Senior Biden Adviser Reflects on Biden's Political Legacy

And here we are at the DNC convention in Chicago. I'm here with Stephen Benjamin. He's a senior advisor to the President of the United States, Joe Biden. It's good of you to be on the program. This is an exciting time for the Democratic Party. You have served President Joe Biden for many years now, and now you're with his Office of Public Engagement. What will it be like for him tonight when he gives his speech? I hope and pray that it's somewhat nostalgic in that it recognizes the service of this amazing man and the leadership he's provided. You think about where we were four years ago. I mean, the greatest pandemic since 1918, maybe the greatest economic disruption we saw since 1929, and the greatest social unrest we saw since 1968, all wrapped up into one. President Biden and Vice President Harris hit the ground running, decided they needed to put an end to the pandemic, get shots in arms, and save lives. After saving lives through the American Rescue Plan, they decided they needed to save livelihoods, stood up businesses all across this country, led to a small business boom, 18 million new small business applications, a record, I might add, in four years as of last week, 16 million new jobs, 63,000 infrastructure projects. You think about ways in which you couldn't get cars or phones or what have you because of the pandemic and how supply chains are disrupted, the CHIPS and Science Act, reshoring American jobs here, almost a million jobs created here. You know, his commitment early on to try and stamp out student loan debt, those crippling families all across this country, five million people now, over five million people have seen almost $170 billion of student loan debt ameliorated. And you think about, obviously, things that are most important to people like my parents and others, driving down the cost of healthcare for all Americans with just last week, the landmark negotiation for Medicare, 10 more drugs that are going to save seniors in this country billions of dollars. Joe Biden has talked the talk and walked the walk. So hopefully, he takes some time to engage in what he always does, humility, but also some sense of hubris, too, that he's led from the front. He and the vice president have gotten the job done. They've changed the course of this nation and will continue to do so under this new leadership of Kamala Harris and Tim Walz. Final question, what's your hope for America? My hope for America is that the world that my teenage daughters are growing up in looks a lot better than the world that we inherited, that their rights, their bodily autonomy is protected. They'll be able to make their own healthcare decisions. That their ability to utilize everything from AI and advanced machine learning to make their lives better to help improve healthcare outcomes and ameliorate poverty. I mean, that we continue to invest in the idea of America as truly a land of possibilities. So you have one very clear vision coming from Kamala Harris and Tim Walz that wants to move the country forward. You have some other guys who are grasping onto some dark ideas of the past. So I hope and pray that this place, when I leave God's green earth, and we all leave at some day, that we continue to do our parts here in Chicago this week to make sure that that desired future state for kids not named Benjamin, not named Biden, not named Harris, but children who didn't grow up in the right zip code or didn't have the same opportunities we have, they have the same opportunities that each and every one of our babies has. That's my hope. Stephen, thank you. Thank you. All right. Thank you. God bless you. Thank you so much. All right. Okay. Thanks.