Remarks: Joe Biden Participates in Swearing in Appointees Via Video Conference - January 20, 2021

"Hello, Cathy. " 1

"Hello, sir. Good evening, everyone. On behalf of the White House Office of Presidential Personnel, I am delighted to welcome you to the swearing-in of the Day One appointees of the Biden-Harris administration. We are joined by hundreds of White House staff and hundreds more agency appointees. All of us here have the great privilege of serving our country and joining you, Mr. President, in restoring our nation." 2

"I was privileged to hear many of your stories during the hiring process. Some of you have worked in government before and thought perhaps your days of service were behind you until finding yourselves in this moment of national need. Others have never worked in government and will bring new perspectives to the work that lies ahead." 3

"Some of you are the first in your family to graduate college, you are veterans who have worn our nation's uniform, you are the daughters and sons of immigrants, or you are immigrants yourselves. Some of you have interviewed for your job while you were wrapping up work on presidential campaign, and others interviewed while you were fighting off COVID or caring for family members who were ill, but all of you share in the hope we have for the Biden-Harris administration, and each of you has answered the call to serve." 4

"Having worked in government, I know that no public servant does this work alone, so I would like to welcome and acknowledge the friends and family of all our appointees who will support the work ahead, and now it is my honor and privilege to introduce a true public servant for whom I was so lucky to first work for more than three decades ago who will administer the oath of office, the president of the United States." 5

"Mr. President? " 6

"Thank you, Cathy. Hello, team, and I mean that sincerely. We are one team. Jill and I and Kamala and Doug are enormously humbled by today's inauguration, and it makes me realize what an obligation we have what a tremendous opportunity we have. I am looking at all of your photographs, and I'm supposed to be looking straight ahead, but I want to take a look at you while I'm talking to you." 7

"I really mean it we have an obligation, but we also have a great privilege. Very few times does an individual get an opportunity to do something that can fundamentally positively impact other people's lives, not only here but around the world. You are engaged in, and you are working with the most -- most decent government in the world, and we have to restore the soul of this country, and I'm counting on all of you to be part of that, and it is not hyperbole." 8

"The only thing I expect with absolute certitude is honesty and decency in the way you treat one another, the way you treat the people you deal with, and I mean that sincerely. Remember we -- people don't work for us; we work for the people, I work for the people, they pay my salary, they pay your salary, they put their faith in you, I put my faith in you." 9

"And so we have an obligation. We ran on a promise that this administration would look like America looks. That taps into the best of our nation, that opens doors and includes a full range of talents we have in all of our people, and that meant asking you and your families to serve. We are honored that you accepted the call, and I am not being solicitous when I say this, we owe your families, we owe your families because those of you working in the White House, those who will be here, those who are working in other agencies you are going to work like the devil, we all do." 10

"We put in long hours, and it shouldn't be something that you should do unless you really care about it a great deal. You know there have been few moments in our history in my view when our nation has been more tested than we are now, few in public service will matter more when it will matter more, and history measures -- is going to measure us and our fellow Americans will measure us by how decent, honorable and smart we have been in terms of looking out for their interests." 11

"You know, to contain a pandemic, to administer a vaccine it's going to be the most consequential logistical thing that has ever been done in the United States. It's going to take a lot, an awful lot. We are going to rescue an economy, but we have so many opportunities to build it back and build back so much better." 12

"I have said from the beginning that when the American people given half a chance, they have never ever ever ever ever let their country down, and that is not hyperbole. You know, some thought in my party our party my party and some thought in the country and some thought in the press when I said I was running for three reasons I said I was running to restore the soul of America." 13

"By that, I mean just common decency, honor, your word, doing what you say you are going to do, treating people with respect. My dad used to have an expression he would say everyone, every single person regardless of their background is entitled to be treated with dignity; I expect you to do that for all of the folks you deal with, all of the folks we work for, the American people and you are going to try to keep us safe and secure from the threats and the unseen, to root out systemic racism." 14

"We have reached a point in my view where the American people had sort of the blinders have been taken off. They had been taken off and realized they didn't realize before just how much systemic racism still exist because they didn't live in circumstances where they were with large minority populations whatever the background was, and all of these sudden they see what happened to George Floyd with his nose being pushed up against the curb suffocating to death and murdered and they said my God that really happens because technology has changed and a young man had the courage to stand there for eight minutes and 44 seconds and take that pictu re, and the whole world responded, the whole world responded." 15

"We have a chance. We have a chance to change things for the reason I got involved in politics when I was a kid at 26 years old running for local office to try to change redlining. I really mean it, so you shouldn't be doing this unless you feel it. I always say a simple proposition I trust people more who the idea and the concern starts in their gut, goes into their heart, and is being able to articulate it by a good brand rather than a person who thinks of it intellectually but never feels it." 16

"People can count on are the ones that starts from the gut, works their way to the heart and have the intellectual capacity to do what needs to be done. And so, folks, we have a lot going on. We have a lot of opportunities we can meet this existential threat of climate change. I really believe it. Again the world has figured out the United States has figured out whoa, it makes a gigantic difference; it makes a gigantic difference these unseen threats, air you can't breathe living on fence line communities and the like, so much more we can do." 17

"We have such an awful lot to do, but I know you, I know your heart, your dedication, and your commitment to this nation, and I know you can do it, and we are going to do it by leading with one core American value, humility and trust, collegiality, diversity, competency and family and I want to thank your families for the sacrifices." 18

"But I'm not joking when I say this if you are ever working with me and I hear you treat another colleague with this respect, talk down to someone I promise you I will fire you on the spot, on the spot. No if, and's or butts. Everybody, everybody is entitled to be treated with decency and dignity, that has been missing in a big way the last four years." 19

"Cathy has gone through all of your backgrounds, talked to me about you. I am confident you have the capacity to do it. We are going to be judged. We are going to be judged whether or not we restored the integrity and the competency of this government. I need your help badly. The last thing I will say I am going to make mistakes, I'm going to make mistakes, when I make them, I will acknowledge them, and I will tell you, and I will need your help to help me correct them." 20

"We are not going to walk away; we are going to take responsibility. That is what we do. That is what you do, that is what so many of you have done throughout your career, and I expect you to do it again. So I am happy, happy we are starting, happy to join all of you, there's almost 1000 of you on this call, and your families, so thank you, thank you, thank you very much." 21

"That in this nation, everyone, and I mean everyone, is given an opportunity and knows that is -- that is who we are as a country, and that is who we have always been thought to be. I was asked a long time ago when I was with Xi Jinping, and I was on the Tibetan plateau with him, and he asked me in a private dinner he and I and we each had an interpreter he said can you define America for me and I said yes, and I meant it." 22

"I said I can do it in one word, one word. Possibilities. Possibilities. We believe anything is possible when we set our mind to it, unlike any other country in the world. Possibilities. You are my possibilities. You are the way we are going to get this done. I am honored to now administer the oath of office to each of you, and if you will raise your right hand and repeat after me." 23

"I, state your name, do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies foreign and domestic, that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same, that I take this obligation freely without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter so help me God." 24

"Thank you. Welcome, and as my mom would say, God love you all. We've got a lot of work to do, a lot of work to do. Thank you for being willing to join. Bye-bye. Okay." 25