Administration of Joseph R. Biden, Jr., 2023

July 28, 2023

The President. Thank you very much. Let me begin with three comments. One, this is a busman's holiday for my colleagues I serve with. Thank you for being here. The worst thing to have to do is come in here anotherâpick your same party you agree withâyour own party and hear somebody. Thank you very much. It's above and beyond the call.

And secondly, to all the kids here, I want to make clear: If nothing happensâafter this is over, if you all come up, I'm going to give you some money to make your mom and dad to take you to Dairy Queen. [*Laughter*] Okay? All right? Okay. You all think I'm kidding; I'm not. Can you imagine when you were 10 years oldâ"We're going to go spend the afternoonâwe're going to get dressed toâcome on, honey." Anyway, thank you, thank you, thank you. Only thing that could be worse: You couldâyour mom or dad could be a President, then you would have to show up at all this stuff. [*Laughter*]

And the third thing I'd like to say is thatâyou know, one of the reasons I'm stillâit mayâit may hurt his reputation, but all kidding aside, one of the reasons why I am still in politics was because of a Maine guy named Ed Muskie. Not a joke.

Ed Muskie and Teddy Kennedy and the guy from South Carolina who was the United States Senatorâbecause I had just been elected to the Senate. I was 29 years old. I wasn't old enough to be sworn in. I had to wait until I could be sworn in. But I had to start to hire staff.

So I was down in Washington using Teddy Kennedy's Whip office so I could interview people. And I got a phone call saying my wife and daughter had just been killed. And so I decidedâmy brother, who's 5 years younger, was my finance chair. And by the way, I was listed, for 36 years, the poorest man in Congress. So he needed a lot of help. [*Laughter*]

But. all kidding aside, we wereâI wanted him to talk to the Democratic Governor who had just been elected so he would appoint someoneâbecause I'm the first moderate-to-liberal member from the Democratic Party.

Our State isâwas a border State. We were segregated by law. We were a slave State. And all the vestiges left over are still there. And so I was the first "progressive"âquote, unquoteâ today we would say. But back in those days, I was considered, compared to the Democratic Partyâthe Democratic Governor had an opportunity, Gov, to decide whether he or she wanted to be member of the Northeast Democratic CoalitionâGovernors' Conference or the Southern Governors'. And most Governors picked to be part of the Southern Governors' Conference.

And so two-thirds of the State, as Angus knows, in the Delmarva Peninsula talk at 'cha like this, a lot of good ol' boys. [*Laughter*] No, I'm serious.

And so I asked my brother if he would talk to the Governor and pick someone in my place. And my sister is my best friend and managed all my campaigns. She's 3 years younger. We are 2 years apart in school. She graduated; I graduated from the same university, 2 years apart. She graduated Phi Beta Kappa; I graduated. [*Laughter*] Sheâno, I'm not joking. She managed all theâmy campaigns.

My point is this: That these men probably saved my sanity by convincing me to stay. What the argument was: Just come and stayâjust come and stay for 6 months. Help us organize. We had 58 Democratic Senators. They didn't need anybody to organize. We had whoeverâit could be a Democratic Senatorâ[*inaudible*]âat my place.

But Ed Muskie went out of his way for meâall the little things. One of the most important men in the Congress, who should have been Presidentâone of the most important men in the Congress. He would just spend time with me.

He would come by my office, and Iâfor example, I wouldn't go toâI didn't go over and meet and eat with the Senators in the dining room. I would just stayâI didn't want toâI just wanted to getâjust not get engaged. And he just went out of his way.

And I look back on it. And you probably help people like that, like I was, many times yourselves, but it mattered. It mattered. My two boys survived. My familyâI had great help with my family, my extended family.

But Ed Muskie was a man of enormous, enormous, enormous character. And he had a guy named Hathaway with him that I came alongâwe came along together and became close friends.

I've always thought of Maine asâit's going to sound bizarre to say this, but as a virtuous place. I'm not joking. It was a place that everybody seemed to have sort of just basicâthey disagreed. Like a young womanâI was justâdid an eventâa speaking event in Maine. And I was talking about the economy. And afterwards, I'm going out, shaking hands with people. And a lovely young womanâlooked to beâshe was in her early thirtiesâwas a State rep. She had her pin on. And I said, "Well, you guys passed the legislation for"âyes, forââ

Audience member. Family leave.

The President. Family leave, thank you. For family leave. And she said, "Oh, I voted against it." [Laughter] And she said, "I'm a Republican, but I like you." [Laughter]

But my point is this: We used to talk to one another. We used to get along with one another.

There used to be a civilityâwhat weâand in the lastâthe last 10 years, things have begun to change.

You may remember, I made a speechâbecause it got a lot of publicity, not all positive. I made a speech at Independence Hall before the 2022 electionsâ6 days outâwhere I said our democracy is at stake. Literally, not figuratively. And they thought it was an exaggeration. But guess what? Sixty-six percent of the American people thought that the case: Democracy is at stake.

And so myâthe reason I'm so happy to be here with your representatives: They're all decent, honorable people. We can argue like hell. We disagree, although I don't want to get them in trouble. We don't disagree very often. [*Laughter*] But, anywayâso I think of Maine like I used to think of my State, where everybody knows everybody. And you know, there's an old joke: You know, be careful what you say, they may be related. [*Laughter*]

So, at any rate, I want to thank you for allowing me to come back to Maine, which I've been here many times, but not since I've been President. Number one.

Number two, I think we're at a place where we're at a genuine inflection point in history. I had a physics professor who said that an inflection point is the time you're going down the highway 60 miles an hour and you make an abrupt, 45-degree or 30-degree turn to the right. You can never get back on the path you were on before. It occurs every five, six, seven generations in world history.

But the world is changingâchanging not because Joe Biden is President or Putin is leading Russia. It's because everything's changing from global warming. I last was with Putin two Christmases ago, and I pointed out: He has eight time zones, and the entire tundra is melting.

Methane is leaking. It's never going to freeze again.

We've got a fundamental change we've got to deal with. We're seeing changes not just to the climate, but across the world in fundamental ways. And so we'd better get going on what we're going to do about it, both in foreign policy and domestic policy.

But before I decided to announce for the Senate, and I wasn't going to runâI mean for the Presidency, the last time out. And, I think Angus knows: I wasn't going to run again. I had just lost my son. He died because of beingâsleeping next to a burn pit for a year andâin Baghdad. And he was a decorated soldier. HeâConspicuous Service medal, the Bronze Star, attorney general of the State of Delaware. Presumptuous of me to say this: He should be the one talking to you today, not me. He was quiteâhe was attorney general of the State.

My point is that, you know, there's a lot going on. Name me a part of the world that you think is going to look like it did 10 years ago 10 years from nowânot a joke. But it presents enormous opportunitiesâenormous opportunities. I'm just going to go through a few for you, if you will be willing to stick with me on this.

First of all, you know, on the economic front, we have made some real progress in the first 2 years. We'veâover 13.2 million new jobs, beyond when we went into the pandemic. We'veâ inflation is down from 9 percent to 3 percent. We're in a situation where we have a circumstance that we've created 810,000 manufacturing jobs. And how many of you were told manufacturing is dead? You watched it happen here in Maine in the small towns, like in Delaware, in the Midwest, and NevadaâI mean, Nebraska, allâall red, blue States.

A factory that mom and dad worked at for 30 years and made a decent salaryâall of a sudden, one day, it up and goes abroad. Because why? We started a process that we hadâwe took theâthe whole notion of trickle-down economics to an extreme. We shipped ourâwe found the cheapest labor in the world we could find and we shipped the factories over there. And then we brought the product back here, and we sold it here. And America found itself in trouble.

Well, I decided that the way to changeâto deal with a changed world here was not that we couldn't compete anymore, it's because we had the wrong philosophy about how to compete. I insisted thatâand Iâand I've been doing thisâI know I don't look it, but I've been doing this a long time. [*Laughter*]

And one of the things that weâI decided we should buildâand I've thoughtâhad this view for a long time: That we should build the economy from the middle out and the bottom up. When that occurs, everybody does well. The wealthy do very well.

I'm a capitalist. I come from the corporate State of the world. More businessesâand some of you know because you may be incorporatedâthey're incorporated in Delawareâthan every other State in the Union combined. Every State. And I represented, as Senator, for 36 years, so I'm not antibusiness. But everybody has got to pay their fair share. Everybody has got to pay their fair share.

We went from having 746 billionaires in America before the pandemic to a thousand. And guess what their average Federal tax is: 8.3 percent. How can that be right? How can that be fair? And so I started to focus on: What do we do to bring this back?

We used to beâhave the number-one infrastructure in the world. We're ranked number 14.

The United States of America, byâthe international folks say that weâwe're the 14th best infrastructure: roads, bridges, and the like.

China used to be, I think, 17 or 16. Now number two. What's the matter? Something is wrong. How can we lead the world being 14th in the world on our infrastructure? I'm not joking. Think about it in practical terms, just pure practical terms.

Secondly, manufacturing. You saw what's happened here in Maine. The same thing has happened in Nebraska. You don't have to be in the Northeast. It's the same thing all across the country. How many times have you heard people say they've had their son or daughter has graduated from high school here and then went to college and came back to say: "Mom, I can't stay. There's no jobs for me here. There's nothing here for me."

You lost employment like a lot of places lost it. And it's not just manufacturing. How do we getâand by the way, we invented the computer chip. Weâit's tinier than the little, tiny end of my finger here. And guess what? We used to have 40 percent of the market. We've got 5 percent.

And you all saw what happened when we got in real trouble in inflation, when you couldn't build automobiles and shutting down plants. It takes so many computer chips to be able to do it.

So I got my colleagues and leadership of this man sitting in the front here of theâdealing with theâthe legislation that had to do with providing for investment in technology. And it was called the CHIPS Act. And guess what? It's attracted off the sidelines almost a trillion dollars in private equity investmentâalmost a trillion.

No, I'mâthis is not rocket science. For example, we used to not be able to produce the chips. Well, guess what? We have over $300 billion of commitments to build new chip factories in the United States of America.

And guess what that does? Not only is all theâthe construction work and providing union labor to people to get a decent wage, changing their abilityâmy dad used to say, "Joey, at the end of the"âno, I'm not jokingâmy dad was a very refined guy who was very well-read, never had a chance for a college education.

And weâhe'd come home and close the business he was runningâhe didn't own it; he was a managerâhe'd come home for dinner and then go back and close it. My dad used to say, "Joey, the measure is whether at the end of the month you're able to pay all your bills and you have a little breathing roomâjust a little breathing room." So many Americans have no breathing room. No breathing room.

And so what do we do? When I went to South Korea and convinced the chip factory to invest in America, and they're investing $100 billion. I said, "Why are you doing it?" They said, "Simple: You're the safest place in the world to invest, number one. And number two, you have the best workers in the world." Not a joke. I'm not making this up. This is real.

Look what's happening: everything from Poughkeepsie, New York, to just outside of Columbus, Ohio, where Intel has just investing $20 billion building twoâwhat they call "fabs"â factories. You know what happens when those fabsâthey employ thousands of people. And guess what? The average salary is going to be $131,000, and you don't need a college degree to do it.

I was making the case to the Business Roundtable, you know, the biggest corporations in America. They're good people, decent people. And they were asking me why was investing so much money in organized labor and convincingâandâin labor? I said, "Because you need them." And they said, "Well, what we need"âand I said: "We did a survey when I was Vice President. And weâwe met with 342 of the Fortune 500 companies, either on Zoom or in person. I said, 'What do you need most?' They said, 'We need a better educated public.' I said, "What the heck are you doing about it? Why you oppose my dealing with investing more money in preschool?"

Notâon third gradeâ3 years old, going to schoolânot daycare, school. All the studies showâthe Harvard, Stanford studies shows it increased by 57 percent, no matter what the

background the child comes from, their ability to get through 12 years of school or not. What's the problem?

And by the way, they're beginning to help. It's self-interest.

But my generic point is simple: That there's so much available to us as a countryâso much available to us. We've just got to remember who in the Lord's name we are.

We're in a situation where if you take a look at what we've done around the worldâyou know, you take a look atâdoes anybody think that the postwar eras still exist, the rules of the road from the end of World War II?

I'm being deadly earnest. It's not hyperbole, just direct statement. It doesn't.

I spent my whole lifeâthe reason I turned down being able to run for Governor, which is a very important job, when I was young man is I wanted to be involved in a foreign policy. I spent most of my life as the chairman of Foreign Relations Committee or doing foreign policy for Barack or now. It's kind of fascinating to take a look at what's going on.

We look atâdoes anybody think that Europe was likely to hold together if we hadn't pulled it together? Not a joke, not a joke.

I spent over 180 hours with heads of state from the Gâ7 and the European Union, just holding it together. NATO is stronger today than it's ever been in its existenceânot just because of me, but it's stronger today.

And look what's happening with regard to China in the Indian Ocean and in theâyou know, I got asked by Xi why I call myself a Pacific nation. I said: "Because we are. We have a longer border on the Pacific than you do. We are a Pacific nation." And I said, "And you wouldn't have been able to move at all unless we were providing you the stability you needed." Give you my word, he looked at me and said: "You're right. You're right."

Look what's happening. Does anybody ever think Japan would increase its military budget over its domestic budget and help a European war on the side of the West? That's what it's doing. It's changing the dynamic significantly.

I'm hosting littleâ[*inaudible*]âat Camp David next week. I'm bringing along the leaders of Japan and South Korea. They made a rapprochement from World War II: fundamental change.

Look what's happening inâin Southeast Asia, where now I put together the Quadâmeaning India, Japan, Australia, and the United States. Xi said: "Why are you doing that? You're trying to surround me." I said: "No, that's not the reason. I just want to make sure the rules of the road aren't changing."

International airspace is international airspace. International water space is water space. You can't tell us we can't. Well, where we're going to put up an air identification zone, meaning you can't fly through certain areas, even though it's international airspace. And guess what we did?

We flew a Bâ1 bomber through. Not a joke. Not a joke. Because we can't let this change that's taking place.

I've gotten a call from the head of Vietnam, desperately wants to meet me when I go to the Gâ20. He wants to elevate us to a major partner, along with Russia and China. What do you think that's about? No, I'm not joking.

I'm not going to take you around the world, but the point is, the world is changing. The world is changing in a big way. And we want to promote democraciesâdemocracies.

Watch what's happened in the Middle East. I got criticized from going to Saudi Arabia, remember? Well, guess what? I got them to prevent overflights for Israel. So theyâthere's a rapprochement may be underway.

My generic point is, there is so much going on that we can make the world for this young man who's going to be President someday, we can make it a lot safer and better and more secure. We know who's on first, who's on second, and so on.

So, if you think about what's happeningâand I was going to make a more detailed speech, but it'sâI'm keeping you too long alreadyâtheâif you think about what's happening, there is a confluence, if we get this right, of both domestic economic policy and foreign policy. I can make a safer and more secure than we've been a long, long time.

And that's what I'm about. That's what I want to do. I want to get to the point where we're in a situation where we knowâlook, I said earlier today that I've never been more optimistic about America's future than I am today. I mean it. That's not hyperbole. I've been saying it for a year.

The reason is: Think of anything America's ever set its mind to that we haven't been able to do. Name meâthey asked me, "If you could do one thing, what would you do?" I said, "I'd cure cancer." They said, "Why?" It's because it's the one thing people think we can't do.

To demonstrate: This is the United States of America, damn it. When we've worked together, there is no major problem we've been unable to solve. None. And today, we are splintered in a way we never have been.

I'll conclude by telling you a little story. You know, I didn'tâeven though I sat for 8 years in the Vice President's chair, every morning at 9 o'clock with Barack starting the day off for 8 years, I didn't realize that there was a circumstance where on Inauguration Day, the outgoing President has to be out of the office by 10 o'clock. The incoming President can't come in until 3 o'clock.

So I asked myâbecause they set aside the furniture, what desk, what rugs, whatâwhatever you wantâand so I asked my brother Jimmy to take care of it for me. And he called the Presidential historian named Jon Meacham, a well-known guy, in to help him because there are certain things that matter: What bust did I want there?

Sit at my desk, and there is only two political leaders I ever had: One was Dr. King and the other was Bobby Kennedy. I had great respect for John Kennedy, but I could never picture him at my kitchen table. I can theoretically think of Bobby Kennedy there. And CÃ©sar ChÃ¡vezâwhose granddaughter is running in my campaign, by the wayâwho almost cost me an election in 1972.

By the way, because I was sympathetic to the farmworkers, and Southern Delaware, where you've got a $4 billion industry on chickens, they ain't happy about that. [*Laughter*]

And so, all kidding aside, thatâand then, you know, there is a woman who wouldn't move to the back of the bus and changed the whole world. And Harry Truman. I also have Ben Franklin, because I was a Ben Franklin professor of lawâinternational law at Penn for 4 years, and it was a requirement.

But here's the deal: I think I walked into that office and, for yearsâand I was in there a lot because ofâI was chairman of Judiciary or Vice President for a longâI meanâor excuse meâ or the chairman of Foreign Relations for a long time. And I walked in, and the only portrait above the fireplace was one of George Washington. Only one all the time I've been there, and I've been there 600 years. [*Laughter*]

And I walk inâthey had the rug that I wanted. We changed the rug and the desk, the Resolute Desk, and my brother picked out the furniture, the couches, and the like. And obviously,

Trump wasn't there. He's the first President in the history of the United States of America that didn't show up on Inauguration Day. Classy guy. [*Laughter*] I was just as happy he didn't.

But my point was that I looked up and I saw thisâthere is this big portrait four timesâthree times as big as the Washington portraitâof Franklin Roosevelt. And I said, "I'm an admirer, but why Franklin Roosevelt?"

And Meacham spoke up, and he said, "Because no President has taken on the job of President with a world at greater financial disarray than he was." I said: "Oh, that's good. I'm really happy about that." [*Laughter*] I'm serious.

And I said, "Why"âand then there were four smaller portraits. One of Washingtonâthe original one was up on the right-hand corner. I mean, if you're looking from my desk, on the left- hand corner. And below it was Abraham Lincoln. I said, "Why Lincoln?" He said, "The Nation has never been as divided since the Civil War."

Well, folks, you know, I'm not sure how far off they are. But I am sureâI am sureâwe cannot succeed as a country unless we change it. No, no think about it.

Iâyou may remember when I ran the first time, I said I'm running for three reasons. I think my campaign disagreed with my saying it, but I meant it.

One, I wanted to restore the soul of America. We start to treat each other with decency and honor and deal with people in a way that that is more like who we are. Not a joke.

The second thing was I said I want to build the economy from the middle out and the bottom

up.

And I said the third thing is, you've got to unite America. Well, your great Senator, George

Mitchell, is a close friend of mine I just spoke to. He was the guy, when I left, said Biden did more to be able to bring Republicans and Democrats together than anybody when he was here. An exaggeration on his part, but it was very nice of him to say.

But guess what? Who do you deal with now? How do you get certain things done? Ask Angus what it's like getting things done in the Senate or the House.

But we have to do that. How can you be a participatory democracy without there being the ability to bring people together? How does that happen?

And the last generic point I'll make to you is that, you know, having spent most of my time as Vice President doing foreign policy for Barack and having spent my career focusing mostly on foreign policy for the 36 years I was a Senator, I thought IâI thought I knew the consequence of an American President. But it's amazing.

Madeleine Albright wrote a book. And she referred to America as "the essential nation." We literally are. Ask yourself a rhetorical question: Who could possibly bring the world together?

Not a joke. Not me. But the President of the United States of America. Who could do it unless the President of the United States does it? Who? What nation could do it?

And so, folks, there's a lot at stakeâa whole lot at stake. And I think we have an opportunity. And one of the ways we make life better for us is make life better for the rest of the world. That's why I pushed so hard for the Build Back Better initiative to build the infrastructure in Africa and in Latin America and South America.

We're the ones who polluted the world. We clear cut everything. We made a lot of money.

Lula from Brazil wants to meet with me shortly because, you know, there's more carbon absorbed from the air in the Amazon than all the carbon emitted in theâfrom the United States of America on a yearly basis.

But guess what? Theyâthey're having trouble. They want their farmers to be able to go out and clear the land and make money and so on.

So there's a lot that's out there that we have a chance to do. And, again, there's nothing you can name for me that if America set its mind to do it, we have not been able to do it over time. Nothing. Nothing.

And the whole world is changing. But if we grab hold, we apply the ingenuity and ourâyou know, our greatest strengthâI said when I got elected I was going to have an administration that looked like America. Well, guess what it is? I have a higher percentage of women on my Cabinet than any President ever hadâmore than the number of men.

In the military, for the first time ever, we're having the Chief of Naval Operations is a woman. Two other four-starsâ[*inaudible*]. So it's changing.

I've appointed more appellate court judges to the Federal courts thanâwho are African American than every other President in America combined.

And by the way, not for political reasons. For a simple reason: Our strength is our diversity.

Our strength is our diversity. It's about time we begin to use it and understand it, deal with it.

So, folks, look, imagineâand by the way, all the stuff we did in the economy, all these programs that we've put forwardâin the process, I cut the Federal debt by $1.7 trillion in 2 years. More than any other President of the United States has come close. The last President increased it by $4 trillion.

Folks, there's nothing we can't do if we remember who in God's name areâthis is the United States of America. There's nothing beyond our capacity.

And if you think allâyou think I was exaggerating about we're at an inflection point? Just take a look at AI. Artificial intelligence. Hang on, baby. It has enormous promise, but enormous possibilities to go wrong. We've got to know what we're doing.

And so, folks, look, theâyou know, imagine what we can do if we finish the job. Like I said, I don't thinkâI think that ordinary people should have an opportunity to get a good education, ordinary people should be able to afford to go to college. I love it when I get criticized for forgiving debt for people whose income is not above $60,000 for college.

Well, guess what? We had the PPP program. If you ran a diner, you had five employees, and, during the pandemic, you got in trouble, guess what? You getâby the way, the woman who criticized me most? She got $220,000 back from that program. I'm not opposed the program, but give me a break. Give me a break.

So, look, you know, I believe this country is about to take off. And you're saying, "When the hell is he going take off?" [*Laughter*] But the investments we've made in the past 2Â½ years have powered the transformation of this country in the next 50 years and, you know, doing something right now no one thought possible.

But most of them opposed everything that we did, everything we supported. But if you notice, all of a sudden, it's allâthey'reâthere's an inside joke. I say I'm showing up at the spade turning.

Guess what? You have the gentlewomanâtalk about an oxymoronâfrom North Georgia, who is about to get one of the biggest environmental investments of billions of dollars in her district. And she's against it. Guess what? But she's talking about the clarion call.

You're going to get billions of dollars for making sure that everyone in this State has a connection to the internet and affordable.

Wellâand the Senator from Alabama, he knew how to coach Alabama, I think. Well, he sure as hell doesn't know what he's talking about now.

He just did a big press conference. "Alabama is receiving $1.3 trillion to make sure we haveâwe have all of Alabamaâall of Alabama wired for the internet. It's going to be cheaper." He voted against it, campaigned against it. I'm going down when he makes his announcement. We're going to be with him.

Now, look, I just think that theâyou know, it's been a long time. But as I said, I think thatâ I don't think there's a thing we can't do if we set our mind to it. We can't kid each other though.

This democracy is at stake. Not a joke. Not a joke.

One of the reasons why I did the Emmett Till thing was I wanted to make it clear that history is history. And that his mother, making sure there was an open coffin so people knew exactly what happenedâknew exactly what happenedâtook an enormous amount of courage. And it was the Black press that exposed it and made people look at it.

Did you ever think you'd be in a country right now at your age and your circumstance where we're banning books? I just readâmy wife wrote a book, not about politics at allâthey took it out of libraries in Georgia. As we say in my religion, "Bless me, Father, for I have sinned." I mean, come on. I don't think that's who America is. I don't think that's the majority of Americans.

And with your help, we're going to make sure that it doesn't happen. That it does notâwe don't get in a situation where we have a man whoâif you just take what he said, on the record, I'm inclinedâjust a snippetâthe stuff he said with him and run those ads, some would say it's just flat seditious. Not who we are.

And you're all successful people. You traveled abroad. Ask any of your compatriotsâ whether they're left, right, or centerâwhat they think aboutânot me, but about if the other guy comes back.

We've got a lot to do, but we've got a lot of hope. A lot of hope.

Asâevery time I'd walk out of my Grandpop Finnegan's house up in Scranton, he was aâhe went to Santa Clara and he was a newspaper guy and an All-American football player, by the way, in the days when they used to throw people over the line. [*Laughter*]

But he'd yell, "Joey, keep the faith." And my grandmother would yell, "No, Joey, spread it." Let's go spread the faith.

NOTE: The President spoke at 4:23 p.m. at the residence of Carol and Lyndel J. "Joe" Wishcamper. In his remarks, he referred to Gov. Janet T. Mills of Maine; Sens. Angus S. King, Sr., and Thomas H. Tuberville; President Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin of Russia; President Xi Jinping of China; Prime Minister Fumio Kishida of Japan; President Yoon Suk Yeol of South Korea; General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong of Vietnam; former Presidents Barack Obama and Donald J. Trump; Jon Meacham, canon historian, Washington National Cathedral; Julie ChÃ¡vez Rodriguez, campaign manager, 2024 Joe Biden for President reelection campaign; former Sen. George J. Mitchell; President Luiz InÃ¡cio Lula da Silva of Brazil; Adm. Lisa M. Franchetti, USN, the President's nominee to be Chief of Naval Operations; and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene. He also referred to his brother James B. Biden and sister Valerie Biden Owens. The transcript was released by the Office of the Press Secretary on July 29. Audio was not available for verification of the content of these remarks.

Categories: Addresses and Remarks : Campaign reception in Freeport, ME. Locations: Freeport, ME.

Names: Biden, James B.; Biden, Jill T.; Biden, R. Hunter; Franchetti, Lisa M.; Greene, Marjorie Taylor; King, Angus S., Sr.; Kishida, Fumio; Lula da Silva, Luiz InÃ¡cio; Meacham, Jon; Mitchell, George J.; Obama, Barack; Owens, Valerie Biden; Putin, Vladimir Vladimirovich; Rodriguez, Julie ChÃ¡vez; Trong, Nguyen Phu; Trump, Donald J.; Tuberville, Thomas H.; Xi Jinping; Yoon Suk Yeol.

Subjects: Artificial intelligence and other emerging technologies; Brazil, President; Broadband and wireless technologies; Climate change; COVIDâ19 pandemic; Early childhood education programs; Emmett Till and Mamie Till-Mobley National Monument; Federal court nominations and confirmations; Federal deficit and debt; Federal student loans, partial forgiveness; Group of Seven (Gâ7) nations; Group of Twenty (Gâ20) nations; Indo-Pacific, economic and security cooperation; Inflation; Infrastructure improvements; Israel, Saudi airspace, opening to civilian carriers for flights to and from; Japan, Prime Minister; Job creation and growth; Joint Chiefs of Staff; Maine, Democratic Party event; Maine, President's visit; Manufacturing industry, domestic investment; North Atlantic Treaty Organization; Quadrilateral Security Dialogue; Russia, President; Saudi Arabia, Israel, opening airspace to civilian carriers for flights to and from; Semiconductor manufacturing; South Korea, President; Tax Code reform; Unemployment rate; Vietnam, General Secretary; Vietnam, relations with U.S.; Xi Jinping.

DCPD Number: DCPD202300669.