food? gov. bullock: my favorite fair food -- i just got here. i so hope when my family arrives, i am going to eat everything fried. thank you so much for being with me. >> a booth at the iowa state fair had fair folk for their favorite presidential candidate for 2020 by adding a corn kernel into a jar. president trump the republicans. on the democratic side, it was joe biden. the former vice president was at the fair today and ran into governor bullock at the booth. former vice president joe biden moved on to make his case to voters.

fried. [cheers and applause] mr. biden: hello, iowa. good to see you all. jill biden's husband. i'm going to be very brief and quick with you. i'm running for three reasons. we have to restore the soul of this country. what we sow out of charlottesville, the hate and venom we saw, and the president saying that the groups who met him as law -- as well as the young woman who was killed, what did he think about them, he said they were very fine people in both groups. very fine people. no sitting president has ever said something like that. the only thing that has happened is it has gotten worse, it to divide us can divide us in a way that is totally contrary to who we are. we really are in a fight to restore the soul of this

country. we have let the world in the past not just because we're the most partial nation in the world, but it is not the exercise of our power, it is the power of our example. we're losing that kind of influence with the rest of the world. it is very damaging. the second reason i am running is i want to restore the backbone of this country. the backbone of this country is the middle class. the middle class built this country. wall street did not build this country. [cheers and applause] mr. biden: and the middle class made it possible for working-class people to rise up. the poor ot have a road up. when the middle class does well, everybody does well. the poor do well, the wealthy do well, and the middle class is the glue that holds us together. it is falling apart right now. we are no longer the wealthiest middle class in the world. we have a significant portion saying that their children will never have a life that they had.

my dad used to have an expression, he said a job is a lot more than a paycheck. it is about dignity and respect. it is about your place in the community -- how can you have this notion of being able to look your kid in your eye and say they will be ok if you do not have adequate health care? what do you do when you look at a child who has a pre-existing condition and there's nothing you can do about it, or when your child or someone you love has a terminal disease like my son did. i cannot imagine what it would be like watching him coming home from iraq with an incurable disease given months to live and an insurance company could come in and say your time is up. suffer in peace the last four months. it is about being able to have an education for your child that you know they have an opportunity for. that is why we should be

out there, and we can afford it, tripling the amount of money on title i schools. raising salaries for teachers. making sure that we deal early on with all of those things. we know we need teachers. my wife is a full-time teacher. we are in a situation now where one child for every psychologist in the school system, there are 1700 kids. what are we doing? we can afford to change this if we just get rid of some of these god-awful tax cuts that were passed. the idea that we are in a position that we have trillions of loopholes in the law. you can't possibly justify $500

billion worth of loopholes. i can make sure everyone in the country has adequate insurance. built on obamacare, make sure it has a public option can increase the prospect of lowering drug prices. how much time do i have left? how much? 15 seconds? to speak? oh! y'all are in real trouble then, man. that's a bad thing to tell me i've got more time to speak. the idea that we cannot gain control and give people a fighting chance is not correct. there used to be a basic bargain in america. republicans and democrats agreed on it. we disagreed on the extent of end of we agreed at the the roosevelt administration, and that is if you contributed to the well-being of the company you work for, you get a share of the benefits. if it went well, you did well. that is no longer the case

anymore. we have adopted a position in the onlyhat says people entitled to rewards are stockholders, because they are the only job creators. i have noticed that the folks delivering the grains to the mill, they are job critters. the folks who make the automobile, they create jobs. i know the people who built this country or ordinary, hard-working people who have been given have a chance. the idea that we don't reward work as much as well is bizarre. isas much as wealth bizarre. we are in a situation where you have the top 1% paying a lower tax rate than you do because it is mostly capital gains. more than a teacher, firefighter, a cop. it is ridiculous.

we should be rewarding work, not just wealth. we should be raising the corporate tax rate. this is all within our capacity to do this. so much money. people in tax breaks for who don't need them. by the way the wealthy know they , don't need them. they are not bad people, but they don't need another tax cut. if you are making more than $10 million, i am not your guy. you don't need a tax cut. and you know it. but people who don't need a tax cut -- make sure we can provide for free community college. situationa where we could put every single solitary person who is eligible, qualified, and those people who have lost their jobs in their 50's because of automation back to be retrained. for aboutthat all $6 billion a year. eliminate one little thing,

stepped-up basis. i didn't know what it was because i used to be listed as the poorest man in congress. if you have a capital gain, you are about to cash it in, you get hit by truck, god forget, leave it to your center dot or, they pay no tax -- leave it to your son or daughter, they pay no tax. for every single qualified person in community college for free, or trade school. cutting in half the cost of college. there are so many opportunities we have to change things in this country. in addition to that, i love the fact that there is no global warming. you know that out here in iowa. you know it doesn't exist. i heard a farmer today say it is not caused by humans, but i have a problem. i have a problem. well, there is a big problem. if we don't provide for people being able to drink -- position where they can breathe clean

air, we deprive them of their basic fundamental rights. the first thing i would do as president of the u.s. would need re-join the paris climate accord, which i helped put together. [cheers and applause] mr. biden: one thing people don't know about that record which we negotiated, it calls for nations to up the ante every two years. we are responsible for 15% of global warming. the rest of the world is 85%. we do everything perfectly and they don't get on the stick, we are all still in trouble. i know how to deal with these world leaders. i know almost every one of them. i know how to get it done. this is the existential threat to the u.s. and to the world. it is real. and it is not just 11 years. we have about 10 years before we lose the opportunity to stop the erosion that is occurring now. it is real.

here's the deal, you saw what you did with wind. i remember at a state fair 10 years ago, 12 years ago, talking about wind. how you can provide energy from wind. guess what, a lot of people didn't think it was a good idea. then you started doing it. it created 10,000 new jobs and didn't cause cancer, as the president says. it generated growth. we can invest. we will invest. $44 billion in research and development for new technologies that deal with sequestering of carbon. you farmers out here can have an entire new life. they can be the first group of americans to actually get a carbon-free environment. if we do this, we will create 10 million new jobs. and it's real. if we invest in research, , technologies that

are the technology of the future. we should become the net exporter of this capability and technology. we have the potential to do that. we underestimate our capacity. going back to health care, we can control drug prices. my proposal is, and i ran what they call the moonshot dealing with cancer, and after that set up the biden cancer initiative. here's the point, we are on the verge of solving so many chronic diseases. it is within our capacity to do it. but we have to actually go out and fund it. for example, those of you who have been in the defense department, those of you who have been in the military know there is something called darpa.

it allows the military to do research. we should be doing the same thing with health care. we should set up the same operation. harpa, meaning health care advanced research and development. if we don't do something about the disease of alzheimer's, every single solitary bed in the united states of america and hospital will be filled with an all-time is patient. no drug company will make that kind of investment. we should be investing billions of dollars just like we did in the defense format with fat obesity, all of the chronic diseases that are out there. we have the capacity to break through. we can do a million billion calculations per second. we are so far advanced that we are keeping our head in the sand. we should be investing in that, not investing in more tax cuts for the very wealthy. lastly, i say the third reason i am running is to unite the country. folks, folks, i am told by some of my colleagues that you cannot unite the country.

bideniden on one side, has been around too long. the other is biden is naïve. i've been around a long time. you think being around a long time, you would learn something. what i have learned is that the american people after three years already of this guy have decided that a lot of what he is talking about is hokum. look this last election in 2018 in the country. to 69 candidates i went into purple states and red states and in those states we won back 41 seats. beating republicans -- by the way, i want to represent everybody, but here's the deal, the fact of the matter is, we ran on health care. it wasn't until i started taking away health care that everybody -- they started taking away health care that everybody realized how important it was to

cover pre-existing conditions. 100,000 people were able to get coverage because of pre-existing conditions. on and on. what the proposal is we are able to go out and make sure that everybody is protected. building on obamacare, restoring the historic deal that we did. in addition to that, adding a medicare-like option to it so you can buy into it. every single -- but you are able to keep if you like your employer-based policy, you can keep the policy, as long as they keep the policy. it costs a lot of money. it costs about $740 billion over 10 years for the but guess what, it doesn't cost $30 trillion. the mutually dollars -- $30 trillion, which will raise middle-class taxes. bernie is going to tell you that. there will be a withholding tax from your paycheck. we can cover everybody.

and we can do it in a way that allows people the choice they want. in terms of unifying the country, we never lived up to it, but america has been an idea. it is the most unique idea. not a joke. the only thing that can defeat america is america. there is no army strong enough, no dictator powerful enough, no ocean wide enough that can overcome what we want to do. we can do whatever we want to do, if we remember we can do it together. [cheers and applause] mr. biden: the reason i did my last announcement in philadelphia was to make a point that we are a nation that is unique. we hold these truths self-evident, that all men and women are created equal, endowed by their creator. we the people, etc. we have never fully lived up to that.

but we have never abandoned it before. we have never walked away from it. jefferson didn't live up to it, he had slaves. but every single generation has bent the arc more toward inclusion. every generation. that is why we are who we are. we are, we are the most unique idea. it is an idea we cannot abandon. and folks, we are better prepared to own the 21st century than any nation in the world by a long shot. when i got elected as a 29-year-old kid to the senate, i was labeled this young idealist. this guy who was optimistic. is, i amof the matter more optimistic today, with one exception, than i have ever been. if we get rid of donald trump can we have a clear path. [cheers and applause] folks, we have the most productive workers in the world. our workers are three times as

productive as workers in asia. we are in a situation where we have more great research universities in the united states than in all the rest of the world combined. every major change that has occurred in the last 20 years has come out of a research university. people think they are federal agents. they are not. you own them, you pay for them. they belong to you, the american people. we are in a position where we have the most agile venture capitalists in the world. we have one of the most educated publics in the world, if we in fact invest in them. there isn't anybody or any country in the world who can compete with us if we invest in our people, if we invest in new we are. remember who we are. there is not a single thing we have been unable to do. this is my concluding comment to you all -- it is time to remember who in god's name we are. this is the united states of america. there is nothing we have ever decided to do that we have been

unable to do, period. that is not hyperbole. we have never never never failed when we are together. it is time to get up. everybody knows who donald trump is. even his supporters know who he is. we have got to let them know who we are. we choose unity over division. we choose science over fiction. over facts.uth if you are interested, join me. i could use the help. we must defeat this president to change the trajectory of this country. thank you all very, very much. i guess i take questions now, huh? don't let anybody know i did not use all my time. i have a bad reputation of going over all the time. yes, sir? or --ou a mic, >> one, when can i buy you an ice cream? who is your favorite historical figure who is not a president

and why? mr. biden: yes, you can buy me another ice cream. i already had one. he said, can i buy you an ice cream, and who was my favorite historical figure. i think my favorite historical figure -- there is a couple of philosophers who i find understood human nature better than most people. but in terms of political figures, maybe my favorite political figure, it is a tough call, i would have to say it is those people who gave america hope. made them believe in who we are. you said not a president. i would have to start off with jefferson, even though he didn't live up to it. he is the guy that wrote that incredible document. i would have to say there are a number of people who have moved in the direction to provide us with the kind of hope and expectation about what we can do. my favorite line from john kennedy's speech about going to the moon wasn't what most people remember.

when i remember the most is when he said, we are doing this because we refuse to postpone. i refuse to postpone any longer what we can do in this country. it is time to get the hell up and start to move. [cheers and applause] mr. biden: yes, ma'am? [indiscernible] mr. biden: $290 billion a year right now. what is my plan? my plan is to gather up -- i have met with most of the leading scientists in the country already. my plan is to set up a system whereby we invest billions of

dollars in terms of research. no drug company wants to or can do because they cannot take the risk. i'm tired of being told we don't have a clear answer. we found clear answers. we used to think that cancer was a single cell, that resided in different parts of the body. we now know there are 204 distinct types of cancer that require different types of therapies. the same kind of research has to take place dealing with alzheimer's. not just to help people who are likely to get it, but it saves -- it is a gigantic positive investment. we pay for it one way or another. we can change the way it requires a dedication to say we can invest.

it will take billions of dollars to do it. we can afford to do it. we can't afford not to do it. yes, ma'am? >> over the last 10 years there has been a right-wing takeover. [indiscernible] mr. biden: she said there is been a number of -- >> 30 seconds. mr. biden: 30 seconds? the courts have turned strong to the right. i will not appoint anyone to the court -- you notice i presided over more supreme court hearings than anyone ever has because i was chairman for such a long time. the fact of the matter is the people i will put on the court are will be like the people who -- like a woman who worked for me, elena kagan. the folks who understand -- those of you who are lawyers,

the question is, are there unenumerated rights in the constitution. fancy way of saying unless you acknowledge that there is a right of privacy in the constitution, as most leading scholars agreed, you will not be able to protect a woman's right to choose. you will not be able to protect all the things we care about so much. i will not appoint anyone to the court who does not share that basic philosophy. thank you. i will come and answer your question, ok? i'm not allowed to answer anymore. i'm going to get dragged off the stage. [cheers and applause] as my grandpa said every time i leave the house, "joey, keep the faith." my grandmother said, "no, spread

it, spread the faith." [indiscernible] >> jungle gym. >> you talk about the need to work with republicans and initiate new gun control. you worked on this during the obama administration over an extended period of time and especially after sandy hook. what is different now that you get these things passed? mr. biden: what is different now is we now have the house back, number one. number two is i think we will win senate seats back. number three, you have a majority of members of the nra understanding that we should do something about it. they are great, majority of the nra. -- they agree, majority of the nra. -- you happening lately are not allowed to own a bazooka, you cannot own a flamethrower. the folks who say that the tree of liberty is watered with the blood of patriots, they make a

case that you need firepower if the government comes after you for the well, you need a lot more than an ak-47. there is no reason other than to kill people. any guy out there or woman out says who is ahunter who that they need a clip of 15, 20, 100 rounds, they shouldn't be hunting. they have bad aim. we can get background checks done. the public is finally at the point where they are sick of it. sick of it. i got it done once before and i can get it done again. >> would you take executive action if you couldn't get a deal? mr. biden: well, i would take a number of executive actions in our administration that village back rentech and the rest. unlike -- that relate to background checks and the rest. unlike trump, i know there is a constitution. i cannot just do things like fiat. branch of coequal

congress is supported. there is a lot we can do in terms of background checks and gun-show loophole some the rest. in terms of the core issue of getting assault weapons off the street, limiting the number of bullets that can be in a single click, that requires -- a single clip, that requires legislation. i'm the only guy nationally who has done it before with the help of dianne feinstein. we did all brady bill, i was a leader on that. we can do it again. the public gets it. they get it now. >> do you believe that the president is a way to premises? -- white supremacist? mr. biden: i believe everything the president has said and done encourages white supremacists and i'm not sure there is a decision. in fact, in my be worse. out there trying to curry the paper of white supremacist-- favor of white supremacists. whether or not he is a way to

pharmacist, he incurred -- white supremacist, he encourages them. the one time he used the word "white supremacy," talk about sleepy. he was awful sleepy in the way he talked about it. >> what makes this time different? mr. biden: i can afford to do it now. i've got a lot of support and i've been able to raise almost 300,000 contributors that allow me to compete and have a staff. we have a number of headquarters open. people want to be asked. you have got to have an organization. we have put together a full-blown organization, and it is way early on. i know the polls ahead by 10 or 12 points, but it is real early. i plan on being here to rent a vote of -- earn the vote of iowans. >> what is your message to

farmers who are caught in the middle of the trade war but say he is doing the right thing and it will just cause them a little more financial pain? mr. biden: i think it will cost more than a little financial pain. it will cause them to go bankrupt. the industries that make the tractors and from equipment, they will be in trouble. we're focusing on the wrong thing with china. i have argued that we should be very tough with china. china is stealing our intellectual property. unless we in fact are able to unite the world into taking on china, they are when his set the rules of the road. they are going to be in a position -- what we are doing now is we are going about it the wrong way. china is a problem. they are a security problem, they are a technology problem, but they are investing more money, for example, in research and develop and developing that we are because they are stealing an awful lot about intellectual property. >> hello. mr. biden: hello. iowa,n you first came to

many vp candidates have become nominees but none of them have -- repeatedent-- candidates have become nominees but none of them have become president. mr. biden: i represent the change we need. the issue before us are in my wheelhouse, things i have worked on my whole life, whether it is supporting the middle class, dealing with international relations. i know these world leaders and i demonstrated i can command the respect. whether it is dealing with issues relating to the issues that allow us to be a single nation, bringing people together. look -- >> will you electrify them mr. biden: look at the polls. so far so good. i do it by being me. look, no one has ever, including reporters who cover me all the time, has ever doubted i mean what i say.

the problem is sometimes i say all i mean. they are looking for authenticity, they are looking for honesty, someone who is new ideas of how to deal with the these things. one of the things with my longevity in american politics i know what needs to be die. it is clear to me what needs to be done is totally within our capacity to do it without doing anything but making the country better. >> yesterday while you were speaking in burlington, immigration and customs enforcement was conducting these raids in mississippi. is that the right approach to security enforcement? mr. biden: no, no, no. what we should be focused on is having a comprehensive immigration plan to provide a pathway to citizenship for people who are undocumented. we should be legalizing dreamers right now. 4 million families, 10 million people.

we should be uniting families, not separating families. we should have an actual program whereby you are able to find an avenue to have your assignment case hear. this idea of walking away from dealing with allowing people to have a silent in the united states-- asylum in the unite states is bizarre. that is not who we are as a country. there is no need to separate children from their families, no need to put people in cages. at the end of our administration we found that when you show up at such and such a date, they show up. we don't need to do this for the the people who should be deported -- well, i shouldn't. >> 8 years on china. what are you going to do differently? mr. biden: well, i'll tell you what, we did an awful lot with china, and what we did is we got the to join the paris peace accord, the climate accord, we

got them to change the direction in a number of areas in terms of foreign policy. he was another thing we did. i spent more time with xi jinping than any elected official at that time, and you were later. aboutmber him asking me whether or not the identification zones in the south china sea -- what do you expect us to do? i'll tell you what, we will fly right through it, the b-52's right through it. not goingot, china is to make the rules of the game if we in fact invest in our workers, if we invest in leading the world, bringing the rest of the world together to make sure that we can put pressure on china. we make up 25% of the world economy. we need to. [laughter] mr. biden: the answer is --remember, at the front end of

the administration we are losing 800,000 jobs a month. the reason why there is the longest expansion ever is because of barack obama anaren administration. -- and our administration. now is the time to understand the china means what they say. they have this new belt and road -- they are exporting pollution. they are exporting coal, they are exporting carbon-producing energy. we have to compete. we have stepped back from the world. we have said we are out, we are not going to pay any attention. we have got to confront them across the board. china's problems compared to the ones we face, they pale in comparison to the opportunities we have. xi jinping would change laces with the president in a heartbeat. they don't have enough water,

god bless them. they are talking about spending close to a trillion dollars to get water to the population. highest risk of cancer death in the world. in the next 10 years what people are going to die in china because of pollution than the rest of the world combined. they have no replacement workers. in the western part of the country, it is -- what they are doing with uighurs in the western part of the country, it is shameful. sticking with south korea, sticking with japan. we are walking away. when is the last time you ever heard of president say he had a love affair with a guy who is a thug, who had his uncle's brains blown out? [indiscernible] the difference now with votes in the house and votes in the senate -- but you had the house and you have the senate when you and barack obama were in office,

and then there was sandy hook and you had bipartisan support, and it didn't happen. what are you the one to change that? mr. biden: i have met with every one of those common members. ones who gote killed in the pusle nightclub-- pulse nightclub. i understand it. people know i understand it. ending the filibuster is a very dangerous thing to do. by progressives the whole time to make sure that we did not get rolled over when republicans. when you talk and you say let's do a with the filibuster, it sounds great.

anyway, thank you so much. [indiscernible] >> we should not be supporting any of these. . all right thank you. >> thank you. livencer: c-span has coverage of the 2020 presidential candidates of the iowa state fair. on friday we live at 10:00 a.m. eastern with former hud secretary hooley and castro. saturday we are live at 10:00 a.m. eastern with governor jay inslee, senator, harris, senator amy klobuchar, senator kiersten gillibrand, former colorado

governor john hickenlooper, senator elizabeth warren, and senator cory booker. watch the 2020 presidential candidates live at the iowa state fair friday and saturday at c-span. watch anytime online at c-span.org, or listen live from wherever you are, on the go using the free c-span radio app. announcer: sunday night on q&a, >> we were taken out of the hall and confronted this mob of angry people. announcer: middlebury college political science professor allison stanger talks about the physically attacked. after the appearance of an author charles murray on campus. >> you left that room and what happened? >> the fact is i do really remember much of it. i cannot even tell you what door we went out.

thewe were taken out of hall and confronted this mob of angry people rate some of whom were wearing masks -- angry people. some were merrick wearing masks their target was charles murray. announcer: sunday night at 8 p.m. eastern on c-span q&a. host: this morning on washington by chrise are joined perino & stirewalt, fox news channel's. one half of "perino and stirewalt: i'll tell you what." host: for someone who might not be into podcasting, how do you describe your podcast?