{"id":173392,"date":"2024-02-25T13:52:57","date_gmt":"2024-02-25T21:52:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/?p=173392"},"modified":"2024-02-25T13:52:57","modified_gmt":"2024-02-25T21:52:57","slug":"president-biden-at-the-governors-ball-dinner-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/?p=173392","title":{"rendered":"President Biden at the Governors Ball Dinner"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Washington, DC&#8230;Well, thank you, Gov.  I \u2014 I may be the only Irishman you ever met that\u2019s never had a drink.  And my grandfather used to say, \u201cJoey, if you toast with anything other than alcohol, you got to use your left hand.\u201d  (Laughter.)  Folks, Governor Cox, Governor Polis, and everyone \u2014 to all the family members that are here \u2014 and thank you, (inaudible), for being here tonight.  Appreciate it very much. <\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/HlaLDusLft0\" title=\"President Biden Welcomes the Nation\u2019s Governors to the White House\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>You know, let me just say that we have a \u2014 we have a \u2014 a lot to do together.  The thing that makes me feel good about having the governors here is there is still the tradition of doing things together.  We fight like hell.  We make sure that we get our points across.  But at the end of the day, we know who we work for.  The objective is to get things done. <\/p>\n<p>And, you know, standing here in front of this portrait of the man behind me here, he \u2014 he said \u2014 and I want to make sure I get the quote exactly right.  He said, \u201cWe \u2014 the better angels\u201d \u2014 he said, \u201cWe must address the counsel \u2014 and adjust the better angels of our nature.\u201d  And we do the \u2014 and we do well to remember what else he said.  He said, \u201cWe\u2019re not enemies, but [we\u2019re] friends.\u201d  This is in the middle of \u2014 this is in the \u2014 in the part of the Civil War.  He said, \u201cWe\u2019re not enemies, but [we\u2019re] friends.  We must not be enemies.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>Folks \u2014 and I\u2019ve been around.  I know I don\u2019t look it.  I\u2019ve been around a long while though.  (Laughter.)  And \u2014 and I mean this sincerely, we\u2019ve gotten \u2014 politics has gotten too bitter \u2014 Democrats and Republicans.  Politics has gotten too personally \u2014 and it just is \u2014 it\u2019s just not like it was. <\/p>\n<p>And, by the way, I served in times when we had very, very starnch \u2014 staunch differences.  I mean, there were incredible differences, but we always \u2014 not always, but the vast majority of the time, we looked out for a compromise when the end of the \u2014 when the end of the day came. <\/p>\n<p>And, you know, it seems to me that \u2014 I\u2019ll conclude by saying, I \u2014 I\u2019ve spent a lot of time with Xi Jinping \u2014 someone whom I have a great deal of difference with.  And I was \u2014 when I was vice president, President \u2014 my \u2014 my president was \u2014 told me that he wanted me to get to know Xi Jinping because it was clear he was going to be the head of Russia \u2014 of \u2014 of China and that he \u2014 we had a \u2014 we were having problems with Russia at the time and other countries as well.  And so, what he said was, \u201cGet to know him.  He\u2019s going to be there.\u201d  I \u2014 and he couldn\u2019t because he was the president, and he couldn\u2019t travel.  So, I traveled 17,000 miles with him throughout the country \u2014 our country and \u2014 and in \u2014 in China, as well. <\/p>\n<p>We were in the Tibetan Plateau.  And he turned to me, and he said, \u201cCan you define America for me?\u201d  And I \u2014 given this has been documented, and it\u2019s real \u2014 I looked at him, and I said, \u201cYes, I can.  In one word.\u201d  And he looked at me.  And he said, \u201cWhat\u2019s that?\u201d  And I said, \u201cPossibilities.\u201d  Possibilities. <\/p>\n<p>Here is to possibilities. <\/p>\n<p>(President Biden offers a toast.)<\/p>\n<p>Possibilities, because there\u2019s so \u2014 I have never been more optimistic in my life about the prospects of what we can do if we just work together.  There\u2019s nothing beyond our capacity. <\/p>\n<p>So, again, to possibilities.<\/p>\n<p>(President Biden offers a toast.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Washington, DC&#8230;Well, thank you, Gov. I \u2014 I may be the only Irishman you ever met that\u2019s never had a drink. And my grandfather used to say, \u201cJoey, if you toast with anything other than alcohol, you got to use your left hand.\u201d (Laughter.) Folks, Governor Cox, Governor Polis, and everyone \u2014 to all the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":173393,"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":[20,5,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-173392","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-government","category-news","last_archivepost"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/Fullscreen-capture-2252024-14738-PM.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/173392","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\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=173392"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/173392\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":173394,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/173392\/revisions\/173394"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/173393"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=173392"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=173392"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.thepinetree.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=173392"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}