Transcript of Kamala Harris, Barack Obama deliver remarks at a Get Out the Vote rally in Clarkston, GA

It is good to be back in Georgia. Good to be back in Atlanta. And this is quite a lineup you've had here. You got my buddy, Bruce Springsteen. You got Tyler Perry. You got a couple of guys from those Capital One commercials. If that doesn't get you fired up to vote, I don't know what will. Now, you've heard this already. I am going to repeat it. We are going to keep repeating it. Here in Georgia, early voting has already started. So if you have not already Go vote. Return your absentee ballot. If you're going to vote, remember to bring your photo ID. If you need to figure out where to go, go to I will vote. Com/ga, and then you get your friends and you get your family to make a plan to vote. Because together, we have a chance to choose a new generation of leadership in this country and start building a better and stronger and fair and more hopeful America. Now, I love you, too. Now, we know this election is going to be taken because a lot of Americans are still struggling. As a country, we've been through a lot. As a country, we've been through a lot over the last few years.

We had a historic pandemic that wrecked havoc on communities communities and businesses. And then disruptions from the pandemic caused price hikes, strain on family budgets. And people feel like no matter how hard they work, sometimes it feels like they're just treading water. So I get why people are looking to shake things up. What I cannot understand is why anybody would think that Donald Trump will shake things up in a way that is good for you because there is absolutely no evidence that this man thinks about anybody but himself. I've said it before. Donald Trump is a 78-year-old billionaire who has not stopped whining about his problems since he rode down that golden escalator nine years ago. And when he's not complaining, when he's not sending out crazy tweets, he's trying to sell you stuff. He's trying to sell you gold sneakers, trying to sell you a $100,000 watch, trying to sell you a Trump Bible, wants to sell you the word of God, Donald Trump edition. Got his name right there next to Matthew and Luke. Now, you cannot make this stuff up. If this was on a Saturday Night Live skit, you'd say, Well, no, that's crazy.

But he's doing it because all he cares about is his ego, his money, his status. That's his mindset. Those are his intentions. And then there's the question of his confidence. I mean, have you seen Donald Trump lately? He out there given two-hour speeches, just word salad. Said the other day January sixth was a day of love. He said that. It was Woodstock or Coachella. If your grandpa was acting like this, you'd call up your brother, call up your cousin, you'd say, Hey, have you noticed grandpa? He acting funny right now. But here's Here's the interesting thing, is he acts so crazy, and it's become so common that people no longer take it seriously. I'm here to explain to you, just because he acts goofy, does not mean his presidency wouldn't be dangerous. And you do not have to take my word for it. Lately, some of the people who know Donald Trump best have been saying in no in uncertain terms that he should not be President again. The other day, General John Kelly, Donald Trump's former Chief of Staff, said that Trump told him he wanted his generals to be like Hitler's generals. Now, don't boom.

Now, I want to explain that in politics, a good rule of thumb is, don't say you want to do anything like Hitler. Now, that's just good political advice. But it is useful because it gives us a window into how Donald Trump thinks. And John Kelly is wasn't the only one saying this. Two of his defense secretaries, people who worked for him, said the same thing. His chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, that is the top of the top brass in our military, said, He is dangerous. Now, I happen to know John Kelly and Mark Miller. They serve who had served under me when I was Commander-in-Chief. These are serious people. This is a decorated soldier and Marine who served in battle. They are not, quote, unquote, woke liberals. They are people who have never in the past even talked about politics because they believe that the military should be above politics. But the reason they're speaking up is because they have seen that in Donald Trump's mind, the military does not exist to serve the Constitution or the American people. He He doesn't see being Commander-in-Chief as a solemn, sacred responsibility. Just like everything else, he thinks the military exists to do his bidding, to serve his interests.

He said If he's elected, he'll use that military to go after, The enemy within, which he defines as anybody who criticizes him or refuses to bend the knee. He can't handle that. And unlike last time, unlike the first time, he won't have people like John Kelly around to stop him. He'll be surrounded by people who are just as loony as he is. And who will let him do what he wants. And so my question to you, Georgia, is, how is any of that going to help you? We do not need four years of a want to be a want to be king, a want to be dictator, running around trying to punish his enemies. That's not what you need in your life. America is ready to turn the page. We are ready for a better story. Georgia, we're ready for a President Kamala Harris. And the good news is that Kamala Harris is ready for the job. This is a leader who has spent her life fighting on behalf of people who need a voice, who need a champion. Kamala wasn't born into privilege. She was raised in a middle-class family. She worked at McDonald's when she was in college to pay her expenses.

She didn't pretend to work at McDonald's when it was closed. For a photo, she actually cares what people are going through because she's seen it in her own family, in her own life. As a prosecutor, Kamala stood up for children who had been victims of sexual abuse. As attorney general of California, fought the big banks and for-profit colleges, secured billions of dollars for people after they'd been scammed. After the home mortgage crisis, Kamala pushed me and my administration hard to make sure homeowners got a fair settlement. It didn't matter that I was a Democrat, that she had I knocked on doors for my campaign. She was not going to let anybody stop her from winning as much relief as possible for families who deserved it. So the point I'm making, if you elect Kamala Harris She will not be focused on her problems, her ego, her money. She's going to be focused on you. She's going to be focused on you. Kamala understands that too many folks here in Georgia and across the country are struggling to pay the bills. Now, I understand, wages are steadily growing. Unemployment is low. Inflation is finally slowing. But we all know the price of everything from housing to health care to groceries is still too high, and it hurts.

She understands that. The question is, who's really going to do something about it? So Donald Trump's plan is to give another massive tax cut to billionaires and big corporations. Because he was a reality star on The Apprentice, there are some folks who think, Well, I don't know. He's a businessman. He must know something about the economy. I've heard people say this, right? I'll talk to them, Why would you think about voting for this guy? They're all, Well, I remember the economy when he first came in, it was pretty good. Yeah, it was good because it was my economy. I had spent eight years cleaning up the mess that the Republicans had left me. And then I handed over 75 straight months of job brought to Donald Trump. And all he did was give tax cuts to folks who didn't need it, drove up the deficit in the process, and now he wants to do it again. You can't give him credit for that. And then I hear... The other thing I hear, some folks will be like, Well, Donald Trump sent me a check during the pandemic. No, no, no. You all know, because I've heard this.

I know some of you heard that. Hey, let me make sure you all understand this. Joe Biden sent you a check during the pandemic, just like I gave people relief during the Great Recession. The thing is, we didn't put our name on it because it wasn't about feeding our ego. It goes. It wasn't about advancing our politics. It was about helping people. That's the difference. Don't be giving them credit for that. Come on. He sent you a check. Do not fall for that okey-doke. Don't be bamboozled. Don't get fooled. And don't get fooled when he talks about health care either. You ask Donald Trump what he's going to do to make the health care more affordable. His only answer is, End Obamacare and the Affordable Care Act. He doesn't really know why he wants to end it, except for the fact that I passed it. The problem he's got now is that it's popular because 50 million people have gotten health care because of it. So a couple of weeks ago, you remember during the vice presidential debate, his running mate had the nerve, had the hook spot, to say that Donald Trump, quote, salvaged the affordable care.

Donald Trump spent his entire presidency trying to tear that thing down, and he couldn't even do that right. And now, eight years after he was elected, when he was asked, Well, what are you going to do? He says, Well, I've got concepts of a plan for how are you to replace it. Now, I want you all to think about this for a second. Let's say your boss on the job gives you an assignment, says, I need it by Friday. Friday rolls around. Your boss says, So did you finish that project that I asked you to do? And you say, Well, I haven't actually started, but I got a concept for a plan. Or you could try this at home. Honey, did you throw out the trash? I have a concept of a plan to throw out the trash. How's that going to go? On the couch. That's how it'll go over. If it wouldn't work for you, why should it work for the next President of the United States? The good news is that Kamala Harris doesn't have concepts of a plan. She got a plan to make your life better. She's going to go after corporations that unfairly jack up prices.

She's going to make it easier to build and buy a home. She's going to limit out-of-pocket health care costs. She's going to give a tax cut to 100 million middle-class families and working Americans. And if Congress passes a bill to restore the reproductive freedom that women had for nearly 50 years, the freedom that Donald Trump bragged about taking away, Kamala will sign it into law. It's an example of how elections matter. And I have to say, I get why folks get frustrated with politics. I do, too, sometimes. I don't watch cable news. Because sometimes I get why people block it out. It just seems like everybody arguing and fussing. But I always tell people, Look, politics, it's not going to solve all your problems. No President is going to eliminate poverty in one term or eliminate racism? Because those problems are hard. It takes steps a little bit at a time. But your vote matters because that little bit of a time, that incremental improvement, that adds up. And things can get a little better or they can get a little or a lot worse. When I was When I was President, we did not solve all problems with our health care system, but 50 million people getting health insurance that didn't have it before, that made a difference.

You know somebody who has health insurance because of it. I'm going to give you another example. When I was President, we put together an entire playbook for how to deal with a pandemic because we had dealt with Ebola, we had dealt with the H1N1 virus. We put together a plan, and we practiced, and we had all the agencies in terms of how are you going to deal with the schools and how are we going to deal with public health agencies. We put it all together, and when Donald Trump came in, we gave him that playbook, and he, I guess, dropped it in the dust bin. Three years later, a pandemic hit. And I want to be fair. Listen to me now. No matter who was President, the pandemic was going to be a huge crisis. People were going to get sick. People were going to die. Businesses were going to close. There'd be travel restrictions. It was a once in a hundred year event. But if you look at a country like Canada, the per capita death rate during COVID was 60 % lower than it was here in the United States. So you do the math.

Over a million people died during the pandemic here in the US. 60 % of over a million, that's 600,000 people. That's grandparents. That's us. That's uncles, parents, coworkers, friends. Everybody here was touched by it. Some people might have been alive if we had had a competent administration who is paying attention and trying to do things better instead of talking about injecting bleach into your arm. Now, you remember that if somebody tells you, it doesn't make a difference. It will not make things perfect, but it does make a difference to have somebody who is confident, somebody who sees you, somebody who respects you, somebody who cares about you, somebody who understands your dreams. And you need to remind folks who are still on the sidelines that the election is about more than just policies. It's about values, and it is about character. Some of you know I know when I was growing up, I didn't have a father in the house, but I did have people around me, stepfather, grandparents, teachers, coaches, and most of all, my mother, who tried to teach me the difference between right and who showed me what it meant to be honest and responsible, to work hard, to treat other people the way I wanted to be treated.

Look, I was a knucklehead sometimes when I was a kid, and I didn't always live up to those values, even as a young adult. But over time, I internalized those values. And as an adult, I said, This is what I need to stand on. This is my foundation. I suspect most Most of you grew up the same way. And one of the most disturbing things about this election and about Trump's rise in politics is how we seem to have set the values we were taught aside, how we seem to disregard them, how we pretend they don't matter. When Donald Trump lies about about Hurricane aid, you've got a hurricane in North people desperate. And he and his vice president's candidate deliberately circulate rumors that that money is being given to illegal aliens, illegal immigrants, as opposed to people who are desperate. When he cheats or shows utter disregard for our Constitution, when he calls service members who died in battle, losers, or For fellow citizens, vermin, people make excuses for it. They act like it's okay as long as their side wins. And I've noticed this, especially with some men who seem to think Trump's behavior is a sign of strength, that macho.

I'm going to own these folks. I'm going to put them down. I am here to tell you, that is not what real strength is. It never has been. Real strength is about working hard and taking responsibility and telling the truth, even when it's inconvenient. Real strength is about helping people who need it and standing up for those who can't always stand up for themselves. That's what we should want in our daughters and our sons. And that's what I want to see in the President of the United States of America. And the good news is we've got a candidate to vote for in this election who demonstrates that character, who knows what real strength looks like, who will set a good example and do the right thing and lead this country better than she found it. That is what this election is about. And that is why it is my honor to introduce my friend, the next President of the United States of America, Vice President Kamala Harris. Good evening, Georgia. Good evening. Can we please hear for my friend, our 44th President, Barack Obama. It's good to be back in Atlanta. All right. I love you, too.

I love you, too. So you all may know, it was 17 years It was over 17 years ago when I took a trip to Springfield, Illinois. It was a cold February day, and I went there to support this brilliant young senator who was running for President of the United States. And millions of Americans were energized and inspired not only by Barack Obama's message, but by how he leads, seeking to unite rather than separate us. And that is why in 2007, I went New Year's Eve to Iowa to knock on doors in the snow. And all these years later, Barack Obama, I say to you, your friendship and your faith in me and in our campaign means the world. Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you, Mr. President. We have some extraordinary leaders with us tonight.

I thank everybody who's here for taking time out of your busy lives to spend this evening together. I want to thank Georgia's Congressional Delegation, all the local and community leaders who are here with us. Let's please give it up for Samuel L. Jackson, Spike Lee, Tyler Perry, and the great American poet, Bruce Springsteen. So Atlanta, before I was Vice President of the United States. Before, I was the United States Senator, and before that, a two-term attorney general for the state of California, and before that, a district attorney and a courtroom prosecutor, and in In those roles, I took on perpetrators of all kinds, predators, broadsters, and repeat offenders. I took them on, and I won. Well, Georgia, in 12 days is Donald Trump's turn. It's his turn. Just 12 days left in one of the most consequential elections of our lifetime. I don't need to tell you, voting has already started. And everybody here knows it's going to be a tight race until the very end. We have a lot of work ahead of us. But we like hard work. Hard work is good work. Hard work is joyful work. Make no mistake, we will win.

We will win. We will win. Or as a certain former president would say, Yes, we can. Yes, we will, and yes, we can. Here's why we're going to win. We are going to win because we, together, are fighting for the future. We are fighting for the future. We here understand we have an opportunity before us to turn the page on the fear and divisiveness that have characterized our politics for a decade because of Donald Trump. We have the opportunity to turn the page and chart a new way and a joyful way forward. A way that taps into the ambitions, the aspirations, the dreams of the American people. I will tell you, as I travel our country, there is an overwhelming call for a fresh start, for a new generation of leadership that is optimistic and excited about what we can do together. There is a yearning for a President of the United States who will see you, who gets you, and who will fight for you. And my whole career, I have put the people before partisanship. I never once asked somebody, Are you a Democrat or are you a Republican? Instead, I always asked, How can I help you?

And that is a major difference between Donald Trump and me and between the two very different, extremely different visions that he and I have for our nation. One, his focused on the past and himself, the other, ours, focused on the future and you. Together, we will build a future where we bring down the cost of living. And that will be my focus every single day as President of the United States. Because look, while inflation is down and wages are up, prices are still too high. You know it, and I know it. And unlike Donald Trump, who had $400 million, served to him on a silver platter and still managed to file for bankruptcy six times. He talks about being a good He says, Man, come on. Unlike him, I grew up in a middle class neighborhood with a working mother who kept a strict budget and did everything she could to make sure my sister and I had all that we needed. I I come from the middle class, and I will never forget where I come from. I will never forget where I come from. Which is why my common sense plan will lower the prices you pay on everything from prescription drugs to groceries to housing.

On the other hand, Donald Trump will raise costs on you and your families. In fact, independent economists have analyzed our plans and found that mine will cut your costs and strengthen our economy. His will increase inflation and lead to a recession by the middle of next year. These are independent economists, Nobel Laureate, prize-winning economists who have reviewed our plans and are very clear. His agenda is all laid out in Project 2025, a detailed and dangerous blueprint for what he will do if he is elected President. Look, Donald Trump intends to impose a 20% Trump national sales tax on everyday basic necessities, which will cost the average family nearly $4,000 a year. On the other hand, I will take on corporate price gouging. I've done it before, and I will do it again. Donald Trump will give massive tax cuts to billionaires and the biggest corporations, exactly like he did the last time he was President. I will give middle class tax cuts to 100 million Americans, including $6,000 during the first year of a child's life that will also lift America's children out of poverty. Donald Trump will get rid of the $35 cap on insulin for seniors.

He will cut Medicare and Social Security. In fact, economists have reported he will bankrupt Social Security in just six years. My plan is a plan to support our seniors so that they can grow older with dignity and And so their families, you are not overwhelmed by the cost of home health care. And on top of that, my plan will bring down the cost of housing, cut taxes for small businesses. Where are the small businesses in the house? You are the backbone of America's economy, all of you. And we will to lower health care costs because I believe health care should be a right and not just a privilege of those who can afford it. Donald Trump, on the other hand, intends to end the Affordable Care Act, or like we like to call it, Obamacare. And he wants to take us back to when insurance companies have the power to deny people with pre-existing conditions. Well, we are not going back. We are not going back. We're not going back. No, we are not, because we will move forward, and it is time to turn the page. Ours is a fight for the future, and it is a fight for freedom.

For freedom like the fundamental freedom of a woman to make decisions about her own body and not have her government tell her what to do. And we remember how we got here. Donald Trump hand-selected three members of the United States Supreme Court with the intention that they would undo the protections of Roe versus Wade, and they did as he intended. Now, in America, one in three women lives in a state with a Trump abortion ban. I don't need to tell the folks here, except for Virginia, in every state in the South, including Georgia, there is a Trump abortion ban. Many, with no exceptions, even for rape and incest. Let me tell you the idea that someone who survives a crime of a violation to their body would be told they don't have the to make a decision about what happens to their body next. That is immoral. It is immoral. It is immoral. Everybody here knows values. One does not have to abandon their faith or deeply held beliefs to agree the government should not be telling her what to do. Not the government. If she chooses, she will talk with her pastor, her priest, her rabbi, her imam, but not the government.

Not some folks up in a state capital telling her what to do with her own body. And notice, Donald Trump still refuses to even acknowledge the pain and the suffering he has caused. He insists that, quote, Everybody wanted for Roe versus to be overturned, which is just a further example of how out of touch the man is. Everybody wanted this. Women are being denied care during miscarriages, some only being treated once they develop sepsis. They didn't want this. Couples just trying to grow their family have been cut off in the middle of IVF treatments. They didn't want this. Women have died because of these bands, including a young mother of a six-year-old son right here in Georgia. Her family is here with us tonight, and we speak her name, Amber Nicole Thurman. You all have heard me say, Look, I do believe Donald Trump to be an unserious man, and the consequences of him ever being President again are brutally serious. These are just some of the consequences of the Trump abortion bans and what he does and what he's likely to do. I pledge to you, when Congress passes a bill to restore reproductive freedom nationwide as President of the United States, I will proudly sign it into law.

Proudly. And across our nation, We are witnessing a full-on assault on other hard-fought, hard-won freedoms and rights, fundamental freedoms and rights, like George and O's, attacks on the freedom to vote, attacks on the freedom to be safe from gun violence, the freedom to breathe clean air and drink clean water, the freedom to love who you love, openly and with pride. And as Atlanta knows well, generations of Americans before us led the fight for freedom. And now the baton is in our hands. It It is in our hands. And so I'd like to speak in particular to all the young leaders that I see here this evening. I see you. I see you. I see you. And to you, I say, you all have grabbed the baton. I've seen what you do, and I see how you are doing it because you are rightly impatient for change. You who have only known the climate crisis are leading the charge to protect our planet and our future. You, young leaders who grew up with active shooter drills, are fighting to keep our schools safe. You who now, now, fewer rights than your mother's and grandmother's, are standing up for reproductive freedom.

I know it is because for you, I say to our young leaders, this is not theoretical. This is not political. This is your lived experience. And what I love about you is you are not waiting for other people to figure this out. I see you and I see your power. I know so many of you are voting for the first time and know that our future is so good with you all at the helm. And I'm so proud of you. Can we hear it for our young leaders and first-time voters? So listen, so much is on the line in this election, and this is not 2016 or 2020. The stakes are even higher there, because over the last years, and in particular the last eight years, Donald Trump has become more confused, more unstable, and more angry. You see it every day. He has become increasingly unhinged. But last time, at least there were people around him who could control him. But do notice in this election, they're not with him this time. In fact, just this week, America heard from John Kelly, a retired four-star Marine general who was Trump's White House Chief of Staff, who said that as President, Trump praised Hitler.

Take a moment to think about what that means. That Trump said, quote, Hitler did some good things. And that Trump wished he had generals like Hitlers who would be loyal to Trump and not to America's Constitution. This is not 2016, and it is not 2020, including because just a few months ago, the United States Supreme Court told the former President that he is effectively immune no matter what he does in the White House. Now, just imagine Donald Trump with no guardrails. He who will claim unchecked and extreme power if he is reelected. Who has vowed that he will be a dictator on day one, who calls Americans who disagree with him, I'm going to quote, the enemy from within. You know what that harkens back to? He's calling Americans the enemy within, who says that he would use the military to go after them. And he who has called for the, quote, termination of the Constitution of the United States. Let us be very clear, someone who suggests we should terminate the Constitution of the United States of America should never again stand behind the seal of the President of the United States of America.

Just imagine the oval office in three months. Picture it in your mind. It is either. But there's a choice that everybody has. So let's imagine it for a moment. It's either Donald Trump in there, stewing, stewing over his enemy's list, or me working for you, checking off my to-do You, Liz. You have the power to make that decision. It is your power. It is your power. So Twelve days. All right. Okay, we got work to do. We got work to do. Okay, so Georgia, listen, it all comes down to this. We are here together because we know what is at stake. We are here together because we love our country. We love our country. I do believe it is one of the highest forms of patriotism to fight then for the ideals of our country and to fight to realize the promise of America. That's why we are here. And as the great congressman John Lewis reminded us, democracy is not a state. It is an act. So Georgia, now is our time to act, and together we will win. We will win. We will win. So, election day. So, election day is in 12 days.

Okay, 12 days. And early voting has already started. So Georgia, we need you to vote early. Please vote early. Go to iwillvote. Com to get all the information you might need. Because folks, the election is here. It is here. It is upon us, and the choice is truly in your hands. Your vote is your voice, and your voice is your power. Georgia, I ask I ask you, are you ready to make your voices heard? Do we believe in freedom? Do we believe in opportunity? Do we believe in the promise of America? And are we ready to fight for it? And when we fight, we win. God bless you and God bless.