Factbase Transcripts

Joe Biden

Very Positive

00:00:00-00:00:32 (32 sec)

"Hey, Architectural Digest. Welcome to the Oval Office. Come on in. This is the White House. This is it. On Inauguration Day, the outgoing president has to be out by, I think, noon or 10 o'clock in the morning. Incoming can't come in until 4 o'clock. So, you can decide what furniture and what decorations you want in the Oval Office." 1

Joe Biden

Very Positive

00:00:32-00:00:53 (21 sec)

"I had asked my brother to help me set up my office in here, on the rug and the furniture, because he's a better architect than I am. What they do is in suburban Maryland, there is a facility that is a replica in terms of dimensions of the Oval Office. And so, you go out there and pick the furniture and the rugs you want, see what it looks like." 2

Joe Biden

Very Positive

00:00:53-00:01:17 (24 sec)

"And so, my brother knows my taste extremely well. I love this rug. I love the color blue. That's one thing I knew I wanted. The rest, my brother picked out for me, and he had called a good friend, Jon Meacham, the presidential historian, for some help. I've spent more time with the Chinese leader than any other head of state." 3

Joe Biden

Positive

00:01:17-00:01:36 (19 sec)

"And he asked me, he said, can I define America? I said, yes, I can in one word, and I mean it. Possibilities. Possibilities. We, Americans, think anything is possible when we would do it together. And that's why Jon Meacham helped my brother pick out those five portraits up there. It's all about possibilities." 4

Joe Biden

Very Positive

00:01:36-00:02:02 (26 sec)

"There's not a single thing we can't do. This was the Resolute desk that John Kennedy had. And remember that famous picture where John John, his son, where he came out from under the desk? Well, he comes out this door here. That's where he climbed out. Well, I have a little grandson. And what I decided to do when we came in here, let me show you." 5

Joe Biden

Very Positive

00:02:02-00:02:25 (22 sec)

"And that's my grandson, Bowie, coming out from underneath the desk. It's really an incredible office. I chose the things that sort of represent why I got into public life to begin with, for real. I wanted to be able to sit in my desk, and when I looked out, to see the two heroes I had, one was Dr. Martin Luther King and the other is Bobby Kennedy." 6

Joe Biden

Very Positive

00:02:25-00:02:48 (23 sec)

"Then I have a woman who refused to move to the back of the bus, Rosa Parks. I have her bust in here as well. And there's one other person that was from that era. This is Cesar Chavez of the Farm Workers, and he was organizing farm workers in the southern part of my state at the time, and I supported him. I never met him, but I supported what he was doing." 7

Joe Biden

Very Positive

00:02:48-00:03:12 (24 sec)

"It cost me southern Delaware, but I admired the hell out of him. This is the love of my life and the life of my love. This is my daughter Ashley on her wedding day, and we're dancing the dance of the father and daughter. This one is really amazing. This is on the night Barack and I were declared vice president and president of the United States." 8

Joe Biden

Very Positive

00:03:12-00:03:29 (17 sec)

"My mom, who admired Barack a lot, wasn't even supposed to be walking out on the stage. And they said, and now, the next president and vice president of the United States, Barack Obama and Joe Biden. And my mother grabs Barack's hand there, and look at the look on his face. She goes, come on, honey, it's going to be OK. She walked him out on stage." 9

Joe Biden

Neutral

00:03:29-00:03:53 (25 sec)

"She never stopped being everybody's mom. I have this rugby ball over here. This is the all-Irish rugby team. I have two cousins who were stars on that team, and they gave me this ball. And then every time I've been sworn into any public office, I've used this Bible. It's just an incredible keepsake that's been around in the family for a long time." 10

Joe Biden

Very Positive

00:03:53-00:04:13 (20 sec)

"By the way, the reason for Ben Franklin, I got to put that up because my kids went to Penn and I was a professor at the University of Pennsylvania. This moonrock, it's pretty cool. It's literally a rock from the moon. This is my '67 Corvette. Well, my dad didn't have a lot of money, but he managed the dealership." 11

Joe Biden

Very Positive

00:04:13-00:04:51 (38 sec)

"So, when I got married, he gave this to me as a gift. I still have it. When I got elected president, Scranton decided to take Interstate 81. And the exit to Scranton used to be called the Central Scranton Expressway. They renamed it President Biden Expressway. You know, there's a lot of other things in here that are of consequence to me. And I think of all the incredible things that have happened in this office over the last couple hundred years, and it really is just an incredible honor to be here." 12

Joe Biden

Very Positive

00:04:51-00:05:15 (25 sec)

"Let me show you back here. People don't get to go back here very often. I think these are great sketches of Frederick Douglass. I have them put up in the wall here. There's a private office back here. This is where I come when I want to get away a little bit to work on a speech. There's a great portrait of President Kennedy there." 13

Joe Biden

Very Positive

00:05:15-00:05:34 (19 sec)

"The Kennedys didn't like it because it made him look too contemplative. I think it's a great portrait of him. And on the wall here, a lot of kids will send me these cartoons, and I put them up on the wall, and then I take pictures of them and send them to the families, which the kids get a kick out of, but I think they're really neat." 14

Joe Biden

Slightly Negative

00:05:34-00:06:07 (33 sec)

"And this is the house I was raised in in Scranton, Pennsylvania, on North Washington Avenue, which, by the way, the last three blocks at the end of North Washington Avenue, they're called Biden Way now, they've renamed it. This is a private dining room. Not many people get to come back here. Barack and I used to have lunch on those eight years once a week in this room right here." 15

Joe Biden

Somewhat Negative

00:06:07-00:06:35 (28 sec)

"But I have a lot of personal family photographs back here. This is a picture of my son Beau, who's passed away. That's my mom and my dad. And when I had darker hair. And here, they're what they call command coins. Command coins are given in the battlefield. And the president has a command coin. And my command coin has, on the back of it, Beau's unit, who went to Iraq for a year." 16

Joe Biden

Very Positive

00:06:35-00:07:03 (28 sec)

"And so, I'm going to give you a copy, give you one. If, in fact, next time I see you, you don't have it, you have to buy the drinks. But you're in luck. I'm the only Irish you'll ever met who's never had a drink in his life. Did you want to see the Cabinet Room? I want to show it to you. Come here. This is the Cabinet Room." 17

Joe Biden

Slightly Positive

00:07:03-00:07:28 (25 sec)

"Come on in. There's only one chair in here that's about two inches higher than every other chair. That's the president's chair. These chairs are really, really heavy. On the back of each chair is the name of the department they represent. This is the Secretary of Energy here in this chair. But there's a lot of really incredible things that have happened in this room." 18

Joe Biden

Neutral

00:07:28-00:07:49 (21 sec)

"It's almost cathedral-like to me because when we're in here, we're talking about things of enormous consequence. And by the way, there's a tradition in my office. These chocolate chip cookies are all homemade." 19