Speaker 1: The beginning of the general election contest between President Biden
Speaker 1: and Donald Trump is no time to shade the truth.
Speaker 1: Let us be clear about something. The overwhelming majority of
Speaker 1: the American people have said, we don't want to see
Speaker 1: a rematch between Presidents Trump and Biden. Yet that is
Speaker 1: the choice the American people will get. And there is
Speaker 1: a profound difference between the two men. One of them,
Speaker 1: President Biden, believes in the United States, American democracy, the values, ideas,
Speaker 1: and ideals of the Great Republic, and the other one
Speaker 1: does not. President Biden is an American and Donald Trump
Speaker 1: espouses an anti American worldview. His is a vision of
Speaker 1: menace steeped in a promise of retribution, which always leads
Speaker 1: to despair, death, estrangement, and ultimately loneliness. Donald Trump holds
Speaker 1: out a promise that is premised in a lie. Now
Speaker 1: that lie is born from an impatience with democracy, with
Speaker 1: the work of ordinary men and women who are elected
Speaker 1: to the offices and often succumb to the temptation of
Speaker 1: the power, the prestige, the influence, the money that swirls
Speaker 1: around them. Our American system of government is profoundly corrupted
Speaker 1: by foreign influence, by the influence of billionaires who buy
Speaker 1: and sell politicians like little trinkets and totems on a
Speaker 1: store shelf. The American system, though must not be torn down,
Speaker 1: must be repaired, not replaced by a lie that posits
Speaker 1: a man can substitute his judgment for the judgments of
Speaker 1: the people. That the impatience that makes democracy painful to
Speaker 1: go through in times of corruption and malaise in stagnation
Speaker 1: is worth overthrowing for the expediency of decision making that
Speaker 1: can come through the certitude of a strong leader who's
Speaker 1: in it for you. Despite all of the evidence to
Speaker 1: the contrary, Senator Mitt Romney said it perfectly. Is there
Speaker 1: something wrong with the voter, the voter who would give
Speaker 1: their support to a man who has been found guilty
Speaker 1: of raping a woman by a jury in an American courtroom?
Speaker 1: What does it say about the collapse of character, of decency,
Speaker 1: of dignity around the office for so many tens of
Speaker 1: millions of Americans? How can it possibly be explained? How
Speaker 1: can it be defeated? There is something that is essential
Speaker 1: to understand about a crisis and about despairing moments and
Speaker 1: how they have been overcome. Whether it was in the
Speaker 1: dark days of the Revolutionary War, the trying days of
Speaker 1: the American Civil War, whether it was in the early
Speaker 1: days of the Second World War, through the Civil Rights movement,
Speaker 1: through all the darkest moments, there was always amongst the
Speaker 1: best and greatest leaders, a defiance against fear. Trump and
Speaker 1: his extremist movement are fueled by fear and by cynicism.
Speaker 1: The extremist movement requires fear and fear, not forget more fear,
Speaker 1: because fear inspires but one thing panic and panic prefaces
Speaker 1: defeat and collapse and often death. The simple truth is
Speaker 1: most people who drown don't do so because they can't swim.
Speaker 1: They die because they panic. Fear is an elemental human
Speaker 1: emotion and a destructive one that can be weaponized. And
Speaker 1: in the United States, when it has been wielded as
Speaker 1: a weapon by men like Trump, it has been subdued
Speaker 1: by defiance, not submission, which is why Vice President Harris's
Speaker 1: comments on the view, We're so deeply worrying, it's so
Speaker 1: out of step with this moment and what is required
Speaker 1: to defeat it.
Speaker 2: Let's watch, what are you going to do to stop
Speaker 2: the crazies? I am scared as heck, yeah, which is
Speaker 2: why I'm traveling our country. You know, there's an old
Speaker 2: saying that there are only two ways to run for office,
Speaker 2: either without an opponent or scared. So on all of
Speaker 2: those points, yes, we should all be scared.
Speaker 1: There are signs of decay, collapse, selfishness, and a profound
Speaker 1: indifference to everything, it seems, except the algorithms that keep
Speaker 1: much of the American populations head down and glued to
Speaker 1: whatever device they're holding. Democracy requires the practice of citizenship
Speaker 1: lest it be taken away by someone who likes the power,
Speaker 1: absent the hard work required to earn the trust and
Speaker 1: the vote of an informed citizenry. How we got to
Speaker 1: this moment will be the subject of much study, But
Speaker 1: the cause of politics in this moment must be how
Speaker 1: we get out of it, and it starts with assembling
Speaker 1: a great American coalition of people who are bound together
Speaker 1: through disagreement in a faith of the US Constitution as
Speaker 1: the law of the land that must be preserved and
Speaker 1: protected so that it may endure for our grandchildren's grandchildren.
Speaker 1: Why is this generation somehow explicated from understanding the responsibilities
Speaker 1: imparted onto them with the birthright of American citizenship to
Speaker 1: defend the Republic against all enemies foreign and domestic, which
Speaker 1: includes the demagogues that seek to tear it down. There's
Speaker 1: a poem that I think speaks powerfully to the culture
Speaker 1: of this moment. It's too bad that so many of
Speaker 1: our institutions of learning in America don't teach poetry anymore,
Speaker 1: or really literature of any type, or require reading much
Speaker 1: at all. But these words have meaning, and in them
Speaker 1: there should be a purpose to stave this all off
Speaker 1: and push it away, and to seek out something better.
Speaker 1: What is the remedy to all that is around us
Speaker 1: is hope and fearlessness. Here are the words to the
Speaker 1: Yates poem, The Second Coming, Turning and turning in the
Speaker 1: widening gyre. The falcon cannot hear the falconer. Things fall apart,
Speaker 1: the center cannot hold. Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world.
Speaker 1: The blood dim tide is loosed, and everywhere the ceremony
Speaker 1: of innocence is drowned. The best lack of conviction, while
Speaker 1: the worst are full of passionate intensity. Surely some revelation
Speaker 1: is at hand. Surely the and Coming is at hand.
Speaker 1: Things do fall apart when the center cannot hold, And
Speaker 1: the answer to fear is not bowing towards it, it
Speaker 1: is standing fast against it. This is an American tradition
Speaker 1: and it must be embraced by President Biden and Vice
Speaker 1: President Harris, because they need to confront maggot extremism every
Speaker 1: hour of every day, either directly or through their campaign.
Speaker 1: And the truth is, the campaign is not measuring up.
Speaker 1: Here are some words from a democratic president. They should
Speaker 1: be heated and they should be understood because they occurred
Speaker 1: in a moment of grave crisis for the country, at
Speaker 1: a desperate hour, where there was real panic in the air.
Speaker 1: What the American people heard was a commanding voice, a
Speaker 1: voice of reassurance, of calm, with the power to communicate clearly,
Speaker 1: a simple message in an urgent hour.
Speaker 3: And here it was, this is pre eminently the time
Speaker 3: to speak of proof, story of proof, frankly and boldly.
Speaker 3: No need we shrink from honestly facing conditions in our
Speaker 3: country today. This great nation will endure as it has endured,
Speaker 3: will revive, and will prosper go best at all.
Speaker 4: Let me assert my firm belief that's the only thing
Speaker 4: we have to fear is fear itself, nameless, unreasoning, unjustified.
Speaker 4: Narah which paralyze is needed up but to convert retreat
Speaker 4: into it bad in every dark hour of our national life,
Speaker 4: Aimy the tip of frankness, and a figure has met
Speaker 4: with that understanding and the fault of the people themselves,
Speaker 4: which is espencio to victory, and I am convinced that
Speaker 4: you will again give that the fort to leadership in
Speaker 4: these critical days.
Speaker 1: There is only one way out of America's current predicament,
Speaker 1: and it is through the defeat of MAGA extremism at
Speaker 1: the polls that, over time will rid the country of
Speaker 1: its malign influence and ability to take national power, particularly
Speaker 1: the power of the American presidency, which must be fortified
Speaker 1: against further encroachments by a talented and brilliant manipulator and
Speaker 1: liar and deceiver like Donald Trump, who dares to put
Speaker 1: himself in campaign ads comparing himself to God. This is
Speaker 1: a dangerous movement and a dangerous man, and it should
Speaker 1: not be trifled with. Ever, it was an appalling moment
Speaker 1: when the Democratic National Committee attacked Governor Asa Hutchinson, a
Speaker 1: man who's dedicated his entire life to honorable public service.
Speaker 1: Democracy does not mean agreement down the line with a
Speaker 1: Millennial at the Democratic National Committee. Democracy needs tolerance and
Speaker 1: respect and the ability to see patriotism manifested his courage.
Speaker 1: John Kennedy certainly would have understood what Asa Hutchinson was doing.
Speaker 1: He would have understood a profile and courage when he
Speaker 1: saw it, just like President Biden did, who had to
Speaker 1: take time out of his schedule to apologize for the
Speaker 1: arrogance of the Democratic National Committee towards an honorable friend
Speaker 1: of American democracy. The president deserves the best in the
Speaker 1: fight ahead. The President of the United States is currently behind.
Speaker 1: There were two good events put on by the White
Speaker 1: House and by the campaign. One was at Mother Emmanuel
Speaker 1: Church and one was at Valley Forge. But the question
Speaker 1: hanging in the air is what's next? Where next? What
Speaker 1: is the message of the reelection campaign? Because it cannot
Speaker 1: be as afraid as heck it must not be, because
Speaker 1: that message portends catastrophe, not just for the ambitions of
Speaker 1: the reelection staff, but for the nation as it approaches
Speaker 1: it's two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of independence. The truth
Speaker 1: is millions live in Iowa. It barely more than one
Speaker 1: hundred thousand turned out, and of that one hundred thousand,
Speaker 1: the majority, in a historic fashion, were for Trump. But
Speaker 1: imagine if people cared enough to turn out just to
Speaker 1: say no, even if there was only three hundred thousand
Speaker 1: or two hundred thousand. But it didn't happen, and it
Speaker 1: won't happen because the question that hangs in the air
Speaker 1: in America is does anyone care at all? Soon will know,
Speaker 1: but cow tewing to the fear in the air is
Speaker 1: a certain route to despair. A year from now, as
Speaker 1: the next president of the United States gets ready to
Speaker 1: raise their hand and to swear the oath, the difference
Speaker 1: in this race is the man who will run under
Speaker 1: the banner of Abraham Lincoln's party. He raises his hand,
Speaker 1: won't mean a word of it, and should that happen.
Speaker 1: Four years is a long time to hold the line
Speaker 1: against a dictator and his cause, which wants power more
Speaker 1: than its opposition wants liberty.