Transcript - Remarks: Joe Biden Tours a GM Electric Car Plant in Detroit - November 17, 2021 | Factba.se

Mary Barra

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The Ultium Platform can build anything from a supertruck like this to a small crossover, and that's going to allow us to ramp EVs so quickly.

Joe Biden

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Mary Barra

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So, this is our first stop. I think they'd like to have us on this side.

Joe Biden

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You want me on this side.

Mary Barra

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Unidentified

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Joe Biden

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Unidentified

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Joe Biden

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Hey, man, how are you?

Unidentified

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How are you, Mr. President?

Joe Biden

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Better for being here.

Unidentified

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Mary Barra

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Unidentified

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Mary Barra

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So, first, welcome to Factory ZERO. And also, congratulations on the bipartisan infrastructure framework bill that you signed into law on Monday. That is so important for EVs in accelerating our future. And so, this is the -- part of the team from Factory ZERO. This is our plant executive director, Jim Quick.

Joe Biden

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Mary Barra

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And he's going to introduce you to our team.

Jim Quick

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Mr. President, welcome to Factory ZERO. I'd like to introduce you to some of my General Assembly team, Jeff Roeschke --

Joe Biden

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Jeff Roeschke

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Jim Quick

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Shuantia Brown.

Joe Biden

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Jim Quick

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Hayward Miller.

Joe Biden

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Hayward, how are you doing, pal?

Hayward Miller

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Pleased to meet you, Mr. President.

Jim Quick

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Welcome to the General Assembly trim area. Hayward is going to hook up a trim electrical tester for you. We're going to talk a little bit about what we do right here. And while he's doing that, I just wanted to talk a little bit about the plant. So, as you know, this plant was built in 1985. We made the bold decision to transform into all-electric not too long ago.

Jim Quick

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We brought this plant up to its state right now where we're in pre-production and will be shipping units to customers by the end of the year.

Joe Biden

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Jim Quick

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We were able to do that with immense speed, faster than anyone is able to do in the industry because a lot of this tooling that you see here, Mr. President, the white steel, the orange toolings built right here in Michigan. Assembled, we ran it off with our trucks, and then tore it back down and put it back in place in here.

Joe Biden

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Jim Quick

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We did. And we saved about a year, Mr. President. A year.

Joe Biden

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I believe you, man.

Jim Quick

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All built right here in Michigan. So, Shuantia, you want to talk to Mr. President Biden about what Hayward's doing right now?

Joe Biden

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You can call me, Joe, Shuantia. It's OK.

Shuantia Brown

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OK, Joe. So, right now, because the vehicle doesn't have any type of power source, we use this trim tester to actually supply power to the unit, as well as use some other connectors so we can complete this data communications link so the modules can talk to each other, as well as talk to the vehicle. So, it looks like Hayward is walking around.

Shuantia Brown

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We'll go ahead and get this started.

Jim Quick

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Shuantia Brown

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And it allows us to do part number checks, check continuity, as well as verify if we have any diagnostic trouble codes at this point of the process.

Joe Biden

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Jim Quick

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So we have a 12-volt system, as you know --

Joe Biden

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Jim Quick

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In an electric vehicle. And we've also got the high-voltage system, which is up to 400 volts. This state right now, we're checking the 12-volt integrity of the system, and it's key to our Built in Quality culture that we have at General Motors. Jeff, do you want to talk about what Built in Quality means to this station?

Jeff Roeschke

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Yeah, sure. So Built in Quality refers to building it right the first time, and making sure that we don't ship any defects out of the station, out of the plant, or to a customer.

Jim Quick

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Jeff Roeschke

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We do that by testing everything that we make before it leaves, including what you see before you today. So, this is the last job before it leaves our trim shop. Here in Mod 1. And we're verifying that every connection we made back to the previous jobs are done right, and we check that by checking continuity with the electrical test.

Jim Quick

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Twenty three modules, about 66 percent of the electrical architecture. One of the other reasons why we went so fast -- Hayward, do you want to talk a little bit about Vizendo and some of the training that you've had?

Hayward Miller

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Well, I haven't had much with the Vizendo, but a lot of my training came from the plant. And a lot of time that we were at PPO, when we learned all the different connections and how to set up the job so that it was user-friendly for the operator. So that when the operator come to the job, they would have all the elements necessary to complete the job in a successful tech time.

Jim Quick

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Outstanding. And, you know, we've got a seasoned, you know, two, three-generation workforce here, President Biden. And we just couldn't be more thankful for the hard work and what they're putting in here to make it successful.

Joe Biden

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Oh, I get it. I'm an automobile guy. My -- we used to have --

Mary Barra

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So we can get the jet tomorrow.

Unidentified

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Joe Biden

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The second largest GM plant in America.

Mary Barra

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In Delaware, yes.

Joe Biden

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In Delaware. And we had literally -- when I got elected in 1972 as a young senator, we had 30,000 UAW members. We had Chrysler, General Motors, Mopar, Autolite, and truckers. In total, we had almost 10 percent of our stake was UAW workers, small stake. We don't have any of it now. But then, my dad ran the largest automobile facility in the state of Delaware.

Joe Biden

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And so I was raised -- I grew up to Manheim car or auto auction --

Mary Barra

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Joe Biden

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To help them fill up their used car lot every Friday. At Delaware University, you couldn't have a car, but I could get eight guys. I got paid 10 bucks a car, and I got back to the shop. And I'd give them five. And I'd take 10. So I got to see my wife I fell in love with up in Syracuse, New York every weekend.

Joe Biden

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And -- but -- so I spent a lot of time with UAW. First outfit to ever endorse me, and the first outfit that I've worked [audio gap].

Joe Biden

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Oh, man. I know it's cool.

Mary Barra

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All, right. We're headed just up on the right here to another -- and this is where you're actually going to get to see the Ultium -- a big part of the Ultium Platform, the battery coming into the vehicle.

Joe Biden

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Very big. I just went down to the bus factory in North Carolina.

Mary Barra

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Joe Biden

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The battery in that sucker.

Mary Barra

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Oh, there -- well, you'll get to see it right here. Just going to move right over here.

Joe Biden

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Mary Barra

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I think they've got some -- so what it's going to be, we have some --

Joe Biden

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I guess I'm on the blue marker, huh?

Mary Barra

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Yeah, the blue and I --

Joe Biden

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I got to take orders.

Mary Barra

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I'm here, you're here. OK. OK. So, again, Jim Quick is here and he's going to introduce you to this team.

Jim Quick

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Mr. President, I'd like to introduce you to some of the Chassis team members now, if you don't mind.

Joe Biden

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Jim Quick

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Jeff Alexander.

Jeff Alexander

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Jim Quick

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Aaron Martin

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Mr. President. Hello, sir.

Jim Quick

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Meme Edwards. Todd Stovall.

Joe Biden

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All right, man.

Jim Quick

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So in this station, Mr. President, we do what we call we deck the RESS. RESS is the acronym we use for Rechargeable Energy Storage System. It's our battery. You can see it's quite big. It's actually two times the size of the battery that you just looked at in the bull. If you don't mind, Meme and Todd are going to show you how we do that.

Joe Biden

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I'd like to see.

Jim Quick

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And then, we can talk a little bit about the process and the vehicle itself.

Meme Edwards

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So I'm going to transfer the battery from this station to underneath the vehicle.

Jim Quick

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So, Mr. President, one of the attributes I wanted to point out to this plant as well, I talked about how fast we were going and what we can do when we do tool builds in strategic suppliers and tool shops, and then tear that down and bring it here. The other thing I wanted to mention is that the technology that we put in the plant is immense.

Jim Quick

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If you can see up here, the white pucks --

Joe Biden

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Jim Quick

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Hanging from the ceiling. Well, in a traditional assembly plant, as you know, you'll see cable, and wires, and cords, and everything.

Meme Edwards

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Todd Stovall

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Meme Edwards

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One, two, three.

Jim Quick

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Everything in this plant is wireless. And that keeps the tools in the footprint and make sure that we build quality in station. Right now, they're decking the RESS up. There's about seven bolts per side, and then four per side, and the top down, which is why we didn't have the seats in back there in that station.

Joe Biden

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How much does that battery weigh?

Jim Quick

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Three thousand pounds, 3,000 pounds --

Meme Edwards

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Todd Stovall

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Yup. You all good?

Meme Edwards

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Yeah, I'm good.

Todd Stovall

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Jim Quick

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Total weight of the vehicle is 9,000 pounds. And again, I don't mean to talk about your Corvette, but we're three times the weight of your Corvette, and twice as fast.

Joe Biden

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Oh, I know. Your -- I got it. I know. Ain't that incredible? I'll tell you what. If I had been asleep for the last 50 years and I came -- one of these things pull up ahead, I'd have begged God and gone title for title.

Jim Quick

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This will make the hair in the back of your neck stand up.

Joe Biden

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I really would have been in trouble.

Jim Quick

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Yeah. it makes the hair in the back of your neck stand up for sure. It's exciting.

Ray Curry

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[Inaudible] important about the membership [Inaudible].

Joe Biden

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Mary Barra

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Yup. Yup, and I'll -- right. Well, either, depending on what the issue is, you'll either replace certain cells. And the other thing is our battery controls technology is smart. So let's say, you know, something happens and you're in an accident. [Inaudible] portion. We can actually put the latest [Inaudible] and the battery and the whole system will know what the cell is.

Mary Barra

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That it's the latest technology.

Ray Curry

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We definitely support our membership. And continue to grow this industry. And all those are key [Inaudible] is going to be so important to be able to advance that and then the battery [Inaudible] 12,500 total that's going to be key for membership, key for [Inaudible].

Mary Barra

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It will. It will. But very powerful. In fact, the battery is really part of the structure of the vehicle. It will -- it really provides a stability that you just don't even feel in cars today,

Ray Curry

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But that becomes the new --

Joe Biden

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Ray Curry

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Mary Barra

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The way it keeps you down.

Unidentified

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So the speed doesn't impact it?

Mary Barra

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Exactly. Exactly.

Jim Quick

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So all electric tools, Mr. President --

Joe Biden

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Mary Barra

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But anytime you [Inaudible] we build a number of safety standards and to also make sure like the way that [Inaudible] protect the person in the vehicle, the whole, you know, [Inaudible] that they're in. We try to make sure that things don't intrude, so we really try to protect that [Inaudible]. And the rest of the vehicle [Inaudible].

Jim Quick

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Torque tracking. So we make sure that we build quality in station. We keep records of everything that happens in the station. From a torque standpoint, you can see the ergonomics and safeties at the fore front with the tool design. And Meme can share some of the -- her experiences with what we've done with ergonomics as well [Inaudible]. So the way that our system works is that as soon as it's finish, it can complete the cycle.

Jim Quick

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The operators then -- our team members step away. And then the vehicle then advances to the next station and have the next set of workers on it.

Joe Biden

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Can I step here for a second?

Meme Edwards

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Joe Biden

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Most coveted job. You could get summer job when you're in law school or in college.

Mary Barra

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Joe Biden

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They'd run a third shift. They'd hire temporary workers. I can never get hired, but it paid a lot of money. It paid a lot of money when you're a kid.

Ray Curry

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Mary Barra

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Yeah, very. It put a lot of people --

Joe Biden

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It paid a lot of money when you're a kid.

Mary Barra

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It put a lot of people through school.

Ray Curry

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Meme Edwards

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Joe Biden

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Pretty impressive.

Meme Edwards

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Jim Quick

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We do some quality --

Unidentified

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That was really fast, guys.

Joe Biden

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See you guys in Washington.

Unidentified

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Show us how you do it, Joe.

Joe Biden

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Anybody want to jump on the back? On the roof?

Unidentified

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You look good, Mr. President.

Joe Biden

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This sucker is something else.

Unidentified

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Unidentified

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What do you think?

Joe Biden

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By the way, did you see what we're doing there the moment [Inaudible]?

Unidentified

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Yeah, [Inaudible]?

Joe Biden

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Yeah. Ain't that incredible?

Unidentified

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Unidentified

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Unidentified

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Mary is a pretty good driver.

Mary Barra

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He's a very good driver.

Joe Biden

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It's incredible. And the steering [Inaudible] to this was, like, you know --

Unidentified

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Mary Barra

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How fast did you go?

Joe Biden

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It's incredible.

Unidentified

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Where'd you get up to?

Joe Biden

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I don't know. I didn't look.

Unidentified

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He didn't even look ahead.

Unidentified

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There's not a lot of track here.

Joe Biden

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I tell you what, this is [Inaudible]. This is three times heavy than my Corvette, but three times fast.

Unidentified

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Mary Barra

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Joe Biden

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This is incredible.

Unidentified

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Unidentified

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I'm honored to have you in here.

Joe Biden

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By the way, the Secret Service Rolls-Royce [Inaudible].

Unidentified

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Unidentified

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Take you masks off. Oh, come on, Senator Gary.

Unidentified

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I'm jumping on this picture. [Inaudible].

Unidentified

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Wait, Mary's got to be in this shout.

Unidentified

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Unidentified

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Unidentified

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Unidentified

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Come on get on with us.

Unidentified

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Come on, get in here.

Unidentified

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Mr. President, where are you? Get over here, man.

Unidentified

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I'd like to join you, Mr. President.

Unidentified

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Unidentified

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Unidentified

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Hold on. Wait. Get ready to pose.

Unidentified

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Hi, everyone. Hi, thanks for being here.

Unidentified

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Unidentified

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Unidentified

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This can take just a minute.

Unidentified

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Unidentified

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Good to see you.

Unidentified

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Unidentified

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Anybody tells me to go.

Unidentified

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Unidentified

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Unidentified

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Here we go, one, two, three.

Unidentified

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Unidentified

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Thank you for being here.