Joe Biden
Appearances
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Presidential Debate Reaction, Biden Hot Swap?, Tech unemployment, OpenAI considers for-profit & more
Making sure that we're able to make every single solitary person eligible for what I've been able to do with the COVID, excuse me, with dealing with everything we have to do with. Look, if we finally beat Medicare.
All-In with Chamath, Jason, Sacks & Friedberg
Presidential Debate Reaction, Biden Hot Swap?, Tech unemployment, OpenAI considers for-profit & more
And I did that with Internet Explorer. Hold on a second.
SmartLess
"3 Presidents"
Look, when I got elected, I said I'm going to be president for everyone. We have put more money into red states than blue states. Yes. Not a joke.
SmartLess
"3 Presidents"
Across the board. Across the board, there's more money total invested in the red states and the blue states because I'm going to be president for everyone.
SmartLess
"3 Presidents"
Well, I think it's beginning, but whether they did or not, I have an obligation, it seems to me, to take care of the country. That's the job. But it's beginning to sink in a little bit. And, you know, you have, like, for example, did you ever think you'd see, these guys are great speakers, they're great presidents. Did you ever think you'd see a State of the Union like the two I've had? No, no.
SmartLess
"3 Presidents"
Well, I'm not so sure about the show, but I think if they want the truth, we'll give it to them. Yeah, amen. And just go straight at them. Look, you know, like I said at the gridiron dinner, you know, this guy came up to me, asked me if we could borrow some money. That's a great line. And, you know, I told him, Donald, I can't help you. But all kidding aside, we can make jokes about it.
SmartLess
"3 Presidents"
But the end result is, look, we've all know every major world leader. And I think one of the reasons Barack asked me to be vice president, I had some foreign policy experience. And I've known these folks for a long time. I go to all these conferences that we all know, and Bill just came back from one on his own. Great help to us in the Caribbean.
SmartLess
"3 Presidents"
And, you know, almost every single time, not a joke, guys, whether it's the G7, the G20, all these heads of state, they'll wait until they can get me a loan and grab my arm and say, you've got to win. Because, quote, my democracy is at stake. Their democracy.
SmartLess
"3 Presidents"
Well, if the rest of the world looks to us, no matter what you say, no matter how you characterize it, there's not a single country in the world that does not think we're the single most consequential country in the world. Not a single one.
SmartLess
"3 Presidents"
But beyond that, here's the deal. Look, if you think about it, when Trump got elected, he said he's going to go America first, America alone. Look who he talks about his best friends being, Kim Jong-un. I'm serious.
SmartLess
"3 Presidents"
The regular championship and the senior. I told him when he won. I told him he came into the upstairs oval and we bumped into each other. He said something about playing golf. I said, look, I'll give you two strokes if you carry your own bag.
SmartLess
"3 Presidents"
I don't text much, but we pick up the phone and talk to each other. I love that. Do you really?
SmartLess
"3 Presidents"
I made a commitment. I have an administration that looked like America. I have more women in my cabinet. I've appointed more black circuit court judges than every other president combined in American history. I've kept my commitment of putting a black woman on the Supreme Court. I've had an opportunity to go out and get the best people.
SmartLess
"3 Presidents"
And by the way, I sometimes pick the phone and ask these guys who they think are the best people. And I'm looking for people that most of all, though, not just are good, but care about what they're doing.
SmartLess
"3 Presidents"
I think they should be focused on a couple things. Number one, we're going to, in the second term, God willing, we're going to make sure that we do something about gun violence in this country. The idea that we allow assault weapons to be sold in magazines with 100 rounds is just bizarre.
SmartLess
"3 Presidents"
Absolutely not. You never said that. You said, we've got to be smart about what's going on. You just don't need to kill a deer with an AR-15. The Second Amendment, which I, when I taught law school, the Second Amendment wasn't absolute ever. You weren't able to have a cannon when you were, you know, the liberty is water with the blood of patriots. I mean, that's a bunch of crap.
SmartLess
"3 Presidents"
We don't know if it's Theroux. Justin, there are certain powers that are beyond the presidency. That's well beyond my presidential power.
SmartLess
"3 Presidents"
But here's the truth. The truth is almost all the rational positions on socialism and on those issues that are like unions, for example, they all in fact grow the economy if you do the right thing. They grow the economy.
SmartLess
"3 Presidents"
It'd be a hard choice for me between Lincoln, because we are such a divided nation and how he dealt with it, and possibly... Possibly Roosevelt. But look, I think the country is in much better shape than we're talking about it. I don't mean finance. It is. We have the best economy in the world, the strongest one in the world, period. Everyone, if you know how China's going to eat our lunch,
SmartLess
"3 Presidents"
Notice who China's coming to talk to all the time now, right? The idea that Russia was going... I want to tell you a quote. I got a call from Dr. Kissinger before he died, about 10 days before he died. And I asked me to give him a call. And I call and he said the following thing. He said, you know, he said, not since Napoleon has Europe not looked over its shoulder at Russia with dread.
SmartLess
"3 Presidents"
And then you guys came along, you strengthened NATO, you expanded it, and that's changed. You've changed it all. Well, this guy's changed it all, but he doesn't care. He doesn't care. And that's what the rest of the world looks at us and says, do you have any interest in our concern? And can you imagine us being able to avoid a European war?
SmartLess
"3 Presidents"
Can you imagine that's why the hell we set up NATO in the first place? Can you imagine what we're, I mean, there's, it's just, he has no sense of anything.
SmartLess
"3 Presidents"
There's no, he believes in one thing. He believes in selling what he going to benefit him personally. Right.
SmartLess
"3 Presidents"
That's why you let people know you understand what their concerns are. Look, I mean, think about it. Everybody's gone through some tough times. But my dad used to have an expression, I swear to God. He said, Joey, a job is about a lot more than a paycheck. It's about your dignity. It's about respect. It's being able to look your kid in the eye and say everything's going to be okay.
SmartLess
"3 Presidents"
And there's a shot of it. That's what the three of us have tried to do. Look, if you can earn a billion bucks and you do it legally, great. I'm a capitalist, fine. Just start paying your damn taxes. You know what a billionaire is paying taxes? By the way, We have just one example, the extreme. We have 1,000 billionaires in America right now.
SmartLess
"3 Presidents"
If they paid a 25% instead of 8.2% what they pay now, just 25%, they raise $400 million over the next billion dollars over the next 10 years. We could take care of child care, which increases productivity. We could take care of elder care, which increases productivity. Let's do it. Yeah, let's do it. Screw 25. Why don't they pay 40? Look, here's the deal. That's what everyone else is paying.
SmartLess
"3 Presidents"
No, no, but I'm just making the point that you don't have to be extreme in anything to get this done.
SmartLess
"3 Presidents"
Well, a lot's changed. A lot's changed in how you communicate. A lot's changed in information. And so much disinformation out there. And, you know, it's really... And it's hard to communicate, even today, when you do accomplish some improbable things. Yeah. But he...
SmartLess
"3 Presidents"
Just keep talking about it. You just have to connect with people as to how they're being affected, why it's happening. And, you know, one of the things that really startles me is I'm optimistic. I'm genuinely optimistic. Oh, my. And starting to break through. There's so much we have opportunity to get done in ways that these guys set up and we're now going to be able to close down.
SmartLess
"3 Presidents"
But, for example, you know, when we got elected, we were told we couldn't get anything done. We couldn't get anything passed. Well, we got a little thing called a billion, $300 million to rebuild our roads, highways, Internet. We got the chips. I've traveled around the world and said, why don't you come and invest in the United States of America? We got $650 billion invested offline.
SmartLess
"3 Presidents"
And on the CHIPS Act, we got about $56, $70 billion. And they're employing people. It takes a while to kick in, though.