My Remarks at a Harris-Walz Rally in Madison, Wisconsin with Tim Walz

Remarks as delivered in support of Vice President Kamala Harris

Hello, Madison!

Are you fired up? 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.

AUDIENCE MEMBER: I love you!

I love you back, 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.” (Laughter.) Now, I do not know anything about planes, except for the fact that it should not leak oil. (Laughter.) So, we had a nice road trip instead.

AUDIENCE MEMBER: We’re glad you’re here!

And I am glad I made it.

It is great to be here in Wisconsin. It’s great to be back where folks got good sense. It’s great to be with the next vice president of the United States, Tim Walz.

I love this guy, love that dude, 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 flannel shirts he wears have gotten some wear. (Laughter.) They come from his closet. A consultant didn’t give it to him. (Laughter.)

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? (Laughter.)

AUDIENCE: No!

PRES. BARACK OBAMA: For that matter, do you think Donald Trump has ever changed the tire in his life?

AUDIENCE: No!

PRES. BARACK OBAMA: That’s the guy, he gets a flat tire. He says, “Jeeves, change that tire, please,” his chauffeur. (Laughter.)

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 Pocan, 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! (Laughter.) Go do it. Return your 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 from now until November 1st, or when you vote on election day, Tuesday, November 5th.

And if there’s any confusion, if you need to know where your early voting site is or a drop box location, then go to WisDems.org/vote, Wis Dems.

Oh, well, they’re cheering for WisDems.org/vote. Don’t wait! I voted yesterday.

I did. I was down in Chicago. 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, “Nah, let’s walk to a mailbox.” (Laughter.) 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.” They weren’t familiar with mailboxes. (Laughter.)

Once you’ve 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 a better, stronger, fairer, more hopeful America.

Now, we know this election is going to be tight. It’s going to be tight here in Wisconsin, and 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 wreaked havoc on communities, on families, on businesses. And then disruptions from the pandemic caused price hikes, put a strain on family budgets. And people started feeling like no matter how hard they worked, 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 in a way that’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 gold escalator nine years ago. And, I mean, 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. (Laughter.) Have you noticed that? Who does that? You’re running for president and you’re hawking merchandise, gold sneakers — (laughter) — $100,000 watch, supposed to be Swiss watch, he says, the best watch. Why are you selling a watch? What are you doing? (Laughter.)

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. (Laughter.) And I’ll give you one guess where those Bibles are made.

AUDIENCE: China!

PRES. BARACK OBAMA: He’s Mr. Tough guy on China, except when it comes to making a few bucks. (Laughter.)

You cannot make this stuff up. You really can’t. (Laughter.) If some of this stuff happened on Saturday Night Live, you’d be like, all right, that’s going too far. (Laughter.) 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 their reproductive freedom, because, apparently, it doesn’t affect his life.

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 you?

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, he just keeps on talking, just word salads. (Laughter.)

The other day, he had a Town Hall meeting. Now, 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. (Laughter.) He’s standing there, and he’s swaying to “Ave Maria” and “YMCA.” And the governor from South Dakota, she’s standing there with this weird look on her face. (Laughter.) She doesn’t really know what’s going on. It’s like a hostage video. (Laughter.)

Can you imagine if Tim did that, or if Kamala did that, or I did that? Now our play list would be better.

It would be. But you would say to yourself, this is odd behavior.

He called himself the father of IVF. I have no idea what that means. (Laughter.) You don’t either. (Laughter.)

He said January 6th was a day of love.

AUDIENCE: (Boos.)

PRES. BARACK OBAMA: You’re going to hear this from me. Do not boo, vote!

AUDIENCE: Vote!

PRES. BARACK OBAMA: They can’t hear you boo. They can hear your vote. That’s the way to send a message.

(Applause.)

PRES. BARACK OBAMA: Look, my point is, you’d be worried if grandpa was acting like this, right? (Laughter.) You’d call up your brother, you’d call up your cousins. You’d say, have you noticed? (Laughter.) But this is coming from somebody who wants unchecked power.

Wisconsin, we do not need to see what an older, loonier Donald Trump looks like with no guardrails. America is ready to turn the page. We are ready for a better story, Wisconsin.

We are ready for a President Kamala Harris.

(Applause.)

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 who was raised in a middle-class family, who actually worked at McDonald’s when she was in college to pay her expenses, didn’t just pretend like he worked at McDonald’s… when it was closed — (laughter) — 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.

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. 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, has dropped. Inflation is finally slowing, but the price of everything from health care to housing to groceries is still too high. And it hurts.

The question is not, do you want to see better? The question is, who is going to actually do something about this?

Par for the course, Donald Trump’s plan is to give another massive tax cut to billionaires and big corporations. And I’ve 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. 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 deficit 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 health care, 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?

A couple weeks ago — (laughter) — but the problem is, the problem that 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, when 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 Care Act. (Laughter.) 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 watch 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 Obama Care. What would you replace it with?” He says, “Well, I’ve got concepts of a plan.” (Laughter.)

I want you to think about this for a second. Let’s say your boss gives you an assignment, says, “I need it by Friday.” Friday rolls around, and your boss says, “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.” (Laughter.)

Or you could try it at home. (Laughter.) “Honey, did you do the dishes?” (Laugher.) “Not yet, but I do have a concept of a plan for doing the dishes.” (Laughter.)

How’s that been going? If it wouldn’t work for you, it shouldn’t work for the President of the United States.

But the good news is, Kamala Harris and Tim Walz, 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 cost 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.

A $6,000 tax credit. If you’re having a child in that first year of life, and that helps. Those of you who’ve had kids, that’s expensive. Six grand, that helps with a car seat, crib, diapers.

I remember diapers. I remember changing Malia and Sasha’s diapers.

Do you think Donald Trump ever changed a diaper? (Laughter.)

He’d be like, “Jeeves, change that diaper.” (Laughter.) He’d have somebody else do it.

But so, that’s who Kamala Harris and Tim Walz are. They’ve got actual plans. That’s what they stand for, not concepts of a plan.

Now if you challenge Trump for Vance 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 them 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. There’s work to be done there, but when I keep on hearing from these guys, I have to I scratch my head, because they like to talk about Kamala being vice president for four years.

Well, wasn’t he president for four years? I know it’s shocking. I know there’s some PTSD going on and people are blocking it out. He was!

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 as 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 BI partisan 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 are 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.

AUDIENCE: (Boos.)

PRES. BARACK OBAMA: Do not boo. Do not boo. 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.

(Applause.)

PRES. BARACK OBAMA: And to help them do it, they’re going to need a Senate full of public servants like Tammy Baldwin.

(Applause.)

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.

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, not backwards.

AUDIENCE: I miss you!

PRES. BARACK OBAMA: I miss you, too. (Laughter.) That’s why I came.

Now, one of these values is freedom, so let’s talk about that for a second.

AUDIENCE: We love you, Obama!

PRES. BARACK OBAMA: 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 different, because for Donald Trump and his cronies, freedom basically means getting away with stuff. It means, well, if I want to bust a union, I can get away with that.

AUDIENCE: (Boos.)

PRES. BARACK OBAMA: No, do not boo. Vote! But his attitude is, well, that’s freedom. I want to pollute this close-by river because it’ll save me some bucks, because I won’t have to — I can go ahead and do that. To them, freedom is letting powerful people do whatever the heck they want with no consequences.

It’s 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 that 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 and not by politicians.

And most Americans believe that as well. Most Americans believe that as well, which is why it’s been fascinating, watching Donald Trump just tie himself into a pretzel on this issue. (Laughter.) When he ran for President, 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.” (Laughter.)

You heard Tim talk about how Donald Trump actually protected you, Roe v 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 the women had for nearly 50 years. If Congress passes that bill, Kamala Harris will sign it in the law.

Now, 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 don’t understand how we got so toxic and just so divided and so bitter. And I get why sometimes, people just don’t want to pay attention to it. And we all have friends like that. We have family members who are just like, “It’s all a circus out there.” I get that.

But elections really do matter. Who you vote for matters, not because it’s going to change every problem we’ve got. No president, no vice president, no senator, no governor is going to solve every problem. We’re not going to eliminate poverty overnight. We’re not going to change race relations right away. 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, it can make your life a little better, your neighbor’s life a little better, or they can make it a little worse. And that little bit of better or 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. And they’re not bad people. They just don’t think politics matters to their lives. And I have to remind them, 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 preexisting 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 the care they need?

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 look, 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, the 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. This was back in ’14, ’15, ’16.

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.”

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 table top exercise with all the agencies. Let’s practice how we’re going to deal with this.

When Donald Trump comes into office, we gave him that playbook. And apparently, it got dropped into a trash bin.

And hold on a second.

Three years later, a pandemic hits. Now, I want to be fair on this. Understand what I’m saying. No matter who was president, if I had been president, if Hillary Clinton had been president, 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? 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. Let’s 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, coworkers. Most of you know somebody whose lives was touched. Sixty percent might be alive if we had a capable, competent government that was paying attention.

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, and it’s about character.

Some of you know that when I was growing up, I didn’t have a father in the house. My parents divorced when I was two, didn’t really know my father, but I did have people around me. I had a step father for a while. I had 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 live up to those values. (Laughter.) I made mistakes. I tried to learn from them, but I internalized those values, right? And I tried to live up to them. And 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 were taught.

Down in Chicago, I saw an old friend of mine, Jeff Tweedy. Some of you guys know Wilco.

His dad worked on rail cars, I think it is, a union guy. And I think his name was — he said his name was Robert E. Lee Tweedy. (Laughter.) And so, Jeff was describing 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’ 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?

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 bald=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 is running for president, that FEMA is not doing the right thing.

If your coworkers acted like that, they wouldn’t be your coworkers 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. (Laughter.)

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 “vermin,” 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. Never has been.

Real strength’s about working hard. Real strength is about taking responsibility for your actions. Real strength 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 leave 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. 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?

AUDIENCE: Vote!

PRES. BARACK OBAMA: Put down your phones and do what?

AUDIENCE: Vote!

PRES. BARACK OBAMA: Vote for Kamala Harris as the next president of the United States!

Vote for Tim Walz 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 coworkers to 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!