FULL SPEECH Bill Clinton speaks at Democratic National Convention 10 News First1080p
Bill Clinton DNC Speech
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00:00Please welcome the 42nd President of the United States, Bill Clinton.
01:02Whoa.
01:10Let me ask you something.
01:16After the last two days, aren't you proud to be a Democrat?
01:22And I am very grateful to the Republicans and Independents that have joined us and been up here on the stage.
01:34And I hope they feel better about it now.
01:38Because I've seen all these things that even I have to be reminded of from time to time when I get my spirits down.
01:48I love seeing the Obamas here. I love seeing President Biden.
01:54And I thought Hillary gave a great speech, too.
02:08But I love seeing all these young leaders. A bunch of them are coming up after me.
02:16They look better, they sound better, and they'll be exciting.
02:23I do want to say one word about President Biden.
02:28Remember, he had an improbable turn that made him President.
02:40And we were in the middle of a pandemic and an economic crash.
02:48He healed our sick and put the rest of us back to work.
02:55And he strengthened our alliances for peace and security.
03:03He stood up for Ukraine. He's trying desperately to get a ceasefire in the Middle East.
03:10And then he did something that's really hard for a politician to do.
03:16He voluntarily gave up political power.
03:27George Washington knew that, and he did it.
03:31And he set the standard for us serving two terms before it was mandatory.
03:37It helped his legacy, and it will enhance Joe Biden's legacy.
03:50And it's a stark contrast to what goes on in the other party.
03:56So I want to thank him for his courage, compassion, his class, his service, his sacrifice.
04:11Joe Biden.
04:26He kept the faith, and he's infected a lot of the rest of us.
04:31Now let's cut to the chase.
04:34I am too old to gill the lily.
04:39Two days ago, I turned 78, the oldest man in my family for four generations.
04:48And the only personal vanity I want to assert is I'm still younger than Donald Trump.
04:54Last night, in what I thought was a very moving series of episodes, we nominated Kamala Harris and Tim Walz.
05:21Just think about that.
05:24Two leaders with all-American but still improbable life stories.
05:32It could only happen here.
05:34Their careers, after all, started in community courtrooms and classrooms.
05:40Two leaders who spent a lifetime getting the good job done.
05:46Now, one of the things that I've noticed over my increasingly long life is that a presidential election is unique in several ways.
06:00First of all, it's the greatest job interview for the greatest job in the world.
06:05Secondly, the Constitution says we, the people, get to do the hiring.
06:18And the third thing is that every four years, we get to change the requirements for the job.
06:30So here's what I'm thinking.
06:35Because I try to apply this in every election.
06:37Will this president take us backward or forward?
06:45Will this president give our kids a brighter future?
06:52Depends.
06:54Will this president bring us together or tear us apart?
07:00Will the president increase the peace, security, and stability and freedom that we enjoy and extend it to others as we can?
07:12We, the people, we have to make a decision about these kind of questions.
07:21And every four years, it's a little different because the people come up to candidates, come up to candidates, and they say, as they're saying now,
07:33here are our problems, solve them.
07:37Here are our opportunities, seize them.
07:42Here are our fears, ease them.
07:47Here are our dreams, help them come true.
08:03A president can answer that call by saying, I'll do my part, but you have to help me, we have to work together.
08:14Or you can dodge what needs to be done by dividing, distracting, and diverting us.
08:25So in 2024, we got a pretty clear choice, it seems to me.
08:32Kamala Harris for the people.
08:35And the other guy who's proved even more than the first go-around that he's about me, myself, and I.
08:57I know which one I like better for our country.
09:06Kamala Harris will work to solve our problems, seize our opportunities, ease our fears,
09:14and make sure every single American, however they vote, has a chance to chase their dreams.
09:23You know, when she was young, she worked at McDonald's.
09:35And she greeted every person with that thousand-watt smile and said, how can I help you?
09:42Now she's at the pinnacle of power, and she's still asking, how can I help you?
09:53I'll be so happy when she actually enters the White House as president,
10:04because she will break my record as the president who spent the most time at McDonald's.
10:11Now, but we got an election to win.
10:27And remember, we've got a guy that's pretty good at what he does.
10:32Donald Trump has been a paragon of consistency.
10:37He's still dividing, he's still blaming, he's still belittling other people.
10:42He creates chaos, and then he sort of curates it as if it were precious art.
10:53Let me say, not a single day goes by,
10:57even though I've been gone for well over 23 years from the White House,
11:05not a day goes by that I don't thank the Lord for the chance I had to serve and what it meant.
11:12One of the reasons I love the job so much
11:39is that in the toughest times, even on the darkest days,
11:46if you tried hard enough, there was always something good you could do for somebody else.
11:53Now, some days that's not easy to do.
11:59You've got to deal with all these emergencies or there's something going on here or there yonder.
12:04But Kamala Harris is the only candidate in this race
12:12who has the vision, the experience, the temperament, the will, and yes, the sheer joy to get something done.
12:23I mean, look, what does her opponent do with his voice?
12:34He mostly talks about himself, right?
12:38So the next time you hear him, don't count the lies, count the eyes.
12:54Count the eyes.
12:57His vendettas, his vengeance, his complaints, his conspiracies.
13:07He's like one of those tenors opening up before he walks out on stage like I did,
13:16trying to get his lungs open by singing me, me, me, me, me, me.
13:23When Kamala Harris is president, every day will begin with you, you, you, you.
13:36So, we've got to ask ourselves the questions if we're going to hire a president.
13:51Do you want to build a strong economy from the bottom up and the middle out?
13:56Or do you want to spend the next four years talking about crowd size?
14:08You're going to have a hard time believing this, but so help me, I triple checked it.
14:15Since the end of the Cold War in 1989, America has created about 51 million new jobs.
14:30I swear I checked this three times. Even I couldn't believe it.
14:35What's the score? Democrats 50, Republicans 1.
14:44I'm glad that we've got a championship winning coach on our team.
15:15But even the most limited of us in what we know about football or any other sport
15:27knows that if you've got 50 and the other side's got 1, you're ahead.
15:39What about affordable housing? It's a terrible problem in America now. We need more.
15:44And affordable health care. That's why the Democrats put a limit on monthly payments for insulin
15:56and a $2,000 a year out-of-pocket limit.
16:02And they're trying to cover more drugs by bargaining for prices.
16:08We need more financing for small businesses.
16:14We need still to strengthen our alliances.
16:21I almost croaked in the first debate of this election season
16:29when President Trump said nobody respected America anymore like they did when he was president.
16:40Wait, wait.
16:41And with a straight face.
16:47Look, you've got to give him. He's a good actor.
16:50With a straight face, he cited as evidence of the respect that existed for us when he was there
17:01the presidents of North Korea and Russia.
17:11I'd rather have the people who respect us now.
17:24One of the things is when you send a signal to the other countries,
17:29you want them to know whether they agree with you or not, at least that you're on the level.
17:36Here's where you are and what you believe.
17:39What are they supposed to make to these endless tributes to the late, great Hannibal Lecter?
17:54I mean, President Obama once gave me the great honor of saying I was the explainer-in-chief.
18:02Folks, I thought and thought about it and I don't know what to say.
18:19Like Hakeem Jeffries, I too want an America that's more joyful, more inclusive, more future-focused.
18:28Just think what a burden it's been on us to get up day after day after day after day
18:34buried in meaningless hot rhetoric when there's so many opportunities out there,
18:42so many problems that need to be solved.
18:45I want that.
18:47And that's the America Kamala Harris will lead.
18:50Kamala Harris will lead.
18:59She's already made her first presidential decision and she knocked it out of the park
19:05when she asked Governor Tim Walz to be her nominee for Vice President.
19:20As they used to say when I was a young man growing up in Arkansas,
19:26you do not have to be all broke out with brilliance.
19:31You just look at Tim Walz, listen to him, follow his record as a teacher, as a coach, and the National Guard.
19:41As a congressman where he was the only Democrat, save one, elected in that district in more than 100 years.
19:54And he stayed a long time.
19:57And then he became a great governor.
20:01And by all accounts he was a crack shot who had the courage among his rural constituents
20:18to say we do not need these assault weapons available to people who can kill our kids in school.
20:31So armed with her first decision, Kamala Harris confronts an interesting dilemma.
20:53We're going to walk out of here feeling pretty good, I think.
20:58We've got energy, we are happy, we feel like a Lowe's off our shoulders.
21:04And we know we're just being asked to fight the same fight that the forces of progress have had to fight for 250 years.
21:13In the face of stiff and often violent opposition, we have to find a way to go forward together.
21:31Where we the people make our union more perfect.
21:37So that's a good thing.
21:44How could we possibly lose?
21:47Kamala Harris has fought for kids their whole life that were left out and left behind.
21:52She's taken on gangs trafficking across the border.
21:57She's fought to protect the rights of homeowners.
22:01She's been our leader in the fight for reproductive freedoms and we know a majority of the American people are with us on that.
22:10And she's gained an invaluable amount of experience as Vice President, advancing our values and interests around the world.
22:23She's already said she's going to work really hard to make sure that no American working full time lives in poverty or has to worry about their children living in poverty.
22:40She says that we've got to make home ownership an achievable dream for everyone, not just a privilege.
22:51She said, and this meant a lot to me, that she would protect everybody's right to vote whether or not they voted for her.
23:04They were citizens and they deserve the right to vote.
23:08The other day, her opponent implied that if his people voted one more time, they'd be able to rig it from now on and they wouldn't have to vote again.
23:27You think they're kidding, but I know a lot of these folks and most of them are really good people.
23:38But some of them think that they are bound to dominate America politically, economically and socially and they have to use politics to do it and they should rig the system.
23:55I don't believe that.
23:58And so here's what I want to tell you.
24:03We've seen more than one election slip away from us when we thought it couldn't happen, when people got distracted by phony issues or overconfident.
24:19This is a brutal, tough business.
24:24I want you to be happy.
24:27One of the reasons that President-to-be Harris is doing so well is that we're all so happy.
24:44But you should never underestimate your adversary.
24:48And these people are really good at distracting us, at triggering doubt, at triggering buyer's remorse.
25:02As Obama said so eloquently last night, they are human, you know.
25:07They're bound to make a mistake now and then.
25:12We've got to be tough.
25:15And so, as somebody who spends a lot of time in small towns and rural areas in New York and Arkansas and other places, I urge you to talk to all your neighbors.
25:36I urge you to meet people where they are.
25:39I urge you not to demean them, but not to pretend you don't disagree with them if you do.
25:47Treat them with respect, just the way you'd like them to treat you.
25:57Ask for their help, and then follow our leader, Kamala, and ask them, how can I help you?
26:08We Democrats right now have a lot of hay in the barn.
26:13We've got massive achievements, massive advances, but there's still a lot of slips between today and Election Day that we have to navigate.
26:29And so, I want to say this from the bottom of my heart. I have no idea how many more of these I'll be able to come to.
26:43I started in 76, and I've been to every one since.
26:47But, no.
26:5272.
26:55Lord, I'm getting old.
26:58But here's what I want you to know.
27:04If you vote for this team, if you can get them elected, and let them bring in this breath of fresh air,
27:16you will be proud of it for the rest of your life. Your children will be proud of it. Your grandchildren will be proud of it.
27:38Take it from a man who once had the honor to be called in this convention, the man from hope.
27:49We need Kamala Harris, the President of Joy, to lead us.
28:02So, I'll be doing my part. You do yours. I'll see you when we're making a real joyful noise when the votes are counted.
28:16God bless you, and God bless America.