Administration of Joseph R. Biden, Jr., 2021

October 18, 2021

The President. My name is Joe Biden; I'm Jill's husband. [Laughter] Please. Please, sit down. Please. Please, please, please.

Well, Mr. Secretary, as they say in parts of Claymont I am from, you've done good, fella. [*Laughter*] As you can see, I didn't get my English lessons from Jill. [*Laughter*]

Also here is a good friend of mine: chairman and the Congressman, Bobby Scott. Bobby, stand up.

The First Lady. Hey, Bobby.

The President. And, Randi, thank you, thank you, thank you. We kept our commitment, didn't we?

The First Lady. Yes. That's what I said. [Laughter]

The President. All right. And I just want you to know, Becky, you know, Jill is a member of the union. I hope her dues are paid up. [Laughter]

The First Lady. They are.

The President. They are? Okay. I just want to check. I just want to check.

There's nowhere we'd would rather be than with educators. You know, when we decided to run and we got electedâJill elected meâ[*laughter*]âyou all think I'm kidding, huh? [*Laughter*] Well, what happened was that we started thinking about it, and I knew immediately. Jill said, "By the way"âand I said: "It's okay with me. Teach full time." She's the onlyâshe's the only First Lady who's ever had a full-time job.

Now, the fact that I don't ever get to see her, the fact that she is either traveling on behalf of the people of this country or going to her classroom teaching 15 credits at the community college is a different story. But it is who she is. Like I heard her sayâshe probably said; I heard her say many times: Teaching is not what you all do, it's who you are. It's what you're made of.

And you know, one of the things that IâI used the line years agoâthat I still think is relevant in a slightly different context: You know, when you think about it, the single most consequential people in the world, beyond our parentsâGod willing, if we have themâis our teachers. You are the ones whoâyou're the kite strings that lift our national ambitions aloft. I mean it. Not a joke. It's a reality. It's a reality.

One of the reasons why we're working so hardâand the Secretary is helping so muchâin the Build Back Better plan is that the rest of the world is starting to figure this out; the rest of the world is starting to outeducate us. Early education is earlier and more prevalent in European countries. A significant numberâwe rank number 34 out of 37 industrial nations in the world in the number of where we rank in terms of people getting a degree beyond high school.

And so we have to get back in step. And you're all the reasons. You're the best of the best.

You know, for all of itâyou know, by the way, where are my two Delaware teachers?

Audience member. Here! [Laughter]

Secretary of Education Miguel A. Cardona. That's hilarious.

The President. Who's New Castle? New Castle! All right. [Laughter]

You can see we're not at all proud of Delaware. [*Laughter*] My dad used to always say: Never forget where you came from. As they say, them's the one that brung me to the dance. You know?

But I want to thank Rebecca, and I thankâof the Colonial Education Program in New Castle. And Kimberly of McKean High School in Wilmington.

2021 Delaware Teacher of the Year Kimberly Stock of Thomas McKean High School in Wilmington, DE. That's me!

The President. That's you. Okay! All right. [Laughter]

And now, to the two National Teachers of the Year: It's a pretty big deal. I listened to both of your speeches, and they're very impressive. And I mean it sincerely: What you do really matters. What you do really matters. And it matters in a way that I think you all don't fully realize. I don't think aboutâI'll betâyou know, I look at every important decision I made in my life. I ask myself three thingsânot a joke: what my dad and mom would think I should do.

But when we decided toâI'm just going to tell you a quick story. When I decided to help pick someone who was going to be the nominee for the Democratic PartyâI was asked in Delaware to go out and try to find a candidate for the United States SenateâI was 28 years old, as part of this group of people. And I kept trying to get people toâwho were consequentialâto get involved, and they didn't want to do it. And Nixon was running that year. It was going to be a lead-pipe cinch; Republicans are going to win. And I was a Democrat.

And so I showed up at a Democratic conventionâan off-year conventionâand I went to make sure that everything was going to be okay. And I would report toâI was the kid at the convention. And it was in Dover, Delaware.

And, after the afternoon session, I went back to the hotelâa typical hotelâa motel where you drive up, you get out the car, and you walk in the door. And I was in there, I was shaving, and I had a towel around me, and I was in the bathroomâwhich is, like, 8 by 10âand two beds where the headboard is nailed to the wallâ[*laughter*]âand a desk nailed to the wall.

And all of a sudden, I hear, "Bam! Bam! Bam!" There's banging on my door. And I thought it was a guyâa great friend named by Bob Cunningham and a guy named Dennis. I thought they were coming to pick me up, and I thought I was late.

So I went to the door with shaving cream and razor in my hand, towel on. I opened the door, and who's standing there, but the former Governor of the State of Delaware. [*Laughter*] Swear to God. A former chief justice of the State Supreme Court and Rhodes Scholar. And more members of his family were United States Senators than any family in American history. Thirdly, a Congressman who had been defeated earlierâa great guy, a five-term Congressmanâand a guy named Henry Topel, who was the State chairman.

And they said, "We're coming in." I saidâ[*laughter*]âand I had not met two of them personally. Two I hadn't met. And I'm in my towel. [*Laughter*] I mean, I'm in a towel with shaving cream on my face.

And so I stepped back. I said: "Oh, gentlemen. Okay. Please come in." And I went into the bathroom thinking I'm going to getâput something on. I get in, and I realized there's nothing to put on. [*Laughter*]

So I wiped the shaving cream off my face, and I walk out, and I was mortified. And I said, "I'm sorry, gentlemen." They said, "It's okay." And there were two of themâeach on the end of each of the two beds that were facing me. And I'm against the desk like this.

And this guy, Henry Topel, said thatâhe was from New York. He said: "Joe, we just had dinner. We were thinking, and you should run for the United States Senate." And I said, "Oh, geez." I said, "Mr. Chairman"âI said, "I'm not old enough." And the then-chief justiceâretired Chief Justiceâof course, said, "Joe, obviously, you didn't do very well in law school." [*Laughter*]

I looked at him. He said: "It says you have to be 30 years old to be sworn in, not to be elected. You can beâand you'll turn 30 by the time it's time to be sworn in." And anyway, that was my exposureâno pun intendedâ[*laughter*].

And so I go to the event, and I'm riding home with this guy, Bob Cunningham, who was a really bright guy, and I said: "Bob, I don't know what in God's name I'm going to do. This is crazy." And so I'm thinking, "Who am I going to talk to?" True story.

And the next morning, I get up and I called my professor at the University of Delaware, a guy named Dr. Ingersoll. And I said, "Doctor, can I come down and see you?" And he said, "Of course." I went down and sat with him for a half an hour. I told him what was happening. He just looked at me, and he said, "Joe, remember what Plato said." And I'm thinking, "What the hell did Plato say?" [*Laughter*] But he said, "To paraphrase Plato, he said the penalty good people pay for not being involved in politics is being governed by people worse than themselves."

And he looked at me, and he said, "Joe, you should run." I said, "But I feel strongly about all of these issues, but I"âI had gotten involved in the civil rights movement and the warâbut Iâ he said, "Joe, you should do it." He had enough confidence in me that he gave me confidence in myself. With a kid with no money, coming from a middle class family, who grew up in grade school stuttering, literally, for me, I'm confident I would have never done it were it not for Dr.

Ingersoll.

I'm sure there are peopleâeach of youâyou can look back at, and they've changed your life. But most of all, what you do is, you give us confidence. You instill confidence. Just like when I was a kid when I used to stutter badly, the nuns would sit me down and they'd say, "Joey, you can do this," and practiced with me. They gave me confidence.

And so, folks, you know, as Jill always says, "Teaching is not who youâwhat you do, it's who you are."

And it also isâIâlet me conclude by saying this about something thatâas a strong proponent of education, I became friendsâand Jill as wellâbut I became friends with Colin Powell, who we just lost.

Think of where Colin Powellâhe's not only a dear friend and a patriot, one of our great military leaders, and a man of overwhelming decency, but this is the guy born the son of immigrants in New York City, raised in Harlem, in the South Bronx, graduated from City College of New York. And he rose to the highest ranks not only in the military, but also in areas of foreign policy and statecraft.

This is a guyâand we talk about itâwho had teachers who looked at this African American kid and said, "You can do anything."

So all I want to say to you, really, is: Don't underestimate. Don't underestimate what you do. The good news about you all is, you underestimate it so you come off in a way that you don't feel self-important. But you're gigantic. You make a gigantic difference.

And I learned that when Jill and I would walk through the malls on Christmas time when I was a Senator, and kids would go, "Hey, hey, hey!" And I'd wave. [*Laughter*] And they'd say: "No, no, no, no. Dr. Biden! Dr."â[*laughter*]. Swear to God.

So, folks, thank you for what you do. I really mean it. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

And now I've got a few little gifts to give here.

The First Lady. This is for Tabitha.

The President. Tabatha, can you come up here? I don't want to drop this. Do you want to hand it to her?

The First Lady. No, you hand it to her.

2020 National Teacher of the Year Tabatha Rosproy of Winfield Early Learning Center. Me neither. [Laughter]

The President. Tabitha, this isââ

The First Lady. For 2020.

The President. Twenty-twentyâI know, but this isâthis apple is worth $280,000. [Laughter]

Ms. Rosproy. I can retire.

The President. No, I'mâI'm joking. But I want you to have this and to tell youâlet you know how much we appreciate you and all you do.

Ms. Rosproy. Thank you.

The President. Thank you.

Ms. Rosproy. Thank you so much.

The President. I'm not sure ifâ[inaudible]. Ms. Rosproy. [Laughter] I'll be really careful. The President. Okay, good. All right.

The First Lady. And this is Juliana's.

The President. Juliana, come on up here. Juliana, I had a great friend who was a former Senator from Texas who looked at me one dayâhe's passed away nowâand he said, "Joe, you'll never get elected President unless you can learn to speak Spanish."

2021 National Teacher of the Year Juliana Urtubey of Kermit R. Booker, Sr. Innovative Elementary School in Las Vegas, NV. Smart man.

The President. Well, guess what? I decided to hire everybody who spoke Spanish. [Laughter]

Secretary Cardona. Yes.

Ms. Urtubey. Muy bien.

The President. But congratulations. It's a great honor, and I'm delighted to have an opportunity to meet you.

Ms. Urtubey. Thank you, Mr. President.

The President. Thank you very much.

[*At this point, the ceremony concluded, and the President greeted recipients and posed for photographs. As he prepared to go back inside the White House, he addressed reporters as follows.*]

Death of Former Secretary of State Colin L. Powell/COVIDâ19 Vaccinations

Q. Mr. President, can you say a few more words about Colin Powell and hisâthe fact that he got COVID despite being vaccinated?

The President. Well, by the way, he had serious underlying conditions, as you know. That's the problem. It wasn't that he gotâthe vaccinations are good, but he had two very serious underlying conditions. And unfortunately, it didn't work. God love him.

Q. So what's your message to Americans? Should they still get vaccinated?

The President. Absolutely. Noâ[inaudible]âI know youâI know you don't believe that.

Ask questions that you really, really want an answer to. Okay?

Senator Joseph A. Manchin III

Q. Okay. How are you going to get Joe Manchin to agree? That's what we want to know.

The President. I'm going to go do that right now. That's where I'm going.

NOTE: The President spoke at 3:26 p.m. on the South Lawn at the White House. In his remarks, he referred to Randi Weingarten, president, American Federation of Teachers; Rebecca S. Pringle, president, National Education Association; and 2020 Delaware Teacher of the Year Rebecca Vitelli, a special education teacher at the Colonial Early Education Program at Colwyck Center in New Castle, DE. A portion of these remarks could not be verified because the audio was incomplete.

Categories: Addresses and Remarks : 2020 and 2021 National and State Teachers of the Year; Interviews With the News Media : Exchanges with reporters :: White House.

Locations: Washington, DC.

Names: Biden, Jill T.; Cardona, Miguel A.; Powell, Colin L.; Pringle, Rebecca S.; Rosproy, Tabatha; Scott, Robert C.; Stock, Kimberly; Urtubey, Juliana; Vitelli, Rebecca; Weingarten, Randi.

Subjects: Budget, Federal : Fiscal year 2022 budget; Deaths : Powell, former Secretary of State Colin L.; Decorations, medals, and awards : Teachers of the Year, National and State; Diseases : Coronavirus, domestic prevention efforts; Education : Teachers; Education, Department of : Secretary.

DCPD Number: DCPD202100859.