Vice President of the United States, Tim Walz.
Well, I was born in a small town and I needed a small town.
Hello Madison.
Hello Badgers.
Well, how great is it? Bradley Whitfords here. Give him a big hand. Incredible.
And look, we're going to need a partnership and we're going to need a democratic house.
Send Mark Pocan back with a gavel in the learner's hand.
Please, Wisconsin, on behalf of all Americans, send Tammy Baldwin back to the Senate.
Please.
And one thing I know a little bit about is about governors and man, Wisconsin, do you have a good one? Tony Evers, thank you.
And I don't know if you heard, there's a guy from Chicago coming out after me, Barack Obama.
But each of you, huge thank you, took time out of your busy lives.
You came here, you came here because you believe in the promise of America and you believe in the democracy. Thank you.
Alright, earlier this month I went back to my old high school in Mankato to catch the cross town rivalry game.
Give a little pep talk again. So football is always near and dear to me, close to my heart, but I have to tell you, I know that this week I might not be the biggest draw.
There's a bit of a game coming up on Saturday night with Penn State.
So, look, I don't usually do this, but we need to win Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, so I'm not picking a side in this one. You go do it. Go do it.
I will say this, and I know you know this, when the stakes are the highest winners are the ones that step up, and that's exactly what we're going to do.
We're going all the way through to that final whistle, and that's the exact energy that Kamala Harris and I are bringing to these final 14 days.
I cannot tell you how proud I am to be on this ticket with Vice President Harris.
From the first days as she stepped into a courtroom as a prosecutor, to a district attorney, to the Attorney General of the largest state in the Union, to the US Senator, to the Vice President.
She has had one client, the people.
She stood up for women and children against predators and abusers. She stood up for seniors and workers against fraudsters and big corporate interests.
She stood up for families and communities against transnational gangs and traffickers.
And when people came to her, she never asked them if they were Democrats or Republicans. She simply asked them, how can I help?
I know you know it's why you came. This election is two weeks from today, and early voting has started here in Wisconsin.
Our team is running like everything is on the line, because everything is on the line.
We're barnstorming the country, we're on TV, we're on podcasts, we're on radio.
I am like one interview away from being a regular on Damn Fox News, so just so we know.
But you know what you notice? It takes stamina to run for President.
It takes stamina to be President.
And Donald Trump does not have stamina.
He has been rambling more than the normal rambling.
He calls it the weed.
Donald, come on. We know there's only one weed that you know anything about. And it is not this. It is not this.
He's duck debate, but you can't blame him. When you get your ass whipped that hard, you don't come back for seconds.
He dropped down a three interviews and his staff in a moment of clarity and truth said he was exhausted.
Look, I don't care how exhausted he is, because I can promise you he's not as exhausted as the American people are of him.
So, over the weekend, he made a little appearance over the weekend. You might have seen this.
He went to a McDonald's and dressed up as the drive-thru worker.
They found him in apron his size and put it on him.
And I was thinking it is possible he mixed up his weekends and thought that it was Halloween already.
He's been forgetting things lately as you might have noticed.
But look, there's something not just nuts, but cruel about a billionaire using people's livelihood as a political prop.
His agenda lets big corporations not pay people for overtime and diminishes those very workers that he was cosplaying as.
He missed an opportunity, though. Being at McDonald's, he looks much more like Ronald McDonald than the clown that he actually hit.
Tell me you don't see this one coming from a mile away, and Ronald wears less makeup. You saw it coming, you saw it coming.
That restaurant wasn't even open. It was a stunt. Fake orders for fake customers. They even staged the drive-thru.
We know that. They won't let you walk through the drive-thru. We knew that. They saw that happening.
But look, everything about this guy is fake. Everything he does is fake.
Next, next, he's going to be telling you he's a copper construction worker because he dances to the village people, so we know if the client's here.
And I'll tell you this, though, that five minutes he stood next to the deep fryer, I'll guarantee you that's the hardest that guy's ever worked in his life.
And that's not a joke. But look, I'm not going to waste all the time on me, and I'm going to talk about his running mate.
His running mate, Elon Musk. Seriously, where is Senator Vance after he got asked the simplest question in the world at the debate?
Did Donald Trump lose the 2020 election? And after two weeks, he finally said, no, he didn't. That's where he's been spending his time.
But that's it. So, look, Elon's on that stage jumping around, skipping like a dipshit on these things. You know it.
Think about it. Think about that. That guy is literally the richest man in the world, spending millions of dollars to help Donald Trump buy an election.
Now, look, they're saying the quiet part's out loud now because Donald Trump has already promised that he would put Elon in charge of government regulations that oversee the businesses that Elon runs.
That's a hell of a buy. He could spend billions to make more than 10 billion on the back end. So in other words, Donald Trump, in front of the eyes of the American public, is promising corruption.
That's what he's promising you. And you know what? I don't believe he keeps many promises, but he'll keep that one. I'll guarantee you he'll keep that one.
But here's the good news, Madison. Donald Trump is never going to be president. Elon Musk is never going to run anything.
And the good news is, Kamala Harris is promising a new way forward and ready to deliver. Both of us grew up in middle class families.
We didn't start out with $400 million, and we're not the richest people in the world. For Christ's sakes, they said that I might be the poorest person that's ever run for vice president.
Yes. Yeah.
Yeah.
Kamala actually worked at McDonald's and did that job. And we know that the economy works best when everybody has an opportunity to get ahead and thrive.
And here's the beauty of it. She's laid out a plan. 100 million middle class Americans receiving a tax cut and up to $6,000 for new parents to get their kids off to a good start.
Take on the price gougers, and there's a great example. If you want to know what price gouging looks like, hurricanes come and do Florida. They're telling people to get out to protect their lives.
Guess what happened to airline prices during that week? They shut up. That's not capitalism. That's price gouging, and it needs to be against the law.
That brings down the price of groceries. That brings down the price of pharmaceuticals. And then she announced something last week for all of you with a little less hair or a little gray, or your parents are getting that way, those of you in the middle.
This thing is absolutely transformational. Having Medicare cover in-home care for our seniors.
For all you young people, I guarantee you when you get to be 60, you start paying a lot of damn attention to Medicare and Social Security.
Look, first time ever, our seniors can qualify through Medicare to get their vision and their hearing aid so they can look down the way.
Extend that $35 cap on insulin to make sure that no one has to choose between rationing their insulin or buying their groceries. That's an easy thing.
And then finally focusing on the class that really, truly drives our economy, small business owners and entrepreneurs, making sure that folks have access to capital and tax credits to start small businesses.
And again, for all the young people, the one thing, the biggest purchase you'll make, the thing where you can get some generational wealth, making sure that we give down payment assistance so that you can buy into homes and get started.
We're your cousins over across the way in Minnesota, and we had a saying that came from one of our senators who we lost way too soon in Paul Wellstone, who really summed up an economy.
We've got them. You've got them. You had Russ Feingo. We know people who knew how to get things done.
These are folks who focused on the middle class. And Paul just summed up how an economy should work and Kamala believes it in her heart. We all do better when we all do better. That's the economy.
Donald Trump and J.D. and Elon and the rest of the billionaires, they got a little bit different idea, and they did us a favor actually this time. I have to be careful. I said they don't have a plan. They do have a plan.
They do have a plan. They'll have a concept of a plan on health care. They do have a plan.
This project 2025, which I'm glad all of you know about now that you know what's in there. That's good.
Now, J.D. on the debate stage, which I'm standing there saying, I can't believe you're saying these things because we all know they're not true, but the one thing he said was is Donald Trump has been a champion and a protector of the ACA.
Donald Trump, the famously big fan of Obamacare. There might be somebody here who have a few words about that in a little bit here. We'll see. Bit of a perspective. Look, come on.
They tried 60 times. They filed lawsuits. Donald Trump said anything. It wasn't for the courage of John McCain walking out and saying no. They would have ripped health care away from him.
It might be one of the reasons where John McCain's son, Jim, is with us on this battle. It was us.
You know they'll come after Social Security and Medicare. And I say this again. From their perspective, I guess for Donald Trump, it probably is simple. He doesn't give a damn if his Social Security check shows up. He has been qualified for Social Security for many years, by the way, too.
And he's a nearly 80 year old man, so he has no one that Social Security's there. But you know what? He doesn't care because he sets down at Marlago. You know who does care? All of our parents, like my mom. She needs her check to pay her heating bill and make sure she can eat. We need to protect Social Security.
And the real question that people are going through McDonald's are going to be asked is, do you want a Trump tax cut with those fries? Our tax tax increase because you're not going to get it. If you're a billionaire coming through the line, you'll get it. If you're the rest of us, 20% increase from his tariffs having $4,000 a year to our cost. That's what you're going to get.
But he called it. Look, they're working on this. He calls it now. Get this word. Positive taxation.
I heard some of you say it. You call it bullshit. That's right. That's right.
Because that positive increase is $4,000 on your family. That's not us saying it. That's every economist. Oh, don't listen to the economists. Don't listen to the doctors.
Don't listen to the experts in foreign policy. Listen to Donald Trump, who's failed at everything he's ever done in his life.
My guess is, my guess is in here are some old school Republicans are independents in this group today. We know they're across the country.
They remember the old Republican Party added to this country. And when they talked about freedom, they actually meant it.
That's not who Donald Trump is. Donald Trump means government's freedom to invade your bedroom, invade your exam room, invade your library. Hell, invade anywhere.
He's talking about using the army against folks. So we know where that's going.
We don't overthink this. Things work best in neighborhoods. They work best in communities. They work best in states. They work best in countries.
If you just follow that golden rule of minding your own damn business and things work fine, things work fine.
Kamala Harris talks about it. If your neighbors are out there and they want to know why to vote for Kamala Harris, because she trusts you to make decisions about your body, your family, and your future, not politicians.
The freedom to retire with dignity by strengthening Social Security Medicare, not cutting them, because to be very clear it's where they're at.
And I say this as a dad, as a former teacher, and as a governor. I say this on the things that we know.
The freedom to dress our little ones up in their best clothes, send them to school, to learn and be around their friends, and to not be shot dead in those halls of their students.
And look, Minnesota and Wisconsin have some of the highest concentrations of folks who hunt from deer hunting to pheasant hunting to gun ownership.
Look, on this one I know guns. I'm a veteran. I'm a hunter. I'm a gun owner. Kamala is a gun owner. But owning guns doesn't mean you can't be for common sense solutions that protect our kids from being shot in school.
Three, two, three.
For those of you here, to the gun owners here, look, we can uphold the Second Amendment while being and adhering to our first responsibility, protecting our kids. You can do both.
Now, this is the part I really like when they try and do the whole gun thing and they don't know.
Both members of the Democratic ticket for President and Vice President are gun owners. It's not. All right?
And the Republican nominee can't pass a background check.
You go into Cabellas and fill out the form and it comes back with 34 felonies. They tell you to get the hell out.
The God saves.
We got a big group in here and specifically I'm going to split you about 50-50 on this one. I'm going to talk to the guys in this room.
To have you think about all of the women in your life who you love, daughters, wives, moms, cousins, your neighbors, whatever.
This election is literally about their lives and protecting their lives are at stake in this election.
Because of Donald Trump and the judges he appointed to the Supreme Court who lied about upholding Roe vs. Wade, it's called lying.
They lied in front of the Senate that they would uphold it. He brags about overturning Roe vs. Wade.
He is glad that my daughter hoped all of those women in your life they're loved now have fewer rights than their mothers did.
And Kamala Harris asked those judges, by the way, if they could name one law over men's bodies that the government takes over.
20 states now have Trump abortion bans, which he calls a beautiful thing. Beautiful thing.
You're seeing it. You're seeing it in action. Women being died care at the ER having miscarriages and parking lots.
Survivors of rape being forced to carry those pregnancies to term.
Fertility clinics turning couples away at the door. For so many of us it's personal.
When an I unable to have kids use fertility treatments and I'll be damned if anyone in this country should be denied to have the family that they choose when they choose where they choose.
So guys, this election is about so many things, but it's about that simple fundamental principle of autonomy over the bodies and all the women who are out there who are doing this work.
We owe it to them to make sure when we elect Kamala Harris she will sign back into law Roe vs. Wade and the protections that they need.
Now, I don't want to ratchet up your anxiety level, but it's important to know what we're up against.
Just like in any good game, we got to know what the other team is doing.
So there's another reason that the stakes are so high in this election, something that I don't think many of us have seen.
You hear some version of this from the people in your life, neighbors, relatives, brothers, in some cases, who said, look, we made it through the first Trump term.
We'll get through a second.
This Donald Trump of 2016 is far more dangerous. He is not the 2016 Donald Trump. This is a brand new version.
Now look, as Kamala says, he is a very unserious person, but the consequences of putting him back in office are deadly serious.
He's talking about sending the military against people who don't support him. He's naming names.
Look, I recognize I'm going to be at the top of that list. You think he's stopping with me? He's talking about you.
He's talking about using the United States military to go after people who disagree with his idiotic ideas, his unpatriotic ideas, his traitorous ideas,
and he's talking about using the military. He talks about the enemy from within.
He was given a chance because it happens. Sometimes you misspeak. I will. Yes, you do. He was given a chance to clean that up.
He never takes it back. And this week, J.D. Vance said something I think was really true about Donald on this issue.
He said Donald just speaks from the heart. A cold, grinchy, three sizes, too small heart.
And again, this is nowhere near normal. This is nowhere near normal. So this is not, oh, he said, he said, she said, he said, general Mark Millie.
The top military officer when Donald Trump was there, a professional, Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman, did miswords.
He told on the record that he believes Donald Trump is the most dangerous person ever that this country has faced.
His Secretary of Defense, General James Mattis, decorated Marine, agrees with that that he is the most flawed human being he's ever met.
This time, though, the guardrails are gone. It's already Donald Trump's Supreme Court. They've effectively given him total immunity to do whatever he wants as President.
If, think about this in the next four years, if he gets elected, he could appoint up to three more justices.
To an institution that already gave him immunity, that would mean that Donald Trump will have appointed six of the nine Supreme Court justices.
J.D. Vance sure isn't going to do anything about it. He's on this ticket for one reason. He said he would not do what Mike Pence did, which was put the Constitution in the American people over Donald Trump.
Said he would not do it. And Lord knows there's not a single spine in the Republican Congress that's going to do a damn thing about it.
All right. So that's out there. Here's the good news. It ain't ever going to happen. It ain't ever going to happen.
And there is one path to making sure we stop this guy. We have to do the work, have the courage, and beat him at the ballot box in 14 days.
This thing's close. We're still the underdogs in this, and we know we're going to leave it all on the field.
Wisconsin, you got same day voter registration, and it's open today to get their vote.
We need you door knocking. We need the calls.
Even one or two extra votes per precinct will be enough to win this thing and send Kamala to the White House.
If you got an extra buck, it's Kamala Harris dot com, and all of this energy, and all of these rallies, and all of the door knocks, and all of the phone calls, and all of the money have to translate into something so wonderful and so simple.
That little I voted sticker on more Wisconsin folks than ever before.
So Madison, help me welcome a guy who knows a little bit about hope, a little bit about hope.
And the guy who taught us, yes, we can.
Madison, the 44th President of the United States, Barack Obama.
We're rising in the skies of people like us.
And I miss you.
We're going to fire this.
Are you ready to go?
Oh, it is good to be back in Madison.
It is good to be here.
First of all, I want to apologize. I was a little late.
I love you, Beth, and I want to make sure that the reason we were a little delayed, I was in my hometown, Chicago.
And so we board the plane, we're ready to take off.
And then the pilot comes in and says, sir, there's a pile of oil leaking out of the back of the plane.
Now, I do not know anything about planes, except for the fact that it should not leak oil.
So we had a nice road trip instead.
And I am glad I made it.
It is great to be here in Wisconsin.
It's great to be back in the Midwest, where folks got good sense.
It's great to be with the next Vice President of the United States, Tim Walsh.
I love this guy.
I love that dude.
I love that man, the kind of person who should be in politics.
He's a veteran, he's a teacher, he's a coach, he's a hunter, been a great governor.
Knows who he is and knows what's important.
You can tell those panel shirts he wears have gotten some wear.
They come from a closet, consultant didn't give it to him.
Tim's got skills.
The other day I found out he can take a vintage truck apart and put it back together again.
Do you think Donald Trump can do that?
For that matter, do you think Donald Trump's ever changed the tire in his life?
That's the guy he gets a flat tire.
He says, jeeps, change that tire, please.
His chauffeur.
Point is, Tim will be an outstanding vice president, but he's only going to be an outstanding vice president if you vote.
And that's why you're here today.
I'm here to make sure that you hear from me.
I am asking you to vote for your congressman, Mark Pokan, for your senator, Tammy Baldwin,
and for the next president of the United States of America, Kamala Harris.
And I know you've heard it about, I don't know, 15 times so far today,
but it's worth repeating here in Wisconsin, early voting starts today.
If you haven't voted yet, I won't be offended if you just walk out right now.
Go vote.
Don't do it.
Return the absentee ballot.
It's fine.
Just remember to bring your photo ID if you're voting in person.
If you need to register to vote, you can do it at your local clerk's office for now until November 1st,
or when you vote on election day Tuesday, November 5th.
If there's any confusion, if you need to know where your early voting side is or a drop-off of the location,
then go to wisdems.org.
Whistems.
I don't go cheering for wisdems.org.
Don't wait.
I voted yesterday.
I got my ballot, filled it in, sealed it, signed it, and then I walked, which I don't always get a chance to do.
And Secret Service got nervous, but I said, no, let's walk to a mailbox.
And my younger staff was like, what's that blue thing?
And I said, that's a mailbox.
And you put stuff in it, and then it goes to the place you're sending it.
They weren't familiar with mailboxes.
Once you voted, then you have to help your friends and family make a plan to vote, too.
Because together, we've got a chance to choose a new generation of leadership in this country
and start building it better, stronger, fair, more hopeful America.
Now, we know this election is going to be tight.
It's going to be tight here in Wisconsin.
It's going to be tight all across the country.
And it's going to be tight because a lot of Americans are still struggling.
As a country, we've been through a lot over the last few years.
We forget sometimes.
A historic pandemic wrecked havoc on communities, on families, on businesses,
and then disruptions from the pandemic caused price hikes to put a strain on family budgets.
And people started feeling like no matter how hard they were, they were just treading water.
So I understand why folks are looking to shake things up.
I get it.
What I cannot understand is why anybody would think that Donald Trump will shake things up
and wave it's good for you.
That I do not understand.
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 hasn't stopped whining about his problems
since he came down that golden escalator nine years ago.
And he's complaining two, three in the morning, he's texting, what's he doing?
When he's not complaining, he's trying to sell you stuff.
Have you noticed that?
Who does that?
You're running for president and you're hacking merchandise.
Gold sneakers, $100,000 watch, supposed to be Swiss watch, he says.
The best watch.
Why are you selling the watch?
What are you doing?
My favorite is the Trump Bible.
True story.
True story.
I mean, it's embossed with his name right on it.
Donald Trump edition, right next to Matthew and Luke.
Donald.
And I'll give you one guess where those Bibles are made.
He's Mr. Tough Guy on China.
Except when it comes to making a few bucks, you cannot make this stuff up.
You really can't.
If some of this stuff happened on Saturday Night Live, you'd be like,
all right, that's going too far.
That didn't really happen.
But it did.
And he's doing it because what he cares about is his ego and his money and his status.
He's not thinking about you.
He sees power.
He sees you as a means to his ends.
He wants the middle class to pay the price for another huge tax cut.
It would mostly help him and his country club buddies.
He doesn't care if he costs more women there reproductive freedoms because
apparently it doesn't affect his life.
Most of us, most of all, Donald Trump wants us to think that this country is hopelessly divided
between us and them.
Now, for him, us means the, quote, real Americans who support him.
Anybody who doesn't, they're them.
And he employs this strategy like politicians have for millennia because having people divided
and angry boosts his chances of being elected.
That's his focus.
Is this going to help me?
Not is it going to help me?
And along with those intentions, there's also, as Tim talked about, there are questions about his confidence.
I mean, he's out there giving two hour speeches.
It's like Fidel Castro just keeps on talking.
It's just word salads.
The other day he had a town hall meeting that I've been, I've done my share of town hall meetings.
My experience is the goal of the town hall meeting is you meet with your constituents, with citizens, with voters.
You answer their questions.
He decided, no, I'm not going to answer questions anymore.
Let's just play music for half an hour.
So he's standing there and he's swaying Abe Maria and YMCA.
And the governor, I'm not going to, she's standing there with this weird look on her face.
She doesn't really know what's going on.
It's like a hostage video.
Can you imagine if Tim did that or Kamala did that or I did that?
Now, our playlists would be better.
But you would say to yourself, this is odd behavior.
He called himself the father of IVF.
I have no idea what that means.
You don't either.
He said January 6th was a day of luck.
You're going to hear this from me. Do not boo.
Vote.
They can't hear you boo. They can hear your vote. That's the way to send a message.
Thank you.
So, look, my point is you'd be worried if grandpa was acting like this.
You'd call up your brother, you'd call up your cousins, you'd say, have you noticed?
But this is coming from somebody who wants unchecked power.
So, Wisconsin, we do not need to see what an older, loonier Donald Trump looks like with no guardrails.
America's ready to turn the page.
We are ready for a better story, Wisconsin.
We are ready for a president, Kamala Harris.
And the good news is 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 and need a champion.
Somebody was raised in a middle class family who actually worked at McDonald's when she was in college to pay her expenses.
Then just pretend like he worked at McDonald's when it was closed.
Someone who believes in the values that built this country and who is as prepared for the job as any nominee for president has ever been.
So, the point is Kamala knows you, she knows your life.
She knows what it's like to scrap and to strive and to work hard and to see her mom worry about the bills.
So does Tim.
So, if you elect them, they will be focused on your problems.
They understand that too many folks here in Wisconsin are struggling to pay the bills.
And understand, wages have been steadily growing.
Unemployment has been dropped.
Inflation is finally slowing.
But the price of everything from health care to housing to groceries is still too high and it hurts.
So the question is not, do you want to see better?
The question is, who's going to actually do something about this?
So, par for the course, Donald Trump's plan is to give another massive tax cut to billionaires and big corporations.
And I talked to some folks and they'll say, yeah, but I do remember the economy was pretty good when Trump first came in office.
And I said, yeah, because it was my economy.
I had spent eight years cleaning up the mess that the Republicans left.
I had spent eight years getting the auto industry back on track, reopening factories.
So when I handed over 75 straight months of job growth to Donald Trump,
all he did was give a tax cut to people who didn't need it, drove up the deficits in the process.
So don't have nostalgia for what his economy was, because that was mine.
And now he wants to do it again.
When it comes to healthcare, when it comes to healthcare, Donald Trump's got one answer and that is to end the affordable care act.
Not because he's got a good reason for it, but because it's Obamacare, right?
So a couple of weeks ago, but the problem he's got now is that it's popular because 50 million people have used it and are still using it.
And so when he was asked about it, what his running mate was asked about it during their debate, the guy's got the nerve, the hutzpah.
To say Donald Trump salvaged the affordable killing.
Now, come on, man, Donald Trump spent his entire presidency trying to tear it down, and he couldn't even do that right.
And now eight years after elected, some of y'all watched the debate, eight years later, he's asked about it during his debate with Kamala,
and they say, well, you want to get rid of Obamacare, what would you replace it with?
He says, well, I've got concepts of a plan.
I want you to think about this for a second.
So let's say your boss gives you an assignment.
It says, I need it by Friday.
Friday rolls around.
And your boss says, so did you finish that project I asked for?
You say, well, I haven't actually started, but I do have a concept for a plan.
Or you could try it at home.
Honey, did you do the dishes?
Not yet.
But I do have a concept of a plan for doing the dishes.
How's that going?
If it wouldn't work for you, it shouldn't work for the President of the United States.
So, but the good news is Kamala Harris and Tim Walls, they don't have concepts of a plan.
They have an actual plan to make your life better.
Tim just talked about it.
They're going to bring down costs by going after corporations that unfairly jack up prices.
They're going to make it more affordable to build a home and to buy a home.
They're going to limit out of pocket health care costs.
They're going to give a tax cut to 100 million middle class and working class Americans.
$6,000 tax credit.
$6,000 tax credit.
If you were having a child that first year of life, and that helps, those of you who have had kids, that's expensive.
Since granted, that helps with car seat, crib, diapers.
I remember diapers.
I remember changing million sizes, diapers.
Do you think Donald Trump ever changed his diapers?
You'd be like, uh,
Jeeves.
Jeeves changed that diaper.
You'd have somebody else do it.
But, so that's who Kamala Harris and Tim Walls are.
They've got actual plans.
That's what they stand for.
Not concepts of a plan.
Now, if you challenge Trump for events on these concepts, they'll fall back on one answer.
Blame the immigrants.
He wants you to believe that if you let him round up whoever he wants and ship him out, all your problems will be solved.
Now, I want to talk about this.
This is serious.
We have a real issue at the borders.
We're a nation of immigrants, and we are a nation of laws.
We've got to make sure the system works the way it's supposed to, in an orderly fashion.
So, there's work to be done there.
But, when I keep on hearing from these guys, I scratch my head.
Because they like to talk about Kamala being vice president for four years.
Well, wouldn't he, president, for four years?
I know it's shocking.
I know there's some PTSD going on, and people are blocking it up.
He was.
So, if this concept of a plan of rounding up and deporting millions of desperate people, many of them women and children, was the answer to everything.
Well, why is it that the number of undocumented immigrants was basically the same when he left office is when he took office?
And I'll tell you why, because he did not have a real plan.
He had a concept of a plan, and it was a mean and ugly concept.
You know what would actually help bring order to the border and fix our immigration system?
The bipartisan deal that Kamala Harris supported, even though it was written by one of the most conservative Republicans in Congress.
And I want you to know, hear me out now.
Hear me out, because there are a lot of people here in Wisconsin and around the country who were actually concerned about this.
I cannot emphasize this enough.
Democrats and Republicans, conservative Republicans, came together with a concrete plan that would have put more enforcement at the border, more judges to process issues.
All this stuff, Donald Trump lobbied actively and told Republicans to vote against it,
because he figured it was better to have an issue that he could run on for his presidential campaign.
He was not interested in actually trying to solve problems.
Do not move!
Do not move!
Vote!
We do not need a president who will make problems worse just to make his politics better.
We need a president who actually cares about solving problems and making your life better.
And that's what Kamala Harris will do.
That's what Tim Walz will do.
And, to help them do it, they're going to need a Senate full of public servants like Tammy Baldwin.
Tammy has spent her career fighting for things like good jobs and affordable health care and medication and personal freedom.
And she knows how to make a difference.
You know, we were just talking about the Affordable Care Act.
Well, as some of you know, and some of you have used, one of the provisions in the Affordable Care Act says that young people,
when they're just getting started, can stay on their parents' health care plan until they're 26.
Tammy Baldwin wrote that part of the bill because she knew how important it was to Wisconsin families.
That's the kind of person we need in Washington.
The kind of person who's going to help Kamala and Tim get stuff done.
And who share our values and want to move the country forward and not backward.
I miss you too.
That's all I can.
Now, one of these values is freedom.
So let's talk about that for a second.
I do not think we have ever had.
I don't think we've ever had an election where candidates understand the concept, the idea,
and the reality of freedom so differently.
Because for Donald Trump and his cronies, freedom basically means getting away with stuff.
It means, well, you know, if I want to bust a union, I can get away with that.
And no, do that.
Vote!
But his attitude is, well, that's freedom.
I want to pollute this close by river because it'll save me some bucks.
I won't have to.
I can go ahead and do that.
So today's freedom is letting powerful people do whatever the heck they want.
With no consequences.
Like you said, in the middle of the pandemic, when people were dying, hospitals were overrun.
Donald Trump actually uttered the words, I do not take any responsibility at all.
I am not sure any American president has ever said those words before.
But that's his idea of freedom.
I do what I want, and I'm not held accountable, and I'm not responsible for anything.
We have a broader idea of freedom.
We believe the true freedom gives each of us the right to make decisions about our own life.
And it requires us to recognize that other people have the freedom to make different choices.
And that's true even on the most contentious issues.
I have always said there are good people of conscience on both sides of the abortion divide.
I respect those whose faith tell them that this isn't something they support.
But if we believe in freedom, then we should at least agree
that such a deeply personal decision should be made by the woman whose body is involved in not by politicians.
And most Americans believe that as well.
It's been fascinating watching Donald Trump just tie himself into a pretzel on this issue.
When he ran for president the first time, he said he'd support punishing women who got abortions.
Then a few weeks ago, he tells women, don't worry, I'll be your protector.
You won't talk about how Donald Trump actually protects you.
Bro versus Wade overturned, Trump abortion bans in 20 states.
He's out there saying everybody wanted it this way. No, they did not.
But Donald Trump may be confused about this.
You can't be. You need to be clear about what's at stake here.
Tammy Baldwin actually introduced a bill that would restore the reproductive freedom that women had
for nearly 50 years if Congress passes that bill.
Kamala Harris will sign it in the law.
It's an example of how as frustrating as politics can be sometimes.
And I know it can be frustrating. Look, I do not watch cable news. I really don't.
There are times where I just, I don't understand how we got so toxic and just so divided and so bitter.
I get why sometimes people just don't want to pay attention to.
And we all have friends like that. We have family members who just like, you know, it's all a circus out there.
But elections really do matter. Who you vote for matters.
Not, not, not because it's going to change every problem we got.
No, no president, no vice president, no senator, no governor is going to solve every problem.
We're not going to get, we're not going to eliminate poverty overnight.
We're not going to change, you know, race relations right away.
You know, we're born into history and change takes time.
And so sometimes I think we expect so much and then we're disappointed when everything's not immediately solved.
And we start thinking politics doesn't matter.
But the thing is what politics can do, what elections can do, they can make your life a little better.
Your neighbors like a little better, they can make it a little worse.
And that little bit of better, a little bit of worse that adds up.
And sometimes I have to talk to people who don't think there's going to be a difference, whether Kamala Harris or Donald Trump wins it.
And they're not bad people, they just don't think politics matters to their lives and I have to remind them.
You know, the Affordable Care Act, it didn't eliminate all problems with health care.
But there are 50 million people who got health care that didn't have it before.
There are more than 50 million people who had pre-existing conditions.
And it used to be they couldn't get coverage.
If you had a sick kid with a chronic illness, you're a parent.
You might not be able to get insurance for your child, before the Affordable Care Act.
And now you had to make a choice, are you going to sell your house in order to get that child to care that they need to imagine that?
You don't have to imagine it, that's what was going on.
That's not true now, because of elections, because of politics, it made a difference to them.
Some people in this auditorium saw a concrete benefit in their lives as a consequence of elections.
I'll give you one more example.
And I know I'm going a little long here, but I want to really button this down.
I'll give you another example.
When I was President, last couple years in office, I took an interest in what scientists were saying that with globalization and travel and growing populations, at some point, we were going to see a serious pandemic.
So this back in 14, 15, 16.
So I said to my team, we need to get a plan together, just like we have one for natural disasters.
You have to practice, you have to have a sense of how are you going to respond if there's a flood, a hurricane, an earthquake.
And I said we need to do the same thing with pandemic.
So we put together a playbook, and we consulted with all the experts, and then we had every agency talk about, all right, how are we going to work with the public health agencies in the states, and how are we going to deal with the schools?
Do we keep them open? How long? What are we going to do in terms of developing vaccines?
Had a whole playbook, put it all together, big thing.
Then we did tabletop exercise with all the agencies.
Let's practice how we're going to deal with this.
So when Donald Trump comes in the office, we gave him that playbook.
And apparently it got dropped into a trash bin.
And hold on a second.
So three years later, pandemic hits.
Now, I want to be fair on this.
Understand what I'm saying.
No matter who was present, if I had been present, Hillary Clinton had been present, Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, it doesn't matter.
This was going to be a problem.
People were going to get sick, people were going to die, businesses were going to shut down for a while, travel was going to be restricted.
It was something we hadn't seen since 1918, right?
So it was going to be a challenge.
But if you look at a country like Canada, their per capita death rate was 60% lower than the United States.
Now, I want you to do the math.
I'd say we lost more than a million people from COVID in the United States.
60% difference.
That's 600,000 people.
People's grandparents, people's parents, cousins, brothers, friends, co-workers.
Most of you know somebody whose lives was touched.
60% might be alive if we had a capable, competent government that was paying attention.
So if somebody tells you it does not make a difference whether you elect someone who's competent, somebody who cares about you, somebody who listens to experts,
and listens to ordinary people and knows what their lives are like and what they're going through, it makes a difference.
It's going to make a difference to them, and it's going to make a difference to you.
And if that's not enough, you've got to remind them this election. It's about more than just policies.
It's about values. It's about character.
Some of you know that when I was growing up, I didn't have a father in the house.
The parents divorced when I was two. They didn't really know my father.
But I did have people around me. I had a stepfather for a while.
I had the grandparents, teachers, coaches, most of all my mom.
Who tried to teach me the difference between right and wrong.
Who showed me what it meant to be honest and to work hard and to be responsible.
And to treat people the way I wanted to be treated.
And I'll be honest with you, sometimes like most young people, like teenagers, I didn't always move up to those values.
I made mistakes. I tried to learn from them.
But I internalized those values. I tried to live up to them.
Most of you grew up the same way.
And one of the disturbing things about this election, about Trump's rise in politics,
is how we seem to have set aside the values that we would talk.
Down in Chicago, I saw an old friend of mine, Jeff Tweety.
Some of you guys know Wilco. His dad.
There was worked in rail cars, I think it is.
Union guy.
And I think his name was Robert E. Lee Tweety.
And so, Jeff was done how he had to persuade his dad to vote for me that first time.
But over time, I guess he became a supporter.
But his dad said something interesting when he told me when Trump came into office,
he said, I never thought I'd see my fellow workers suck up to the boss's son like that.
Which was interesting.
But it had to do with values. That's what he was talking about.
Character. What do you stand for? Who are you? What do you believe in?
So, a few weeks ago, we had one of the deadliest hurricanes in American history.
And Biden and Harris, they're down there in North Carolina,
they're meeting with local officials, they're accompanying families.
And in the midst of that, Donald Trump and his running mate are making up stories.
About how the Biden administration is withholding aid and giving it to undocumented workers
and not giving it to Republican areas, just making stuff up.
And even the MAGA Republicans down in those areas on the ground said it was a ball-faced lie.
It is shameful when did something like that become okay?
No matter where you stand on the issues.
How could you go along with something like that?
These are people at their most vulnerable.
They're in desperate situations.
And you're going to make stuff up and suddenly you've got FEMA workers being threatened.
People not applying for aid because they got told by a former president who's running for president
that FEMA's not doing the right thing.
If your co-workers acted like that, they wouldn't be your co-workers for very long.
If you had a family member who acted like that, you might still love them,
but you wouldn't put them in charge of nothing.
And yet, hold up, hold up.
And yet when Donald Trump lies or cheats or bullies somebody
or shows utter disregard for our Constitution,
when he calls service members who died in battle losers,
when he calls our fellow citizens Berman, people make excuses for it.
He's making a joke. He doesn't mean it. It's okay.
The attitude is it's okay as long as their side wins.
And I've noticed this especially with some men who think Trump's behavior is somehow a sign of strength.
You never apologize for anything. You're not accountable for anything.
I'm here to tell you that's not what real strength is.
It never has been.
Real strengths about working hard.
Real strengths about taking responsibility for your actions.
Real strengths about 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 stand up for themselves.
That's what we should want for our daughters and our sons.
That's what I want in the President of the United States.
And the good news is,
the good news is Wisconsin that you have candidates to vote for in this election
who have demonstrated that kind of character,
who have demonstrated that kind of strength,
who will set a good example, who will do the right thing.
They won't be perfect. They will not solve all your problems.
There will still be issues out there that we have to address,
but they will lead this country better than they found it.
That's the choice in this election.
It is not just policies that are on the ballot.
It is who we are and what we stand for.
So whether this election is making you feel excited,
or scared, or hopeful, or frustrated, or anything in between,
do not sit back and hope for the best.
Do not think this is a distraction or a joke.
Get off your couch and do what?
Put down your phones and do what?
Vote for Kamala Harris is the next President of the United States.
Vote for Tim Walls as the next Vice President of the United States.
Vote for Tammy Baldwin and this whole incredible Wisconsin Democratic ticket.
Get your family and friends and neighbors and go workers and do the same.
If enough voices are heard, we'll leave no doubt about the outcome of this election.
We will leave no doubt about who we are.
We'll send a message about what America stands for.
And together we will keep building a country that is more fair,
and more just, and more equal, and more free.
That is our job. That's our responsibility.
Let's go do it. Come on.
You won't be back.
Well, darling, here we read.
Let your head up on my chest.
We'll take what we can carry.
Yeah, and we'll leave the rest.
We'll be new.
Go through fields where some new life streams.
Meet me at a land of open dreams.
I will brother for you.
I'll stand by your side.
You need a good company now.
I will brother for you.
I'll stand by your side.
You need a good company now.
First part of your eyes.
Can't leave behind your sorrows.
Let the state be west.
We'll tomorrow, we'll build this sunshine.
It always darkness paints.
We'll be real through fields where some new life streams.