I want to thank Carnegie Mellon for providing this space and all the promise it holds for future jobs in the high tech world. In recent days, we’ve had a lot of talk about who’s going where and how I’ve decided to come to Pittsburgh to talk a little bit about what’s going on right now. In the early days of World War II, Franklin Roosevelt told the country, and I quote, “The news is going to get worse and worse before it gets better and better. And the American people deserve to have it straight from the shoulder.” Straight from the shoulder. The job of a president is to tell it straight from the shoulder, tell the truth, to be candid, to face facts, to lead, not to insight. That’s why I’m speaking to you today. The incumbant president is incapable of telling us the truth, incapable of facing the facts and incapable of healing. He doesn’t want to shed light, he wants to generate heat and he’s stroking violence in our cities.
Joe Biden: (
01:12)
This is a tragic fact of the matter, how he’s dealing with this perilous hour in our nation. And now we have to stand against violence in every form it takes. Violence we’ve seen again and again and again, of unwarranted police shooting, excessive force, seven bullets in the back of Jacob Blake. Knee on the neck of George Floyd, killing of Breonna Taylor in her own apartment, violence of extremists and opportunists, right wing militias… And to derail any hope and support for progress, the senseless violence of looting and burning and destruction of property. I want to make it absolutely clear, so I’m going to be very clear about all of this, rioting is not protesting. Looting is not protesting. Setting fires is not protesting. None of this is protesting. It’s lawlessness, plain and simple. And those who do it should be prosecuted. Violence will not bring change, it will only bring destruction. It’s wrong in every way. It divides instead of unites, destroys businesses, only hurts the working families that serve the community. It makes things worse across the board, not better.
Joe Biden: (
02:42)
It’s not what Dr. King or John Lewis taught and it must end. Fires are burning and we have a president who fans the flames rather than fighting the flames. But we must not burn, we have to build. This president, long ago, forfeited any moral leadership in this country. He can’t stop the violence because for years he’s fomented it. He may believe mouthing the words law and order makes him strong. But his failure to call on his own supporters to stop acting as an armed militia in this country shows how weak he is. Does anyone believe there’ll be less violence in America if Donald Trump is reelected?
Joe Biden: (
03:30)
We need justice in America. We need safety in America. We’re facing multiple crises. Crises that under Donald Trump have kept multiplying. COVID, economic devastation, unwarranted police violence, [inaudible 00:03:48] white nationalists, a reckoning on race, declining faith in the birth of the right American future. There’s no reason why we can’t just do so much more than we’re doing. The common threat, the incumbent president who makes things worse, not better, an incumbent president who sows chaos rather than providing order. An incumbent president who fails in the basic duty of the job, which is to advance the truth that all of us know, that we’re all born with the right to life, Liberty, and pursuit of happiness. That’s right. All of us, the moms and dads in Scranton, where I grew up, who have worked and scraped for everything they’ve ever gotten in life.
Joe Biden: (
04:34)
The auto worker in Michigan, who still makes the best automobile in the world, single mom in Ohio, working three jobs just to stay afloat who’ll do anything for her child. Retired veteran in Florida who gave everything he had to this country. And now just wants us to honor the promises made to him. [inaudible 00:04:58] salesperson who just lost their job. A store closing after 194 years in business. Nurses and doctors in Wisconsin who’ve seen so much sickness, so much death in the past six months. And they wonder how much more can they take, but still they muster up the courage to take care of those patients in this pandemic while risking their own lives. Researchers in Minnesota who woke up this morning determined to find a breakthrough in treating cancer and who’ll do the same thing tomorrow and the day after and the day after, because she’ll never give up. White, Black, Latino, Asian American, Native Americans, everybody, I’m in this campaign for you. No matter your color, no matter your zip code, no matter your politics.
Joe Biden: (
05:51)
When I think of the presidency, I don’t think about myself. It isn’t about my brand. It’s about you, the American people. We can do better and we have to do better. I promise you this. We will do better. The road back begins now in this campaign. You know me, you know my heart, you know my story, my family story. Ask yourself, do I look like a radical socialist with a soft spot for rioters? Really? I want a safe America, safe from COVID, safe from crime and looting, safe from racially motivated violence, safe from bad cops. Let me be crystal clear, safe from four more years of Donald Trump. I look at this violence and I see lives and communities and the dreams of small businesses being destroyed and the opportunity for real progress on issues of race and police reform and justice being put to the test. Donald Trump looks at this violence and he sees a political lifeline. Having failed to protect this nation from the virus that has killed more than 180,000 Americans so far, Trump posts an all caps tweet, screaming, “Law and order,” to save his campaign.
Joe Biden: (
07:23)
One of his closest political advisers in the White House doesn’t even bother to speak in code, just comes out and she says it. “The more chaos, violence, the better it is for Trump’s reelection.” Just think about that. This is a sitting president of the United States of America. He’s supposed to be protecting this country, but instead he’s rooting for chaos and violence. The simple truth is Donald Trump failed to protect America. So now he’s trying to scare America. Since Donald Trump and Mike Prince can’t run on their record that has seen more American death to a virus, this virus, then the nation suffered in every war since Korea combined, since they can’t run on their economy that has seen more people lose their jobs than any time since the Great Depression, since they can’t run on a simple proposition of sending our children safely back to school, since they have no agenda or vision for a second term, Trump and Pence are running on this.
Joe Biden: (
08:36)
And I find it fascinating. “You won’t be safe in Joe Biden’s America.” And what’s their proof? The violence we’re seeing in Donald Trump’s America. These are not images of some imagined Joe Biden America in the future. These are images of Donald Trump’s America today. He keeps telling you if only he was president, it wouldn’t happen. If he was president. He keeps telling us that he was president you’d feel safe. Well he is president. Whether he knows it or not, and it is happening, it’s getting worse. And you know why? Because Donald Trump adds fuel to every fire because he refuses to even acknowledge that there’s a racial justice problem in America because he won’t stand up to any form of violence. He’s got no problem with right-wing militia, white supremacists, and vigilantes with assault weapons often better armed than the police. Often in the middle of the violence at the protestors and aiming it there. And because tens of millions of Americans simply don’t trust this president to respect their rights, to hear their concerns or to protect them. It doesn’t have to be this way.
Joe Biden: (
09:55)
When President Obama and I were in the White House, we had to defend federal property. We did it. We didn’t see it. You didn’t see us whipping up fears around the deployment of secret federal troops. We just did our job and the federal property was protected.
Your President Chump is a pathetic loser as is demonstrated in unedited clips and full speaches, time and time again. Nothing here is “fairly reversed”. 
