Administration of Joseph R. Biden, Jr., 2024

May 8, 2024

The President. Good to see you. How are you, man? Hey, folks, I want to know where Jamie is.

Audience members. Jamie! [Applause]

The President. Jamie, come here. Where's your mom? No, no, no. Mom, God love you.

Momâis itâthis is Mom, right here?

Audience member. That's Art's mom.

The President. You're Art's mom?

Audience member. Yes.

The President. By the way, we have a tradition in the Biden family. Actually, it's my wife's tradition, and I'll get in trouble if I don't exercise it. Both their birthdays today. And by the way, you have to sing "Happy Birthday." Are you ready?

[*At this point, the President led the audience in singing "Happy Birthday" to Annie Howell, mother of former Racine Police Department Chief Arthel "Art" Howell. He then continued his remarks as follows*.]

Now you have to let me wife know that I did what I was supposed to do, right? [*Laughter*] God love you. It's hell turning 60, isn't it? [*Laughter*]

Ms. Howell. I don't know. [Laughter]

The President. You haven't gotten there yet.

Ms. Howell. I've never been there.

The President. [Laughter] God love you.

Ms. Howell. Love you too.

The President. Well, I tell you what, Iâmy name is Joe Biden. I'mââ

Audience members. We know!

Audience member. We know you, Joe! We know who you are! [Laughter]

The President. I'm 40 times 2 plus 1. [Laughter] I can't even say it anymore, man. [Laughter] I can't even say it anymore.

Oh, I forgot all the press is here. I'd better be careful here. [*Laughter*]

Well, thanks for having me. Thanks forâI really appreciate you letting me come by. One of the few times I walked in with a chiefâformer chief of police and not arrested.

[*Laughter*]

Anyway, thank you, thank you, thank you. Look, I can't tell you how much I appreciate you letting me come by.

You can smile, kiddo. I'm good. [*Laughter*] She's looking at me like, "Who is this guy?" [*Laughter*] "What's he doing?"

What's your name?

Audience member. [Inaudible] The President. How old are you? Audience member. Eighteen.

The President. Eighteen. You're getting old, kid. [Laughter] You know that guy?

Audience member. Yeah.

The President. Is he okay? [Laughter] What's your name?

Racine, WI, resident Jakari Oliver. Jakari Oliver.

The President. Jakari.

Mr. Oliver. Yes.

The President. Well, good to see you, man.

Mr. Oliver. Nice to meet you too.

The President. Keep the faith.

Anyway, Iâyou know, this reminds me of when I first started running for office 180 years ago. [*Laughter*] I got elected to the United States Senate when I was 29 years old. And I come from a very modest family. We lived in a three-bedroom split-level home withâin a neighborhood that was in a suburban area they were building andâwith four kids and a grandpop. Andâbut we thought we were okay. We thought everything was all right.

Andâbut my State of DelawareâI got involved in politics because of the African American community. I got toâwe have the eighth largest Black population as a percentage in America.

And to our great shame, Delaware was a slave State.

We have all the vestigesâthe State sort of divided two-thirds to one-third. One-third topâ we have a canal that separates the entire State, connects the Chesapeake Bay and the Delaware River. And anything above the canal is basically more northeast or central States.

Everything south of the canal is Southern. And, I mean, for real. [*The President briefly imitated a regional accent*.]

We're going to talk at you like this. You know what I mean? Andâfor real. [*Laughter*] Andâthe Eastern Shore of Maryland and the Delmarva Peninsula, et cetera.

Everybody thinks that the DuPont Company is the biggest thing in Delaware. The biggest thing in Delaware are chickens. [*Laughter*] No, I'm serious. It's the single biggestâ$400 million industry.

But my point is that I got involved because when I first gotâwhen I got out of law schoolâ and I went to law school. I had to get some financial help to get there. And I got to law school.

When I got back, I got a job with a fancy firmâthe biggest, oldest firm in the State thatâand it was called Prickett, Ward, Burt, and Sanders. And I got the job.

But unfortunately, in my Stateâshow how old I amâWilmington, Delaware, is the only city in America occupied by the National Guard since the Civil War because when Dr. King, who is one of my heroesâwhen he got assassinated, we had riots in Delaware.

And so the Southern Governorâhe was a Democrat, but he was a Southerner in terms of his attitudesâhe put the National Guard on the streets for 10 months on every corner with drawn bayonets. Only city in America ever occupied since the Civil War.

And I quit this fancy law firm and became a public defender, because I wanted to beââ

Audience member. Woo! [Laughter]

The President. And so Iâand the year Iâso I ran as aâthey came to me and said they wanted me to runâthe local peopleârun for the State senate as a State senator. And I said: "I can't do that, because I'm justâI'm working part time as a public defender and part time setting up a law practice. And I can't go to Dover because I wouldn't be able to make a living."

And so then they came back to me 3 days later and said, "Want to run for county council?" I said, "County council, I can't do that." And then they walked over to the window in my office and said: "Right over there, that's the courthouse. It meets there twice a week. You can make it." [*Laughter*]

So I checked thisâtrue storyâso I checked it out, and no one had ever won the district they wanted me to run in. So I figured, "What the hell, I'll do it, because I won't win." [*Laughter*] But I'll make the effortâ[*inaudible*].

Audience member. [Inaudible]

The President. No, I reallyâI didn't think it would, because I thought we'd, you know, begin to buildâI kept arguing more people should get engaged and run to change the nature of the Democratic Party.

Audience member. That's right!

The President. So what happened was, I made a mistake. My best friend in the world, my sisterââ

Audience member. [Inaudible] The President. That's okayââ Audience member. I'm sorry.

The President. ââmanaged my campaign. [Laughter]

My sister is 3 years youngerâused to be 3 years younger than me. Now she's 23 years younger. [*Laughter*] By the way, there is no man in the Biden household that is any younger than any woman in the household. [*Laughter*] That's the family rule. You think I'm kidding? [*Laughter*]

Anyway, she managed my campaign, and I won. And I won a 4-year term. And I didn't want to go initially, seriously. Andâbut turns out the decennial Censusâevery 10 years, there's a newâyou know, they redo the districts. And so I got reapportioned from a 4-year term to a 2- year term because Republicans saw something in me I didn't seeâthat they thought I was going to run for higher office. [*Laughter*]

So this isâno, this is the God's truth. So I'm 28 years old now. [*Laughter*] So I'm going around the State trying to get people to run, and a group of senior members of the Democratic Party, the ones who were mainstream Democratsââ

Audience member. Here we are.

The President. ââwereâthat's rightâ[laughter]âcame to me and saidâone day, I wasâ went to the Democratic Convention down in Dover, Delaware, the off-year convention.

And I was trying to get other people to run for office. We wereâI just joined a small group of a Democratic coalition to get mainstream, pro-choice, pro-liberal, pro-Black, proâthe typical Northeast Democrat.

And so I went down to the convention with three of the guys that I had come down with.

One had a radio talk showâhis name was Bob Cunninghamâand a few others. Anyway.

And so, after the afternoon session, I went back to the motel. You know, one of these motels you drive up. There is no building in Dover tallerâlargerâmore than four stories, at least in those days. Not a joke.

And so I go into theâI decide I'm going to take a shower and shave to go back that night. So I'm in one of those 9â8 by 10 showersâyou know, I meanârestrooms in a motel andâwith a showerâwith a toilet, a bath, and a shower and a sink. And I have a towel around me and shaving cream, and I'm shaving. And I hear, "Bam, bam, bam," on myâon the door of the hotel roomâI mean the motel room.

So I figured it's the guys that I came down withâyou know, get me in trouble. I said, "Oh, come in." I openedâopened the door. I had a razor in my hand, shaving cream, and a towel around me. And there's four senior Democrats standing there. [*Laughter*]

The former Chief Justice of the State of Delaware, who had more people in his family, as a

U.S. Senatorâwhen they used to vote through the legislatureâthan any family in American historyâthan, I should say, in Delaware history. The State chairman. And the Congressman, who was the good guy who had lost three terms ago because he was too progressive. And a guy named Elbert N. Carvel, a big guy.

[*The President briefly imitated a regional accent*.] Talked at you like this.

Former Governor. [*Laughter*] AndâI know I'mâI shouldâam I boring you here with this story? Anywayâ[*laughter*].

So I'm embarrassed as hell. I'm standing there with a towel around me in a hotel room that has the headboards nailed to the wall. You know what kind I mean. It was clean butâand two twin bedâtwoâtwo beds and desk nailed to the wall. And I'mâso I said: "Come in, gentlemen. Give meâgive me a minute." [*Laughter*] And I ran in the bathroom, thinking I could change.

Well, there was nothing to change into. So I wiped off theâall the shaving cream, and I walked out. And I'm sitting there, and I leaned against that deskâI'll never forget it. I'm looking at four of theseâto me, two of them, I'd never met and knew ofânever met in my life.

And they saidâand the Chief Justice said, "We just came from dinner, Joe." And then the Governor is going, "And, Joe, we think you should run for the Senate." I said, "What?" I swear to God. True story. [*Laughter*] Andâbecause Iâbecause they had asked me to go try to recruit people to run for the Senate.

And I said: "I'mâI'mâI'm too young. I'm only 29." And the Chief Justice said, "Joe, you obviously didn't do very well in constitutional law." [*Laughter*] Absolutely true. And I saidâhe said: "You have to be 30 to be sworn in, but you can be elected earlier. You've just got to wait." And he said, "You only have to wait 17 days to be eligible." And so I thought, "This is the craziest thing I've ever heard in my life." So I said thank you, and they left.

I went back and rode home with a group that I went down withâthe three guys I went down with. But what I did before that: On the way up, I called myâI had a political philosophy professorâyou all have one professor, one high school teacher you really respect?

Audience member. Yes.

The President. And his name was David Ingersoll. And I called him ahead of time. I said, "Can I stop and see you?" Because Dover, Delaware, is below Newark, Delaware, and below where my home was near Wilmington.

And so I stopped, and I saidâI told him what happened, and he said, "What do you think?" I said, "What do I say?" He said, "Joe, remember what Plato said." I'm thinking, "What the hell did Plato say?" [*Laughter*] I'm serious. True story.

He said: "Plato said the penaltyâto paraphrase Plato: The penalty that good people pay for not being involved in politics is being governed by people worse than themselves. You should run." I said, "Oh, God."

Anyway, so I went home and talked it over with my wife. She said: "Look, Joe, you're working 40 hours a week trying to get this law firm going, and you're a public defender. And at the same time, you're doing 20 hours or 30 hours a week as a county councilman. Either get in or get out."

Audience member. That's right!

Audience member. Wife knows best!

The President. But there were a whole lot of things I was worried about back then. I didn't support the Vietnam warâa lot of things going on. And so I ran. But I made the mistake of asking my sister to manage my campaign. [Laughter]

Nixon got 60â59.8 percent of the vote in Delawareâalmost 60 percent. And I won by 3,100 votes. [*Applause*] And here I am.

And I only got elected because I gotâwhen I run in Delawareânot a jokeâI get 90 percent of the African American vote in off-years andâ[*inaudible*]âyears because you're the most loyal constituency because I've been loyal to my constituency.

And soâand things are changing. Guess what? Now, Delaware is blue, blue, blue, blue, blue. [*Applause*] Oh, you think I'm kidding? I'm not. We are as blue as you can get. [*Laughter*]

And with a little bit of luck and you all making sure that we change things here in Wisconsin as wellââ

Audience member. That's right. Audience member. We're going to do it. Audience members. Yes!

The President. Well, Iâyou've got some Senators I would like to see change too.

And if we do, we're going to make someâand, look, I'llâI'm going to hush up. As my grandfather would say, "Hush up."

But one of the things that I thinkâyou know, and I'll be very serious for just 1 second and stop and talkâanswer any questions you have or just walk around meeting each one of you individually.

You know, I really think democracy is at stake here.

Audience member. It is. It is. Audience member. Absolutely. Audience member. No doubt about it.

The President. Notânot a joke.

When I ran the first time, I made a speech at Independence Hall on democracy. And the pressâand they're all smart as hell, the press back hereâwondered why I was talking about democracy back then in 2020. And 60 percent of our polling showed people were worried about what was at stake. And we ended up winning.

But one thing I want you to be wary ofâaware of: Trump means what he says.

Audience member. Yes, he does.

The President. He means what he says. And he says he's going to get rid of all the stuff that we've done, which is making sure that people don't have to pay 400 bucks a month for insulin for their diabetes instead of $35 a month. Make sureâI'll just go down the whole list.

And I was askedâI just did an interview with a national reporter at the last stop I made. She asked the question whether or not I thought that theâwould Trumpâdid he mean what he said when he said, basically, he's not sure he's going to accept the results of the election. And I said: "He won't. He won't."

Soâbut we really have toâwe can do a lot because I think the public is really ready to see some change.

And, anyway. I'm talking too much. Like I said, my mother would say: "Hush up, Joey. Stop the talking."

Audience member. Keep going, Joe! [Laughter]

The President. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

NOTE: The President spoke at approximately 1:45 p.m. at the Dr. John Bryant Community Center. In his remarks, he referred to former President Donald J. Trump; and Erin Burnett, anchor, CNN's "Erin Burnett OutFront" program. He also referred to his sister Valerie Biden Owens and brothers Francis W. and James B. Biden. The transcript was released by the Office of the Press Secretary on May 9.

Categories: Addresses and Remarks : Campaign event in Racine, WI. Locations: Racine, WI.

Names: Biden, Francis W.; Biden, James B.; Biden, Jill T.; Burnett, Erin; Howell, Annie; Howell, Arthel "Art"; Oliver, Jakari; Owens, Valerie Biden; Trump, Donald J.

Subjects: 2024 Presidential election; Insulin cost controls; Wisconsin, Democratic Party events; Wisconsin, President's visit.

DCPD Number: DCPD202400386.