Opening Statements- Team Biden

In 1980, when Ronald Reagan was running for president, he asked the American people the following question: “are you better off today than you were four years ago?” 40 years later it remains a good question to ask on the eve of election day.

Do we feel safer and more secure in 2020? Team Biden will show that the president’s colossal failure to deal with Coronavirus led to too many Americans dying needlessly- we are certainly not safer and more secure. Are we a nation that is more united today then we were four years ago? The answer is no. Team Biden will argue that many of you will agree with us that we are far more polarized mainly because of the president’s divisive and inflammatory rhetoric and actions. How does one explain a president, who in the aftermath of a failed attempt by an extremist militia group to capture and execute the democratic governor of Michigan, the president at a rally encourages his supporters to “Lock Her Up”, or in the first debate, instead of repudiating the White Supremacist Group, Proud Boys, tells them to “stand back and stand by.” Really? As the journalist Savannah Guthrie told the president, “you are not someone’s crazy uncle, you are the President of the United States.”

Supporters of The president rightly call attention to his moving of the US embassy in Israel to Jerusalem and his recent deal between Israel and the UAE, as if his advocacy on behalf of Israel excuses everything else. It does not. Team Biden, of course, also believes that Israel is of great importance to us, but so too is the rest of the world. We are concerned that the United States is now seen as an unreliable Allie by our democratic friends in Europe and Asia. We are concerned that we have a president who is more willing to listen to Putin than what his own intelligence community is telling him. How do you explain that when American intelligence sources were reporting that bounties were being put on Americans headed by Putin that the president said nothing?

Foreign policy and National Security is linked to another issue where the President also dropped the ball. The Paris Climate Change Agreement, signed by every country in the world except Syria was designed to get the nations of the world to make meaningful commitments to reduce carbon emissions and address global warming. The president unilaterally pulled the US out of the agreement and then offered no meaningful alternative to address this crucial issue. That is not leadership, that’s abdication. As Rebecca Nissan will explain later, A Biden presidency will be informed not by Climate denialism, but what the leading scientists of the world are telling us: we are running out of time and we must act now!

Sadly, climate change is not the only example where the president has dismissed scientists. Dr. Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert was ridiculed by the president last week. We will hear more from Jeremy Sofiev on this topic, but one thing is clear: Dr. Fauci insisted that wearing masks was essential; Dr. Fauci emphasized the importance of social distancing. Dr. Fauci talked about the importance of avoiding potentially super spreader events—the president has ignored and continues to ignore this advice.

In conclusion, we need a president who knows what he is doing both at home and abroad; urgently, we need a president who will unite, not divide. Donald Trump promised to make America Great Again: Team Biden believes that we were already great, and we will be great again. But only after we elect Joe Biden.