Today,
the topic of my speech today is deadly serious
and I think it needs to be made.
At the outset of this campaign,
in the winter of
1777, it
was harsh and cold. As the Continental Army
March to Valley Forge, General George Washington knew he faced
the most daunting of tasks
to fight and win a war against the most powerful
empire existed in the world.
At the time, his mission was clear.
Liberty, not conquest. Freedom not domination.
National independence not individual glory.
America made a vow. Never again
would we bow down to a king.
Months ahead would be incredibly difficult.
But General Washington knew something in his bones,
something about the spirit of the troops he was leading,
something, something about the soul of the nation
he was struggling to be born
in. His general order, he predicted,
and I quote, with one heart and one mind.
With fortitude and with patience,
they would overcome every difficulty.
The troops he was leading.
And they did, they did.
This army that lacked blankets and food,
clothes and shoes. This army
whose March left bloody bare footprints in the snow,
This ragtag army made-up of ordinary people.
Their mission, George Washington declared,
was nothing less than a sacred 'cause.
That was the phrase he used,
a sacred cause. Freedom, liberty,
democracy, American democracy.
I just visited the grounds of Valley Forge.
I've been there a number of times since the time
I was a Boy Scout years ago.
You know, it's the very sight
that I think every American should visit
because it tells the story
of the pain and the suffering and the true patriotism
it took to make America.
Today we gather in a new year
some 246 years later, just one day before January 6th,
a day forever shared in our memory,
because it was on that day
that we nearly lost. America
lost it all. Today we're here to answer the most
important of questions.
Is democracy still America's sacred 'cause?
I need it.
This is not rhetorical, academic,
or hypothetical, but the democracy is still America's sacred cause,
is the most urgent question of our time,
and it's what the 2024 election is all about.
The choice is clear. Donald Trump's campaign is about him.
Not America, not you.
Donald Trump's campaign is obsessed with the past,
not the future. He's willing to sacrifice our democracy,
put himself in power. Our campaign is different.
For me and Kamala. Our campaign is about America.
It's about you. It's about every age and background that
occupied this country.
It's about the future we're
going to continue to build together.
And our campaign is about preserving and strengthening our American
democracy.
Three years ago tomorrow, we saw their own eyes.
A violent mob stormed the United States Capitol.
It
was almost in disbelief as you first turned on the
television.
For the first time in our history,
insurrections had come to stop
the peaceful transfer transfer of power in America.
First time smashing windows, shattering doors,
attacking the police
outside. Gallows were erected as the maggot crowd chanted.
Hang Mike Pence inside. They haunted for Speaker Pelosi.
The House was chanting as
they marched through and smashed windows.
Where's Nancy? Over 140 police officers were injured.
Jill and I attended the funeral police officers who died
as a result of the events of that day.
Because Donald. Because of Donald Trump's lies.
They died because these lies brought a mob to Washington.
He promised it would be wild,
and it was. He told the crowd to fight like
hell,
and all hell was unleashed.
He promised he would write them,
write them everything they did.
He would be side by side with them.
Then, as usual, he left The Dirty work to others.
He retreated to the White House
as America was attacked from within.
Donald Trump watched on TV in the private small dining
room off my Oval Oval off the Oval Office.
The entire nation watched in horror.
The whole world watched in disbelief,
and Trump did nothing. Members of his staff,
members of his family, Republican leaders who were under attack
for the at that very moment,
pled with him. Act. Call off the mob.
Imagine had he gone out and said stop.
And still Trump did nothing.
It was among the worst derelictions of duty
by a president in American history,
an
attempt to overturn a free and fair election by force
and violence.
A record 81 million people voted
for my candidacy and to end his presidency.
Trump lost the popular vote by 7 million.
Trump's claims about the 2020 election never could stand up
in court.
Trump lost 60 court cases.
Sixty,
Trump lost the Republican controlled states.
Trump lost before a Trump appointed judge
and then judges,
and Trump lost before the United States Supreme Court.
All of it. He lost.
Trump lost. Recount after recount after recount and state after
state.
But in desperation and weakness,
Trump and his mega followers went after election officials who
in who ensured your power as a citizen would be
heard.
These public service had their lives forever upended by attacks
and death threats
for simply doing their jobs.
In Atlanta, GA, a brave black mother and her daughter
Ruby Freeman and Shay Moss were doing their jobs electing
workers
until Donald Trump and his MAGA followers targeted and threatened
them,
forcing them from their homes
and unleashing racist vitriol on them.
Trump's personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani
was just hit with $148 million judgment
for cruelty and defamation that he inflicted against them.
Other state and local elected officials across the country faced
similar personal attacks.
In addition, Fox News agreed to pay a record 8
to
$787 million
for the lies they told about voter fraud.
Let's be clear about the
2020 election. Trump exhausted every legal Ave.
available to him to overturn the election.
Everyone
but the legal path just took Trump back to the
truth
that I had won the election and he was a
loser.
Well,
so knowing how his mind works now,
he had one He had one act left,
one desperate act available to him,
The violence
of January the 6th.
And since that day, more than
1200 people have been charged for their assault on the
Capitol.
Nearly 900 of them have been convicted or pled guilty
collectively. To date, they have been sentenced to more than
840 years in prison.
What's Trump done?
Instead of calling them criminals,
he's called these, these insurrectionists.
Patriots. They're patriots and he promised to pardon them
if he returns to office.
Trump said that there was a lot of love on
January the 6th.
The rest of the nation,
including law enforcement, saw a lot of hate
and violence.
1 Capitol Police officer called it a medieval battle.
That same officer called vile rape was called Vile Races
names.
He said he was more afraid
in the capital of the United States of America
in the chambers
than when he was fighting as a soldier in the
war in Iraq.
He said he was more afraid
inside the halls of Congress
than fighting the war in Iraq
and trying to rewrite the facts of January 6th.
Trump is trying to steal history
the same way he tried to steal the election.
But he We knew the truth
because we saw it with our own eyes.
This wasn't like something, a story being told.
It was on television, repeatedly.
We saw it with our own eyes.
Trump's mob wasn't a peaceful protest.
It was a violent assault.
They were insurrectionists, not patriots.
They weren't there to uphold the Constitution.
They were there to destroy the Constitution.
Trump won't do what an American president must do.
He refuses to denounce political violence.
So hear me clearly. I'll say what Donald Trump won't
Political violence is never,
ever acceptable in the United States political system.
Never. Never. Never. It has no place in a democracy.
None.
It can't be pro insurrectionist and pro American,
you know. Trump and his MAGA supporters not only embrace
political violence,
but they laugh about it.
At his rally, he jokes about an intruder
whipped up by the big Trump lie,
taking a hammer to Paul
Pelosi's skull
and echoing the very same words used on January 6th.
Where's Nancy? And he thinks that's funny.
He laughed about it. What a sick
My God,
I think it's despicable. Seriously,
I was just repressive for any person to say that.
But to say it to the whole world listening when
I was overseas? Anyway,
Trump's assault in democracy isn't just part of his past.
It's what he's promising for the future.
He's being straightforward. He's not hiding the ball.
His first rally for the
2024 campaign opened with a choir
of January 6th Insurrectionist singing from prison
on a cell phone,
while images of the January 6th ride played on a
big screen behind him at his rally.
Can you believe that this is like something out of
a fairy tale,
bad fairy tale?
Trump began his 2024 campaign by glorifying the failed,
violent Insurrectionist Insurrection at our on our Capitol.
The guy who claims law and order
sows lawlessness and disorder.
Trump's not concerned about your future,
I promise you.
Trump is now promising a full scale campaign of revenge
and retribution.
His words for some years to come.
They were his words, not mine.
He went on to say
he'd be a dictator on day one.
I mean, if I were writing a book of fiction.
I said an American president said that and
not ingest.
He called in. I quote
the termination quote. This is a quote.
The termination of all the rules,
regulations and articles, even those found in the US Constitution
should be terminated and fits his will.
It's really kind of hard to believe.
Even found in the Constitution
he could terminate.
He's threatened the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of
Staff
with the death penalty. Says he should be put to
death because
the chairman put his oath to the Constitution
ahead of his personal loyalty to Trump.
This coming from a president
who called when he visited
cemeteries, called dead soldiers, suckers
and losers. Remember that
sometimes I'm really happy the Irish me can't be seen.
It
was right around the time I was at
both grave Tommy.
How dare he?
Who in God's name do you think he is?
With former aides? Trump plans to invoke the Insurrections Act.
The Insurrection Act, which will allow him to deploy,
which is not allowed to do a Nori circus,
allow him to deploy U.S.
military forces on the streets of America.
He said it.
He calls those who oppose him vermin.
He talks about the blood of America is being poisoned.
Echoing the same exact language
used in Nazi Germany,
he proudly post on social media the words that best
describe his
2024 campaign quote revenge, quote power,
and quote dictatorship.
There's no confusion about who Trump is,
what he intends to do.
I placed my hand on our family Bible,
and I swore an oath
on the very same steps of the Capitol
just 14 days after the attack on January the 6th.
As I looked out over the capital city
whose streets were lined with National Guard to
prevent another attack,
I saw an American that had been pushed to the
brink.
America that has been pushed to the brink.
But I felt enormous pride
not in winning. I felt enormous pride in America
because American democracy had been tested.
American democracy had held together.
When Trump had seen weakness in our democracy and continued
to talk about it,
I saw strength. Your strength.
It's not hyperbole. Your strength.
Your integrity. American strength and integrity.
Ordinary citizens, state election officials,
the American judicial system, had put the Constitution 1st,
and sometimes at their peril,
at their peril,
because of them, because of you,
the will of the people prevail,
not the anger of the mob or the appetites of
one man.
When the attack on January 6th happened,
there was no doubt about the truth.
At the time, even Republican members of Congress
and Fox News commentators publicly and privately condemned the attack.
As one Republican Senator said,
Trump's behavior was embarrassing and humiliating for the country.
But now that same senator
and those same people
have changed their tune
as time has gone on,
gone on. Politics, fear, money,
all have intervened.
And now these MAGA voices who know the truth about
Trump on January 6th
have abandoned the truth and abandoned the democracy.
They made their choice.
Now the rest of us
Democrats, independents, mainstream Republicans, we have to make our choice.
I know mine,
and I believe I know
America's.
We'll defend the truth, not give into the Big Lie.
We'll embrace the Constitution of the Declaration,
not abandoned it.
We'll honor the sacred cause of democracy,
not walk away from it.
Today, I make this sacred pledge to you,
the defense protection and preservation
American democracy would remain, as it has been,
the central cause of my presidency.
America. As we begin this election year,
we must be clear. Democracy is on the ballot.
Your freedom is on the ballot.
Yes, we'll be voting on many issues,
on the freedom to vote
and have your vote counted.
On the freedom of choice,
the freedom to have a fair shot,
The freedom from fear.
And we'll debate and disagree.
Without democracy, no progress is impossible.
Think about it. The alternative democracy is dictatorship,
the rule of one, not the rule of we the
people.
That's what the soldiers of Valley Forge understood,
and so was me. What's what?
We have to understand it as well.
We've been blessed so long
with a strong, stable democracy,
it's easy to forget
why so many before us
risk their lives and strengthen democracy,
what our lives would be without it.
Democracy means having the freedom to speak your mind,
to be who you are,
to be who you want to be.
Democracy is about being able to bring about peaceful change.
Democracy. Democracy is how we've opened the doors of opportunity,
wider and wider with each successive generation,
not with notwithstanding our mistakes.
But if democracy falls,
we'll lose that freedom. We'll lose the power of We
the People to shape our destiny.
If you doubt me, look around the world.
Travel with me as I meet with other heads of
state throughout the world.
Look at the authoritarian leaders and dictators Trump says he
admires he out loud.
Says he admires
won't go through the mall.
It'll take too long.
Look, remember how he refers when he when he refers
to what he calls
love letter exchanges between he and the dictator of North
Korea?
Those women and men out there in the audience ever
fought for the American
military? Did you ever believe you'd hear a president say
something like that,
His admiration for Putin? I could go on
and look at what these autocrats are doing to limit
freedom in their countries,
to eliminate freedom of speech,
freedom of press, freedom to assemble,
women's rights, LGBTQ rights. People are going to jail so
much more.
It's true. The push and pull of American history is
not a fairy tale.
Every stride forward in America is met with ferocious backlash
many times
From those who fear progress and those who exploit that
fear for their own personal gain.
From those who traffic in lies
told for power and profit.
For those who are driven by grievance and grift,
consumed by conspiracy and victimhood,
from those who seek to bury history
and ban books.
Everything can be in a political event
talked about book banning
for presidential and the presidential election.
The choice and contest between those forces,
those competing forces, between solidarity and division,
is perennial. But this time it's so different.
You can't have a contest.
You can't have a contest
if you see politics as an all out war instead
of a peaceful way to resolve our differences.
All out war is what Trump wants.
That's why he doesn't understand the most fundamental truth about
this country.
Unlike other nations on earth,
America is not built on ethnicity,
religion, geography.
We're the only nation in the history of the world
built on an idea, not hyperbole built on an idea.
We hold these truths to be self-evident,
that all men and women are created equal.
It's an idea
declared in the Declaration,
created in a way that we viewed everybody's equal and
should be treated equal throughout their lives.
We've never fully lived up to that.
We have a long way to go,
but we've never walked away from the idea.
We've never walked away from it before.
And I promise you, I will not let Donald Trump
or the bag of Republicans
force us to walk away now.
We're living in an era where a determined minority
is doing everything in its power
to try to destroy our democracy for their own agenda.
The American people know it,
and they're standing bravely in the breach.
Remember after 2020, January 6th,
insurrection to undo the election in which more Americans had
voted than any other in American history.
America saw the threat posed to the country
and they voted them out in
2022 historic midterm election and state after state election after
election.
The election deniers were defeated.
Now, in 2024, Trump is wanting as the denier in
chief,
the election denier in chief.
Once again, he's saying he won't honor the results of
the election
if he loses. Trump says he doesn't understand.
Well, he still doesn't understand the basic truth.
That is, you can't love your country only when you
win.
You can't love your country only when you win.
I'll keep my commitment to be president for all of
America,
whether you voted for me or not.
I've done it for the last three years and I'll
continue to do it.
Together, we can keep proving that America is still a
country that believes in decency,
dignity, honesty, honor, truth. We still believe that no one,
not even the president, is above the law.
We still believe,
The vast majority of us still believe that everyone deserves
a fair shot at making it.
We're still a nation that gives hate no safe harbor.
I tell you from my experience working with leaders around
the world,
and I mean this sincerely,
not a joke, that America is still viewed as the
beacon of democracy for the world.
I can't tell you how many,
how many world leaders. And I know all of them.
Virtually all of grab my arm in private and say
you can't win. Tell me
no. My country will be at risk.
Think of how many countries Tommy you know that are
on the on the edge.
Imagine
we still believe in we the people.
That includes all of us,
not some of us. Let me close at this
and a cold winter of
1777,
George Washington and his American troops of Valley Forge ways
to battle on behalf of a revolutionary idea
that everyday people like where I come from and the
vast majority of you
not a king or a dictator.
That everyday people can govern themselves without a king
or a dictator.
In fact, in the Rotunda of the Capitol,
there's a giant painting of General George Washington,
not President Washington,
and he is resigning his Commission
as commander in chief of
the Continental Army.
A European king at the at the time said after
he won the Revolution,
now's the time for him to declare his kingship.
But instead,
the mob that attacked the capital,
waving Trump flags and Confederate flags,
stormed right past that portrait.
That image of George Washington gave him no pause,
but it should have. The artist who painted that portrait
memorialized that moment because he said it was,
quote, one of the highest moral lessons ever given to
the world.
End of quote.
George Washington was the height of his power,
having just defeated the most powerful empire on earth,
could have held on the power as long as he
wanted.
He could have made himself not a future president,
but a future monarch in effect.
And by the way, when he got elected president,
he could have stayed for
2345 terms till he died.
But that wasn't the America he and the American troops
of Valley Forge had fought for
in America.
Genuine leaders, Democratic leaders with a small D,
don't hold on to power relentlessly.
Our leaders return power to the people,
and they do it willingly because that's the deal.
You do your duty. You serve your country,
and ours is a country where there's worthy of service,
as many Republican presidents and Democratic presidents
have shown over the years.
We're not perfect, but at our best,
we face on. We face head on.
The good, the bad, the truth
of who we are. We look in the mirror
and ultimately never pretend we're something we're not.
That's what great nations do,
and we're a great nation.
We're the greatest nation on the face of the earth.
We really are.
That's the miracle I see in our future.
We get up. We carry on.
We never bow. We never bend.
We speak of possibilities, not carnage.
We're not weighed down by grievances.
We don't foster fear. We don't walk around as victims.
We take charge of our destiny.
We get our job done with the people,
help with the people we find
in America who find their place in the changing world
and dream and build a future
that not only they, but all people deserve a shot
at.
We don't believe, none of you believe
America's failing. We know America's winning.
That's American patriotism.
It's not winning because of Joe Biden.
It's winning.
It's the first national election since January 6th,
Insurrection place to dagger at the throat of American democracy.
Since that moment,
we all know who Donald Trump is.
The question we have to answer is who are we?
That's what's at stake. Who are we
in the year ahead, as you talk to your family
and friends,
cast your ballots. The power is in your hands.
After all we've been through in our history,
from independence to civil war to two world wars to
a pandemic to insurrection,
I refuse to believe
that in 2024, we Americans
will choose to walk away from what's made us the
greatest nation in the history of the world.
Freedom, liberty,
democracy is still a sacred cause,
and there's no country in the world better positioned to
lead the world than America.
That's why
I've said it many times.
That's why I've never been more optimistic about our future.
And I've been doing this a hell of a long
time
just to remember who we are
with patience and fortitude, with one heart.
We are the United States of America,
for God's sake.
I mean it.
There is nothing.
I believe in every fiber.
There's nothing beyond our capacity if we act together and
decently with one another.
Nothing. Nothing. Nothing.
I mean it. We're the only nation in the world
that's come out of every crisis stronger than we went
into that crisis.
That was true yesterday. It is true today.
And I guarantee you will be true tomorrow.
God bless you all. And May God protect our troops.