Administration of Joseph R. Biden, Jr., 2024

March 11, 2024

The President. Well, first of allâ[inaudible]âthank you. Thank you. And you got a good little training with a, you know, United States Senator. [Laughter]

Hey, folks, thanks an awful lot. I can't tell you how much I appreciate it. Look, it stunned me, the write-in campaign you all did. No, it really did. I was very careful not to be hereâ [*laughter*]ââ

[*At this point, the President saluted, then shook hands with, a man seated in the front section of the audience*.]

Sir. [*Laughter*]

But really, I was stunned. And I was really pleased.

By the way, the national Black organizations and Hispanic organizations just endorsed me, as well asâ[*applause*]âAARP.

[*The President imitated a Southern accent.*]

They had a meeting down in Atlanta, Georgia. [*Laughter*] *Audience member*. [*Inaudible*]â Georgia?

The President. Yes, they did.

Anyway. But thank you very, very much. Look, I'm optimistic, not just about winning, but I'm optimistic about the country. I think the country is just wonderingâlook, people have really been banged around for a while now.

And we'veâwith the help of your delegationâand that's not hyperbole; that's a factâwith the help of your delegation, we got things passed that no one thought we could get passed, from theâfrom theâeverything from the infrastructure bill to veterans bills, allâall the stuff we got passed, and much of it without a single, solitary Republican voteânot one.

And it'sâbut we knew it's going to take a little time for people to begin to see the benefits of it because it's just a big, big country, and there's a lotââ

[*The President addressed a group of children in the audience*.] Hi, how are you? [*Laughter*] How doing? [*Laughter*]

I'll keep going. Don't stop because of me. [*Laughter*] What's your name?

Audience member. Rosie.

The President. Rosie, my name is Joe. Is this your big brother? Is he okay?

Hey, man, you know what my dad used to say? "You've got one job: Keep the boys away from your sister." [*Laughter*]

That willâbut all kidding aside. Look, I think we have enormous opportunitiesâenormous opportunities. The country is ready to get up and go. And everything from what we've been able to do in a general senseâyou know, 15 million new jobs, that's good, but it doesn't really connect

you to people, even though they're benefiting from it; inflation down from 9 percent to 3 percent; 800,000 manufacturing jobs.

But my dad used to have an expression. He'd say: "Joey, a job is about a lot more than a paycheck. It's about your integrity. It's about your dignity. It's about being able to beâlook your kid in the eye and say, 'Honey, it's going to be okay.'"

And one of the main things I try to doâand I'm going to continue to do, God willing, if we get reelectedâis finish the job by continuing to focus on the middle class, because when the middle class does well, the poor have a way up, and the wealthy still do very well. They still do very well. But they've got to start paying their fair share.

And I drive my staff crazy because I say: How can we be the finest nation or the greatest nation in the world if we have a second rate education system? How can we be the finest nation in the world if we don't invest in research and development? How can we be the finest nation without the best education system? I mean, just across the board. Health care systemâhow can we do that?

And you know, I think the American people get it. If you take a look atâI know the press is here, and they're all wonderful people. [*Laughter*] I don't know why they don't like me a lot more than Trump, but theyâ[*laughter*]âthe way he talks about you guys. But any rate.

That's a joke. I'm kidding. I shouldn't even be kidding with you. [*Laughter*] Shouldn't even beâI'll pay a price for having said that. [*Laughter*]

But look, you know, everything we've done, if you take a look at itâand none of the polling matters much more now. It's way out. But, number two, polling has kind of changed a lot too. It's not nearly as accurate. It's not nearly as capable as it was before because you've got to make 6 zillion calls to get one person on their cell phone, et cetera.

But one of the things is that there's three things I want to do. One, I want to restore the soul of this country. When I ran the first time, I meant it. Well, and that sounds likeâthat sounds like hyperbole, but I just mean basic dignity, basicâjust basic sense of dignity and just treating people with respect.

I mean, we'veâI've been aroundâI know I don't look it, but I've been around a long while. [*Laughter*] But all kidding aside, think about it. I've doubt whether those of you who have been around half the time I've been around thought it would ever get to this point in the way we treat one another in politics. It's just not healthy.

Iâthe reason Barack asked me to be his Vice President was because of my background in foreign policy, and I had spent a lot ofâan awful lot of time traveling the world and knew almost every major world leader and know them all now as well.

And they're wondering about us, whenâthey're wondering about whether we are the same country we areâhave advertised ourselves to be since the end of World War II. There's a lot at stake. And it's about protecting us, not just them.

So, when I talk aboutâeverybody wonders why I talk in the middle of a campaign aboutâ about dealing with making sure that Ukraine is taken care of. Well, you know, the message that the President says when he says to Putin, "Come on, if weâif they don't pay their dues, you just come in and do whatever the hell you want." You know, you haveâI mean, there's things thatâ anyway.

The same thing with regard to dealing with the border. The borderâIâthe first bill I ever introduced as aâas the President of the United States was essentially what got passed this time

out, led by a Republicanâby the conservative Republican, who they're vilifying now for having worked out this deal.

But look, what we need is we needâis we need to justâan orderly process at the border, not to keepâthey're not vermin. They're not scum. They're not people who are all criminals coming. It's justâ[*applause*]. And you know, it'sâI think the American people get it, but the way it's being run now is just notâwell, I'm going on too long. [*Laughter*]

But look, health care is critically important. I've been fighting from the time I was a kid in the Senate to take on the Big Pharma companies. The idea that it costs $10 to make insulin, $13 to package it all told, and they're selling it for 400 bucks is crazy. It's a rip-off.

If you got on Air Force One with me, flew out of here, and I flew you to Toronto, to Berlin, to Rome, to any place in the world and you brought your prescription with youâwhatever it is, for whatever productâyou're going to pay 40- to 60-percent less in any country you land in forâ made by the same company.

So it's just about being fair. And the process is, it also cuts the deficit.

What we did so far, just reducing the cost of insulin from an average of somewhere around 400 bucks a month to 35 bucks a monthâ[*applause*]âwell, it's notâit doesn't just helpâit doesn't just help the patient. It saved the country $160 billionâ$160 billion they're paying out lessâbecause Medicare didn't have to pay it.

And the same way withâregarding the Affordable Care Act. You know, 800 bucks, if you haveâyou have thousands of people here in your State qualifying for it, overâwell over 100,000 across the country doing itâmore than that, quite franklyâsignificant more.

And the end result of it is that if you didn't have that Affordable Care Act and you had a preexisting condition, you couldn't afford any insurance. So it's just about basic fairness, just basic decency.

By the wayâI'll stop talking, and I'll take questions, if you want me to. But one of the things that I found interesting is, Trump keeps talking about the deficit. Well, he raised the deficit more in 4 years than any President in American history.

We've cut it. We've cutâwe've done all this, and we cut the deficit.

But it's just aboutâyou know, we've never lived up to, "We hold these truths to be self- evident, all men and women are created equal, endowed by their Creator," et cetera. We've never fully lived up to it, but we've never walked away from it.

This guy wants to walk away from it. Listen to what he's saying. Listen to what he wants to

do.

While I was down in Georgia working on health care and making sure that we had the

support of all the minority organizations in the country that we support so strongly, he was with Viktor Orban, who talked about democracy being a problem, and telling him how much he understood him and agreed with him.

Come on. I meanâso this is not who we are. We've got to make sure that we communicate that. I'm going to be working like the devil. And I'm looking forward to doing more and more of these events than the big events because this is how I used to campaign.

You've campaigned with me before. [*Laughter*]

Audience member. A few times.

The President. A few times.

But really, it's aboutâit's just getting to look people in the eye, get their feelings. They tell you the truth when you're talking to them. Anyway.

Am I allowed to take questions? [*Laughter*] Anybody here, the staff?

NOTE: The President spoke at approximately 5:05 p.m. at the Biden for President campaign's Manchester field office. In his remarks, he referred to Sen. Margaret Wood Hassan; former Presidents Donald J. Trump and Barack Obama; President Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin of Russia; Sen. James P. Lankford; and Prime Minister Viktor Orban of Hungary. The transcript was released by the Office of the Press Secretary on March 12.

Categories: Addresses and Remarks : Campaign event in Manchester, NH. Locations: Manchester, NH.

Names: Hassan, Margaret Wood; Lankford, James P.; Obama, Barack; Orban, Viktor; Putin, Vladimir Vladimirovich.

Subjects: 2024 Presidential election; Border security; Economic improvement; Education, global competitiveness; Federal deficit and debt; Health insurance, access and availability; Hungary, Prime Minister; Inflation; Infrastructure improvements; Insulin cost controls; Medicare and Medicaid programs; New Hampshire, Democratic Party event; New Hampshire, President's visit; Prescription drug costs, reduction efforts; Research and development; Russia, President; Ukraine,

U.S. assistance.

DCPD Number: DCPD202400183.