just the covid factor but the degree to which there's really a c chasm now. the shmoozing is going to be gone, by and large. this is a speech to the american public, for the american public, but a moment in american history that joe biden thinks is one of those pivot points in american history about big change, big progress. >> half century in the making. the president first elected in 1972. these are the escorts of president biden. he was first elected to the u.s. senate in 1972, ran for president twice before. he ultimately became victorious. steny hoyer, jim clyburn, house leaders, they are fist bumping. once again, they were told not to, but politicians do what

politicians do, as has been noted, i think by you, dana, they're excited to see each other. there is the house republican leader, kevin mccarthy, and liz cheney, who has been feuding with him because he has been telling lies about the election. and the continued pageantry of the night still going on even though they are masked, even though their numbers are limited. i think usually that room sits about 1,600. tonight it's only going to seat 200. it is certainly a cautious approach given that most of them, if not all of them, have been vaccinated. but we're going to soon hear the introduction of the president of the united states. so let's take a moment and just listen and hear some of the senior leaders of the u.s. senate walking in, the senate president pro tem, and senator dick durbin, senator bernie sanders and others. people happy to see each other. there's not a lot of interaction

on capitol hill these days given covid. amy klobuchar. there's the senate majority leader and the senate minority leader, their roles switched, chuck schumer, the democratic majority leader. there's mitch mcconnell, the republican minority leader. >> it kind of has the feel of like a football game entrance, people are fist bumping each other on their way in. it is interesting to see this much levity in the chamber. we've been talking about january 6, the scene of the crime. but it is a little nice to see folks smiling at each other, happy to see each other. this has been a tense congress. >> their eyes are smiling. >> their eyes are smiling. this has been a very tense congress. they have not always liked each other, they don't always even want to be around each other right now. that's been a really unusual feature of the last few months. >> you're exactly right. there are a lot fewer republicans who will be in the room. but i was texting with one who said, this is about the office of the presidency, and respect

for the office of the presidency. and the president himself, and the fact that this is the first time he's coming. and you don't hear that, at least in public, as much as you used to, because it's so divisive here. it was nice to see that, nice to hear that. it's not as if we're not going to see partisanship show its face as the president starts to speak. but that's an important thing to remember, that this is about more than the people in the room. >> a lot of people tuning in, probably the last time they've looked at that room was when it was being invaded by the insurrectionists on january 6. and that is something that president biden, we're told, is not going to shy away from, that he will mention it and call it the worst attack on democracy on the united states since the quibble war. s civil war. some might quibble, there were terrorist attacks, but those were not in the name of

overturning a presidential election. even though there is a lot of comity and joy there, there are still some tensions. let's listen in as the 46th president of the united states is introduced to the chamber. >> madam speaker, the president of the united states. [ cheers and applause ]

>> a trip down the aisle almost 80 years in the making. joseph robinette biden jr., elected to the u.s. senate from delaware in 1972. his third attempt running for president was victorious. and he exceeded many expectations. and now he's going to try to exceed some more with his incredibly ambitious, some would say aggressive, policy proposals that will be about $6 trillion in spending to reshape the american economy and social safety nets and infrastructure investments in this country. he is giving copies of his speech to the speaker and the

vice president. >> ladies and gentlemen, i have the honor to present to you the president of the united states. [ cheers and applause ] >> thank you. thank you, thank you, thank you. it's good to be back. chuck will understand, it's good to be almost home, down the hall. anyway, thank you all. madam speaker, madam vice president. [ cheers and applause ] no president has ever said those words from this podium. no president has ever said those

words. and it's about time. [ cheers and applause ] the first lady. i'm her husband. [ applause ] second gentleman. chief justice. members of the united states congress and the cabinet, distinguished guests. my fellow americans. while the setting tonight is familiar, this gathering is just a little bit different. a reminder of the extraordinary times we're in. throughout our history, presidents have come to this chamber to speak to congress, to the nation, and to the world, to

declare war, to celebrate peace, to announce new plans and possibilities. tonight, i come to talk about crisis and opportunity. about rebuilding the nation, revitalizing our democracy, and winning the future for america. i stand here tonight one day shy of the 100th day of my administration. 100 days since i took the oath of office, lifted my hand off our family bible and inherited a nation, we all did, that was in crisis. the worst pandemic in a century. the worst economic crisis since the great depression. the worst attack on our democracy since the civil war. now, after just 100 days, i can report to the nation, america is on the move again. [ cheers and applause ]

turning peril look possibility, crisis into opportunity, setbacks to strength. we all know life can knock us down. but in america, we never, ever, ever stay down. americans always get up. today that's what we're doing. america is rising anew, choosing hope over fear, truth over lies, and light over darkness. after 100 days of rescue and renewal, america is ready for a takeoff, in my view. we're working again, dreaming again, discovering again, and leading the world again. we have shown each other and the world that there's no quit in

america. none. 100 days ago, america's house was on fire. we had to act. thanks to the extraordinary leadership of speaker pelosi, majority leader schumer, and the overwhelming support of the american people, democrats, independents, and republicans, we did act. together we passed the american rescue plan, one of the most consequential rescue packages in american history. we're already seeing the results. [ applause ] we're already seeing the results. after i promised we would get 100 million covid-19 shots into people's arms in 100 days, we will have provided over 220 million covid shots in those hundred days, thanks to all the help of all of you.

[ applause ] we're marshaling with your help, everyone's help, we're marshaling every federal resource. we're gotten vaccinations to nearly 40,000 pharmacies and over 700 community health centers where the poorest of the poor can be reached. we're setting up community vaccination sites, developing mobile units to get the hard-to-reach communities. today, 90% of americans now live within five miles of a vaccination site. everyone over the age of 16, everyone, is now eligible to get vaccinated right now, right away. go get vaccinated, america. go and get the vaccination. they're available. [ applause ] you're eligible now.

when i was sworn in on january 20, less than 1% of the seniors in america were fully vaccinated against covid-19. 100 days later, 70% of seniors in america over 65 are protected, fully protected. senior deaths from covid-19 are down 80% since january, down 80%, because of all of you. and more than half of all the adults in america have gotten at least one shot. the mass vaccination center in glendale, arizona, i asked the nurse, i said, what's it like? she looked at me, she said, it's like every shot is giving a dose of hope, was her phrase, a dose of hope. a dose of hope for an educator in florida who as a child suffered from an auto immune disease, wrote to me, saying

she's worried about bringing the virus home. she said she then got vaccinated at a large site in her car. she said she sat in her car when she got vaccinated and just cried, cried out of joy, cried out of relief. parents seeing the smiles on the kids' faces for those who are able to go back to school because the teachers and the school bus drivers and the cafeteria workers have been vaccinated. grandparents hugging the children and grandchildren instead of pressing hands against the window to say goodbye. it means everything. those things mean everything. you know, there's still -- you all know it, you know it better than any group of americans, there's still more work to do to beat this virus. we can't let our guard down. but tonight, i can say, because of you, the american people, our

progress these past 100 days against one of the worst pandemics in history has been one of the greatest logistical achievements, logistical achievements this country has ever seen. what else have we done in those first 100 days? we kept our commitment, democrats and republicans, of sending $1,400 rescue checks to 85% of american households. we've already sent more than 160 million checks out the door. it's making a difference. you all know it when you go home. for many people, it's making all the difference in the world. a single mom in texas who wrote me, she said she couldn't work. she said the relief check put food on the table and saved her and her son from eviction from their apartment. a grandmother in virginia who

told me she immediately took her granddaughter to the eye doctor, something she said she put off for months because she didn't have the money. one of the defining images, at least from my perspective, in this crisis has been cars lined up, cars lined up for miles. and not people just barely able to start those cars. nice cars, lined up for miles, waiting for a box of food to be put in their trunk. i don't know about you, but i didn't ever think i would see that in america. and all of this is through no fault of their own. no fault of their own. these people are in this position. that's why the rescue plan is delivering food and nutrition assistance to millions of americans facing hunger. and hunger is down sharply already.

we're also providing rental assistance. you all know this. the american people, i want to make sure they understand. keeping people from being evicted from their homes. providing loans to small businesses to reopen and keep their employees on the job. during these hundred days, an additional 800,000 americans enrolled in the affordable care act when i established the special sign-up period to do that. 800,000 in that period. we're making one of the largest one-time-ever investments, ever, in improving health care for veterans. critical investments to address the opioid crisis. and maybe most importantly, thanks to the american rescue plan, we're on track to cut child poverty in america in half this year. [ applause ]

and in the process, while this is all going on, the economy created more than 1,300,000 new jobs in 100 days. more jobs in the first -- [ applause ] more jobs in the first 100 days than any president on record. the international monetary fund -- [ applause ] the international monetary fund is now estimating our economy will grow at a rate of more than 6% this year. that will be the fastest pace of economic growth in this country in nearly four decades. america's moving, moving forward. but we can't stop now. we're in competition with china and other countries to win the

21st century. we're at a great inflection point in history. we have to do more than just build back better -- just build back. we have to build back better. we have to compete more strenuously than we have. throughout our history, think about it, public investment and infrastructure has literally transformed america. our attitudes as well as our opportunities. the transcontinental railroad, interstate highways, united two oceans and brought a totally new age of progress to the united states of america. universal public schools and college aid opened wide the doors of opportunity. scientific breakthroughs took us to the moon. now we have the discovery of vaccines, the internet, and so much more. these are investments we made together as one country, and investments that only the government was in a position to

make. time and again, they propel us into the future. that's why i propose the american jobs plan, a once in a generation investment in america itself. this is the largest jobs plan since world war ii. it creates jobs to upgrade our transportation infrastructure. jobs modernizing our roads, bridges, highways. jobs building ports and airports, rail corridors, transit lines. it's clean water. and today, up to 10 million homes in america and more than 400,000 schools and childcare centers have pipes with laead i them, including drinking water. a clear and present danger to our children's health. the american jobs plan creates jobs replacing 100% of the

nation's lead pipes and service lines so every american can drink clean water. [ cheers and applause ] in the process it will create thousands and thousands of good-paying jobs. it creates jobs connecting every american with high speed internet, including 35% of the rural america that still doesn't have it. this is going to help our kids and our businesses succeed in the 21st century economy. and i'm asking the vice president to lead this effort, because i know it will get done. [ applause ] it creates jobs, building a modern power grid. our grids are vulnerable to storms, hacks, catastrophic failures, with tragic results, as we saw in texas and where

also elsewhere during the winter storms. thousands of miles of transmission lines to build a resilient and fully clean grid. we can do that. [ applause ] look, the american jobs plan will help millions of people get back to their jobs and back to their careers. 2 million women have dropped out of the workforce during this pandemic. 2 million. and too often, because they couldn't get the care they needed to care for their child or care for an elderly parent who needs help. 800,000 families are on the medicare waiting list right now to get home care for their aging parent or loved one with

disability. if you think it's not important, check out in your own district, democrat or republican. democrat or republican voters. their great concern, almost as much as the children, is taking care of an elderly loved one who can't be left alone. medicaid contemplated it, but this program will help families and create jobs for caregivers with better wages and better benefits, continuing the cycle of growth. for too long we've failed to use the most important word when it comes to meeting the climate crisis: jobs. jobs. jobs. [ applause ]

for me, when i think climate change, i think jobs. the american jobs plan will put engineers and construction workers to work building more energy efficient buildings and homes. electrical workers, ibaw members, installing charging stations along our highways so we can own the electric car market. [ applause ] farmers, farms planting cover crops so they can reduce the carbon dioxide in the air and get paid for doing it. [ applause ] look, think about it. there is simply no reason why the blades for wind turbines can't be built in pittsburgh instead of beijing. no reason. [ applause ] none. no reason. so folks, there's no reason why

american workers can't lead the world in production of electric vehicles and batteries. there is no reason. we have the capacity. the best trained people in the world. the american jobs plan is going to create millions of good paying jobs, jobs americans can raise a family on. as my dad would then say, would little breathing room. and all the investments in the american jobs plan will be guided by one principle. buy american. buy american. [ applause ] and i might note parenthetically, that does not violate any trade agreement. it's been the law since the '30s, buy american. american tax dollars are going to be used to buy american products, made in america, to create american jobs. that's the way it's supposed to

be. and it will be in this administration. [ applause ] and i made it clear to all my cabinet people, their ability to give exemptions has been strenuously limited. it will be american products. now, i know some of you at home are wondering whether these jobs are for you. so many of you, so many of the folks i grew up with, feel left behind, forgotten, in an economy that's so rapidly changing, it's frightening. i want to speak directly to you, because if you think about it, that's what people are most worried about. can i fit in? independent experts estimate the american jobs plan will add millions of jobs and trillions of dollars to economic growth in the years to come.

it is an eight-year program. these are good paying jobs that can't be outsourced. nearly 90% of the infrastructure jobs created in the american jobs plan do not require a college degree. 75% don't require an associates degree. the american jobs plan is a blue collar blueprint to build america. that's what it is. [ applause ] and something i've always said in this chamber and the other, good guys and women on wall street, but wall street didn't build this country. the middle class built the country. and unions built the middle class. [ applause ] so that's why i'm calling on congress to pass the protect the

right to organize act, the p.r.o. act, and send it to my desk so we can support the right to unionize. [ applause ] and by the way, thinking about sending things to my desk, let's raise the minimum wage to $15. [ applause ] no one, no one working 40 hours a week, no one working 40 hours a week should live below the poverty line. we need to ensure greater equity and opportunity for women. while we're doing this, let's get the paycheck fairness act to my desk as well. equal pay. it's been much too long. and you wonder whether it's too long, look behind me. [ applause ] and finally, the american jobs plan will be the biggest increase in nondefense research and development on record. we'll see more technological

change. and some of you know more about this than i do. we'll see more technological change this the next ten years than we saw in the last 50. that's how rapidly. artificial intelligence, so much more, is changing. and we're falling behind the competition with the rest of the world. decades ago, we used to invest 2% of our gross domestic product in research and development. today that's less than 1%. china and other countries are closing in fast. we have to develop and dominate the products and technologies of the future. advanced batteries, biotechnology, computer chips,

clean energy. the secretary of defense can tell you, and those of you who work on nasa security issues, know the defense department has an agency called darpa, the defense advanced research project agency. the people who set up before i came here, and that's been a long time ago, to develop breakthroughs that enhance our national security. that's their only job. and it's a semi separate agency. it's under the defense department. it's led to everything from the discovery of the internet to gps and so much more. it's enhanced our security. the national institute of health, the nih, i believe should create a similar advanced research projects agency for health. [ applause ] here's what it would do. it would have a singular purpose, to develop

breakthroughs to prevent, detect, and treat diseases like alzheimer's, diabetes, and cancer. i'll still never forget when we passed the cancer proposal in the last year as vice president, almost $9 million going to nih. you'll excuse the point of personal privilege. i'll never forget you standing, mitch, and naming it after my deceased son. it meant a lot. but so many of us have deceased sons, daughters, and relatives who died of cancer. i can think of no more worthy investment. i know of nothing that is more bipartisan. so let's end cancer as we know it. it's within our power. [ applause ] it's within our power to do it.

[ applause ] investments in jobs and infrastructure like the ones we're talking about have often had bipartisan support in the past. vice president harris and i meet regularly in the oval office with democrats and republicans to discuss the jobs plan. i applaud the group of senators who just put forward their own proposal. so let's get to work. i wanted to lay out before the congress my plan, before we go to into the deep discussions. i would like to meet with those who have ideas that are different, that they think are better. i welcome those ideas. but the rest of the world is not waiting for us. i just want to be clear. from my perspective, doing nothing is not an option. [ applause ]

look, we can't be so busy competing with one another that we forget the competition that we have with the rest of the world to win the 21st century. secretary blinken can tell you, i spent a lot of time with president xi, traveled 75,000 miles with him, spent 24 hours in private discussions with him. i called to congratulate him, we had a two-hour discussion. he's deadly earnest on becoming the most significant, consequential nation in the world. he and others, autocrats, think that democracy can't compete in the 21st century, it takes too long to get consensus.

to win that competition for the future, in my view, we also need to make a once in a generation investment in our families and our children. that's why i introduced the american families plan tonight which addresses four of the biggest challenges facing american families and in turn, america. first is access to good education. this nation made 12 years of public education universal in the last century. it made us the best educated, best prepared nation in the world. it's, i believe, the overwhelming reason it propelled us to where we got in the 20th century. but the world's caught up or catching up. they're not waiting. i would say parenthetically, if we were sitting down, put a

bipartisan committee together and said, okay, we're going to decide what we're going to do in terms of government providing for free education, i wonder whether we would think, as we did in the 20th century, that 12 years is enough in the 21st century. i doubt it. 12 years is no longer enough today to compete with the rest of the world in the 21st century. that's why my american families plan guarantees four additional years of public education for every person in america, starting as early as we can. the great universities in this country have conducted studies over the last ten years. it shows that adding two years of universal high quality preschool for every 3-year-old and 4-year-old, no matter what background they come from, puts them in the position of being able to compete all the way through 12 years. it increases exponentially their

prospect of graduating and going beyond graduation. research shows when a young child goes to school, not day-care, they're far more likely to graduate from high school and go to college or something after high school. when you add two years of free community college on top of that, you begin to change the dynamic. [ applause ] we can do that. we'll increase pell grants and invest in historical black colleges and universities, tribal colleges, minority serving institutions. the reason is, they don't have the endowments. but their students are just as capable of learning about cybersecurity, just as capable of learning about metallurgy, all the things going on to provide those jobs of the future. jill was a community college professor who teaches today as

first lady. she's long said -- [ applause ] if i heard it once, i've heard it a thousand times. joe, any country that out-educates us is going to out-compete us. she'll be deeply involved in leading this effort. thank you, jill. second thing we need, american families plan will provide access to quality affordable childcare. it will guarantee -- [ applause ]

what i'm proposing in legislation, it will guarantee that low to middle income families will pay no more than 7% of their income for high quality care for children up to the age of 5. the most hard-pressed working families won't have to spend a dime. third, the american families plan will finally provide up to 12 weeks of paid leave and medical leave, family medical leave. [ applause ] we're one of the few industrial countries in the world -- no one should have to choose between a job and a paycheck or taking care of themselves and their loved ones, or parent or spouse or child. and fourth, the american family plan puts directly into the pockets of millions of americans. in march, we expanded a tax credit for every child in a family, up to $3,000 per child

if they're under 6 years -- excuse me, over 6 years of age, and $3,600 for children over 6 years of age. with two parents, two kids, that's $7,200 in their pockets for help taking care of your family. and that will help more than 65 million children and help cut childcare poverty in half. [ applause ] we can afford it. we did that in the last peeves legislation we passed. but let's extend that child care tax credit at least through the end of 2025. [ applause ] the american rescue plan lowered health care premiums for 9 million americans who buy their coverage under the affordable care act. i know it's really popular on

this side of the aisle. but let's make that provision permanent, so their premiums don't go back up. [ applause ] in addition to my families plan, i'm going to work with congress to address this year other critical priorities for american families. the affordable care act has been a lifeline for millions of americans, protecting people with preexisting conditions, protecting women's health, and the pandemic has demonstrated how badly, how badly it's needed. let's lower deductibles for working families in the affordable care act and let's lower prescription drug costs. [ applause ] we know how to do this. the last president had that as an objective.

we all know how outrageously expensive drugs are in america. in fact, we pay the highest prescription drug prices of anywhere in the world, right here in america. nearly three times for the same drug, nearly three times what other countries pay. we have to change that. and we can. let's do what we talked about for all the years i was down here in this body, in congress. let's give medicare the power to save hundreds of billions of dollars by negotiating lower drug prescription prices. [ applause ] by the way, it won't just help people on medicare. it will lower prescription drug costs for everyone. and the money we save, which is billions of dollars, can go to strengthen the affordable care act and expand medicare coverage benefits without costing

taxpayers an additional penny. it's within our power to do it. let's do it now. [ applause ] we talked about it long enough, democrats and republicans. let's get it done this year. this is all about a simple premise. health care should be a right, not a privilege, in america. [ applause ] so how do we pay for my jobs and family plan? i made it clear we can do it without increasing the deficit. let's start with what i will not do. i will not impose any tax increase on people making less than $400,000. but it's time for corporate america and the wealthiest 1% of americans to begin to pay their fair share. just their fair share.

[ applause ] sometimes i have arguments with my friends in the democratic party. i think you should be able to become a billionaire or a millionaire. but pay your fair share. recent studies show that 55 of the nation's biggest corporations paid zero federal tax last year. those 55 corporations made in excess of $40 billion in profit. a lot of companies also evade taxes through tax havens in switzerland and bermuda and the cayman islands. and they benefit from tax loopholes and deductions for offshoring jobs and shifting profits overseas. it's not right. we're going to reform corporate taxes so they pay their fair share and help pay for the

public investments their businesses will benefit from as well. [ applause ] we're going to reward work, not just wealth. we take the top tax bracket for the wealthiest 1% of americans, those making over $400,000 or more, back up to where it was when george w. bush was president, when he started. 39.6%. that's where it was when george w. was president. we're going to get rid of the loopholes that allow americans to make more than $1 million a year and pay a lower tax rate on their capital gains than americans who receive a paycheck. we're only going to affect 3/10ths of 1% of all americans by that action.

the irs will crack down on millionaires and billionaires that cheat on their taxes. it's estimated to be billions of dollars by think tanks of the left, right, and center. i'm not looking to punish anybody. but i will not add a tax burden, additional tax burden on the middle class of this country. they're already paying enough. i believe what i propose is fair. [ applause ] fiscally responsible. and it raises revenue to pay for the plans i propose and will create millions of jobs that will grow the economy and enhance our financial standing in the country. here some would say they don't want to raise taxes on the wealthiest 1% or corporate america. ask them, whose taxes do you want to raise? instead, whose are you going to cut? look, the big tax cut of 2017,

remember, it was supposed to pay for itself. that was how it was sold. and generate vast economic growth. instead, it added $2 trillion to the deficit. it was a huge windfall for corporate america and those at the very top. instead of using the tax saving to raise wages and invest in research and development, it poured billions of dollars into the pockets of ceos. in fact the pay gap between ceos and their workers is now among the largest in history. according to one study, ceos make 320 times what the average worker in a corporation makes. it used to be below 100. the pandemic has only made things worse. 20 million americans lost their job in the pandemic. working and middle class americans. at the same time, roughly 650

billionaires in america saw their net worth increase by more than $1 trillion. the same exact period. let me say it again. 650 people increased their wealth by more than $1 trillion during this pandemic and they're now worth more than $4 trillion. my fellow americans, trickle down, trickle down economics has never worked. it's time to grow the economy from the bottom and the middle out. [ cheers and applause ] you know, there's a broad consensus of economists left, right, and center. they agree what i'm proposing will create millions of jobs and create historic economic growth. these are among the highest value investments we can make as a nation. i've often said our greatest

strength is the power of our example, not just the example of our power. my conversations with world leaders, and i've spoken to 38, 40 of them now, i've made it known, i've made it known, that america is back. you know what they say? the comment i hear most of all from them, they say, we see america's back, but for how long? but for how long? my fellow americans, we have to show not just that we're back, but that we're back to stay, and that we aren't going to go alone. [ applause ] we're going to do it by leading with our allies. no one nation can deal with all the crises of our time, from terrorism to nuclear proliferation, mass migration, cybersecurity, climate change, as well as what we're

experiencing now, pandemics. there's no wall high enough to keep any virus out. and our own vaccine supply, as it grows to meet our needs, and we're meeting them, will become an arsenal for vaccines for other countries, just as america was the arsenal for democracy for the world. and in consequence, influenced the world. [ applause ] every american will have access before that occurs, every american, will have vaccine to be fully covered for covid-19 from the vaccines we have. look, the climate crisis is not our fight alone. it's a global fight. the united states accounts, as all of you know, for less than 50% of carbon emissions. the rest of the world accounts for 85%. that's why i kept my commitment

to rejoin the paris accord, because if we do everything perfectly, it's not going to matter. i kept my commitment to convene a climate summit right here in america with all the major economies of the world. china, russia, india, european union. i said i would do it in my first hundred days. i want to be very blunt about it. i had my -- my intent was to make sure that the world could see that there was a consensus, that we are at an inflection point in history. the consensus is, if we act to save the planet, we can create millions of jobs and economic growth and opportunity to raise the standard of living of almost everyone around the world. if you've watched any of it, and you were all busy, i'm sure you didn't have much time, that's what virtually every nation said, even the ones who aren't doing their fair share.

the investments i propose tonight also advance a foreign policy that in my view benefits the middle class. that means making sure every nation plays by the same rules in the global economy, including china. my discussions with president xi, i told we are not looking for conflict but i made absolutely clear that we'll defend america's interests across the board. america will stand up to unfair trade practices and under cut workers and american industries like subsidies. the theft for america technologies. i told president xi we'll maintain a strong relationship just like we do with nato and europe. not to start a conflict but to

prevent one. america will not back away from our commitments. our commitments to human rights and our fundamental freedom and our alliances. i pointed out to him, no responsible american president could remain silent when basic human rights are being violated. an american president has to represent the essence of what our country stands for. america is an idea, the most unique idea in history. we are created, all of us equal. it is who we are. we can't walk away from that principle and in fact say we are dealing with the american idea. with regard s to russia, i know

it concerns some of you. i made it clear to putin that we are not -- excuse me, we are not going to seek escalation but their actions will have consequences. i responded directly proportionally to russia's interference to our elections and the cyber attack of our government business, they did both of these things. i told them we would respond. we'll cooperate when it is our mutual interests. we did it when we extended a new treaty on nuclear arms and we are working on climate change. he has to understand, we'll respond. on iran and north korea, nuclear programs present serious threat of the world. we'll be working closely to our

allies to address the threats pose d by these countries throuh diplomacy and deterrence. an american leadership meaning ending the forever war in afghanistan. we have -- [ applause ] we have the greatest fighting force of the history of the world. i am the first president 40 years who knows what it means to have a son serving in a war zone. today we have service members serving in the same war zone as their parents did. we have service members in afghanistan who are not yet born on 9/11. the war in afghanistan as we remember the debates here were never meant to be multi generational under taking of nation building. we want afghanistan to get

terr terrorists, the terrorists who attacked us on 9/11. we said we would follow osama bin laden see the gates of hell. and after 20 years of values, valors and sacrifice, it is time to bring those troops home. [ applause ] look -- even as we do maintain over the horizon capacity of the future threats to the homeland, make no mistake, in 20 years terrorists, the threat evolved way beyond afghanistan. those in the intelligence committees or foreign relation committees, you noel know well,

have to remain vigilant where ever they come from. al-qaida and isis are in yemen and other places in african and the middle souteast and beyond. we won't ignore what we determine to be the most lethal terrorist threat of our homeland today, white supremacist terr terrorists, we are not going to ignore that either. my fellow americans, look, we have to come together to heal the soul of this nation. nearly a year ago before her father's funeral when i spoke to gianna floyd, george floyd's young daughter. i was kneeling down and talk to her, so i can look at her in the eye, she looks at me and said "my daddy changed the world." well, after the conviction of george nfloyd's murder, you can see how right she was if we had

the courage to akct as a congress. we have all seen the knee on justice on the neck of black american. now is our opportunity to make some real progress. the men and women wearing the uniform and serving our community and serving them honorably. i know them, i know they w want -- [ applause ] i know they want to help me this moment as well. my fellow americans, we have to come together to rebuild trusts between law enforcement o f the people they serve, to root out systematic racism in our criminal justice system and enak police reform in george floyd's

name that pass the house already. i know republicans have their own ideas and engaging in decision discusses with democrats in the senate. we need to work together to find a consensus, let's get it done next month by the first anniversary of george floyd's death. [ applause ] >> the country supports this reform and congress should act, should act. we have the giant opportunity to bend the arc of real justice and with the plans outlined tonight, we have a real chance to root out systematic racism that plagues america and american lives in other ways. a chance to live in real equity, good jobs and good sochools and affordable housing and clean air and passing down to generations

because you have an access to purchase a house. real opportunities in the lives of more americans and black and white and asian-americans. look, i want to thank the united states senate for voting 94-1 to pass covid-19 hate crimes act to protect asian-americans, pacific isla islanders. >> you can see the viciousness of the hate crimes. we have seen over the past year and for too long. i urge the house to do the same and send the legislation to my desk which i will glad and anxiously will sign. i hope the equality act to protect lgbtq community.

i want the young people to mow that your president has your back. let's authorize the violence against women's act which is in law for 27 years. [ applause ] 27 years ago i wrote it. it will close the act that has to be authorized. we'll close the boyfriend loophole to keep guns out of the hah hands of abusers. you can't own a gun. close that loophole that existed. you know it is estimated that 50 women are shot and killed by an imminent partner every month in america. 50 a month. let's pass it and save some

lives. >> i need not tell anyone this. gun violence is becoming an epidemic in america. flags at the white house is still flying half mass. the weekend between those two events, 250 other americans were shot dead in the streets of america. 250 shot dead. i know how hard it is to make progress in this issue. we need pass universal background checks and magazines holding 100 rounds that can be fired off in seconds. we beat the nra. mass shootings and gun violence declined check out the report over ten years. nearly for 2000s, the law

expired. we have seen daily bloodshed since then. more than two weeks in the rose garden, surrounded by some of the bravest people i know, the survivors and families who lost loved ones to gun violence, i laid out several of the department of justice act being taken and impacted in this epidemic. one of them is banning the so-called ghost guns. homemade guns with a kit and including directions how to finish a firearm. the parts have no serial numbers. they show up at crime scenes and they can't be traced. the bar of those ghost kits are not required to pass any background checks. anyone from a criminal or terrorist could buy this kit and within 30 minutes have a weapon that's lethal.

i will do everything in my power to protect the american people. it is time for congress to act as well. [ applause ] >> look. i don't want to be become confrontational. we need more to join our democrat colleagues and close the loophole in background checks of purchases of guns. we need to ban assault weapons and high capacity magazines. don't tell me it can't be done. we did it before and it worked. i talked to most gun owners, they tell me no possible justification having 100 rounds in a weapon. they'll tell you too many people

today are able to buy a gun that should not be able to buy a gun. these kinds of reforms have support from many people including many gun owners. congress should act. they should not be a red or blue issue. no amendment to the constitution is absolute. you can't yell "fire" in a crowded theater. there are certain guns or weapons that could not be owned by americans. certain people could not own those weapons ever. we are not changing the constitution, we are being reasonable. i think this is not a democratic or a republican issue, i think it is an american issue. here is what else we can do. immigrations have always been essential to america.

let's end our exhausting war of immigration. politicians have talked about immigration reform, and we have done nothing about it. it is time to fix it. on day one of my presidency, i kept my commitment, if you believe we need to secure the border passed because it has a lot of money for high-tech border security. if you believe in a pathway the citizenship passing for 11 million undocumented folks, the vast majority of here over staying visas and passings, if you want to solve a problem, i sent a bill to take a close look at it. we have to get the root problem of why people are fleeing to our southern border to guatemala and honduras and el salvador. the violence and eruption and hurricanes and natural disasters. when i was vice president, the

president asked me to focus providing help needed to address the root cause of migration. it helped keep people in their own country instead of being force to leave, the plan was working but the last administration decided it was not worth it. i am restoring the program and asking vice president harris to lead our diplomatic efforts to take care of it. i am absolutely confidence she will get the job done. now, look -- if you don't like my plan, let's at least pass on what we all agree on. congress needs to pass legislation this year to finally secure protection for dreamers. the ones that only know america is their home. and, affirmative protection for immigrants who are here on temporary protective status who

came from countries that set from natural violence and disasters. as well as the pathway to citizen reform workers putting food on our table. look. immigrants have done so much for america during this pandemic and throughout history. the country supports immigration. we should act, let's argue about it and debate it and act. most people -- [ applause ] more people voting in the last presidential election than any time in america's history in the middle of the worse pandemic ever. it should be celebrated. instead, it is being attacked.

congress should pass hr1 and send it to my desk right away. the country supports it and congress should act now. [ applause ] >> look. as we gather here tonight, the violent mob is attacking this capitol and desecrating our democracy remains vivid in our lives. lives were loss and extraordinary courage were summoned the insurrection was a crisis of a test of whether our democracy could survive and it did. the struggle is far from over. the question of whether a democracy will long endures both ancient and urgent as old as our republic, still vital today. can our democracy deliver on its promise?

all of us created equal in the image of god have the chance to live our lives. can our democracy deliver to the most pressing needs of our people. can our democracy over come the lies and anger d and hate. i promise you they're betting that we can't. they believe that we are too full of anger and division and rage. they look at the image of the mob and the assault of the capitol is proof. they're wrong. you know and it know it. we have to prove them wrong. we have to prove democracy still works and our government still works and we can deliver for our people. our first 100 days together, we restored people's faith, we vaccinated the nation. we created hundreds of thousands of new jobs and real results to

people, they can see it and feel it. opening doors of opportunity and guaranteeing more fairness and justice, that's the essence of america. our constitution opens the words "we the people," "we the people" are the government, you and i. not some force in a distant capitol. not some powerful force that we have no control over. it is us. it is "we the people." >> franklin roosevelt reminded us in america we do our part, we all do our part. that's all i am asking, that we do our part, all of us. as we do that, we'll meet the senate challenge by proving our democracy is durable and change.

autocrats will not win the future, america will. the future belongs to america c. as i stand here tonight in the democracy of our nation, i can say with absolute confidence that i have never been more confident or optimistic of america, not because i am president but because what's happening with the american people. we stared into the abyss of the insurrection of autocracy and pandemic and pain, we did not flinch. we came together and we united with light and hope and we summoned new strengths and new resolve and to position us to win the competition to the 21st century. on our way to a union more perfect and just as one nation and one nation and one america.

folks, i told every world leaders i met over the years, it is never been a good bet to bet against america and it still is not. we are the united states of america. there is not a single thing and nothing beyond our capacity, we can do whatever we set our minds to it, if we do it together. let's begin to get together. god bless you are. may god protect our troops. thank you for your patience. [ applause ] >> there it is, the first speech through a joint session of congress by president biden about one hour and five minutes. he campaigned of a bipartisan deal maker he's proceeding to set out his agenda, the most ambitious and progressive agenda since lbj or even franklin

roosevelt who he invoked this evening. that was the one democratic president he mentioned tonight. he says are needed to update. he focused on crimes and biden's speech was focused on bread and butter, economic issues, laying out dense detailed plans when it comes to community college and child care and paid families and medical leave. it was a speech telling the american people what he wants to do. >> and he at a few points laid out a road map for what cooperation could look like on a lot of those issues. i noted at one particular point when he talked about his infrastructure plan, he talked about wanting everything to be made in america and that's a

type of line that in most of these joint addresses will get applause but in this audience got bipartisan applause by democrats and republicans. he did it in other area too, on education and immigration, basically saying let's do what we can agree on. the message tonight was here is how we can move forward even on the things that we don't, you know, fully agree. >> setting the stage and getting in front of the debate that we are going to have over how to pay for any of this giant proposal if you add it up is $6 trillion. the covid plan was not paid for but things he wants to do will have to be at least in some part and the notion of taxes saying

it is not about the middle class. it is just about the wealthiest americans, the top 1% even a portion of that 1% paying your fair share which we heard so much on the democratic campaign trail was really interesting. he knows it is going to be one of a big fights. >> when we are talking about how we are going to pay for it, it is important to note that one of his first stops as he came down to the floor of the house was to talk to bernie sanders, chairman of the budget committee and congresswoman of connecticut who's the chair o f the house appropriations committee, those are the two people who'll figure out how to pay for all of these ambitious programs. >> anderson. >> thank you, gloria borges, we heard a lot shout-outs to mitch mcconnell and public talk of bipartisanship or patriotism

ra reaching out. >> i think we saw a president who was not looking to get into some gladtorial fights with republicans. he said to them, i am sure you know this, you are working on criminal justice reform, i appreciate that. if we don't agree on everything, let's try to get it done. he was making the case to the american public that this has b.b. been bad and we have staired ino abyss of autocracy and insurrection. he did reach out. >> there are a dozen of numbers of people should objected to the electoral college on january 6th. >> there were places where he never personally challenged

anyone in the room. there were places where he took them on, that was one of them on the tax cut of 2017, he was very clear, he thought that was a completely wrong headed idea. that's a center piece of those years and many republicans feel invest in that. anderson, this was a brilliant speech for the first 40 minutes when he was making the case for his economic program. my guess is he really connected with a lot of americans, not just democrats but republicans as well because he spoken in a way. becoming kind of listy and he picked it up at the end and closed in a strong will. in terms of making the case for his big program, i think he had a good night. >> it was very beautiful, i mean it was beautiful. he's developing a kind of

positive populiarismpopularism. when you talk about vaccines, he says because of the vaccines, cafeteria workers and bus drivers can get back to work and help our kids. he did not say rescue checks, he said a single mom didn't have to be evicted. he's selling big policies but it is so personal and intimate and his voice, that grandfather voice. i thought there were parts that was just beautiful. i have not seen him do that well, it was really beautiful. >> just as he made a tough target for the former president for the campaign. he makes a tough target for republicans. >> what he tries to do is takes some of thethe' easy attacks. he's talking about gun reforms

and immigration and reforming police conduct, some of the fundamental issues in this country and he situates this in this context. this is about us and winning the future and competing the country together. that's the rehetorical move to frame it that it is bigger than something. >> he's been in that house chamber for these kinds of events on many occasions, this is his first speech to a joint session of congress as president. >> i think just that moment is worth reflecting on, wolf. whatever you think of joe biden, you have to admire his personal resilience over the years, you are right, he served nearly four decades the united states senate, for most of them he thought he should be that guy. he ran three times for president and now he's that guy. as you can see he's enjoying this moment as he leaves and he

spent a lot of time with bernie sanders and talking. he had an arm clutched with rob portman who's retiring. would it be like a senator portman who knows joe biden well who disagrees even though but had a good relationship. the president is enjoying the moment right now and now comes the hard part. i thought the speech was carefully and crafted in a political way where he's proposing a dramatic expansion of the federal government, education and child care and economics and so much more. he does not use the political revolution language of a bernie sanders to do it. he took time to give republicans credit for the $1,400 stimulus checks. he says it in a way that makes him appear in the middle of the american politics than the program would be if you cast it in traditional terms and part of the biden's white house bet that

the country has weighed on america. they are willing to extend a little bit more. >> that was why it was so fascinatinging of the way he's trying to settle this plan. >> biden is still in the chamber as he's saying good-bye. back to how she was selling these plans, that was really a massive part of this. he talked about other priorities and what he's done. selling it was one of his biggest priorities. i thought it was interesting how he route healthcare, education and climate chain with one word, jobs. he repeated several times to hammer that point home. i think that's -- human

infrastructure and i think that was a way that he used to do that, framing these policies as a way to create jobs rather than these other solutions and other ways that you heard democrats traditionally talked about this in the past. >> he's getting ready to walk out of the house chambers. once he walks out, a five-minute break before we hear from republicans. the president spent the time to talk about police reform. we are looking at this new washington. the biden economic agenda is not going to have much republican support. is it possible when the president says can we pass this and reach a compromise by the anniversary of george floyd's death. it is big government and he believes it is more government

than america wants which was why the president spent too much time trying to talk about yes, i want to raise taxes but i want to raise taxes on a small percentage of wealthy americans who have done incredibly well and who can pay their fair share d the president for the interesting rhetoric, i am not trying to punish everyone. i am all for millionaires and billionaires, i think it is time for you to pay your fair share. let's compete. those companies will pay a little bit more on taxes. very smartly crafted tonight and he's going to hit the road tonight. the president hits the road and gives the speech. >> one quick thing i did notice and as he made his way into the chamber. he called out senator shelly on a proposal that she put out there. he fist pumped liz cheney, you

saw he gave senator mcconnell a shou shout-out. he didn't target any republicans specifically but he did call out some in a favorable way. >> he went through every major issue of the day, china and russia and spoke about white supremacists being the number one domestic terrorist threats to the homeland. >> he was laying down the agenda items that he thinks it is important such as immigration reform, or policing reform or further regulations on ownerships of guns. half of his speech was about economic proposals he's making and the social safety expansion and infrastructure and spending. that's where he sees his legacy. if congress wants to do policing reform or congress want to do

gun control, he's there and he's supportive. he's looking at how the united states win the 21st century, defeat china and autocraautocra can democracy wins? how can democracy thrive? >> that's exactly right. not only did the president invoke china and xi several times. some of the times he said it was ad ad libbed. it was very on the president's mind. we can't fight them ourselves when we have to beat them. the american people to get people going and united and already we are seeing the push back against everything that the president talked about from

republicans and saying it is radical or big government or it is back. he's owning it, not the radical part but the fact that government can work for people and the question is whether or not he's betting on something that's going to be fruitful. >> republicans wanted to run against joe biden by saying he's hold to china. biden is turning his head to say in order for us to be competitive and beat china, we have to make these investments. he said the rest of the world is not waiting for us and doing nothing is not an option. that's how he sees this next era of the united states and his aids have been clear that the coronavirus has created an opening for them to be able to make some of these big and republicans would say radical changes to the economy and the social safety net and the fabric

of this country. >> the most progressive agenda since fdr or lbj. now we are going to go to republicans' respond by senator tim scott. he brings a unique voice to this party as the only black republican in the senate speaking tonight from capitol hill. >> good evening, i am senator tim scott from the great state of south carolina. we just heard president biden's first address to congress. our president seems like a good man, his speech was full of good words. president biden promised you a specific kind of leadership. he promised the united nation to lower the temperature, govern for all americans no matter how we voted. this was a pitch. you just heard it again. our nation is starving for more than policies and actions

that'll bring us together. i won't waste your time, you can get it on tv any time you want. i want to have an honest conversation about common sense and common ground about the feeling that our nation is sliding off a shared foundation and how we move forward together. growing up, ill never dreamt o standing up here tonight. three of us sharing one bedroom. i was disillusion and angry and i nearly fell out of school but i was blessed. let me say this to the single mothers out there who who's let me say this to the single mothers out there who working their tails hoff and making end

meet, and wondering it works, you can bet it is. with a string of opportunities that are only possible here in america. this past year i have watched covid attacked every wrong of the ladder that helped me up. so many families lost parents and grandparents too early. so many small businesses have gone under, becoming a christian transformed my life but for months, too many churches were shutdown. most of all, i am saddened that millions of kids have lost a year of learning when they could not afford to to lose a singlin day. locking vulnerable kids out of the classroom is locking adults out of the future. our public schools should have opened months ago. other countries did, private and

religious schools did. science shown for months that schools are safe. too often powerful grown-ups set science aside and kids like me were left behind. we know that education is the cl cl closest thing to magic in america. last year we passed five bipartisan covid package. congress supported our schools and hospitals and funded operational warp speed delivering vaccines in record time. all five bills. got 90 votes in the senate. common sense. we wanted to keep together to finish this fight but democrats wanted to go alone.

they spent almost $2 million on a partisan bill. only 1% went to vaccinations and no requirement to reopening schools properly. covid brought congress together five times. this administration pushed us apart. another issue that should unite us is infrastructure. republicans support everything you think of when you think of infrastructure. roads and bridges and ports and airports and water ways and high speed broad band, we are in for all of that. again, democrats wanting partisan wish list, they won't even build bridges to biuild bridges. less than 6% of the president's plan goes to roads. it is a big government waste and

the biggest jobs killing tax hikes in a generation. experts say when all it is said and done, it would lower wages of the average american workers and strengthen our economy. tonight we also heard about a so-called family plan. eve even more taxing and spending to put washington more in the middle of your life from the cradle to college. the beauty of the american dream is that families get to define it for themselves. we should be expanding opportunities and options for all families and not throwing money at certain issues because democrats think they know best. infrastructures spending that shrinks our economy is not common sense. weakening our southern borders and creating a crisis is not compassionate. the president is also abandoning principles he's helped for decades. now he says your tax dollars

should fund abortions. he's laying ground work to pack the supreme court, this is not common ground. nowhere do we need common ground more desperately than our discussion of race. i have experienced the pain of discrimination, i know what it feels like to be pulled over for no reasons and following around the store when i am shopping. i remember every morning at the kitchen table my grandfather would open the newspaper and read it and i thought, later i realized he was never going to read it. he just wants to set the right example. i get called uncle tom and the "n" word by progressive. last week the national newspaper suggested that my family's

poverty was privileged because of relative own land generations before my dad. believe me, i know firsthand. in 2015, after the shooting of walter scott, i wrote a bill to fund body cameras. after the death of breonna taylor and george floyd, i built a bigger police reform proposal. my democratic colleagues blocked it. i extended an olive branch and offered amendment, but democrats used a filibuster to block the debate from happening. my friends across the isle seems to want the issue more than a solution. i am still working, i am hopeful that this will be different. when america comes together, we made tremendous progress but powerful forces want to pull us apart. a hundred years ago, kids in classroom were taught the color

of their zskin were the most important characteristic. today cues are being taught that the color of their skin defines them again and if you look a certain way, they're an oppressor. . people are making money and gaining power by pretending we have not made any progress at all. by doubling down on the divisions we worked so hard to heal. you know this stuff is wrong. america is not a racist country. it is wrong to try to use our painful past to dishonestly shut down debates. i am an african-american who voted in the south my entire life. i take voting rights personally.

republicans support making it easy to vote and harder to cheat and so do the voters. big majority of americans support early voting and big majority supported voter id including african-americans and hispanics. common sense makes common ground. today this kconversation has collapsed. the state of georgia passed a law that expands early voting preserves no excuse mail-in voting and despite what the president claimed did not reduce election day hours. if you actually read this law, it is mainstreamed. it will be easier to vote early in georgia that be in democratic-run new york. the left does not want you to know that. they want to yell about a law they have not read. fact-checkers have called out the white house from the

statements. the president claims this is worse than jim crow. what is going on here? i will tell you. a washington power graph. this is supposed to justify democrats' new sweeping bill that would take over elections for all 50 states. it would send public funds to political campaigns that you disagree with and make the bipartisan federal election commission partisan. this is not about civil rights or our racial path. it is about rigging elections in the future and no. the same filibuster that president obama and president biden praised when they were senators, the same filibuster that the democrats used to kill my police reform bill last year had not become a racist relic just because the shoe now is on the other foot. race is no a political weapon to

sell every issue. it is far too important. this should be a joyful springtime for our nation. this administration inherited a tie that already turned. the coronavirus is on the run. thanks to operation warp speed and the trump administration, our country is flooded with safe and effective vaccines. jobs reopening are rebounding. why do we feel so divided? anxious. a nation so much cause for hope should not feel so heavy. a president who promised to bring us together should not be pushing agendas that tear us apart. the american familiy deserves better. we know what better looks like. we had the most inclusive

economy in my lifetime. the lowest unemployment rates ever recorded, african-americans and hispanics and asians in a 70 year low for merely women. wages were growing faster at the bottom than at the top. bottom 25% saw their wages going up faster than the top 25%. that happened because republicans focused on expanding opportunity for all americans. in addition to that, we passed opportunity sozones and permane funding for black colleges and universities for the first time ever. we fought the drug epidemic and cut taxes for working families like single moms like the one that raised me. our best future does not come from washington schemes or socialist dreams. it will come from you, the american people.

black, hispanic, white and asian. republicans and democrats. we are not adversaries. we are family. we are all in this together and we get to live in the greatest country on earth. the country where my grandfather in his 94 years saw his family go from cotton to congress in one lifetime. s so i am more than hopeful. i am confident that our finest hours have yet to come. original sin is never the end of the story. not in our souls and not for our nation. the real story is always rede redemption. i am standing here because my mom has raised me through some tough times. our nation succeeded the same

way. generations of americans and their own ways have asked for grace and god has applied it. so i will close with a word from a worship song that really helped me through this past year of covid, the music is new but the words draw from scripture. may the lord bless you and keep you, make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you. may his presence go before you and behind you and besides you in your weeping and rejoicing. he's for you. may his favor be upon our nation for a thousand generations and your family and your children and their children. good night and god bless the united states. >> south carolina republican tim scott with the republican response to president biden's speech. you heard there, an inspiring and hopeful in a times even

religious message from the man per seve per p p perceiving to be a rising star in his party. both of them have a very natural way of suggesting that they are bipartisan and they want to work across the isle while both of them are rather partisan. >> this was an extraordinary partisan speech for tim scott especially on the issue of policing which is something he actively right now working with democrats on. he really strongly criticized democrats on the issue in a way that i thought surprisinging th he fines it worthwhile to work with them to get something done. the speech kind of read to me or sounded to me like what any other generic republican would

say in this particular moem. tim scott who's trying to have a different brand did not seem to fit for him. that's the part that was disjointed for this. >> i was thinking the same thing. he's in the midst of all accounts of successful bipartisan talks on policing so it was surprising to hear that. tim scott, you are talking about his brand. he has a unique voice in the republican party. he's the only black republican in the united states senate and talking about the democrats attacking these voting restrictions that are being passed across the country and these states as jim crow and fighting back against that kind of rhetoric. it was interesting but not n

necessarily true. >> it is not true. states like georgia are not making it difficult for people to vote. by and large, those are people of color in those states that have been able to vote easily or were in 2020. >> anderson, back to you. van, what did you think of tim sc scott? >> he's sort of the biden of his party and that he comes across warm and authentic and he tells a story and that kind of is it true. the problem is not the messenger. the message is nonsense. he acts like all the divisions in the country is coming from one side. it does not make any sense. he lost a lot of african-americans by the tens of

millions when you say measuring is not a racist nation. you can say we are getting better but when you look at these numbers and statistics, it is clear that this country is still struggling with racism. we still have racism showing up in every institution. i thought he did himself a disservice by jumping that shark unnecessarily. with that said, there is a reason they put him up. he's the best they got. he can give that message, he can talk about and polish up all the republican nonsense without the sharp edges better than the rest of them. >> what's amazing is how different he sounds from all the other republicans. again, it is almost a tale that the rest of the party is in such bad shape that you got to put him up there. >> he did touch a lot of those big touch stone for st

conservatives. i thought he probably scored some points for a lot of people on the school issues. there are a lot of parents were frustrated that schools did not open quickly. he did say at the end, original sin is not the end of our story. he's acknowledging history even as he's making this proclamation that racism is not america. this is part of our story and when people are saying we need to confront it and we need to understand it. he conflicted with -- >> what struck me was this was not a message that was a donald trump message at all. he was not speaking to the base of the party except one area where he was refusing to give joe biden any credit on covid-19. he said the tide had already turned on covid-19 when biden became president and of course

everybody understands that operation warp speed happens under joe biden but getting vaccines into arms was a biden operation. >> as you see his eveolution as politician, did it surprise you of his ability being a big target? >> there was a three-line here. if you look at the democratic response that joe biden gave in 1983, he talked about two corner stones american rights, fairness and opportunity. what i heard tonight in the joe biden's speech was a lot of talk of fairness and some talk of opportunity. there is a lot of talk of opportunity and not a lot of talk of fairness. in some ways it misses something that it is changing in the american electric particularly among the young people. >> you went back and listen to a

biden respond to a speech in 1983. >> good saturday night. >> one of the good things about having a tim scott in the mix is that he's reaching out and he's working to get something done on the policing stuff. it does take some courage. i want to give him his credit. he's running for reelection soon. he can get primary if he goes too far in a liberal election. he does have the integrity to say that i know policing is a problem, i dealt with it and i want to work on it. democrats should applaud that. i just think that some of the other things he's trying to polish up is clear republicans are attacking voting rights. they're not passing a bunch of bills to try to make voting easier. his genius is worthy of a better cause and trying to defend some of the stuff he's doing. >> president biden talked about

borders and immigrations and did not talk about a number of republicans, democrats have been criticizing him tonight, m for talking about the border crisis and so many people coming achris chr across the past few months. fes him. he hopes the discussion would signify -- he did talk about assigning the vice president to try to resolve some of the issues that are leading to the crisis. he didn't completely -- he didn't offer a solution particularly tonight but you know, again, just getting back to his speech. i really, you know, in some way i regret that he had to touch

all those bases. if it had just been about economic issues he's pushing, it would have been more powerful, not that those issues, the other issues are vitally important to people but the essence of his speech was economic speech. it was state of the union speech attached to an economic speech. >> these things tend to be laundry list and from being in the white house kinds of getting passed around. >> it is awful. >> the beginning i think and the end was what biden wanted to talk about which is our democracy is at stake. the issue i have with scott and republicans right now is yes, biden is proposing all these spending and figuring out a way to pay for it. republicans have no credibility paying for if only they'd pay for things in the last four years.

they say biggest tax increase, et cetera, et cetera. well, they had one. and it cost the government what, $2 trillion or whatever. where's the credibility from republicans on talking about biden's spending? >> also the truth is, these have been popular programs. the relief plan is very popular and you didn't hear an answer in tim scott's speech to say -- >> no. they're not offering an alternative to these problems. what he is saying, this is a washington power grab. more washington in your lives. this is classic republican dogma. so in that sense, i disagree with one thing he said. i think he was talking to the base. he was doing it, he was coming at it in his own way. the basic themes were the themes that gin up the republican engine. >> but not the trumpiest part of the base, i think. because he could have been more forceful.

he could have attacked biden more. he said he seems like pretty good guy. >> what he said was, he seems like it. >> yeah. he left open the question. it shows how difficult it is to attack biden personally. >> part of what i love, you take an issue. every issue when he was in that mode. that first, what you were talking about. the first half of the speech. every mode he would come back and make it human. when you talk about the climate issue, he starts talking about, ibew workers getting out there and fixing the grid. even climate, which can be such a lofty thing. he never talked about parts per million and polar bears. he's talking about people making america better. i think that that, it's a positive populism. i think also what was important about what he did and you mentioned it earlier, he's trying to give us something to come together for. to win the future.

he's not joking. he's not making this up. people around the world are beginning to look to china as the model. they're not building bridges. they're building cities. they're building cities. and we sometimes literally can't get a bridge built. so when he talks about, let's compete, let's win, let's prove that we can do this, that raises the sights for everybody. i thought that was important. >> one of the things he returns to over and over again. he identifies the systemic failures that apart from the story we tell ourselves from this country, he says why is it, 2 million women drop out of the work force during covid? that's something that makes every american say that doesn't make sense. there has to be a fix. he does wilt racial injustice, why do we not have elder care? why don't we have systems? he poses the questions and especially younger voters, younger americans look at the

current disposition, and say why is it this way? >> we talk about roosevelt. leaving the policy aside, one of roosevelt's great powers was the fireside chat, which were not big orations. they were conversations with the american people. biden's speeches are like roosevelt's fireside chats. on your point on climate change, he adlibbed a line. he was talking about people who feel left behind and forgotten and the economy that's rapidly changing. he said so many of my friends high grew up with are frightened. they feel like they're being left behind. when we have this discussion about climate change, too often people moralize about the existential crisis, which is real, without recognizing that the change away from the old economy and the old energy is an existential crisis for people who made their living doing that work. and he really touched on that there. >> that's where he's so good. he personalizes everything.

i have friends who were worried. he talks about where he grew up all the time. and tonight he talked about a blue collar blueprint to build america. and that's where biden came from. that's what he talks about. and he said doing nothing is not an option. and i think what joe biden is telling people, look, you want no government? what did no government get you? it got to us where we are. and this is an opportunity now for us to take a turn. and again, i think he's been emboldened by covid in a way. >> that idea that he had about having to make a darpa for health. >> yes. >> you now have everybody in the country realizes, there is something wrong our health care system and bernie sanders has made it possible for people to talk about, biden said health care is a right. that's a bernie sanders line. >> one thing bernie must be really excited about, he did say that medicare should negotiate with the pharmaceutical

companies. this was a big debate going into the speech. would he say it or not? this has been a he said, he said issue. yes, we should negotiate drug prices with medicare which would bring all prescription drug prices down. it's something that pharma deeply opposed. >> back to wolf. >> thank you very much. after the president went through all the problems facing the u.s., all the solutions that he has in mind, he did end his speech with a very optimistic note saying, it has never, ever been a good bet. never, ever been a good bet to bet against america and it still isn't. we are the united states of america. there is nothing, nothing beyond our capacity. nothing we can't do if we do it together. >> and it is a bipartisan tradition for presidents to use this idea. ronald reagan talked about this a lot. bill clinton back in the '90s when he was trying to sell the democratic party on nafta and global trade. compete and win. you try to play to the american sense of patriotism.

china is out there. putin is out there. we must compete and win. we must not be afraid. that is joe biden's dna, the optimism. to some of the points the new york group was making earlier. he said he was going to be a transitional questions. that was to answer questions about his own age, about the the contractic party. not a part of younger more diverse democratic party. what you heard tonight was a president who wants to be a transformational president. that was a let's transform the american economy. and the stubborn irish of biden i find personally compelling sometimes and interesting. so many democrats told him give up on those blue collar voters. they're trump voters. they're gone. the democratic party has lost them. but when he was talking about climate change. you feel left behind and forgotten in an economy that is rapidly changing. let me speak directly to you. he talked about a lot of these jobs. you can be a high school

graduate. you don't need to have gone to college. he is consistently stubborn even though his win, voters of color, cities, the suburbs, and women. that's the biden coalition. he just won't quit. joe biden from scranton. and again, you don't have to agree with him, you don't have to like him but he is stubborn and resilient. >> and i think that populist sentiment, that is not new to him. that's been there for a while. it was something that was really there when he was considering a run, when he was still vice president. he didn't ultimately pursue that and i think you saw it still tonight and that's what he has used as this hook from where he went when he was on the campaign trail, saying he was not going to have revolution. people wanted results. not revolution. of course we've seen how much that has changed when we get to the speech and how many he does want to transform the role of government. when you talk on officials in the white house around the president, they say that's because a pandemic and the

economic disaster that followed changed his mind on that. and i think that there is a different opening. it's not this conventional criticism that republicans can use saying, it's big government and they want to expend the federal programs and do this. voters and americans who lived a life through this pandemic and a lot of them lost their jobs, or could not pay their rent or could not pay for their children to go to the doctor. that scared them, i think, and you saw how fragile a lot of people's economic stability really is. so i think the white house sees that as an opening to get this through. that was why they were trying to make the case in that way tonight. so what you saw was really what you're going to hear from president biden from the next few months. we talk about bipartisanship and what this will look like. he said, i wanted to lay out before the congress my plan before we got into the deep discussions. saying that he's open to hearing what they have to safety it will be interesting to see how this does end up but he said he

wanted to outline it before they nailed down the details to see what republicans have to say. a lot of the moderate democrats, too. >> he clearly felt at home in that chamber. >> he is at home in that chamber, although not in that specific spot. joe biden again, 37 years in the senate. four decades thinking he should be the person delivering the state of the union address or it is not officially a state of the union address. but let's not forget history of tonight with the female speaker of the house and female vice president. that's a big deal. an optic for the country and the world. i do think, this is a competition of ideas. it is a competition of politics. we're sitting here at the end of april 2021. everybody in this town, and this is what america gets annoyed about washington, is already thinking about the mid-term elections. joe biden saying, i told you. i would reverse this vaccine will rollout. we would get vaccines in arms. i told you. now trust me as i want to do more. he's trying to get the american

people to buy in. okay, the first 100 days worked. let's continue this approach. senator scott was trying to pull that back. he was saying, oh, no, no, we did some of this stimulus back in the trump administration. and president trump does deserve credit for warp speed getting the vaccines ready. it is revisionist history to think president trump was on top of the global pandemic globally. i won't say what came to mind. >> we're seeing that play out with india right now. we talked to officials right now who said that was a struggle. they wish the trump administration had been more involved in what will this look like with we do have the supply? what does this look like for the world? that's now something facing the biden administration. i've heard several presidents over the years deliver these speeches before a join session. congress. they're obviously always well prepared. there is a script. they go through it. rarely do presidents do a lot of adlibbing. we did see plenty of adlibing from president biden tonight. >> certainly there were some

notable adlibs without question. if you're just joining us, we're breaking in president biden's first big speech the joint special of country. it was hopeful ambitious vision of america. the nation that was on fire when he took office nearly 100 days ago is now on the move again. and he laid down a marker for republicans as he appealed for support for his multitrillion-dollar agenda, perhaps the most ambitious agenda since lbj, aiming to rebuild america. >> vice president harris and i met regularly in the oval office, republicans and democrats discussed the jobs plan. and i applaud a group of republican senators who just put forward their own proposal of let's get to work. i wanted to lay out before the congress my plan before we got

into the deep discussions. i would like to meet those who have ideas that are different, they think are better. i welcome those ideas. but the rest of the world is not waiting for us. i want to be clear. from my perspective, doing nothing is not an option. >> not an option, em. and abbey, there are almost two joe bidens warring with each other. one is the senate, the senator, the deal maker, the guy who when he was vice president was able to sit across the table from mitch mcconnell and negotiate an end to most of the bush era tax cuts. that joe biden, i think, it seems to me, is being pushed aside to a degree for the, my hero is franklin delano roosevelt and i want to be that kind of transformational president joe biden.

in fact, the word obama did not appear in tonight's speech as far as i can tell. but roosevelt did which is not to say he doesn't love and revere barack obama but that's the kind of president he wants to be. >> a lot of the adlibs were actually adlibs of biden kind of talking to the republicans in the room which in a lot of cases was not always in the speech. this was supposed to be a speech, i think, in large part, about bringing the country into this idea that we need an fdr-style kind of new era for the american economy and for the american society, but i think biden still really wants to believe that republicans are going to be willing to just compromise on the things that we can agree on. and i think it is not that easy. at the end of the day, it is about money, it's about the bread and butter issues that they can't agree on, and based

on the responses we've seen tonight, i don't think he said anything that really changed a lot of minds. most republicans and even some democrats are still stuck on the price tag. they think it is too expensive. >> yeah. and we heard from the white house before this and from democratic allies of the president that the speech was going to be about talking to the american people and not to the people who represent them in the room, particularly on the republican side. they knew that even the most likely of republican partners and bipartisanship, lisa murkowski and others, would say exactly what they said after the speech which is, wow! it's loot of government that he's proposing. that's a giant price tag, an unprecedented price tag that he's proposing. i'm not so sure about this. what he tried to do was talk to her constituents and everybody else's constituents about the big ideas, the need for the

perspective to rebuild all of these institutions, modernize institutions, modernize society to address the fact it's not just a man going to work and a woman staying at home. but there needs to be an infrastructure, a human infrastructure part of this. it will be a tough sell. and if you add to that how much they're talking about wanting to spend, it's even more of a tough sell. go ahead. >> well, just the difference between fdr and joe biden, beyond what they want to achieve, is that fdr did not have a 50/50 senate. and fdr did not have a house the democrats controlled by, what is it? five seats now? and fdr, that was an era where democrats owned everything. they owned both chambers. fdr's problem was with the supreme court. so joe biden can have these aspirations, president biden can have these aspirations.

but once you get past the budgetary items such as, you know, including the infrastructure bill and the family planning, the family act that he wants with the elder care and all that. he's going to need republicans in order to get things done. and this gets into the weeds a little bit. in those 50 democrats, one of them is senator joe manchin. a west virginia democrat who does not like it when there are party line votes. and could legitimately hold up everything that insists, i won't vote for this unless you get a republican -- the a least a republican or two on board. and that's the challenge. >> you're exactly right. he sat right in that seat where abby is sitting on sunday and basically said that. >> joe manchin. >> joe manchin. that he doesn't want to do this without bipartisanship. that means effectively because it is a 50/50 senate, it won't

happen unless you bring him along. chuck schumer was with nancy pelosi for that small group of reporters that i attended today on capitol hill. he said point blank, i don't always agree with joe manchin. but do i respect him. and we're going to try to bring h him along on these things. when someone like him thinks roads and infrastructure is roads and bridges and broad band and the more traditional infrastructure and doesn't want to deal with these bigger ideas, what they call human infrastructure. i'm not sure how they bring him along. >> once president clinton gave a speech, a state of union address in which he declared the era of big government was over. that was a very well known line. it was in triangulating bill clinton becoming a more moderate democrat. now we have deal maker joe biden, and delivering what i think was perhaps his most memorable line of his speech,

perhaps, in which he basically repudiated republican theories of economics. take a listen. >> 650 people increased their wealth by more than $1 trillion during this pandemic. and they're now worth more than $4 trillion. my fellow americans, trickle down. trickle down economics has never worked and it's time to grow the economy from the bottom and the middle out. >> there are a lot of republicans who still believe in trickle down economics in that chamber. >> and who are fine with the trump tax cuts that biden tried to eviscerate in his speech tonight. there is a huge goal between two parties. you saw it in the republican response versus what biden was

saying. there was a lot of conversation from biden about, you know, we need to win this next era as americans and not be fighting with each other, but he was laying out a way of doing that that is, there is not consensus on this issue. on whether or not you need to tax the rich. on whether or not the government should even be involved in some of the things he wants the government to be involved in. as noble as they might be. whether it is education or health care or so on and so forth. the thing about biden though, is that he takes some of these really progressive things and presents them in a way that i think some people might perceive to be more reasonable, and that is what he was trying to do. it is no less progressive. no less, you know, republicans describe it as radical. the reality is he is proposing big things and he's packaging it up in something that might be

more palatable to the viewers at home and that is what republicans are up in arms about. >> you're exactly right. the point that he's trying to make, what he is trying to do is pac package it to use your phrase in concrete examples that people out there can relate to. i do want to get help with taking care of my elderly parents. why shouldn't i? that's a big gaping hole in american society that we don't have. i should get help with childcare and so on and so forth. but then that is relying on the notion of them not taking the next step to say, but why should the government be involved? the democrats have become convinced, whether it is the internal polling or something else, that right now, americans are more agreeable to the notion of government being more in their lives, and being a bigger part of society than 10 to 15 years ago and even longer when bill clinton made that speech.

>> they may be right. joe biden is getting high marks on covid, he's getting high marks on a lot of aspects of his agenda. that's what the white house is looking at. we might be hearing these complaints from washington but at the end of the day, people at home are work the government doing things well. not just doing things for the sake of doing things but doing them well. so we'll see whether that extends to another $4 trillion and a significant amount of tax increases. >> one of the things biden told the anchors when he had the briefing earlier today, that he said, that was on the record, was that he said in the early days of his presidency, talking about the first recovery act that was needed to help the economy in his presidency, was we can't fail out of the box. we can't. it's because one of the things he's banking on, not for the first 100 days, the first 200

days, but for his presidency and beyond. for the whole transformation of the united states, and success for democracies abroad, is this idea that people need to believe, as you were noting. people need to believe that a government, the government of the united states can function, can work for the people. wolf? >> that's right. i want to bring in our cnn director, david, we have an exclusive poll of people who actually watched this debate. americans, we're getting their reaction in this poll. >> yes. and it is an important thing to remember before we reveal the numbers. this is just a poll of people who watched the speech tonight. not the american public broadly. and what we know about people who watch speeches from presidents to a joint session of congress, they're part sandals who tend to tune in and watch than exist in the overall

population. we saw it in the trump years. the speech watching audience was more republican than the overall american population. and tonight we see that among speech watchers, it was a more democratic audience than the country is democratic. so keep that in mind as you see these numbers. but take a look at the response in this instant cnn poll. you see 51% of speech watchers had a very positive reaction to joe biden's speech. 27% somewhat positive, 22% negative reaction. let's look at joe biden's very positive number compared to modern day predecessors. he's at 51% very positive when donald trump gave his speech four years ago, he was at 57% very positive among the speech watchers then. obama and bush, much higher, 68% and 66% definitely the speech make you feel more optimistic or more pessimistic about the

future of the country? 71% of speech watchers said the speech made them feel more optimistic. more optimistic. only 29%, more pessimistic. as we've been talking about this whole notion of bipartisanship, did indeed biden's outreach to the republican party in this speech tonight strike the right note? look at this. 4% of speech watchers said his outreach to republicans went too far. 38% said his outreach to republicans didn't go far enough. nearly six in ten of those watching the speech, 58% said his outreach to the opposition party was just about right. hitting the goldilocks sweet spot for president biden. >> let me get your analysis when we see these numbers. >> we need to reemphasize, people who tune in and people watching the speech. so you have a democratic audience. if you're someone trying to sell

a new plan andtrying to convinc the american people, stay with me. i think it is necessary. the optimistic part. they came away more optimistic. again, largely with him to begin with. a president needs to keep people on his side. a president's approval rating is his greatest approval weapon when he's sitting down with republicanses or democrats. and the approval rating is the gold standard when we get into the mid-term election next year. right now the approval rating is in the mid 50s depending on the poll you look at. that's not great if you look back at ronald reagan or the bushes. we don't live in that age anymore. it is. better than donald trump's. his approval rating is much better by 10 points than president trump's was. so biden is in a pretty good position. we live in polarized times. any time you can move the dial, keep democrats more invested or

move a republican or two. that's progress. so people feel optimistic. and they largely view it as positive. you want to come out with a little wind at your back. if you're making people optimistic in the early days of a president, that's critical. >> these numbers, i'm sure the chief white house correspondent. they're probably going to be happy. >> i think they will. and i think that the more optimistic numbers here, a lot of that came from the beginning of the speech. or right out. gate. that's what he was talking about. what he inherited on day one. one of the quotes was em100 days ago, america's house was on fire. that was a quote president biden used as he got into the room in the first few minutes. and of course what is on everyone's mind, the pandemic and the state of vaccinations and what it looks like now. if we think back to 100 days ago, very few of us if any of us were vaccinated. a lot of us just now getting vaccinated and having that done. so i think that's a big mark per they wanted to use.

and that's one of the benefits having this speech be later than traditionally this speech would be. which had a lot to do with the pandemic and what was going on. when you saw president biden coming out saying what he promised, about 100 million shots in his first 100 days. this he got to 200 million shots, of course, we were well on pace to do that. but he talked about all the other efforts they've taken for the pandemic. and i think that was something that he did not stay on for the entire speech. he moved on to his legislative priorities. i think that is a number one issue. those are numbers, the more they tout them, the better the numbers will be. >> clearly dealing with the covid pandemic has been priority number one for this president. that's yes addressed that issue first in his speech. >> yes. and he spent considerable time on the campaign. i know how it works. put me in. i will fix in. i will bring in a team of experts. we will work and we will get it done. it is indisputable that america

is in a much better place in the covid fight now than 100 days ago. it is an indisputable fact the economy is in a much better place than 100 days ago. hey, wait a minute, the trump administration deserve some of the credit. very well but that's not how politics work. the president said, i told you i will do this and we are making progress. i promised you, a, and i did it. i you need he had to help me and swimming votes in this town. he's talking to people in america saying stay with me. can he carry them on the journey? the governing challenge in a polarized america. an incredibly hard task anyway. plus, only a handful of votes to give in the house. no votes in the senate. so everything consequential president biden wants to do is a tight rope act. can he manage the politics?

that's the challenge. the speech and the poll, even though it is mostly partisans watching, suggests he took a step in the right direction. the question is how long can he sustain it? >> quickly, sorry, progress on the pandemic is going to be a lot harder to come by when we come to vaccinations and those numbers. now they've gotten through the people who are willing to refresh their web page and drive hard to get a vaccine. so one thing white house said this week, they recognize this is one of the biggest audiences that president biden could have this year. at the beginning of it, he used it to tell people to go get vaccinated. >> let's not forget, hundreds of americans are still dying from this pandemic every single day. >> i want to check back in with david for more poll results. what else have we learned? >> this is a poll of speech watchers. as we've been discussing, it is

a group of people that's more democratic as a whole. we know that people watch their party. among speech watchers, we asked will joe biden's policies move the country in the right direction? 73%, nearly three quarters of those watching the speech tonight said yes. joe biden's policies will move the country in the right direction. only 27% said wrong direction. so even with a larger democratic audience, that is a big number to tout tonight. we said what about specific issues? we know coronavirus is the president's strongest issue. that shows up among speech watchers in the instant poll. 86% say his work coronavirus is moving the country in the right direction. 74% on racial injustice. 72% on the economy, 70% on gun laws, 70% on taxes and 65% on

immigration. it was the heart of the speech. the investment in the economy and trying to make it more equitable with these big investment and paying for it by taxing the rich. you see seven out of ten speech writers think those policies on those issues will move the country in the right direction. and then finally we asked folks, his policies tonight were too liberal, not liberal enough, about right. 64% at the bottom say his proposals are about right. again, that goldilocks sweet spot. two-thirds of those watching the speech say joe biden got it about right. >> i thought if you were in the white house as the adviser to the president now, would you be happy with those numbers? >> yes. but i would also recognize this was a kickoff essentially. this is just the beginning of a fate that they know will be a difficult fight. and you know, what he tried to

do tonight, as i said at the beginning before the speech. he tried to put the focus on the individual details of programs that he is advocating here. so it can't just get characterized as a big expensive, big government program, paid for by taxes. he made clear what the benefits were to people. and he made cheer who would and wouldn't pay for them. now the question is, can everything out and keep the focus on these things? and you're going to see him go out and campaign after this. so i think they would be happy with this. absolutely. but they recognize that it is a little bit, over time it will go away. and they need to keep the momentum going. now for what promises to be a very tough negotiation, not just with republicans but also, with joe manchin and some other democrats. >> the selling into the american people. there is the figuring it out and

negotiating it. >> i think what he said quite clearly is, i want to get this out here now before we start negotiating. i want to tell you the american public what i believe. i think the question we all have, even looking at this poll which is skewed, probably, the question of whether the country is really ready now for a more activist government. we don't know the answer tom. we know they give joe biden a lot of credit for competency on what he did about getting vaccines into arms. and let me say, i misstated it earlier. donald trump gets credit for operation warp speed. but joe biden gets credit on getting those vaccines, those shots into your arms. so they're looking at government, he hopes, as competent. being able to help you. but i think that with his bare majority in the congress, he has to go out there and sell all of this to the american public.

i think what he did tonight with the breath taking level of spending. it's kind of, it is a risk. really a risk. >> you know, a lot of us remember, four decades ago, ronald reagan built a culture around the idea, the most fearsome words in the english language were, i'm from the government and i'll here to help you. joe biden calls his first effort. if you think -- >> because of the pandemic. >> precisely. people in effect saw what happens when a government is removed. when it is hands off from a serious problem and there is no other institution big enough, strong enough, rich enough to help you. joe biden over the course of his career is known for one thing. when you talk to people who worked closely with him, they'll tell you, he has a sense of a weather vane for the center of the party. we see him moving a bit.

>> i think that when he talks about who will pay for this stuff, i think he's on remarkably strong ground. in other words, i think you have two things happening at the same time. people had a complete collapse of their personal lives. and some of those collapses were a long time in the making. it wasn't just covid was the last straw. you have people suffering under massive student debt, the cost of housing. a lot is going. on he says i want to fix it. when he turns and says who will pay for it, i think people have been bewildered by how much money the billionaires have been making in the middle of this pandemic. people are literally making money hand over fist. while so many americans have fallen off the table. and i think that game, not just the standard gap. i mean this incredible chasm that opened up. i think people is very smart to say, folks have been making out quite well, thank you, while the

rest have been suffering, have to pay up. that would have been extreme left wing sounding stuff. i think even two years ago. i think it fits the mood of the country right now. some people are doing very, very well paying no taxes. and the rest us are left behind. >> a couple things he said tonight that struck me as being the kind of things that a very important senator will be looking to hear. joe manchin. we talked about it a couple times. we've heard about him. he cares about west virginia. he cares about people who have been as joe biden said tonight, left behind. we heard about this blueprint. blue collar blueprint. these are the ideas that somebody like joe manchin inside the democratic party, an essential vote, wants to hear accident needs to hear. how do you make it real so you can begin to get his cooperation? >> well, a lot of it will be, this is in stages as women before. he's taken a big interest in this infrastructure piece. he wants it to be a bipartisan bill done through regular order with republican votes.

the question is, do they split some of the bill away? and just focus on hard infrastructure and can manchin bring some republicans in? one interesting thing, not to get too wonky here. here was the -- >> go ahead. >> the -- exactly, that's my thing. $80 billion for to beef up the irs to go after tax avoidance at the top. that will produce, you know, one of the questions is how much it will produce. there was a payment, a treasury official did it that said, as much as $1.4 trillion over ten years. that's a lot of money. the congressional budget office may have a different view of this. that's kind of a way for republicans to say, well, yeah, we'll do that. that can help pay for infrastructure. >> tax cheats. >> one thing in those numbers that i thought was really interesting. 74% of people saying his

approach to racial injustice was good. that wasn't the heart of the speech but he said some strong stuff. he said white supremacy is terrorism. he talked about george floyd. he reached out to law enforcement in a very effective way. think about that. tonight you had the president of the united states and tim scott both talking about the need to do something on police reform and talking about race in a very explicit way. i think that shows these protests, the outrage of the american people is registering with both parties. >> still ahead, we'll get reaction to president biden's appeal. jake will talk about george floyd's brother and attorney next. there's not enough hours to be all that i am. not enough hours to make this overworked mom, feel like superwoman. not enough hours to let this dream that used to breathe within me, find new life. just enough time to listen to that inner voice and believe... maybe, there's more time on the other side of trying. maybe. there's not enough time.

until there is. take classes any time of the day or night, at university of phoenix. tonight i'll be eating a calzone from doughballs in aurora. (doorbell) rock on. tonight i'll be eating lobster thermidor au gratin. really? sh-yeah, and monkeys might fly out of my butt. make it two calzones!

that's why at america's beverage companies, our bottles are made to be re-made. not all plastic is the same. we're carefully designing our bottles to be one hundred percent recyclable, including the caps. they're collected and separated from other plastics, so they can be turned back into material that we use to make new bottles. that completes the circle, and reduces plastic waste. please help us get every bottle back.

♪ ♪ look, if your wireless carrier was a guy you'd leave him tomorrow. not very flexible. not great at saving. you deserve better... xfinity mobile. now they have unlimited for just $30 a month... $30. and they're number one in customer satisfaction. his number... delete it. i'm deleting it. so, break free from the big three.

xfinity internet customers, switch to xfinity mobile and get unlimited with 5g included for $30 on the nations fastest, most reliable network. this evening we heard president biden renew his appeal for policing reform and racial justice, invoking the memory of george floyd as he set the anniversary of floyd's death to be a time line for congress to act. >> my fellow americans, we have to come together to rebuild trust between law enforcement and the people they serve, to root out systemic racism in our

criminal justice system, and enact police reform in george floyd's name. it passed the house already. have their own ideas and have engaged in productive discussions in the senate. we need to work together to find consensus but let's get it done next month by the first anniversary of george floyd's death. >> joining us now in studio, george floyd's brother, as well as the family's lead attorney, ben crump. and this is the first time i'm meeting you. i want to reiterate my could not dole dolenses. your daughter called out the knee of injustice on the neck of black america. do you have hope that president biden can get this done and congress will pass policing reform in time for the first

anniversary of the sad day? >> i always have hope. i pray a lot. i speak everything into existence. i'm just, you know, i'm in a good place where my brother, i lost him. but it's a greater cause. he's helping, like his daughter said, change the world. i think that's something very positive. and i think that biden with anybody and everybody else working hard to help him get this across. i think we can. >> and ben, president biden said tonight he wants policing reform passed into law next month. that's the first anniversary of george floyd's death. he also left the door open for congress to decide specifics. and as you know, there is some back and forth going on. democrats and republicans probably agreed on about 80, 90% of it. but there are some real sticking points. do you think they can work through that? >> well, we're going to meet

philonise and several other families who lost loved ones to what they believe is police excessive force. they have become well versed on the proposed legislation. so they're going to meet with senator tim scott and several other key senators on both sides of the aisle to talk about how their blood is on this proposed legislation, that we can have better policing in america. i pray every day, tim, that i get to close that division of my law firm that deals with police excessive force that leads to the death of black people unjust at this identifiably far too often. so homably the the george floyd police act passing, we can work other things. not worrying about the police shooting black men in the back like in north carolina. >> and philphilonise, you're meg

with tim scott tomorrow. he did deliver the republican response this evening, talking about his vision of america. he said america is not a racist country. that the united states is more than just the original sin of slavery and racism. that the story has not ended yet. what did you think of that? what did you think of his speech? >> i thought tim scott was being tim scott. he's normal. he's an african-american man, of descent, and he's a senator. he's in a great position to be able to change whatever he wants to change in the future. i'm just happy to be here, just to be able to speak my peace to people like him. i look up to people like him. >> do you think, if you disagree with senator scott, that's okay, do you think the united states is a racist country?

>> i'm not going to say there are racists but you might have others who might think different than some people. but not everybody. >> i think that systematic racism does exist in every aspect of society. and we don't want anybody to be naive and not think that it is an issue. racism isn't a debatable issue because we have to live under the oppression of racism every day. i think many believe philonise' brother was killed because of implicit bias in racism. and that's something that we have to finally discuss. and that's why i'm happy president biden and vice president harris is pushing this issue to say, we can do better than this, america. we should not have andrew brown,

with assault rifles by a lynch mob wearing a police uniform. we can be better than that. christian hall in pennsylvania, asian american shot in the back, anthony mcclain in pasadena, a black man shot in the back. why is it that police shoot black men in the back running away from them? come on. we can do better than this. and hopefully we can deal with this legislation, qualified immunity to say to all of our children, that we are a better america, that you have a rid to life and liberty and the pursuit of happiness. >> it seems likely, philonise, in order for the george floyd policing act to pass the senate, it will have to change at least a little bit. in order the pass the senate, they need ten republican senators. it passed the house where they

don't need, they don't have such requirements. if the bill ends up being, if the bill that ends up on prison's desk ends up being 80% to pass the house, 90% of what passed the house, but not o100%. is that still a victory for you, the family, for george floyd's memory? >> i just want to see his legacy. i just don't want there to be any more george floyds. i don't want to see any more hashtags. i don't want to see any more people on t-shirts. i live in a place where my heart is going to forever have a big hole in it. it will never be patched up. at the same time, if we can sit like this, george floyd for policing act and set i up the right way to stop other people from living in fear and being able to go outside and do things

without being concerned they'll lose their life, i think that will be a great thing for this world. >> all right. thank you so much for being here this evening. best of luck with your meetings tomorrow and best luck getting the legislation passed in your brother's name. i think i'm throwing to anderson now? >> yeah. here with van jones. do you think that's likely that they can get the ten republicans? >> i think something will happen. first of all, karen bass in the house has been working very closely with corey booker in the senate and with tim scott. i think that people will be surprised. not everything. but there are some big pieces of common ground that americans share across party. one is that there should be a registry for bad cops. nobody wants them going from department to department. that's common ground. the chokeholds. that's common ground. the idea that a police officer

doesn't have a responsibility, if he sees a police officer violating the law, that strikes people. the no-knock warrants. that you can kick in someone's door and shoot them. so there are pieces that there can be common ground for. and i think that tim scott did himself well tonight. i think he represented his party well. that may give him more leverage to get something done. >> van jones, thank you. did president biden get his facts straight? we'll share his take on president biden's speech. online. oh, man. carvana lets people buy a car-- get this-- from their couch. oh, how disruptive. no salesman there to help me pick out the car i need. how does anyone find a car on this site without someone like us checking in? she's a beauty, huh? oh, golly! (laughter) i can help you find the color you want. that sounds nice. let me talk to my manager.

(vo) buy your next car 100% online. with carvana.

cyber attacks are relentlessly advancing. to end them, cybereason built a cyber security solution so advanced... it can end attacks today -- on computers, mobile devices, servers and the cloud. and deliver future-ready protection, keeping you sharp for tomorrow. join us, the defenders, in our mission. cybereason. end cyber attacks. from endpoints to everywhere. at worksman cycles, we've been building bikes for a hundred years. but our customers' needs have changed, so we expanded our product line to include electric cycles. we used the unlimited 1.5 percent cash back

from our chase ink business unlimited ® credit card to help purchase tools and materials to build new models. and each time we use our card, we earn cash back to help grow our business. it's more than cycling, it's finding innovative ways to move forward. chase for business ® . make more of what's yours ® . now it's te to cck the faon president biden's address to the nation. daniel is joining now. president trump's eeches kept you very, very busy. how about president biden? >> wolf, i'm still going through the transcript. my early assessment is that this was in general quite a factual speech but not perfect. the prepared text that biden recited was quite good. there are some claims that could be disputed. some debatable nuance to it but

there was not a ton in that prepared text that was flat out false. where he was false a couple times was when he ad libld. this is a bit of a problem with president biden. he's given a researched text and then he decides to joe biden talk. and he sometimes gets himself in fact check trouble. >> he certainly does. i know there were two inspections raised a flag for you. first let's listen to something he said about border security and immigration. >> if you believe we need to secure the border, pass it. because it has a lot of money for high-tech border security. if you believe in the path way to citizenship, pass it. over 11 million undocumented folks, the vast majority overstaying visas, pass it. if you want to solve a problem, i've sent a bill to take a close look at it. >> daniel, your take only? >> wolf, so this claim about the 11 million undocumented population could have been

correct if president biden had tweaked his wording just a little bit. as he actually said those words, it was wrong. for seven consecutive years up to 2017, the majority of newly documented people were people who overstayed visas. in 2017 it was 26% according to an estimate. so why is biden wrong? he said the vast majority of the overall undocumented population of 11 million is visa overstayers and that's not true. experts from two think tanks have said a slight majority of the overall is still made up of people who illegally crossed the border. that's because prior to 2007, the vast majority of people were border crossers and the visa overstayers had not yet caught up. even though they have been steadily gaining. listen to what president biden said about his actions with china. >> we can't be so busy competing with one another, we forget the competition with the rest of world to win the 21st century.

secretary blinken could tell you, i spent a lot of time with president xi. traveled over 17,000 miles and spent more than 24 hours in private discussions with him. >> so what stood out to you? >> well, this traveled 17,000 miles with xi thing is a weird little exaggeration. and biden repeated it even though it was fact checked as false by the "washington post" and by me in february. biden can say he spent a whole bunch of hours with the president in china. she spent time together in 2011, 2013, 2015 to say 17,000 miles together, they barely traveled physically together at all. the only way to get close to 17,000 is to include biden's solo travel to get two meetings with xi and then a comeback solo. that's not the same as traveling 17,000 miles together. especially when he says how well he knows the president of china. i want to add in closing to say

i watched governor scott's response speech. at first glance i didn't see anything flat false. he decide the pace chat schools have been reopened and he's entitled to do that. that's opinion. we should note the majority of students attending schools that offer in-person instruction is now 65% according to one data tracking company. about double the 33% from the week biden was inaugurated. scott also said less than 6% of the president's so-called infrastructure plan goes to roads and bridges. that's true. but we should note that doesn't mean the rest of the plan is not infrastructure or lefty pipe dreams. there are billions more for airports, rail ports, broad band, even with a pretty tight definition of infrastructure, you still get well over 20%. >> doing the fact checking as he always does. thank you. big picture, john king. let's look ahead. the speech is now history. >> the speech is now history. the president stepped off that podium. the recent polls show at least

those watching, again, largely at democratic audience but they dm lose anybody. when you're operating with a nonexistence senate majority, you can't lose anybody in america. it looks like he built some of his base. the challenge now, can he seen the it. he has had a 100-day record that he's quite proud of on the vaccine rollout and the economy. can he seen the his political he is off to georgia tomorrow. critical state to his election. then, he is off to pennsylvania. pivotal state to his election. can he make the case out in america, that then helps him twist a few arms here in washington? >> 100 days tomorrow. 100 days he is going to be in office and he is going to be in georgia. >> yes, i am going with him. actually, i have a flight in a few hours so i got to get out of here. but yes, he has that first trip to georgia. he actually is going to meet with the carters first when he does get to georgia. then, he is going to hold a rally. and then, he will go to

pennsylvania on friday. he is also got a lot of traveling next week, as well. and so does the first lady and some of his top-cabinet officials because they do want to pitch this plan. and i think we could see the theme return that we saw with the last covid relief bill. and you saw some of his top and closest advisers saying we built support out in the country. this is broadly popular with republican voters. that was what we mean by bipartisanship. that's the new definition that we are going by, and how we're approaching this, and how we are thinking through these bills. and so, whether or not that's the approach here will be really interesting. one other deadline that president biden set for himself tonight, that i just want to remind viewers about, was about getting a police-reform bill passed. he said he wants to do that by the end of next month, the anniversary of george floyd's death a. we will see if that actually comes to fruition. >> former chief white house correspondent. still ahead. we are getting new reaction to the president' speech from some of his fellow democrats he is

depending on to get his agenda passed. with spicy chipotle sauce. [doorbell chimes] thank you. [puck scores] oooow yeah!! i wasn't ready! you want cheese to go with that whine?? (vo) jamaica. (woman) best decision ever. (vo) feel the sand between your toes, and the gentle waves of the sea on your skin. feel the warm jamaican breeze lift your spirits and nourish your soul. escape to exactly what makes your heart beat. you will love every moment. jamaica. heartbeat of the world. let's go.

which shows will you be getting into tonight? how about all of 'em. netflix. cuz xfinity gets you really into your shows. when someone burns for someone who does not feel the same. oh, daphne. let's switch. from live tv to sports on the go.

felix at the finish! you can even watch your dvr from anywhere. okay, that's just showing off. you get all of this with x1. so go on, get really into your shows. you need a breath mint. xfinity. it's a way better way to watch. president biden was playing

to several audiences, during his speech tonight. the american people. his republican opponents. fellow democrats in the divided senate, who have considerable influence over his agenda. our chief congressional correspondent, manu raju, has been hearing from many of those individuals. manu, what are you learning? >> well, democrats are praising the speech, overall. but some of the key voices, still, are not sold on all the details on joe biden's plan. including, some important votes, like democratic senator joe manchin, who as he was leaving the speech, said it was delivered well. but he said the devil are in the details. he really wants to know how this will all be paid for. joe biden, of course, laid out some of the ways it would be paid for. previously, he raised concerns, to me, about raising taxes on capital gains. one -- that's one key aspect of the biden plan. and others, like democrat from new hampshire, also, said that the speech was well delivered but she wants to exactly how this will come down, and wants to have her say. now, some republicans who could

potentially be swing votes were not persuaded, at all, by the president's delivery here, including lisa murkowski of alaska, who came away saying she's not overly inspired by the speech. that's -- those were her words. and senator mitt romney, the 2012 presidential nominee for the republican party, pushed back on the biden plan. said, bernie sanders, in his words, he said, $6 trillion and counting. i'm sure bernie is happy. so, you are seeing resistance from the republican side. a lot of work to win over any republicans. and also, wolf, jake, for joe biden to win over his own party, which, of course, will be essential in order to get something through the 50-50 senate. jake. >> manu raju, on capitol hill. thanks so much. and, dana, one of the events of biden's life, that i think has led him to where he is, as well as many of his staffers. was when he was vice president for president obama. and they were trying to pass a bill, to get the country out of the great recession. >> uh-huh.

and during that period, as well as when they were crafting obamacare, healthcare legislation. there was a lot of negotiation with republicans. a lot. >> uh-huh. >> ultimately, obamacare passed, with no-republican votes in the senate. i think, there might have been one in the house. that -- >> maybe. >> that new orleans republican? >> oh, yes, you're right. >> and then -- and then, they negotiated and got republican support, just a few. specter, who was a republican, at the time. susan collins, a few others. for the stimulus bill. but it was too small for the recovery they wanted. that, at least, was the conclusion of all the republicans, who spent the next-ten years attacking obama for the recovery being so weak. so, i think he feels burned, in many ways, by republicans. >> a lot of this is lessons learned from those eight years. particularly, the first -- the beginning, where there was a real crisis. not unlike, what he inherited when he -- when he took over. but, it doesn't mean that he

doesn't have, in his dna, the desire to work with republicans. what it does mean is that, the time is going to be up sooner than obama let it -- let it play out. the open question is whether or not he can do it. because president obama had a supermajority of democrats, in the senate. they had 60 votes. it -- this -- it was about trying to get democrats to be onboard. and it's going to be a lot harder to get his fellow democrats on board with some of these giant proposals. big, big-ticket items. >> yeah. and it's worth noting that the bulk of the speech was devoted to the hardest part of the biden -- biden agenda. it's the big part of, you know, the human infrastructure part that republicans do not buy, at all. so, they are trying to put some elbow grease into this. but they know that this is going to be the tough part. the rest of the stuff, he might have a chance at. but gave much less time in the speech, because i think the white house believes they have to use the presidential platform for the thing that they think

they need the most. but that might be the most difficult to get, if not, perhaps, in impossible given the dynamic in the senate. >> abby, dana, thanks so much. our live coverage continues, next, with chris cuomo. th thanks for watching. hello. i am chris cuomo and welcome to a special, late-night, live edition of "cuomo prime time." it's midnight, on the east coast. 9:00 all the way on the west coast. so let's get after it. we got special coverage of an historic night. president biden's first address to a joint session of congress. america is on the move, again. that was the opening message, of a president who touted his achievements just shy of his first-100 days. particularly, in helping us steer our way toward the end of this pandemic. a speech, delivered to a room full of masked faces, in a