LIVE: The Bidens host the White House Congressional Picnic 2024-06-04 22:23

Distinguished guests, the President of the United States and Dr. Biden. Welcome to the White House. It's so wonderful to see so many friends here. My heart is filled with gratitude as I look out on this crowd. Hey Nancy. Over these past three and a half years, so many of you have welcomed me to your districts and your states as we work together on issues that bring us all together. Lifting up educators, my favorite. Highlighting the great work of your local community colleges, another favorite. Fighting to end cancer as we know it. Supporting military families. And I'm so excited to work with all of you on our newest White House initiative on women's health research. That was all the women in the group, I'm sure. So research on women's health, especially for women in midlife and beyond, has always been underfunded and understudied. But together we're changing that. Everywhere I go, in red areas and in blue areas, I get asked about this new initiative all the time. And our work together is only just beginning. But today isn't about work. Today is about you and your families. Sharing some laughs and some good food and enjoying the start of summer before it even gets more hot and more humid. So for all the kids out there, you can make sure to tell your parents that I said to make sure that you enjoyed the best lawn in America. So run around, play tag, do cartwheels, have fun. And let's make this evening a celebration of what brings us all together. Family, friends, our love of country, and our belief in a better tomorrow. So now I get to introduce my husband, Senator from Delaware for 36 years, and now the President of the United States. Heck, you all know him, he's Joe. So here he is. My name is Joe Biden. I'm Jill's husband. I want to thank all the congressional leaders here today. Chuck, my guy's going to be the next Speaker of the House, Peter Jeffries. And a guy, I have to admit to you, I couldn't do without as President of the United States, Dick Durbin. He gets it all done all the time. And Katherine Clark, the whip. I'm always happy to see Nancy. Nancy Pelosi is hiding in the corner. Nancy, the best speaker in American history. No, you really are, Nancy. And I wouldn't be here were it not for the fact that Tommy Carper got me here. Senator Carper, good to see you, pal. And so many other people, look. Is Steny here? Where's Steny Hoyer? I hear him in the back. He's over by the beer. Steny Hoyer lives on the western shore of Delaware in Maryland. All the family members joining us, decades in the Senate, as Jill pointed out, hard to believe, 36 years in the Senate. But I tell you, I swear to God, I miss it. We had such camaraderie. We used to, back in those days, we all got along pretty well, even though we had real differences. And Jill and I know that sometimes it can be a lot. But thank all you for the sacrifice you make. This picnic is an important tradition. It goes back a long, long way. And, you know, I think the thing about, let me put this way. I remember when I was vice president, and things weren't going too well. And I realized there were a lot of senators that were coming in that I didn't know very well. And so I decided I'd go over to the Senate dining room, private dining room. We used to have two big conference tables there, an archway separating two in a buffet place. And you'd go and you'd sit with the people you had strong disagreements with, on almost everything. But you sat there and you ate together, you got to know each other. You got to know about each other's families. It's hard to dislike a woman or a man when you know they're having a problem with their son or their daughter or one of the sick. It's just hard. You get to know people. And we didn't. And so I realized I didn't know that many people. So I went over as president of the Senate, I think I told you this before, Nance, over to the Senate dining room, and to sit down and talk with all my old friends, and get to know new ones. It turned out there's no dining room there anymore. The tables are gone. There's a dining room where a senator can take a guest and a larger dining room, but there's no private dining room. And I think one of the things that I miss the most now, and I think I'd miss if I were still there, is the failure to get together as much as we used to. We used to travel together. We used to travel together as a couple. We became good friends with the other party. As I said, it's hard to really dislike someone you know more about them, know about their families. And so in my years of experience, taking time to make a better senator makes a better leader. Taking the time to get to know one another, then that's what I hope to do a little bit today. Excuse me, I got a little bit of a sore throat. And there's a lot to be proud of today. And I'm going to end by saying, look, I know I'm accused of being a congenital optimist, but the truth of the matter is, with the grace of God and the goodwill of the neighbors, the creek not rising, we have a shot to make some real changes, Democrats and Republicans, for the better for the country. We're the most powerful nation in the world. The rest of the world looks to us. Not a joke. I know every major world leader well. I've been doing this a long time. And they look to us, the United States, for leadership. Ask yourself a rhetorical question. If it wasn't us, who would it be? And so there's a lot we can do. There's a lot we can do and a lot we can look forward to. So, as my grandfather would say, with the grace of God, the goodwill of the neighbors, the creek not rising, we're on to better days. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. You go that way. I'll go this way. She's going that way. I'm going this way.