Remarks by Vice President Harris at a Political Event Houston, TX

Four Seasons Hotel

Houston, Texas

6:19 P.M. CDT

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  Good evening, Texas.  (Applause.)  Can we please hear it for Sima?  (Applause.) 

Good evening, everyone.  Good evening.  Please have a seat.  Please have a seat. 

Sima, thank you for those kind words.  You just hosted me in your home just a few months ago, and you’ve really been tireless in your support of me and, before this, of the president and me.  And, in fact, I — he and I had our regular lunch today, and so I bring you greetings from Joe Biden and thanks from him — (applause) — for all you have done here.  Thank you all. 

I want to thank everyone who was a part of this.  And, in particular, I want to also thank — in addition to Sima — Eartha, Lonnie, and the entire host committee for bringing us together. 

And thank you as well to all the extraordinary leaders who are here.  We have Representative Al Green — (applause); Representative Lizzie Fletcher — (applause); Representative Sylvia Garcia — (applause); Greg Casar, who was here with his mother — was, still is, there — there somewhere — there you are — (laughs) — (applause); Judge Lina Hidalgo — (applause); and my long-standing friend, Commissioner Rodney Ellis.  (Applause.)

And, of course, in front of all the friends here, I must thank our national finance chair, Chris Korge, for all that you do, Chris — (applause) — and have been doing. 

And to all of the leaders here, I thank you.  And it is wonderful to be with you. 

So, last week, I visited an emergency operations center in Houston.  I was just here last week.  I was with, actually, the commissioner and the mayor.  And I received a briefing from first responders on the recovery efforts after Hurricane Beryl.  And I just want to make clear that our administration is making sure that this city has all the resources that you need to recover quickly and fully.  (Applause.)

And, of course, we must also tackle the climate crisis.  And it — we are seeing increasingly that it is fueling these kinds of disasters because of increasing extreme weather around our country.  And so, we will stay committed to that as well. 

And with that — so, as Sima said, we have 97 days to go — (applause) — 97 days until the election.  And I know many of us have been involved in these elections every four years, and every four years, we say, “This is the one.”  (Laughter.)  Well, this here is the one.  (Applause.)  This is the one.  (Laughs.)  This is the one.

And as Sima said — really, it is — I mean, the most existential, consequential, and important election of our lifetimes.  And in this election, I think it’s so important that we remember, we are not fighting against something; we are fighting for something.  It’s very important to remember. 

We love our country.  We are fighting for the best of who we are.  This is a fight for the future of our nation and for our most fundamental freedoms and rights. 

And in this fight, borne out of love of country, we believe in the promise of America.  So many of us are empirical evidence of the promise of America.  Right?  (Applause.)  Right?  And the promise of America includes a promise of freedom and opportunity and justice, not just for some but for all.  And we know we are in this fight, then, because we know how much is at stake. 

As many of you know, before I was elected vice president, before I was elected a United States senator, I was an elected attorney general and, before that, elected district attorney.  And before that, I was a courtroom prosecutor.  (Applause.) 

So, in those roles, I took on perpetrators of all types — (laughter): predators who abused women, fraudsters who ripped off consumers, cheaters who broke the rules for their personal gain.  So, hear me when I say: I know Donald Trump’s type.  (Applause.)

In fact, I’ve been dealing with people like him my entire career.  (Laughter.)

For example, as attorney general of California, I took on one of our country’s largest for-profit colleges that was scamming students, including our veterans.  Well, Donald Trump ran a for-profit college that scammed students.  (Laughter.)

As a prosecutor, I specialized in sexual abuse cases.  Well — (laughter) — Trump was found liable for committing sexual abuse. 

As an attorney general, I held the big Wall Street banks accountable for fraud.  Donald Trump was just found guilty of fraud — 34 counts.  (Applause.)

So, in this campaign, I say to all the friends here: I proudly put my record against his any day of the week — (applause) — any day of the week.

But, again, let us not make any mistake: This campaign is not just about us versus Donald Trump.  It truly is about two very different visions for our nation — one that is focused on the future and the other that is focused on the past. 

And I know the leaders who are in this room, and so I say what I know to be true.  We here believe in a future, for example, with affordable health care, affordable childcare, paid family leave. 

We believe in a future where no child grows up in poverty, where every senior can retire with dignity, where all people have clean water to drink and clean air to breathe. 

We believe in a future — (applause) — that keeps America’s economy the strongest in the world; where every person has the opportunity to build a business, to own a home, to build intergenerational wealth.  (Applause.)

These are the things we believe in.  And we see, then, a future where we bring down the cost of living for hardworking Americans so that people have a chance not just to get by but to get ahead.  And that is so much of what is fueling our campaign. 

And that is why, when I am president, I will take on price gouging and bring down costs; I will ban more of those hidden fees and surprise late charges that banks and other companies use to pad their profits; I will take on corporate landlords and cap rent increases; and take on Big Pharma and cap the cost of prescription drugs for all Americans.  (Applause.)

And all of this is to say, building up the middle class will be a defining goal of my presidency.  (Applause.)  Because we here know, when America’s middle class is strong, America is strong.  (Applause.)

But as we move forward — as we move our nation forward, Donald Trump, as I said and as we know, intends to take our country backward.  And as a prime example, just look at his Project 2025 agenda.  Project 2025 is a plan to weaken the middle class. 

I invite those who might need some help sleeping to take a look at it — (laughter) — but it’ll keep you awake when you do.  It’ll keep you awake when you do, because you will see in that and in the words and in the policies and in the background of Donald Trump, he intends to cut Social Security and Medicare; he intends to give tax breaks to billionaires and big corporations; and he intends to end the Affordable Care Act and take us back to a time when — many of us remember — when insurance companies had the power to deny people with preexisting conditions. 

You remember that?  It wasn’t very long ago.  Remember what that meant for children with asthma, breast cancer survivors, grandparents with diabetes?  

And, you know, America has tried these failed policies before.  But we are not going back.  We are not going back.  Ours is a fight for the future, and it is a fight for freedom. 

You know, I’ve been traveling — as Sima said, I’ve been traveling our country for the last three and a half years, but starting this year, I mean, I think, before last week, I’d taken over — almost 80 trips just this year alone. 

And I will tell you, across our nation, we are witnessing a full-on assault against hard-fought, hard-won freedoms and rights — (applause): the freedom to vote — and we can look at this region of the country to have all those examples; the freedom to be safe from gun violence; the freedom to live — (applause) — without fear of bigotry and hate; the freedom to love who you love openly and with pride — (applause); the freedom to learn and acknowledge America’s full history — (applause); and the freedom of a woman to make decisions about her own body — (applause) — and not have her government tell her what to do.

And, by the way, just — let’s pause on that for a moment and think about this.  Regardless of your gender, imagine that in this year of our Lord, 2024, one in three women of reproductive age lives in a state with a Trump abortion ban. 

Regardless of your gender, think about it from this perspective: that at this moment, our country — and in our country, the highest court took one of the most basic freedoms that any individual could have, the freedom to make decisions about your own body — not your property, not your busi- — I mean, and that would be a problem too — but your own body.  Think about that.  (Applause.)

And if that freedom is being taken, what else could be on the line?  That’s where we are right now in our country.

But here’s the thing we know: Generations of Americans before us led in the fight for freedom.  And now the baton is in our hands — each and every one of us. 

And so, we who believe in the sacred freedom to vote will finally pass the John Lewis Voting Rights Act and the Freedom to Vote Act.  (Applause.) 

We who believe in the freedom to live safe from gun violence will finally pass universal background checks — (applause) — and red flag laws and an assault weapons ban. 

We who believe in reproductive freedom will fight for a woman’s right to choose.  (Applause.) 

And we remember that when he was president, Donald Trump handpicked three members of the United States Supreme Court — the court of Thurgood and RBG — because he intended for them to overturn the protections of Roe v. Wade.  And as he intended, they did.  And now more than 20 states have a Trump abortion ban, many with no exceptions even for rape and incest. 

And if he wins, I promise you he intends to pass a nationwide abortion ban to ban abortion in every state.  But I will not let that happen.  (Applause.)  I will not let that happen. 

And when I am president and when Congress passes a law to restore reproductive freedoms, I will sign it into law.  (Applause.)

In this moment, our fundamental freedoms are on the ballot — our fundamental freedoms are on the ballot and so is our democracy — so is our democracy. 

We cannot overlook what happened this month when the United States Supreme Court — please remember and keep this in mind, because this election, this is not 2016 or 2020 in so many ways, including this.  This month, the United States Supreme Court basically just told the former president, who has been convicted of fraud, that, going forward, he will be immune for activity we know he is prepared to engage in if he gets back in the White House. 

So, think about that.  At least before, there was the threat that there might be consequence.  Now there is implicit — some would say explicit — authority to know there will be no consequence. 

And pair that up with the fact Donald Trump has openly vowed, if reelected, he will be a dictator on day one, that he will weaponize the Department of Justice against his political enemies, that he will round up peaceful protesters and throw them out of our country, and even, quote, “terminate” the Constitution of the United States. 

So, let us be very clear: Someone who suggested he should terminate the Constitution of the United States should never again have the chance to stand behind a microphone — (applause) — and never again have the chance to stand behind the seal of the president of the United States.  (Applause.)  Never again.

This is serious business.  So, ultimately, in this election, I think we all know, we each face a question and the question being: What kind of country do we want to live in?  Do we want to live in a country of freedom, compassion, and rule of law or a country of chaos, fear, and hate?

And the beauty of our democracy — because we intend to keep it — the beauty of our democracy is that we each have the power to answer that question.  We each have the power to answer that question.  The power is with the people. 

So, November 5th is 97 days from now.  And let’s level set.  We are the underdogs in this race.  There is enthusiasm, Sima mentioned, historic numbers in terms of what we have done, grassroots fundraising, the numbers of volunteers that are coming in.  We are the underdogs in this race. 

So, let’s level set.  We have a fight in front of us.  And we have work to do — hard work, good hard work.  (Laughter.)  And this is the thing: We like hard work.  Hard work is good work. 

But this is not the time, then — (applause) — this is not the time, then — as we all know, which is why we’re here together, this is not our time to throw up our hands.  This is our time to roll up our sleeves. 

And together, we will fight to build the nation that we love and that the people deserve. 

And we know that when we fight —

AUDIENCE:  We win!

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  — we win!  (Applause.)  (Inaudible.)

God bless you.  And God bless the United States of America.  (Applause.) 

Thank you all very much.  Thank you.  (Applause.) 

Thank you very much.  Thank you all very much.  Thank you.  Thank you. 

END                      6:37 P.M. CDT