They met up on the tarmac in Scranton, two long-time buddies who used to have breakfast almost every Tuesday morning at Joe’s residence when Hillary was Secretary of State.
And then they were off to the rally. In her speech, Hillary, wearing blue, hearkened back to her blue-collar roots in Scranton. She told the audience that her grandfather’s job at a lace factory provided profit-sharing and health care at the beginning of the 20th century.
Joe gave shout outs to Bob Casey. He reminisced about his appearance in Scranton eight years ago with Hillary and Bill Clinton.
Joe spoke powerfully about what it will mean when Hillary becomes president. He said she has always been there and that is her life story. He called Trump’s cynicism unbounded. He said no candidate has ever known less about national security than Donald Trump and that he doesn’t seem to want to learn it. Speaking about Trump got Joe’s Irish up. It was awesome. If you listen to nothing else here, listen to the last half of Joe’s speech. It is scathing, and it is true.
Joined by Clinton In Scranton, Biden Calls Out Trump For Already Making America Less Safe
Joined by Hillary Clinton in Scranton on Tuesday, Vice President Joe Biden called out Donald Trump for already making America less safe. Biden pointed to Trump’s dismissal of our European allies, his comments on Ukraine, his praise for Saddam Hussein, his support of torture, his slander of the Muslim parents of a Gold Star family, and his dangerously irresponsible lies about President Obama and ISIL to emphasize the security dangers of a Trump presidency.Biden’s remarks on Trump’s dangerous national security proposals are transcribed below:
JOE BIDEN:
“Look at the people who have come out, scores and scores of the most prominent Republican thinkers in the national security field. They have come out in both political parties and party. He has no idea what he’s talking about. Even confronted with the facts, he doesn’t want to learn them. Few times he tries to deal with the facts, he reveals a profound misunderstanding of what to say. Just listen for a second. Listen to him. He belittles our closest allies in this hemisphere and in Europe. Nations that stand with us, are part of our security network, that are with us when we address every international challenge, those who fought and bled alongside us for decades, he wants to toss those relationships aside, like the ones that – like his failed business ventures or something. In the meantime, he talks cavalierly about encouraging other nations, as Hillary pointed out, to develop nuclear weapons, as if nuclear war is some trivial affair. Does he not understand we wrote Japan’s constitution to say they could not be a nuclear power? Where was he when – in school? Someone who lacks this judgment cannot be trusted. There’s a guy that follows me right back here, has the nuclear codes. So God forbid anything happened to the President and I had to make a decision. The codes are with me all – he is not qualified to know the code. He can’t be trusted.
I was proud. My son Beau served for a year in Iraq, came back a highly decorated soldier. I must tell you. I must tell you had Donald Trump been president, I would have thrown my body in front of him – no, I really mean it – to keep him from going if the judgment was based on Trump’s decision.
Every president since Harry Truman has looked toward Europe whole, free, and at peace. One of the most consequential people right now who is trying to undo that is a man that Donald Trump says he admires. Now, I’m not big on the character assassination stuff. I really mean that. If you look at everything, any campaign I’ve ever run, I’m just trying to – like that old program of Walter Brennan, ‘Just the facts, ma’am, nothing but the facts.’ Oh, that was Joe Friday, actually. But he says he admires Vladimir Putin. No, no, no, no, no. It’s more than – it’s more than the ‘Ew’ about it. Here’s the deal. What is Putin’s objective, as Hillary knows as well as anyone, dealing with Putin as I have and the President has and John Kerry, Putin is determined to crack NATO and crack the European Alliance. That is his overarching, overwhelming interest.
I’m heading from here, getting on a plane and flying to Kosovo, then to Serbia, and then I am going to the Baltic States. You know one of the reasons I am going is to make sure – to reassure those who are members of NATO and the Baltic States we mean what we say, we mean what we say, the sacred alliance of 60 years because they’re worried.
Listen to his comments about Ukraine. He assures us Russia will not move on Ukraine. But if he could not understand it, they’ve already moved on Ukraine and occupy Crimea. This guy’s shame has no limits. He’s even gone so far as to ask Putin and Russia to conduct cyberattacks against the United States of America. No, no. Even if he is joking, which he’s not, even if he’s joking, what an outrageous thing to say.
Look, folks. These are not isolated examples. He’s even showered praise on Saddam Hussein, one of the vilest dictators of the 20th century, a man who repeatedly backed terror attacks against Israel because he was supposedly – the reason he admires him – he was a killer of terrorists. That’s why he likes Saddam. He would have loved Stalin. He would have loved Stalin.
Look. This says a lot about his approach. It explains why he’s so often embraced tactics of terrorist enemies themselves – religious intolerance, casting entire communities culpable for the acts of a few in the community. Torture, when he knows it’s illegal, and says he would still order it even though the military commanders said they would not obey his orders. When can you think of, ever, in history where military commanders have said, before a man or woman is elected, that they would not follow his orders? Threatening to kill innocent family members of suspects. Indiscriminate bombing, what he calls for. That’s how anyone hoping to lead this great democracy in the world should behave?
Look. He likes autocrats. He wills the politics of fear and intolerance, calling for a ban on Muslims in the United States, slandering proud Muslim parents of a Gold Star family who paid the ultimate sacrifice, threatening to send American citizens to Guantanamo – oh, I tell you, this guy’s okay. Look. Trump’s ideas are not only profoundly wrong, they’re very dangerous and they’re very un-American. They reveal a profound ignorance of our constitution. It’s a recipe for playing into the hands – and I will end this because you’ve been standing so long – it’s a recipe for playing into the hands of terrorists and their propaganda.
Last year ISIL’s top leader, who we’ve been tracking since we got bin Laden, Hillary, me, John, everyone else, the President – his name is al-Baghdadi. And he revealed the goal of ISIL. He just said it straight out. You can go on a website. He said, their goal is to ‘compel the crusaders to actively destroy the grey zones themselves,’ meaning anywhere where Christians and Muslims live, he calls a grey zone. He said their objective is to actively destroy that grey zone. Muslims in the West, he says, will have to quickly find themselves between two choices: either apostatize, or immigrate to the Islamic State, and thereby escape prosecution. How does he make the case? By pointing out that no Muslim is welcome in the West. ISIL wants to manufacture a clash of civilizations between us versus them. Trump is trying to give them exactly what they want.
Last week he stood in front of a crowd in Florida and said President Obama founded a terrorist organization, ISIL. Now, look. Look. This I really should end with. That’s an outrageous statement. But let me tell you why it’s a dangerous statement. As he might say, the bad guys are listening. Yesterday the head of Hezbollah, a terrorist organization, Iran’s top terrorist surrogate and a direct threat to our ally Israel, repeated Trump’s claim in the entire Muslim world and around the world that President Obama founded ISIL. You say, well, what difference does that make?
Here’s exactly what the leader of Hezbollah said, referring to Trump’s accusation. He said this. ‘This is not’ – this is a spokesman for ISIL – I mean, excuse me, for Hezbollah –‘This is not a simple speech,’ referring to Trump. I’m quoting him. ‘This is an American presidential candidate. This was spoken on behalf of the American Republican Party. And he’ – meaning Trump – ‘has the data and documents to back it up.’
If my son were still in Iraq, and I say to all those who are there, the threat to their life has gone up a couple clicks. It’s gone up a couple clicks. You saw what’s happening in Turkey, where some in Turkey are accusing us of being part of the coup attempt. Ladies and gentlemen, does he have any idea of the adverse consequences these outlandish comments have on our allies, or friends, and the physical safety of our troops? Trump is already making our country less safe.”
Biden’s full remarks, as transcribed, are below:
JOE BIDEN:
“Hello, folks. It is good to be home. Folks, let me tell you what Scranton does deserve.”
AUDIENCE MEMBER: “Love you, Joe!”
JOE BIDEN: “Well, thank you. Scranton deserves what it’s always deserved because it is made up of so many people with grit and courage – I mean this sincerely, from the bottom of my heart – with grit, courage, determination, who never, never, ever give up. They deserve someone who not only understands them; they deserve someone who is with them. And they deserve someone who’s made of the same stuff. That’s Hillary Clinton. That’s who she is.
It’s good to be home with so many friends. As I look around, I – matter of fact, one of the people in the reception line said, ‘My aunt owns your house.’ Tell her I’m coming, I’m coming home. I was there when I was running, and up in the bedroom written on the wall still is, ‘Joe Biden slept here.’ And then it said, ‘Lived here.’ I’m glad they added the ‘Lived here’ part.
I’m often asked why we moved from Green Ridge to Claymont, Delaware and then Wilmington. Claymont is a suburb of Wilmington, Delaware. And it’s because of Bob Casey. No, look, no, the Caseys lived five blocks from us, just around the corner from St. Clare’s. And I am midway between Bobby’s dad and Bobby. And I knew only one of us were going to make it out of Green Ridge, and knew it wasn’t going to be me. So I had to move. There was too much Casey talent in the neighborhood. Bobby, you’re a great friend and a great, great United States Senator. Thank you.
As they say in southern Delaware, they talk at you like this: Matt Cartwright, that boy, he married up. He married right up to the […] I tell you, I don’t know, always seeking influence. I – but you got it, man. And, Matt, you’re doing a wonderful job as well and have become a very dear friend as well. Thank you.
I’ve been home since this time, but I stood here eight years ago kicking off our campaign with Hillary and Bill Clinton at my side, having my back. It was just me up here. They came to show their support. And I want to make it clear that as Scranton has always had my back, we, in fact, all of us, are going to have your back, Hillary. Scranton has been so – some of the folks in our administration were there on election night when the results were coming in. I give you my word as a Biden, I asked one and only one question: What did we do in the Northeast? And we won by a larger margin than we had any time before, and the rest didn’t matter. I took full credit for it. Nothing to do with it.
You know, if you listen to Barack, you’d think I was a kid who just climbed out of a coal mine with a lunch box, from Scranton. I’m the kid from Scranton. Well, I am from Scranton and I was a kid at one time. But so often, quite frankly, my people in Delaware resent it. I’ve represented them for 36 years as a U.S. Senator and 44 years in high public office, and I swear to God, Hillary, there’s a parade that started on the Fourth of July about just as I was getting started in ’72, and it was called the Hockessin parade. It’s right on the Pennsylvanian border. And from the time my boys were then three and four years old – four and five years old at the – actually three and four years old, they were in the parade with me. And so when my Beau became – and he was the most popular politician in Delaware – I would tag along with him – no, for real – in the parade.
So one of the things I’m trying to do, Hillary, after the people of Delaware being so generous to me all these years, and to Beau as attorney general, I am trying to go back and do as many things in the last year at home in Delaware to show my affection and my appreciation. And so I was in the Fourth of July parade in Hockessin recently, surprising the press and everyone because I was there. And there were thousands of people there, many of the same people that waited five hours in line to pay respects at my son’s viewing. And I was there to thank them for the overwhelming support they gave me for all those years. And as I continued along the parade route, two guys came running up to me – big guys, both guys I had played ball with – bigger than me. Secret Service was about to have a heart attack. And they said, Joe, what in the hell’s all this stuff about Scranton? You’re from Claymont, god darn it. You’re from Claymont. And you’re from Delaware still, aren’t you, Joe? So y’all have to write a note, tell them I love Scranton, it’s my home.
But you know what, home is where your character is stamped. Where it’s stamped into your soul. Where your values are set. Where your view of the world and your place in that world begin. For me, that was 2446 North Washington Avenue, around my grandfather Finnegan’s table – and it’s where I learned that money doesn’t determine your net worth. That no one – that no one – I mean this sincerely. This is not hyperbole. This is deadly earnest. I learned that no one is more worthy than you, and everyone is your equal. I learned from my mother, Catherine Eugene Finnegan-Biden that – and she said this so many times. She’d look me in the eye and say, Joey, look at me. Remember, you’re defined by your courage, and you’re redeemed by your loyalty. She’d go on to say – because everybody’s had tough times – she said, as long as you’re alive, you have an obligation to strive. And you’re not dead until you’ve seen the face of God.
What I learned here from my father is that I could be anything I wanted to be. That anything could be accomplished. This is not a joke. This is real. That the measure of your character is not whether you’ll get knocked down and you’ll fall, because you will. The measure is how quickly you get up. I learned – I learned about resilience from my father. Who, like many of you, and many of your parents, made what I call the longest walk. The longest walk any man or woman can make is a short flight of stairs to their child’s bedroom to say, honey, I’m sorry we can’t live here anymore. We lost the house. Or Daddy or Mommy doesn’t have a job. I remember my Dad making that walk. Moving us to my grandfather’s home. I remember, but what I remember most was him saying, but I promise you, everything, everything is going to be – we can’t go back to St. Paul’s – you can’t play in Green Ridge Little League anymore. But I promise you, everything is going to be okay.
And he meant it. He knew it. Because there used to be a basic bargain back then. There used to be a bargain, if you worked like hell for the outfit you work with and they did well, you got to participate. That was the bargain. And what Hillary is all about is making sure that every one of you – every one of you can look your child and your grandchild in the eye, and say, honey, I mean this sincerely, everything is going to be okay. Think how many people you know who don’t feel like they can say that right now. My father, when he said it, on the balls of his heels, he meant it. Because he thought that there was just a clear shot if you worked hard.
Everything I learned at my father and grandfather’s table was reinforced by my neighbors and my friends all around this town. Pride, independence, resiliency. When I moved away from Scranton, I was going into 4th grade. But I never left. I spent summers, holidays, college weekends, weddings, funerals, first communions, bat mitzvahs – and by the way, for me it was Nay Aug Park, it wasn’t the Lake. I always remember – I always remember – but I’ve been taught what you all believe up here. Everyone’s entitled to be treated with dignity and respect, no matter who they are.
That America – that America – And Hillary gets this better than anybody I know. That America can be defined in one single word: possibilities. That’s the thing about America – that’s the thing about Scranton. That’s the thing about who we are. Anything is possible. That’s the America I know. And ladies and gentlemen, that’s the America Hillary Clinton knows. You know the people I trust most? In public life – I’ve been doing this a long time – I trust the people who – the feeling starts in their gut, moves to their heart, and then is articulated by a great mind. Hillary understands the hopes and aspirations of the people in Claymont and Scranton and every Scranton and Claymont in the United States of America.
I’ve known her for over 30 years. I knew her before she was first lady. When she became first lady. When we served together in the Senate. During her years as Secretary of State, once a week, we’d have breakfast in my home. I became the Obama whisperer. She’d look at me and say, what did he mean by that? He loves her. Everybody knows. This has never been an issue with Hillary. Unlike, it’s a gigantic issue with her opponent. But all kidding aside, everybody – by the way, my family is right there. The Finnegans. How are you? I didn’t even see you. Secret Service, you see that beautiful young girl there? Make sure she gets back when I leave the stage, okay? Because we’re not leaving until I get a hug.
Anyway, sorry guys. It’s kind of a family thing. But look, think about it. Everybody has known from day one how smart, how bright Hillary is. Everybody knows how tough she is. But what I don’t think everybody knows enough about – it may be the difference between the Irish Catholic and the Methodist piece here – we wear everything on our sleeve. I don’t think they fully understand how passionate she is about what she does. I want you to listen just for a minute. I don’t even want you to clap. I want you – because I want to make sure you understand what I know about her.
You know, she understands that that college loan to get a bright young girl or boy to school is about a lot more than whether or not they’re going to get a chance. It’s about the pride and the dignity of the parent who looks at that child. I mean this sincerely. Please don’t – just listen to this. I remember, I was – went down to my Dad’s place of work to pick up a car. And he was wandering back and forth in the parking lot. The secretary said, ‘He’s out there.’ And I walked out. And he said, Joey, I’m so sorry. I’m so damn sorry. This is before cell phones. I thought maybe something happened.
He said, ‘I went to the bank today, honey; they won’t lend me the money to get you to school. I’m so ashamed.’ A damaging thing to a parent is to look at a talented child, or a sick child, or a child in need, and not be able to do anything. She’s understood that for years. She’s understood for years that millions of people here in Scranton and Claymont and all across America went to bed staring at a ceiling thinking, my God, what happens if she develops breast cancer? Or he gets lung cancer? What happens? We lose everything. What do we do then?
A lot of you remember those days. My family remembers those days. She gets it. She understands what it will mean – and I really mean this – it’s more than about her. She understands what it means for these beautiful young girls – and I’m being serious now – these three beautiful little girls I’m looking at now, what it will mean to them when it’s President Hillary Rodham Clinton. It will change their lives. It will change their lives. It will prove that my daughter and my granddaughter can do anything my son and grandsons can do. That’s what it will mean. It’s consequential.
So let me say this as clearly as I can. If you live in a neighborhood like I grew up in, where my wife Jill grew up in, Willow Grove, or down in Claymont, if you worry about your job, getting decent pay, if you worry about your children’s education, if you’re taking care of an elderly parent after losing the other one, then there’s only one person in this election who will possibly help you. And that is Hillary Clinton. Folks, she’s always been there. It’s not a joke. You know, you see – use phrases like that – but she has always been there. That’s her life story. And let’s state the obvious: that is not Donald Trump’s life story. Senator Ted Kaufman, who you know very well, Hillary, served with you. He used to be my administrative assistant for years and years, graduate of the Wharton School, an engineer by degree at Duke. He said he had a professor at the Wharton School – the Wharton School, by the way, isn’t – doesn’t have a Trump sign up. Anyway, that said, the difference between being a success and the genuine success – excuse me – a minimum success and a real success is someone who had nothing and makes a million dollars is a real success. Someone who inherits a million and makes 20 million –”
AUDIENCE MEMBER: “A bum.”
JOE BIDEN: “No, they’re not a bum, but they’re a mere success. Now, some are bums but not all.
Look, let me tell you the part that bothers me and, as Hillary will point out and knows, that no one ever doubts I mean what I say. The problem is that I sometimes say all that I mean. But let me tell you what really bothers me most. And maybe this only works in – where I grew up. I don’t know. But what bothers me most about Donald Trump is his cynicism is unbounded. No. I really mean this. Think of this for a minute because you’re all raised in this area. You’re different ethnicities, different religions, different backgrounds. But there’s one thing I’ve noticed all the years I’ve spent. And I’ve always, always come home. And that is that the way you were raised, if you ever showed a lack of empathy for someone in trouble, if you ever summed up a thought that the praise he’s most proud of, ‘You’re fired’ – think about the phrase, ‘You’re fired.’”
AUDIENCE MEMBER: “You’re fired.”
JOE BIDEN: “Think – no. All kidding aside. I really mean this. Maybe it’s just me. But think about what your mother or father or grandmother or grandfather would have said to you. Think about everything you learned as a child. I really mean this. No matter where you were raised, how can there be pleasure in division and ‘You’re fired’?
And he’s trying to tell us he cares about the middle class. Give me a break. And, to repeat myself, it’s such a bunch of malarkey, it makes no sense, none, none, none, none. This guy doesn’t care about the middle class. And I don’t even blame him in a sense because he doesn’t understand it. He doesn’t have a clue. No, no. He really – I mean, he really doesn’t. He doesn’t have a clue.
And, by the way, there’s something else he has no clue about that has nothing to do with being a Democrat or Republican. I have worked – I’ve worked with eight presidents of the United States. I have served with hundreds of senators. Only 13 senators in history, I’m embarrassed to say, have served as long as I have. Dozens of secretaries of state and secretaries of defense of both parties. And I can say without hesitation, my word as a Biden, no major party nominee in the history of the United States of America has – no, don’t cheer; quiet, just listen – has known less or been less prepared to deal with our national security than Donald Trump. And what absolutely amazes me, what absolutely amazes me, that he doesn’t seem to want to learn it. No. I really mean it. He doesn’t seem to want to learn it. He doesn’t seem to think it matters. This man is totally, thoroughly unqualified to be president of the United States of America. He not only lacks the temperament – people say he lacks the temperament. I would feel better if that’s all he lacked. On every issue that matters most to our security, Donald Trump has no clue what it takes to lead this great country.
Now, look, if I had said this eight to 10 months ago, you would say, well, I am being partisan. Well, I am partisan. I make no apologies for that. But I am not mean about it. And, as Hillary will tell you, I don’t know any Democrat that has a more positive relationship with Republicans than I do in the United States Senate. But, having said that, look at the people who have come out, scores and scores of the most prominent Republican thinkers in the national security field. They have come out in both political parties and party. He has no idea what he’s talking about. Even confronted with the facts, he doesn’t want to learn them. Few times he tries to deal with the facts, he reveals a profound misunderstanding of what to say. Just listen for a second. Listen to him. He belittles our closest allies in this hemisphere and in Europe. Nations that stand with us, are part of our security network, that are with us when we address every international challenge, those who fought and bled alongside us for decades, he wants to toss those relationships aside, like the ones that – like his failed business ventures or something. In the meantime, he talks cavalierly about encouraging other nations, as Hillary pointed out, to develop nuclear weapons, as if nuclear war is some trivial affair. Does he not understand we wrote Japan’s constitution to say they could not be a nuclear power? Where was he when – in school? Someone who lacks this judgment cannot be trusted. There’s a guy that follows me right back here, has the nuclear codes. So God forbid anything happened to the President and I had to make a decision. The codes are with me all – he is not qualified to know the code. He can’t be trusted.
I was proud. My son Beau served for a year in Iraq, came back a highly decorated soldier. I must tell you. I must tell you had Donald Trump been president, I would have thrown my body in front of him – no, I really mean it – to keep him from going if the judgment was based on Trump’s decision.
Every president since Harry Truman has looked toward Europe whole, free, and at peace. One of the most consequential people right now who is trying to undo that is a man that Donald Trump says he admires. Now, I’m not big on the character assassination stuff. I really mean that. If you look at everything, any campaign I’ve ever run, I’m just trying to – like that old program of Walter Brennan, ‘Just the facts, ma’am, nothing but the facts.’ Oh, that was Joe Friday, actually. But he says he admires Vladimir Putin. No, no, no, no, no. It’s more than – it’s more than the ‘Ew’ about it. Here’s the deal. What is Putin’s objective, as Hillary knows as well as anyone, dealing with Putin as I have and the President has and John Kerry, Putin is determined to crack NATO and crack the European Alliance. That is his overarching, overwhelming interest.
I’m heading from here, getting on a plane and flying to Kosovo, then to Serbia, and then I am going to the Baltic States. You know one of the reasons I am going is to make sure – to reassure those who are members of NATO and the Baltic States we mean what we say, we mean what we say, the sacred alliance of 60 years because they’re worried.
Listen to his comments about Ukraine. He assures us Russia will not move on Ukraine. But if he could not understand it, they’ve already moved on Ukraine and occupy Crimea. This guy’s shame has no limits. He’s even gone so far as to ask Putin and Russia to conduct cyberattacks against the United States of America. No, no. Even if he is joking, which he’s not, even if he’s joking, what an outrageous thing to say.
Look, folks. These are not isolated examples. He’s even showered praise on Saddam Hussein, one of the vilest dictators of the 20th century, a man who repeatedly backed terror attacks against Israel because he was supposedly – the reason he admires him – he was a killer of terrorists. That’s why he likes Saddam. He would have loved Stalin. He would have loved Stalin.
Look. This says a lot about his approach. It explains why he’s so often embraced tactics of terrorist enemies themselves – religious intolerance, casting entire communities culpable for the acts of a few in the community. Torture, when he knows it’s illegal, and says he would still order it even though the military commanders said they would not obey his orders. When can you think of, ever, in history where military commanders have said, before a man or woman is elected, that they would not follow his orders? Threatening to kill innocent family members of suspects. Indiscriminate bombing, what he calls for. That’s how anyone hoping to lead this great democracy in the world should behave?
Look. He likes autocrats. He wills the politics of fear and intolerance, calling for a ban on Muslims in the United States, slandering proud Muslim parents of a Gold Star family who paid the ultimate sacrifice, threatening to send American citizens to Guantanamo – oh, I tell you, this guy’s okay. Look. Trump’s ideas are not only profoundly wrong, they’re very dangerous and they’re very un-American. They reveal a profound ignorance of our constitution. It’s a recipe for playing into the hands – and I will end this because you’ve been standing so long – it’s a recipe for playing into the hands of terrorists and their propaganda.
Last year ISIL’s top leader, who we’ve been tracking since we got bin Laden, Hillary, me, John, everyone else, the President – his name is al-Baghdadi. And he revealed the goal of ISIL. He just said it straight out. You can go on a website. He said, their goal is to ‘compel the crusaders to actively destroy the grey zones themselves,’ meaning anywhere where Christians and Muslims live, he calls a grey zone. He said their objective is to actively destroy that grey zone. Muslims in the West, he says, will have to quickly find themselves between two choices: either apostatize, or immigrate to the Islamic State, and thereby escape prosecution. How does he make the case? By pointing out that no Muslim is welcome in the West. ISIL wants to manufacture a clash of civilizations between us versus them. Trump is trying to give them exactly what they want.
Last week he stood in front of a crowd in Florida and said President Obama founded a terrorist organization, ISIL. Now, look. Look. This I really should end with. That’s an outrageous statement. But let me tell you why it’s a dangerous statement. As he might say, the bad guys are listening. Yesterday the head of Hezbollah, a terrorist organization, Iran’s top terrorist surrogate and a direct threat to our ally Israel, repeated Trump’s claim in the entire Muslim world and around the world that President Obama founded ISIL. You say, well, what difference does that make?
Here’s exactly what the leader of Hezbollah said, referring to Trump’s accusation. He said this. ‘This is not’ – this is a spokesman for ISIL – I mean, excuse me, for Hezbollah –‘This is not a simple speech,’ referring to Trump. I’m quoting him. ‘This is an American presidential candidate. This was spoken on behalf of the American Republican Party. And he’ – meaning Trump – ‘has the data and documents to back it up.’
If my son were still in Iraq, and I say to all those who are there, the threat to their life has gone up a couple clicks. It’s gone up a couple clicks. You saw what’s happening in Turkey, where some in Turkey are accusing us of being part of the coup attempt. Ladies and gentlemen, does he have any idea of the adverse consequences these outlandish comments have on our allies, or friends, and the physical safety of our troops? Trump is already making our country less safe. And I’m testing your stamina.
So let me go to the end here and say – Hillary has forgotten more about American foreign policy that Trump and his entire – I’m not exaggerating – his entire team will ever understand. Ladies and gentlemen, Hillary’s been there. She has been tested. I’ve been in the room with her as we jointly, with the President’s leadership, sent some of these killers to the gates of hell. At our weekly breakfast on the international stage, she’s strong. She’s respected. She’s admired. There’s nothing – there’s nothing, nothing – that she doesn’t understand about America’s place in the world.
And ladies and gentlemen, because she knows one thing that Donald Trump doesn’t know: It’s never, never, never, ever been a good bet to bet against the United States of America! Give it a fair shot. Give it a fair chance. Americans have never, never, never, ever let their country down, never – and ladies and gentlemen in Scranton and in America, we never bow. We never bend. We never kneel. We never yield. We own the finish line. That’s who we are. We are America! And she gets it. We’re second to none, and Hillary Clinton is going to write the next chapter in American history.”
