When I look back on the past four years, I donβt just see the challenges we faced.
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I see hope, progress, and possibility.
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A picture is worth a thousand words, but these photos tell the story of an America thatβs always moving forward β we must keep it going. https://t.co/AmXq5FFGpj
Video Transcript AI Summary
I felt immense pride watching her get confirmed to the senate, knowing she would inspire young black women across America. Uniting our allies and changing our economic approach to focus on ordinary people were top priorities. I made a determined trip to Kyiv to show unwavering support for Ukraine against Russian aggression.
The infrastructure law aims to rebuild America for everyone, benefiting both red and blue states. I'm committed to combating climate change, securing a sustainable future for the next generation. The PACT Act ensures we care for our veterans, and I was moved to help families affected by toxic exposure, including my own.
Bringing computer chip manufacturing back to America will create jobs and boost economic growth. Supporting unions is crucial to strengthening the middle class, and I'm proud to be a pro-union president. Reuniting families, like bringing home those unjustly detained in Russia, is deeply important. America is a nation of possibilities, and we must never give up on that ideal.
Speaker 0: This is a brilliant woman. This is a woman who has incredible capacity. And I stood there with her watching the senate vote, and I thought to myself, she's gonna change things. It makes a difference. And it sends a message to every young black woman in America.
I can do that. I can do what she can do. She is America. And look look at the look on her face in that picture. The same one I had, it's done.
53 yes, 47 no's. She passed. And I felt great pride. I was determined that we had to do two things. One was unite our allies around the world because the predecessor had just broken everything up, and I wanted very much to figure out how I get in touch with all those world leaders, all of whom I knew because I've been around a long time.
Could we bring back this solidarity with The United States and NATO and other parts of the world? The second thought I had, I was intent on changing the dynamic of the way we did our economy. Instead of trickle down economics, my dad used to say nothing ever trickled down on his kitchen table. I wanted to make sure ordinary people had a shot. I was hoping that, as we did that, my dad be proud.
No American president ever got in no war zone without the military guarding him, but I was determined to show up in Kyiv to let the world know we supported the the Ukrainian people against Russian aggression. We were on a multi hour ride into Kyiv. We couldn't fly in. We were afraid to get shot down. We went in on a train.
It's a long time getting in, and the concern of Secret Service was they were gonna know we're here, that someone's gonna do something to take out the train, but they didn't. I thought it was a show of support support and resolve on the part of The United States Of America. We are not leaving Ukraine to be ravaged by the Russians. That look in my face there is one of absolute determination. We weren't turning around.
No better way to show it than for American president to get on a train on a multi, multi hour ride to say we're with you. The infrastructure law we passed is the most comprehensive attempt to rebuild America and American history. I wanna make clear. It wasn't just about Democrats getting benefited or blue states. I wanna make sure everybody in America benefit from it because we're all Americans.
And so this over a trillion dollar bill over the next ten years, more red states are benefiting than blue states. I knew when we passed these major pieces of legislation, they wouldn't come to fruition from the first administration because it takes time to build these bridges. It's gonna increase commerce. It's gonna increase economic growth. It's gonna increase the ability of people to be with one another.
This woman standing next to me, her name is Shianna, young woman. Her generation is gonna live or die based upon what we do over the next three, four, five, six, seven, ten years dealing with climate. From the time I got elected to the United States Senate, I worked hard on climate change. I thought that the only really existential threat to humanity is a change in climate. When we finally got the bill passed, I almost wish it would call the Inflation Reduction Act.
It provided for over 368,000,000,000 to deal with climate change, which is a threat to all humanity. And we got the legislation passed. It gave me such hope that we're gonna be able to continue to make progress, and we are. I've committed to 30% of all federal lands and waters are gonna be set aside permanently so no development is allowed. When I leave office shortly, I'm not walking away from this issue.
I'm gonna be deeply involved in making sure we continue the fight. PACT Act is all about taking care of veterans, and it's the most significant thing we've done for veterans in a long, long time. I got in trouble years ago as a young senator saying we only want a sacred obligation as a nation, those we send into harm's way and care for them and their families when they come home. Her daddy was a victim of toxic waste coming off of these burn pits where he was stationed just like my son, Beau, spent a year in Iraq near one of those burn pits, ended up with stage four glioblastoma. And I wanted her to know, of all the people there, the one who I thought was gonna get the greatest benefit from what we did was her.
So she's one of thousands of young children who are gonna have part of their college paid for, part of their benefits cared for because of the service of their father and their mother. It wasn't available before if you couldn't prove that death was a consequence of what happened. I have here she gave me a little note. She said, thank you, mister president, for being so nice to us. I have it on my desk.
Look. The United States invented these computer chips. They're about the size of my little finger, the tip of my little finger. They had control of everything from cell phones to automobiles to weapon systems and the like. We invented them.
We had 40% of the market, and then corporate America decided it's best to go to where cheapest labor was, and I was determined to bring it back home. We invented these chips. So I got in a plane and flew to South Korea trying to convince Samsung that they should invest in chips in The United States. And the end result is we got billions of dollars committed to build these chip factories here in America. And secondly, they're gonna increase the economic growth in America significantly.
The people work in those chip factories. They're gonna make over a hundred and $2,000 a year in average. They don't need a college degree. It's gonna revolutionize communities all across America. It's not only the construction of the facility, which increases the need for skilled workers to build them.
It also means once that's done, there's gonna be permanent workforce of thousands of people all across America making serious money. And when that happens, guess what else happens? More barbershops, beauty parlors, drugstores, churches, and communities grow around them. We provided more money for red states to build these than blue states. I think it's one of the most important things I was able to do.
You know, when I walked the pick a line to support the UAW, I wasn't even thinking I was the first president. I did that as a senator. I did those things as a vice president. It didn't even dawn on me that the president's never done this before. But I wanted to make it clear that the middle class built this country and unions built the middle class.
And it was critically important to me to demonstrate my support, in this case, for the UAW. They got their contract. They're making American automobiles. We're coming back. You know, I got a lot of criticism for saying unions are making more money, and it's gonna cost everybody wrong.
I asked the Treasury Department to do a study for me. As union wages went up and they have significantly all across America, the study showed everybody's wages go up. So I make no apologies. I'm the most pro union president of American history. I'm proud of that, and I'm really proud, really proud of the union movement in America.
Well, this is a picture of me being handed a ball by my cousin from Ireland, Rob. He and his brother are two of the best players in the Irish club, and it was Saint Patrick's Day. But what it meant to me was more than that. It was a tie to the past. It was our roots, the roots of my family.
When we went to Ireland, and they did this extensive genealogy, my family in Ireland, the, bluebirds are from Meil, and the other half from Louth, which is on the Irish Sea. The fitting is ball meant to me more than just the game. Hopefully, it was consistent. Never gave up. Want to make sure that black Americans knew how they were being left out in history.
When the Emancipation Proclamation was passed, there's a whole group of African Americans in West Texas didn't have any idea what happened. This is a day that made it known to them. Celebrate the fact. Celebrate the fact that this occurred. We all are created equal and delivered.
We treated equally throughout our lives. I wanna make sure we knew that we're writing history, making sure we're not erasing it. We've never lived up to this ideal, but we've never, never, never, never walked away from it. Until you lose a part of your family, you don't really appreciate what it means when, you're wondering whether or not you're ever gonna see them again. And these are their family.
This is their family. And I felt an overwhelming sense of accomplishment, being able to bring their parents home from Russia being held unfairly. It was a complicated process to get it done. The guy that I've become friends with, chancellor Schultz of Germany, he made it happen. He had to release a prisoner in Germany in order to get these men released.
He met Jill at the Olympics, and he said, I'm doing this for your husband. I'm reminded that the word of leaders matter, and I think building personal relationship with world leaders matters. I I've indebted to to to the chancellor for what he did, but it mattered. We did it for them. They did it for us.
That's what alliances are about. Look at the looks on their faces. To see them come home, to know that they came back, to know that they were gonna be okay mattered a great deal to me. I remember taking off my lapel pin and giving it to one of them who, saying welcome home. To quote my dad, he said, Joey, family is the beginning, the middle, and the end.
Uniting families matters. I just felt so good about it. I felt I felt a great deal of pride and a great deal of thanks to the Germans for releasing that prisoner. A lot of emotions that day. I was standing with my son, Hunter, and my daughter, Ashley, and Jill.
And the most searing one was my son, Beau, wasn't there. He was someone I relied upon. He was someone who really someday should have been taking that office, not me. I had my hand on the family bible that's been around since the late eighteen hundreds. All I could think about was I I just hope he was looking looking down.
We're the first nation in the world built on an idea. The idea was we hold these truths to be self evident. All men and women are created equal. That's what we believe. I was asked by Xi Jinping, and I spent eighty hours alone with him.
And we're the Tibetan Plateau, and he turned to me and he said, can you define America for me? I said, yes. One word. Possibilities. We're a nation of possibilities.
That's who we are. That's who we never gave up on.
