Remarks by President Biden and Former President Obama

at a Democratic National Committee Rally

The Liacouras Center

Philadelphia, PA

Saturday, November 5, 2022

[TRANSCRIPTS: White House, Office of Barack Obama  |  C-SPAN video]

 
5:17 P.M. EDT

THE PRESIDENT:  Hello, Philadelphia!  (Applause.)  Hello, hello, hello!  (Applause.)

Don’t jump!

Good to see you all.  (Applause.)

This crowd is so loud I think you can hear us in Latrobe.  (Applause.)  They’re going to hear us.  They’re going to hear us on Tuesday.  (Applause.)

Folks, I’m Jill Biden’s husband -- a Philly girl.  (Applause.)  She’s ready for game six, like all of you.  (Applause.)

It’s good to be home.  It’s good to be with family.  And that includes someone we all love, Barack Obama -- (applause) -- a great President, historic President, and, I’m proud to say, a dear friend.

Well, folks, three days.  Three days until one of the most important elections.  One of the most important elections in our lifetime.

It’s going to shape -- the outcome is going to shape our country for decades to come.  And the power to shape that outcome is in your hands.

Two years ago -- (applause) -- two years ago, you used that power to make Donald Trump not only a former President, but you made him a defeated President.  (Applause.)  And this year, you have the power to make John Fetterman your next United States senator -- (applause) -- and Josh Shapiro your next governor.  (Applause.)

Look, folks, I want to be very clear, and I mean this sincerely, about what’s on the ballot this year: Your right to choose is on the ballot.  Your right to vote is on the ballot.  Social Security and Medicare is on the ballot.  There’s something else on the ballot: character.  Character is on the ballot.  (Applause.)

When I think of character, I think of John Fetterman.  (Applause.)  You know, in its endorsement of him, the Philadelphia Inquirer today said, “John knows what…” he val- -- “…his values are.”

Well, my -- I’ve been saying it for a long time: I’m a Pennsylvania boy born and raised in Scranton and -- (applause) -- but for the longest time, Delaware, like many other small places, did not have -- did not have a television station.  So Philadelphia TV had to cover me the same as they covered all the Pennsylvania senators.  I was known as Pennsylvania’s third senator.

My point is: I know Pennsylvania well.  And John Fetterman is Pennsylvania.  He is Pennsylvania.  (Applause.)

And Oz -- in Pennsylvania?

AUDIENCE:  Booo --

THE PRESIDENT:  Look, I’ve liv- -- I lived in Pennsylvania longer than Oz has lived in Pennsylvania.  (Applause.)  And I moved away when I was 10 years old.  (Laughs.)

Look, like a lot of us, John has gotten knocked down, but he gets back up.  He’s gotten up quickly.  John has character, integrity, and he’s going to be a hell of a good senator -- United States senator for Pennsylvania.  (Applause.)

And the other thing is --

(Sees audience members holding “Free Iran” signs.)  Don’t worry, we’re going to talk about Iran.
 
Courage.  Courage is also on the ballot.

When I think of courage, I think of Josh Shapiro.  This guy will take on anyone and back down to no one, and we saw that in 2020.  (Applause.)  He stood up for the Constitution.  He stood up for the rule of law.  He stood up for the people of this state.  And he’s going to be one hell of a fantastic governor.  (Applause.)  He really is.

But it’s not just John and Josh; we’ve got a great Democratic lineup on the ballot here in this state.  You heard from a lot of them today.  You heard from a lot of them.  We have Sec- -- we have one of the best delegation in Con- -- “we” -- I keep making myself a Pennsylvanian again.  (Laughter.)

But, really, Democrats up and down the ballot.  We need to elect them all.  We need it badly.

Pennsylvania, this isn’t a referendum this year; it’s a choice -- a choice between two vastly different visions of America.  Vastly different.

Maybe it’s in our blood, but John and I believe that all -- it’s all about fighting for working- and middle-class people, the way I’ve said from the beginning of my cam- -- my objective when I ran for President was to build an economy from the bottom up and the -- bottom up and the middle out.  It’s a fundamental shift compared to the Oz and the mega MAGA Republican trickle-down economics.

AUDIENCE:  Booo --

THE PRESIDENT:  No, really.  This ain’t your father’s Republican Party.  This is a different breed of cat.  I really mean it.  I really mean it.

Look, they’re all about the wealthier getting wealth and the wealthier staying wealthy.  The middle class gets stiffed and the poor get poorer under their policy.

You saw what happened last time, under my predecessor.  Econ- -- the economy was in ruins.  He was the first President since Herbert Hoover to lose jobs in the course of his presidency.  Unemployment rate -- the unemployment rate was 6.4 percent.  He lost manufacturing jobs and hundreds of small businesses here in this state and 100,000 nationwide.

Look, folks, the country was in a pandemic with no plan on how to get out.  The day I was sworn in, only 2 million people had been vaccinated.  Now more than 220 [million] Americans are fully vaccinated.  (Applause.)  So we moved.  And our approach is working.

Since I came to office, we’ve created 10 million new good-paying jobs.  (Applause.)  Ten million.  Because of you all.  Ten million.

The unemployment rate is 3.7 percent -- near record 50-year low.

John and I understand we need to make things in America the first time in a long time, and we are.  That means instead of shipping jobs overseas, we’re shipping product overseas.  (Applause.)

I’m serious.  We’ve cr- -- we’ve created, so far, 700,000 manufacturing jobs just in the last 20 months.  Seven hundred thousand.

But for all our progress -- and, by the way, where the hell is it -- heck is it written that we can’t be the manufacturing capital of the world again?  Because we will be.  We will be.


And, folks, look -- but a lot of families are still struggling.  A lot of families are struggling.  That's why I signed into law the Inflation Reduction Act that’s going to reduce the cost of everyday things in families in Pennsylvania.  (Applause.)  Things you have to pay for every month and you have to have enough in your paycheck to do it.
 
We gave Medicare the power to negotiate lower prescription drug costs -- (applause) -- the same power the Veterans Administration has to cut drug prices in half.  We tried to get that done for years when I was in the Senate and Vice President.  But Big Pharma spent a lot of money, and folks -- and supported a lot of folks.  Well, guess what?  Not this year.  We beat Big Pharma.  (Applause.)  And the American people won.
 
We put a cap of $2,000 a year on prescription drugs for seniors on Medicare no matter what their drug costs were, and some of them pay $10-, $12-, $14,000 a year for a cancer drug.  But now, beginning January 1, they will not have to pay more than $2,000 a year, period.  Period.  (Applause.)
 
And we put a cap on insulin to deal with their diabetes.  Instead of paying $400 a month like they’re paying now, they're going to pay no more than $35 a month.  (Applause.)
 
And with John Fetterman in the Senate, with that one more vote I need, we're going to make sure we cap prices for every single person, every -- all that (inaudible), because they blocked -- we had it in the original bill, but it only stayed in for Medicare recipients.
 
But, everyone, how many of you know somebody who has to take insulin for diabetes?  (Applause.)  Look around.  And it's incredibly costly.  No matter what your age, it is badly needed.
 
And, folks, look, we made the biggest investment to deal with the climate crisis ever.  (Applause.)  We're lowering energy costs for families.  And, by the way, Josh and John know that we can cap oil and gas price wells, abandoned mines.  We can do that in Western Pennsylvania.  We can create thousands of good-paying jobs for the same people who dug those mines in the first place.  (Applause.)  That's why we're investing $350 million here in this part of the country to do just that.  (Applause.) 
 
We're not just talking it, we're doing it.  And we’re going to do this while reducing the federal deficit.  You know, because of the help I had from the senators in the Democratic Congress, we literally cut the federal debt in half by $1.4 trillion -- (applause) -- $1.4 trillion just this year, and last year by $350 billion.  And another $250 billion over the next decade.
 
Look, I don't want to hear from the MAGA Republicans who blew up the debt.  We're the ones bringing it down.  They’d shot it up.  (Applause.)
 
And by such a massive reduction in debt, we're able to help working- and middle-class families in America.
 
Look -- and we're finally making sure the biggest corporations begin to pay their fair share, for God's sake.  (Applause.)  One of the reasons they're so upset with me is we just passed a minimum 15 percent tax.
 
Look, folks, if you're a schoolteacher, you pay more than that.  If you’re a cop, you pay more than that 15 percent.  But the days are over where corporations are paying zero federal tax.  (Applause.)
 
And, by the way, in 2020, 55 of the largest corporations in America made $40 billion, and they paid not one single penny in federal tax.  Not one.
 
AUDIENCE:  Booo --
 
THE PRESIDENT:  Because we reduced the deficit so much, we're in a position to help millions of working- and middle-class folks caught in the crossfire of the pandemic and the -- and what happened with the Russians moving into Ukraine.
 
Because I acted, we provided $10,000 in student debt relief -- (applause) -- and another -- another 10,000 bucks if you got a Pell Grant.  No one under 20- -- you have to be making less than 125 [thousand] a year.  And 90 percent of that money goes to people earning less than $75,000 a year.  (Applause.)
 
And, look, it's an incredible burden to carry.  So now they're going to be able to buy a home, start a business, just get a little bit of breathing room.
 
And whatever MAGA Republicans like Oz and Mastriano is talking about -- they’re trying to stop me.  Their hypocrisy is unbelievable.  The same MAGA Republicans who took hundreds of thousands of dollars, and even millions of dollars, in the pandemic relief loans -- had their loans forgiven -- are trying now to block student loans.
 
Marjorie Taylor Greene.
 
AUDIENCE:  Booo --
 
THE PRESIDENT:  God bless her soul.  (Laughter.)  She and her husband had $183,000 in PP loans forgiven.  Congressman Vern Buchanan of Florida, he got over $2 million forgiven.  Who the hell do they think they are complaining about helping out students?  Who do they think?  (Applause.)  I really mean it.
 
And where the students are going to -- the people getting debt relief are going to be spending the money on growing the economy.  For God’s sake, Oz and MAGA Republicans don’t think we should give working- and middle-class Americans a break.  But here's what they do think instead: They want to make permanent the $2 trillion tax cut that they passed when Trump was President.
 
AUDIENCE:  Booo --
 
THE PRESIDENT:  That tax cut is -- not a penny of it is paid for.  And it goes to the biggest corporations.  And it will explode the deficit by trillions of dollars.
 
They think -- they think the biggest oil companies that just -- the sixth-largest oil companies in the middle of this crisis we’re in, you know how much money they made in the third and fourth quarter?  I mean, the second and third quarter?  One hundred billion dollars.
 
AUDIENCE:  Booo --
 
THE PRESIDENT:  One hundred billion.  No -- it’s outrageous.
 
Look, they should have used that money, what they're supposed to do, to lower gas prices at the pump for the American people.  (Applause.)  If they did, the price at the pump nationally would be 50 cents lower than it is today per gallon.
 
It gets worse.  Do you know what their number-one priority is if they win?  They made it -- look, they’re saying it out loud.  They want to get rid of everything we just did.  The power we just gave Medicare to negotiate drug prices -- gone.  The $2,000 cap on prescription drugs -- gone.  The $35 cap on insulin -- gone.  The tax credit for lower energy costs -- gone.  Fifteen percent corporate tax -- gone.  And the $800 savings in healthcare premiums we just got for families in the Affordable Care Act -- gone.
 
In fact, they want to do away with the Affordable Care Act.  And that means millions of people with pre-existing conditions would lose their insurance completely.  No matter how hard they try to get rid of Obamacare, I'm never going to let it happen.
(Applause.)  And John Fetterman will not let it happen either.  (Applause.)
 
But, folks, these guys will never cease to amaze me, man.  They never cease to amaze me.
 
Now it gets worse.  They're literally coming after Social Security and Medicare.
 
AUDIENCE:  Booo --
 
THE PRESIDENT:  No, no, no.  Look, I know -- I know that the only thing you ever -- all you younger people in here -- and thank God there's so many of you -- I know the thing you know is from the time you're 16, you have money taken out to pay for Social Security.  But guess what?  There's somebody out there busting their neck, or you just lost your husband or your wife, you're 66, 68 years old, and they want to take away your Medicare and your health- -- and your Social Security.
 
Now, you think I'm exaggerating.  Front page of the New York Times talks about it.  I want to show you what -- there's a guy out there -- you know, they're telling us what they're going to do.  They're saying it straight out loud.  At least I give them credit for that.
 
And, look, here's what they're going to do -- they want to do.  There is a guy named Senator Rick Scott of Florida --
 
AUDIENCE:  Booo --
 
THE PRESIDENT:  -- who's in charge of electing the Republicans in the Senate.  He's the guy pushing Oz.  Okay?
 
AUDIENCE:  Booo --
 
THE PRESIDENT:  Well, let me show you.
 
I read from -- they listed in a program -- listed all their proposals.  This is too small to be able to read.  I just circled the one and brought it out here, and I'm going to quote what they say about Social Security.  It says, “All federal legislation sunsets in five years.  If the law is worth keeping, Congress can pass it again.”  It means the law literally goes out of existence unless it’s affirmatively voted back into existence.
 
And then along came Ron Johnson of Wisconsin -- Senator.
 
AUDIENCE:  Booo --
 
THE PRESIDENT:  And, by the way, he thinks five years is too long.  Not a joke.  This almost is so surreal sounding.  He thinks Social Security and Medicare should be on the chopping block every single year.  If Congress doesn't vote to keep it for the first time, it goes away.  Not a joke.  It goes away.  It's not just Social Security and Medicare.  He also wants to put veterans’ benefits on the line.
 
AUDIENCE:  Booo --
 
THE PRESIDENT:  Look, they put everything at risk.  Elect John Fetterman to the Senate, please.  (Applause.)  He’ll protect and strengthen Social Security and Medicare, and will guarantee that veterans are always cared for -- always, always, always.  (Applause.)
 
I used to get criticized, when I first got elected years ago, when I'd say we have a lot of obligations but only one truly sacred obligation: to prepare those we send to war and to care for them and their families when they come home.  That's a sacred obligation.  (Applause.)  A sacred obligation.
 
Well, folks, that's why I pushed and signed a thing called the PACT Act.  The PACT Act guarantees healthcare for service members and veterans exposed to toxic burn pits.  (Applause.)  (Inaudible.)  These burn pits are literally the size of a football field and range in depth from 8 to 10 feet.  There's everything in them from jet fuel and human -- just everything is burned in there.
 
You know, remember all the thing -- all the fight about the cancer and the brain cancer so many firefighters were getting from the 9/11 -- the toxic exposure?  Well, it’s the same kind of thing.
 
I've been in and out of Iraq and Afghanistan over 30 times.  I had a son who spent a year in Iraq.  He -- his hooch was literally -- literally less than 200 yards from one of these burn pits.
 
Well, this new proposal guarantees healthcare for the service members and veterans exposed to toxic burn pits.  (Applause.)  Because here's what it does: Like my son, so many went incredibly fit and came home dizzy and having trouble, and so many had brain cancer.  My son came home with Stage 4 glioblastoma, and he passed away.
 
But here's what we did.  Up to now, we don't pay any attention to this.  We haven't done anything for it.  And we had to fight to get it done, and now for thousands and thousands of people coming home.  More people coming home from these wars with brain cancer than any other war in American history, and other cancers.  But guess what?  Now, if they come home and you're still alive, you get full benefits for healthcare to try to fight it.  (Applause.)  And the families and the children are getting monthly stipends for their families and tuition help for the children.
 
Look, folks, it's not just about the economy.  Let's talk a little bit about crime and keeping communities safe.
 
I signed the most significant gun safety law in nearly 30 years.  (Applause.)  I proposed over 100,000 new police officers.
 
But here's the deal: Public safety is why John got into public service in the first place.  Oz won't do a thing about guns.  But John Fetterman will veto -- with your votes, John Fetterman will be in the Senate and be able to help me add one more thing -- what I got done when I was a senator: ban assault weapons.  (Applause.)  Ban them!  Ban them.  Ban them.  They have no place in America.
 
But if Republicans take control of the Congress, they're going to pass another ban.  They want to have a national ban on abortion.
 
AUDIENCE:  Booo --
 
THE PRESIDENT:  The overturning of Roe wasn't the end for them, it was just the beginning.  States are already passing bans without exception for rape or incest or the life of the mother.
 
And Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, he's going to make sure that if Oz is elected, and other Republicans, they're going to ban choice completely.
 
AUDIENCE:  Booo --
 
THE PRESIDENT:  Well, let me tell you something.  If they get enough states to do that, they get the Congress to vote for that, I will veto it.  It will not happen.  (Applause.)
 
But if we elect John Fetterman to the Senate and keep control of the House, we can restore the right to choose in this country by codifying Roe v. Wade and make it the law of the land.  (Applause.)  And with Josh Shapiro as governor, there'll be no ban in Pennsylvania.  (Applause.)
 
Look, folks, I spoke a few days ago in Washington, just as I spoke a few weeks ago here in Philadelphia, about democracy being at risk.  Democracy is literally on the ballot.  This is a defining moment for the nation.  And we all -- we all must speak with one voice regardless of our party.  There's no place in America for political violence.  No place.  (Applause.)  Nope -- no place for what we saw happen to Paul Pelosi, a friend of mine and Nancy's husband.  No place for voter intimidation.
 
You see these guys standing there with rifles, outside of polling places?  Come on.  Where the hell do you think you are?
 
AUDIENCE MEMBER:  (Inaudible.)
 
THE PRESIDENT:  No, I’m -- they’re -- well, I shouldn’t get going.  (Laughter.)  But there’s no place for this.  There's no place for this, period.  We -- we have to reaffirm the values that have long defined us.  America -- in America, the vote is sacred.  The vote is to protect and be protected and counted.
 
And, folks, let me close with this: Here in Philadelphia, a place that defines the soul of America -- (applause) -- today --
today -- I've been saying this for now years -- today, we face an inflection point, one of those mem- -- one of those moments that comes along every several generations.  One of those moments that you're going to look back on it years from now and know whether or not we met the moment based on the state of affairs 10, 15 years from now.  I want you to know we're going to meet that moment, just like we've done before.
 
We are -- we're going to enter those final days of this midterm election remembering that the power of America is in your hands.  It really is.  (Applause.)  With -- people, just remember, your vote elected Barack Obama president.  (Applause.)  Your vote elected a son from Scranton president.  (Applause.)  And your vote elected Kamala Harris the first Black woman vice president.  (Applause.)
 
And with your vote, you can elect Josh Shapiro as your next governor, and you can elect John Fetterman as your next United States senator!  (Applause.)
 
Folks, I've never been more optimistic about America's prospects.  And I mean it from the bottom of my heart.  I've never been more optimistic.  Looking around this crowd, it reinforces what I think: The generation between the ages of 18 and 30 is the most involved -- (applause) -- the most involved, the most generous, the least prejudiced, and the most engaged generation in American history.  (Applause.)
 
I look at America reasserting itself around the world and leading the world in the 21st century.  I've traveled this country and seen this great nation because we are good people.  I know this.  There's no quit in John Fetterman.  There's no quit in Pennsylvania.  There is no quit in America.  We just have to remember who we are.  We are the United States of America!  (Applause.)  I mean it.  And there's nothing -- nothing, nothing beyond our capacity if we work together.
 
So, vote!  Get out and vote!  And may God bless you all, and may God protect our troops.  Thank you, thank you, thank you.  (Applause.)  Thank you.
 
5:43 P.M. EDT


JOSH SHAPIRO


JOHN FETTERMAN

PRES. BARACK OBAMA: Hello, Philadelphia! 

Are you fired up yet?  Man, I was backstage. I was getting fired up! I’m ready to go!

It is good to be back in Pennsylvania.  It is good to be back in, right now, the center of the sports world.  The Phillies have a chance to tie the World Series tonight.  Eagles look like they might be the best team in football team in the country.  The Sixers – well, it’s early.  It’s still early, so we won’t talk about them right now.

But I am not here to talk about sports, people. I am here to talk about something more basic. I am here to ask you to vote.  For your next governor, Josh Shapiro.  For your next United States Senator, John Fetterman.  For all the Democrats up and down the ticket.

And listen, let’s face it. If you’re at this rally, I’m assuming you’re voting.  But I don’t just need you to vote. I need you to gather up your friends and family, and make sure that they are also voting.

I know there are probably some students here, right?  You know that roommate of yours who, well meaning, nice person, but they’re a little bit slack. They’re the folks who, they’ll leave stuff in your little mini fridge a little too long because they forgot about it. Sometimes, they miss class in the morning and in the afternoon.  That person, they might tell you they’re voting, but they might not have voted yet.

You’ve got to help them. Make sure that they turn up because this election requires every single one of us to do our part. It’s that important.  It is that important.

You heard our president talk about the stakes in this election. You heard Josh Shapiro and John Fetterman talk about the stakes in this election, a fair economy that gives working people a fair shot. That’s on the ballot. Fundamental rights are on the ballot. Truth, and facts, and logic, and reason and decency on the ballot. (Applause.) Democracy itself is on the ballot. 

The stakes are high.  Yes, the stakes are high.

But look, I want to be honest, because sometimes, political rallies, everybody’s feeling optimistic. Everybody’s getting fired up. But listen, I want folks to listen to this. I want people to be clear.

Midterms are always hard for whichever party is in the White House. And typically, midterms are tougher on Democrats.

A lot of folks don’t pay attention to politics the way they do in a presidential year. Maybe they don’t think the Congress matters as much. Maybe they don’t think their vote will matter as much. Younger people especially are less likely to vote in midterms, and that hurts Democrats because younger people trend in a more progressive direction. 

And I can tell you, I can tell you from experience that midterms matter a lot. Some of you are too young but let me refresh your memories or give you a history lesson.

When I was president, I got my butt whooped in midterm elections. I was elected in the midst of a financial crisis, and we did the right things to get the economy back on track. But it was slow, and people were frustrated, just like they are right now after we’re coming out of a crisis. Sometimes, it takes a while for things to settle down, but the people are experiencing things right now, immediately, right? And so, we lost, in 2010, we lost the House.

And then, in 2014, even though, now the economy was improving. We saw the lowest voting rate recorded in modern history, maybe, in recent memory, and we lost the Senate. And because we did progress, on big important issues, from immigration to gun safety to climate change either got a lot harder or, in some cases, just ground to a halt. There you go.

Now, I’m not big on looking backwards, but sometimes, I can’t help imagine what it would have been like if enough people had turned out to vote in those elections.

And imagine if we had we had maintained control of the House, and we had maintained control of the Senate.

Imagine if we had been able to fix our broken immigration system back in 2011. Imagine if we’d been able to pass meaningful gun safety legislation back then to prevent more deaths.

Imagine if we’ve been able to reduce our emissions even further than we did. We’d be further along in avoiding the worst impacts of climate change.

If we had kept the Senate in 2014, we’d have a very different Supreme Court making decisions about our most basic rights. 

Midterms are no joke! Sometimes, we get so focused on the presidency, but I am here to tell you that our democracy works as a team sport. A president can’t do stuff alone. That’s not how our system is set up. So what happens in the House, what happens in the Senate is very vitally critical.

And the good news is you have an outstanding president right now in the White House.  You don’t have to just imagine what might happen. He’s doing stuff right now, solving problems right now with a Democratic Congress. And he can continue it if you vote.

Think about what Joe Biden has already got accomplished, despite a historic pandemic. He not only repaired the economy and kept unemployment low, which, by the way, you should not take for granted because a lot of folks thought, with a historic pandemic like that and the shutdown, that we would potentially go into a Great Depression, and we did not. And unemployment is very low right now because of the actions he took. 

He’s lowered healthcare and prescription drug costs. He passed an infrastructure bill that will put more folks here in Pennsylvania and around the country to work and make our economy stronger. He’s made the biggest investment in clean energy in history.

If you help Democrats keep the House and get a few more seats in the Senate, you can guarantee he’ll make more progress on the issues you care about. You’ve seen what he’s accomplished with the barest of margins.

If you vote, he can do even more, but it depends on you.  It depends on you.

Now, Republicans know this, and that’s why they’re doing everything they can to prevent you from voting. This is one of the only major parties worldwide that actively tries to discourage citizens from voting.

AUDIENCE: Boo!

PRES. BARACK OBAMA: Hey, don’t boo.

AUDIENCE: Vote!

PRES. BARACK OBAMA: Vote! Vote! They can’t hear you boo, but they’ll hear your vote.

They passed laws to make it harder to vote. A lot of times, many of the elected officials or the people who are running to run elections right now are suggesting that maybe they would not count votes, nullify votes, overturn votes.

But the big tactic that they’re going to use, because they always do this, especially in midterms, year after year, election after election, they will try to make you afraid. They will resort to fear. They want to scare the living daylights out of everybody. And most of the time, those fears have a very slender relationship to reality.

Back in 2010, Republicans tried to make everybody afraid about deficits and death panels. Oh, deficits are going to ruin the country. It turns out the deficits didn’t explode; we actually brought them down.

And by the way, as soon as they got a Republican in office, they didn’t suddenly care about deficits, and passed big tax cuts for the wealthy.

AUDIENCE MEMBER: They weren’t paid for!

PRES. BARACK OBAMA: Weren’t paid for. Thank you. Man, we’ve got some outstanding historians here.  That’s good because you were only eight when all this happened.  I’m impressed you knew this.

Ten years later, not a single person has faced the death panel from Obamacare. On the other hand, 35 million people now have health coverage, thanks to the Affordable Care Act.  And Joe Biden just made it that much cheaper to sign up. That was their tactic in 2010.

In 2014, same playbook, try to make you afraid of everything. You had Ebola, and ISIS, and immigrants, and they were all coming to your neighborhood. 

It turned out there were no ISIS fighters pouring across the border. By the fall, the number of migrants, they were mostly unaccompanied children; it dropped considerably. And then it turned out that we knew how to prevent Ebola from reaching our shores, because you know what? We believed in science.  It was very helpful in dealing with this disease.

But you know what? People got afraid. People got afraid. It was visceral. And so, they either didn’t turn out, didn’t turn out in the right places. And we lost the Senate, and you know what happened because of that.

Midterm elections matter. Republicans understand this. I understand it, I promise you.  And Joe Biden understands it. And if you keep that in mind, if you ignore the fear mongering, if you ignore the cynicism, if you vote, then we will keep this country moving forward.

But you’ve got to do it! You have to do it! The only way to make this economy fair, the only way to make our democracy stronger is if we fight for it. You can’t take it for granted. And that starts with electing people who know you, who see you, who care about you, who can walk in your shoes, and see through your eyes and know what it’s like to struggle, know what it’s like to get sick, know what it’s like to have to pay off student loans, know what it’s like when things aren’t just handed to you, but you’ve got to work for them. 

That’s what you did two years ago when you sent Joe Biden to the White House.  He knows you! He’s been there! He’s fighting for you every day, doing everything he can to put more money in your pocket, to make streets safer, to bring more good-paying jobs here to Pennsylvania.

I can tell you, the presidency does not change who you are. You can tell by my successor; it didn’t change him. (Laughter.) It reveals who you are. It reveals who you are under the stress and strain of the presidency, and the decency, the empathy, the belief that everybody counts, that we have seen on display from Joe Biden these past two years. That’s who he is.

And that’s why you need to vote for more leaders like him. That’s why you have to vote for Josh Shapiro! That’s why it’s a vote for John Fetterman! They’ve shown you who they are.

There are a lot of issues at stake in this election. But in every election, the most basic question you should be asking yourself right now is who will fight for you? Who cares about you?

That’s the choice that you make in this election, like every election. Who will fight for working people who are struggling to pay the bills?

Listen, inflation is a real problem right now, not just here, but around the world. It’s one of the aftereffects of the pandemic. It’s screwed up supply chains, and it’s been compounded by the war in Ukraine, which made energy prices shoot up. And it takes a bite out of everybody’s paycheck. And it’s frustrating and scary if you’re on a fixed income. I get it. So does Joe.

But the question is who’s actually going to do something about it? The Republicans who want to gut Social Security and Medicare while giving more tax cuts to the wealthiest among us, more tax cuts to big corporations? I don’t think that’s going to help you.

AUDIENCE: No!

PRES. BARACK OBAMA: Or is it Democrats like Joe Biden, who are lowering the cost of prescription drugs, and helping to bring down gas prices, and hold oil companies accountable, and make healthcare more affordable? 

That’s the choice in this election.

I mean, who do you really think knows more about budgets and having to pay the bills, John Fetterman or Dr. Oz? Come on. 

Who will fight to keep your family safe? The Republican politicians who want to flood our streets with more guns, voted against more resources for police departments, or Democratic leaders who worked with Joe Biden to pass the first major gun safety legislation in nearly 30 years?

That’s the choice in this election. That’s what’s at stake right now.

Who will fight for your freedoms? Is it Republican politicians and judicial appointees who think they should get to decide who you love or when you start a family, or is it Democratic leaders who believe the most intimate, personal decisions that we can make belong to every individual American, not mostly male politicians in Washington?

That’s the choice in this election. That’s why you have to decide.

And who is going to actually make democracy work for you? Republicans, they’ve already promised. They’ve said it. I’m not making this up. They’ve said it. You can look it up. They’ve said their top priority, they’re going to spend the next two years investigating their political opponents.

Now, I don’t know how that’s going to help you. Some of them said, we’re going to impeach Biden. They’re not quite sure why or what for, but that’s irrelevant for them. 

Think about that. How is that going to help you, your family? Young people launch a career, start a family, get a mortgage.

That’s one option.

The other option is President Biden and Democratic leaders who’ve worked together, and sometimes even gotten Republicans, against their best instincts, I guess, to work with them to create new jobs, and lower costs, and fight climate change.

That’s the choice in this election between politicians who seem willing to do anything and say anything to get power, and those who share your values and want to make your lives better. 

You just heard from Josh Shapiro. You know what Josh is focused on. He was one of the first people ever to endorse my campaign for president. For some reason, he looks the same and I look a lot older. I don’t know why. But he had my back, he had my back.

If you elect him your next governor, he will have your back every single day, growing the economy, cutting taxes for working people, not folks who don’t need it, fully funding our schools, supporting our teachers.  That’s who Josh is.

Now, Josh’s opponent, oh, oy vey. Ha, he’s willing to take the most extreme positions on pretty much everything.  I mean, you name it. Global warming, he says it’s fake science. It doesn’t matter what the thermometers say. Should gay people be allowed to get married or adopt children? Nope, he doesn’t think so. He does think it’s okay to dress up in a Confederate uniform for a staff photo at the college where he used to teach. And hey, it wasn’t even Halloween!  It was like casual Friday, or something. 

Listen, Pennsylvania, let’s remember what century it is.  And listen, this would be funny, it would be an SNL skit if it weren’t so serious. You cannot let somebody that detached from reality run your state.

AUDIENCE: No!

PRES. BARACK OBAMA: Let’s get out and vote for somebody you can trust, Josh Shapiro! 

You need to vote for John Fetterman.  This is a guy who has been fighting for regular folks his whole life. You can tell, just talk to him. He’s just a dude. He’s just like – he is who he says he is. He does not pretend to be somebody else.  He doesn’t put on airs. He doesn’t treat people differently depending on who he’s talking to. You can tell what’s in his heart, what’s in his gut.

As your senator, John will help build an economy that works for everyone, because that’s his track record as a mayor, as somebody who worked with kids who didn’t have the advantages. He’s going to improve our criminal justice system. He’ll lower costs for Pennsylvania families.

And he’s tough, and not just because he wears shorts in the winter, which I do not do. He knows what it’s like to get knocked down. But John’s stroke didn’t change who he is. It didn’t change what he cares about, and it will not change who he fights for when he gets to the United States Senate. He will fight for you!

The only person John’s opponents fighting for is himself, and maybe Donald Trump.

AUDIENCE: Boo!

PRES. BARACK OBAMA: What did I say about booing? Do not boo. Vote! No booing, just voting.

Look, let’s face it, it’s easy to joke about Dr. Oz. I mean, some of these remedies he’s pushed on to TV, the raspberry ketones and the lavender soap and the palm oil for dementia… But you know what? That matters, because if somebody who knows better, who knows better, is willing to sell snake oil just to make money, then he’s going to be willing to do anything and say anything to get elected, even if it’s not good for you.

And Pennsylvania, you deserve someone that’s honest with you. You deserve somebody who cares about you.  You deserve somebody who will tell you what they really think, what they really believe, that won’t be looking to see what Donald Trump tells them they should be doing or thinking because it’s expedient; somebody who’s going to work for you every day and fight for you.

And by the way, somebody who’s actually from Pennsylvania! You deserve somebody like John Fetterman! 

And you deserve leaders who will stand up for a woman’s right to control her own body and make her own healthcare decisions.  I genuinely believe there are people of good conscience who differ from me on abortion, and they should be free to make those choices as their conscience guides them.

But we should all agree that women everywhere, whatever their economic station, whatever states they live in, should be able to control what happens with their own bodies.

Josh’s opponent says he thinks both women who get an abortion and the doctors who help them, who treat them, should be prosecuted. John’s opponent said the decision about whether to have an abortion should be made by, quote, women doctors and local political leaders. Really? I mean, are you going to petition the mayor? Are you calling the sheriff? City Council member, school board? Who exactly should tell you when to start a family?

You should make that decision. And if that’s not worth 15 minutes of your time, the amount of time it takes to vote, I don’t know what is.

But if you need another reason to go vote, consider the fact that democracy really is on the ballot.

Listen, Democrats may not be perfect. I’m the first one to admit it. I wasn’t perfect. Joe, he’ll tell you. Listen, you’re making decisions all the time. We’re all human; we’ve all got foibles. But right now, at this moment, with a few notable exceptions most Republican politicians aren’t even pretending that the rules apply to them anymore. They’re not even pretending the facts apply anymore. They just make stuff up.

Josh’s opponent was at the Capitol on January 6. He was there, I mean, and he wasn’t just an observer. John’s opponent hired people who were there to work on his campaign. He decided – well, now, yeah, I don’t know if it was the guy with the Viking hat or who, but he decided that I need that guy on my campaign. Both of them, to this day, have refused to say that Joe Biden won the last election.

Now listen, I understand that democracy might not seem like a top priority right now, especially when you’re worried about paying the bills. But when true democracy goes away, we’ve seen throughout history, we’ve seen around the world, when true democracy goes away, people get hurt. It has real consequences. This is not an abstraction.

Governments start telling you what books you can read and which ones you can’t. Dissidents start getting locked up. Reporters start getting locked up if they’re not toeing the party line. Corruption reigns because there’s no accountability. People get hurt; there are consequences.

There’s a reason why generations of Americans fought and died for our democracy. There’s a reason why suffragists, and union members and civil rights activists marched and struggled, and in some cases, gave their lives for this precious thing, this experiment in self-governance. 

They understood how precious it was. They fought to broaden and expand who would be included in “We, the people.” And they understood that when democracy withers, it’s hard to restore. You can’t take it for granted. You have to work for it; you have to nurture it. You have to fight for it.

Now, the good news is you get to make a difference, as long as you turn out to vote. 

You can fight for it as long as you turn out to vote. 

You can bolster and strengthen our democracy as long as you get out there and do what needs to be done! 

We joke in my household that Michelle, she’s got a dazzling smile.  Yeah. I mean, listen, I understand, in terms of popularity, there’s basically Michelle, Malia, Sasha, Sunny, our dog, and me. I understand. She’s hot; she’s smart.  She is! She’s charming, she’s intelligent. I get it.

But here’s a little secret about Michelle. In our household, she can be a little bit of the glass half empty person sometimes. She can get a little discouraged about what she sees happening. And I’m the hope and change guy. So, I’m usually a little more optimistic.

And so, if she’s been watching the news or reading the papers, and some crazy stuff is taking place, which is basically every 10 minutes, she can get a little down. And I’ll say, “Honey, everything’s going to be okay.” And I believe that; I believe things will be okay, but I also know that things won’t be okay on their own.

It’ll be okay if we make the effort. It’ll be okay if we work for it, not just on Election Day, but every day in between. 

And look, I know some of you probably feel like Michelle does sometimes, because I feel, even me, the hope and change guy, I can get discouraged. Politics is so nasty and mean, and it just seems like people will say anything and do anything. And it can be depressing sometimes.

And a lot of what we used to take for granted, things like respect, and common decency, and telling the truth, and believing of science, and the idea that every vote should count, and that the person with the most votes wins, all that somehow has become controversial.

But I was listening backstage to what Josh talked about, the experience of him running for governor and traveling around the state. It reminded me of the experience I had, first as a state senator traveling around my district, and then as a U.S. Senate candidate in Illinois, and then as a presidential candidate.

It’s such a privilege to be able to meet people from every walk of life, folks who look different and live in different places. And it would always remind me, and what we have to remind ourselves, is that there’s this common thread. There’s this thing that binds us together as Americans, a belief that no matter who we are or where we come from, what we look like, who we love, what our last name is, how we worship, a belief that all of us matter.

The kind of slash and burn politics that we’re seeing right now, that doesn’t have to be who we are. We can be better.

And it has nothing to do, by the way, with political correctness or being too woke. It’s about fundamental values that my grandparents from Kansas taught me – values I grew up with, values you grew up with, values we try to teach our kids, values we learn in churches, and mosques, and synagogues and temples, honesty, fairness, opportunity, hard work, values that Josh Shapiro and John Fetterman stand for! 

Values that Joe Biden stands for! Values that were enshrined in our founding documents a few miles from here, a clarion call for freedom and equality that Philly’s own Liberty Bell represents!

That’s what America stands for!  That’s who we are! 

So, if you’re anxious and frustrated right now, don’t complain. Don’t mope. Don’t tune out. Get off your couch and do what?

AUDIENCE: Vote!

PRES. BARACK OBAMA: Put down your phones and do what?

AUDIENCE: Vote!

PRES. BARACK OBAMA: Vote for Josh Shapiro!  Vote for John Fetterman! 

Vote for leaders who will fight for you and your families! Vote for folks who will fight for that big, inclusive, hopeful, forward-looking America that we believe in, who will work with Joe Biden to build a country that is more fair, and more just, and more equal and more free.

 That’s our task. Let’s get to work!

I love you, Philly! I love you, Pennsylvania! Let’s go!