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<\/a><\/p>\n10:24 A.M. EDT<\/p>\n
AUDIENCE: Joe! Joe! Joe! Joe!<\/p>\n
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you. Thank you all. Is this working? There you go.<\/p>\n
Before you all sit down completely, the reason why you\u2019re here is because of all of those people up in the stands. Stand up and give your parents and your grandparents, and those who got you, an applause. (Applause.) You owe them! <\/p>\n
And to all the parents up in the stands, this may be the best day of all. No more tuition! (Laughter and applause.) But probably all of them are going to graduate school, so that probably won\u2019t work. (Laughs.)<\/p>\n
Dr. Assanis, trustees, faculty, the staff; my good friend \u2014 and he is my really good friend for a long time \u2014 Tommy \u2014 I call him \u201cTommy\u201d \u2014 but Tom Carper \u2014 Senator Carper. Lisa Blunt Rochester, our congresswoman who can preach \u2014 this woman can preach. (Applause.) And is really good. She\u2019s a great congresswoman. <\/p>\n
And the Class of 2022: Congratulations! (Applause.)<\/p>\n
I know they\u2019ve been recognized already, but I can\u2019t \u2014 yesterday, I did the commencement at the Naval Academy, and it reminds me today: I want a special cons- \u2014 special congratulations to the veterans who are graduating today, all those who are being commissioned in the United States military. Would you please stand \u2014 of the graduating class? Stand up if you\u2019re \u2014 (applause) \u2014<\/p>\n
And those of you have served as well in this class, stand up. (Applause.)<\/p>\n
And for all those of you who are joining the service or about to join the finest group of warriors the world has ever seen \u2014 and that\u2019s not hyperbole; that\u2019s literally true. So thank you, thank you, thank you. (Applause.) <\/p>\n
Jill \u2014 better known as Dr. Biden \u2014 I happen to be her husband \u2014 not only earned her undergraduate degree here,<\/p>\n
she also got her doctorate degree here. She got a master\u2019s in between, somewhere else. (Laughter.) And the First Lady has continued to work full-time as a professor while being the First Lady. <\/p>\n
But, Gerret, you and I have something in common, pal: We both married way above our station. (Applause.) <\/p>\n
Not only can she speak five different languages, whatever language she\u2019s speaking, you better damn well listen, man. (Laughter.) So, I\u2019m telling you, thank you.<\/p>\n
And I want to say this is a special day for my sister Valerie and I. She\u2019s my best friend in the world. She graduated here with honors. I graduated. (Laughter.) Oh, that\u2019s literally true. (Laughs.) And we took the same damn classes. (Laughter.) <\/p>\n
We used to be three years apart, and now Val is 22 years <\/p>\n
younger than I am. (Laughter.) But it feels like coming home because it is \u2014 this is home. This is home.<\/p>\n
I once walked this campus as you did. Took the classes in the same classrooms you\u2019ve taken classes. Walked the graduation ceremony just as you\u2019re walking today. Some of the best and most important years of my life were spent here.<\/p>\n
And I had the opportunity to be taught by some great professors. I\u2019ll bet every one of you already can name one or two professors that\u2019s changed your life, that\u2019s had an impact on you in a fundamental way. I was lucky \u2014 I graduated with a dual degree in history and political science. If you add up both my GPAs in each of those, I was probably a 4.0. (Laughter.)<\/p>\n
But all kidding aside, Dr. Dolan, from the political science department \u2014 I think he could picture me here in the endzone, maybe catching a pass over my left shoulder, but I doubt whether ever the hell he thought I\u2019d be standing here as President of the United States. (Laughs.) (Applause.)<\/p>\n
Although, Dr. Ingersoll is the one \u2014 you know, professors make a difference. I was asked to seek the nomination by a group of people I won\u2019t bore you with, and I thought it was a little off the wall that I was \u2014 I wasn\u2019t even old enough. And I turned \u2014 it was after a Democratic off-year convention. And I turned to the Chief Justice, who was retired \u2014 from a family that has more senators than any family in American history: former Justice Tunnell.<\/p>\n
And I said, \u201cMr. Justice, I\u2019m not old enough.\u201d He said, \u201cYou obviously didn\u2019t do well in constitutional law, Joe.\u201d (Laughter.) So, the Constitution says you need to be 30 to be sworn in, but you can be elected at any age they want to elect you. So why the hell I did it, I wasn\u2019t sure. <\/p>\n
But I got in a car in Dover, and I drove straight to the campus. Not a joke. And I looked up Dr. Ingersoll, one of my professors that I admired most; taught political philosophy.<\/p>\n
And I told him the dilemma, because I hadn\u2019t thought about that at all at the time. I really hadn\u2019t. And he looked at me and he said, \u201cJoe, remember what Plato said.\u201d I\u2019m thinking, \u201cWhat the hell did Plato say?\u201d (Laughter.)<\/p>\n
And he paraphrased it. And he said: The penalty good people pay for not being involved in politics is being governed by people worse than themselves. (Applause.) <\/p>\n
Folks, it\u2019s what I want to talk to you all about today. Though I think even my professors would be surprised if there\u2019s a Biden School of Public Policy and Administration at the University of Delaware. Thank you, Tatiana. (Laughs.)<\/p>\n
But no one is more surprised than me. And while I had graduated before I \u2014 he started teaching, I wanted to acknowledge the respect and the \u2014 that I had for Dr. James Newton, a trailblazer in Black American studies and the civil rights across our nation. (Applause.)<\/p>\n
If there\u2019s one message I hope you take from me today,<\/p>\n
it\u2019s: This is no time to be on the sidelines. It\u2019s not hyperbole. I mean it from the bottom of my heart.<\/p>\n
We need all of you to get engaged in public life and the life of this nation.<\/p>\n
Because here\u2019s the simple truth: You\u2019re graduating and entering a world at a momentous and consequential and defining time.<\/p>\n
The next 10 years of your life are going to determine what the next 50 years of this nation are going to look like. We\u2019re at one of those inflection points in history where things are changing so fundamentally that we have to act. <\/p>\n
Like the Americans in the 1850s and \u201860s \u2014 we had to decide whether to preserve slavery or become a free nation \u2014 truly free.<\/p>\n
Like Americans in the \u201830s and \u201840s \u2014 President Roosevelt had said they had a \u201crendezvous with destiny,\u201d at home and abroad.<\/p>\n
Like Americans in the \u201860s, in my generation \u2014 when I sat where you\u2019re sitting in 1965 \u2014 were bitterly divided over the war in Vietnam. <\/p>\n
We watched our heroes \u2014 two Kennedys and a King \u2014 gunned down by assassins and, still, we chose to expand the possibilities of America by breaking down unjust barriers <\/p>\n
of civil rights and voting rights.<\/p>\n
Well, now, it\u2019s your hour. The challenges are immense \u2014 foreign and domestic \u2014 but so are the possibilities.<\/p>\n
I spent time \u2014 more time with Xi Jinping than any world leader has \u2014 over 76 hours. We traveled 17,000 miles in China and the United States together. We were on the Tibetan Plateau, and he turned to me and said, \u201cCan you define America for me?\u201d And I said, \u201cYes, I can, in one word: possibilities.\u201d Everything is possible in America. Not a joke. (Applause.) Everything. <\/p>\n
I believe that with every fiber of my being this is a decisive decade for America, at a time when we can choose the future we want, at a time when we must decide that darkness will not prevail over light.<\/p>\n
In the last five years since many of you were in high school, America has faced some of its most difficult tests.<\/p>\n
A global pandemic ended a million lives in America alone \u2014 a million \u2014 and upended, according to most studies, the lives of \u2014 personal lives of at least another 9 million children and family members, and many of your lives.<\/p>\n
And a crisis of faith in the institutions that have \u2014 however flawed they may be \u2014 serve as the infrastructure for the American experiment in liberty and self-government. <\/p>\n
I\u2019ve defined to my foreign colleagues and heads of state America when I was at the G7. I said America is unique in the world. We\u2019re the only nation in the world founded on an idea. Every other nation is founded on ethnicity, religion, geography. But only America is founded on an idea: We hold these truths to be self-evident that all women and men are created equal, endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights \u2014 life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness.<\/p>\n
We say it so often. We\u2019ve never met the goal, but we\u2019ve never walked away from it \u2014 ever. (Applause.) And each generation has brought us closer to the goal. <\/p>\n
And what you\u2019ve been through the last four years \u2014 and I\u2019m not being solicitous with you \u2014 what you\u2019ve been through the last four years, you could not have imagined when you were graduating from high school: campus shutdowns, classes on Zoom, the world turned upside down.<\/p>\n
But you got through it. And it took an extraordinary commitment, determination, and resolve to do it. You should be proud you overcame it all to see this day. Your generation, and this class, can do anything. <\/p>\n
I decided to seek the presidency. When I had concluded \u2014 I was a professor at Penn \u2014 I was never going to run again. And I meant that from the bottom of my heart. I had just lost my son Beau. And I had no interest whatsoever. And I was teaching at Penn. And then, Charlottesville. <\/p>\n
In the United States of America, in the 20th century \u2014 21st century \u2014 people coming out of fields at night carrying torches.<\/p>\n
Close your eyes. Remember what you saw. Their veins bulging, preaching the same hate \u2014 white supremacy; chanting the same Nazi phrases \u2014 not figuratively, literally \u2014 that were being chanted in the \u201830s in Europe. Torches lit again.<\/p>\n
You know, when I was a young senator, I was proud to be the senator who actually got Strom Thurmond to vote for the Voting Rights Act. I got it extended 25 years, and I thought, \u201cYou can bury hate. You can wipe it out.\u201d But I learned a lesson: You can\u2019t eliminate hate. It only hides when it\u2019s defeated. <\/p>\n
But when the prominent leaders are leader- \u2014 breathe oxygen under the rocks it\u2019s hiding in, it takes on a new life. It comes roaring back out in ways, I must tell you, I never thought would happen. Because I got into politics sitting where you\u2019re sitting because of civil rights in Delaware.<\/p>\n
And then, nearly four years later, a mob of insurrectionists stormed the Capitol \u2014 the very citadel of democracy.<\/p>\n
Imagine what you\u2019d be thinking today if you had heard this morning, before you got here, that a group of a thousand people broke down the doors of the Parliament in Great Britain, killed two police officers, smashed and ransacked the office of members of the British Parliament, or any other. What would you think? What would you think?<\/p>\n
And then, just this month, we thought that white supremacy<\/p>\n
was finally being got hold of.<\/p>\n
Buffalo, New York: A shopping center in a Black community. I went and met with every one of those parents, every one of those families.<\/p>\n
And now, tomorrow, I\u2019ll be heli- \u2014 I\u2019ll be heading to Uvalde, Texas, to meet with each of those families.<\/p>\n
And as I speak, those parents are literally preparing to bury their children in the United States of America \u2014 to bury their children. There\u2019s too much violence, too much fear, too much grief.<\/p>\n
Let\u2019s be clear: Evil came to that elementary school classroom in Texas, to that grocery store in New York, to far too many places where innocents have died.<\/p>\n
In the face of such destructive forces, we have to stand stronger. We must stand stronger. We cannot outlaw tragedy, I know, but we can make America safer.<\/p>\n
We can finally do what we have to do to protect the lives of the people and of our children. <\/p>\n
So I call on all Americans this hour to join hands and make your voices heard and work together to make this nation what it can and should be.<\/p>\n
I know we can do this. We have done it before. You and I acted as \u201cWe the People\u201d seeking a more perfect union.<\/p>\n
Always remember: Democracy is a human enterprise. We do many things well. Sometimes we fall short. That\u2019s true in our own lives; it\u2019s true in the life of the nation. And yet democracy makes progress possible. <\/p>\n
And progress comes when we begin to see each other again, not as enemies but as neighbors.<\/p>\n
When I spoke yesterday at Annapolis, I finished by talking about my friend \u2014 he was my close friend; on his deathbed, asked me to do his eulogy \u2014 who would scream at each other and holler like hell at one another: John McCain. Very different views. We still loved one another.<\/p>\n
Not as mindless, competing factions, but as fellow citizens. Learned anew, in their own \u2014 on their own time that democracy is fragile, democracy is precious, but it\u2019s also precarious.<\/p>\n
Truth is truth. Lies are lies. And the truth is: We have a solemn duty to keep the flame of liberty burning. This is not about blue and red, rural and urban. It\u2019s about America. The right to govern ourselves. The right to determine our own destinies, to overcome division and despair, and to meet the challenges of our time with grit and, maybe equally important, with some grace. To press ahead determined, resolved, and full of hope.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s not easy. It\u2019s never been. But it\u2019s who we are \u2014 people united by a idea \u2014 by an idea, unbending in the face of adversity, and devoted to creating and sustaining the beloved nation of ours.<\/p>\n
You don\u2019t have to take my word for it. Frederick Douglass said it better. He said, \u201cNo soil is better adapted to growth of reform than [the] American soil.\u201d<\/p>\n
The women of Seneca Falls call for suffrage by writing, \u201cWe hold these truths to be self-evident that all women and men are created equal.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dr. King said his dream of liberty for all was deeply rooted in the American Dream \u2014 the right to life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness; the right to rise in the world as far as your talent can take you, unlimited by unfair barriers of privilege and power.<\/p>\n
Such are the principles of democracy, and such are the principles of America.<\/p>\n
And I don\u2019t think I\u2019m exercising hyperbole. I\u2019ve been around too long. That\u2019s what is at stake today.<\/p>\n
The question we face is nothing less than: \u201cWho are we?\u201d \u201cWhat do we stand for?\u201d \u201cWhat do we believe?\u201d And maybe more importantly, \u201cWho are we going to be?\u201d<\/p>\n
And while this can feel like a very dark moment in America,<\/p>\n
I\u2019m optimistic. I\u2019ve never been more optimistic in my entire life. And here\u2019s why \u2014 and I mean this, my word as a Biden.<\/p>\n
I mean it. Because of you \u2014 this generation, your generation \u2014 it makes me more optimistic.<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve said it many times, as I look at my granddaughters who all graduated from universities and about to enter them \u2014 I\u2019ll say it again today: Your generation is the most generous, the most tolerant, the least prejudiced, the best-educated generation this nation has ever known. And that\u2019s a simple fact. (Applause.)<\/p>\n
And it\u2019s your generation, more than anyone else, who will have to answer the question, \u201cWho are we?\u201d \u201cWhat do we stand for?\u201d \u201cWhat do we believe?\u201d \u201cWho will we be?\u201d<\/p>\n
Progress in our country has always been met with ferocious pushback from the oldest and darkest forces in America. Always.<\/p>\n
We should not be surprised that these same forces are fighting back again, preying on hopelessness and despair; demonizing people who don\u2019t look like them; doing everything, no matter how desperate, to hold on to power.<\/p>\n
This was never going to be an easy battle, and it never has been, because it\u2019s occurred before in America.<\/p>\n
The oldest and darkest forces in the past may believe they\u2019ll determine America\u2019s future. But I promise you \u2014 remember I said this, if you remember nothing that I said at this graduation: They are wrong. Wrong, wrong, wrong. (Applause.) <\/p>\n
We will, you will \u2014 in this moment, in this battle, we will not lose the right to vote, the right to self-determination, the right to choose, the right to be you, and marry the person you love. (Applause.) <\/p>\n
We must and will stand together to save the planet and preserve democracy.<\/p>\n
When America was literally facing war with itself when Lincoln was President \u2014 excuse me \u2014 when Lincoln was President, Lincoln reminded us. He said, \u201cLet\u2019s have faith that right makes might.\u201d (Applause.) Right makes might.<\/p>\n
This is an essential principle of the soul of America. I mean it sincerely \u2014 the soul of America. The principle must guide you and your lives regardless of your politics \u2013conservative or liberal \u2014 but just human decency. The principle that guides me and my administration. <\/p>\n
For we can and will and should disagree about the means of governance. That\u2019s what democracy is about as well. But we have to be unified in the purpose of America: to create possibility, prosperity; protect decency and dignity; to be free and fair. <\/p>\n
Just think about who we are. The bloodiest civil wars led the abolition of slavery. Generation after generation who stood against totalitarianism and terror.<\/p>\n
And while we, the people, have undertaken great enterprises when building interstates, to finding vaccines, to going to the stars \u2014 in all these moments, we were driven, as we are today, by the most American of principles: that we the people have created the strongest, freest, most prosperous nation the world has ever known. And again, that is not hyperbole, it\u2019s a fact.<\/p>\n
Now, in this moment, we face our own test: to resolve \u2014 a test of resolve, a test of conscience, a test of history itself.<\/p>\n
No generation gets to choose what world they graduate into. None. But a few \u2014 a few generations enter at a point in history where they have the power to change the trajectory of a nation. And you can.<\/p>\n
When I sat where you are, in the mid-\u201860s, I believed we could. And we did, through civil rights, change the trajectory of the nation.<\/p>\n
And now I know that may feel like an added burden on top of all you\u2019ve already been through. I\u2019m not saying you have to shoulder the burden on your own. The task at hand and the task ahead is the work of all of us. What I am saying is you represent the best of us. You literally represent the best of us \u2014 a better America than we are today.<\/p>\n
A generation \u2014 your generation will not be ignored, will not be shunned, and will not be silenced. You have an opportunity to not only reaffirm but to breathe new life into America\u2019s most important values: equality, fairness, justice.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s what I felt like all those years ago when I sat where you are sitting today. And I mean that sincerely. I didn\u2019t think I was going to be President of the United States. It wasn\u2019t like \u201cI\u2019m going to be President\u201d \u2014 although I loved reading the biographies. Everybody knew I was going to be President when I was in high school. I had no idea of it. (Laughter.) <\/p>\n
But for all the uncertainty in the world, this university gave me confidence in myself to engage, to get involved, because I believed I could make a difference. <\/p>\n
My sister Valerie and I come from very modest backgrounds. A three-bedroom, split-level home in a decent neighborhood; four kids and a grandpop living with us. We never felt we were poor, but we never had \u2014 we had trouble making the tuition, which was 300 bucks a year. Not a joke. Or semester, I should say.<\/p>\n
I hope you feel that way today, though, that you can change things. Because that\u2019s what I see in all of you. You can make the difference. You can lift the country up. You can meet the challenges of our time. <\/p>\n
I\u2019ve always believed this nation can be defined by one word, as I said before: possibilities. It\u2019s still true today. <\/p>\n
And so to the University Class of 2022, there is no limit on what you can do. I promise you.<\/p>\n
So get going, for God\u2019s sake. Godspeed on your journey. Keep the faith. And take it back \u2014 please. This is yours. (Applause.) Take it back! We need you. <\/p>\n
God bless you all, and may God protect our troops. I really mean it \u2014 I believe in you. Thank you, thank you, thank you. (Applause.)<\/p>\n
10:51 A.M. EDT<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
University of Delaware Newark, Delaware… To all the parents up in the stands, this may be the best day of all. No more tuition! (Laughter and applause.) But probably all of them are going to graduate school, so that probably won\u2019t work. (Laughs.) 10:24 A.M. EDT AUDIENCE: Joe! Joe! Joe! Joe! THE PRESIDENT: Thank you, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1599,"featured_media":13330,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_cbd_carousel_blocks":"[]","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,20,5,17,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-141724","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-education","category-featured","category-government","category-national-news","category-news","last_archivepost"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/whitehouselogo200.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141724","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1599"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=141724"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141724\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":141728,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141724\/revisions\/141728"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/13330"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=141724"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=141724"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=141724"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}