Transcript - Remarks: Joe Biden Delivers Remarks on Thanksgiving - November 25, 2020 | Factba.se

Joe Biden

00:00:00 - 00:00:33 ()

My fellow Americans, Thanksgiving is a special time in America. A time to reflect on what the year has brought, to think about what lies ahead. You know, our first national day of thanksgiving authorized by the Continental Congress took place on December 18th, 1777. It was celebrated by General George Washington and his troops at Gulph Mills on the way to Valley Forge.

Joe Biden

00:00:33 - 00:01:07 ()

And it took place under extremely harsh conditions and deprivation. Lacking food, clothing, shelter. They were preparing to ride out a long, hard winter. And today, you can find a plaque in Gulph Mills marking that moment. Here's what the plaque reads. It says, "This Thanksgiving, in spite of the suffering, showed the reverence and character that was forging the soul of a nation." Forging the soul of a nation.

Joe Biden

00:01:07 - 00:01:33 ()

Faith, courage, sacrifice. Service to country, service to each other, and gratitude even in the face of suffering have long been part of what Thanksgiving means in America. You know, looking back over our history, you see that it's been in the most difficult circumstances that the soul of our nation has been forged.

Joe Biden

00:01:33 - 00:02:05 ()

And now we find ourselves again facing a long, hard winter. We fought nearly a year long battle with a virus that has devastated this nation. It's brought his pain and loss and frustration and that's cost so many lives. 260,000 Americans and counting. It's divided us, angered us, set us against one another.

Joe Biden

00:02:05 - 00:02:31 ()

I know the country has grown weary of the fight, but we need to remember where at war with a virus, not with one another, not with each other. This is the moment where we need to steel our spines, redouble our efforts, and recommit ourselves to the fight. Let's remember, we're all in this together. It sounds trite to say, but we're all in this together.

Joe Biden

00:02:31 - 00:02:59 ()

For so many of us, it's hard to hear this fight isn't over. We still have months of this battle ahead of us. For those who've lost a loved one, I know that this time of year can be especially difficult. Believe me. I know. I remember that first Thanksgiving, the empty chair, the silence. It takes your breath away.

Joe Biden

00:02:59 - 00:03:35 ()

It's really hard to care. It's hard to give thanks. It's hard to even think of looking forward. It's so hard to hope. I understand. I'll be thinking and praying for each and every one of you this Thanksgiving at your Thanksgiving table because we've been there. This year, we are asking Americans to forgo so many of the traditions that we've long made this holiday that's made it so special.

Joe Biden

00:03:35 - 00:04:03 ()

For our families, for 40 such years -- 40 some years, we've had a tradition of traveling over Thanksgiving, a tradition that we've kept every year, save one, the year our son Beau died. But this year, will be staying home. We always had big family gatherings at Thanksgiving. Kids, grandkids, aunts, uncles, brothers, sisters, and more.

Joe Biden

00:04:03 - 00:04:30 ()

For the Bidens, the days around Thanksgiving have always been a time to remember all we had to be grateful for and a time to begin to think about Christmas and begin even to do the Christmas lists. But this year, because we care so much for each other, we're going to be having a separate Thanksgiving. For Jill and I, we'll be at our home in Delaware with our daughter and our son-in-law.

Joe Biden

00:04:30 - 00:05:01 ()

The rest of the family will be doing the same thing in small groups. So I know. I know how hard it is to forgo family traditions, but it's so very important. Our country is in the middle of a dramatic spike in cases. We're now averaging 160,000 new cases a day, and no one will be surprised if we hit 200,000 cases in a single day.

Joe Biden

00:05:01 - 00:05:41 ()

Many local health systems are at risk of being overwhelmed. That's the plain and simple truth. Nothing made up. It's real. And I believe you always deserve to hear the truth. Hear the truth from your president. We have to try to slow the growth of this virus. We owe it to the doctors and the nurses and other frontline workers, care workers who've reached risked their lives, some lost their lives, put so much on the line in the heroic battle in this virus against it for so long.

Joe Biden

00:05:41 - 00:06:09 ()

You know, we owe that to our fellow citizens who need access to hospital beds and care to fight this disease. We owe it to one another. It's literally our patriotic duty as Americans. It means wearing a mask, keeping social distancing, limiting the size of any group we are in. Until we have a vaccine these are the most effective tools to combat the virus.

Joe Biden

00:06:09 - 00:06:30 ()

Starting on day one of my presidency, we will take steps that will change the course of this disease. More testing. We will find people with cases and get them away from one another, slowing the number of infections. More protective gear for businesses and our schools to do the same. Reducing the number of cases.

Joe Biden

00:06:30 - 00:06:54 ()

Clear guidance and we'll get more businesses and more schools open. We all have a role to play in beating this crisis. The federal government has vast powers to combat the virus and I commit to you I will use all of those powers to lead a national coordinated response, but -- but the federal government can't do this alone.

Joe Biden

00:06:54 - 00:07:30 ()

Each of us has a responsibility in our own lives to do what we can do to slow the virus. Every decision we make matters. Every decision we make can save lives. None of these steps were asking people to take our political statements. Every one of them is based on science. Real science. But the good news is there's been significant record-breaking progress made recently in developing a vaccine and several of these vaccines look extraordinarily effective.

Joe Biden

00:07:30 - 00:08:01 ()

It happens that we are on track for the first immunization to begin by late December, early January. Then we'll need to put in place the distribution plan to get the entire country immunized as soon as possible, which we will do, but it's going to take time. I'm hoping the news of the vaccine will serve as an incentive to every American to take these simple steps to get control of the virus.

Joe Biden

00:08:01 - 00:08:31 ()

There's real hope, tangible hope. So hang on. Don't let yourself surrender to the fatigue, which I understand. It is real fatigue. I know we can and will beat this virus. America is not going to lose this war. We'll get our lives back. Life is going to return to normal. I promise you. This will happen. This will not last forever.

Joe Biden

00:08:31 - 00:09:19 ()

So yes, it's been a really hard year, particularly hard for over 250,000 people and their families, but I still believe we have much to be thankful for. There's so much to hope for, much to build on, much took dream on. Here is the America I see and I believe it's the America you see as well. America that faces facts; an America that overcomes challenges; an America that we -- where we see justice and equality for all people; an America that holds fast in the conviction that out of pain comes possibility, out of frustration comes progress, and out of division, unity.

Joe Biden

00:09:19 - 00:09:47 ()

You all know in our finest hours, that's what we've always been and that's who we shall be again. For I believe that this grim season of division, demonization is going to give way to an era of light and immunity. Why do I think so? Because America is a nation not of adversaries, but of neighbors. Not of limitations, but of possibilities.

Joe Biden

00:09:47 - 00:10:10 ()

Not of dreams deferred, but have dreams realized. I've said many times that this is a great country. We are a good people. This is the United States of America and there's never been anything we've been unable to do when we've done it together. Think of what we've come through as a nation. How many things we've come through.

Joe Biden

00:10:10 - 00:10:35 ()

Centuries of human enslavement. The cataclysmic civil war. Exclusion of women from the ballot box. World wars. Jim Crow. The long twilight struggle against Soviet tyranny that could have ended not in the fall of the Berlin Wall, but in nuclear Armageddon. Look, I'm not naive. I know that history is just that-history.

Joe Biden

00:10:35 - 00:11:08 ()

But to know what came before, what's coming before, what's happened before can help arm us against despair. Knowing that previous generations got through the same universal human challenge that we face, the tension between selfishness and generosity, between fear and hope, between division and unity, and what -- what was it that brought that reality of America into closer alignment with the promise of reality, justice, and prosperity?

Joe Biden

00:11:08 - 00:11:36 ()

It sounds corny, but it was love, plain and simple. Love of country. Love of one another. We don't talk much about love in our politics. The political -- the political arena is too loud. Too angry. Too heated. To love our neighbor as ourselves is a radical act. It is what we were called to do. We must try.

Joe Biden

00:11:36 - 00:12:12 ()

For only in trying, only in listening, only in seeing ourselves as it bound together in what Dr. King called "the mutual garment of destiny" can we rise above divisions and to truly heal. Look, we all know America has never been perfect, but we've always tried to fulfill the aspiration of the Declaration of Independence, that all people are created equal, created in the image of God and we've always sought to form a more perfect Union.

Joe Biden

00:12:12 - 00:12:38 ()

What should we give thanks for this season? Well, first, let's be thankful for democracy itself. In this -- in this last election, the one that just took place, we've seen record numbers of Americans exercise the most sacred right, that of the vote to register their will at the ballot box. Think about that.

Joe Biden

00:12:38 - 00:13:04 ()

In the middle of a pandemic, more people voted this year than have ever voted in the history of the United States of America. Over 150 million people cast a ballot. Simply extraordinary. Many waiting in line, five, six, seven, eight hours to vote. If you want to note what beats deep in the heart of America, it's this: democracy.

Joe Biden

00:13:04 - 00:13:35 ()

The right to determine our lives, our government, and our leaders, the right to be heard. Our democracy was tested this year. And what we learned is this, the people of this nation are up to the task. In America, we have full and fair and free elections and then we honor the results. The people of this nation and the laws of the land won't stand for anything else.

Joe Biden

00:13:35 - 00:14:13 ()

Through the vote, the noblest instrument of nonviolent protest ever conceived, we remained anew and we were reminded anew that progress is possible, but we the people, we the people have the power to change what Jefferson called "the course of human events." And with our hearts and our hands and our voices, today we can be better than yesterday and tomorrow we can be still better than that day.

Joe Biden

00:14:13 - 00:14:48 ()

You know, we should be thankful too that America is a covenant, an unfolding story, that we have what we need to create prosperity, opportunity, and justice. Americans have grit and generosity, a capacity for greatness in reservoirs of goodness. We have what it takes. Now we have to act. This is our moment, ours together to write a newer, bolder, more compassionate chapter in the life of a nation.

Joe Biden

00:14:48 - 00:15:19 ()

The work ahead is not going to be easy. It will not be quick. You want solutions, not shouting, reason, not hyper partisanship, light, not heat, you want us to hear one another again, see one another again, respect one another again. You want Democrats and Republicans and independents to come together and work together and that, my friends, is what I'm determined to do.

Joe Biden

00:15:19 - 00:15:46 ()

Americans dream big. As hard as it may seem this Thanksgiving, we're going to dream big again. Our future is bright. In fact we've never been -- I've never been more optimistic about the future of America than I am right now. I honest to God believe the 21st century is going to be an American century. We're going to build an economy that leads the world.

Joe Biden

00:15:46 - 00:16:16 ()

We're going to lead the world by the power of our example, not just the example of our power. We're going to lead the world on climate and save this planet. We're going to find cures for cancer and Alzheimer's and diabetes. I promise you, we're going to finally root out systemic racism in this country. And this Thanksgiving, in anticipation of all the Thanksgivings to come, let's dream again.

Joe Biden

00:16:16 - 00:17:03 ()

Let's commit -- let's commit ourselves to thinking not only of ourselves, but of others as well. For if we care for one another, if we open our arms rather than brandishing our fists, we can with the help of God, heal. And if we do, and I'm sure we can, we can proclaim a psalmist -- with a psalmist who wrote these following words, "The word Lord is my strength and my shield and with my song I give thanks to him." I give thanks now for you for the trust you placed in me.

Joe Biden

00:17:03 - 00:17:35 ()

Together, we'll lift our voices in the coming months and years and our song shall be of lives saved, breaches repaired, a nation made whole again. Folks, from the Biden family to yours, wherever and however you may be celebrating, we wish you a happy Thanksgiving. May God bless you and may God protect our troops.

Joe Biden

00:17:35 - 00:17:45 ()

Happy Thanksgiving.