{"id":171807,"date":"2024-01-09T19:40:34","date_gmt":"2024-01-10T03:40:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/?p=171807"},"modified":"2024-01-09T19:40:34","modified_gmt":"2024-01-10T03:40:34","slug":"president-biden-at-mother-emanuel-ame-church-charleston-south-carolina","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/?p=171807","title":{"rendered":"President Biden at Mother Emanuel AME Church Charleston, South Carolina"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Charleston, SC&#8230;Thank you. (Applause.) Thank you, thank you, thank you. Thank you. Thank you, thank you, thank you. (Applause.) Thank you. I rest my case. (Laughter and applause.) AUDIENCE: Four more years! THE PRESIDENT: Thank you, please. Thank you. AUDIENCE: Four more years! Four more years! Four more years! THE PRESIDENT: Thank you. Thank you. AUDIENCE: Four more years! Four more years! Four more years! THE PRESIDENT: Thank you, thank you, thank you. Thank you. Thank you. It\u2019s going to go to my head. (Laughter.)<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/418161180_409862974951536_3193057487716156692_n.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-171808\" src=\"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/418161180_409862974951536_3193057487716156692_n.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"427\" srcset=\"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/418161180_409862974951536_3193057487716156692_n.jpg 1600w, https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/418161180_409862974951536_3193057487716156692_n-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/418161180_409862974951536_3193057487716156692_n-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/418161180_409862974951536_3193057487716156692_n-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/418161180_409862974951536_3193057487716156692_n-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/418161180_409862974951536_3193057487716156692_n-570x380.jpg 570w, https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/418161180_409862974951536_3193057487716156692_n-701x467.jpg 701w, https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/418161180_409862974951536_3193057487716156692_n-1067x712.jpg 1067w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" style=\"border: none; overflow: hidden;\" src=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/plugins\/video.php?height=320&amp;href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Fjoebiden%2Fvideos%2F1104256730592846%2F&amp;show_text=false&amp;width=640&amp;t=0\" width=\"640\" height=\"320\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Please. Thank you. Jim \u2014<\/p>\n<p>AUDIENCE MEMBER: We love you!<\/p>\n<p>THE PRESIDENT: \u2014 you know \u2014 just say one thing about what Jim has been talking about that confuses me about our Republican friends sometimes \u2014 the MAGA Republicans. No, I mean this \u2014 I\u2019m being sincere.<\/p>\n<p>Every one of the things that Jim mentioned saves the American taxpayer billions of dollars. Realize if you have a prescription drug from any major drug company in America, I can take you to Toronto, Canada; London; Rome; any major capital in the world and buy the same exact drug for sometimes half the price that you get here.<\/p>\n<p>Look, folks, when the federal government, through Medicare, doesn\u2019t have to pay out as much money, it means taxpayers pay less money, because you fund the federal government \u2014 (applause) \u2014 you fund Medicare.<\/p>\n<p>Go down every one of these things \u2014 it always confused me. They talk about being rational; it\u2019s just about excess profit.<\/p>\n<p>But any rate, I don\u2019t want to get off on that. I\u2019ll get carried away. (Laughter.) I don\u2019t quite get these guys.<\/p>\n<p>Thank you, Jim, for your friendship and, above all, for your \u2014 your fellowship. And, Bishop Green, thank you for those kind words. I mean that sincerely. And thank you, Reverend Manning, for \u2014 for, you know \u2014 the shepherd of this house \u2014 to allow me to stand at this podium once again. And to all the faithful of Mother Emanuel and distinguished guests.<\/p>\n<p>I was talking downstairs. I \u2014 I\u2019ve spent more time in the Bethel AME Church in Wilmington, Delaware, than I have \u2014 than most people I know, Black or white, have spent in that church. (Laughter.) Because that\u2019s where I started \u2014 no, I\u2019m serious. It started with the Civil Rights Movement. I used to go to 7:30 mass, then I\u2019d go to 10 o\u2019clock cl- \u2014 10 o\u2019clock service with the reverend who was then running the church, who\u2019s now the bishop. She\u2019s the bishop. And I\u2019m told your bishop had been there before, in South Africa, because that\u2019s where he is right now.<\/p>\n<p>The point is that I\u2019ve been blessed to worship here before as well. You know \u2014 you know, it\u2019s \u2014 at moments of joy and \u2014 great joy and moments of great pain, in moments of unbearable loss.<\/p>\n<p>On June 17th, 2015, the beautiful souls, five survivors \u2014 and five survivors invited a stranger into this church to pray with them. The word of God was pierced by bullets in hate and rage, propelled by not just gunpowder but by a poison \u2014 a poison that\u2019s for too long haunted this nation.<\/p>\n<p>What is that poison? White supremacy. (Applause.) Oh, it is; it\u2019s a poison. Throughout our history, it\u2019s ripped this nation apart. This has no place in America. Not today, tomorrow, or ever.<\/p>\n<p>From that day, this nation saw this congregation, this community demonstrate one of the greatest acts of strength I have ever seen \u2014 I mean it sincerely, from the bottom of my \u2014 the act of forgiveness, the act of grace. It was, as President Obama sang from here, \u201cAmazing Grace.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>It changed hearts. You did something that may not have happened but for your courage. You brought down the Confederate flag in South Carolina. (Applause.) You brought it down. No \u2014 you did. (Applause.)<\/p>\n<p>And you helped the nation heal. You showed what America can overcome, what we can be when we want to be something.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019m deeply humbled to speak from this same pulpit my friend \u2014 and he was a friend \u2014 Reverend Pinckney spoke from.<\/p>\n<p>We all miss him, none more than his family and this congregation. But just as all the families of the Emanuel Nine miss the pieces of their soul that they lost that day, we also have been together at moments of unbearable loss for my family.<\/p>\n<p>Two days after the service of Reverend \u2014 Reverend Pinckney, my son and I \u2014 my surviving son and I came back. My family worshiped with you here Sunday service to show our solidarity. But my family also needed to be healed. We didn\u2019t even realize how badly.<\/p>\n<p>Just 22 days before, we had buried my son, Beau, a veteran who was exposed and died because of those burn pits in Iraq for a year. We were \u2014 we \u2014 we were in more pain than we knew. We came here to offer comfort and received comfort from you. No, I\u2019m serious.<\/p>\n<p>As I listened in the pews, spent time with the families, visited Reverend Pinckney\u2019s office, visited the memorial for the victims outside, I grew stronger. My son, my family grew stronger.<\/p>\n<p>We prayed together. We grieved together. We found hope together, for real \u2014 for real. And now it reminds me that, through our pain, each of us \u2014 each of us must find purpose.<\/p>\n<p>For me, that purpose was to live a life worthy of my son Beau. And I mean it sincerely. For you, that purpose is for the lives worthy of loved ones lost \u2014 to make them proud.<\/p>\n<p>So many of you were there for us during that loss, including my dear friend Jim and Emily Clyburn. Ms. Emily, I miss. People of deep faith. Jim, a great public servant and the best friend you could ever have.<\/p>\n<p>Jim, I\u2019m thinking of Emily today \u2014 and we talked about it downstairs a little bit. I know you do every single, solitary day. She was special. And that bond you shared was something to behold.<\/p>\n<p>As many of you know, Jim is a teacher and a student of history. He knows the power of history. He knows the power of truth and the power of lies. He knows what happens when people are allowed to whitewash history, erase history, bury history.<\/p>\n<p>He knows what the Bible teaches. We shall know the truth, and the truth shall set us free. (Applause.)<\/p>\n<p>But the truth \u2014 the truth is under assault in America. As a consequence, so is our freedom, our democracy, our very country because, without the truth, there is no light. Without light, there\u2019s no path from this darkness.<\/p>\n<p>AUDIENCE MEMBER: If you really care about the lives lost here, then you should honor the lives lost and call for a ceasefire in Palestine!<\/p>\n<p>AUDIENCE MEMBERS: Ceasefire now! Ceasefire now! Ceasefire now!<\/p>\n<p>THE PRESIDENT: That\u2019s all right. That\u2019s all right.<\/p>\n<p>AUDIENCE MEMBER: Will you call for a ceasefire?<\/p>\n<p>AUDIENCE MEMBERS: Ceasefire now! Ceasefire now! Ceasefire now!<\/p>\n<p>(Cross-talk.)<\/p>\n<p>AUDIENCE: Four more years! Four more years! Four more years!<\/p>\n<p>THE PRESIDENT: Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Look, folks, I understand their \u2014 I understand their passion. And I\u2019ve been quietly working \u2014 I\u2019ve been quietly working with the Israeli government to get them to reduce and significantly get out of Gaza. I\u2019ve been using all that I can to do that. (Applause.)<\/p>\n<p>But I understand the passion.<\/p>\n<p>Look, folks, after the Civil \u2014<\/p>\n<p>AUDIENCE MEMBER: You\u2019re an understanding person. You\u2019re an understanding person.<\/p>\n<p>THE PRESIDENT: Thank you.<\/p>\n<p>AUDIENCE MEMBER: They don\u2019t realize that. You\u2019re a good man.<\/p>\n<p>THE PRESIDENT: Thank you. (Applause.)<\/p>\n<p>Look, after the Civil War, the defeated Confederates couldn\u2019t accept the verdict of the war: They had lost. So, they say \u2014 they embraced what\u2019s known as the Lost Cause, a self-serving lie that the Civil War was not about slavery but about states\u2019 rights. And they\u2019ve called that the noble cause.<\/p>\n<p>That was a lie, a lie that had \u2014 not just a lie but it had terrible consequences. It brought on Jim Crow.<\/p>\n<p>So, let me be clear for those who don\u2019t seem to know: Slavery was the cause of the Civil War. (Applause.) There is no negotiation about that.<\/p>\n<p>Now \u2014 now we\u2019re living in an era of a second lost cause. Once again, there are some in this country trying \u2014 trying to turn a loss into a lie \u2014 a lie, which if allowed to live, will once again bring terrible damage to this country. This time, the lie is about the 2020 election, the election which you made your voices heard and your power known.<\/p>\n<p>Just two days ago, we marked the third anniversary of the dark \u2014 one of the darkest days in American history: January the 6th. The day in which insurrectionists stormed the United States Capitol, trying for the first time in American history to stop the peaceful transfer of power in the country.<\/p>\n<p>We all saw with our own eyes the truth of what happened. That violent mob was whipped up by lies from a defeated former President \u2014 smashing windows, smearing blood on statues, ransacking offices. Outside, insurrectionists erected gallows, chanting \u201cHang Mike Pence.\u201d Inside, they hunted for Nancy Pelosi, chanting \u201cWhere\u2019s Nancy?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>We saw something on January 6th we\u2019d never seen before, even during the Civil War. Insurrectionists waving Confederate flags inside the halls of Congress built by enslaved Americans. A mob attacked and called Black officers, Black veterans defending the nation those vile of racist names.<\/p>\n<p>And yet, an extreme movement of America, the MAGA Republicans, led by a defeated President, is trying to steal history now. They tried to steal an election. Now they\u2019re trying to steal history, telling us that violent mob was, and I quote, \u201ca peaceful protest.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>That that insurrection \u2014 those insurrectionists were \u2014 these are his words \u2014 \u201cpatriots.\u201d That there was, quote, \u201ca lot of love that day.\u201d In fact, the rest of the nation and the world saw a lot of hate and violence.<\/p>\n<p>For hours, the defeated former President sat in the private dining room off of my \u2014 off of the Oval Office and did nothing, nothing, n- \u2014 absolutely nothing. His actions were among the worst derelictions of duty by any president in American history. (Applause.) An attempt \u2014 an attempt to overturn a free and fair election by force and violence.<\/p>\n<p>Let me say what others cannot. We must reject political violence in America. Always \u2014 not sometimes, always. It\u2019s never appropriate.<\/p>\n<p>The violence of January 6th was an extension of an old playbook from the \u2014 from the threats and violence and intimidation.<\/p>\n<p>In Atlanta, Georgia, two brave Black women, mother and daughter \u2014 Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss \u2014 (applause) \u2014 they had their lives upended just doing their jobs \u2014 menacing calls, death threats, forcing them to literally flee their homes.<\/p>\n<p>Those pushing the Big Lie have a conspiracy theory among conspiracy theories that outweighs them all that there\u2019s what \u2014 and \u2014 and \u2014 but here is the fact. There is where we don\u2019t have facts \u2014 their whole theory has no facts, has no proof, has no evidence. That\u2019s why, time and again, they lost in every court of law that challenged the results \u2014 60 losses in courts of America.<\/p>\n<p>There\u2019s one thing they don\u2019t have. They don\u2019t have respect for the 81 million people who voted the other way \u2014 voted for my candidacy \u2014 (applause) \u2014 and voted to end the presidency.<\/p>\n<p>In their world, these Americans, including you, don\u2019t count. But that\u2019s not the real world. That\u2019s not democracy. That\u2019s not America. In America, we all count. In America, we witness to serve all those who, in fact, participate. And losers are taught to concede when they lose. And he\u2019s a loser. (Applause.)<\/p>\n<p>And then, we all came together to put the country before ourselves.<\/p>\n<p>The lies that led to January 6th are part of a broader attack on the truth America today that we all have seen before. The same movement that, throughout the mob at the United States Capitol, isn\u2019t just trying to rewrite history of January 6th, they\u2019re trying to determine to erase history and your future: banning books; denying your right to vote and have it counted; destroying diversity, equality, inclusion all across America; harboring hate and replacing hope with anger and resentment and a dangerous view of America.<\/p>\n<p>That narrow view of America, a zero-sum view of America that says, \u201cIf you win, I lose. If you succeed, it must be I failed. If you get ahead, I fall behind.\u201d And maybe worst of all, \u201cIf I hold you down, I lift myself up.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s not new in America. Every stride forward has often been met with ferocious backlashes from those who fear the progress, from those who exploit that fear for their own personal gain, from those who traffic in lies told for profit and power.<\/p>\n<p>But here in Charleston, you know the power of truth. Less than a mile from here was once a port where almost half of all enslaved Africans were trafficked to North America and forced on our shores.<\/p>\n<p>And now you have a world-class museum there to tell the truth about the original sin. (Applause.) And it matters.<\/p>\n<p>And I want to thank former Mayor Jim [Joe] Riley for his leadership, who saw to it the museum was built, and for all of you who made that happen.<\/p>\n<p>And with your help, I made Juneteenth the first federal holiday since Dr. Martin Luther King Day. (Applause.)<\/p>\n<p>(The President picks up a handheld microphone.) This works?<\/p>\n<p>Why? Because the truth matters. The truth matters.<\/p>\n<p>With your help, we established the national monument \u2014 monument in honor of Mamie and Emmett Till because we heard Mrs. Till\u2019s call \u2014 the mother of a 14-year-old son who was lynched and whose body was mutilated, but the mother insisted on an open casket at his funeral because she said, \u201cLet the world see what I saw.\u201d (Applause.)<\/p>\n<p>The truth matters. It always matters. We can\u2019t just to learn \u2014 choose to learn what we want to know and not what we should know. We should know the good, the bad, the truth of who we are.<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s what great nations do, and we\u2019re a great nation \u2014 the greatest of all nations.<\/p>\n<p>We\u2019re not perfect. But at our best, we learn from our past and we look to the future. A nation continuously striving to be a more perfect union.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019m here to speak to another truth. It\u2019s because of this congregation and the Black community of South Carolina and \u2014 not exaggeration \u2014 and Jim Clyburn that I stand here today as your president \u2014 (applause) \u2014 because of all of you. That\u2019s a fact. That\u2019s a fact. And I owe you.<\/p>\n<p>AUDIENCE MEMBER: Four more years! Four more years! Four more years!<\/p>\n<p>THE PRESIDENT: And I\u2019ve done my best to honor your trust. That means rejecting the small, narrow, cramped view of America as well as lifting up a bigger and broader view of America that holds that \u201cIf you do well, I do well. We all do well.\u201d (Applause.)<\/p>\n<p>We all do well if every race and background in small towns and big cities is doing better; when our freedoms are protected and we deny hate as a safe harbor; where everyone has a fair shot at a life of dignity and opportunity; and where our democracy works for everybody.<\/p>\n<p>That benefits everybody. I don\u2019t get these guys. Everybody does better, even those folks who disagree with us.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019m keeping my commitment to you. That\u2019s the America we\u2019re building together. Instead of erasing history, we\u2019re making history. (Applause.)<\/p>\n<p>It starts \u2014 and it starts with an administration I committed to \u2014 I said my administration would look like America and taps into our full talents and strengths as a nation \u2014 starting with our incredible Vice President,<br \/>\nKamala Harris. (Applause.)<\/p>\n<p>When we came to office, the country was in a depth of a candem- \u2014 pandemic which we lost over a million 200,000 people, so we moved heaven and earth to get the country vaccinated, saving countless lives.<\/p>\n<p>With the economy on the brink, we spent \u2014 we sent $1,400 checks into the pockets of people who are hurting badly, keep them going.<\/p>\n<p>I said we\u2019d invest in all of America \u2013- all of America \u2013and we are. The results are clear: over 14 million new jobs, record economic growth, the lowest inflation rate of any major economy in the world. But we have more to do. (Applause.)<\/p>\n<p>And we see this progress for all Americans.<\/p>\n<p>We have the lowest Black unemployment rate recorded in a long, long time. More Black Americans have health insurance than ever, bringing peace of mind and dignity to their lives.<\/p>\n<p>I remember when I was a kid. We lived in a three-bedroom house with four kids and a \u2014 and a grandpop living with us. And my headboard in my room was up against \u2014 it was a little split-level home. It was a \u2014 we weren\u2019t poor. We were \u2014 anyway, we weren\u2019t \u2014 we sure weren\u2019t wealth- \u2014 wealthy.<\/p>\n<p>And I remember really, one night, hearing my dad was restless, because the headboard was along my headboard, on the other side of the wall. And I asked my mom the next morning, I said, \u201cWhat\u2019s the matter with Dad?\u201d She said, \u201cHoney, his employer just told him they\u2019re dropping health insurance.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>What that does is deprives a man and a woman of their dignity. How do you look at your child and say, \u201cI can\u2019t cover you. I can\u2019t take care of you.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>And now, as Jim pointed out at one point \u2014 I won\u2019t go into it like I was going to because he said it better \u2014 instead of about an average of $400 a month for insulin for seniors with diabetes, we\u2019re now paying $35 a month. And, by the way, they\u2019re still making a profit three times. It costs $10 to make it.<\/p>\n<p>And I\u2019ve been trying to take on \u2014 as a couple of you in the audience know from my entire career \u2014 Big Pharma. Finally beat them. Finally, finally, finally. (Applause.)<\/p>\n<p>We\u2019re going to go back and make sure that Medicare can no- \u2014 negotiate prices for everybody, not just for seniors. Again, it saves the American taxpayers billions of dollars not having to pay Pharma for these things.<\/p>\n<p>You know, we\u2019re growing back \u2014 Black wealth, and we have a lot more to do. The racial wealth gap is the smallest it\u2019s been in 20 \u2014 20 years under my watch. More Black small businesses starting up than in decades in the ultimate act \u2014 opening a new business, the ultimate act of ho- \u2014 act of hope.<\/p>\n<p>We\u2019re taking on housing discrimination in many ways. So, a home owned by \u2014 today, a home owned by a Black family on one side of a highway, built by the same builder on the other side of the highway and a white guy living in it, the white guy\u2019s home is valued more than the Black guy\u2019s.<\/p>\n<p>No, I know you know it. But guess what? That\u2019s how you build generational wealth, when you build your home.<\/p>\n<p>Kamala and I are leading the charge \u2014 mainly Kamala \u2014 to protect the freedom to vote and that vote \u2014 that be counted. Defending your freedom to choose. We\u2019re keeping our commitment of providing incredible opportunities, making historic investments in HBCUs: $7 billion \u2014 (applause) \u2014 $7 billion.<\/p>\n<p>They\u2019re just as good as other universities, just only that they don\u2019t have the \u2014 the billionaire contributors, so they can\u2019t put the laboratories together to get the contracts to be the ones that design new aircraft carrier decks, be the ones to design what\u2019s changing \u2014 it\u2019s changing.<\/p>\n<p>Providing people a real shot by reducing the burden of student debt \u2014 Jim went into it; I won\u2019t go into it as I was going to \u2014 $132 billion [million], 3.6 million people \u2014 a significant percentage of those students are African American students \u2014 despite our friends on the other side of the table, the Supreme Court did [doing] everything we [they] can to stop me.<\/p>\n<p>Replacing every lead pipe in America. You know how many \u2014 (applause) \u2014 not just some. Every single lead pipe in America is going to be taken out and replaced with a (inaudible.) (Applause.)<br \/>\nWhy? Because in mostly poor neighborhoods, that\u2019s where those lead pipes are. And that\u2019s why kids end up with brain damage because of the lead. There\u2019s so m- \u2014 I\u2019m not going to go into it.<\/p>\n<p>But, look, you can turn on a faucet for your child and doesn\u2019t get sick from drinking water in their \u2014 coming into the home.<\/p>\n<p>Delivering high-speed Internet that\u2019s affordable for everybody \u2014 everybody so you don\u2019t have to sit in the McDonald\u2019s parking lot for your child to do their homework.<\/p>\n<p>Producing clean energy so you can finally breathe clean air without leaving home. (Applause.)<\/p>\n<p>Look, I understand it. When we moved from Scranton \u2014 I was raised in Claymont, Delaware. More major refineries than any place, including Houston, Texas, and just across the border in Chester. Not a joke.<\/p>\n<p>I grew up with asthma, and most of us did, because of the prevailing winds. We\u2019d go \u2014 my mom would drive us to school in the morning when I was young \u2014 grade school \u2014 turn on \u2014 when there was a frost, turn on the windshield wipers, there would be an oil slick on the wiper. Because guess what? It\u2019s all the fenceline communities who get hurt.<\/p>\n<p>Not on my watch. It\u2019s changing.<\/p>\n<p>We know there\u2019s more to do: making child care and elder care more affordable, which would save American taxpayers billions of dollars along the way.<\/p>\n<p>Early in my administration, we were out \u2014 we \u2014 we cut child poverty in half \u2014 child pov- \u2014 Black child poverty in half by getting families checks every month through the Child Care Tax Credit. And the other side had \u2014 went ahead and blocked it. But we\u2019re going to get it back.<\/p>\n<p>This \u2014 look, this fight isn\u2019t ov- \u2014 over. We\u2019re going to come back. Because no child in America should ever go to bed hungry, period, period, period, period. (Applause.)<\/p>\n<p>After the historic movement for justice in the summer of 2020, I signed the most significant police reform executive order in history. We didn\u2019t get the law passed, but guess what? I did it by executive order, a significant part of it. But now Congress has to step up and ask and get it \u2014 do what I did and make it the law of the land.<\/p>\n<p>Just a few days ago, the defeated former President was asked about the recent shooting in Iowa. Did you hear this one? I\u2019m \u2014 it\u2019s hard to believe. You know what his response was, all those kids dead? We \u201chave to get over it,\u201d end of quote.<\/p>\n<p>I promise you \u2014 (the President makes the sign of the cross).<\/p>\n<p>We \u201chave to get over it.\u201d My response is: We have to stop it \u2014 (applause) \u2014 so your children, your family, your friends can leave your home, walk the streets, go to stores, go to the grocery store, and go to church, to be safe from gun violence. There\u2019s no excuse for this carnage.<\/p>\n<p>We have to ban assault weapons. I did it once before, and I\u2019m going to come back again and do it. (Applause.) Ban high-capacity magazines. We have to pass a universal background checks. It doesn\u2019t violate the Second Amendment. It\u2019s common sense, and it saves lives. (Applause.)<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019m determined to continue to deliver on equal justice under the law. I made a commitment to you to nominate the first Black woman \u2014 and Jim has already talked about it \u2014 on the Supreme Court. And, by the way, she\u2019s smarter than the rest of these guys. (Laughter and applause.) Whoa.<\/p>\n<p>Her name is Ketanji Brown Jackson. Well, guess what? She knows what she\u2019s doing.<\/p>\n<p>And, by the way, as Jim pointed out, more Black women have been appointed to the federal circuit courts than every other president in American history has appointed \u2014 every single, solitary one counted. And we\u2019re going to keep going. (Applause.)<\/p>\n<p>Look, I want to make it clear: You all made this possible because of your voice. Your voice was heard in shaping your destiny. That\u2019s democracy.<\/p>\n<p>And I\u2019m proud to have led the effort to make sure your voice, the South Carolina voice, will always be heard, because now you\u2019re first in the primary. (Applause.)<\/p>\n<p>Look, our North Star as a nation is the very idea of an American [America] \u2014 an idea.<\/p>\n<p>At once the most simple and most powerful idea in the history of the world \u2014 that\u2019s not hyperbole \u2014 a fact. The idea is this: We\u2019re all created in the image of God equally. We deserve to be treated equally throughout our lives. That covet- \u2014 it\u2019s a covenant we made with each other, a covenant we\u2019ve never fully lived up to but n- \u2014 we never fully walked away from, either.<\/p>\n<p>And faith and history teach us that however dark the night, joy cometh in the morning. (Applause.) And that joy comes with commands from scripture: \u201cLove the Lord thy God with all thy heart, all thy mind, all thy soul,\u201d and \u201cLove your neighbor as thyself.\u201d (Applause.) Not so easy. It\u2019s hard. But in those commands is the essence of the gospel and the essence of the American promise.<\/p>\n<p>And in my life, I\u2019ve tried to live my faith. And I\u2019ve many times failed. But I\u2019ve learned, as many of you might have learned in your path as well, we\u2019re all \u2014 we\u2019re all imperfect beings. We don\u2019t know where fate will take us or when. But we can do our best to seek a life of light, hope, love, and justice and truth.<\/p>\n<p>Folks, let me close with this. Denmark Vesey arrived in Charleston enslaved \u2014 one of too many \u2014 too many from a distant shores, wrenched from painful \u2014 on a painful journey, not to a promised land but to a land that promised to deprive them of freedom.<\/p>\n<p>But even though they arrived in the land where the life and rife of [a land that would be rife with] pain and persecution, they still believed they had promise, and the Black Church kept them moving.<\/p>\n<p>They had faith. They found scripture. Faith is the substance of things hoped for, evidence of things not seen.<\/p>\n<p>Vesey had his kind of faith. He became a carpenter and a movement leader concerned with the least among us. That\u2019s why he helped found this very church 200 years ago. Only 40 years after the elect- \u2014 Declaration of Independence, in this church, your church now, the Black Church has some \u2014 come to symbolize the faith and this purpose, to bear witness to those who are suffering, to bring the good news of a future to come, to follow its mission to be the light in the pathway of darkness.<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s patriotism. That\u2019s patriotism. To love something so much you make it better, no matter the struggle. A patriotism that inspired generation before us to believe that in America we can do and be anything we want to be.<\/p>\n<p>In our time, there\u2019s still the old ghost of new gov- \u2014 gar- \u2014 in new garments. And we all need to rise to meet the moment, and the moment is now.<\/p>\n<p>Folks, my fellow Americans, this is a time of choosing, so let us choose the truth. Let us choose America. I know \u2014 I know we can do it together. And as the gospel song sings, \u201cWe\u2019ve come too far from where we started. Nobody told me the road would be easy.\u201d (Applause.) \u201cI don\u2019t believe he brought me this far to leave me.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>My fellow Americans, I don\u2019t think the good Lord brought us this far to leave us behind.<\/p>\n<p>May God bless you all. And may God protect our troops. Thank you, thank you, thank you. (Applause.)<\/p>\n<p>AUDIENCE: Four more years! Four more years! Four more years!<\/p>\n<p>THE PRESIDENT: Thank you, thank you, thank you.<\/p>\n<p>1:15 P.M. EST<\/p>\n<p>Mother Emanuel AME Church<br \/>\nCharleston, South Carolina<\/p>\n<p>12:41 P.M. EST<\/p>\n<p>THE PRESIDENT:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Charleston, SC&#8230;Thank you. (Applause.) Thank you, thank you, thank you. Thank you. Thank you, thank you, thank you. (Applause.) Thank you. I rest my case. (Laughter and applause.) AUDIENCE: Four more years! THE PRESIDENT: Thank you, please. Thank you. AUDIENCE: Four more years! Four more years! Four more years! THE PRESIDENT: Thank you. Thank you. 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