American politician (1942- )
All across the nation, it's so often our lowest-paid workers who have to step up during this crisis and crises like this. You're putting yourselves on the line every single day. You're sacrificing so much under dire circumstances to do your job and you're doing it for not just yourself, for all of us. You're essential to our society in times of crisis and beyond. You deserve not just our thanks and our respect, you deserve a safe workplace and fair pay. You deserve personal protective equipment including gloves and masks that enables you to do your job as safely as possible.
JOE BIDEN
virtual town hall meeting, April 15, 2020
I hope today and in the days ahead, the president will give us the unvarnished truth. That's what the American people need and what they deserve. I hope he lets the medical experts and FEMA leaders and others carrying out the work to take center stage, to hear from them directly. And I hope we hear less talk and see more evidence of fast action.
JOE BIDEN
NPR, March 23, 2020
Just because our political heroes were murdered does not mean that the dream does not still live, buried deep in our broken hearts.
JOE BIDEN
Promises to Keep
The oil companies don't need an incentive of $4 billion to go out and explore. As my grandpop would say, 'They're doing just fine, thank you'.
JOE BIDEN
speech to national conference of the National Association of Black Journalists in Washington, D.C., June 20, 2012
I don't accept this proposition that somehow the U.S. cannot handle a heavy-duty manufacturing capacity, that we should shift our focus to service industries. Look at Japan and Germany--their labor costs are as high as ours. Big countries have to be able to make big things. Have to.
JOE BIDEN
Car and Driver, Sep. 2011
Every morning I start off like I did this morning, with leading medical advisors for an hour, an hour and a half briefing on the state of the Corona virus in the United States. And guess what? Nursing homes and meat packing plants, are the most dangerous places there are right now. That's not up for debate. Thousands of infections have been traced back to meat packing plants and at least 30 workers have died from it. They designate them as essential workers, then treat them as disposable. It's quite frankly inhumane and downright immoral because these workers are essential to our society. Not just in times of crisis, but always.
JOE BIDEN
virtual town hall meeting, May 4, 2020
Saddam Hussein's pursuit of weapons of mass destruction, in my view, is one of those clear dangers. Even if the right response to his pursuit is not so crystal clear, one thing is clear. These weapons must be dislodged from Saddam Hussein, or Saddam Hussein must be dislodged from power.
JOE BIDEN
U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, July 31, 2002
I made a mistake. I underestimated the influence of Vice President Cheney, Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld, and the rest of the neocons; I vastly underestimated their disingenuousness and incompetence. So George W. Bush went to war again, and just the way the neocons wanted him to--without significant international backing.
JOE BIDEN
Promises to Keep
It is an exciting and dangerous time, for this generation of Americans has the opportunity so rarely granted to others by fate and history. We literally have the chance to shape the future -- to put our own stamp on the face and character of America, to bend history just a little bit.
JOE BIDEN
speech in Wilmington, Delaware, June 10, 1987
The terrorists who attacked the Pentagon ... sought to weaken America by shattering this defining symbol of our military might and prowess. But they failed. And they also failed for another reason, not just physically failed. They failed because they continue to fundamentally misunderstand us, as they misunderstood us on that day. For the true source of American power does not lie within that building because as Americans, we draw our strength from the rich tapestry of our people.
JOE BIDEN
remarks at the Pentagon, Sep. 11, 2011
Our current policy in Iraq is a failure. We are past the point of an open-ended commitment. We are past the point of adding more troops. We are past the point of vague policy prescriptions. It is not an answer just to stay. Nor is it an answer -- though it may become a necessity -- just to go, with no concern for what follows. The fundamental question we must answer is whether, as we begin to leave Iraq, there are still concrete steps we can take to avoid leaving chaos behind.
JOE BIDEN
speech, Dec. 4, 2006
Our failure in recent years has not been the failure of the people to meet the challenges placed before them, but rather the failure of both our great political parties to place those challenges honestly and courageously before the people, and to trust the willingness of the people to do the things that really need to be done.
JOE BIDEN
Promises to Keep