Video, Transcript: Together In Philadelphia, Clinton and Kaine Highlight Stark Choice Voters Face In This Election

Clinton, Kaine at my alma mater in Philly – what could be better? 🙂

Together In Philadelphia, Hillary Clinton and Tim Kaine Highlight Stark Choice Voters Face In This Election

Yesterday, at a rally in Philadelphia, Hillary Clinton and Tim Kaine spoke to a crowd of supporters and volunteers about their vision for a country where we are stronger together, where everyone has a place and everyone can contribute. Denouncing Trump’s refusal to say he would accept the outcome of the election, Clinton and Kaine spoke out against the dangerous implications of such claims on our democracy. They also criticized his avoiding paying federal income taxes, and insulting broad swaths of the American electorate throughout his campaign.

Kaine introduced Clinton, contrasting Trump’s campaign of insults and conspiracy theories with Clinton’s promise of progress and unity. He reminded us of the history we are making together in this campaign, reflecting upon what this election will mean for women’s equality in particular. Rather than demean and degrade women, Kaine said, strong men should empower and stand together with strong women. “I had been able to have a great career with my name on the bumper sticker, my name on the ballot, my name on the yard sign. But it’s a career that’s been built on the shoulders of a tremendous number of very, very strong women. So when Hillary asked me if I would be her running mate, […] I was especially honored and excited to say yes to have a chance to play the same role for her that so many strong women have played for me.”

There is something exciting happening across the country, Clinton said, as Democrats, Republicans and Independents join forces to reject hate and division, and to stand up for the country we want for our kids. There is too much at stake to stand on the sidelines, she said. “If you care about immigration reform, you’d better vote. If you care about ending mass incarceration, you’d better vote. If you care about whether the people of this country have a chance to make the most out of their lives because they get the education they need and the health care they deserve and they have the barriers in front of them knocked down to pave their way, then you’d better vote because everybody who can go forward brings the rest of us along,” Clinton said.

Clinton’s and Kaine’s remarks as transcribed are below:

TIM KAINE: “Man, this is fantastic. This is fantastic. You just gave us a jolt of energy that’s going to last for the next 17 days. We are – we are so great to be here – so glad to be here at Penn. This is where this got started at the convention. And you guys rocked that convention. Philadelphia did so very, very well. It was – it was three months ago tonight that Hillary Clinton asked me to be her running mate. I am so proud to be on this ticket with her, so proud to be with her tonight and ready to take it to a victory.

Let me do this first. Raise your hand if you had done any volunteering with the campaign. All right? That’s great. That is great. Well, for those of you who didn’t raise your hand, guess what. There’s still time. There are people going around tonight with clipboards. You can sign up or text TOGETHER to 47246. We would love to have you because they don’t call you the Keystone State for no reason. You guys are key to us winning. And if we win – if we win Pennsylvania, this race is going to be over, folks. We need your help. There is – there are 50 states but then a group, a smaller group, that’s battleground states, but Pennsylvania is a checkmate state. If we win here, you can guarantee it, take it to the bank, Hillary Clinton will be the next president. You have it right in your hand.

Now — that sounds great. Hillary and I are really proud to be joined by some great elected officials here tonight. And she’s going to talk about some of the federal officials, but I think both of us are just going to mention Katie McGinty, who is going to be your next United States senator. And we have here from state and local office and everybody who serves, sacrifices Pam DeLissio, who is the state rep; Angel Cruz, the state rep; Jannie Blackwell, who is on the Philadelphia City Council; and Bill Greenlee, on the Philadelphia City Council. Give all of them a big round of applause, please.

Hey, let me ask you this. How great was Hillary in the last debate? I mean, really, how about all three debates, how great was she? Right? Donald Trump had been talking a lot about Hillary’s stamina. But at the end of the three debates, we saw who had the stamina. And we saw who looked like he needed a lamppost to lean up against. Hillary showed us stamina, backbone, guts, courage, preparation, knowledge, experience, judgment, but especially the grace and the poise and the temperament that we want in a president of the United States. It was crystal clear, crystal clear. At the end of the last debate, Hillary looked like, ‘Well, do you want to do four or five more debates?’ I mean, she was ready to go. But – but Donald looked like he just had to get back to start tweeting out more insults. So there were not going to be more debates.

We’re in Pennsylvania. You guys are key. We started it here at the convention. And Philly did such a good job. You know Pennsylvania doesn’t vote until Election Day. You don’t have the same early vote that some states do. But let me just give you a little bit of a tip. We are seeing early voting activity all across this country. And we are seeing dramatic spikes up in the polls for Hillary Clinton for president and our other candidates […] really tough, like Arizona and Utah and Georgia.

There is a momentum that is happening in this race because Americans know, as we get to the end, they are choosing the kind of country they want for their children and their grandchildren. And as they make that choice, the choice is so clear. It’s Hillary who will make us stronger together as a nation.

They’ve – they’ve also seen the kind of campaign that Donald Trump has run. And they really wonder. I’ve got to say it hasn’t impressed me either. It hasn’t impressed me either. That they sort of wonder when they see this insult-driven campaign how a guy who thinks so lowly about so many people and even thinks so lowly about so many of our institutions can be running to be president of the United States and commander-in-chief. Let me just give you a couple of examples.

My wife, Anne, and I are a Blue Star family. We have got a boy serving in the Marine Corps. Donald Trump – Donald Trump repeatedly says that our military is a disaster, but Hillary Clinton got him to admit on a debate stage that he won’t even pay federal taxes to support our troops, to support our vets.

Donald Trump trash-talks the American economy, about how bad everything is, but we find out when he chooses to make goods, he doesn’t make them in the United States. He chooses to make them in other countries. And when he buys steels and aluminum to build hotels in the country, he doesn’t buy Pennsylvania steel. He doesn’t buy steel made in the U.S. He buys steel made in China.

Donald Trump has no trouble praising authoritarian leaders, like Vladimir Putin, but he won’t even defend the basic institutions of our democracy, like accepting the results of an election and having a peaceful transfer of power. He wouldn’t even do that on stage the other night. It was like – it was like after he spent the whole campaign insulting one group after the next, immigrants, women, Muslims, POWs, Gold Star family, African Americans, he got to the end of the campaign, and there was nobody left to insult. So he decided to insult the central pillars of our democratic traditions, like that we’re a nation who knows how to run elections. And now he’s going around saying that of course if he doesn’t win – you might have heard this – that it’s because it’s all rigged against him. That poor guy. It’s so hard. It’s so hard to be Donald Trump and have everything rigged against me. I mean, remember when that outrageous thing happened in The Apprentice, lost the Emmys? Everything is rigged against Donald Trump.

We have a Virginia family, a wonderful Virginia family, the father of Captain Humayun Khan, Mr. Khan, and he was right to ask this question after Donald’s been tearing down accepting electoral outcomes. He was right to ask this recently: ‘Has Donald Trump even read the United States constitution?’ You guys know a little bit about that here in Philadelphia. You know about our traditions. You know about our values. And you know that Hillary Clinton is the person who should carry those forward.

Now, I know that this has been and seemed like a really long election season. And as you’re hearing from my voice, I have also felt it. And look, I’ve only done the last 100 days. She’s been doing it for two years. Right? Because she’s a Wellesley woman. There you go. Can you say that at Penn? I guess you can say that at Penn. But even though we’ve seen – even though we’ve seen some hard, hard words and insults in this election driven from the other side, we’ve also seen some really special things. Andtonight is one of those special things, just looking at you and looking at this energy.

It was right here that we accepted the nomination, and Hillary accepted the nomination on the Thursday night of convention week. And after she gave that fantastic speech, having been introduced by her daughter Chelsea – that it can was fantastic – we were standing out, and all the balloons were coming down, and all of our families. And I was with my wife and I was with my mother and I was with my daughter, along with other families. And my mom said to me, ‘Tim, this is the best night of my life.’ And for about 24 hours I was in good shape with my mom. But then it reverted back to the corrections that I so desperately need.

But as that was happening, I was thinking about it, and it really hit me. The power of the moment really hit me with the first party nominating a woman to be president in this country. Sounds like it’s hitting you, too. I had been in politics since 1994. Ran my first race for Richmond city council. And if I’m honest about it, I would not even have won my first race, much less seven races since – and oh, by the way, I am going to be 9 and 0 on November 8; I’m definitely her rabbit’s foot. We’re going to win – but I wouldn’t have even won my first race had it not been for the support of a lot of amazing women – my wife, who’s a great public servant, campaign managers, cabinet secretaries, agency heads, donors, volunteers, American voters. Since the 1964 presidential election, women vote in greater numbers than men in presidential elections.

So I had been able – I had been able to have a great career with my name on the bumper sticker, my name on the ballot, my name on the yard sign. But it’s a career that’s been built on the shoulders of a tremendous number of very, very strong women. So when Hillary asked me if I would be her running mate, I said yes for a whole lot of reasons. But I was especially honored and excited to say yes to have a chance to play the same role for her that so many strong women have played for me. And that really makes me excited about being on this ticket and winning this race and then serving with this great woman who will be a great president.

I mean, look. It’s 2016. Isn’t it time that women were paid the same as men? Isn’t it time that women or men should be able to take off work to raise a child or care for a relative without losing their job? I met a woman tonight in Pittsburgh at our rally who lost our job when she was in the hospital after delivering birth because her company didn’t offer maternity leave. Hillary’s put that on the table. We’re changing that when we get into office. We’re changing it.

And talk about isn’t it time. Just isn’t it time, after 240 years of American history, 96 years after women got the right to vote when the constitution was changed – isn’t it about time that a woman should be president of the United States and our commander-in-chief? It’s about time. It’s about time. And I am proud to say that I know a lot of strong men who feel exactly the same way. We’re excited to support a strong woman to be the leader of this country.

This is hard. It’s hard, what Hillary’s trying to do, because she’s trying to do something for the first time. Anybody out there ever try to do something for the first time, maybe, in your family or in your neighborhood or in your school or in your workplace, tried to do something for the first time? I bet many of you have. And I’ll tell you what, even more: Anybody out there ever tried to do something and had people tell you, ‘I don’t think you’re going to be able to do this?’ You know, you’re not the right X or Y. You don’t have enough experience. This is for somebody else. It’s not your time. Somebody else was there ahead of you. Somebody’s more qualified than you. I bet everybody here has heard that in their life at least once. And I bet some people are here who have heard that dozens and dozens and dozens of times.

Well, let me tell you something that I know about Hillary Clinton, something that also makes it very fitting that she would run and be elected president. She has heard that her entire life, that this isn’t for you, or this is a man’s profession, or even during this campaign she’s heard this from her opponent, that – I remember Donald Trump once said, ‘She doesn’t look very presidential, does she, fellas?’ I think she looks damn presidential. I think she looks damn presidential.

But I’m here to tell you – I’m here to tell you that Hillary has heard from people her entire life that this may not be the at any time for you or the time for you. But she has never let that stand in her way. And she’s never going to let anybody stand in your way as you reach out for the dreams that you want to achieve in this society. Never. In fact, if you think about it, Hillary’s mother Dorothy was born before women had the right to vote. And now Hillary’s daughter Chelsea will get to vote for her mom to be president.

Isn’t that the generational promise that this nation offers when we do our best work?

So look. Just 17 days from now, if we do what we know how to do, if we put our hearts into this with an underdog mentality that we’ll not quit until they call us the winner, on that night, November 8, when they call this race, we can forever in an instant change the way little girls and little boys look at their future because if you can be the president of the United States, you can be anything! And that’s the message that we’ll send.

And that’s why I’m so proud to be on this ticket, and she will show us all that we are really and truly stronger together. Please join me in welcoming our next president, Hillary Clinton!”

HILLARY CLINTON: “Hello, Penn! Hello, Philadelphia! I am so excited to be here tonight with all of you, and especially with my terrific running mate, who will be an absolutely extraordinary vice president. Tim is not all wrong. Among the many reasons that I was excited to ask him to run with me is he has never lost an election. That’s an amazing record. Barack Obama lost an election. Bill Clinton lost. So he is – I loved it when he said he’s my rabbit’s foot.

But it’s great to be here, and I have to tell you, after that wonderful endorsement, the joint endorsement from the Wellesley paper and the Pennsylvanian, I said, wow, they are really smart at those two places. And I need to get there as soon as possible to say thank you. Thank you so much.

I also want to thank a few other people. Senator Bob Casey was here earlier. Bob Tim and I have had a chance to work with him. We look forward to doing that again. I want to thank Josh Shapiro, running for Pennsylvania Attorney General; State Representative Dwight Evans, who’s here with us; and I especially want to thank someone who I am so excited about and I hope that Philadelphia will send Katie McGinty on behalf of Pennsylvania to the United States Senate. I’ve known Katie for a long time. You may know, too. She’s the daughter of a Philadelphia police officer, one of ten children. Now, why is that relevant? Because you got to learn how to get along with people. And if you’re one of ten, I think she’ll do a pretty good job getting along with the other Senators and getting things done for you. She has devoted her career to protecting working families, fighting for cleaner air, fighting for cleaner water and healthier neighborhoods.

Now, let me say this about Katie because that’s the person that I hope you will get behind in this election. She will work hard for you. She will help to break through the gridlock and get results for you. And she’s running against someone who refuses to stand up to Donald Trump. Think about it. Pat Toomey heard Donald Trump insult a grieving Gold Star family who lost their son in Iraq. He heard Donald Trump call Mexican immigrants rapists and criminals. He heard Donald Trump insult African Americans, POWs. He heard him engage in saying terrible things about women. He saw him spreading the lie that President Obama was not born in the United States. How much does he have to hear or to see? If he doesn’t have the courage to stand up against Donald Trump after all of this, then how will he stand up to special interests and powerful forces that are going to be trying to have their way in Washington? So it’s important that all of you do everything you can in these last 17 days to make the case to send Katie McGinty to Washington.

Now, as you – as you heard from Tim, we had our third debate. We had our third debate. And some people are just poor losers when they look at those three debates. I stood on the stage if you add it all up for four and a half hours with Donald Trump. And I think I have a pretty good idea about how important it is to keep talking about the positive things we’re going to do together. It’s important to give you something to vote for, not just against. And it’s important to lay out the policies that Tim and I are going to work on to make the economy work for everyone, not just those at the top, to make it possible for more young people to follow your dreams by giving you the chance to go as far as your hard work and talent will take you.

Now, in that third debate, Donald Trump said something that no, no other candidate running on either side has ever said. And that is he refused to say he would respect the outcome of the election. Now, make no mistake. Make no mistake, my friends. This poses a direct threat to our democracy. I’ve lost elections. You don’t feel good the next day. But we’ve always had a peaceful transfer of power. That’s the difference between democracy and dictatorship. That is the difference between the rule of law and the rule of strongmen. And there is so much at stake in demonstrating unequivocally that the United States is bigger than Donald Trump.

And the best way of doing that is voting, and we’ve got some really good signs about how people are feeling. More than 200 million Americans are now registered to vote. That is the largest number in the history of our country. And what’s especially exciting is that more than 50 million young people have registered. This could truly be the election that young people turned out in larger numbers than ever to make their votes and voices heard. Hundreds of thousands of more voters are registered here in Pennsylvania than were registered in 2012, so thanks to everybody who registered and helped to get people registered.

Now, what I think is happening is that people are coming together, Democrats, Republicans, and independents, all to reject hate and division that sets Americans against one another. Because we believe we can have a more hopeful, unified, positive future. And it’s going to be really important to make sure that people recognize, no matter what issue you care about, it is on the ballot. It may be Tim’s and my names, but it really is about everything we care about. Every issue that matters to you.

And so we’re going to keep working as hard as we can until the very end. And I appreciate those who are already for me and are working so hard. But I want to say a word to the people who aren’t, because you know what? I want to be your president too, and I will work for you, and I will fight for you as well. I believe we can disagree without being disagreeable. I’ve seen that happen. And I know there are people who for a variety of reasons find themselves discouraged or frustrated or somehow feel like they’re being left out of our economy, that our politics and our government doesn’t work. Well, I believe that we’ve got to face up to these challenges. And part of what I want us to recognize is that we can’t just be angry. Anger is not a plan. It does not lead to the kind of action and change that we need to make to be sure that every person in our country feels that they have a piece of the American dream.

So when it comes to the economy, we are going to invest in you, in your families. We’re going to build this economy from the middle out and the bottom up, because that will help everybody.

My opponent has a very different idea, and I’ll give him – I’ll give him credit for his idea. He really believes if you cut trillions of dollars in taxes for the wealthy, millionaires and billionaires and corporations, that that does somehow trickle down. Well, we’ve been down that road before. And it does not work. It will not work. We cannot see the possibilities of having our economy grow for everyone if we’re only caring about the people on the very top.

So I have a different approach. It’s kind of similar to what both my husband and President Obama have believed. Because if you try to invest in opportunities for everyone, that actually will produce more growth, and that is what Tim and I intend to do. And we’re also going to be on the side of American workers. Because the union movement in this country helped to build our middle class. And it is wrong to think that somehow suppressing wages, preventing people from having benefits that will make them feel secure, will somehow increase GDP. You heard Donald Trump. He stood on a debate stage in the Republican primary and said the problem in America was that wages were too high. And this is coming from someone who has done everything he can to avoid paying taxes, has not paid anything to support our military, our veterans, Pell Grants for students, our roads, education, health care, but instead claims that makes him smart.

Well, honestly, I don’t know how smart it is to lose a billion dollars running a casino. I’m still trying to get my head around that. I thought the house always won. But he won’t release his tax returns. He never intended to. And stop and ask yourself, wow, there must be something really, really bad in his tax returns. So we won’t really know what he’s ever, if anything, given to charity or how much money he’s really worth. And we won’t know how many business deals he has with foreign governments. And that sort of bothers me. Because when we have 17 American intelligence agencies, military and civilian alike, all saying that the Russians are behind all these hacks for the purpose of influencing our election, you got to ask yourself why would he believe the Russians instead of our own intelligence forces?

So here’s what we’re going to do. We’re going to make the biggest investment in new jobs since World War II – infrastructure jobs, advanced manufacturing, technology, innovation, research, clean energy jobs. That one is especially important to us because some country is going to be the clean energy superpower of the 21st century. It’ll probably be Germany, China, or us. Let’s make it us!

It is absolutely possible for us to do this. I am tired of all this talk that you hear from Trump and his supporters that really is always just denigrating America. Ah, come on. Give me a break. This country has created more economic opportunity for anybody in the history of the world. We’ve just got to get it spun up again, get it moving again, creating entrepreneurial opportunities, particularly for young people.

And I also believe strongly that our education system has to work for everybody, not just some of us. So let’s start with universal prekindergarten so every kid has a chance to get ready for school. And let’s make sure every child has a good school with good teachers no matter what ZIP Code that child lives in. And let’s do more to support teachers and provide them with the kind of support they need to do the most important kind of job there is.

And let’s be honest about the jobs that are going to be created in the next 20 to 30 to 40 years. We’ve got some big issues. I don’t usually talk about this because it’s complicated and it’s hard to explain in a couple of minutes, but think about what technology is doing, the wonders of technology. Think about how many jobs, and not just low-skill jobs, but how many jobs could be replaced by technology, by robotics, by artificial intelligence. So we’ve got to start thinking right now about what we’re going to do to make sure people are prepared and ready for the jobs that will be available, and then we’ve got to do everything possible to create those jobs and make them good-paying jobs that support a family.

And I want to bring – I want to bring modern technical education back to high schools, because a lot of young people deserve to have that kind of preparation. And our community colleges are going to be the real hub of this, connecting high schools, businesses, labor unions, universities all together. And we are going to have more apprenticeship programs, union and business apprenticeship programs for welders, machinists, health technicians, computer coders, so much more. And I am going to do everything I can to get the costs of college down for everybody.

Now, there’s more we can do about public colleges and universities, but we’re going to try to set the curve. After the primary, Bernie Sanders and I got together and we worked out a plan that will make it possible for any student in a family that makes less than $125,000 a year to go to public college tuition free – and over that family income, to go debt free. So yes, you have to pay something but not to go into debt. And we’re going to help you pay back your debt, pay it down. You should be able to pay it back as a percentage of your income so you’re never having to pay more than you can afford. And just because I love plans and I love details – and it was really kind of discouraging running against somebody who had neither. I kept waiting – let’s have a discussion about how you make college affordable, but honestly, I never got that out of my opponent. But here’s what I want you to do. I want you to go to hillaryclinton.com/calculator, and you can see how much you and your family could save under the plan that Tim and I are going to be promoting.

So my friends, there’s so much at stake in this election. If you believe we should raise the national minimum wage so you don’t live in poverty if you work full time, you need to vote. If you think equal pay for women is long overdue to raise family incomes, you’ve got to get out and vote. If you believe that we should treat women and girls with dignity and respect in America, then you’ve got to get out and vote. If you believe that we have to stand up for our rights, we have to stand up for women’s rights. We have to stand up to defend Planned Parenthood. We have to stand up – we have to defend marriage equality. We have to defend the LGBT community. We have to tackle systemic racism and make criminal justice reform a reality. We have to defend voting rights. And we have to take on the gun lobby and have commonsense gun safety measures. And we have to work with our allies and partners around the world to stop the spread of terrorism, to defeat ISIS, to take on the threat of nuclear weapons, then you’ve got to vote.

There’s no doubt in my mind that this is a crossroads election, and it’s a crossroads election because there could not be two more different visions and agendas than between me and Donald Trump. And look, it’s easy to get cynical about politics, but these matters are deeply personal to families, to our communities, our country, and the world. So for anybody who may be reconsidering their support for my opponent, I’ll do my best in these next 17 days to reach out to you, to Democrats, Republicans, and independents because our country needs every single person to put your energy, your talents, and your ambition to work, to build the kind of stronger and fairer country that we’re seeking. And I hope when people look back on this election when everything really is on the line, I hope you and everyone you know will be able to say that you voted for a better America. And that’s what I’m asking you tonight.

Please, go to iwillvote.com to find out where you’re supposed to vote, where you can vote on November 8th. Go to hillaryclinton.com and sign up to volunteer, take out your phone and text J-O-I-N to 47246 to get involved, and do everything you can to reach out and talk to anyone you know – family members, friends, colleagues – who might be considering voting for Donald Trump. It’s not too late to stage an intervention. Friends don’t let friends vote for Trump.

This has been a very unusual election, and it has been one that I think has probably caused as much anxiety and concern as any I’ve seen. I’ve been privileged to know people who served as president, who ran for president. I had disagreements with them over policies, even principles, but I never doubted their fitness to serve. That’s why this election imposes such a heavy responsibility on Tim and me, because Donald Trump is unqualified and unfit to be president and commander-in-chief of our country. But that judgment is not up to Tim and me. That judgment is up to all of you, every single one of you.

And I think it’s pretty obvious that young people like all of you who I am seeing in front of us tonight – this election matters to everybody but it matters more to you, because it will set the direction of this country and, I believe, our world for decades to come. So if you care about climate change, you’d better vote. If you care about immigration reform, you’d better vote. If you care about ending mass incarceration, you’d better vote. If you care about whether the people of this country have a chance to make the most out of their lives because they get the education they need and the health care they deserve and they have the barriers in front of them knocked down to pave their way, then you’d better vote because everybody who can go forward brings the rest of us along.

So think about the future we want, think about the future we can create, and remember, love trumps hate. Thank you.”