared priorities, and we want to continue to develop that.
 
MR. HADLEY:  Last question.  And I apologize to those who I did not get to.
 
Ma’am, back here.  Right here.  Yes.  Can you pass her the mic?  Thank you so much. 
 
AUDIENCE MEMBER:  Hi.  Maggie Dougherty with the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. 
 
You briefly mentioned human rights, so I would like to hear your strategy towards Chinese abuse of human rights — Uyghurs, Tibetans, Christian minorities.  How are we going to face that challenge?
 
MR. SULLIVAN:  So, first, the President, as he has said publicly, has been very clear and direct in his conversations, in the two summits that he’s had, about the kind of fundamental responsibility and obligation of an American president to speak out on these issues, because it’s core to who we are.  That’s not about trying to weaponize the issue; it’s about living out our values.  And that’s the ethos that he has tried to inculcate across the U.S. government as we deal with this issue. 
 
And so that means not just that we speak out on these issues but that we take actions.  And we have taken a series of actions over the course of the past three years in each of the areas you mentioned.  And to a considerable extent, we have done that in partnership with the Congress on a bipartisan basis, including laws that have been passed under our administration that we are now implementing, on issues like forced labor, the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act. 
 
So this is something that will remain a critical priority and feature of the U.S.-China relationship, as it has through multiple administrations.  And from our perspective, having direct diplomacy and intensive management of the relationship is not inconsistent with standing up for speaking out on and taking material action on issues related to the protection of human rights.
 
MR. HADLEY:  So we’re here at the end of our time.  Let me tell you where we’re going to proceed from here, if I can.
 
I want to thank you all for joining this hybrid meeting.  Jake, thank you for being with us. 
 
END
 

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Today, President Joseph R. Biden, Jr. declared that a major disaster exists in the State of West Virginia and ordered Federal assistance to supplement state and local recovery efforts in the areas affected by severe storms, flooding, landslides, and mudslides from August 28 to August 30, 2023.
 
The President’s action makes Federal funding available to affected individuals in the counties of Boone, Calhoun, Clay, Harrison, and Kanawha.
 
Assistance can include grants for temporary housing and home repairs, low-cost loans to cover uninsured property losses, and other programs to help individuals and business owners recover from the effects of the disaster.
 
Federal funding is also available on a cost-sharing basis for hazard mitigation measures statewide.
 
Mr. Jeffrey L. Jones of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has been appointed to coordinate Federal recovery operations in the affected areas. 
 
Additional designations may be made at a later date if requested by the state and warranted by the results of further damage assessments.
 
Residents and business owners who sustained losses in the designated areas can begin applying for assistance at www.DisasterAssistance.gov, by calling 800-621-FEMA (3362), or by using the FEMA App. Anyone using a relay service, such as video relay service (VRS), captioned telephone service or others, can give FEMA the number for that service. 
 
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION MEDIA SHOULD CONTACT THE FEMA NEWS DESK AT (202) 646-3272 OR FEMA-NEWS-DESK@FEMA.DHS.GOV.

The post President Joseph R. Biden, Jr. Approves West Virginia Disaster Declaration appeared first on The White House.

Today, President Joseph R. Biden, Jr. declared that a major disaster exists in the State of West Virginia and ordered Federal assistance to supplement state and local recovery efforts in the areas affected by severe storms, flooding, landslides, and mudslides from August 28 to August 30, 2023.
 
The President’s action makes Federal funding available to affected individuals in the counties of Boone, Calhoun, Clay, Harrison, and Kanawha.
 
Assistance can include grants for temporary housing and home repairs, low-cost loans to cover uninsured property losses, and other programs to help individuals and business owners recover from the effects of the disaster.
 
Federal funding is also available on a cost-sharing basis for hazard mitigation measures statewide.
 
Mr. Jeffrey L. Jones of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has been appointed to coordinate Federal recovery operations in the affected areas. 
 
Additional designations may be made at a later date if requested by the state and warranted by the results of further damage assessments.
 
Residents and business owners who sustained losses in the designated areas can begin applying for assistance at www.DisasterAssistance.gov, by calling 800-621-FEMA (3362), or by using the FEMA App. Anyone using a relay service, such as video relay service (VRS), captioned telephone service or others, can give FEMA the number for that service. 
 
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION MEDIA SHOULD CONTACT THE FEMA NEWS DESK AT (202) 646-3272 OR FEMA-NEWS-DESK@FEMA.DHS.GOV.

The post President Joseph R. Biden, Jr. Approves West Virginia Disaster Declaration appeared first on The White House.

Today, President Joseph R. Biden, Jr. declared that a major disaster exists in the State of Maine and ordered Federal assistance to supplement state, tribal, and local recovery efforts in the areas affected by a severe storm and flooding from December 17 to December 21, 2023.
 
The President’s action makes Federal funding available to affected individuals in the counties of Androscoggin, Franklin, Kennebec, Oxford, and Somerset.
 
Assistance can include grants for temporary housing and home repairs, low-cost loans to cover uninsured property losses, and other programs to help individuals and business owners recover from the effects of the disaster.
 
Federal funding also is available to state, tribal, and eligible local governments and certain private nonprofit organizations on a cost-sharing basis for emergency work and the repair or replacement of facilities damaged by the severe storm and flooding in the counties of Androscoggin, Franklin, Hancock, Oxford, Penobscot, Piscataquis, Somerset, Waldo, and Washington.
 
Finally, Federal funding is available on a cost-sharing basis for hazard mitigation measures statewide.
 
Mr. William F. Roy of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has been appointed to coordinate Federal recovery operations in the affected areas. 
 
Damage assessments are continuing in other areas, and additional counties may be designated for assistance after the assessments are fully completed.
 
Residents and business owners who sustained losses in the designated areas can begin applying for assistance at www.DisasterAssistance.gov, by calling 800-621-FEMA (3362), or by using the FEMA App. Anyone using a relay service, such as video relay service (VRS), captioned telephone service or others, can give FEMA the number for that service. 
 
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION MEDIA SHOULD CONTACT THE FEMA NEWS DESK AT (202) 646-3272 OR FEMA-NEWS-DESK@FEMA.DHS.GOV.

The post President Joseph R. Biden, Jr. Approves Maine Disaster Declaration appeared first on The White House.

Today, President Joseph R. Biden, Jr. declared that a major disaster exists in the State of Maine and ordered Federal assistance to supplement state, tribal, and local recovery efforts in the areas affected by a severe storm and flooding from December 17 to December 21, 2023.
 
The President’s action makes Federal funding available to affected individuals in the counties of Androscoggin, Franklin, Kennebec, Oxford, and Somerset.
 
Assistance can include grants for temporary housing and home repairs, low-cost loans to cover uninsured property losses, and other programs to help individuals and business owners recover from the effects of the disaster.
 
Federal funding also is available to state, tribal, and eligible local governments and certain private nonprofit organizations on a cost-sharing basis for emergency work and the repair or replacement of facilities damaged by the severe storm and flooding in the counties of Androscoggin, Franklin, Hancock, Oxford, Penobscot, Piscataquis, Somerset, Waldo, and Washington.
 
Finally, Federal funding is available on a cost-sharing basis for hazard mitigation measures statewide.
 
Mr. William F. Roy of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has been appointed to coordinate Federal recovery operations in the affected areas. 
 
Damage assessments are continuing in other areas, and additional counties may be designated for assistance after the assessments are fully completed.
 
Residents and business owners who sustained losses in the designated areas can begin applying for assistance at www.DisasterAssistance.gov, by calling 800-621-FEMA (3362), or by using the FEMA App. Anyone using a relay service, such as video relay service (VRS), captioned telephone service or others, can give FEMA the number for that service. 
 
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION MEDIA SHOULD CONTACT THE FEMA NEWS DESK AT (202) 646-3272 OR FEMA-NEWS-DESK@FEMA.DHS.GOV.

The post President Joseph R. Biden, Jr. Approves Maine Disaster Declaration appeared first on The White House.

The White House

Brian and Sandra, it’s an honor for Joe and me to host you tonight. We are proud to welcome you back to your White House home.

Most of you in this room know Brian and Sandra’s love story. They met working on the Obama-Biden campaign in 2008, then they both came to work at the White House. And apparently, we didn’t keep them busy enough, because along came marriage and a couple of beautiful children – Naomi and Ella, who are here with us.

Life was perfect, until Brian received a devastating diagnosis from his doctor shortly after their second daughter was born. In an instant, their world was turned upside down. Brian was diagnosed with ALS, and given six months to live. Against all odds, here they are six years later.

Brian, Sandra – you’ve channeled your pain into purpose, your energy into a nationwide movement.

You’ve both turned your experience and expertise in politics into I AM ALS, which has been an incredible force for change.

And now, you’ve expanded that work to link arms with leaders in Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s to drive progress for all of these neuro-degenerative diseases. And you’re also pushing for better access to care and more support for caregivers.

Thank you for all of your advocacy, and pouring every piece of your heart into this work.

Sandra, Brian, would you like to say a few words?

###

Thank you again Sandra and Brian – and thank you to everyone for being here in support of them and their fight. The film will begin shortly.

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The post Remarks as Prepared for Delivery by First Lady Jill Biden at a White House Film Screening of No Ordinary Campaign appeared first on The White House.

The White House

Brian and Sandra, it’s an honor for Joe and me to host you tonight. We are proud to welcome you back to your White House home.

Most of you in this room know Brian and Sandra’s love story. They met working on the Obama-Biden campaign in 2008, then they both came to work at the White House. And apparently, we didn’t keep them busy enough, because along came marriage and a couple of beautiful children – Naomi and Ella, who are here with us.

Life was perfect, until Brian received a devastating diagnosis from his doctor shortly after their second daughter was born. In an instant, their world was turned upside down. Brian was diagnosed with ALS, and given six months to live. Against all odds, here they are six years later.

Brian, Sandra – you’ve channeled your pain into purpose, your energy into a nationwide movement.

You’ve both turned your experience and expertise in politics into I AM ALS, which has been an incredible force for change.

And now, you’ve expanded that work to link arms with leaders in Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s to drive progress for all of these neuro-degenerative diseases. And you’re also pushing for better access to care and more support for caregivers.

Thank you for all of your advocacy, and pouring every piece of your heart into this work.

Sandra, Brian, would you like to say a few words?

###

Thank you again Sandra and Brian – and thank you to everyone for being here in support of them and their fight. The film will begin shortly.

###

The post Remarks as Prepared for Delivery by First Lady Jill Biden at a White House Film Screening of No Ordinary Campaign appeared first on The White House.

On Tuesday, Quad STEM fellows gathered at the White House for an event to welcome a successful first year of the fellowship and mark the launch of applications for the second class of Quad Fellows. The first-of-its-kind fellowship was launched by Quad Leaders to bring together exceptional masters and doctoral students in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics to study in the United States.

Principal Deputy National Security Advisor Jon Finer gave keynote remarks, and other senior administration officials addressed the group of fellows, in addition to senior representatives from the embassies of Quad countries and supporters of the program. During the event, they discussed the Quad and geopolitical landscape; the Administration’s tech agenda for the Indo-Pacific; and the importance of public service.

The International Institute for Education (IIE), a global non-profit with decades-long experience managing international fellowship programs including the U.S. Department of State Fulbright program, is serving as the new implementing partner of the Quad Fellowship program. Today, IIE announced an expansion of eligibility for the Fellowship to include students from ASEAN countries, further demonstrating the Quad’s commitment to deliver concrete benefits for the Indo-Pacific region.

Launched at the Quad Leaders’ Summit in 2021, the Quad Fellowship provides a scholarship to STEM graduate students from Quad countries studying in the U.S. and remains a priority for the Quad leaders as we grow our ties among our next generation of innovators.

The post Readout of the Quad STEM Fellows Event at the White House appeared first on The White House.

On Tuesday, Quad STEM fellows gathered at the White House for an event to welcome a successful first year of the fellowship and mark the launch of applications for the second class of Quad Fellows. The first-of-its-kind fellowship was launched by Quad Leaders to bring together exceptional masters and doctoral students in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics to study in the United States.

Principal Deputy National Security Advisor Jon Finer gave keynote remarks, and other senior administration officials addressed the group of fellows, in addition to senior representatives from the embassies of Quad countries and supporters of the program. During the event, they discussed the Quad and geopolitical landscape; the Administration’s tech agenda for the Indo-Pacific; and the importance of public service.

The International Institute for Education (IIE), a global non-profit with decades-long experience managing international fellowship programs including the U.S. Department of State Fulbright program, is serving as the new implementing partner of the Quad Fellowship program. Today, IIE announced an expansion of eligibility for the Fellowship to include students from ASEAN countries, further demonstrating the Quad’s commitment to deliver concrete benefits for the Indo-Pacific region.

Launched at the Quad Leaders’ Summit in 2021, the Quad Fellowship provides a scholarship to STEM graduate students from Quad countries studying in the U.S. and remains a priority for the Quad leaders as we grow our ties among our next generation of innovators.

The post Readout of the Quad STEM Fellows Event at the White House appeared first on The White House.

Today the White House released visitor log records generated in October 2023. This set includes 83,315 records, bringing the total number of records posted to 1,045,432.

These records were posted pursuant to the White House’s policy to voluntarily disclose visitor log records. This release is consistent with the Biden-Harris Administration’s commitment to becoming the first administration to post visitor log records from its first full year in office.

To learn more about the policy, read our voluntary disclosure policy. To view visitor log records, view our disclosure page.

###

The post October 2023 Visitor Logs Records Posted appeared first on The White House.

Today the White House released visitor log records generated in October 2023. This set includes 83,315 records, bringing the total number of records posted to 1,045,432.

These records were posted pursuant to the White House’s policy to voluntarily disclose visitor log records. This release is consistent with the Biden-Harris Administration’s commitment to becoming the first administration to post visitor log records from its first full year in office.

To learn more about the policy, read our voluntary disclosure policy. To view visitor log records, view our disclosure page.

###

The post October 2023 Visitor Logs Records Posted appeared first on The White House.

Pelican Club
Jupiter, Florida

2:07 P.M. EST

THE PRESIDENT: Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Sean, thanks for that introduction. And thank you, Kelly, for — keep raising Sean. (Laughter.) And, Fred, for being such good friends. I really mean it.

And thanks to all of you for your support.

Let me start with the simplest message: From the bottom of my heart, thank you. You’re the reason. You’re the reason I’m President. I came from a background — didn’t have much time to practice, but I was a trial lawyer. Spent a little bit of time before I got into politics almost accidentally.

But it was the right decision for me. You’re the reason Kamala Harris is a historic Vice President. And you’re the reason Donald Trump is a defeated president — former president. (Applause.)

And you’re the reason we’re going to make him a loser again. (Laughter.)

Folks, look, you’re all lawyers who care deeply about the rule of law. You’re on the frontlines of fairness and justice in defending our very democracy. It matters.

In 2020, I ran because I thought everything in this country that it — it stood for, believed in was at stake. I said at the time when I ran — and initially, people looked at me like, “Are you serious?” — I said, “We’re going to — I’m running to restore the soul of America.”

You know, and they’d say, “What do you mean? What do you mean, Joe? What do you mean when you say democracy is at risk? What do you mean when you say we’re in a battle for the soul of America?”

Well, people don’t ask me that question anymore. I don’t think — I don’t think today anyone doubts democracy is at stake — was at stake in 2020.

And thank God, because of the supporters like you, we won.

Just think back to the mess Donald Trump left this country: a pandemic — a pandemic and the economy with raging — with only a couple thousand people being have — having been vaccinated; an economy that was reeling.

Look how far we’ve come. We vaccinated the vast bulk of America. We got through that pandemic with less than 200 million — with less than 2 million people being vaccinated when I came to office. Today, 720 [270] million Americans have gotten COVID vaccine.

We created a record 14 million new jobs — brand new jobs — to get the economy going strong again. And we passed the American Rescue Plan, which put $14 — $1,400 checks in people’s pockets at a time of enormous need. And on top of that, $300 checks per child per month in hardworking families in America and thousands of dollars for people’s pockets through a real crisis.

And, folks, guess what? It grows the economy. It doesn’t — it’s not — doesn’t cost the taxpayers money. It grows the economy — economic growth. And I said that at the time. You stuck with me, and it turned out to be true. We’ve demonstrated it. That money helped cut child poverty in half in America.

You know, we know we have to do more and not everyone is feeling the consequences yet of the investments in progress. But the headlines in the papers are trying to — finally breaking through here.

Inflation is now lower in America than any other country in the world — any other country in the world. (Applause.) And in recent weeks, we started seeing real evidence that the American consumer is feeling real confidence in the economy that we’re building.

Just this morning, we learned that consumer confidence surged to its highest level in over two years. The Washington Post headline this weekend said, quote, “Falling inflation and rising growth give U.S. the world’s best recovery” — “the world’s best recovery.”

Let me tell you who else is noticing this: Donald Trump. He recently said, “When there’s a crash, I hope it will be in the next 12 months.” The [former] President of the United States hopes the crash will be the next 12 months. It’s unbelievable. I think it’s close to un-American. How can anyone — especially a former President — wish for an economic crash that would devastate millions of Americans?

Here’s what he really means: Donald Trump knows our economy is really strong and getting stronger. And almost every major economist in the world is pointing to America as a success story. He knows that while it’s good for America, it’s bad for him politically if we continue to succeed.

Trump also is the one president who doesn’t want to — he said, “I don’t want to be like Herbert Hoover.” That’s what he said. But I got bad news for him. As I told him earlier, he’s already Herbert Hoover. (Laughter.) He’s the only president, other than Herbert Hoover, who has lost jobs — more jobs than he had — he had fewer jobs when he left office than when he came to office. Yes, Donald “Herbert Hoover” Trump. (Laughter.)

But, look, I promised — (applause). For the bulk of my career, I spent in the United States Senate, taking on Big Pharma. You realize you have a prescription for any drug you need from prescription — product made in America, I can take you to Toronto, to Paris, to London, to Brussels, anywhere in the world, and get you that product for somewhere between 40 and 60 percent less than it costs here.

And I tried like the devil to take on Pharma through Medicare. We spend billions of dollars a year on Medicare payments, paying Pharma for the drugs we provide for the elderly. But guess what? We didn’t make it until now. I said we’d beat them, and we finally did.

Have anybody you know — I’m not asking you to raise your hand if you’re a diabetic, but you know somebody who is a diabetic, raise your hand. It used to cost 400 bucks a month or more for that insulin. It’s now $35 a month. (Applause.)

And, by the way, they’re still making three and a half times what it cost them to make it. It costs $10 to make that insulin — $10. And the guy who invented it didn’t patent it because he wanted everybody to have access to it. If you add in the cost of making it up and packaging it, maybe as high as $12 or $13. They’re still making — you know, $35 a month.

And, by the way, initially, when I got it passed, I had got it passed for everybody, not just people on Medicare. But guess what? My Republican friends blocked it. They didn’t think people should be able to get it unless you’re on Medicare. They didn’t vote for that either.

But here’s the deal — here’s the deal. We’re saving the taxpayers billions of dollars — billions of dollars. Not only is a person paying 35 bucks a month now instead of 400 bucks a month or more — guess what? It means the taxpayer is not writing a check to the drug company from Medicare — because of Medicare for federal tax dollars to pay for that.

And by the way, when we did it, we ended up being able to cut the deficit, not raise the deficit.

But with your vote in 2024, we’re going to make sure everyone qualifies.

Out-of-pocket costs for seniors for all prescription drugs when — the first bill we passed — is going to be limited to $2,000, no matter how expensive their total prescriptions are — beginning in 2024.

The reason for that — I know this is a very sophisticated audience — unfortunately, you know people are paying 10-, 12-, 14-, 15,000 bucks a month for cancer drugs — cancer treatment. Well, no one is going to have to pay more than a total of $2,000 a month. It matters.

I promised we’d e- — we’d ease the accumulation of student debt in America, what millions of Americans carried during the economic crisis of the pandemic and (inaudible) — the mic doesn’t work — (inaudible) — (laughter) — the consequence — (laughter).

Look, the fact is that we’re making real progress —

AUDIENCE MEMBER: Your mic is not working.

AUDIENCE MEMBER: Now it is.

THE PRESIDENT: Can you hear me now?

AUDIENCE: Yes.

THE PRESIDENT: Well, we found another way to help those folks. The Supreme Court said I couldn’t forgive student debt. Well, guess what? I went back and I found a way to do it legally without them questioning anything.

We’ve now forgiven the debt of more than 3.7 million people — $130 billion in relief and counting.

I fixed what’s called the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program. It said that if you were in public service — whether you’re a teacher, a firefighter, nurse, social worker, et cetera — your loan could be forgiven if you paid for 10 years in a row and never missed a payment. Well, guess what? Now that’s happening. And public services — and we’re able to forgive that debt.

It’s changing people’s lives. And by the way, it’s growing the economy. What are those kids doing? What are those young — pe- — they’re not so young anymore, many of them. They are in a situation where they can now finally have a down payment for their first home, they can begin to start that new business, they can take care of accumulated debt. It’s taken — it’s having a profound impact.

By the time I took office, the program had been in place for nearly 15 years, but because of red tape, only 7,000 people had even been helped by this program. But thanks to those reforms, instead 700,000 people have had their debt forgiven since then.

Look, and all of you lawyers know how lucky America would be when I kept the promise to appoint the first Black woman to the United States Supreme Court — and I kept it — Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson — (applause) — (inaudible).

And my introducer pointed out I’ve appointed judges — a lot of judges. I’ve ser- — I was Chairman of Judiciary Committee for a long time. It’s critical.

We’ve now appointed over 174 judges to the federal court. We’ve appointed more Black women to the Federal Court of Appeals than every other president in the United States history combined — combined. (Applause.)

And we put trial attorneys on the bench — trial attorneys on the bench, and we put public defenders on the bench, and, like I said, we have 171 brand new judges on the federal courts.

Folks, we have a lot more work to do. But I’ve never been more optimistic about our future. And I really mean that sincerely.

Look, for example, thanks to the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, which I signed, there are now 40,000 infrastructure projects underway in America with a lot more to come.

Remember, Trump had “Infrastructure Week” every week — (laughter) — and never built a thing? Well, we’re building our roads — rebuilding our roads, our bridges, our ports, our airports. And we’re bringing affordable high-speed Internet to everywhere in America — everywhere.

We’re ripping out every lead pipe that’s been in place in America so every child can turn on the faucet, drink what they need to drink without worrying about brain damage.

We passed the most significant gun safety law in a decade. (Applause.) And I will not stop until I once again been able to win the assault weapons ban. I blocked it once; it came back. We’re going to ban assault weapons in America. (Applause.) There’s no need for them.

And we’re saving the planet with the most significant investment in climate change ever anywhere in the history of the world — literally anywhere. (Applause.) In my presidency, we tripled the sales of electric vehicles. We built a national network of 500,000 EV st- — charging stations. We put on the path to cut carbon emissions by 50 percent by 2030. That’s the trajectory.

Now imagine the nightmare if Trump is returned to office.

The recent deadly school shooting in Perry, Iowa, where three kids — three people were killed, including one — one sixth grader and a school principal. What — what did he have to say? It’s hard to believe what — what he said. He said — when they asked him what he thought about it, he said, quote, you just got to “get over it.”

I’m not making this up. It’s almost — it’s almost un- — unbelievable. You just got to “get over it.” But we’re not going to get over it. We’re going to stop it. We’re going to stop it. (Applause.)

Trump and his MAGA friends want to repeal the historical climate legislation. Well, maybe they don’t think this climate change is real. But the rest of us know sure in hell it is real. And now, after trying and failing more than 60 times — 60 times with he and his MAGA friends in the Congress to get rid of the Affordable Care Act — guess what? He’s at it again.

And by the way, people don’t have a lot of money and need insurance. They would not be able to get any of this insurance because they have a preexisting condition but for the Affordable Care Act. That’s the only reason — the only reason people with preexisting conditions, and they want to take it away.

And seniors in Florida and all across America should know this: Trump and his MAGA friends are determined to take away the $35 a month insulin, which we just got passed in law, as well as a $2,000 cap on prescription drugs.

Instead of saving Social Security and Medicare, Trump wants once again to give another billion dollar — multibillion dollar tax cut to the super wealthy and big corporations.

I come from the corporate state of the world, Delaware. More corporations in Delaware than any other state — all — every other state in the union combined.

I’m not anti-corporation, but they should at least pay their fair share. Just pay their fair share. (Applause.)

And, by the way, you know, we now have — we now have — it’s not a bad thing, per se — we now have a thousand billionaires in America. You know what their average tax rate is — federal tax? 8.2 percent. 8.2 percent.

If they just paid 28 percent, which is less than all you are paying — if they just paid 28 percent, we’d have $40 billion to do a whole lot of things that would save a lot of money, save a lot of programs, reduce taxes overall for everybody else.

Trump and his MAGA friends are determined to take away your freedoms as well. They’ve already — doing it with voting rights. They’re under attack. You see it every day, everywhere in the country.

Trump is now bragging about having overturned Roe v. Wade — “I’m responsible for overturning Roe v. Wade” — taking away a woman’s freedom to choose.

Now, they’re planning, beyond that, a national ban. The MAGA Republicans are saying there’s going to be a national ban on abortion across every state in America — ban.

Well, guess what? I made it real clear: If the MAGA Republicans try to pass a national ban to the right to choose, I will veto it. (Applause.)

And if you elect — reelect me and Kamala with a Democratic House and a bigger Senate majority, I’m going to restore Roe v. Wade as the law of the land across the board. (Applause.) I’m serious, and I believe we can do it.

Look, let me close with this. Trump and his MAGA friends are dividing us up, not uniting us; dragging us back to the past, not leading us to the future; refusing to accept the results of a legitimate election.

I mean, I sit — if you can hold a second — I just sit in my office. I walk down a little hall, and there’s a little dining room there. He sat in that dining room for hours watching what happened on January the 6th. Just watching. It’s called insurrection.

And Trump says, quote, he’s — and he’s seeking to, quote, “terminate elements of the United States Constitution,” threatening — threatening our — to embrace — and he embraces political violence.

Look, the one thing about an American democracy that’s clear: Violence is never, never, never appropriate in an elec- — in an electoral process. But he talks about it, threatening our very democracy.

Folks, the truth is there are lies and there is truth. We have to make clear where we stand — that we stand with the truth — and we’ll defeat his lies.

We have to make clear that, in America, we still believe in honesty, decency, treating people with some dignity and respect.

My dad used to have an expression, for real. My dad was a hardworking guy. He was a well-read man who didn’t get to go to college because of what happened because of World War Two. And he’d always say, “Joey…” — this is the God’s truth, my word as a Biden. He’d say, “Joey, a job is about a lot more than a paycheck. It’s about your dignity. It’s about respect. It’s about being able to look your kid in the eye and say, ‘Honey, it’s going to be okay,’ and mean it.”

We believe everybody deserves a shot. Everybody deserves an even shot.

That’s why I decided, instead of trickle-down economics — the reason why it’s working and you have major, major mainstream economists agreeing with me now — that the best way to build America is from the middle out and the bottom up. Because when they do that, then the — what you have is you have the poor have a shot and the wealthy still do very well.

And, you know, let me end by saying we’re — I found the easiest way to describe where I think we are. We’re unique in all the world. And that sounds like chauvinism about America, but we are the most unique country in the world based on our founding. Every other country — every other country in the world is based on ethnicity, religion, geography.

The United States is based on an idea — the only nation in the world — and it’s: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all women and men are created equal, endowed by their creator with cer-” —

We’ve never lived up to it. We’ve never fully walked away from it.

In America, we leave nobody behind. We believe everyone deserves just a fair shot. That’s all. And we give hate no safe harbor. We believe in America.

And we know what’s at stake. We have to keep the White House. We have to keep the Senate. We have to win back the House and win up and down the ticket in local offices.

Because here in Florida, you’ve had a real dose of “Trump-ism,” and — (the President makes sign of the cross). (Laughter.) Unusual guy.

But here in Florida, we have to organize, mobilize the vote. I think we can win Florida. I think the Democrats can win in Florida. (Applause.)

And when we do that, we’ll be able to look back and say something that few generations are able to say: When American democracy was at risk, like it is now, we saved it.

We just have to remember who in God’s name we are. We’re the United States of America, for God’s sake.

There’s nothing beyond our — you know, I mean this sincerely. Nothing beyond our capacity when we work together. Nothing. Nothing, nothing, nothing.

We’re the only — think — think about this: We’re the only nation in the world that every crisis it’s gone through we’ve come out stronger on the other end than we went in — the only nation. It’s because of you, the American people.

We stand up. We fight back. And we understand that the institutions we inherited — called the Constitution — really matter. They’re the guardrails of allowing us to do what we have to do in a fair way.

So, with your help and, as my grandfather would say, “with the grace of God, the goodwill of the neighbors, and the crick not rising,” we’re going to win in 2024. (Applause.)

Thank you. Thank you, thank you, thank you. I appreciate it. I really do. Thank you, thank you, thank you. (Applause.)

2:27 P.M. EST

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