Kamela Harris: 'A fundamental principle of American democracy is that when we lose an election, we accept the results', Concession speech - 2024

6 November 2024, Howard University, Washington DC, USA

Harris begins speaking at 1.02.45

Good afternoon. Thank you all, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you. Let me say, I love you back. My heart is full today. My heart is full today.

Full of gratitude for the trust you have placed in me, full of love for our country and full of resolve. The outcome of this election is not what we wanted, not what we fought for, not what we voted for. But hear me when I say, the light of America's promise will always burn bright. As long as we never give up, and as long as we keep fighting.

To my beloved Doug and our family, I love you so very much. To President Biden and Doctor Biden, thank you for your faith and support. To Governor Walz and the Walz family, I know your service to our nation will continue. And to my extraordinary team, to the volunteers who gave so much of themselves, to the poll workers and the local election officials, I thank you, I thank you all.I am so proud of the race we ran and the way we ran it. Over the 107 days of this campaign, we have been intentional about building community and building coalitions, bringing people together from every walk of life and background, united by love of country with enthusiasm and joy in our fight for America's future. And we did it with the knowledge that we all have so much more in common than what separates us.

Now, I know folks are feeling and experiencing a range of emotions right now. I get it. But we must accept the results of this election.

Earlier today, I spoke with president-elect Trump and congratulated him on his victory. I also told him that we will help him and his team with their transition and that we will engage in a peaceful transfer of power.

A fundamental principle of American democracy is that when we lose an election, we accept the results. That principle, as much as any other, distinguishes democracy from monarchy or tyranny. And anyone who seeks the public trust must honor it.

At the same time, in our nation, we owe loyalty, not to a president or a party, but to the Constitution of the United States, and loyalty to our conscience and to our God. My allegiance to all three is why I am here to say, while I concede this election, I do not concede the fight that fuelled this campaign.

The fight, the fight for freedom, for opportunity, for fairness and the dignity of all people. A fight for the ideals at the heart of our nation. The ideals that reflect America at our best. That is a fight I will never give up. I will never give up the fight for a future where Americans can pursue their dreams, ambitions and aspiration is where the women of America have the freedom to make decisions about their own body and not have their government telling them what to do.

We will never give up the fight to protect our schools and our streets from gun violence. And America, we will never give up the fight for our democracy, for the rule of law, for equal justice, and for the sacred idea that every one of us, no matter who we are or where we start out, has certain fundamental rights and freedoms that must be respected and upheld.

And we will continue to wage this fight in the voting booth, in the courts and in the public square.

And we will also wage it in quieter ways, in how we live our lives, by treating one another with kindness and respect, by looking in the face of a stranger and seeing a neighbour.

By always using our strength to lift people up, to fight for the dignity that all people deserve.

The fight for our freedom will take hard work. But like I always say, we like hard work.

Hard work is good work. Hard work can be joyful work, and the fight for our country is always worth it. It is always worth it.

To the young people who are watching, it is, I love you. To the young people who are watching it is okay to feel sad and disappointed, but please know it's going to be okay. On the campaign, I would often say when we fight, we win. But here's the thing, here's the thing. Sometimes the fight takes a while. That doesn't mean we won't win.

The important thing is don't ever give up, don't ever give up, don't ever stop trying to make the world a better place.

You have power. You have power and don't you ever listen when anyone tells you something is impossible because it has never been done before.

You have the capacity to do extraordinary good in the world.

And so to everyone who is watching, do not despair.

This is not a time to throw up our hands. This is a time to roll up our sleeves.

This is a time to organize, to mobilize, and to stay engaged for the sake of freedom and justice and the future that we all know we can build together.

Look many of you know, I started out as a prosecutor, and throughout my career I saw people at some of the worst times in their lives, people who had suffered great harm and great pain and yet found within themselves the strength and the courage and the resolve to take the stand, to take a stand, to fight for justice, to fight for themselves, to fight for others. So let their courage be our inspiration. Let their determination be our charge.

And I'll close with this. There's an adage an historian once called a law of history, true of every society across the ages.

The adage is: "Only when it is dark enough can you see the stars."

I know many people feel like we are entering a dark time, but for the benefit of us all, I hope that is not the case.

But here's the thing, America, if it is, let us fill the sky with the light of a brilliant, brilliant billion of stars.

The light, the light of optimism, of faith, of truth and service. And may that work guide us, even in the face of setbacks toward the extraordinary promise of the United States of America.

I thank you all, may God bless you and may God bless the United States of America. I thank you all."

Liz Cheney: 'I was a Republican even before Donald Trump started spray tanning', Harris endorsement - 2024

3 October 2024, Wisconsin, USA

Boy, my God, what an amazing day to be in Wisconsin. Thank you all. Thank you so much. Thank you, Sheriff, for your courage and your service and for that wonderful introduction.

It is such a pleasure to be here today at Ripon College. And I have to tell you all, Wisconsin is special for me for a particularly important reason. Way back in 1966, when a very young Dick Cheney and Lynn Cheney were graduate students at the University of Wisconsin, I was born here. And so, go Badgers, exactly.

So, coming back to Wisconsin always feels to me more than a little bit like coming home. I want you to know the last time that I was here campaigning was 20 years ago in 2004. And although politics divided us certainly in that year, we were united in our admiration for the Packers legendary, Bart Starr. And one of the most special and memorable days I had on any campaign was the day that we got to spend with him, which included a personal tour of Lambeau Field. So, very special to be back again.

Now, you all know, of course, that here in Ripon, the Republican Party was founded. It was founded in a meeting in 1854 in the little white schoolhouse, and it was founded by people who were opposed to slavery. It was that Republican Party, the party of Lincoln and Eisenhower, the party of Reagan and Bush. It's that party that I belonged to my entire life.

I volunteered on my first presidential campaign. I already told you how old I am. So, I'll tell you. … in 1976 when I was ten years old and I was sealing envelopes for President Ford's re-election campaign.

I cast my first vote ever in 1984 for Ronald Reagan. I served in the State Department in both Bush administrations and I served in the United States House of Representatives for three terms, including as the third highest ranking Republican in House leadership.

So, in other words, I was a Republican even before Donald Trump started spray tanning.

I am a Ronald Reagan conservative. I believe in limited government. I believe in low taxes. I believe in a strong national defense. And I believe that the private sector is the engine of growth of our economy. I believe that the family, and not the government, is the most important structure in our society.

I know that our security and our freedom depend upon a world in which America, with our allies, leads. And above all else, I know that the most conservative of conservative values is fidelity to our Constitution.

I tell you, I have never voted for a Democrat. But this year, I am proudly casting my vote for Vice President Kamala Harris.

Thank you. But mostly, we're not going back.

Vice President Harris is standing in the breach at a critical moment in our nation's history. She's working to unite reasonable people from all across the political spectrum.

Vice President Harris has dedicated her life to public service. I know that she loves our country, and I know that she will be a president for all Americans.

As a conservative, as a patriot, as a mother, as someone who reveres our Constitution, I am honored to join her in this urgent cause.

As we meet here today, our republic faces a threat unlike any we have faced before, a former president who attempted to stay in power by unraveling the foundations of our republic by refusing to accept the lawful results confirmed by dozens of courts of the 2020 election. We cannot turn away from this truth. In this election, putting patriotism ahead of partisanship is not an aspiration. It is our duty.

At the very heart of our survival as a republic is the peaceful transition of power. Ronald Reagan said this was nothing short of a miracle that every four or eight years, the most powerful office in our land, indeed the most powerful office in the world, is passed peacefully to a new president. In the United States of America, violence does not and must never determine who rules us. Voters do.

And in this country, under our Constitution, our president has a particular solemn obligation to ensure and guarantee the peaceful transfer of power. Since the beginning of the republic, every president in our history has fulfilled that duty, every president until Donald Trump.

When Donald Trump woke up on the morning of January 6th 2021, his intention, despite having lost the election, was that he would remain president. Rather than accept his loss and concede defeat, he had spent months overseeing a multi part plan to attempt to seize power and remain in office. He ignored the rulings of the courts. He corruptly pressured state legislatures, including here in Wisconsin, to overturn the results of their elections. He told the Justice Department to lie for him. He conspired to have fake electoral votes cast and he corruptly pressured his vice president to take illegal and unconstitutional actions.

He summoned a mob to Washington, D.C. with his lies, and he sent the armed mob to the United States Capitol in an effort to stop the counting of electoral votes. As the violent mob attacked our Capitol in Donald Trump's name, as they brutally beat law enforcement officers, as they hunted the vice president and the speaker of the House, Donald Trump watched the attack on television for hours,

Sitting in the dining room next to the Oval Office, he refused repeated pleas from his family, from his closest advisers, from the most senior officials in his campaign and in our government to tell the mob to leave.

And when Donald Trump finally did speak publicly after hours of violence, after the Capitol had been invaded, he praised the rioters. He did not condemn them. That's who Donald Trump is.

Those facts, those facts that we know about what Donald Trump did, including what he did when our Capitol was under siege, those facts do not come from Donald Trump's political opponents. Those facts come from the people closest to him. They are the ones who testified that Donald Trump did not want to stop the violent attack on our Capitol.

When he learned that Vice President Pence was not going to abandon his oath and help Trump seize power, Trump sent out a tweet attacking Pence and further inflaming the mob. One of Trump's aides testified that shortly after that, this aide received a phone call alerting him that the vice president had been evacuated for his own safety from his office off the floor of the Senate. This aide recalled rushing to the dining room to tell Trump, hoping that this information would convince him to take immediate action to ensure the vice president's safety. Instead, after this aide delivered that news, Donald Trump looked up at him and said, so what? He said, so what?

It is Donald Trump's closest aides who also told us this. They said that while the attack on our Capitol was happening, Donald Trump was handed a note informing him that a civilian had been shot at the door to the chamber of the United States House of Representatives. Donald Trump put the note down on the table in front of him, continued to watch the attack on television and still refused to tell the mob to leave the Capitol.

Donald Trump was willing to sacrifice our Capitol to allow law enforcement officers to be beaten and brutalized in his name and to violate the law and the Constitution in order to seize power for himself. I don't care if you are a Democrat or a Republican or an independent. That is depravity, and we must never become numb to it.

Any person who would do these things can never be trusted with power again. We must defeat Donald Trump on November 5th.

In that election, 20 years ago, when we were campaigning in Wisconsin and all across the country, we were campaigning as compassionate conservatives. What January 6th shows us is that there is not an ounce of compassion in Donald Trump. He is petty, he is vindictive, and he is cruel. And Donald Trump is not fit to lead this good and great nation. Now, sometimes people will say, you know, January 6th wasn't that big a deal. You know, in a time when I have heard many pretty stunning things from Republicans, one of the most stunning was yesterday from your former governor, Scott Walker, who said, basically, people are over January 6th.

When you think about what that means that an elected official, a former elected official is so willing to minimize what happened, to say things like I've heard from others to say, don't worry, our institutions held that day, we have a responsibility, all of us to remind people that our institutions don't defend themselves. We, the people have to do that. We, the people defend our institutions.

And our institutions held on January 6th because there were brave men and women, including elected officials at every level of our government who did their duty, who stood up for what was right, who resisted Donald Trump's efforts to pressure them to violate their oaths.

And our institutions held especially because of the bravery of the men and women in law enforcement and in our military, in our Capitol Police, our Secret Service, the Metropolitan Police. They're the ones who defended our Capitol, our democracy, and our lives. Many of them fought a bloody hours-long battle on the west front of the Capitol. Go watch the video of that battle. It is sickening. They're the ones who held the line and prevented far worse from happening that day. They are the true profiles in courage. Do not let anyone lie about what happened and what they did.

Our institutions also held because of Vice President Mike Pence, who refused -- he refused to violate his oath to the Constitution. And that is why Mike Pence is not Donald Trump's running mate today. Instead J.D. Vance is on the ticket.

Vance has said -- I mean, that's true. Vance has said repeatedly that he would have done what Donald Trump wanted. That he would have rejected electoral votes. He would have thrown out the votes of the people of Wisconsin because he didn't like the way that you voted. That is tyranny and that is disqualifying.

History teaches us again and again that democracies can fall. They fall to populists. They fall to strongmen, strongmen who beguile their fellow citizens with conspiracy theories and false emergencies. As my friend, the late Charles Krauthammer, taught us, the lesson of our history is that the task of merely maintaining strong and sturdy, the structures of our constitutional order is unending. It is the continuing and ceaseless work of every generation. And that responsibility now falls on all of us in this election.

This great country of ours requires leaders of character. We must choose men and women who have what Abraham Lincoln called a sincere heart. Our nation's second president, John Adams, put it this way. On the first night he ever spent in the White House, he wrote a letter to his wife, Abigail. And his letter included a prayer, a prayer that is so special, President Kennedy had it engraved in the mantelpiece in the State Dining Room in the White House. And in his letter he said this, May none but honest and wise men ever rule under this roof.

Now, I'm confident -- just a second, I am, I am confident that John Adams meant women too.

In this election, a broad coalition has come together to support Vice President Kamala Harris. Now, we may disagree on some things, but we are bound together by the one thing that matters to us as Americans more than any other, and that's our duty to our Constitution and our belief in the miracle and the blessing of this incredible nation.

We have a shared commitment as Americans to ensuring that future generations live in a nation where power is transferred peacefully, where our leaders are men and women of good faith and where our public servants set aside partisan battles to do what's right for this country.

So, today, I ask all of you here and everyone listening across this great country to join us. I ask you to meet this moment. I ask you to stand in truth, to reject the depraved cruelty of Donald Trump. And I ask you instead to help us elect Kamala Harris for president.

I know that a President Harris, that President Harris will be able to unite this nation. I know that she will be a president who will defend the rule of law. And I know that she will be a president who can inspire all of our children, and if I might say so, especially our little girls, to do great things. So, help us right the ship of our democracy so that history will say of us when our time of testing came, we did our duty and we prevailed because we loved our country more.

And now it is my great honor to introduce you to our vice president and the next president of the United States, Kamala Harris.

Donald Trump: 'Where the price of bacon, the price of tomatoes, they tell me', Town Hall Q & A - 2024

14 October 2024, Pennsylvania, USA

This ‘speech’ was delivered during the Q & A of a staged Town Hall during the last weeks of the 2024 election campaign. Speakola is interested in historically significant speeches, and we think this is historically significant because two weeks before a presidential election, this mentally incapacitated person is equal in the polls. The vetted question came from an African American woman behind Trump on the stage. Reading from a card, the woman mentioned her conversion from blue collar Democrat to Trump loving MAGA Republican and then said:

Woman: “Like my fellow Americans, my grocery bill has not gone down. Everything is still so very expensive. What steps will your administration take to help American families suffering from this inflation?”

Trump: So, you know, it’s such a great question in the sense that people don’t think of grocery. You know, it sounds like not such an important word when you talk about homes and everything else, right? But more people tell me about grocery bills, where the price of bacon, the price of lettuce, the price of tomatoes, they tell me. And we’re going to do a lot of things.

You know, our farmers aren’t being treated properly. And we had a deal with China, and it was a great deal — I never mentioned it because once covid came in, I said, that was a bridge too far because I had a great relationship with President Xi [Jinping]. And he’s a fierce man and he’s a man that likes China and I understand that. But we had a deal and he was perfect on that deal, $50 billion he was going to buy. We were doing numbers like you wouldn’t believe, for the farmer. But the farmers are very badly hurt. The farmers in this country, we’re going to get them straightened out. We’re going to get your prices down.

But you asked another question about safety and also about Black population jobs and Hispanic population in particular those two. So when millions of people pour into our country, they’re having a devastating effect on Black families and Hispanic families more than any others. I think it’s going to spread to a lot of other places.

I think it’s going to spread to unions. I think unions are going to have a big problem because, you know, employers are just not going to pay the price. They’re going to—and it’s going to be—it’s a very bad thing that’s happening.

So they’re coming in. Many are coming in from jails and prisons and mental institutions, insane asylums. That’s like, you know, step above, right? Insane asylum. And whenever I go, Hannibal Lecter, you know what I’m talking about. They always go—the fake news. That’s a lot of fake news back there, too.

They always mention—you know, it’s a way of demeaning, they say, ‘Hannibal Lecter, why would he mention?’ Well, you know why, because he was a sick puppy, and we have sick puppies coming into our country. I figured that’s a lot—that’s better than wasting a lot of words. You just say, ‘Hannibal Lecter. We don’t want him.’ But. But they always sort of say, ‘Why would he say that?’ I do it for a lot of reasons.

But I do it because we are allowing some very bad people into our country. And they’re coming as terrorists. You know, you saw the other day, last month they had the record number of terrorists. I had a month — and I love Border Patrol.

Did you see they gave me a full endorsement two days ago? Border Patrol.

The Border Patrol. And they’re great. And, you know, they want to do their job. They don’t want to let these people come in. They look at them. They can tell. They can look at somebody, say good, bad. They say what’s coming into our country now, it’s having a huge negative impact on Black families and on Hispanic families and ultimately on everybody.

And we’re going to close that border so tight. It’s going to be closed. And I said the two things I’m going to do, first, we’re going to close that border—and people are going to come in. You want people to come in. We need people to come in. People are going to come into our country legally.

You know, it’s so unfair. You have people that are waiting on a system, in a line and they’ve been waiting in this line. You know how long? For years, 10 years, 12 years and they study and they take tests. And then people come. I actually say, ‘Why don’t you just go and just come on across?’ I tell people that it’s terrible, right? I said, ‘Go out. You’re incredible.’ They say, ‘What can I do to speed up the process?’ I say, ‘You know what, go to the southern border. I’ll see you on the other side.’ It’s so unfair.

But we’re going to have them come in legally. You have to see what they have to do. They take tests on, you know, who was the first one here? What date was this? What does 1776 mean? All this stuff.

And these other people are coming in and they’re affecting the school systems and they’re affecting the hospital system. I mean, if you take a look at what’s going on in Springfield, Ohio, a town of 50,000 people, they’ve just added 32,000 people. Illegal immigrants. And we’re not going to put up with it.

And we’re going to take care of your costs are going to come down, and you’re not going to have a problem with — because the biggest problem, and I’m hearing it from Black people and to a lesser extent right now, but it’ll be the same, Hispanic people.

And I’ll tell you what, our poll numbers have gone through the roof. With Black and Hispanic, have gone through the roof. And I like that. I like that. I like that. So we’re going to take care of it. You will be — I’ll tell you, if everything works out, if everybody gets out and votes on January 5th. Or before.

You know, it used to be, you’d have a date. Today, you can vote two months before, probably three months after. They don’t know what the hell they’re doing. But we’re going to straighten it all out. We’re going to straighten that out. We’re going to straighten our election process out, too. That’s going to be important, also. So thank you very much, darling. We’re going to get it straight. Thank you.

Joe Biden: 'I revere this office, but I love my country more', Address to the nation - 2024

25 July 2024, Washington DC, USA

My fellow Americans, I'm speaking to you tonight from behind the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office.

In this sacred space, I'm surrounded by portraits of extraordinary American presidents. Thomas Jefferson, who wrote the immortal words that guide this nation. George Washington, who showed us presidents are not kings. Abraham Lincoln, who implored us to reject malice. Franklin Roosevelt, who inspired us to reject fear.

I revere this office, but I love my country more.

It's been the honor of my life to serve as your president. But in the defense of democracy, which is at stake, I think it's more important than any title.

I draw strength and I find joy in working for the American people. But this sacred task of perfecting our Union -- it's not about me. It's about you, your families, your futures. It's about "We the People." We can never forget that, and I never have.

I've made it clear that I believe America is at an inflection point, one of those rare moments in history when the decisions we make now will determine our fate of our nation and the world for decades to come. America is going to have to choose between moving forward or backward, between hope and hate, between unity and division.

We have to decide: Do we still believe in honesty, decency, and respect; freedom, justice, and democracy?

In this moment, we can see those we disagree with not as enemies or -- but as frien- -- as fellow Americans. Can we do that? Does character in public life still matter?

I believe I know the answer to these questions, because I know you, the American people.

And I know this: We are a great nation because we are a good people.

When you elected me to this office, I promised to always level with you, to tell you the truth. And the truth, the sacred cause of this country is larger than any one of us.

And those of us who cheri[sh] that cause -- cherish it so much -- the cause of American democracy itself -- must unite to protect it.

You know, in recent weeks, it's become clear to me that I needed to unite my party in this critical endeavor. I believe my record as president, my leadership in the world, my vision for America's future all merited a second term, but nothing -- nothing -- can come in the way of saving our democracy. That includes personal ambition.

So, I've decided the best way forward is to pass the torch to a new generation. That's the best way to unite our nation.

I know there is a time and a place for long years of experience in public life. But there is also a time and place for new voices, fresh voices -- yes, younger voices. And that time and place is now.

Over the next six months, I'll be focused on doing my job as president. That means I will continue to lower costs for hardworking families, grow our economy. I'll keep defending our personal freedoms and our civil rights, from the right to vote to the right to choose. And I'll keep calling out hate and extremism and make it clear there is no place -- no place in America for political violence or any violence ever, period.

I'm going to keep -- keep speaking out to protect our kids from gun violence, our planet from the climate crisis. It is the existential threat.

And I will keep fighting my -- for my Cancer Moonshot so we can end cancer as we know it, because we can do it.

And I'm going to call for Supreme Court reform because this is critical to our democracy -- Supreme Court reform.

You know, I will keep working to ensure America remains strong and secure and the leader of the free world.

I'm the first president in this century to report to the American people that the United States is not at war anywhere in the world.

I will keep rallying a coalition of proud nations to stop Putin from taking over Ukraine and doing more damage.

I will keep NATO stronger, and I'll make it more powerful and more united than any time in all of our history. And I'll keep doing the same for our allies in the Pacific.

You know, when I came to office, the conventional wisdom was that China would inevitably -- would inevitably pass the United -- surpass the United States. That's not the case anymore.

And I'm going to keep working to end the war in Gaza, bring home all the hostages, and bring peace and security to the Middle East and end this war.

We're also working around the clock to bring home Americans being unjustly detained all around the world.

You know, we have come so far since my inauguration. On that day, I told you as I stood in that winter -- we stood in a winter of peril and a winter of possibilities -- peril and possibilities.

We're in the grip of the wor- -- we were in the grip of the worst pandemic in a century, the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, the worst attack on our democracy since the Civil War. But we came together as Americans and we got through it.

We emerged stronger, more prosperous, and more secure.

And today, we have the strongest economy in the world, creating nearly 16 million new jobs -- a record. Wages are up. Inflation continues to come down. The racial wealth gap is the lowest it's been in 20 years.

We're literally rebuilding our entire nation -- urban, suburban, rural, and Tribal communities.

Manufacturing has come back to America. We're leading the world again in chips and science and innovation.

And we finally beat Big Pharma after all these years to lower the cost of prescription drugs for seniors. And I'm going to keep fighting to make sure we lower the costs for everyone, not just seniors.

More people have health care today in America than ever before. And I signed one of the most significant laws helping millions of veterans and their families who were exposed to toxic materials.

You know, the most significant climate law ever -- ever in the history of the world. The first major gun safety law in 30 years. And today, violent -- the violent crime rate is at a 50-year low.

We're also securing our border. Border crossings are lower today than when the previous administration left office.

And I kept my commitment to appoint the first Black woman to the Supreme Court of the United States of America. I also kept my commitment to have an administration that looks like America and to be a president for all Americans. That's what I've done.

I ran for president four years ago because I believed and still do that the soul of America was at stake. The very nature of who we are was at stake. And that's still the case.

America is an idea -- an idea stronger than any army, bigger than any ocean, more powerful than any dictator or tyrant. It's the most powerful idea in the history of the world.

That idea is that we hold these truths to be self-evident. We're all created equal, endowed by our Creator with certain unalienable rights: life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness.

We've never fully lived up to it -- to this sacred idea, but we've never walked away from it either. And I do not believe the American people will walk away from it now.

In just a few months, the American people will choose the course of America's future.

I made my choice. I have made my views known.

I would like to thank our great vice president, Kamala Harris. She's experienced. She's tough. She's capable. She has been an incredible partner to me and a leader for our country.

Now the choice is up to you, the American people.

When you make that choice, remember the words of Benjamin Franklin, who's hanging on my wall here in the Oval Office alongside the busts of Dr. King and Rosa Parks and Cesar Chavez.

When Ben Franklin was asked as he emerged from the -- the con- -- the -- the convention going on whether the Founders had given America a monarchy or a republic, Franklin's response was, "A republic, if you can keep it." "A republic, if you can keep it." Whether we keep our republic is now in your hands.

My fellow Americans, it's been the privilege of my life to serve this nation for over 50 years. Nowhere else on Earth could a kid with a stutter from modest beginnings in Scranton, Pennsylvania, and Claymont, Delaware, one day sit behind the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office as president of the United States. But here I am.

That's what's so special about America. We are a nation of promise and possibilities, of dreamers and doers, of ordinary Americans doing extraordinary things.

I have given my heart and my soul to our nation, like so many others. And I have been blessed a million times in return with the love and support of the American people.

I hope you have some idea how grateful I am to all of you. The great thing about America is here kings and dictators do not rule. The people do.

History is in your hands. The power is in your hands. The idea of America lies in your hands.

We just have to keep faith -- keep the faith and remember who we are. We are the United States of America, and there is simply nothing -- nothing beyond our capacity when we do it together. So, let's act together, preserve our democracy.

God bless you all. And may God protect our troops.

Thank you.

Chris Christie: 'Donald Trump wants you to be angry every day because he’s angry', end of Presidential bid - 2024

11 January 2024, Windham, New Hampshire, USA

Good evening. Good evening. Thank you all for coming tonight. This is one of the cooler venues we’ve been to here, right? Happy to be here in Windham. Thank you all for taking the time to come. Glad we’re having better weather than we had yesterday. We were up in Rochester yesterday and it was snowing like real New Hampshire snow, so it was good to experience that. Thank you all for coming tonight. I appreciate you being here. I appreciate your support.

We started these town halls the same way. I started them the same way ever since we were up at St. Anselms in June to tell you why, why we’re in this race. We’re in this race to tell the truth. From the beginning, we’ve been in this race to tell the truth. Fact is that as we were watching this race come together from where Mary Pat and I were sitting at home in New Jersey, we were really concerned that nobody would tell the truth in this race about what’s really at stake and no one would tell the truth about Donald Trump. No one would tell the truth about his divisiveness, his stoking of anger for his own benefit in putting himself before the people of this country, myself included, who gave him the honor of being President of the United States from 2017 to 2021. Personal ambition is a necessary element for any political candidate. You got to get out of bed in the morning and be able to really believe in your heart that you have something to offer to folks that’s better and different. I have no argument with people who are involved in politics being ambitious. You need to have it, but it can’t be what governs your decision making. Ambition can’t be what makes you decide how to do things as a public figure. It could just be the fuel that gets you out of bed, that gets you in front of a room like this, that gets you on the phone raising money, that gets you working for people who you believe in and gets you working for yourself.

I made a political decision eight years ago when I dropped out of the race in 2016. I looked at the polls and I decided that Donald Trump was going to be the nominee and that since I’d known him for 15 years, that I could make him a better candidate and if he won, maybe a better president. I knew his flaws, but I also knew he was going to win the nomination so I decided that I would get behind him and support him. I let the ambition get ahead and in control of the decision-making. After I figured that out, I promised myself and I promised my wife that I would never, ever do that again, and I’m not going to.

For all the people who have been in this race, who have put their own personal ambition ahead of what’s right, they will ultimately have to answer the same questions that I had to answer after my decision in 2016. Those questions don’t ever leave. In fact, they’re really stubborn. They stay, and so I know how I’m answering those questions. I’ve never believed that Donald Trump was a foregone conclusion as our nominee in this race, and I knew that the case had to be made against him. Now, there are people in our party who are resigned with the fact that he was going to be the nominee, resigned with the fact that the case didn’t even need to be made because it would be a waste of time.

They sat on the sidelines and all they did was voice their opposition in private, behind closed doors quietly so no one could hear. That’s not leadership everybody. That’s cowardice. It’s cowardice and it’s hypocrisy. As a party, we need to be willing to take the responsibility for the part we’ve played in getting here. Our country is angry. It’s divided. It’s accomplishing little, and it is leading our citizens to be exhausted. You just look at what’s happening just in the last few days, good people who got into politics, I believe for the right reasons. People like Senator John Barrasso, people like Congressman Tom Emmer stand up and endorse Donald Trump.

They know better. I know they know better. People who continue to deny the results of the 2020 election. People in leadership in the House who go on TV and say that the people who attack the Capitol on January 6th are hostages. I’ll tell you who hostages are. The Israelis who are still being hidden in tunnels in Gaza against their will out of no fault of their own. These people speak louder for the folks who attacked our Capitol on January 6th than they are willing to stand up and speak for the people of Israel who are in tunnels in Gaza. That’s not leadership. That’s ambition and cowardice, which is outstripped their otherwise good judgment.

We want to change this party, and if we want to change this country, it’s hard work. It’s not easy. From the moment I got into the race, the decision that I made was really simple. I would rather lose by telling the truth than lie in order to win. I feel no differently today because this is a fight for the soul of our party and the soul of our country. Why have we resisted the calls to drop out of this race? Because unlike some of the other candidates, we’re fighting for something bigger than ourselves. We’re fighting for something bigger than self-interest. We’re fighting for something bigger than the next title. I’ve got plenty of titles, enough titles to last me the rest of my life. US Attorney, governor, husband, father, son, brother. I have enough titles to last me for the rest of my life. We are fighting for something bigger.

It’s something that conventional wisdom thinkers just can’t possibly understand. And so they’ve been saying for weeks and weeks and weeks because some polls that I should drop out of the race that I should get out for that reason. The smallness of the campaigns who spend more time arguing and worrying about who should get out of the race than they have spent going after the front-runner. They spend all their time saying, “Oh, Christie should get out. Scott should get out. Pence should get out. Hutchinson should get out. Burgum should get out. They and their donors have a different target every day to try to minimize the attention for their own campaign. How their own campaign is a campaign that doesn’t play to win. It’s a campaign that plays to not offend.” The problems in our country, the divisions and influx at our border, the problems with our enormous debt, the failures of our education system,

All of those things and much more will not be solved by people who are too afraid to talk about what the real problems are. If we ever have a hope of restoring this party to be a governing party of principles, we have to be willing to do the hard work and take some of the heat that comes with it. We have candidates in this race who have run away from forums where they’re afraid they were going to be booed. I run into the forums where I know I’m going to be booed because being booed for telling the truth is a badge of honor.

I’m proud of everything we’ve said and done so far, and I’m proud of all the people who have supported us and are willing to do what needs to be done to restore the soul of our country. See, because in the end, all those issues that we’ve talked about at all the town halls, they’re all really important, but they’re no more important than the most important issue, and that is the character of the candidate.

You don’t know what’s going to come across the next President’s desk. You think you can predict it, but you can’t. No one asked George W. Bush or Al Gore what they would do if four airliners were hijacked and flown into symbols of American power and killing thousands of Americans. No one asked them that in New Hampshire in 2000, but I was glad we had a man of character sitting behind the desk in the Oval Office when that attack came, because I knew George Bush would do everything he needed to do to protect this country and its people and put them first, not himself first.

Imagine just for a moment, if 9-11 had happened with Donald Trump behind the desk. The first thing he would’ve done was run to the bunker to protect himself. He would’ve put himself first before this country. And anyone who is unwilling to say that he is unfit to be President of the United States is unfit themselves to be President of the United States.

Campaigns are run to win. That’s why we do them. I see the chairman here in New Hampshire. He knows we run campaigns to win. My goal has never been to be just a voice against the hate and the division and the selfishness of what our party has become under Donald Trump. It’s also been the win the nomination and defeat Joe Biden and restore our party and our country to a new place of hope and optimism in this country. I’ve always said that if there came a point in time in this race where I couldn’t see a path to accomplishing that goal, that I would get out. And it’s clear to me tonight that there isn’t a path for me to win the nomination, which is why I’m suspending my campaign tonight for President of the United States.

I know, and I can see it from some of the faces here, that I’m disappointing some people by doing this. People who believe in our message and believe in what we’ve been doing. I also know though it’s the right thing for me to do because I want to promise you this. I’m going to make sure that in no way do I enable Donald Trump to ever be President of the United States again, and that’s more important than my own personal ambition.

So we have to decide now. We have to decide in the next 10 months, who do we want to be as a country? We forget that people are walking thousands of miles still to get here. We talk about the problems in the border and there are problems and we have to fix them, and we have to secure our border, and we have to do it in a way that’s smart and sensible and will work, because it’s not right to have a porous southern border in this country.

But I want you to remember something. Those people who are coming over that border, many of them are walking hundreds if not thousands of miles to get there because here is where they see hope. Here is where they see freedom. Here is where they see success. Here is where they see that flag, which means for them, thousands of miles away in other countries, all of those principles. We are still the indispensable nation for the rest of the world. We need to be the indispensable nation once again to each other. We need to believe in America as much as they believe in America. Right now, they believe in America in a way that this country, angry, divided, with selfish leadership, who puts their own ambition first, isn’t doing for our country anymore. We need to change that, and every election is an opportunity to change it.

We have people in this race, all they will do is tell you how bad everything is, how angry we should be. And there’s certainly sufficient reason for anger at the failures of the leaders we’ve selected, but they’re doing it not for that reason. It’s not a moment of honesty and transparency. Believe me, it’s not. It’s because they believe when we get angry, what we’ll do is naturally relate to the angriest voice in the room.

Donald Trump wants you to be angry every day because he’s angry. He wants you to be angry so that you’ll relate to his anger and then to vote for him. Please understand this. I have known him well for 22 years, more than anybody else in this race has known him, and I can promise you this. If you put him back behind the desk in the Oval Office and the choice comes and the decision is needed to be made as to whether he puts himself first or he puts you first, how much more evidence do you need that he will pick himself? And if that is what we have there, then people are going to remain angry, remain divided, and become even more exhausted than they are today.

The country that I think we should choose is the country that recognizes that our differences have always been our strength, not a weakness. Not something to divide us and anger us, but our differences have been our strength. We’ve come from different countries at different times to different places with different skills, with different religions, and yet only here can those people become an American. Can’t go to Germany and become a German, can’t come to Great Britain and become British, but you can come here and become an American, a real part of this country.

The moment we become a place where people no longer want to come in search of a better, freer, stronger nation, that will be the real problem that will be harder to solve. We back our allies

Around the world and they shouldn’t have to think twice about having America’s support. Yet, we have petty politics interfering with supporting freedom fighters in Ukraine. We have petty politics interfering with defending our friends in Israel. We have petty politics interfering with making sure Taiwan is armed to fight off the Chinese. They use the border as an excuse not to do those things.

How about we have a country where we can do all those things because leadership aspires to something greater? Not to appealing to the lowest common denominator, which is what the leadership of the last decade and a half in the White House has done, including the current president.

We need a country that once again feels like everyone has a stake in what we’re doing, that we can bring people together. It’s hard. It’s hard to do that. I did it for eight years in New Jersey, in a Democratic state with a Republican governor, and it’s hard. Because we have real disagreements, but those disagreements are small compared to the things that we have in common.

But it takes effort. We have to work at it. We have to believe that the other person has a rightful place in our country. We have to believe that whether we agree with them or not, they got elected too and they have a right to have a voice, and to be heard, and to have a vote and to have it count.

This race has always been bigger than me. It’s bigger than any one person if you do it the right way. I tried to change conversation in this race. I tried to force the conversation in this race, the conversation about the real thing that’s going on here. I stood on those debate stages, every one of them. The pundits in the media and the professional politicians who worked for other campaigns said I wasn’t going to make any of them right before every debate. No, Christie won’t make this one. He won’t make this one. I made every one of them.

But when I stood on there, I watched the other candidates arguing with each other as if the race was between us. Pretending as if the guy who’s in front and wasn’t there, wasn’t to be spoken about like Voldemort in the Harry Potter books. He who shall not be named, because they feared even bringing up his name would make him appear with his magical mystical powers to end their political careers. So they say ridiculous things, make ridiculous points.

Let me tell you, if Donald Trump becomes the nominee of this party, the moment that it happened was when Nikki Haley, and Ron DeSantis, and Tim Scott and Mike Pence and Doug Burgum and Vivek Ramaswamy stood on that stage in Milwaukee in August, and when we were asked, would you support someone who is a convicted felon to be President of the United States, they raised their hands. Give Ron credit. He had to look at everybody else first to see if he wanted to raise his hand, but then he raised his hand. Kind of like cheating off somebody’s paper in high school.

They raised their hands and I did not and will not, and I cannot countenance that behavior. I want you to imagine for a second that Jefferson, and Hamilton, and Adams, and Washington and Franklin were sitting here tonight. Do you think they could imagine that the country they risked their lives to create would actually be having a conversation about whether a convicted criminal should be President of the United States? I can’t tell you how many people in New Hampshire have asked me, “Why isn’t there a law against that?” The answer is because nobody ever thought that someone would have the audacity to run for President as a criminal and they never thought that any American electorate would actually support it. It’s not their fault that they didn’t put it in the Constitution along with 35 years old and a natural-born American citizen. They didn’t think let’s throw in here and not a criminal. They thought maybe we’d get that part. We’re going to show them now whether we do or we don’t in the next 10 months. Do we get it or don’t we? I’m out here saying what I’m saying for the last eight months because I didn’t want to take the chance that you might not get it. I wanted to be the voice that was telling you, this is unacceptable. We deserve better.

Now there’s some people who want the courts to save us. It’s not up to the courts to save us. I remember what Benjamin Franklin said, I’m sure many of you do too. When he was walking down the street in Philadelphia after the Constitutional convention and a woman approached him on the street and said, “Mr. Franklin, what kind of government did you give us?” He said to the woman, “A republic, if you can keep it.” Benjamin Franklin’s words were never more relevant in America than they are right now. The last time they were this relevant was the Civil War, which of course we know was caused by slavery. The last time those words were that relevant back in those days, and now we are confronted 160 years later with that question again.

A republic, if we can keep it. It’s up to you. I’ve been running ads all over New Hampshire, ending it saying, “It’s up to you,” and it is. It’s not up to me. I’ve done everything I can and it’s not about me. The other candidates, some of them have made it about them. It’s okay, but you forget that the privilege to serve in public office is not about you, but about the people who give you the privilege, then you lose your way.

So tonight is a sad night for me and for Mary Pat because believe it or not, we really love the people in this state. We loved being here. Both, of our experiences in 2016 and in 2024 and coming to New Hampshire and holding two hour town hall meetings and answering every question has been one of the great joys and honors of our lives. The relationships we’ve made here have been lifelong relationships now that we’re going to keep going forward, no matter what else we do with our lives and our careers.

I look around this room and see so many people who have been to so many of these meetings and have been so wonderfully supportive of us. I’d start to name names, but then I’d screw that up and I’d forget somebody who is really important to us. So I’m not going to do that. You know who you are and you know how much we treasure our relationships with you. But I will mention one person, because she texted

… with me, either last night or this morning. And she said to me, “Please, please don’t drop out. We need you.” And that was our friend Tony Papas. And because I had decided at that moment in my heart, and so had Mary Pat that we were going to, I didn’t respond to you.

Tony Papas (27:27):

I understand.

Chris Christie (27:29):

Because I didn’t want to lie to you. But I turned to Mary Pat and I handed her the phone and showed her. I said, “These are the kind of people that we’re fighting for. The people who believe that what we have to offer is something important and special, and that what we’re talking about matters.” And it meant a lot to me to get that text from you, Tony, because I know that you’ve been through a lot of campaigns here in this state. And to hear from you that you wanted me to stay made me feel guilty, but also made me feel wonderful. And both those feelings can exist at the same time. And I thank you for that. And what Tony, and I pointed out what Tony is represented by a lot of people in this room who we’ve heard from over the last few weeks, and we appreciate it very much.

We appreciate your friendship, your hospitality, your warmth, your questions, your challenges, and everything that you’ve provided to us in this state, both eight years ago and over the last eight months. I’ll just end with this. I believe and have always believed that this is the greatest country That the world has ever seen. And I still believe that today. The phrase “Make America Great Again” has always offended me because it implied that America wasn’t great. America is great. It was great long before those red hats showed up, and it will be great long after they are consigned to history. This country is a great country and the only thing that stops us from having it be greater is our willingness to work hard enough to make it greater.

It is not easy to stand up and fight for what we believe in when the wind is blowing in our face. It is not easy to stand up and fight the loudest voice in the room. It isn’t easy to look at someone who we know is unfit and unable to represent what the heart of this country really is and tell them, ” Thank you for your service. It’s time for you to go home.” But that’s what we need to do in the next 10 months if we are going to keep in concert with the spirit of this country. I don’t know how anybody could want to be President of the United States if they don’t love America. And you cannot love America if you don’t love every American. Love the Americans who look different than you. Love the Americans who speak different than you. Love the Americans who think different than you. Love the Americans who believe and have faith that is different than yours. We have had Donald Trump and other candidates in this race say they don’t want people coming to this country if there’s not of our religion.

We don’t have a religion in America. Our Constitution is founded on there being no national religion. Yet we’re abandoning that too by continuing to respond positively to the siren song of someone who would actually say something like that as a candidate for President of the United States meant to only divide. If we don’t stand for those principles, we will be the generation that gave this country away. I refuse. When I got into this race, I refused. And tonight, even though I’m suspending this campaign, I am not going away and my voice is not going away. And I’m going to continue to say all the things that I’ve said and whatever platforms are permitted to me as we go forward, the very same things and new things that I’m sure I’ll have the opportunity to comment on as we go forward. Because I’m not going to be part of the generation that gives this country away. I am not going to be part of a generation who willingly stands by and says, “It’s too hard. He’s too loud, he’s too strong.”

That’s what defeat looks and sounds like. And the only country that can defeat America is America. And the only people that can stop it are us. So I thank you for the enormous honor to have the chance to run for President of the United States again. I thank you for your time to listen to what I’ve had to say and to give it thought and consideration. I thank you for the opportunity to come into your homes, into your neighbor neighborhoods, into your schools, into your churches, and to be able to make the case for the kind of America that I hope we have. And I thank you most of all for with your attendance at these events for and your questions for continuing to renew my faith in America and Americans.

I love this country because my heart is open to every American and every person who cares about making this a better place. And so while I’m disappointed by the results of this election, I will never be disappointed by the opportunity and experience that I’ve had. And I promise you that in whatever way, Mary Pat and I can figure out, we are going to continue to fight for you and for this country in a way that will make you proud that we met. As I’m proud to have met all of you through this process. So thank you for coming tonight and thank you for all your support. I appreciate it very much.