best political speeches 2022

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John Harvard's Journal

The Speeches 2022

July-August 2022

President Lawrence S. Bacow at the 371st Commencement, May 26

“Save a Seat for Others”

During his welcoming remarks at the 371st Commencement , on May 26, President Lawrence S. Bacow drew on pandemic-influenced conditions to send a message about the candidates’ future comportment, and truths not always associated with Veritas.

Something very inconvenient happens when you combine a nation’s worth of graduations with a global supply-chain shortage.

There are not enough folding chairs to go around.

I am not kidding—half of you almost had to sit on blankets today.…

Fortunately…our amazing staff…are creative, resilient, and resourceful. So now you know about the Great Seat Scramble of 2022.

I am telling you this because it is likely the last time you almost didn’t get a seat. Soon you will have a degree in hand from an institution whose name is known no matter where you go in the world, whose name is synonymous with excellence, ambition, and achievement—and maybe some other modifiers on which we needn’t dwell today.

With your degree…you may often find yourself invited to sit and stay awhile, invited to share your thoughts and ideas, invited to participate, to contribute, to lead. You may end up sitting on a board or occupying a seat of power.…

And what are you to make of that—of the fact that people will make room for you , find a seat for you ?

You could take it for granted. You could assume that you deserved it all along.

But what a waste that would be.

Today, I want to challenge you—members of the Harvard class of 2022—to save a seat for others, to make room for others, to ensure that the opportunities afforded by your education do not enrich your life alone. You will have more chances than most to make a difference in the world, more opportunities to give others a chance at a better life. Take advantage of these opportunities when they arise. Whatever you do with your Harvard education, please be known at least as much for your humility, kindness, and concern for others as for your professional accomplishments. Recognize the role that good fortune and circumstance have played in your life, and please work to extend opportunity to others just as it has been extended to you.

That is how you will sustain the pride and joy you feel today. And that’s the truth.

“Let Us Reclaim the Space in Between”

Citing the Commencement address by Benazir Bhutto ’73, LL.D. ’89, then prime minister of Pakistan , this year’s guest speaker, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, LL.D. ’22, recalled her warning that “democracy…can be fragile.” Ardern then explained:

This imperfect but precious way that we organize ourselves, that has been created to give equal voice to the weak and to the strong, that is designed to help drive consensus—it is fragile.

For years it feels as though we have assumed that the fragility of democracy was determined by duration. That somehow the strength of your democracy was like a marriage—the longer you’d been in it, the more likely it was to stick.

But that takes so much for granted.

It ignores the fact that the foundation of a strong democracy includes trust in institutions, experts, and government—and that this can be built up over decades but torn down in mere years.

It ignores that a strong democracy relies on debate and dialogue, and that even the oldest regimes can seek to control these forums, and the youngest can seek to liberate them.

It ignores what happens, when regardless of how long your democracy has been tried and tested—when facts are turned into fiction, and fiction turned into fact, you stop debating ideas and you start debating conspiracy.

It ignores the reality of what we are now being confronted by every single day.

Ardern recalled growing up in a rural town of 5,000 where “I lived in that important space that sits between difference and division.” She was “raised a Mormon in a town where the dominant religions were Catholic, Anglican, and Rugby. I was a woman interested in…left-wing politics, in a region that had never in its entire democratic history, elected anyone other than a conservative candidate.” Yet those differences were “a part of my identity, but never a source of isolation.” But now, in an era of social media, she said:

[A]s the opportunities to connect expanded, humans did what we have always done. We organised ourselves.…

We logged on in our billions, forming tribes and sub tribes. We published our thoughts, feelings, and ideas freely. We found a place to share information, facts, fiction dressed up as facts, memes, and more cat videos than you ever thought possible.

We found a place to experience new ways of thinking and to celebrate our difference.

But increasingly, we use it to do neither of those things.

I doubt anyone has ever created a group titled “political views I disagree with, but choose to enter into respectful dialogue with to better understand alternative perspectives.”

As humans, we are naturally predisposed to reinforce our own views, to gather with people like us and avoid the dreaded sense of cognitive dissonance. We seek validation, confirmation, reinforcement. And increasingly with the help of algorithms, what we seek, we are served, sometimes before we even know we’re looking.

Accordingly:

The time has come for social media companies and other online providers to recognise their power and to act on it.

That means upholding their own basic terms of service.

That means recognising the role they play in constantly curating and shaping the online environments that we’re in. That algorithmic processes make choices and decisions for us—what we see and where we are directed —and that at best this means the user experience is personalised and at worst it means it can be radicalised.

It means, that there is a pressing and urgent need for responsible algorithm development and deployment.

We have the forums for online providers and social media companies to work on these issues alongside civil society and governments. And we have every reason to do it…because the time has come.

At the same time, she told the graduates not to “overlook the impact of simple steps that are right in front of us”:

To make a choice to treat difference with empathy and kindness.

Those values that exist in the space between difference and division. The very things we teach our children, but then view as weakness in our leaders.

The issues we navigate as a society will only intensify. The disinformation will only increase. The pull into the comfort of our tribes will be magnified. But we have it within us to ensure that this doesn’t mean we fracture.

We are the richer for our difference, and poorer for our division. Through genuine debate and dialogue, through rebuilding trust in information and one another, through empathy—let us reclaim the space in between.

  Read the full address at harvardmag.com/371-ardern-22 .

“The Urgent Need to Defend Democracy”

Speaking at the May 29 celebration for the classes of 2020 and 2021, U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland ’74, J.D. ’77 (who declined an honorary degree, in light of his current responsibilities), talked seriously about what citizens owe one another at a time of rising political violence and threats of violence, unwillingness to accept the peaceful transfer of power, and acts of racially motivated terrorism and mass murders.

There is one particular reason that makes my call to public service especially urgent for your generation. It is an urgency that should move each of you, regardless of the career you choose. It is the urgent need to defend democracy.

Both at home and abroad, we are seeing the many ways in which democracy is under threat.

I want to start with democracy abroad, as I am well aware of the international students in this audience.…

When I was graduating from college, there were many things to worry about in the outside world, including the threat of another land war in Europe. But with the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, that threat seemed to recede from the possible to the improbable.

Now that land war is upon us. Russia’s unprovoked and unjust invasion of Ukraine this February has been accompanied by heartbreaking atrocities…

[I]f anything can pull us together as a country and as an international community—and make clear the stake we all have in the success of democracy both at home and abroad—this heinous invasion by an authoritarian government is it.

At home, we are also facing threats to democracy—different in kind, but threats, nonetheless.

We see them in efforts to undermine the right to vote.

We see them in the violence and threats of violence that are directed at people because of who they are or how they serve the public.

We saw them when a violent mob stormed the United States Capitol in an attempt to prevent the peaceful transfer of power.

First, I want to talk about the right to vote.

Shortly before I started high school, Congress passed the Voting Rights Act of 1965, thanks to the persistent calls to action of the Civil Rights Movement. That Act gave the Justice Department important tools to protect the cornerstone of our democracy—the right of all eligible citizens to vote.

But while many of you were in high school, the Supreme Court significantly weakened those protections. And while you were in college or graduate school, Court decisions weakened them even further.

Following those decisions, there has been a dramatic increase in legislative efforts that make it harder for millions of eligible voters to vote and to elect representatives of their own choice.

Those efforts threaten the foundation of our system of government. And there may be worse to come.

Some have even suggested giving state legislatures the power to set aside the choice of the voters themselves.

That is not the way a representative democracy is supposed to work.

As I said before, when I was sitting where you are sitting today, there were many things to worry about. But it never occurred to me that the right to vote would again be threatened in this country.

Garland also spoke about the threats against public officials, and the January 6, 2021, attempt to disrupt Congress as it met to certify the Electoral College vote. “Like the threat to voting rights, this kind of direct attack on an American institution is something I never worried about as I was graduating from college,” he said. “There had been such attacks on foreign capitals in foreign lands. But a storming of the U.S. Capitol itself had not taken place since the War of 1812.” As the Department of Justice defends democracy, he continued, it cannot proceed alone. Beyond exhorting the recent graduates to pursue public service, he said:

Finally, the preservation of democracy requires our willingness to tell the truth. Together, we must ensure that the magnitude of an event like January 6th is not downplayed or understated. The commitment to the peaceful transfer of power must be respected by every American. Our democracy depends upon it.

Read the full address at harvardmag.com/comm-2021-22 .

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Break down walls. Vanquish villains. Stand up and speak out. Facts and truth matter.

6 past harvard commencement speakers offer inspiring messages of justice, courage, resilience, empathy.

Harvard graduates this week will hear from two high-profile leaders, New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland, Thursday and Sunday. Ahead of the ceremonies, we look back at Commencement addresses from recent years.

“My philosophy is very simple. When you see something that’s not right, not fair, not just, stand up, say something, and speak out.”

U.S. Rep. John Lewis

2018 The Civil Rights icon delivers a powerful message on the importance of truth, justice, and equality at a time when those values have come under assault.

Thank you so much for those kind words of introduction. I must tell you that I’m delighted, very pleased and really happy to be here. You look good! The weather is good, rain stayed away. I’m happy. It’s good to see each and every one of you. Fellows of Harvard University, members of the Board of Overseers, members of the alumni board, distinguished deans, guests, faculty and all of the students, all of the wonderful graduates, and madam president, thank you. Thank you for your leadership, thank you for getting in good trouble! Necessary trouble. To lead this great University.

I want to take just a moment to honor the tenure of a great leader, who, through her courage and vision, worked to lead this historic university to even higher heights. Madam president, thank you for being a friend, but more importantly, thank you for using your office to move Harvard toward a more all-inclusive institution. Somewhere along the way, you realized that the brilliant mind is not confined to one discipline or one way of thinking.

In fact, true genius sees connections and relationships across barriers, to build a new understanding of the world around us. Creating one Harvard is much like the work I dedicated my life to. Ever since as a young girl you wrote a letter to President Eisenhower as a little girl, you have been responding to the cry for human dignity that rings out in our world. You used your vision and your talent, you used the great resources of this university to respond to that call, and I thank you. Thank you for your contribution to human unity in our world.

Today I say to each and every one of you who graduated from this University, you must lead. You’re never too young to lead, you’re never too old to lead! We need your leadership now more than ever before. We need it! We must save our country! We must save it! We must save our democracy. There are forces in America today and around the world trying to take us to some other place. Our foremothers and forefathers brought us to this place. Maybe our foremothers and our forefathers all came to this great land in different ships but as the late great A. Philip Randolph said “we are all in the same boat now” and we must look out for each other and care for each other. You’re never too young or too old to lead! To speak up! Speak out! And get in good trouble, necessary trouble. You cannot afford to stand on the sidelines.

Another generation of young people and people not so young are inspired to get in the way. Students from Harvard, Dr. Cole, who I have been knowing for many years came to Mississippi, came to the South and gave everything you had. During the 63 young men that I knew, Andrew Goodman, Michael Schwermer, and James Chaney gave their very lives while they were helping people to register to vote. The vote is precious. It’s almost sacred. It is the most powerful, nonviolent instrument or tool we have in a democratic society and we must use t if we fail to use it, we will lose it.

So during this election year, I urge you, I plead with you to do what you can to save and rescue America. To do what you can to save the planet! Save this spaceship we call earth and leave it a little cleaner, a little greener, and a little more peaceful. For generations yet unborn. We have a mission and a mandate to go out there, play a role and play it so well as Dr. King would say, that no one else can play it any better. Some of you have heard me say from time to time that I grew up in rural Alabama on a farm, picking cotton, gathering peanuts, gathering corn. Sometimes I would be out there working and my mother would say, “boy, you’re falling behind! You need to catch up.” And I would say “this is hard work.” And she said “hard work never killed anybody.” And I said “well it’s about to kill me!” We need to work hard! There is work to be done. These smart graduates will lead us. High school students lead us, and guys, I say to you, if you’re not mindful, the women are going to lead us! It is my belief, it is my feeling as a traveler of America that the women and young. People, high school students, elementary school students and College students will lead us as part of a nonviolent revolution. We will create an America that is better, a little more humane and no one, but no one can deny us of that.

I just want to say one or two words to the graduates. Take a deep breath and take it all in. But tomorrow, I hope you roll up your sleeves, because the world is waiting for talented men and women to lead it to a better place. During the 60s, people literally put their bodies on the line! Many came from this University, came from Cambridge, from Boston, throughout the state and throughout America. Just think a few short years ago that Black people and white people couldn’t be seated together on a Greyhound business or trailway bus, leaving Washington, D.C., to travel through Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi. We were on our way to New Orleans to test a decision of the United States Supreme Court. We were beaten, arrested, and more than 400 of us were jailed. My seatmate was a young white gentleman from Connecticut. We arrived in a small town in South Carolina. We were beaten, left bloody. But many years later, and this was May 1961, same year that Barack Obama was born, but many years later, one of the guys that beat us came to my office in Washington. He got information from a local reporter. He was in his 70s, his son came with him in his 40s. He said, “Mr. Lewis, I’m one of the people that beat you. Beat your seatmate. I’ve been a member of the Klan.” He said “will you forgive me? I want to apologize. Will you accept my apology? Will you forgive me?” His son started crying, he started crying and I said, “I forgive you. I accept your apology.” They hugged me, I hugged them back, and I cried with them. It is the power of the way of peace, the power of love, it is the power of the philosophy and discipline of nonviolence. We need to create a society where we can be reconciled and lay down the burden of hath for hate is too heavy of a burden to bear.

Fifty years ago the man that I admired, the man that was like a brother, Martin Luther King Jr., was taken from us. When we heard that Dr. King had been assassinated I was in Indianapolis, Indiana, campaigning with Bobby Kennedy. I cried. Stopped crying and I said to myself “we still have bobby.” Two months later Bobby Kennedy was gone. And I cried some more. Today we’ve got to get rid of our are tears and not be down. And not get lost in the sea of despair. We’ve got to be hopeful and keep the faith and turn the ship around. We can do it and we must do it!

Here at Harvard you’ve been well trained. You must lead. You must get out there and as Dr. King would say, be a headlight, not a taillight! It’s your time, it’s your calling. During the 60s I got arrested a few times, 40 times! And since I’ve been in Congress another five times! And I’m probably going to get arrested again! My philosophy is very simple, when you see something that is not right, not fair, not just, stand up! Say something! Speak up and speak out!

When I was growing up as a young boy in rural Alabama, 50 miles from Montgomery, I had an aunt by the name of Seneva and my aunt lived in a shotgun house. Here at Harvard you never seen a shotgun house, you don’t even know what I’m talking about. One way in, one way out. What is a shotgun house? Old house, dirt yard. Sometimes my aunt Seneva would go out on the weekend, Friday or Saturday, and take a brush broom made from dogwood branches and sweep the yard very clean. One Saturday afternoon few of my brothers and sisters, cousins, about 15 of us young children were playing in her dirt yard. And an unbelievable storm came up. The wind started blowing, the thunder started rolling and the lightning started flashing and she told us to come in. We went in. The wind continued to blow, the thunder continued to roll, the lightning continued to flash, and the rain continued to beat on this old tin roof of the shotgun house. And we cried and cried. And in one corner of the old house appeared to be lifting up. And my aunt walked over to that side to hold the house down with her body. When the other corner appeared to be lifting she had us walk to that corner, we were children walking with the wind, but we never, ever left the house! I say to each of you, each and every one of us, the wind may blow, the thunder may roll, the lightning may flash, and the rain may beat down on an old house. Call it a house of Harvard, call it a house of Cambridge, call it a house of Boston, call it the house of Washington, or Alabama or Georgia, we all live in the same house. We all must hold our little house down. So I say to you: Walk with the wind. Let the spirit of history be your guide.

Thank you very much.

“Rock bottom became the solid foundation on which I rebuilt my life.”

J.K. Rowling

2008 Drawing from her own life story, the “Harry Potter” author urges graduates not to fear failure but to learn from it and emphasized the power of empathy and imagination.

Read the speech.

“If we break down the walls that hem us in, if we step out into the open and have the courage to embrace new beginnings, everything is possible.”

Angela Merkel

2019 Like the Berlin Wall, “anything that seems set in stone or inalterable can indeed change,” Germany’s first woman chancellor said.

Herman Hesse wrote, “In all beginnings dwells a magic force for guarding us and helping us to live.” These words by Herman Hesse inspired me when I completed my physics degree at the age of 24. That was back in 1978. The world was divided into east and west, and it was in the grips of the Cold War. I grew up in East Germany, in the GDR, the part of my country which was not free at that time, in a dictatorship. People were oppressed and under state surveillance. Political dissidents were persecuted. The East German government was afraid that the people would flee to freedom. And that’s why it built the Berlin Wall, a wall made of concrete and steel. Anyone caught trying to overcome it was arrested or shot dead. This wall, which cut Berlin in half, divided a people and it divided families. My family was also divided.My first job after college was as a physicist at the Academy of Sciences in East Berlin. I lived near the Berlin Wall. I walked towards it every day on my way home from my institute. Behind it lay West Berlin, freedom. And every day, when I was very close to the wall, I had to turn away at the last minute in order to head towards my apartment. Every day, I had to turn away from freedom at the last minute. I don’t know how often I thought that I just couldn’t take it anymore. It was so frustrating.

Now, I was not a dissident. I didn’t run up and bang against the wall. Nor, however, did I deny its existence, for I didn’t want to lie to myself. The Berlin Wall limited my opportunities. It quite literally stood in my way. However, there was one thing which this wall couldn’t do during all those years. It couldn’t impose limits on my inner thoughts. My personality, my imagination, my dreams and desires, prohibitions or coercion couldn’t limit any of that. Then came 1989. A common desire for freedom unleashed incredible forces throughout Europe. In Poland, in Hungary, in Czechoslovakia, as well as in East Germany, hundreds of thousands of people dared to take to the streets. The people demonstrated and brought down the wall. Something which many people, including myself, would not have believed possible became reality. Where there was once only a dark wall, a door suddenly opened. For me, too, the moment had come to walk through that door. I no longer had to turn away from freedom at the last minute. I was able to cross this border and venture out into the great wide open.

During these months, 30 years ago, I experienced firsthand that nothing has to stay the way it is. This experience, dear graduates, is the first thought I want to share with you today for your future. Anything that seems to be set in stone or inalterable can, indeed, change. In matters both large and small, it holds true that every change begins in the mind. My parents’ generation discovered this in a most painful way. My father and mother were born in 1926 and 1928.

When they weren’t as old as most of you here today, the betrayal of all civilized well values that was the Shoah and World War II had just ended. My country, Germany, had brought unimaginable suffering on Europe and the world. The victors and the defeated could easily have remained irreconcilable for many years, but instead, Europe overcame centuries old conflicts. A peaceful order based on common values rather than suppose at national strength emerged. Despite all the discussions and temporary setbacks, I firmly believe that we Europeans have United for the better. And the relationship between Germans and Americans, too, demonstrates how former wartime enemies can become friends.

It was George Marshall who gave a crucial contribution to this for the plan he announced at the commencement ceremonies in 1947 in this very place. The transatlantic partnership based on values, such as democracy and human rights, has given us an era of peace and prosperity of benefit to all sides, which has lasted for more than 70 years now. And today, it will not be long now before the politicians of my generation are no longer the subject of the exercising leadership program, and at most will be dealt with in leadership in history. Harvard class of 2019, your generation will be faced with the challenges of the 21st century in the coming decades. You are among those who will lead us into the future.

Protectionism and trade conflicts, jeopardize free international trade, and thus the very foundations of our prosperity. The digital transformation affects all facets of our lives, wars and terrorism lead to displacement and forced migration, climate change poses a threat to our planet’s natural resources, it and the resulting crises are caused by humans. Therefore, we can and must do everything humanly possible to truly master this challenge to humankind. It’s still possible. However, each and every one of us must play our part. And I say this with a measure of self criticism, get better. I will therefore do everything in my power to ensure that Germany, my country, will achieve climate neutrality by 2050. Changes for the better are possible if we tackle them together. If we were to go it alone, we could not achieve much. The second thought I want to share with you is therefore, more than ever our way of thinking and our actions have to be multilateral rather than unilateral, global rather than national, outward looking rather than isolationists. In short, we have to work together rather than alone.

You, dear graduates, will have quite different opportunities to do this in future than my generation did. After all, your smartphone probably has considerably more processing power than the copy of an IBM mainframe computer manufactured in the Soviet Union, which I was allowed to use for my dissertation in East Germany in 1986.

Today we use artificial intelligence, for example, to search through millions of images for symptoms of diseases.In order, among other things, to better diagnose cancer. In future, empathetic robots could help doctors and nurses to focus on the individual needs of patients. We cannot predict today which applications will be possible. However, the opportunities it brings are truly breathtaking.

Class of 2019, how we use these opportunities will be largely up to you as graduates. You are the ones who will be involved in deciding how our approach to how we work, communicate, get about, indeed, our entire way of life will develop. As federal chancellor, I often have to ask myself, “Am I doing the right thing?” “Am I doing something? Because it isn’t right? Or simply because it is possible.” That is something you two need to keep asking yourselves. And that is the third thought I wish to share with you today.

Are we laying down the rules for technology or is technology dictating how we interact? Do we prioritize people as individuals with their human dignity and all their many facets? Or do we see in them merely consumers, data sources, objects of surveyance. These are difficult questions.

I have learned that we can find good answers even to difficult questions if we always try to view the world through the eyes of others. If we respect other people’s history, traditions, religion, and identity. If we hold fast to our inalienable values and act in accordance with them. And if we don’t always act on our first impulses, even when there is pressure to make a snap decision.

But instead take a moment to stop. Be still. Think. Pause. Granted, that certainly takes courage. Above all it calls for truthfulness in our attitude towards others. And perhaps most importantly, it calls for us to be honest with ourselves.

What better place to begin to do so than here, in this place, where so many young people from all over the world come to learn, research, and discuss the issues of our time under the maxim of truth. That requires us not to describe lies as truth and truth as lies. It requires us not to accept shortcomings as our normality. Yet what, dear graduates, could stop you? What could stop us from doing that?

Once again, the answer is walls.

Walls in people’s minds. Walls of ignorance and narrow-mindedness. They exist between family members, as well as between groups within the society, between people of different skin colors, nations, and religions. I would like us to break down these walls. Walls that keep preventing us from envisioning the world in which, together, we want to live.

Whether we manage to do that is up to us. That’s why my full thought for you, dear graduates, to consider is this. Nothing can be taken for granted. Our individual liberties are not givens. Democracy is not something we can take for granted. Neither is peace and neither is prosperity.

But if we break down… If we break down the walls that hem us in, if we step out into the open and have the courage to embrace new beginnings, everything is possible. Walls can collapse. Dictatorships can disappear. We can halt global warming. We can eradicate starvation. We can eliminate diseases. We can give people, especially girls, access to education. We can fight the causes of displacement and forced migration. We can do all of that. Let’s not start by asking what isn’t possible, or focusing on what has always been that way. Let’s start by asking what is possible and looking for things that have never been done like that before. This is exactly what I said to the Bundestag, the German Parliament, in 2005 in my first policy statement as newly elected Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany and the first woman to hold this office. I want to use precisely these words to share with you my fifth thought. Let us surprise ourselves by showing what is possible. Let us surprise ourselves by showing what we are capable of. In my own life, it was the fall of the Berlin Wall that allowed me almost 30 years ago to step out into the open. At that point, I left my work as a scientist behind me and entered politics. That was an exciting and magical time, just as your lives will be exciting and magical.

I also experienced moments of doubt and worry, for at that time, we all knew what lay behind us, but not what might lie ahead. Perhaps that reflects a little how you, too, are feeling today, amidst all the joy of this occasion.

The six thought I also want to share with you is this. The moment when you step out into the open is also a moment of risk-taking. Letting go of the old is part of a new beginning. There is no beginning without an end, no day without night, no life without death. Our whole life consists of the difference, the space between beginning and ending.

It is what lies in between that we call life and experience. I believe at time and time again, we need to be prepared to keep bringing things to an end in order to feel the magic of new beginnings and to make the most of opportunities. That was what I learned as a student, and it is what I now in politics. Who knows what life will bring after my time as a politician? That, too, is completely open. Only one thing is clear. It will again be something different and something new.

That’s why I want to leave this wish with you. Tear down walls of ignorance and narrow mindedness for nothing has to stay as it is.

It’s six things. Take joint action in the interest of the moderate lateral global world. Keep asking yourselves, “Am I doing something because it is right, or simply because it’s possible?” Don’t forget that freedom is never something that can be taken for granted. Surprise yourself with what is possible. Remember that openness always involves risks. Letting go of the old is part of the new beginning. Above all, nothing can be taken for granted. Everything is possible. Thank you.

“In a two-hour movie, you get a handful of character-defining moments, but in real life, you face them every day. Life is one strong, long string of character-defining moments.”

Steven Spielberg

2016 Don’t shy away from the world’s pain, the filmmaker urged grads. Instead, examine it, challenge it and, while you’re at it, find “a villain to vanquish.”

Thank you, thank you, President Faust, and Paul Choi, thank you so much.

It’s an honor and a thrill to address this group of distinguished alumni and supportive friends and kvelling parents. We’ve all gathered to share in the joy of this day, so please join me in congratulating Harvard’s Class of 2016.

I can remember my own college graduation, which is easy, since it was only 14 years ago. How many of you took 37 years to graduate? Because, like most of you, I began college in my teens, but sophomore year, I was offered my dream job at Universal Studios, so I dropped out. I told my parents if my movie career didn’t go well, I’d re-enroll. It went all right.But eventually, I returned for one big reason. Most people go to college for an education, and some go for their parents, but I went for my kids. I’m the father of seven, and I kept insisting on the importance of going to college, but I hadn’t walked the walk. So, in my fifties, I re-enrolled at Cal State — Long Beach, and I earned my degree.I just have to add: It helped that they gave me course credit in paleontology for the work I did on Jurassic Park. That’s three units for Jurassic Park, thank you. Well I left college because I knew exactly what I wanted to do, and some of you know, too — but some of you don’t. Or maybe you thought you knew but are now questioning that choice. Maybe you’re sitting there trying to figure out how to tell your parents that you want to be a doctor and not a comedy writer.

Well, what you choose to do next is what we call in the movies the “character-defining moment.” Now, these are moments you’re very familiar with, like in the last “Star Wars: The Force Awakens,” when Rey realizes the force is with her. Or Indiana Jones choosing mission over fear by jumping over a pile of snakes. Now in a two-hour movie, you get a handful of character-defining moments, but in real life, you face them every day. Life is one strong, long string of character-defining moments. And I was lucky that at 18 I knew what I exactly wanted to do. But I didn’t know who I was. How could I? And how could any of us? Because for the first 25 years of our lives, we are trained to listen to voices that are not our own. Parents and professors fill our heads with wisdom and information, and then employers and mentors take their place and explain how this world really works. And usually these voices of authority make sense, but sometimes, doubt starts to creep into our heads and into our hearts. And even when we think, “that’s not quite how I see the world,” it’s kind of easier to just to nod in agreement and go along, and for a while, I let that going along define my character. Because I was repressing my own point of view, because like in that Nilsson song, “Everybody was talkin’ at me, so I couldn’t hear the echoes of my mind.” And at first, the internal voice I needed to listen to was hardly audible, and it was hardly noticeable — kind of like me in high school.

But then I started paying more attention, and my intuition kicked in. And I want to be clear that your intuition is different from your conscience. They work in tandem, but here’s the distinction: Your conscience shouts, “here’s what you should do,” while your intuition whispers, “here’s what you could do.” Listen to that voice that tells you what you could do. Nothing will define your character more than that. Because once I turned to my intuition, and I tuned into it, certain projects began to pull me into them, and others, I turned away from. And up until the 1980s, my movies were mostly, I guess what you could call “escapist.” And I don’t dismiss any of these movies — not even 1941. Not even that one. And many of these early films reflected the values that I cared deeply about, and I still do. But I was in a celluloid bubble, because I’d cut my education short, my worldview was limited to what I could dream up in my head, not what the world could teach me.

But then I directed “The Color Purple.” And this one film opened my eyes to experiences that I never could have imagined, and yet were all too real. This story was filled with deep pain and deeper truths, like when Shug Avery says, “Everything wants to be loved.” My gut, which was my intuition, told me that more people needed to meet these characters and experience these truths. And while making that film, I realized that a movie could also be a mission. I hope all of you find that sense of mission. Don’t turn away from what’s painful. Examine it. Challenge it. My job is to create a world that lasts two hours. Your job is to create a world that lasts forever. You are the future innovators, motivators, leaders and caretakers. And the way you create a better future is by studying the past.

“Jurassic Park” writer Michael Crichton, who graduated from both this college and this medical school, liked to quote a favorite professor of his who said that if you didn’t know history, you didn’t know anything. You were a leaf that didn’t know it was part of a tree. So history majors: Good choice, you’re in great shape…Not in the job market, but culturally. The rest of us have to make a little effort. Social media that we’re inundated and swarmed with is about the here and now. But I’ve been fighting and fighting inside my own family to get all my kids to look behind them, to look at what already has happened. Because to understand who they are is to understand who we were, and who their grandparents were, and then, what this country was like when they emigrated here. We are a nation of immigrants at least for now.

So to me, this means we all have to tell our own stories. We have so many stories to tell. Talk to your parents and your grandparents, if you can, and ask them about their stories. And I promise you, like I have promised my kids, you will not be bored. And that’s why I so often make movies based on real-life events. I look to history not to be didactic, cause that’s just a bonus, but I look because the past is filled with the greatest stories that have ever been told. Heroes and villains are not literary constructs, but they’re at the heart of all history.

And again, this is why it’s so important to listen to your internal whisper. It’s the same one that compelled Abraham Lincoln and Oskar Schindler to make the correct moral choices. In your defining moments, do not let your morals be swayed by convenience or expediency. Sticking to your character requires a lot of courage. And to be courageous, you’re going to need a lot of support.And if you’re lucky, you have parents like mine. I consider my mom my lucky charm. And when I was 12 years old, my father handed me a movie camera, the tool that allowed me to make sense of this world. And I am so grateful to him for that. And I am grateful that he’s here at Harvard, sitting right down there. My dad is 99 years old, which means he’s only one year younger than Widener Library. But unlike Widener, he’s had zero cosmetic work. And dad, there’s a lady behind you, also 99, and I’ll introduce you after this is over, okay? But look, if your family’s not always available, there’s backup. Near the end of “It’s a Wonderful Life” — you remember that movie, “It’s a Wonderful Life”? Clarence the Angel inscribes a book with this: “No man is a failure who has friends.” And I hope you hang on to the friendships you’ve made here at Harvard. And among your friends, I hope you find someone you want to share your life with.

I imagine some of you in this yard may be a tad cynical, but I want to be unapologetically sentimental. I spoke about the importance of intuition and how there’s no greater voice to follow. That is, until you meet the love of your life. And this is what happened when I met and married Kate, and that became the greatest character-defining moment of my life.Love, support, courage, intuition. All of these things are in your hero’s quiver, but still, a hero needs one more thing: A hero needs a villain to vanquish. And you’re all in luck. This world is full of monsters. And there’s racism, homophobia, ethnic hatred, class hatred, there’s political hatred, and there’s religious hatred.As a kid, I was bullied — for being Jewish. This was upsetting, but compared to what my parents and grandparents had faced, it felt tame. Because we truly believed that anti-Semitism was fading. And we were wrong. Over the last two years, nearly 20,000 Jews have left Europe to find higher ground. And earlier this year, I was at the Israeli embassy when President Obama stated the sad truth. He said: “We must confront the reality that around the world, anti-Semitism is on the rise. We cannot deny it.”

My own desire to confront that reality compelled me to start, in 1994, the Shoah Foundation. And since then, we’ve spoken to over 53,000 Holocaust survivors and witnesses in 63 countries and taken all their video testimonies. And we’re now gathering testimonies from genocides in Rwanda, Cambodia, Armenia and Nanking. Because we must never forget that the inconceivable doesn’t happen — it happens frequently. Atrocities are happening right now. And so we wonder not just, “When will this hatred end?” but, “How did it begin?”

Now, I don’t have to tell a crowd of Red Sox fans that we are wired for tribalism. But beyond rooting for the home team, tribalism has a much darker side. Instinctively and maybe even genetically, we divide the world into “us” and “them.” So the burning question must be: How do all of us together find the “we?” How do we do that? There’s still so much work to be done, and sometimes I feel the work hasn’t even begun. And it’s not just anti-Semitism that’s surging — Islamophobia’s on the rise, too. Because there’s no difference between anyone who is discriminated against, whether it’s the Muslims, or the Jews, or minorities on the border states, or the LGBT community — it is all big one hate.

And to me, and, I think, to all of you, the only answer to more hate is more humanity. We gotta repair — we have to replace fear with curiosity. “Us” and “them” — we’ll find the “we” by connecting with each other. And by believing that we’re members of the same tribe. And by feeling empathy for every soul — even Yalies.

My son graduated from Yale, thank you …

But make sure this empathy isn’t just something that you feel. Make it something you act upon. That means vote. Peaceably protest. Speak up for those who can’t and speak up for those who may be shouting but aren’t being hard. Let your conscience shout as loud as it wants if you’re using it in the service of others.

And as an example of action in service of others, you need to look no further than this Hollywood-worthy backdrop of Memorial Church. Its south wall bears the names of Harvard alumni — like President Faust has already mentioned — students and faculty members, who gave their lives in World War II. All told, 697 souls, who once tread the ground where stand now, were lost. And at a service in this church in late 1945, Harvard President James Conant — which President Faust also mentioned — honored the brave and called upon the community to “reflect the radiance of their deeds.”

Seventy years later, this message still holds true. Because their sacrifice is not a debt that can be repaid in a single generation. It must be repaid with every generation. Just as we must never forget the atrocities, we must never forget those who fought for freedom. So as you leave this college and head out into the world, continue please to ‘reflect the radiance of their deeds,’ or as Captain Miller in Saving Private Ryan would say, “Earn this.”

And please stay connected. Please never lose eye contact. This may not be a lesson you want to hear from a person who creates media, but we are spending more time looking down at our devices than we are looking in each other’s eyes. So, forgive me, but let’s start right now. Everyone here, please find someone’s eyes to look into. Students, and alumni and you too, President Faust, all of you, turn to someone you don’t know or don’t know very well. They may be standing behind you, or a couple of rows ahead. Just let your eyes meet. That’s it. That emotion you’re feeling is our shared humanity mixed in with a little social discomfort.

But, if you remember nothing else from today, I hope you remember this moment of human connection. And I hope you all had a lot of that over the past four years. Because today you start down the path of becoming the generation on which the next generation stands. And I’ve imagined many possible futures in my films, but you will determine the actual future. And I hope that it’s filled with justice and peace.

And finally, I wish you all a true, Hollywood-style happy ending. I hope you outrun the T. rex, catch the criminal and for your parents’ sake, maybe every now and then, just like E.T.: Go home. Thank you.

“Facts and truth are matters of life and death. Misinformation, disinformation, delusions, and deceit can kill.”

Martin Baron

2020 “Imperfect though [it] may be” an independent press is key to ensuring that facts are presented and truth defended in society,” the Washington Post executive editor said.

Good morning from my home. Like you, I wish we were together on campus.There is so much now we can no longer take for granted. The air we breathe is first among them. So, those of us who are healthy have ample reason to be grateful. I am also grateful to Harvard and to President Bacow for inviting me to be with you. To the Harvard Class of 2020, congratulations. And congratulations to the parents, professors, mentors and friends who helped you along the way. Joining you for graduation is a high honor.

For me, this is an opportunity – an opportunity to speak about subjects that I believe are of real urgency. Especially now during a worldwide health emergency.

I would like to discuss with you the need for a commitment to facts and to truth. Only a few months ago, I would have settled for emphasizing that our democracy depends on facts and truth. And it surely does. But now, as we can plainly see, it is more elemental than that.

Facts and truth are matters of life and death. Misinformation, disinformation, delusions and deceit can kill. Here is what can move us forward: Science and medicine. Study and knowledge. Expertise and reason. In other words, fact and truth. I want to tell you why free expression by all of us and an independent press, imperfect though we may be, is essential to getting at the truth. And why we must hold government to account. And hold other powerful interests to account as well.When I began thinking about these remarks, I expected, of course, to be on Harvard’s campus. And I thought: Not a bad place to talk about a free press. Not a bad place to talk about our often-testy relationship with official power.

It was in Boston, after all, where the first newspaper of the American colonies was founded. Its first edition was published September 25th, 1690. The very next day, the governor and council of Massachusetts shut it down. So, the press of this country has long known what it means to face a government that aims to silence it. Fortunately, there has been progress. With the First Amendment, James Madison championed the right of “freely examining public characters and measures.”

But it took a very long time before we as a nation fully absorbed what Madison was talking about. We took many ominous turns. We had the Alien and Sedition acts under John Adams, the Sedition and Espionage Acts under Woodrow Wilson, the McCarthy era. It was not always clear where we as a nation would end up.

Finally, witnessing the authoritarianism of Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan, we began to secure a free press in this country. The Supreme Court would forcefully emphasize the press’ role in guaranteeing a democracy. Justice Hugo Black said it well decades later: “The press was protected so that it could bare the secrets of government and inform the people.” Not only the secrets of government, I would add. Our duty to inform the public does not stop there. Not by a long shot.

That was evident during my years as a journalist in Boston. Amid today’s crisis, it seems like another era. And I guess it is. But I want to tell you about it — because I think it remains instructive about what a strong, independent press must do.

I started as editor of the Boston Globe in the summer of 2001. One day prior to my start date, a Globe columnist wrote about a shocking case. A priest had been accused of abusing as many as 80 kids. A lawsuit alleged that the cardinal in Boston at the time knew about the serial abuse, didn’t do anything about it — and repeatedly reassigned this priest from parish to parish, warning no one, over decades. The Archdiocese called the accusations baseless and reckless. The Globe columnist wrote that the truth might never be known. Internal documents that might reveal it had been sealed by a judge. On my first day of work, we asked the question: How do we get at the truth? Because the public deserved to know.

That question led us to challenge the judge’s secrecy order. And our journalists launched an investigation of their own. In early 2002, we published what we had learned through reporting and by prevailing in court. We published the truth: The cardinal did know about the abuse by this priest. Yet he kept him in ministry, thus enabling further abuse. Dozens of clergy in the diocese had committed similar offenses. The cardinal had covered it all up.

And a bigger truth would emerge: Covering up such abuse had been practice and policy in the Church for decades. Only now the powerful were being held to account.

Late in 2002, after hundreds of stories on this subject, I received a letter from a Father Thomas P. Doyle. Father Doyle had struggled for years – in vain — to get the Church to confront the very issue we were writing about. He expressed deep gratitude for our work. “It is momentous,” he wrote, “and its good effects will reverberate for decades.” Father Doyle did not see journalists as the enemy. He saw us an ally when one was sorely needed. So did abuse survivors. I kept Father Doyle’s letter on my desk — a daily reminder of what journalists must do when we see evidence of wrongdoing.

Harvard’s commencement speaker two years ago, civil rights pioneer John Lewis, once said this: “When you see something that is not right, not fair, not just, you have to speak up. You have to say something; you have to do something.” We as journalists have the capacity – along with the constitutional right — to say and do something. We also have the obligation. And we must have the will. So must you. Every one of you has a stake in this idea of free expression. You want to be free to express your views. You should be free to hear the views of others, the same or different. You want to be free to watch any movie. To read any book. To listen to any lyrics. You should be free to say what you know is true without threat of government reprisal.And you should acknowledge this if you value these freedoms that come with democracy: Democracy cannot exist without a free and independent press. It never has.

Leaders who crave more power for themselves always move quickly to crush an independent press. Next, they destroy free expression itself. Sadly, much of the world is on that worrisome path. And efforts in this country to demonize, delegitimize and dehumanize the press give license to other governments to do the same – and to do far worse.

By the end of last year, a near-record 250 journalists worldwide were sitting in prison. Thirty of them faced accusations of “false news,” a charge virtually unheard-of only seven years earlier.

Turkey has been trading places with China as No. 1 on the list of countries that jail the most journalists. The Turkish government has shut down more than 100 media outlets and charged many journalists as terrorists. Independent media have been largely extinguished. China, of course, imposes some of the world’s tightest censorship on what its citizens can see and hear.

In Hungary, the prime minister has waged war on independent media. Harvard Nieman fellow Andras Petho, who runs an investigative reporting center there, notes that the prime minister’s business allies are “taking over hundreds of outlets and turning them into propaganda machines.”

Like other heads of state, Hungary’s prime minister has exploited the pandemic to grab more power, suppress inconvenient facts, and escalate pressure on news outlets. A new law threatens up to five-year jail terms against those accused of spreading supposedly false information. Independent news outlets have questioned how the crisis was managed. And the fear now is that such accountability journalism will lead to harassment and arrests, as it has in other countries.

In the Philippines, the courageous Maria Ressa, who founded the country’s largest online-only news site, has been battling government harassment for years on other fronts. She now faces prosecution on bogus charges of violating foreign ownership laws. By the end of last year, she had posted bail eight times. Her real violation? She brought scrutiny to the president. In Myanmar, two Reuters journalists — Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo – were imprisoned for more than 500 days for investigating the killing of 10 Rohingya Muslim men and boys. Finally, a year ago, they were released. In 2018, an opinion writer for The Washington Post, Jamal Khashoggi, walked into Saudi Arabia’s consulate in Istanbul to get documents he needed to marry. He was murdered there at the hands of a team sent by highest-level Saudi officials. His offense? He had sharply criticized the Saudi government. In Mexico, murderous vengeance against journalists is common. Last year, at least five were killed, more than in any other country. I think also of the risks that American journalists have taken to inform the public. Among them are colleagues I can never forget.

One is Elizabeth Neuffer. Seventeen years ago this month, I stood before her friends at the Boston Globe to report that she had died covering the war in Iraq. Elizabeth was 46, an experienced foreign correspondent, a mentor to others; vivacious and brave. Her Iraqi driver was traveling at high speed because of the risk of abductions. He lost control. Elizabeth died instantly; her translator, too. Elizabeth had a record of fearlessness in investigating war crimes and human rights abuses. Her goal: Reveal the world as it is — because someone might then make things better.

Another colleague was Anthony Shadid. In 2002, I visited Anthony, then a reporter for the Globe, after he was shot and wounded in Ramallah. Lying in a hospital in Jerusalem, it was clear that he had narrowly escaped being paralyzed. Anthony recovered and went on to report from Iraq, where he won two Pulitzer Prizes for The Washington Post. From Egypt, where he was harassed by police. From Libya, where he and three New York Times colleagues were detained by pro-government militias and physically abused. He died in 2012, at age 43, while reporting in Syria, apparently of an asthma attack. Anthony told the stories of ordinary people. Without him, their voices would have gone unheard.

And now I think constantly of reporters, photographers and videographers who risk their own well-being to be with heroic frontline health workers — frontline workers of every sort – to share their stories. Anthony, Elizabeth and my present-day colleagues sought to be eyewitnesses. To see the facts for themselves. To discover the truth and tell it. As a profession, we maintain there is such a thing as fact, there is such a thing as truth.

At Harvard, where the school’s motto is “Veritas,” presumably you do, too. Truth, we know, is not a matter of who wields power or who speaks loudest. It has nothing to do with who benefits or what is most popular. And ever since the Enlightenment, modern society has rejected the idea that truth derives from any single authority on Earth.

To determine what is factual and true, we rely on certain building blocks. Start with education. Then there is expertise. And experience. And, above all, we rely on evidence. We see that acutely now when people’s health can be jeopardized by false claims, wishful thinking and invented realities. The public’s safety requires the honest truth. Yet education, expertise, experience and evidence are being devalued, dismissed and denied. The goal is clear: to undermine the very idea of objective fact, all in pursuit of political gain. Along with that is a systematic effort to disqualify traditional independent arbiters of fact. The press tops the list of targets. But others populate the list, too: courts, historians, even scientists and medical professionals – subject-matter experts of every type.

And so today the government’s leading scientists find their motives questioned, their qualifications mocked — despite a lifetime of dedication and achievement that has made us all safer. In any democracy, we want vigorous debate about our challenges and the correct policies. But what becomes of democracy if we cannot agree on a common set of facts, if we can’t agree on what even constitutes a fact? Are we headed for extreme tribalism, believing only what our ideological soulmates say? Or do we become so cynical that we think everyone always lies for selfish reasons? Or so nihilistic that we conclude no one can ever really know what is true or false; so, no use trying to find out? Regardless, we risk entering dangerous territory. Hannah Arendt, in 1951, wrote of this in her first major work, “The Origins of Totalitarianism.” There, she observed “the possibility that gigantic lies and monstrous falsehoods can eventually be established as unquestioned facts … that the difference between truth and falsehood may cease to be objective and may become a mere matter of power and cleverness, of pressure and infinite repetition.”

One hundred years ago – in 1920 – a renowned journalist and leading thinker, Walter Lippmann, harbored similar worries. Lippmann, once a writer for the Harvard Crimson, warned of a society where people “cease to respond to truths, and respond simply to opinions … what somebody asserts, not what actually is.” Lippmann wrote those words because of concerns about the press itself. He saw our defects and hoped we might fix them, thus improving how information got to the public.

Ours is a profession that still has many flaws. We make mistakes of fact, and we make mistakes of judgment. We are at times overly impressed with what we know when much remains for us to learn. In making mistakes, we are like people in every other profession. And we, too, must be held accountable. What frequently gets lost, though, is the contribution of a free and independent press to our communities and our country — and to the truth.

I think back to the aftermath of Hurricane Andrew in 1992 when the Miami Herald showed how lax zoning, inspection and building codes had contributed to the massive destruction. Homes and lives are safer today as a result. In 2016, the Charleston Gazette-Mail in West Virginia exposed how opioids had flooded the state’s depressed communities, contributing to the highest death rates in the country. In 2005, after Hurricane Katrina, Louisiana’s newspapers were indispensable sources of reliable information for residents. The Washington Post in 2007 revealed the shameful neglect and mistreatment of wounded veterans at Walter Reed Hospital. Corrective action was immediate. The Associated Press in 2015 documented a slave trade behind our seafood supply. Two thousand slaves were freed as a result. The New York Times and The New Yorker in 2017 exposed sexual predators in elite boardrooms. A movement of accountability for abuses against women took root. The New York Times in 1971 was the first to publish the Pentagon Papers, revealing a pattern of official deceit in a war that killed more than 58,000 Americans and countless others. The Washington Post broke open the Watergate scandal in 1972. That led ultimately to the president’s resignation.Those news organizations searched for the truth and told it, undeterred by pushback or pressure or vilification.Facing the truth can cause extreme discomfort. But history shows that we as a nation become better for that reckoning. It is in the spirit of the preamble to our Constitution: “to form a more perfect union.” Toward that end, it is an act of patriotism.

W.E.B. Du Bois, the great scholar and African American activist — and the first African American to graduate with a PhD from Harvard – cautioned against the falsification of events in relating our nation’s history. In 1935, distressed at how deceitfully America’s Reconstruction period was being taught, Du Bois assailed the propaganda of the era. “Nations reel and stagger on their way,” he wrote. “They make hideous mistakes; they commit frightful wrongs; they do great and beautiful things. And shall we not best guide humanity by telling the truth about all this, so far as the truth be ascertainable?”

At this university, you answer that question with your motto — “Veritas.” You seek the truth — with scholarship, teaching and dialogue – knowing that it really matters.My profession shares with you that mission — the always arduous, often tortuous and yet essential pursuit of truth. It is the demand that democracy makes upon us. It is the work we must do. We will keep at it. You should, too. None of us should ever stop.

Thank you for listening. Thank you for honoring me. Good luck to you all. And please, stay well.

“While the legacy of enslavement, racism, discrimination, and exclusion still influences so much of contemporary attitudes, we must never conclude that it is too late to overcome such a legacy. For it is never too late to do justice.”

Ruth J. Simmons

2021 The president of Prairie View A&M University and former president of Brown University and Smith College exhorted graduates to fight inequality and foster diversity and inclusion.

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Good day and congratulations to the Harvard University Class of 2021.

It is a singular honor to be invited to address you on this important milestone occasion. To all completing their studies today, I offer my best wishes as you undertake the next exciting phase of your lives. That you have succeeded so well during such a time as this is commendable and augurs well for the years to come when the world will rely greatly on your knowledge, your discernment, and your empathy for those less fortunate than you.

When first approached about delivering this Commencement address, I was, frankly, taken aback. I did not immediately feel up to the task. Recalling occasions when I sat in Tercentenary Theatre looking across the expanse of graduates to the steps of Widener Library, I could not picture myself confidently delivering remarks from a dais where so many more eminent figures had stood and, indeed, made history. Growing up on a constant Jim Crow diet that offered assertions of my inferiority, I’m always that same little Black girl trying to believe in and demonstrate her worthiness. Further, I thought about the challenge of what I might impart in such a pivotal national moment when social gains seem more like losses, when clarity gives way so easily to confusion, and when much heralded progress recedes like a trompe l’oeil that was never real.

I extend greetings from the faculty, administration and students of our 145 year old institution, Prairie View A&M University. And, though I have not been anointed to do so, I also bring greetings from the collection of Historically Black and Minority Serving institutions that have the weight and privilege of advancing access, equity and opportunity for so many communities across the world. Our university, like many others HBCUs, was founded at the end of Reconstruction when Blacks were thought to be unable to perform the highest level academic study. I speak to you, in fact, from the Prairie View campus whose 1500 acres were once the site of the Alta Vista Plantation. That plantation, before being sold to the State of Texas, was the site where 400 human beings were held in slavery. Thus, our very steps as they daily tread upon vestiges of the suffering of our ancestors, call to us constantly to do our duty as full citizens. Painful as such memories are, they are a powerful force that calls us to action when challenges arise.

During the 145 years following our 1876 founding, it would take many years for most universities in our nation to grant access to Blacks. So, universities like Prairie View, designed with limited resources, served the state and nation by admitting students to whom full access to the fruits of liberty was intentionally blocked. We are therefore proud of our legacy of endurance and even prouder of the fact that we converted an assertion of the inferiority of African Americans into a triumph of human capacity. Like other HBCUs, we made a place to empower rather than disparage, to open minds rather than imprison them, to create pathways to promise rather than to stifle opportunity.

Such is the task of every true university. Those of you graduating today can well attest to that. When you first arrived at Harvard as undergraduate or post-graduate students, you most likely could not have imagined the many ways that your ability would be tested, your insights sharpened and expanded, and your prospects in life improved by studying at the University. I certainly didn’t expect such results when I arrived at Harvard and yet I know now that it is likely primarily because I studied at Harvard that I have had the deeply rich and satisfying career that I’ve enjoyed for so many years.

A product of a segregated upbringing in Houston and undergraduate study at an HBCU, I am ashamed to say that in my youth, I secretly bought into the prevailing racial assumptions of the day: that someone like me would be ill-prepared to benefit from and contribute to study at a university of Harvard’s stature. I expected to be flatfooted if not oafish in the company of well-heeled and urbane students who had the advantage of the best education and a wealth of experiences. While not outwardly immobilized by fear of failing the biggest test of my life, I was inwardly terrified that I would fail to measure up. Uncertainty and malaise governed my early days at the university.

Harvard was, you see, a place steeped in other peoples’ traditions—traditions that I could not easily access. My reaction was very much akin to the French expression denoting window shopping: “lécher les vitrines.” Those of us who are outsiders are often as mere observers looking through windows, salivating and wondering how we might ever be able to attain a sense of inclusion, acceptance and respect. Just as when, as a child, I was banned from white establishments, I identified as the outsider looking enviously at others who not only had full access to Harvard’s history and traditions but who also could so easily see themselves reflected in them. Few things that I could see at Harvard at the time represented me. Perhaps it is the memory of that feeling that moved me to remain in university life to make that experience easier for others who felt excluded.

The need to make universities more aware of how first generation and underserved communities reacted to the stultified tradition in many universities shaped my conviction about the importance of individuals feeling fully embraced and respected as learners, erasing vestiges of disparagement that inevitably accrue in an unequal society. Having been profiled and racially isolated and having carried within me for so many years the weight of that sentence, I understood that to change our country, we had to insist that everyone’s humanity, everyone’s traditions and history, everyone’s identity contributes to our learning about the world we must live in together. I came to believe what Harvard expressed in its admission philosophy: that such human differences, intentionally engaged in the educational context, are as much a resource to our intellectual growth as the magnificent tomes that we build libraries to protect and the state of the art equipment proudly arrayed in our laboratories. The encounter with difference rocks!

I believe that each of us has a solemn duty to learn about and embrace that difference. That undertaking takes not a month or a year but a lifetime of concerted action to ensure that we are equipped to play a role in caring for and improving the world we inhabit together. This responsibility should encourage us to commit to our individual as well as professional role in advancing access, equality and mutual respect.

Thus, I believe that the task of a great university is not merely to test the mettle and stamina of brilliant minds but to guide them toward enlightenment, enabling thereby the most fruitful and holistic use of their students’ intelligence and humanity. That enlightenment suggests the need for improving upon students’ self-knowledge but it also means helping them judge others fairly, using the full measure of their empathy and intelligence to do so. In an environment rich in differences of background, experience and perspectives, learning is turbo charged and intensified by the juxtaposition of these differences. Those open minded enough to benefit fully from the power of this learning opportunity are bound for leadership in this time of confusion and division. The Harvard model intentionally and successfully provides to students a head start in understanding how to mediate difference in an ever more complex reality in which some exploit those differences for corrupt purposes.

Today, irrational hatred of targeted groups is seemingly on the rise, stoked by opportunists seeking advantage for themselves and their profits. What stands between such malefactors and the destruction of our common purpose are people like you who, having experienced learning through difference, courageously stand up for the rights of those who are targeted. Your Harvard education, if you were paying close attention here, should have encouraged you to commit willingly to playing such a role. If you follow through on this commitment, in addition to anything else you accomplish in life, you will be saving lives, stanching the flow of hatred and the dissolution of our national bond. You will be serving the mighty cause of justice. If we are to thrive on this orb that we share, our schools and universities must contribute deliberately to increasing our understanding of the ways to interact meaningfully with others.

Harvard is, in some ways, the most powerful university bully pulpit in the nation. It did not achieve that status merely through its age and wealth; it attained that status principally through the efforts of its faculty and graduates’ scholarly and professional output. Through its gates have come generations of scholars with immense intelligence and passionate purpose to whom fate bequeathed the laurels of success. But it is important that universities model in their own values and actions the high purpose that they hope to see in the actions of their scholars.

In that vein, Harvard has a special responsibility as both a prod and steward of the national conscience. It could sit on the hill and congratulate itself on its prowess but it could also use its immense stature to address the widening gaps in how different groups experience freedom and justice. I spoke earlier about the heroic work of HBCUs and minority serving institutions that keep our country open and advancing the cause of equality and access. Yet, many of them have been starved for much of their history by the legacy of underfunding and isolation from the mainstream of higher education.

I call on universities like Harvard to acknowledge the limitations imposed on these institutions over the past decades. While universities like Harvard had the wind at their back, flourishing from endowments, strong enrollments, constant curricular expansion, massive infrastructure improvements, and significant endowment growth, HBCUs often had gale force winds impeding their development. Our nation is finally coming to terms with the consequences of the underfunding of HBCUs but we are far from where we need to be if we are to be assured continued progress in the fight for equal educational benefits.

I ask the university that did so much for me to add to its luster by embracing the opportunity to stand alongside these historic and other minority serving institutions to build stronger partnerships, advocate for greater funding, and elevate the fight for parity and justice to the level it deserves. Let us not complain in a hundred years that those historically excluded from access and opportunity continue to ask how much longer it will take to gain the respect, inclusion and support that their service to the nation deserves.

Many minority serving institutions accept students from impoverished underserved communities where educational preparation often lacks the pre-requisites needed for certain careers. Children in those communities may experience the same or a worse fate than I and my peers did during the pre-Civil Rights era. Consigned to underfunded schools and alienating curricula, they must wonder as I did what will befall them in life. ublic schools saved me and they have the burden still of saving millions of children across this land. In so very many cases, these institutions are the only hope for many children and their families. Support for public education in this moment is as important as it was in the early days of the country when Horace Mann first called for universal education. For Mann, it was a matter of what our young country would need; it still is today as Mann’s emphasis on civic virtue continues to ring true.

Further, in such a moment, universities and all of you must play a leadership role in reversing the designation of the teaching profession as less intellectually worthy, less glamorous, and less important than the high-flying careers of financiers and technologists. Attention to and investment in K-12 teacher preparation and curricular content remains one of the most important ways for universities and the average citizen to contribute to the civic good.

None of us is exempt from responsibility for the future we give our children. Harvard has its role and so do all of you. I have come to ask you who graduate today what you are prepared to do to acknowledge and address the historic biases and inequities that so many continue to experience. Will your actions point us in a more uplifting direction? For, just as we recount the moral bankruptcy of those who cruelly enslaved others, we also tell the story of those who were equally guilty because they refused to challenge the practice of slavery. In the future, the history of these times will reveal both what we do and what we fail to do to address the unjust treatment of marginalized groups. Among all that you will have learned at Harvard, I hope that the consciousness of your responsibility in the struggle for equality remains with you. While the legacy of enslavement, racism, discrimination and exclusion still influences so much of contemporary attitudes, we must never conclude that it is too late to overcome such a legacy. For it is never too late to do justice.

Today, I call on all of you to declare that you will not give sanction to discriminatory actions that hold some groups back to the advantage of others. I call on you to be a force for inclusion by not choosing enclaves of wealth, privilege and tribalism such that you abandon the lessons you learned from your Harvard experience of diversity. I call on you to do your part to ensure that generations to come will no longer be standing on the outside fighting for fairness, respect and inclusion.

Today, after decades in the academy, my path has taken me back to a place where students are waging the same battles that were so hard fought when I was a teenager: safe passage in the face of bigotry, the right to vote, and equal access to educational and professional opportunities. Sandra Bland, a Prairie View alumna, was stopped for a minor traffic offense at the entrance to our campus. Jailed for this offense, she was found deceased in her cell three days later. Must every generation add more tragic evidence of the racial hatred that has troubled the world? Our work is not done as long as there are young people growing up with the thought that they matter less than others. As long as they have fewer and narrower educational opportunities. As long as they must fear for their safety every moment of every day of their lives. As long as their full participation in society is circumscribed by policies that willfully chip away at or block their rights.

Just as I ask Harvard to use its voice on behalf of minority institutions that have been unfairly treated across time, I ask you to add your voice to the cause of justice wherever you go. Help the children of need wherever they are: in underfunded public schools, in neighborhoods bereft of resources, in search of a way to belong. If they do not hear your voices advocating for them and their worth, what must they conclude about their place in the world?

If you take up the cause of these children, you are taking up the greatest cause—that of justice. Today, you earn your laurels as a scholar. Taking up the cause of justice, you will earn your laurels as a human being.

Congratulations, once again, and God speed.

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Analysis: The Most Important U.N. Speeches This Year

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The Most Important U.N. Speeches This Year

Fp columnists and contributors break down the good, the bad, and the ugly from the 76th u.n. general assembly..

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The 76th session of the United Nations General Assembly, with high-level meetings wrapping up in New York this week, was dominated by the major crises facing our world today: climate change, COVID-19, and conflict. 

The 76th session of the United Nations General Assembly, with high-level meetings wrapping up in New York this week, was dominated by the major crises facing our world today: climate change, COVID-19, and conflict.  

World leaders came together, some in person and some virtually, to deliver speeches in which they explained their countries’ plans to tackle these crises and aired their political grievances. The result was a mix of bold declarations and petty squabbling, calls for unity and calls for condemnation.  

Foreign Policy asked several of our columnists and contributors to weigh in on the speeches they found most compelling—or most concerning.  

Biden tried to reassure allies with rhetoric.

By Elise Labott , adjunct professor at American University’s School of International Service and columnist at Foreign Policy

Declaring the world to be at an “inflection point” in history during his first speech to the United Nations General Assembly, U.S. President Joe Biden laid out an ambitious global agenda.

He urged nations to join forces in tackling the challenges that “hold the keys to our collective future: ending this pandemic; addressing the climate crisis; managing the shifts in global power dynamics; shaping the rules of the world on vital issues like trade, cyber, and emerging technologies; and facing the threat of terrorism as it stands today.”

The speech sounded all the right notes in Biden’s effort to rebuild trust and confidence in America’s global leadership after four tumultuous years with Donald Trump on the world stage. Yet diplomats from several countries told me that it failed to resonate with them, largely due to the disconnect between Biden’s words and his actions since taking office.

After 20 years of war in Afghanistan, Biden announced a “new era of relentless diplomacy.” Yet some European allies thought diplomacy was lacking in Biden’s handling of the U.S. troop pullout from that conflict, which they found hasty and devoid of consultation with allies, resulting in a chaotic withdrawal and humiliating Taliban takeover.

Without naming China, Biden said the United States was “not seeking a new Cold War.” Yet the majority of his foreign-policy decisions to date seem designed to create a standoff with Beijing, particularly the recent security pact, negotiated in secret, with the United Kingdom and Australia. France, meanwhile, was ousted from a multibillion-dollar submarine deal with Australia and cut out of a key strategic partnership in the Indo-Pacific, prompting Paris to briefly recall its ambassador.

For the European Union, the snub belied Biden’s argument that he had “prioritized rebuilding our alliances, revitalizing our partnerships, and recognizing they’re essential and central to America’s enduring security and prosperity.”

Biden received applause for his closing line that world leaders must decide what they wanted to leave for “our children and our grandchildren.” But to truly reassure allies that America, in Biden’s words, is back, he must match his lofty rhetoric with policies that deliver.

Brazil’s Bolsonaro brought his full firebrand self to the world stage.

By Catherine Osborn , writer of FP’s Latin America Brief

As Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro began speaking at the United Nations Tuesday morning, shouts of “Assassin!” and “Out with Bolsonaro!” rang out from my Rio de Janeiro neighborhood. Most residents here voted for Bolsonaro in the 2018 presidential runoff, but his approval has dropped to 22 percent amid a sluggish economy , abysmal pandemic management, and corruption accusations against his government and sons .

Brazilian foreign ministry officials reportedly hoped the far-right populist firebrand and COVID-19 denier would project a more sober, statesmanlike image to the world than he is typically known for, and supervised an original draft of his speech that would have announced Brazilian vaccine donations to neighboring countries.

But it seems Bolsonaro’s son Eduardo, a devotee of former U.S. President Donald Trump’s messaging style, helped rewrite parts of his father’s speech, and the final version was heavily geared toward energizing Bolsonaro’s base.

Bolsonaro touted unproven COVID-19 remedies; railed against pandemic control measures such as isolation, lockdowns, and vaccine mandates; falsely stated that “there has been not a single case of corruption [in Brazil] in the past two years and eight months”; insisted the country’s economy was fertile for business; and offered a deceptively sunny portrayal of his government’s environmental policies in the Amazon.

In an attempt to appease countries and business leaders pressuring him to do more to fight deforestation, Bolsonaro cited Brazilian government findings that the rate of Amazon deforestation was lower in August this year than in August 2020. But environmental analysts say federal plans suggest no pathway to a sustained, significant drop in Amazon deforestation under Bolsonaro’s leadership, which clocked an average of 4,050 square miles of annual forest loss in the first two years of his term, versus 2,594 square miles annually in the five years before he took office.

Following the U.N. address, pro-Bolsonaro social media channels pushed out praiseful claims that the president had defended Brazilian “freedom,” along with memes vilifying the mainstream media and doctored videos of Bolsonaro being embraced by crowds in New York.

Since January, the Biden administration has engaged in energetic but low-profile diplomacy with Bolsonaro with at least two big aims: reducing deforestation and barring Chinese tech firm Huawei from building Brazil’s 5G mobile network. So far, Brasília has made no public commitments about bans related to its upcoming 5G contracting process—a process Bolsonaro mentioned in his U.N. address, saying it would officially begin in the next few days.

Bolsonaro by no means demonstrated the statesmanlike turn that his foreign ministry had designed. But in between the COVID-19 misinformation, his comments on the Amazon and 5G were a reminder of why Brazil still matters to Washington, Beijing, and those concerned about climate change.

As for Bolsonaro’s goal of projecting confidence to investors, they by now have learned to look past his words to the limping pace of his economic reform agenda.

China’s Xi made a surprising climate announcement.

By James Palmer , deputy editor at  Foreign Policy and writer of FP’s China Brief

Chinese President Xi Jinping hasn’t left his nation’s borders since the pandemic began, and he wasn’t going to make an exception for the United Nations. It’s not clear whether it’s fear of the disease or worries about political rivals at home that has kept Xi, once a regular traveler, confined, but even by video link he still managed to make a stir at this year’s General Assembly.

Most of his speech was boilerplate Chinese rhetoric, but one commitment stood out: no new construction of overseas coal plants.

That’s a big deal. China is the largest public financier of coal projects in the world—although that’s just 13 percent of total global investment, the rest of which is mostly private. Chinese politics is very much a game of follow the leader at the moment, and it would be politically toxic for any domestic institution, public or private, to finance coal overseas right now. That may change if the scope of the new rules becomes clearer.

And it’s significant that Beijing, which has become increasingly resistant to any form of outside pressure, felt it needed to make this move in advance of November’s major U.N. climate change conference, COP26, in Glasgow. There have been regular complaints about China’s role in financing dirty energy abroad , especially when such deals are lumped in with the Belt and Road Initiative. If China worries about reputational damage on this issue, that bodes well for climate change efforts.

But there are still some caveats. First, Xi’s wording wasn’t clear on whether existing projects, which include about 40 gigawatts of coal-fueled energy across 20 countries, would be allowed to continue or whether those deals would be shut off. I’d bet on the first, given the potential damage of breaking off existing investments in developing countries.

And while leadership abroad is good, home is where China’s climate impact really matters. China is already the world’s biggest emitter of carbon dioxide and the second biggest historical emitter (though it’s far below many others per capita). According to the Chinese government’s current Five-Year Plan, the country’s coal power isn’t set to peak until 2025—and emissions in 2030 . Environmental regulations have been tightened this year—but with grim times ahead for the Chinese economy, they may end up being weakened, especially at the local level, to try to boost GDP figures or alleviate growing power shortages .

That’s a recurring pattern in Chinese environmental controls: When the economy falters, green limits get scrapped, and the smog comes back.

China Is Choking Civil Society at the United Nations

The Chinese government is using every means at its disposal to do battle with NGOs.

Lebanon’s president displayed a typical lack of self-awareness.

By Steven A. Cook , Eni Enrico Mattei senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and columnist at Foreign Policy

Of all the Middle Eastern leaders I wanted to hear from at this year’s United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) meeting, it wasn’t Egypt’s Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan, or even Saudi Arabia’s King Salman—it was Lebanese President Michel Aoun.

What does a leader of a country that has collapsed say to the world body?

Like many speeches during UNGA, Aoun’s did not break new ground. Most of the 17 minutes and 31 seconds of his prerecorded remarks were devoted to repeating the message that he and other Lebanese politicians have been repeating over the last year: Europe, the United States, wealthy Arab states, international financial institutions, and virtually everyone else must act to rescue Lebanon.

He emphasized that the new Lebanese government had already taken steps—such as ordering the forensic accounting of Lebanon’s central bank—to convince international donors that they would not be throwing resources away.

This is what one might expect, but there was one passage that struck me as lacking in self-awareness. About four minutes into his speech, Aoun denounced a “decades-long rentier-style financial and economic policy, coupled with corruption and waste and driven by financial mismanagement and lack of accountability,” that had “led Lebanon into an unprecedented financial and monetary crisis.”

For the last half-decade, Aoun has been president of Lebanon. When he was sworn in in 2016, he promised political and economic reform. Before he became head of state, Aoun was one of Lebanon’s political heavyweights through his Free Patriotic Movement.

At a moment of ongoing crisis, when Lebanon needs vast amounts of help in almost every area, was it wise for Aoun to present himself as somehow either above the fray or unaware of the shenanigans that have been going on around him?

Governments around the world have expressed a desire to help the Lebanese people—but not if their generosity is cycled through a political class responsible for Lebanon’s tribulations. If anyone was listening to Aoun’s speech carefully, the well-known concerns of international donors could not have been mollified. It seems as though, once again, a leading Lebanese politician did his country no favors.

The new Iranian president’s first U.N. speech was a letdown.

By Kourosh Ziabari , journalist and Asia Times correspondent

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi’s virtual address to the 76th U.N. General Assembly was his first serious international appearance since being sworn in in August. Yet other than a litany of anti-U.S. attacks, Raisi’s speech didn’t impart any compelling message to the world.

Raisi said either “America” or “the United States” 17 times in his 15-minute speech, suggesting Iran is still struggling to wean itself off its contemporary obsession with the United States as a dominant power with which it has failed, or been reluctant, to forge cordial ties since the 1979 Iranian revolution.

While the General Assembly session was preoccupied with such pressing challenges as climate change, the COVID-19 pandemic, and the brewing catastrophe in Afghanistan—at Iran’s eastern doorstep—Raisi didn’t articulate any vision for how his government plans to tackle these cataclysms or how Iran wishes to be part of global efforts to address them.

But what was most worrying was the Iranian leader’s refusal to comment on his country’s plan to reengage in talks to revive the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), the atrophying nuclear accord the Biden administration is eager to rejoin. That refusal leaves room for continued speculation and ambiguity over Tehran’s commitment to the nuclear talks that had seemed close to a breakthrough when Raisi’s predecessor, Hassan Rouhani, was steering them, before his term in office expired.

Overall, Raisi’s first U.N. speech failed to ease tensions between Iran and the international community and sent a pretty clear sign that neither a restoration of the JCPOA nor the truncation of Iran’s chronic isolation is at all imminent.

India’s Modi congratulated himself for a job well done.

By Sumit Ganguly , professor of political science at Indiana University Bloomington and columnist at Foreign Policy

In keeping with his nativist sentiments as well as his ease with the language, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi delivered his speech in Hindi. The speech was notable for its number of allusions to India’s adversaries, most notably China and Pakistan. The imputation to China was evident from his call for a “rule-based world order” while his appeal for a clear international stance against governments that use terrorism as a policy tool was a not-so-veiled swipe at Pakistan.

Interestingly enough, given that his government has faced its fair share of criticism for its democratic deficits, Modi explicitly underscored the success of India’s democracy. And in an unusually self-referential move, he alluded to his own rise from modest origins to the premiership of India as emblematic of that success.

Curiously absent from his speech was India’s customary demand for the expansion of the United Nations Security Council to include a seat for India. He did, however, emphasize the United Nations’ need to remain effective as an organization, citing the challenges that the climate crisis, the COVID-19 pandemic, and global terrorism pose for humanity’s future.

In that context, Modi faulted two U.N. organs: the World Health Organization (WHO) for its failure to trace the origins of COVID-19 and the World Bank for the recently revealed flaws in its “ease of doing business” rankings. The former was also an indirect jab at China for its refusal to let the WHO conduct a full, unfettered investigation of the initial COVID-19 outbreak in Wuhan, China.

A final striking feature of Modi’s speech was his overly self-congratulatory view of his stewardship of India during his term in office. Citing a range of achievements extending from greater access to health care to the expansion of banking for the poor, Modi claimed India was now on the path to rapid development. And at a time when India is far from out of the woods as far as the COVID-19 pandemic goes, he touted India’s willingness and ability to provide vaccines to countries in need.

His speech was a curious amalgam of the unpredictable as well as the bold. For once, while calling for U.N. reform, he avoided India’s standard demand for a U.N. Security Council seat. The not-so-hidden knocks against Pakistan and especially China, however, represented an audacious departure in a United Nations General Assembly speech.

Tanzania’s first female president stepped onto the scene.

By Laurie Garrett , Pulitzer Prize-winning science writer and columnist at Foreign Policy

When Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu Hassan finally took the stage to deliver her speech at the United Nations General Assembly on Thursday afternoon, she presented a distinctive contrast to the endless stream of all-male speakers who had preceded her to the podium on the third day of the General Debate. Even more sharply, she stood in clear contrast with the man who preceded her as president of Tanzania.

Suluhu previously served as vice president under President John “ The Bulldozer ” Magufuli, a man who brooked no disobedience, including on his insistence that COVID-19 didn’t exist in Tanzania . Under his presidency, data on the country’s mounting death toll was suppressed, doctors were gagged, and all coronavirus-related drugs and vaccines were banned .

Then, in February, Magufuli abruptly disappeared from public view—and for the first time, on Feb. 27 , a physician gave a nationally broadcast speech warning Tanzanians of the new plague. On March 17, Magufuli died .

Suluhu acceded to the presidency, telling the nation her predecessor had “died of a heart condition”—a statement she has not amended despite it being widely suspected that his cause of death was COVID-19 . Days later, South African scientists reported discovery of a “ super-mutant” strain of the novel coronavirus unlike any other circulating in Africa, carried by three Tanzanian travelers to Angola. Regional political pressure on Suluhu rose, and over the next several months, she created a COVID-19 scientific advisory council and joined global efforts to obtain vaccines and drugs for her nation.

In her U.N. remarks, Suluhu repeatedly praised multilateralism and the United Nations system. She noted her nation’s dependency on technical and financial support from external sources and admonished that “multilateralism cannot and should not succumb to the virus.”

Far from following Magufuli in denying the presence of the virus in the country, Suluhu acknowledged that “Tanzania has not been spared by COVID-19” and said the pandemic had already radically reduced Tanzania’s economic growth, from 6.9 percent a year to 5.4 percent , primarily due to loss of tourism. This, in turn, has wiped out the country’s ability to finance climate change adaptation.

As the first female leader of her nation, Suluhu pointedly noted that “COVID-19 is threatening to roll back the gains that we have made” in gender equity and said she plans to implement policies aimed at female economic development and political and social advancement.

The world still lacks verifiable COVID-19 data from Tanzania, including on cases and death tolls. But Suluhu started vaccination efforts in July, and with her U.N. speech, she joined the majority of her African peers in strongly denouncing the inequities in global vaccine distribution, with merely 245 million doses distributed as of earlier this month to poorer nations through the U.N.’s COVAX mechanism and 81 percent of all doses having been administered in the wealthiest nations.

Even looking to 2022, the wealthy world is backtracking on promised vaccine donations to COVAX, and nearly 80 percent of African nations will miss not only their short-term COVID-19 control targets but also those set for attainment next year.

World leaders weren’t in the mood to be “good neighbors.”

By Caroline de Gruyter , writer for the Dutch newspaper NRC Handelsblad and columnist at Foreign Policy

In April 1945, amid the ravages of World War II, U.S. President Harry S. Truman addressed hundreds of delegates from 50 countries who had gathered in San Francisco to create the United Nations. “You members of this conference,” Truman said from the White House , “are to be the architects of the better world. In your hands rests our future.”

He meant that if world leaders wanted peace and justice, they had to bring it about themselves. Just having the United Nations as an institution would not suffice— they had to make the U.N. work. All depended on the will of each and every one: “In order to have good neighbors, we must also be good neighbors.”

With these words in mind, it was particularly depressing to watch world leaders address the U.N. General Assembly this month. Pakistan accused India of carrying out “a reign of terror” against Muslims; India accused Pakistan of “spew[ing] falsehoods on the world stage.”

Russia’s foreign minister blasted France for opposing the deployment of Russian mercenaries in Mali and criticized the U.S. troop withdrawal from Afghanistan. Israel’s prime minister urged the world to act against Iran.

U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson—the only one showing some humor (saying he had seriously contemplated changing his name to “Boreas Johnson, in honor of the North Wind” that could save his country from an energy crisis)—used his entire speech as a marketing pitch for the upcoming U.N. climate conference in Glasgow, Scotland.

U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres, meanwhile, had to do his own ritual dance, warning that on climate change and other major global problems it is five minutes to midnight: “Our world has never been more threatened or more divided.” But, of course, he added that he still has “hope.”

Guterres was perhaps the only speaker we cannot blame for being unsurprising. The U.N. was made for that purpose; its secretary-general can only utter platitudes.

The only one with real passion in her voice was the prime minister of Barbados, Mia Amor Mottley. She spoke spontaneously, from bullet points on her mobile phone, asking why heads of state come to New York every year to give the same speeches about peace and development and justice for all, then go home and forget everything they just said.

But then, someone had to say that, too.

This year’s General Assembly speeches did not get much media attention, except U.S. President Joe Biden’s first U.N. speech, and some others that touched on long-running international disputes such as Cyprus and Jammu and Kashmir. At some point, even journalists get tired of their role as critical outsiders on the moral high ground.

And the citizens? As of last Friday , the speech delivered by the K-pop group BTS at the U.N. General Assembly received 6.4 million views on YouTube, while Guterres’s speech was viewed just 5,300 times and Johnson’s 3,500 times.

The U.N. is as strong as its members want it to be. All depends on their willingness to be “good neighbors.” This year, they were clearly not in the mood. Hopefully next year it will be better.

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10 Modern Presidential Speeches Every American Should Know

By: Allison McNearney

Updated: October 18, 2023 | Original: February 16, 2018

Presidential speeches reveal the United States’ challenges, hopes, dreams and temperature of the nation, as much as they do the wisdom and perspective of the leader speaking them. Even in the age of Twitter, the formal, spoken word from the White House carries great weight and can move, anger or inspire at home and around the world.

Here are the 10 most important modern presidential speeches selected by scholars at the Miller Center —a nonpartisan affiliate of the University of Virginia that specializes in presidential scholarship—and professors from other universities, as well.

1. Franklin D. Roosevelt’s First Inaugural Address

When: 1933, during the Great Depression

What Roosevelt Said: “This is preeminently the time to speak the truth, the whole truth, frankly and boldly. Nor need we shrink from honestly facing conditions in our country today. This great Nation will endure as it has endured, will revive and will prosper. So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself… Our greatest primary task is to put people to work. This is no unsolvable problem if we face it wisely and courageously. It can be accomplished in part by direct recruiting by the Government itself, treating the task as we would treat the emergency of a war.”

Why It Was Important: Roosevelt is embarking on something audacious, proposing that the national government has an obligation to provide an economic safety net for its citizens to protect them from the unpredictability of the market. In making a case for bold intervention in markets, he’s also making a case for a stronger executive at the top. But for all the disruptive talk in this speech, Roosevelt delivers reassurance. I think a hallmark of the speeches that we remember the most by presidents from both parties are ones that not only address the circumstances at hand, but also give people some hope.

— Margaret O’Mara, professor of history, University of Washington

2. Franklin D. Roosevelt’s First Fireside Chat 'On Banking'

When: March 1933

What Roosevelt Said: “My friends, I want to talk for a few minutes with the people of the United States about banking…confidence and courage are the essentials of success in carrying out our plan. You people must have faith. You must not be stampeded by rumors or guesses. Let us unite in banishing fear. We have provided the machinery to restore our financial system, and it is up to you to support and make it work. It is your problem, my friends. Your problem no less than it is mine. Together, we cannot fail.”

Why It Was Important: Beginning with the simple phrase, “My friends,” the stage was set for the personalization of the presidency that continued throughout FDR’s administration. Roosevelt received an outpouring of support from the public and used the power of media to connect with his constituents. Recognizing publicity as essential to policymaking, he crafted a very intricate public relations plan for all of his New Deal legislation. The media allowed him to present a very carefully crafted message that was unfiltered and unchallenged by the press. Many newspapers were critical of his New Deal programs, so turning to radio and motion pictures allowed him to present his version of a particular policy directly to the people. Today, we see parallels in the use of Twitter to bypass opponents and critics of the administration to appeal directly to the American people. And that all started with FDR and his first fireside chat.

— Kathryn Cramer Brownell, Assistant Professor of History, Purdue University

3. Dwight Eisenhower’s 'Atoms for Peace' Speech to the United Nations

What Eisenhower Said: “I feel impelled to speak today in a language that, in a sense, is new. One which I, who have spent so much of my life in the military profession, would have preferred never to use: That new language is the language of atomic warfare…Against the dark background of the atomic bomb, the United States does not wish merely to present strength, but also the desire and the hope for peace. To the makers of these fateful decisions, the United States pledges before you, and therefore before the world, its determination to help solve the fearful atomic dilemma. To devote its entire heart and mind to find the way by which the miraculous inventiveness of man shall not be dedicated to his death, but consecrated to his life.”

Why It Was Important: Eisenhower believed in the political power of nuclear weapons, but in this speech, he talks about their dangers. He speaks about the importance of preventing the spread of nuclear weapons and proposes that the U.S. and Soviet Union cooperate to reduce their nuclear stockpiles. Keep in mind that there were just 1,300 nuclear weapons in the world in 1953 compared with more than seven times that number today. But Eisenhower is also a realist. He understands the importance of nuclear deterrence and he reminds his audience that his proposal comes from a position of American strength, not weakness.

— Todd Sechser, Professor of Politics, University of Virginia and Senior Fellow, Miller Center

4. Dwight Eisenhower’s Farewell Address

What Eisenhower Said: “Until the latest of our world conflicts, the United States had no armaments industry. But we can no longer risk emergency improvisation of national defense. We have been compelled to create a permanent armaments industry of vast proportion…In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist. We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic process.”

Why It Was Important: That speech gave a name to our modern era. Eisenhower was telling us that we now live in a time when government, the military and the corporate world all have joined together into a powerful alliance that shapes the basic democratic functioning of the country. Eisenhower understood that Americans wanted both security and liberty, and it’s a fundamental paradox of the American experiment. In order to have security, we need to have a large defense establishment. But he asks, who is going to be the guardian of our freedoms in a world where we have to have a permanent arms industry? What he was saying in the speech is that we have to learn how to live with it, and control it, rather than having it control us.

— Will Hitchcock, Randolph P. Compton Professor at the Miller Center and professor of history, University of Virginia

5. Lyndon B. Johnson’s 'Great Society' Speech at the University of Michigan

When: May 22, 1964

What Johnson Said: “For a century, we labored to settle and to subdue a continent. For half a century, we called upon unbounded invention and untiring industry to create an order of plenty for all of our people. The challenge of the next half-century is whether we have the wisdom to use that wealth to enrich and elevate our national life, and to advance the quality of our American civilization. Your imagination and your initiative and your indignation will determine whether we build a society where progress is the servant of our needs, or a society where old values and new visions are buried under unbridled growth. For, in your time, we have the opportunity to move not only toward the rich society and the powerful society, but upward to the Great Society. “

Why It Was Important: LBJ called on all Americans to move upward to a Great Society in which wealth is used for more than personal enrichment and is instead used to improve communities, protect the natural world, and allow all Americans, regardless of race or class, to fully develop their innate talents and abilities. The message of Johnson’s speech resonates today because we have lost not only that self-confidence and that idealism but also the vision to recognize that prosperity can be used for something greater than the self.

— Guian McKee, Associate Professor of Presidential Studies, the Miller Center

6. John F. Kennedy’s Address on the Space Effort

When: September 1962

What Kennedy Said: “We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard…Those who came before us made certain that this country rode the first waves of the Industrial Revolution, the first waves of modern invention and the first wave of nuclear power. And this generation does not intend to founder in the backwash of the coming age of space, we mean to be a part of it, we mean to lead it.”

Why It Was Important: We were in a new age of technology and space exploration. President Kennedy made Americans feel that there was nothing that we couldn’t do, no challenge we couldn’t conquer. It was before Vietnam, before Watergate, before the deaths of our heroes like Jack and Bobby Kennedy and Martin Luther King —when we had a sense in this country that if we all joined together we could fulfill our loftiest goals.

— Barbara Perry, Director of Presidential Studies, the Miller Center

7. Ronald Reagan’s Speech Commemorating the 40th Anniversary of D-Day

When: June 6, 1984

What Reagan Said: “The rangers looked up and saw the enemy soldiers at the edge of the cliffs shooting down at them with machine guns and throwing grenades, and the American rangers began to climb. They shot rope ladders over the face of these cliffs and began to pull themselves up. When one ranger fell, another would take his place. When one rope was cut, a ranger would grab another and begin his climb again. They climbed, shot back, and held their footing. Soon, one by one, the rangers pulled themselves over the top, and in seizing the firm land at the top of these cliffs they began to seize back the continent of Europe… (to veterans) You all knew that some things are worth dying for. One’s country is worth dying for, and Democracy is worth dying for because it’s the most deeply honorable form of government ever devised by man.

Why It’s Important: That day in June of 1984, before  Band of Brothers  and  Saving Private Ryan  ever came to be, President Reagan paid tribute to the heroism of those we now call the Greatest Generation, the men and women who liberated Europe and ensured freedom for generations to come.  But for the first time, he also tied resistance to totalitarianism in World War II to opposition to the Soviet Union during the Cold War . President Reagan’s words at the end of that speech, again in the second person, to our Allies that “we were with you then, and we are with you now,” when he called upon the West to “renew our commitment to each other, to our freedom, and to the alliance that protects it” kept the coalition in place that later defeated the Soviet Union and ended the Cold War. The “boys of Pointe du Hoc” saved the world, and, in many ways, they did so more than once.

— Mary Kate Cary, Senior Fellow, the Miller Center

8. Ronald Reagan’s Address on the Space Shuttle Challenger Disaster

When: January 1986

What Reagan Said: “The future doesn’t belong to the faint-hearted but to the brave. The Challenger crew was pulling us into the future, and we’ll continue to follow them…The crew of the space shuttle Challenger honored us by the manner in which they lived their lives. We will never forget them nor the last time we saw them, this morning, as they prepared for their journey and waved goodbye, and slipped the surly bonds of Earth to touch the face of God.”

Why It Was Important: In our current era of political divisiveness, we tend to think of presidents as partisan leaders. But the president’s role as “comforter in chief” is one of the most important functions. The great presidents are distinguished by their ability to set aside partisanship in times of tragedy to speak words that comfort a nation and remind us that, despite our differences, we are all, in the end, Americans.

— Chris Lu, Senior Fellow, the Miller Center

9. George W. Bush’s 'Get On Board' Speech

When: After the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks

What Bush Said: “When they struck they wanted to create an atmosphere of fear, and one of the great goals of this war is…to tell the traveling public: Get on board. Do your business around the country. Fly and enjoy America’s great destination spots. Get down to Disney World in Florida. Take your families and enjoy life the way we want it to be enjoyed.”

Why It Was Important: In short, Bush was saying don’t let the terrorists deter you from spending—the economy needs you. More specifically, Bush’s remarks demonstrated the importance that consumption had come to play in the economy by the twenty-first century. He was carrying out what had become an essential responsibility of the 21st-century president. Even as Bush modeled what it meant to be a strong commander in chief, he juggled another role that had become almost as important: “consumer in chief.”

— Brian Balogh, Dorothy Compton Professor of History, the Miller Center

10. Barack Obama’s 'A More Perfect Union' Speech

What Obama Said: “Contrary to the claim of some of my critics, black and white, I have never been so naïve to think as to believe we can get beyond our racial divisions on a single election cycle or with a single candidate, particularly a candidacy as imperfect as my own. But I have asserted a firm conviction, a conviction rooted in my faith in God and my faith in the American people, that working together we can move beyond some of our old racial wounds, and that in fact we have no choice. We have no choice if we are to continue on the path of a more perfect union…What we know, what we have seen, is that America can change. That is the true genius of this nation. What we have already achieved gives us hope, the audacity to hope, for what we can and must achieve tomorrow.”

Why It Was Important: Conventional wisdom wouldn’t recommend a speech on race. But Obama ran to the challenge, not away from it. Uniquely positioned to do so, he welcomed listeners to places many have never experienced—a predominantly black church, a cringe-worthy conversation with a beloved relative of a different race, the kitchen tables of white Americans who feel resentful and left behind—and he recounted Americans often divergent perspectives. He asked us to be honest about our past while connecting it to the structural barriers faced by African Americans and other people of color today…Direct, honest, but nuanced, Obama believed that most Americans were ready to hear the truth and make a choice, to move beyond racial stalemate, face our challenges, and act accordingly.

 — Melody Barnes, a Senior Fellow, the Miller Center

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The best, worst, and just plain dumb of American politics in 2022

From dinner with Kanye West to orating about werewolves, 2022 was strange.

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From the State of the Union to the midterm elections , Vox’s politics team has noted many political winners and losers throughout 2022.

With the year almost in the rearview, we want to take a moment to single out some of the most noteworthy achievements by current and aspiring public servants, and revisit some of their biggest flops and failures. Here are the best, worst, and weirdest political moments and phenomena of the year.

Worst dinner

One of the more recent innovations in holiday celebrations is “Friendsgiving,” wherein millennials have a Thanksgiving-style dinner with their friends in advance of the holiday, which they celebrate with their family. The day before Thanksgiving, former President Donald Trump partook in something like this at Mar-a-Lago, his private Florida club: He had a Thanksgiving-style dinner with two prominent antisemites, rapper Kanye West and white supremacist Nick Fuentes.

The meal was apparently good enough that West had a second helping of the stuffing , but it produced a lot of tough headlines for Trump to digest. It came only weeks after Trump-backed candidates had disappointing results in the midterm elections and shortly after he announced his third presidential bid in a desultory speech at Mar-a-Lago. The news of the dinner leaking out only made things worse for Trump.

The former president equivocated for days about having dined with the two but could not bring himself to condemn them (he denied even knowing who Fuentes was). In the meantime, West and Fuentes gloried in the attention and afterward went on an alt-right media tour together, where West repeatedly praised Adolf Hitler .

Most deliberate political martyrdom

Liz Cheney set her political career on fire this year and never seemed to bat an eye. The Wyoming Republican made herself the face of the January 6 committee and burned every last bridge she had to the Republican Party. Cheney’s continued ardent opposition to Trump after January 6 led to her eventual removal as the No. 3 Republican in the House, and her decision to join the committee made her a virtual pariah within the House Republican Conference. Cheney didn’t mind. She lost her primary in a landslide, without even really trying to win .

Instead, she became a guided missile, pointed directly at Donald Trump and the MAGA wing of the Republican Party. She even endorsed select Democrats in the 2022 midterms. Like Samson, she was fine bringing the temple down on her head as long as it took down Trump and his acolytes as well.

Cheney will never be completely irrelevant in American politics. Her last name, her former position as the No. 3 House Republican, and her transformation into the GOP’s most ardent Trump opponent after January 6 ensure that. But, barring any Sunday show greenrooms being admitted as states by Congress, her electoral career is over for the foreseeable future.

Worst political speech

There were a lot of reasons that Herschel Walker lost his Senate race to incumbent Democrat Raphael Warnock this year. Pundits could point to the fact that he ran a flawed campaign while Warnock ran a good one. They could also point out the plethora of scandals swirling around Walker’s personal life, including what seemed to be a regularly increasing number of children he fathered and a regularly increasing number of times he allegedly paid for a partner’s abortion. There were also fresh allegations of domestic violence, in addition to those he chronicled in a memoir that described his struggles with mental illness.

In comparison to these, his oratory wasn’t his biggest issue. But Walker encapsulated all his political challenges in a speech he gave in November during the Senate runoff, where he discussed the various merits of vampires versus those of werewolves in combat.

The Republican Senate hopeful and former college football star proclaimed to a crowd, “I don’t know if you know, but vampires are some cool people, are they not? But let me tell you something that I found out: A werewolf can kill a vampire. Did you know that? I never knew that.”

Walker continued, “So I don’t want to be a vampire anymore. I want to be a werewolf.”

The clip was used in a closing ad by Warnock , mocked by Barack Obama when he stumped in the Peach State, and became a lasting part of Walker’s political legacy.

Best rap video

Linda Paulson, an octogenarian running for state Senate in Utah, went viral for releasing a campaign video of herself rapping — or at least performing something vaguely resembling hip-hop — in September. Paulson was running as a Republican against an incumbent Democrat in suburban Salt Lake City. She lost by 15 percent but at least got a lot more attention than most losing state legislative candidates do.

Most bizarre sex scandal

An ISIS bride falling for a backbench member of Congress wouldn’t make a good romantic comedy. It did, however, make an interesting political story this year.

Van Taylor was a two-term Republican from the Dallas suburbs with a pedigree that was seemingly perfect for an establishment Republican: two degrees from Harvard and one tour in Iraq as an officer in the Marines. However, despite a strong conservative voting record, Taylor faced a primary challenge for heresies such as voting to uphold the 2020 election and to establish a bipartisan commission to investigate January 6.

Taylor looked like he was going to edge through the primary — where a candidate needed 50 percent to avoid a runoff — until only two days before, when a fringe far-right website published allegations that Taylor had had an extramarital affair with Tania Joya, a woman who was previously known for being the widow of a prominent member of ISIS and received ample coverage in British tabloids as an “ISIS Bride.” She eventually fled the Islamic State and moved to Texas, where she met Taylor and an affair ensued.

As a result of the allegations, which had been stoked by one of his opponents, Taylor finished just shy of the 50 percent mark needed to avoid a runoff and two days later dropped out of the race after publicly confessing to the affair. The result essentially handed his congressional seat to Keith Self, who finished a distant second place in the primary.

Most bizarre food scandal

New York Mayor Eric Adams has long touted a vegan diet, which he claimed has had innumerable health benefits for him, including reversing blindness in one eye brought on by diabetes. It was something he repeatedly talked up during his 2021 mayoral campaign and even wrote a book about.

It turned out Adams wasn’t actually a vegan — he was eating fish quite frequently. Although a spokesperson for the New York mayor originally lied and claimed that Adams never touched seafood, eventually Adams confessed and admitted his private pescetarianism.

Best work-life balance

Democratic Congress member Kai Kahele had a very long commute from his home in Hawaii to the Capitol in Washington, DC, but he made it much easier by simply not showing up.

The first-term Hawaii Democrat stopped showing up for work in late 2021 and used proxy voting instead of going to the Capitol. As Civil Beat reported at the time , in the first few months of 2022, he only cast five in-person votes as he explored a gubernatorial bid. Kahele eventually decided to run and lost in a blowout . In the meantime, his concentration on his gubernatorial campaign prompted a House Ethics Committee investigation into whether he misused official resources for his campaign.

Most bizarre corruption scandal

The late Baltimore businessman Russell “Stringer” Bell once famously expressed shock that a colleague was “taking notes on a criminal conspiracy.” Rep. Marie Newman (D-IL) didn’t just take notes on a criminal conspiracy. She entered into a formal contract to do so.

Newman promised a job to a political rival during her 2020 primary campaign against incumbent Democrat Dan Lipinski so that he would not run against her and split the anti-Lipinski vote. She entered into a contract with Iymen Chehade in which she promised to hire him and pay him a six-figure salary to be a “foreign policy advisor” in exchange for him not running against her. During the negotiations, she also agreed to take anti-Israel positions at Chehade’s behest, although that language was not written into the final contract. After she beat Lipinski, she didn’t hire Chehade, so he sued her.

Newman defended herself by citing an opinion from the House general counsel that the contract was unenforceable because it was “contrary to public policy.” Eventually a settlement was reached, and Chehade appeared on her campaign payroll with the title of “foreign policy advisor.” The effort was nonetheless referred to the Office of Congressional Ethics, which found in its investigation “substantial reason to believe that Rep. Newman may have promised federal employment to a primary opponent for the purpose of procuring political support.”

The entire imbroglio has sparked an ongoing investigation by the House Ethics Committee. However, the investigation won’t continue into 2023. After all that, Newman suffered a blowout defeat to Rep. Sean Casten (D-IL) after the two were redistricted together.

Best alliterative fish advocacy

In both her win in Alaska’s September special election for Congress and in the November election that followed, Mary Peltola had a lot of luck winning as a Democrat in the Last Frontier.

Peltola benefited from the state’s ranked choice voting system as well as a divided Republican field with both former reality television star Sarah Palin and businessman Nick Begich running against her.

But she also had one key advantage: fish. Peltola ran on a three-pronged platform of “Fish, Family, and Freedom” and made her advocacy for Alaska’s salmon fisheries one of the bases of her campaign. It worked, and Peltola will represent the most pro-Trump district (according to the 2020 election results) of any Democrat in the next Congress.

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The 12 Most Memorable Political Convention Speeches

Brown Bros | AP Photo

William Jennings Bryan’s “Cross of Gold,” 1896

When former Rep. William Jennings Bryan of Nebraska addressed the Democratic convention the major issue of the day was whether silver as well as gold should be minted as U.S. currency. Silver coinage would be inflationary and help, for example, debt-impoverished farmers. The 36-year old Bryan was an avowed bimetallist, placed himself in the tradition of Thomas Jefferson and Andrew Jackson against moneyed interests and in favor of “hardy pioneers who braved all the dangers of the wilderness, who have made the desert to blossom as the rose … out there where they have erected schoolhouses for the education of their children and churches where they praise their Creator and the cemeteries where sleep the ashes of their dead.” His peroration has gone down in history: “Having behind us the commercial interests and the laboring interests and all the toiling masses, we shall answer their demands for a gold standard by saying to them, you shall not press down upon the brow of labor this crown of thorns. You shall not crucify mankind upon a cross of gold.”

[ See a collection of political cartoons on the 2012 campaign .]

Those words, the New York Times reported the next day, were “the signal for an avalanche of cheers which speedily developed into a measureless outburst.” This 14-minute demonstration, the paper added, was a “perfect Niagara of sound,” and “struck terror to the hearts” of the pro gold forces in the hall.

The Democrats nominated Bryan for the presidency the following day. The Bryan speech has echoed in U.S. history. According to William Safire’s Political Dictionary , it inspired 1930s Louisiana Gov. Huey Long’s “every man a king” slogan, and had the earliest criticism of what is now known as “trickle-down economics,” attacking the belief “that if you just legislate to make the well-to-prosperous, that their prosperity will leak through on those below.”

FDR’s “New Deal,” 1932

When Franklin D. Roosevelt took to the podium at Chicago Stadium to address the Democratic Party as its nominee, he was doing something unprecedented: giving an acceptance speech. By tradition, presidential nominees waited in feigned ignorance for a convention delegation to inform them of their selection. But upon learning that he had secured the nomination FDR announced that he would fly—then still a novel and risky way to travel—from Albany to Chicago to deliver the address, displaying “theatrics that he was going to show his physicality,” says historian Robert Dallek, as well as illustrating the vigor with which he would tackle the Great Depression.”

The speech itself was the subject of staff infighting with longtime aide Louis Howe proffering an entirely rewritten draft on Roosevelt moments after he landed. FDR used the first page of the new speech but then transitioned to the one he had brought with him, which included the historic peroration that, “I pledge you, I pledge myself, to a new deal for the American people.” The phrase had come from the pen of FDR speechwriter Samuel Rosenman, but neither man realized that it would become a historic catchphrase. “It was simply one of those phrases that catch public fancy and survive—short, concise, and yet comprehensive enough to cover a great many different concepts,” Rosenman later wrote.

The first clue of the phrase’s potency came the next day when New York-based newspaper cartoonist Rollin Kirby published a cartoon showing a man leaning on his hoe, watching an airplane fly overhead adorned with the words “New Deal.”

Hubert Humphrey and the “Bright Sunshine of Human Rights,” 1948

At issue when Minneapolis Mayor Hubert H. Humphrey addressed the Democratic convention was whether the party should adopt a minority plank to the platform advocating for civil rights for black Americans—an issue Southern Democrats viewed as an affront. “He spoke,” biographer Albert Eisele later wrote, “with a fervor that brought sweat pouring from his face and spattering on the pages of his speech.” He declared that “the time has arrived in America for the Democratic Party to get out of the shadow of states’ rights and to walk forthrightly into the bright sunshine of human rights.” The address lasted less than 10 minutes and prompted wild applause in the convention hall that lasted nearly as long. ”

The speech and the convention’s adoption of the civil rights plank also marked the beginning of the fracturing of the New Deal coalition, which had included the Democrats’ “solid South.” The entire Mississippi delegation walked out, as did half the Alabama delegates. “The South is no longer going to be the whipping boy of the Democratic Party,” Alabama delegate Handy Ellis said. “And you know that without the votes of the South you cannot elect the president of the United States.” On that he was wrong. While South Carolina Gov. Strom Thurmond, a Democrat, mounted an independent bid for the White House on the Dixiecrat ticket, incumbent President Harry Truman completed the most famous comeback in American history—thanks, critically, to overwhelming black support in Ohio and Illinois.

Dick Strobel | AP Photo

JFK’s “New Frontier,” 1960

John F. Kennedy ran for president with a campaign message that he would “get this country moving again” after a somnambulant near decade of Republican control. “After eight years of drugged and fitful sleep, this nation needs strong, creative Democratic leadership in the White House,” Kennedy said in his acceptance speech.

He also laid out where he wanted to get the country moving to. “We stand today on the edge of a New Frontier—the frontier of the 1960s—a frontier of unknown opportunities and perils, a frontier of unfulfilled hopes and threats,” he said, addressing a crowd of 80,000 in Los Angeles’s Memorial Coliseum. He went on that “the New Frontier of which I speak is not a set of promises—it is a set of challenges. It sums up not what I intend to offer the American people, but what I intend to ask of them. It appeals to their pride, not to their pocketbook—it holds out the promise of more sacrifice instead of more security.””

The idea sacrifice as well as the declaration that it was time “for a new generation of leadership” foreshadowed JFK’s inaugural address declaration that “the torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans” and its injunction that citizens should “ask not what your country can do for you—ask what you can do for your country.”

The acceptance address “set the tone for the campaign,” says former Clinton speechwriter Ted Widmer, who has edited a collection of memorable political speeches. “And it was a good coinage.” That coinage became the theme of the Kennedy years. “Kennedy generally shrank from slogans, and would use this one sparingly, but he liked the idea of a successor to the New Deal and Fair Deal,” his speechwriter, Ted Sorensen, later wrote.

AP File Photo |

Barry Goldwater’s “Extremism in the Defense of Liberty,” 1964

By the time he was ready to accept the Republican nomination, Arizona Sen. Barry Goldwater was fed up with being labeled by his primary campaign opponents as an extremist. “I had been branded as a fascist, a racist, a trigger-happy warmonger, a nuclear madman and the candidate who couldn’t win,” he wrote in his memoirs. During the campaign he had dismissed the charges of extremism as representing a “sour grapes attitude,” but by the time he gave his speech he had decided to embrace it.

The speech was closely held—even Goldwater’s running mate, New York Rep. William Miller, didn’t see an advance copy. Goldwater’s aides knew that “this wasn’t a political speech” biographer Rick Perlstein later wrote. “It was a cultural call to arms.””

It was a clarion call, and a politically toxic one: “I would remind you that extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice,” he said. “And let me remind you also that moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue.”

The line had come from conservative historian Harry Jaffa, who was working on the campaign. Though Goldwater later credited it to Cicero, Jaffa said that it was an allusion to Thomas Paine. Goldwater had had it double underlined in his reading text, for emphasis. “In their campaign for Lyndon Johnson, Democratic speakers underlined it as well,” Safire wrote in Political Dictionary . They drove the “extremism” theme relentlessly, even suggesting in the aired-once “Daisy” ad that a Goldwater presidency would lead to nuclear oblivion.

While Johnson won 44 states and more than 60 percent of the vote, Goldwater’s conservative movement would find victorious expression in both the Reagan Revolution in 1980 and today’s Tea Party. In fact his famous speech is striking today for how, with a few tweaks, it could come from a contemporary conservative without raising eyebrows.

Ronald Reagan’s “Challenge,” 1976

The last Republican presidential nomination to be decided at the convention was the 1976 battle between President Gerald Ford and former California Gov. Ronald Reagan. Their primary had been brutal: Reagan charged Ford was soft on the Soviets while the incumbent painted his challenger as dangerous. “When you vote Tuesday, remember, Governor Ronald Reagan couldn’t start a war. President Ronald Reagan could,” one Ford ad intoned.

The two candidates arrived in Kansas City, where the convention was being held, three days early to lobby delegates. Ford ultimately won the nomination after a tough floor fight.”

After he had given his acceptance speech, Ford aimed for a unity moment by inviting Reagan to appear on the platform with him and say a few words. Walking from his skybox through the labyrinthine passages of the convention hall, Reagan asked aide Mike Deaver, what he should say. Governor, Deaver replied, you’ll think of something.

He did. “I believe the Republican Party has a platform that is a banner of bold, unmistakable colors, with no pastel shades,” Reagan told the crowd in very brief, off the cuff remarks. “We have just heard a call to arms based on that platform.” He went to recount how he had been asked to write a letter for a time capsule to be opened in 2076. It dawned on him, he said, that those reading the letter “will know whether we met our challenge” to avoid nuclear war and preserve liberty. “Whether they have the freedoms that we have known up until now will depend on what we do here.”

What Reagan didn’t do was explicitly endorse Ford, whom he “utterly and completely” overshadowed, says Reagan biographer Craig Shirley. “If you watch the speech he’s not conceding the nomination to Ford,” Shirley says. “It’s a call to arms; it’s a battle cry for conservatives.”

Ted Kennedy’s Undying “Dream,” 1980

Four years after the Reagan-Ford fight, the Democrats had their own knock down, drag out primary battle as Massachusetts Sen. Ted Kennedy sought to unseat incumbent Democratic President Jimmy Carter. Kennedy took the fight to the convention in Madison Square Garden in New York even though the president had enough delegates to win. Kennedy hoped to overturn a rule requiring that delegates vote for the candidate to whom they were pledged during the primaries. After they won the rules fight, the Carter team gave Kennedy a speaking slot as part of the deal to get him to concede.

Kennedy’s conclusion is probably the best remembered sound bite of his career: “For me, a few hours ago, this campaign came to an end,” he said. “For all those whose cares have been our concern, the work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives, and the dream shall never die.”

Sitting at his desk, working on Carter’s acceptance address, chief speechwriter Hendrik Hertzberg watched the dramatic conclusion and muttered allowed, “Uh-oh.” Hertzberg, now at the New Yorker , recalls that the Carter people were not annoyed by the speech as much as by Kennedy’s running in the first place when Chappaquiddick had made him unelectable. “As for the convention, the speech was OK,” he says. “What was not was Ted’s petulant, unpleasant demeanor during the closing ‘unity’ tableau.”

The speech had lasted for 33 minutes and provoked a floor demonstration that lasted for 40 more with some delegates literally dancing in the aisles. “Finally, [Kennedy delegates] felt, the last of the Kennedy brothers had delivered ‘a Kennedy speech,’ well-paced, well-written, with the humor and sense of history worthy of a candidate still in the fray,” the New York Times reported the next day.

Mario Cuomo’s “Tale of Two Cities,” 1984

Democrats gathering in San Francisco in 1984 had a tough test. In addition to having to unite after a tough primary which had produced an uninspiring nominee (former Vice President Walter Mondale) they faced a president who was enjoying an expanding economy and rising approval ratings. To keynote their quadrennial convocation, Democrats selected Mario Cuomo, the first term governor of New York. Cuomo was known as eloquent, but he had not been tested nationally.

Cuomo seized on one of Reagan’s favorite similes—the United States as a shining city on a hill—and eloquently reworked it into an indictment of Reaganism.

“The hard truth is that not everyone is sharing in this city’s splendor and glory,” Cuomo said. “A shining city is perhaps all the president sees from the portico of the White House and veranda of his ranch, where everyone seems to be doing well. But there’s another city; there’s another part to the shining city … There are people who sleep in the city streets, in the gutter, where the glitter doesn’t show. There are ghettos where thousands of young people, without a job or an education, give their lives away to drug dealers every day. There is despair, Mr. President, in the faces that you don’t see, in the places that you don’t visit in your shining city.”

It was a masterly summation of the liberal governing philosophy and animating ideas of the Democratic Party. “He had delivered a memorable and beautiful speech in the booming and insistent voice for which Cuomo was well known,” political historian Michael Cohen wrote in his history of great campaign speeches, noting that even conservative icon Barry Goldwater thought it was “one of the best speeches I’ve ever heard.”

(J. Scott Applewhite | AP, File)

George H.W. Bush’s “1,000 Points of Light”—and His Lips, 1988

After eight years as Ronald Reagan’s number two, Vice President George H. W. Bush was one of the best known figures in American politics but he was indistinct, the sheriff’s deputy rather than a leader in his own right.

An acceptance address, says Jeff Shesol, a former speechwriter for Bill Clinton, requires “some kind of unity between your story and America’s story. It is very much about positing yourself as the man of the moment.” In New Orleans Bush did that effectively. “People don’t see their experience as symbolic of an era—but of course we were,” Bush told the crowd, recounting his postwar experience as a Texas oilman.”

But while he was trying to carve out his own political identity, he had enlisted Reagan speechwriter Peggy Noonan. During the summer of 1988, he sent her thoughts and notes for the big address. One was a list of words that had special meaning for him, including “kindness,” “caring,” and “decency.” She wrote in a draft that he wanted a “kinder nation” and Bush himself added “gentler.”

Some of Bush’s top aides fought that phrase (they weren’t alone: first lady Nancy Reagan reportedly commented, “kinder and gentler than whom?”) as well as a passage describing American civic organizations as “a thousand points of light in a broad and peaceful sky.” It was, Noonan later wrote, her favorite line of the speech, though she bemoaned that “people around Bush” weakened it by “shoehorning in groups that were, well, interest groups” into the paragraph.

Along with those lines Bush’s admonition to congressional Democrats to “read my lips: no new taxes” are better remembered than virtually any utterance he made as president. Of course, the memory of the taxes line ultimately blew back on Bush four years later in the wake of his 1990 agreement to raise taxes.

Ron Edmonds | AP Photo

Pat Buchanan’s “Cultural War,” 1992

Pat Buchanan’s longshot presidential bid had given incumbent Bush the political equivalent of a near death experience in the New Hampshire primary (where Buchanan won 38 percent of the vote). And while his speech at the 1992 convention in Houston was a much stronger embrace of the president (whom he called an “American patriot and war hero”) than Reagan’s in 1976 or Kennedy’s in 1980, that proved to be a problem in and of itself. Buchanan thundered against the Democrats as a party of “unrestricted abortion on demand” intent on “tearing down America” and on the wrong side of a “religious war going on in this country for the soul of America. It is a cultural war … And in that struggle for the soul of America, Clinton and Clinton are on the other side and George Bush is on our side,” he said referring not only to Democratic nominee Bill Clinton, but his to wife Hillary.”

“This was the type of political attack that had rarely before appeared in 20th century political oratory,” Michael Cohen wrote in Live From the Campaign Trail and, in concert with similar pronouncements from convention podium (televangelist Pat Robertson called the Democrats an “insidious plague” on the nation) it ended up far overshadowing what Bush said.

Buchanan has long disputed the idea that his speech helped drag Bush down. He points to polling data showing Bush got a boost after the night when Buchanan spoke. But while that night may have given the incumbent a boost, it also set the tenor for a gathering that seemed militantly out of touch. At a time when most Americans were worried about a soft economy, a declaration of a culture war seemed incongruous and discordant and Buchanan became the lingering face of that cumulative disconnect.

Barack Obama’s "One America," 2004

When state Sen. Barack Obama learned he would give the keynote at the 2004 Democratic convention, he knew very quickly what he wanted to do. “Almost immediately, he said to me, ‘I know what I want to do—I want to talk about my story as part of the American story.’ He had a very clear concept in his head,” aide David Axelrod later told Chicago magazine. Obama wrote it on a yellow legal pad in snatches of free time—sometimes ducking into the men’s room to get some quiet—while legislating in Springfield, Ill. Other challenges included learning to read a speech from a Teleprompter.

In both speech, and delivery, however, Obama rose to the occasion in a way that stunned and captivated the nation.”

“Now even as we speak, there are those who are preparing to divide us—the spin masters, the negative ad peddlers who embrace the politics of ‘anything goes,’” he said. “Well, I say to them tonight, there is not a liberal America and a conservative America—there is the United States of America.” He continued about how “we worship an awesome God in the blue states, and we don’t like federal agents poking around in our libraries in the red states.”

While he originally had a passage about all Americans standing together for the red, white, and blue, convention speechwriters took it out because Democratic nominee John Kerry had a similar line in his address, according to Chicago, prompting Obama to complain that the nominee—he used an earthier term—“is trying to steal a line from my speech.”

In the end the line was not missed. “On Tuesday, at about 9 p.m., Barack Obama was an Illinois state legislator running for the Senate,” The New York Times wrote days later. “A half-hour later … he was the party’s hot ticket. Pundits even predicted he would be the first black president.”

(Lynne Sladky | AP)

Clint Eastwood's Empty Chair, 2012

Some might argue that actor Clint Eastwood's surprise appearance at the GOP convention wasn't a speech so much as a "performance"—to use the word favored by Republican nominee Mitt Romney's spin team—or a train wreck, as virtually every political commentator put it. Either way it became an instant classic, if for the wrong reasons.

Eastwood had made a surprise endorsement of Romney at a Sun Valley, Idaho fundraiser in early August, giving a "powerful and typically gruff/charming performance," according to Time's Mark Halperin. Romney campaign officials thought that having him appear at the convention as a surprise guest could bring some spontaneity to the highly scripted event. They gave him a five minute time slot at the top of the TV networks' hour of coverage and some talking points but, inexplicably, "did not conduct rehearsals or insist on a script or communicate guidelines for the style or format of his remarks," the New York Times reported. Shortly before going on, the actor asked to have a chair onstage with him; no one apparently thought to ask why.

Convention attendees gave him warm applause throughout, but his rambling, mumbled remarks, mostly directed at the empty chair, which was supposed to represent President Obama, prompted the Internet to light up with puzzlement and scorn. "What do you mean, shut up?" Eastwood asked the Obama only he could see and hear. And then later: "What do you want me to tell Romney? I can't tell him to do that—can't do that to himself. You're crazy. You're absolutely crazy."

By the time Eastwood was finished, he had—ignoring the blinking red light signaling that he was over his limit—stretched his five minutes into 12, spawned an Internet meme, "Eastwooding," and earned himself an unwanted place in convention history.

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40 famous persuasive speeches you need to hear.

Written by Kai Xin Koh

Across eras of calamity and peace in our world’s history, a great many leaders, writers, politicians, theorists, scientists, activists and other revolutionaries have unveiled powerful rousing speeches in their bids for change. In reviewing the plethora of orators across tides of social, political and economic change, we found some truly rousing speeches that brought the world to their feet or to a startling, necessary halt. We’ve chosen 40 of the most impactful speeches we managed to find from agents of change all over the world – a diversity of political campaigns, genders, positionalities and periods of history. You’re sure to find at least a few speeches in this list which will capture you with the sheer power of their words and meaning!

1. I have a dream by MLK

“I have a dream that one day down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of interposition and nullification – one day right there in Alabama little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers. I have a dream today. I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, and every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together. This is our hope. This is the faith that I go back to the South with. With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day. This will be the day, this will be the day when all of God’s children will be able to sing with new meaning “My country ’tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my father’s died, land of the Pilgrim’s pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring!”

Unsurprisingly, Martin Luther King’s speech comes up top as the most inspiring speech of all time, especially given the harrowing conditions of African Americans in America at the time. In the post-abolition era when slavery was outlawed constitutionally, African Americans experienced an intense period of backlash from white supremacists who supported slavery where various institutional means were sought to subordinate African American people to positions similar to that of the slavery era. This later came to be known as the times of Jim Crow and segregation, which Martin Luther King powerfully voiced his vision for a day when racial discrimination would be a mere figment, where equality would reign.

2. Tilbury Speech by Queen Elizabeth I

“My loving people, We have been persuaded by some that are careful of our safety, to take heed how we commit our selves to armed multitudes, for fear of treachery; but I assure you I do not desire to live to distrust my faithful and loving people. Let tyrants fear. I have always so behaved myself that, under God, I have placed my chiefest strength and safeguard in the loyal hearts and good-will of my subjects; and therefore I am come amongst you, as you see, at this time, not for my recreation and disport, but being resolved, in the midst and heat of the battle, to live and die amongst you all; to lay down for my God, and for my kingdom, and my people, my honour and my blood, even in the dust. I know I have the body of a weak, feeble woman; but I have the heart and stomach of a king, and of a king of England too, and think foul scorn that Parma or Spain, or any prince of Europe, should dare to invade the borders of my realm; to which rather than any dishonour shall grow by me, I myself will take up arms, I myself will be your general, judge, and rewarder of every one of your virtues in the field. I know already, for your forwardness you have deserved rewards and crowns; and We do assure you on a word of a prince, they shall be duly paid. In the mean time, my lieutenant general shall be in my stead, than whom never prince commanded a more noble or worthy subject; not doubting but by your obedience to my general, by your concord in the camp, and your valour in the field, we shall shortly have a famous victory over these enemies of my God, of my kingdom, and of my people.”

While at war with Spain, Queen Elizabeth I was most renowned for her noble speech rallying the English troops against their comparatively formidable opponent. Using brilliant rhetorical devices like metonymy, meronymy, and other potent metaphors, she voiced her deeply-held commitment as a leader to the battle against the Spanish Armada – convincing the English army to keep holding their ground and upholding the sacrifice of war for the good of their people. Eventually against all odds, she led England to victory despite their underdog status in the conflict with her confident and masterful oratory.

3. Woodrow Wilson, address to Congress (April 2, 1917)

“The world must be made safe for democracy. Its peace must be planted upon the tested foundations of political liberty. We have no selfish ends to serve. We desire no conquest, no dominion. We seek no indemnities for ourselves, no material compensation for the sacrifices we shall freely make. We are but one of the champions of the rights of mankind. We shall be satisfied when those rights have been made as secure as the faith and the freedom of nations can make them. Just because we fight without rancor and without selfish object, seeking nothing for ourselves but what we shall wish to share with all free peoples, we shall, I feel confident, conduct our operations as belligerents without passion and ourselves observe with proud punctilio the principles of right and of fair play we profess to be fighting for. … It will be all the easier for us to conduct ourselves as belligerents in a high spirit of right and fairness because we act without animus, not in enmity toward a people or with the desire to bring any injury or disadvantage upon them, but only in armed opposition to an irresponsible government which has thrown aside all considerations of humanity and of right and is running amuck. We are, let me say again, the sincere friends of the German people, and shall desire nothing so much as the early reestablishment of intimate relations of mutual advantage between us—however hard it may be for them, for the time being, to believe that this is spoken from our hearts. We have borne with their present government through all these bitter months because of that friendship—exercising a patience and forbearance which would otherwise have been impossible. We shall, happily, still have an opportunity to prove that friendship in our daily attitude and actions toward the millions of men and women of German birth and native sympathy who live among us and share our life, and we shall be proud to prove it toward all who are in fact loyal to their neighbors and to the government in the hour of test. They are, most of them, as true and loyal Americans as if they had never known any other fealty or allegiance. They will be prompt to stand with us in rebuking and restraining the few who may be of a different mind and purpose. If there should be disloyalty, it will be dealt with with a firm hand of stern repression; but, if it lifts its head at all, it will lift it only here and there and without countenance except from a lawless and malignant few. It is a distressing and oppressive duty, gentlemen of the Congress, which I have performed in thus addressing you. There are, it may be, many months of fiery trial and sacrifice ahead of us. It is a fearful thing to lead this great peaceful people into war, into the most terrible and disastrous of all wars, civilization itself seeming to be in the balance. But the right is more precious than peace, and we shall fight for the things which we have always carried nearest our hearts—for democracy, for the right of those who submit to authority to have a voice in their own governments, for the rights and liberties of small nations, for a universal dominion of right by such a concert of free peoples as shall bring peace and safety to all nations and make the world itself at last free. To such a task we can dedicate our lives and our fortunes, everything that we are and everything that we have, with the pride of those who know that the day has come when America is privileged to spend her blood and her might for the principles that gave her birth and happiness and the peace which she has treasured. God helping her, she can do no other.”

On April 2, 1917, President Woodrow Wilson of the USA delivered his address to Congress, calling for declaration of war against what was at the time, a belligerent and aggressive Germany in WWI. Despite his isolationism and anti-war position earlier in his tenure as president, he convinced Congress that America had a moral duty to the world to step out of their neutral observer status into an active role of world leadership and stewardship in order to liberate attacked nations from their German aggressors. The idealistic values he preached in his speech left an indelible imprint upon the American spirit and self-conception, forming the moral basis for the country’s people and aspirational visions to this very day.

4. Ain’t I A Woman by Sojourner Truth

“That man over there says that women need to be helped into carriages, and lifted over ditches, and to have the best place everywhere. Nobody ever helps me into carriages, or over mud-puddles, or gives me any best place! And ain’t I a woman? Look at me! Look at my arm! I have ploughed and planted, and gathered into barns, and no man could head me! And ain’t I a woman? I could work as much and eat as much as a man – when I could get it – and bear the lash as well! And ain’t I a woman? I have borne thirteen children, and seen most all sold off to slavery, and when I cried out with my mother’s grief, none but Jesus heard me! And ain’t I a woman? … If the first woman God ever made was strong enough to turn the world upside down all alone, these women together ought to be able to turn it back , and get it right side up again! And now they is asking to do it, the men better let them.”

Hailing from a background of slavery and oppression, Sojourner Truth was one of the most revolutionary advocates for women’s human rights in the 1800s. In spite of the New York Anti-Slavery Law of 1827, her slavemaster refused to free her. As such, she fled, became an itinerant preacher and leading figure in the anti-slavery movement. By the 1850s, she became involved in the women’s rights movement as well. At the 1851 Women’s Rights Convention held in Akron, Ohio, she delivered her illuminating, forceful speech against discrimination of women and African Americans in the post-Civil War era, entrenching her status as one of the most revolutionary abolitionists and women’s rights activists across history.

5. The Gettsyburg Address by Abraham Lincoln

“Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray, that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away. Yet, if God wills that it continue until all the wealth piled by the bondsman’s two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said “the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.” With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation’s wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.”

President Abraham Lincoln had left the most lasting legacy upon American history for good reason, as one of the presidents with the moral courage to denounce slavery for the national atrocity it was. However, more difficult than standing up for the anti-slavery cause was the task of unifying the country post-abolition despite the looming shadows of a time when white Americans could own and subjugate slaves with impunity over the thousands of Americans who stood for liberation of African Americans from discrimination. He urged Americans to remember their common roots, heritage and the importance of “charity for all”, to ensure a “just and lasting peace” among within the country despite throes of racial division and self-determination.

6. Woman’s Rights to the Suffrage by Susan B Anthony

“For any State to make sex a qualification that must ever result in the disfranchisement of one entire half of the people is to pass a bill of attainder, or an ex post facto law, and is therefore a violation of the supreme law of the land. By it the blessings of liberty are for ever withheld from women and their female posterity. To them this government has no just powers derived from the consent of the governed. To them this government is not a democracy. It is not a republic. It is an odious aristocracy; a hateful oligarchy of sex; the most hateful aristocracy ever established on the face of the globe; an oligarchy of wealth, where the right govern the poor. An oligarchy of learning, where the educated govern the ignorant, or even an oligarchy of race, where the Saxon rules the African, might be endured; but this oligarchy of sex, which makes father, brothers, husband, sons, the oligarchs over the mother and sisters, the wife and daughters of every household–which ordains all men sovereigns, all women subjects, carries dissension, discord and rebellion into every home of the nation. Webster, Worcester and Bouvier all define a citizen to be a person in the United States, entitled to vote and hold office. The only question left to be settled now is: Are women persons? And I hardly believe any of our opponents will have the hardihood to say they are not. Being persons, then, women are citizens; and no State has a right to make any law, or to enforce any old law, that shall abridge their privileges or immunities. Hence, every discrimination against women in the constitutions and laws of the several States is today null and void, precisely as in every one against Negroes.”

Susan B. Anthony was a pivotal leader in the women’s suffrage movement who helped to found the National Woman Suffrage Association with Elizabeth Cady Stanton and fight for the constitutional right for women to vote. She courageously and relentlessly advocated for women’s rights, giving speeches all over the USA to convince people of women’s human rights to choice and the ballot. She is most well known for her act of righteous rebellion in 1872 when she voted in the presidential election illegally, for which she was arrested and tried unsuccessfully. She refused to pay the $100 fine in a bid to reject the demands of the American system she denounced as a ‘hateful oligarchy of sex’, sparking change with her righteous oratory and inspiring many others in the women’s suffrage movement within and beyond America.

7. Vladimir Lenin’s Speech at an International Meeting in Berne, February 8, 1916

“It may sound incredible, especially to Swiss comrades, but it is nevertheless true that in Russia, also, not only bloody tsarism, not only the capitalists, but also a section of the so-called or ex-Socialists say that Russia is fighting a “war of defence,” that Russia is only fighting against German invasion. The whole world knows, however, that for decades tsarism has been oppressing more than a hundred million people belonging to other nationalities in Russia; that for decades Russia has been pursuing a predatory policy towards China, Persia, Armenia and Galicia. Neither Russia, nor Germany, nor any other Great Power has the right to claim that it is waging a “war of defence”; all the Great Powers are waging an imperialist, capitalist war, a predatory war, a war for the oppression of small and foreign nations, a war for the sake of the profits of the capitalists, who are coining golden profits amounting to billions out of the appalling sufferings of the masses, out of the blood of the proletariat. … This again shows you, comrades, that in all countries of the world real preparations are being made to rally the forces of the working class. The horrors of war and the sufferings of the people are incredible. But we must not, and we have no reason whatever, to view the future with despair. The millions of victims who will fall in the war, and as a consequence of the war, will not fall in vain. The millions who are starving, the millions who are sacrificing their lives in the trenches, are not only suffering, they are also gathering strength, are pondering over the real cause of the war, are becoming more determined and are acquiring a clearer revolutionary understanding. Rising discontent of the masses, growing ferment, strikes, demonstrations, protests against the war—all this is taking place in all countries of the world. And this is the guarantee that the European War will be followed by the proletarian revolution against capitalism”

Vladimir Lenin remains to this day one of the most lauded communist revolutionaries in the world who brought the dangers of imperialism and capitalism to light with his rousing speeches condemning capitalist structures of power which inevitably enslave people to lives of misery and class stratification. In his genuine passion for the rights of the working class, he urged fellow comrades to turn the “imperialist war” into a “civil” or class war of the proletariat against the bourgeoisie. He encouraged the development of new revolutionary socialist organisations, solidarity across places in society so people could unite against their capitalist overlords, and criticised nationalism for its divisive effect on the socialist movement. In this speech especially, he lambasts “bloody Tsarism” for its oppression of millions of people of other nationalities in Russia, calling for the working class people to revolt against the Tsarist authority for the proletariat revolution to succeed and liberate them from class oppression.

8. I Have A Dream Speech by Mary Wollstonecraft

“If, I say, for I would not impress by declamation when Reason offers her sober light, if they be really capable of acting like rational creatures, let them not be treated like slaves; or, like the brutes who are dependent on the reason of man, when they associate with him; but cultivate their minds, give them the salutary, sublime curb of principle, and let them attain conscious dignity by feeling themselves only dependent on God. Teach them, in common with man, to submit to necessity, instead of giving, to render them more pleasing, a sex to morals. Further, should experience prove that they cannot attain the same degree of strength of mind, perseverance, and fortitude, let their virtues be the same in kind, though they may vainly struggle for the same degree; and the superiority of man will be equally clear, if not clearer; and truth, as it is a simple principle, which admits of no modification, would be common to both. Nay, the order of society as it is at present regulated would not be inverted, for woman would then only have the rank that reason assigned her, and arts could not be practised to bring the balance even, much less to turn it.”

In her vindication of the rights of women, Mary Wollstonecraft was one of the pioneers of the feminist movement back in 1792 who not only theorised and advocated revolutionarily, but gave speeches that voiced these challenges against a dominantly sexist society intent on classifying women as irrational less-than-human creatures to be enslaved as they were. In this landmark speech, she pronounces her ‘dream’ of a day when women would be treated as the rational, deserving humans they are, who are equal to man in strength and capability. With this speech setting an effective precedent for her call to equalize women before the law, she also went on to champion the provision of equal educational opportunities to women and girls, and persuasively argued against the patriarchal gender norms which prevented women from finding their own lot in life through their being locked into traditional institutions of marriage and motherhood against their will.

9. First Inaugural Speech by Franklin D Roosevelt

“So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is…fear itself — nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance. In every dark hour of our national life a leadership of frankness and of vigor has met with that understanding and support of the people themselves which is essential to victory. And I am convinced that you will again give that support to leadership in these critical days. … More important, a host of unemployed citizens face the grim problem of existence, and an equally great number toil with little return. Only a foolish optimist can deny the dark realities of the moment. Our greatest primary task is to put people to work. This is no unsolvable problem if we face it wisely and courageously. There are many ways in which it can be helped, but it can never be helped merely by talking about it. We must act and act quickly. … I am prepared under my constitutional duty to recommend the measures that a stricken Nation in the midst of a stricken world may require. These measures, or such other measures as the Congress may build out of its experience and wisdom, I shall seek, within my constitutional authority, to bring to speedy adoption. But in the event that the Congress shall fail to take one of these two courses, and in the event that the national emergency is still critical, I shall not evade the clear course of duty that will then confront me. I shall ask the Congress for the one remaining instrument to meet the crisis — broad Executive power to wage a war against the emergency, as great as the power that would be given to me if we were in fact invaded by a foreign foe.”

Roosevelt’s famous inaugural speech was delivered in the midst of a period of immense tension and strain under the Great Depression, where he highlighted the need for ‘quick action’ by Congress to prepare for government expansion in his pursuit of reforms to lift the American people out of devastating poverty. In a landslide victory, he certainly consolidated the hopes and will of the American people through this compelling speech.

10. The Hypocrisy of American Slavery by Frederick Douglass

“What to the American slave is your Fourth of July? I answer, a day that reveals to him more than all other days of the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim. To him your celebration is a sham; your boasted liberty an unholy license; your national greatness, swelling vanity; your sounds of rejoicing are empty and heartless; your shouts of liberty and equality, hollow mock; your prayers and hymns, your sermons and thanksgivings, with all your religious parade and solemnity, are to him mere bombast, fraud, deception, impiety, and hypocrisy – a thin veil to cover up crimes which would disgrace a nation of savages. There is not a nation of the earth guilty of practices more shocking and bloody than are the people of these United States at this very hour. Go search where you will, roam through all the monarchies and despotisms of the Old World, travel through South America, search out every abuse and when you have found the last, lay your facts by the side of the everyday practices of this nation, and you will say with me that, for revolting barbarity and shameless hypocrisy, America reigns without a rival.”

On 4 July 1852, Frederick Douglass gave this speech in Rochester, New York, highlighting the hypocrisy of celebrating freedom while slavery continues. He exposed the ‘revolting barbarity and shameless hypocrisy’ of slavery which had gone unabolished amidst the comparatively obscene celebration of independence and liberty with his potent speech and passion for the anti-abolition cause. After escaping from slavery, he went on to become a national leader of the abolitionist movement in Massachusetts and New York with his oratory and incisive antislavery writings. To this day, his fierce activism and devotion to exposing virulent racism for what it was has left a lasting legacy upon pro-Black social movements and the overall sociopolitical landscape of America.

11. Still I Rise by Maya Angelou

“You may write me down in history With your bitter, twisted lies, You may trod me in the very dirt But still, like dust, I’ll rise. Does my sassiness upset you? Why are you beset with gloom? ’Cause I walk like I’ve got oil wells Pumping in my living room. Just like moons and like suns, With the certainty of tides, Just like hopes springing high, Still I’ll rise. Did you want to see me broken? Bowed head and lowered eyes? Shoulders falling down like teardrops, Weakened by my soulful cries? Does my haughtiness offend you? Don’t you take it awful hard ’Cause I laugh like I’ve got gold mines Diggin’ in my own backyard. You may shoot me with your words, You may cut me with your eyes, You may kill me with your hatefulness, But still, like air, I’ll rise. Does my sexiness upset you? Does it come as a surprise That I dance like I’ve got diamonds At the meeting of my thighs? Out of the huts of history’s shame I rise Up from a past that’s rooted in pain I rise I’m a black ocean, leaping and wide, Welling and swelling I bear in the tide. Leaving behind nights of terror and fear I rise Into a daybreak that’s wondrously clear I rise Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave, I am the dream and the hope of the slave. I rise I rise I rise.”

With her iconic poem Still I Rise , Maya Angelou is well-known for uplifting fellow African American women through her empowering novels and poetry and her work as a civil rights activist. Every bit as lyrical on the page, her recitation of Still I Rise continues to give poetry audiences shivers all over the world, inspiring women of colour everywhere to keep the good faith in striving for equality and peace, while radically believing in and empowering themselves to be agents of change. A dramatic reading of the poem will easily showcase the self-belief, strength and punch that it packs in the last stanza on the power of resisting marginalization.

12. Their Finest Hour by Winston Churchill

“What General Weygand called the Battle of France is over. I expect that the Battle of Britain is about to begin. Upon this battle depends the survival of Christian civilization. Upon it depends our own British life, and the long continuity of our institutions and our Empire. The whole fury and might of the enemy must very soon be turned on us. Hitler knows that he will have to break us in this Island or lose the war. If we can stand up to him, all Europe may be free and the life of the world may move forward into broad, sunlit uplands. But if we fail, then the whole world, including the United States, including all that we have known and cared for, will sink into the abyss of a new Dark Age made more sinister, and perhaps more protracted, by the lights of perverted science. Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duties, and so bear ourselves that, if the British Empire and its Commonwealth last for a thousand years, men will still say, “This was their finest hour.””

In the darkest shadows cast by war, few leaders have been able to step up to the mantle and effectively unify millions of citizens for truly sacrificial causes. Winston Churchill was the extraordinary exception – lifting 1940 Britain out of the darkness with his hopeful, convicted rhetoric to galvanise the English amidst bleak, dreary days of war and loss. Through Britain’s standalone position in WWII against the Nazis, he left his legacy by unifying the nation under shared sacrifices of the army and commemorating their courage.

13. A Room of One’s Own by Virginia Woolf

“Life for both sexes – and I looked at them (through a restaurant window while waiting for my lunch to be served), shouldering their way along the pavement – is arduous, difficult, a perpetual struggle. It calls for gigantic courage and strength. More than anything, perhaps, creatures of illusion as we are, it calls for confidence in oneself. Without self-confidence we are babes in the cradle. And how can we generate this imponderable quality, which is yet so invaluable, most quickly? By thinking that other people are inferior to oneself. By feeling that one has some innate superiority – it may be wealth, or rank, a straight nose, or the portrait of a grandfather by Romney – for there is no end to the pathetic devices of the human imagination – over other people. Hence the enormous importance to a patriarch who has to conquer, who has to rule, of feeling that great numbers of people, half the human race indeed, are by nature inferior to himself. It must indeed be one of the great sources of his power….Women have served all these centuries as looking-glasses possessing the magic and delicious power of reflecting the figure of man at twice its natural size. Without that power probably the earth would still be swamp and jungle. The glories of all our wars would be on the remains of mutton bones and bartering flints for sheepskins or whatever simple ornament took our unsophisticated taste. Supermen and Fingers of Destiny would never have existed. The Czar and the Kaiser would never have worn their crowns or lost them. Whatever may be their use in civilised societies, mirrors are essential to all violent and heroic action. That is why Napoleon and Mussolini both insist so emphatically upon the inferiority of women, for if they were not inferior, they would cease to enlarge. That serves to explain in part the necessity that women so often are to men. And it serves to explain how restless they are under her criticism; how impossible it is for her to say to them this book is bad, this picture is feeble, or whatever it may be, without giving far more pain and rousing far more anger than a man would do who gave the same criticism. For if she begins to tell the truth, the figure in the looking-glass shrinks; his fitness in life is diminished. How is he to go on giving judgment, civilising natives, making laws, writing books, dressing up and speechifying at banquets, unless he can see himself at breakfast and at dinner at least twice the size he really is?”

In this transformational speech , Virginia Woolf pronounces her vision that ‘a woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction’. She calls out the years in which women have been deprived of their own space for individual development through being chained to traditional arrangements or men’s prescriptions – demanding ‘gigantic courage’ and ‘confidence in oneself’ to brave through the onerous struggle of creating change for women’s rights. With her steadfast, stolid rhetoric and radical theorization, she paved the way for many women’s rights activists and writers to forge their own paths against patriarchal authority.

14. Inaugural Address by John F Kennedy

“In the long history of the world, only a few generations have been granted the role of defending freedom in its hour of maximum danger. I do not shrink from this responsibility–I welcome it. I do not believe that any of us would exchange places with any other people or any other generation. The energy, the faith, the devotion which we bring to this endeavor will light our country and all who serve it–and the glow from that fire can truly light the world. And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you–ask what you can do for your country. My fellow citizens of the world: ask not what America will do for you, but what together we can do for the freedom of man. Finally, whether you are citizens of America or citizens of the world, ask of us here the same high standards of strength and sacrifice which we ask of you. With a good conscience our only sure reward, with history the final judge of our deeds, let us go forth to lead the land we love, asking His blessing and His help, but knowing that here on earth God’s work must truly be our own.”

For what is probably the most historically groundbreaking use of parallelism in speech across American history, President JFK placed the weighty task of ‘asking what one can do for their country’ onto the shoulders of each American citizen. Using an air of firmness in his rhetoric by declaring his commitment to his countrymen, he urges each American to do the same for the broader, noble ideal of freedom for all. With his crucial interrogation of a citizen’s moral duty to his nation, President JFK truly made history.

15. Atoms for Peace Speech by Dwight Eisenhower

“To pause there would be to confirm the hopeless finality of a belief that two atomic colossi are doomed malevolently to eye each other indefinitely across a trembling world. To stop there would be to accept helplessly the probability of civilization destroyed, the annihilation of the irreplaceable heritage of mankind handed down to us from generation to generation, and the condemnation of mankind to begin all over again the age-old struggle upward from savagery towards decency, and right, and justice. Surely no sane member of the human race could discover victory in such desolation. Could anyone wish his name to be coupled by history with such human degradation and destruction?Occasional pages of history do record the faces of the “great destroyers”, but the whole book of history reveals mankind’s never-ending quest for peace and mankind’s God-given capacity to build. It is with the book of history, and not with isolated pages, that the United States will ever wish to be identified. My country wants to be constructive,not destructive. It wants agreements, not wars, among nations. It wants itself to live in freedom and in the confidence that the peoples of every other nation enjoy equally the right of choosing their own way of life. So my country’s purpose is to help us to move out of the dark chamber of horrors into the light, to find a way by which the minds of men, the hopes of men, the souls of men everywhere, can move forward towards peace and happiness and well-being.”

On a possibility as frightful and tense as nuclear war, President Eisenhower managed to convey the gravity of the world’s plight in his measured and persuasive speech centred on the greater good of mankind. Using rhetorical devices such as the three-part paratactical syntax which most world leaders are fond of for ingraining their words in the minds of their audience, he centers the discourse of the atomic bomb on those affected by such a world-changing decision in ‘the minds, hopes and souls of men everywhere’ – effectively putting the vivid image of millions of people’s fates at stake in the minds of his audience. Being able to make a topic as heavy and fraught with moral conflict as this as eloquent as he did, Eisenhower definitely ranks among some of the most skilled orators to date.

16. The Transformation of Silence into Language and Action by Audre Lorde

“I was going to die, if not sooner then later, whether or not I had ever spoken myself. My silences had not protected me. Your silence will not protect you. But for every real word spoken, for every attempt I had ever made to speak those truths for which I am still seeking, I had made contact with other women while we examined the words to fit a world in which we all believed, bridging our differences. What are the words you do not have yet? What do you need to say? What are the tyrannies you swallow day by day and attempt to make your own, until you will sicken and die of them, still in silence? Perhaps for some of you here today, I am the face of one of your fears. Because I am a woman, because I am black, because I am myself, a black woman warrior poet doing my work, come to ask you, are you doing yours?”

Revolutionary writer, feminist and civil rights activist Audre Lorde first delivered this phenomenal speech at Lesbian and Literature panel of the Modern Language Association’s December 28, 1977 meeting, which went on to feature permanently in her writings for its sheer wisdom and truth. Her powerful writing and speech about living on the margins of society has enlightened millions of people discriminated across various intersections, confronting them with the reality that they must speak – since their ‘silence will not protect’ them from further marginalization. Through her illuminating words and oratory, she has reminded marginalized persons of the importance of their selfhood and the radical capacity for change they have in a world blighted by prejudice and division.

17. 1965 Cambridge Union Hall Speech by James Baldwin

“What is dangerous here is the turning away from – the turning away from – anything any white American says. The reason for the political hesitation, in spite of the Johnson landslide is that one has been betrayed by American politicians for so long. And I am a grown man and perhaps I can be reasoned with. I certainly hope I can be. But I don’t know, and neither does Martin Luther King, none of us know how to deal with those other people whom the white world has so long ignored, who don’t believe anything the white world says and don’t entirely believe anything I or Martin is saying. And one can’t blame them. You watch what has happened to them in less than twenty years.”

Baldwin’s invitation to the Cambridge Union Hall is best remembered for foregrounding the unflinching differences in white and African Americans’ ‘system of reality’ in everyday life. Raising uncomfortable truths about the insidious nature of racism post-civil war, he provides several nuggets of thought-provoking wisdom on the state of relations between the oppressed and their oppressors, and what is necessary to mediate such relations and destroy the exploitative thread of racist hatred. With great frankness, he admits to not having all the answers but provides hard-hitting wisdom on engagement to guide activists through confounding times nonetheless.

18. I Am Prepared to Die by Nelson Mandela

“Above all, My Lord, we want equal political rights, because without them our disabilities will be permanent. I know this sounds revolutionary to the whites in this country, because the majority of voters will be Africans. This makes the white man fear democracy. But this fear cannot be allowed to stand in the way of the only solution which will guarantee racial harmony and freedom for all. It is not true that the enfranchisement of all will result in racial domination. Political division, based on colour, is entirely artificial and, when it disappears, so will the domination of one colour group by another. The ANC has spent half a century fighting against racialism. When it triumphs as it certainly must, it will not change that policy. This then is what the ANC is fighting. Our struggle is a truly national one. It is a struggle of the African people, inspired by our own suffering and our own experience. It is a struggle for the right to live. During my lifetime I have dedicated my life to this struggle of the African people. I have fought against white domination, and I have fought against black domination. I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons will live together in harmony and with equal opportunities. It is an ideal for which I hope to live for and to see realised. But, My Lord, if it needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die.”

Apartheid is still considered one of these most devastating events of world history, and it would not have ended without the crucial effort and words of Nelson Mandela during his courageous political leadership. In this heartbreaking speech , he voices his utter devotion to the fight against institutionalised racism in African society – an ideal for which he was ‘prepared to die for’. Mandela continues to remind us today of his moral conviction in leading, wherein the world would likely to be a better place if all politicians had the same resolve and genuine commitment to human rights and the abolition of oppression as he did.

19. Critique on British Imperialism by General Aung San

“Do they form their observations by seeing the attendances at not very many cinemas and theatres of Rangoon? Do they judge this question of money circulation by paying a stray visit to a local bazaar? Do they know that cinemas and theatres are not true indicators, at least in Burma, of the people’s conditions? Do they know that there are many in this country who cannot think of going to these places by having to struggle for their bare existence from day to day? Do they know that those who nowadays patronise or frequent cinemas and theatres which exist only in Rangoon and a few big towns, belong generally to middle and upper classes and the very few of the many poor who can attend at all are doing so as a desperate form of relaxation just to make them forget their unsupportable existences for the while whatever may be the tomorrow that awaits them?”

Under British colonial rule, one of the most legendary nationalist leaders emerged from the ranks of the thousands of Burmese to boldly lead them towards independence, out of the exploitation and control under the British. General Aung San’s speech criticising British social, political and economic control of Burma continues to be scathing, articulate, and relevant – especially given his necessary goal of uniting the Burmese natives against their common oppressor. He successfully galvanised his people against the British, taking endless risks through nationalist speeches and demonstrations which gradually bore fruit in Burma’s independence.

20. Nobel Lecture by Mother Teresa

“I believe that we are not real social workers. We may be doing social work in the eyes of the people, but we are really contemplatives in the heart of the world. For we are touching the Body Of Christ 24 hours. We have 24 hours in this presence, and so you and I. You too try to bring that presence of God in your family, for the family that prays together stays together. And I think that we in our family don’t need bombs and guns, to destroy to bring peace–just get together, love one another, bring that peace, that joy, that strength of presence of each other in the home. And we will be able to overcome all the evil that is in the world. There is so much suffering, so much hatred, so much misery, and we with our prayer, with our sacrifice are beginning at home. Love begins at home, and it is not how much we do, but how much love we put in the action that we do. It is to God Almighty–how much we do it does not matter, because He is infinite, but how much love we put in that action. How much we do to Him in the person that we are serving.”

In contemporary culture, most people understand Mother Teresa to be the epitome of compassion and kindness. However, if one were to look closer at her speeches from the past, one would discover not merely her altruistic contributions, but her keen heart for social justice and the downtrodden. She wisely and gracefully remarks that ‘love begins at home’ from the individual actions of each person within their private lives, which accumulate into a life of goodness and charity. For this, her speeches served not just consolatory value or momentary relevance, as they still inform the present on how we can live lives worth living.

21. June 9 Speech to Martial Law Units by Deng Xiaoping

“This army still maintains the traditions of our old Red Army. What they crossed this time was in the true sense of the expression a political barrier, a threshold of life and death. This was not easy. This shows that the People’s Army is truly a great wall of iron and steel of the party and state. This shows that no matter how heavy our losses, the army, under the leadership of the party, will always remain the defender of the country, the defender of socialism, and the defender of the public interest. They are a most lovable people. At the same time, we should never forget how cruel our enemies are. We should have not one bit of forgiveness for them. The fact that this incident broke out as it did is very worthy of our pondering. It prompts us cool-headedly to consider the past and the future. Perhaps this bad thing will enable us to go ahead with reform and the open policy at a steadier and better — even a faster — pace, more speedily correct our mistakes, and better develop our strong points.”

Mere days before the 4 June 1989 Tiananmen Square uprising, Chinese Communist Party leader Deng Xiaoping sat with six party elders (senior officials) and the three remaining members of the Politburo Standing Committee, the paramount decision-making body in China’s government. The meeting was organised to discuss the best course of action for restoring social and political order to China, given the sweeping economic reforms that had taken place in the past decade that inevitably resulted in some social resistance from the populace. Deng then gave this astute and well-regarded speech, outlining the political complexities in shutting down student protests given the context of reforms encouraging economic liberalization already taking place, as aligned with the students’ desires. It may not be the most rousing or inflammatory of speeches, but it was certainly persuasive in voicing the importance of taking a strong stand for the economic reforms Deng was implementing to benefit Chinese citizens in the long run. Today, China is an economic superpower, far from its war-torn developing country status before Deng’s leadership – thanks to his foresight in ensuring political stability would allow China to enjoy the fruits of the massive changes they adapted to.

22. Freedom or Death by Emmeline Pankhurst

“You won your freedom in America when you had the revolution, by bloodshed, by sacrificing human life. You won the civil war by the sacrifice of human life when you decided to emancipate the negro. You have left it to women in your land, the men of all civilised countries have left it to women, to work out their own salvation. That is the way in which we women of England are doing. Human life for us is sacred, but we say if any life is to be sacrificed it shall be ours; we won’t do it ourselves, but we will put the enemy in the position where they will have to choose between giving us freedom or giving us death. Now whether you approve of us or whether you do not, you must see that we have brought the question of women’s suffrage into a position where it is of first rate importance, where it can be ignored no longer. Even the most hardened politician will hesitate to take upon himself directly the responsibility of sacrificing the lives of women of undoubted honour, of undoubted earnestness of purpose. That is the political situation as I lay it before you today.”

In 1913 after Suffragette Emily Davison stepped in front of King George V’s horse at the Epsom Derby and suffered fatal injuries, Emmeline Pankhurst delivered her speech to Connecticut as a call to action for people to support the suffragette movement. Her fortitude in delivering such a sobering speech on the state of women’s rights is worth remembering for its invaluable impact and contributions to the rights we enjoy in today’s world.

23. Quit India by Mahatma Gandhi

“We shall either free India or die in the attempt; we shall not live to see the perpetuation of our slavery. Every true Congressman or woman will join the struggle with an inflexible determination not to remain alive to see the country in bondage and slavery. Let that be your pledge. Keep jails out of your consideration. If the Government keep me free, I will not put on the Government the strain of maintaining a large number of prisoners at a time, when it is in trouble. Let every man and woman live every moment of his or her life hereafter in the consciousness that he or she eats or lives for achieving freedom and will die, if need be, to attain that goal. Take a pledge, with God and your own conscience as witness, that you will no longer rest till freedom is achieved and will be prepared to lay down your lives in the attempt to achieve it. He who loses his life will gain it; he who will seek to save it shall lose it. Freedom is not for the coward or the faint-hearted.”

Naturally, the revolutionary activist Gandhi had to appear in this list for his impassioned anti-colonial speeches which rallied Indians towards independence. Famous for leading non-violent demonstrations, his speeches were a key element in gathering Indians of all backgrounds together for the common cause of eliminating their colonial masters. His speeches were resolute, eloquent, and courageous, inspiring the hope and admiration of many not just within India, but around the world.

24. 1974 National Book Award Speech by Adrienne Rich, Alice Walker, Audre Lorde

“The statement I am going to read was prepared by three of the women nominated for the National Book Award for poetry, with the agreement that it would be read by whichever of us, if any, was chosen.We, Audre Lorde, Adrienne Rich, and Alice Walker, together accept this award in the name of all the women whose voices have gone and still go unheard in a patriarchal world, and in the name of those who, like us, have been tolerated as token women in this culture, often at great cost and in great pain. We believe that we can enrich ourselves more in supporting and giving to each other than by competing against each other; and that poetry—if it is poetry—exists in a realm beyond ranking and comparison. We symbolically join together here in refusing the terms of patriarchal competition and declaring that we will share this prize among us, to be used as best we can for women. We appreciate the good faith of the judges for this award, but none of us could accept this money for herself, nor could she let go unquestioned the terms on which poets are given or denied honor and livelihood in this world, especially when they are women. We dedicate this occasion to the struggle for self-determination of all women, of every color, identification, or derived class: the poet, the housewife, the lesbian, the mathematician, the mother, the dishwasher, the pregnant teen-ager, the teacher, the grandmother, the prostitute, the philosopher, the waitress, the women who will understand what we are doing here and those who will not understand yet; the silent women whose voices have been denied us, the articulate women who have given us strength to do our work.”

Adrienne Rich, Audre Lorde, and Alice Walker wrote this joint speech to be delivered by Adrienne Rich at the 1974 National Book Awards, based on their suspicions that the first few African American lesbian women to be nominated for the awards would be snubbed in favour of a white woman nominee. Their suspicions were confirmed, and Adrienne Rich delivered this socially significant speech in solidarity with her fellow nominees, upholding the voices of the ‘silent women whose voices have been denied’.

25. Speech to 20th Congress of the CPSU by Nikita Khruschev

“Considering the question of the cult of an individual, we must first of all show everyone what harm this caused to the interests of our Party. Vladimir Ilyich Lenin had always stressed the Party’s role and significance in the direction of the socialist government of workers and peasants; he saw in this the chief precondition for a successful building of socialism in our country. Pointing to the great responsibility of the Bolshevik Party, as ruling Party of the Soviet state, Lenin called for the most meticulous observance of all norms of Party life; he called for the realization of the principles of collegiality in the direction of the Party and the state. Collegiality of leadership flows from the very nature of our Party, a Party built on the principles of democratic centralism. “This means,” said Lenin, “that all Party matters are accomplished by all Party members – directly or through representatives – who, without any exceptions, are subject to the same rules; in addition, all administrative members, all directing collegia, all holders of Party positions are elective, they must account for their activities and are recallable.””

This speech is possibly the most famed Russian speech for its status as a ‘secret’ speech delivered only to the CPSU at the time, which was eventually revealed to the public. Given the unchallenged political legacy and cult of personality which Stalin left in the Soviet Union, Nikita Khruschev’s speech condemning the authoritarian means Stalin had resorted to to consolidate power as un-socialist was an important mark in Russian history.

26. The Struggle for Human Rights by Eleanor Roosevelt

“It is my belief, and I am sure it is also yours, that the struggle for democracy and freedom is a critical struggle, for their preservation is essential to the great objective of the United Nations to maintain international peace and security. Among free men the end cannot justify the means. We know the patterns of totalitarianism — the single political party, the control of schools, press, radio, the arts, the sciences, and the church to support autocratic authority; these are the age-old patterns against which men have struggled for three thousand years. These are the signs of reaction, retreat, and retrogression. The United Nations must hold fast to the heritage of freedom won by the struggle of its people; it must help us to pass it on to generations to come. The development of the ideal of freedom and its translation into the everyday life of the people in great areas of the earth is the product of the efforts of many peoples. It is the fruit of a long tradition of vigorous thinking and courageous action. No one race and on one people can claim to have done all the work to achieve greater dignity for human beings and great freedom to develop human personality. In each generation and in each country there must be a continuation of the struggle and new steps forward must be taken since this is preeminently a field in which to stand still is to retreat.”

Eleanor Roosevelt has been among the most well-loved First Ladies for good reason – her eloquence and gravitas in delivering every speech convinced everyone of her suitability for the oval office. In this determined and articulate speech , she outlines the fundamental values that form the bedrock of democracy, urging the rest of the world to uphold human rights regardless of national ideology and interests.

27. The Ballot or The Bullet by Malcolm X

“And in this manner, the organizations will increase in number and in quantity and in quality, and by August, it is then our intention to have a black nationalist convention which will consist of delegates from all over the country who are interested in the political, economic and social philosophy of black nationalism. After these delegates convene, we will hold a seminar; we will hold discussions; we will listen to everyone. We want to hear new ideas and new solutions and new answers. And at that time, if we see fit then to form a black nationalist party, we’ll form a black nationalist party. If it’s necessary to form a black nationalist army, we’ll form a black nationalist army. It’ll be the ballot or the bullet. It’ll be liberty or it’ll be death.”

Inarguably, the revolutionary impact Malcolm X’s fearless oratory had was substantial in his time as a radical anti-racist civil rights activist. His speeches’ emancipatory potential put forth his ‘theory of rhetorical action’ where he urges Black Americans to employ both the ballot and the bullet, strategically without being dependent on the other should the conditions of oppression change. A crucial leader in the fight for civil rights, he opened the eyes of thousands of Black Americans, politicising and convincing them of the necessity of fighting for their democratic rights against white supremacists.

28. Living the Revolution by Gloria Steinem

“The challenge to all of us, and to you men and women who are graduating today, is to live a revolution, not to die for one. There has been too much killing, and the weapons are now far too terrible. This revolution has to change consciousness, to upset the injustice of our current hierarchy by refusing to honor it, and to live a life that enforces a new social justice. Because the truth is none of us can be liberated if other groups are not.”

In an unexpected commencement speech delivered at Vassar College in 1970, Gloria Steinem boldly makes a call to action on behalf of marginalized groups in need of liberation to newly graduated students. She proclaimed it the year of Women’s Liberation and forcefully highlighted the need for a social revolution to ‘upset the injustice of the current hierarchy’ in favour of human rights – echoing the hard-hitting motto on social justice, ‘until all of us are free, none of us are free’.

29. The Last Words of Harvey Milk by Harvey Milk

“I cannot prevent some people from feeling angry and frustrated and mad in response to my death, but I hope they will take the frustration and madness and instead of demonstrating or anything of that type, I would hope that they would take the power and I would hope that five, ten, one hundred, a thousand would rise. I would like to see every gay lawyer, every gay architect come out, stand up and let the world know. That would do more to end prejudice overnight than anybody could imagine. I urge them to do that, urge them to come out. Only that way will we start to achieve our rights. … All I ask is for the movement to continue, and if a bullet should enter my brain, let that bullet destroy every closet door…”

As the first openly gay elected official in the history of California, Harvey Milk’s entire political candidature was in itself a radical statement against the homophobic status quo at the time. Given the dangerous times he was in as an openly gay man, he anticipated that he would be assassinated eventually in his political career. As such, these are some of his last words which show the utter devotion he had to campaigning against homophobia while representing the American people, voicing his heartbreaking wish for the bullet that would eventually kill him to ‘destroy every closet door’.

30. Black Power Address at UC Berkeley by Stokely Carmichael

“Now we are now engaged in a psychological struggle in this country, and that is whether or not black people will have the right to use the words they want to use without white people giving their sanction to it; and that we maintain, whether they like it or not, we gonna use the word “Black Power” — and let them address themselves to that; but that we are not going to wait for white people to sanction Black Power. We’re tired waiting; every time black people move in this country, they’re forced to defend their position before they move. It’s time that the people who are supposed to be defending their position do that. That’s white people. They ought to start defending themselves as to why they have oppressed and exploited us.”

A forceful and impressive orator, Stokely Carmichael was among those at the forefront of the civil rights movement, who was a vigorous socialist organizer as well. He led the Black Power movement wherein he gave this urgent, influential speech that propelled Black Americans forward in their fight for constitutional rights in the 1960s.

31. Speech on Vietnam by Lyndon Johnson

“The true peace-keepers are those men who stand out there on the DMZ at this very hour, taking the worst that the enemy can give. The true peace-keepers are the soldiers who are breaking the terrorist’s grip around the villages of Vietnam—the civilians who are bringing medical care and food and education to people who have already suffered a generation of war. And so I report to you that we are going to continue to press forward. Two things we must do. Two things we shall do. First, we must not mislead the enemy. Let him not think that debate and dissent will produce wavering and withdrawal. For I can assure you they won’t. Let him not think that protests will produce surrender. Because they won’t. Let him not think that he will wait us out. For he won’t. Second, we will provide all that our brave men require to do the job that must be done. And that job is going to be done. These gallant men have our prayers-have our thanks—have our heart-felt praise—and our deepest gratitude. Let the world know that the keepers of peace will endure through every trial—and that with the full backing of their countrymen, they are going to prevail.”

During some of the most harrowing periods of human history, the Vietnam War, American soldiers were getting soundly defeated by the Vietnamese in guerrilla warfare. President Lyndon Johnson then issued this dignified, consolatory speech to encourage patriotism and support for the soldiers putting their lives on the line for the nation.

32. A Whisper of AIDS by Mary Fisher

“We may take refuge in our stereotypes, but we cannot hide there long, because HIV asks only one thing of those it attacks. Are you human? And this is the right question. Are you human? Because people with HIV have not entered some alien state of being. They are human. They have not earned cruelty, and they do not deserve meanness. They don’t benefit from being isolated or treated as outcasts. Each of them is exactly what God made: a person; not evil, deserving of our judgment; not victims, longing for our pity ­­ people, ready for  support and worthy of compassion. We must be consistent if we are to be believed. We cannot love justice and ignore prejudice, love our children and fear to teach them. Whatever our role as parent or policymaker, we must act as eloquently as we speak ­­ else we have no integrity. My call to the nation is a plea for awareness. If you believe you are safe, you are in danger. Because I was not hemophiliac, I was not at risk. Because I was not gay, I was not at risk. Because I did not inject drugs, I was not at risk. The lesson history teaches is this: If you believe you are safe, you are at risk. If you do not see this killer stalking your children, look again. There is no family or community, no race or religion, no place left in America that is safe. Until we genuinely embrace this message, we are a nation at risk.”

Back when AIDS research was still undeveloped, the stigma of contracting HIV was even more immense than it is today. A celebrated artist, author and speaker, Mary Fisher became an outspoken activist for those with HIV/AIDS, persuading people to extend compassion to the population with HIV instead of stigmatizing them – as injustice has a way of coming around to people eventually. Her bold act of speaking out for the community regardless of the way they contracted the disease, their sexual orientation or social group, was an influential move in advancing the human rights of those with HIV and spreading awareness on the discrimination they face.

33. Freedom from Fear by Aung San Suu Kyi

“The quintessential revolution is that of the spirit, born of an intellectual conviction of the need for change in those mental attitudes and values which shape the course of a nation’s development. A revolution which aims merely at changing official policies and institutions with a view to an improvement in material conditions has little chance of genuine success. Without a revolution of the spirit, the forces which produced the iniquities of the old order would continue to be operative, posing a constant threat to the process of reform and regeneration. It is not enough merely to call for freedom, democracy and human rights. There has to be a united determination to persevere in the struggle, to make sacrifices in the name of enduring truths, to resist the corrupting influences of desire, ill will, ignorance and fear. Saints, it has been said, are the sinners who go on trying. So free men are the oppressed who go on trying and who in the process make themselves fit to bear the responsibilities and to uphold the disciplines which will maintain a free society. Among the basic freedoms to which men aspire that their lives might be full and uncramped, freedom from fear stands out as both a means and an end. A people who would build a nation in which strong, democratic institutions are firmly established as a guarantee against state-induced power must first learn to liberate their own minds from apathy and fear.”

Famous for her resoluteness and fortitude in campaigning for democracy in Burma despite being put under house arrest by the military government, Aung San Suu Kyi’s speeches have been widely touted as inspirational. In this renowned speech of hers, she delivers a potent message to Burmese to ‘liberate their minds from apathy and fear’ in the struggle for freedom and human rights in the country. To this day, she continues to tirelessly champion the welfare and freedom of Burmese in a state still overcome by vestiges of authoritarian rule.

34. This Is Water by David Foster Wallace

“Our own present culture has harnessed these forces in ways that have yielded extraordinary wealth and comfort and personal freedom. The freedom all to be lords of our tiny skull-sized kingdoms, alone at the centre of all creation. This kind of freedom has much to recommend it. But of course there are all different kinds of freedom, and the kind that is most precious you will not hear much talk about much in the great outside world of wanting and achieving…. The really important kind of freedom involves attention and awareness and discipline, and being able truly to care about other people and to sacrifice for them over and over in myriad petty, unsexy ways every day. That is real freedom. That is being educated, and understanding how to think. The alternative is unconsciousness, the default setting, the rat race, the constant gnawing sense of having had, and lost, some infinite thing.”

Esteemed writer David Foster Wallace gave a remarkably casual yet wise commencement speech at Kenyon College in 2005 on the importance of learning to think beyond attaining a formal education. He encouraged hundreds of students to develop freedom of thought, a heart of sacrificial care for those in need of justice, and a consciousness that would serve them in discerning the right choices to make within a status quo that is easy to fall in line with. His captivating speech on what it meant to truly be ‘educated’ tugged at the hearts of many young and critical minds striving to achieve their dreams and change the world.

35. Questioning the Universe by Stephen Hawking

“This brings me to the last of the big questions: the future of the human race. If we are the only intelligent beings in the galaxy, we should make sure we survive and continue. But we are entering an increasingly dangerous period of our history. Our population and our use of the finite resources of planet Earth are growing exponentially, along with our technical ability to change the environment for good or ill. But our genetic code still carries the selfish and aggressive instincts that were of survival advantage in the past. It will be difficult enough to avoid disaster in the next hundred years, let alone the next thousand or million. Our only chance of long-term survival is not to remain inward-looking on planet Earth, but to spread out into space. The answers to these big questions show that we have made remarkable progress in the last hundred years. But if we want to continue beyond the next hundred years, our future is in space. That is why I am in favor of manned — or should I say, personned — space flight.”

Extraordinary theoretical physicist, cosmologist, and author Stephen Hawking was a considerable influence upon modern physics and scientific research at large, inspiring people regardless of physical ability to aspire towards expanding knowledge in the world. In his speech on Questioning the Universe, he speaks of the emerging currents and issues in the scientific world like that of outer space, raising and answering big questions that have stumped great thinkers for years.

36. 2008 Democratic National Convention Speech by Michelle Obama

“I stand here today at the crosscurrents of that history — knowing that my piece of the American dream is a blessing hard won by those who came before me. All of them driven by the same conviction that drove my dad to get up an hour early each day to painstakingly dress himself for work. The same conviction that drives the men and women I’ve met all across this country: People who work the day shift, kiss their kids goodnight, and head out for the night shift — without disappointment, without regret — that goodnight kiss a reminder of everything they’re working for. The military families who say grace each night with an empty seat at the table. The servicemen and women who love this country so much, they leave those they love most to defend it. The young people across America serving our communities — teaching children, cleaning up neighborhoods, caring for the least among us each and every day. People like Hillary Clinton, who put those 18 million cracks in the glass ceiling, so that our daughters — and sons — can dream a little bigger and aim a little higher. People like Joe Biden, who’s never forgotten where he came from and never stopped fighting for folks who work long hours and face long odds and need someone on their side again. All of us driven by a simple belief that the world as it is just won’t do — that we have an obligation to fight for the world as it should be. That is the thread that connects our hearts. That is the thread that runs through my journey and Barack’s journey and so many other improbable journeys that have brought us here tonight, where the current of history meets this new tide of hope. That is why I love this country.”

Ever the favourite modern First Lady of America, Michelle Obama has delivered an abundance of iconic speeches in her political capacity, never forgetting to foreground the indomitable human spirit embodied in American citizens’ everyday lives and efforts towards a better world. The Obamas might just have been the most articulate couple of rhetoricians of their time, making waves as the first African American president and First Lady while introducing important policies in their period of governance.

37. The Audacity of Hope by Barack Obama

“I’m not talking about blind optimism here — the almost willful ignorance that thinks unemployment will go away if we just don’t think about it, or the health care crisis will solve itself if we just ignore it. That’s not what I’m talking about. I’m talking about something more substantial. It’s the hope of slaves sitting around a fire singing freedom songs; the hope of immigrants setting out for distant shores; the hope of a young naval lieutenant bravely patrolling the Mekong Delta; the hope of a millworker’s son who dares to defy the odds; the hope of a skinny kid with a funny name who believes that America has a place for him, too. Hope — Hope in the face of difficulty. Hope in the face of uncertainty. The audacity of hope! In the end, that is God’s greatest gift to us, the bedrock of this nation. A belief in things not seen. A belief that there are better days ahead.”

Now published into a book, Barack Obama’s heart-capturing personal story of transformational hope was first delivered as a speech on the merits of patriotic optimism and determination put to the mission of concrete change. He has come to be known as one of the most favoured and inspiring presidents in American history, and arguably the most skilled orators ever.

38. “Be Your Own Story” by Toni Morrison

“But I’m not going to talk anymore about the future because I’m hesitant to describe or predict because I’m not even certain that it exists. That is to say, I’m not certain that somehow, perhaps, a burgeoning ménage a trois of political interests, corporate interests and military interests will not prevail and literally annihilate an inhabitable, humane future. Because I don’t think we can any longer rely on separation of powers, free speech, religious tolerance or unchallengeable civil liberties as a matter of course. That is, not while finite humans in the flux of time make decisions of infinite damage. Not while finite humans make infinite claims of virtue and unassailable power that are beyond their competence, if not their reach. So, no happy talk about the future. … Because the past is already in debt to the mismanaged present. And besides, contrary to what you may have heard or learned, the past is not done and it is not over, it’s still in process, which is another way of saying that when it’s critiqued, analyzed, it yields new information about itself. The past is already changing as it is being reexamined, as it is being listened to for deeper resonances. Actually it can be more liberating than any imagined future if you are willing to identify its evasions, its distortions, its lies, and are willing to unleash its secrets.”

Venerated author and professor Toni Morrison delivered an impressively articulate speech at Wellesley College in 2004 to new graduates, bucking the trend by discussing the importance of the past in informing current and future ways of living. With her brilliance and eloquence, she blew the crowd away and renewed in them the capacity for reflection upon using the past as a talisman to guide oneself along the journey of life.

39. Nobel Speech by Malala Yousafzai

“Dear brothers and sisters, the so-called world of adults may understand it, but we children don’t. Why is it that countries which we call “strong” are so powerful in creating wars but so weak in bringing peace? Why is it that giving guns is so easy but giving books is so hard? Why is it that making tanks is so easy, but building schools is so difficult? As we are living in the modern age, the 21st century and we all believe that nothing is impossible. We can reach the moon and maybe soon will land on Mars. Then, in this, the 21st century, we must be determined that our dream of quality education for all will also come true. So let us bring equality, justice and peace for all. Not just the politicians and the world leaders, we all need to contribute. Me. You. It is our duty. So we must work … and not wait. I call upon my fellow children to stand up around the world. Dear sisters and brothers, let us become the first generation to decide to be the last. The empty classrooms, the lost childhoods, wasted potential-let these things end with us.”

At a mere 16 years of age, Malala Yousafzai gave a speech on the severity of the state of human rights across the world, and wowed the world with her passion for justice at her tender age. She displayed tenacity and fearlessness speaking about her survival of an assassination attempt for her activism for gender equality in the field of education. A model of courage to us all, her speech remains an essential one in the fight for human rights in the 21st century.

40. Final Commencement Speech by Michelle Obama

“If you are a person of faith, know that religious diversity is a great American tradition, too. In fact, that’s why people first came to this country — to worship freely. And whether you are Muslim, Christian, Jewish, Hindu, Sikh — these religions are teaching our young people about justice, and compassion, and honesty. So I want our young people to continue to learn and practice those values with pride. You see, our glorious diversity — our diversities of faiths and colors and creeds — that is not a threat to who we are, it makes us who we are. So the young people here and the young people out there: Do not ever let anyone make you feel like you don’t matter, or like you don’t have a place in our American story — because you do. And you have a right to be exactly who you are. But I also want to be very clear: This right isn’t just handed to you. No, this right has to be earned every single day. You cannot take your freedoms for granted. Just like generations who have come before you, you have to do your part to preserve and protect those freedoms. … It is our fundamental belief in the power of hope that has allowed us to rise above the voices of doubt and division, of anger and fear that we have faced in our own lives and in the life of this country. Our hope that if we work hard enough and believe in ourselves, then we can be whatever we dream, regardless of the limitations that others may place on us. The hope that when people see us for who we truly are, maybe, just maybe they, too, will be inspired to rise to their best possible selves.”

Finally, we have yet another speech by Michelle Obama given in her final remarks as First Lady – a tear-inducing event for many Americans and even people around the world. In this emotional end to her political tenure, she gives an empowering, hopeful, expressive speech to young Americans, exhorting them to take hold of its future in all their diversity and work hard at being their best possible selves.

Amidst the bleak era of our current time with Trump as president of the USA, not only Michelle Obama, but all 40 of these amazing speeches can serve as sources of inspiration and hope to everyone – regardless of their identity or ambitions. After hearing these speeches, which one’s your favorite? Let us know in the comments below!

Article Written By: Kai Xin Koh

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Biden’s Speech to Congress: Full Transcript

President Biden unveiled a major proposal to invest in education and families, describing it as “a blue-collar blueprint to build America.”

President Biden delivered an address to a joint session of Congress on Wednesday. Because of the pandemic, Mr. Biden spoke to a socially distanced audience of less than 200 lawmakers and officials, a small fraction of the packed audience that typically attends such an address.

The following is a transcript of his remarks.

PRESIDENT BIDEN : Thank you. Thank you, thank you, thank you. It’s good to be back. As Mitch and Chuck will understand, it’s good to be almost home, down the hall. Anyway, thank you all.

Madam Speaker, Madam Vice President. No president has ever said those words from this podium. No president has ever said those words. And it’s about time. The first lady, I’m her husband. Second gentleman. Chief justice. Members of the United States Congress and the cabinet, distinguished guests. My fellow Americans.

While the setting tonight is familiar, this gathering is just a little bit different. A reminder of the extraordinary times we’re in. Throughout our history, presidents have come to this chamber to speak to Congress, to the nation and to the world. To declare war, to celebrate peace, to announce new plans and possibilities.

Tonight, I come to talk about crisis and opportunity. About rebuilding the nation, revitalizing our democracy, and winning the future for America. I stand here tonight one day shy of the 100th day of my administration. A hundred days since I took the oath of office, lifted my hand off our family Bible and inherited a nation — we all did — that was in crisis. The worst pandemic in a century. The worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. The worst attack on our democracy since the Civil War. Now, after just 100 days, I can report to the nation, America is on the move again. Turning peril into possibility, crisis into opportunity, setbacks to strength.

We all know life can knock us down. But in America, we never, ever, ever stay down. Americans always get up. Today, that’s what we’re doing. America is rising anew. Choosing hope over fear, truth over lies and light over darkness. After 100 days of rescue and renewal, America is ready for a takeoff, in my view. We’re working again, dreaming again, discovering again and leading the world again. We have shown each other and the world that there’s no quit in America. None.

One hundred days ago, America’s house was on fire. We had to act. Thanks to the extraordinary leadership of Speaker Pelosi, Majority Leader Schumer and the overwhelming support of the American people — Democrats, Independents and Republicans — we did act. Together, we passed the American Rescue Plan, one of the most consequential rescue packages in American history. We’re already seeing the results.

We’re already seeing the results. After I promised we would get 100 million Covid-19 vaccine shots into people’s arms in 100 days, we will have provided over 220 million Covid shots in those hundred days, thanks to all the help of all of you. We’re marshaling with your help, everyone’s help, we’re marshaling every federal resource. We’ve gotten vaccinations to nearly 40,000 pharmacies and over 700 community health centers where the poorest of the poor can be reached. We’re setting up community vaccination sites, developing mobile units to get to hard-to-reach communities. Today, 90 percent of Americans now live within five miles of a vaccination site. Everyone over the age of 16, everyone, is now eligible to get vaccinated right now, right away. Go get vaccinated, America. Go and get the vaccination. They’re available. You’re eligible now.

When I was sworn in on Jan. 20, less than 1 percent of the seniors in America were fully vaccinated against Covid-19. One hundred days later, 70 percent of seniors in America over 65 are protected, fully protected. Senior deaths from Covid-19 are down 80 percent since January, down 80 percent, because of all of you.

And more than half of all the adults in America have gotten at least one shot. The mass vaccination center in Glendale, Ariz., I asked the nurse, I said, “What’s it like?” She looked at me, she said, “It’s like every shot is giving a dose of hope” was her phrase, a dose of hope.

A dose of hope for an educator in Florida, who has a child suffering from an autoimmune disease, wrote to me, said she’s worried — that she was worried about bringing the virus home. She said she then got vaccinated at a large site, in her car. She said she sat in her car when she got vaccinated and just cried, cried out of joy, and cried out of relief.

Parents seeing the smiles on the kids’ faces, for those who are able to go back to school because the teachers and the school bus drivers and the cafeteria workers have been vaccinated. Grandparents, hugging their children and grandchildren, instead of pressing hands against the window to say goodbye. It means everything. Those things mean everything.

You know, there’s still — you all know it, you know it better than any group of Americans — there’s still more work to do to beat this virus. We can’t let our guard down. But tonight, I can say, because of you, the American people, our progress these past 100 days against one of the worst pandemics in history has been one of the greatest logistical achievements, logistical achievements this country has ever seen. What else have we done in those first 100 days?

We kept our commitment, Democrats and Republicans, of sending $1,400 rescue checks to 85 percent of American households. We’ve already sent more than 160 million checks out the door. It’s making a difference. You all know it when you go home. For many people, it’s making all the difference in the world.

A single mom in Texas who wrote me, she said she couldn’t work. She said the relief check put food on the table and saved her and her son from eviction from their apartment. A grandmother in Virginia who told me she immediately took her granddaughter to the eye doctor, something she said she put off for months because she didn’t have the money. One of the defining images, at least from my perspective, in this crisis has been cars lined up, cars lined up for miles. And not people just barely able to start those cars. Nice cars, lined up for miles, waiting for a box of food to be put in their trunk.

I don’t know about you, but I didn’t ever think I would see that in America. And all of this is through no fault of their own. No fault of their own, these people are in this position. That’s why the rescue plan is delivering food and nutrition assistance to millions of Americans facing hunger. And hunger is down sharply already.

We’re also providing rental assistance — you all know this, but the American people, I want to make sure they understand. Keeping people from being evicted from their homes. Providing loans to small businesses that reopen and keep their employees on the job. During these hundred days, an additional 800,000 Americans enrolled in the Affordable Care Act when I established a special sign-up period to do that — 800,000 in that period. We’re making one of the largest one-time-ever investments, ever, in improving health care for veterans. Critical investments to address the opioid crisis. And maybe most importantly, thanks to the American Rescue Plan, we’re on track to cut child poverty in America in half this year.

And in the process, while this is all going on, the economy created more than 1,300,000 new jobs in 100 days. More jobs in the first — more jobs in the first 100 days than any president on record. The International Monetary Fund — the International Monetary Fund is now estimating our economy will grow at a rate of more than 6 percent this year. That will be the fastest pace of economic growth in this country in nearly four decades. America’s moving, moving forward. But we can’t stop now.

We’re in competition with China and other countries to win the 21st century. We’re at a great inflection point in history. We have to do more than just build back better — than just build back, we have to build back better. We have to compete more strenuously than we have. Throughout our history, if you think about it, public investment in infrastructure has literally transformed America, our attitudes as well as our opportunities. The transcontinental railroad, interstate highways, united two oceans and brought a totally new age of progress to the United States of America.

Universal public schools and college aid opened wide the doors of opportunity. Scientific breakthroughs took us to the moon. Now we’re on Mars, discovering vaccines, gave us the internet and so much more. These are investments we made together as one country. And investments that only the government was in a position to make. Time and again, they propel us into the future. That’s why I propose the American Jobs Plan, a once-in-a-generation investment in America itself. This is the largest jobs plan since World War II.

It creates jobs to upgrade our transportation infrastructure. Jobs modernizing our roads, bridges, highways. Jobs building ports and airports, rail corridors, transit lines. It’s clean water. And today, up to 10 million homes in America and more than 400,000 schools and child care centers have pipes with lead in them, including drinking water, a clear and present danger to our children’s health. The American Jobs Plan creates jobs replacing 100 percent of the nation’s lead pipes and service lines so every American can drink clean water.

In the process it will create thousands and thousands of good-paying jobs. It creates jobs connecting every American with high-speed internet, including 35 percent of the rural America that still doesn’t have it. This is going to help our kids and our businesses succeed in the 21st century economy. And I’m asking the vice president to lead this effort, if she would, because I know it will get done.

It creates jobs, building a modern power grid. Our grids are vulnerable to storms, hacks, catastrophic failures — with tragic results, as we saw in Texas and elsewhere during the winter storms. The American Jobs Plan will create jobs that lay thousands of miles of transmission lines needed to build a resilient and fully clean grid. We can do that.

Look, the American Jobs Plan will help millions of people get back to their jobs and back to their careers. Two million women have dropped out of the work force during this pandemic. Two million. And too often, because they couldn’t get the care they needed to care for their child or care for an elderly parent who needs help; 800,000 families are on the Medicare waiting list right now to get home care for their aging parent or loved one with disability. If you think it’s not important, check out in your own district, Democrat or Republican. Democrat or Republican voters.

Their great concern, almost as much as the children, is taking care of an elderly loved one who can’t be left alone. Medicaid contemplated it, but this plan is going to help those families and create jobs for our caregivers with better wages and better benefits, continuing a cycle of growth.

For too long we’ve failed to use the most important word when it comes to meeting the climate crisis: Jobs. Jobs. Jobs. For me, when I think climate change, I think jobs. The American Jobs Plan will put engineers and construction workers to work building more energy efficient buildings and homes. Electrical workers, I.B.E.W. members, installing 500,000 charging stations along our highways so we can own the electric car market. Farmers, farmers planting cover crops so they can reduce the carbon dioxide in the air and get paid for doing it.

Look, think about it. There is simply no reason why the blades for wind turbines can’t be built in Pittsburgh instead of Beijing. No reason. None. No reason. So folks, there’s no reason why Americans — American workers can’t lead the world in the production of electric vehicles and batteries. There is no reason. We have the capacity. They’re best-trained people in the world. The American Jobs Plan is going to create millions of good-paying jobs, jobs Americans can raise a family on. As my dad would then say, with a little breathing room. And all the investments in the American Jobs Plan will be guided by one principle: Buy American. Buy American.

And I might note parenthetically, that does not violate any trade agreement. It’s been the law since the ’30s, buy American. American tax dollars are going to be used to buy American products, made in America, to create American jobs. That’s the way it’s supposed to be, and it will be in this administration. And I made it clear to all my cabinet people, their ability to give exemptions has been strenuously limited. It will be American products.

Now, I know some of you at home are wondering whether these jobs are for you. So many of you, so many of the folks I grew up with, feel left behind, forgotten, in an economy that’s so rapidly changing — it’s frightening. I want to speak directly to you, because if you think about it, that’s what people are most worried about. Can I fit in?

Independent experts estimate the American Jobs Plan will add millions of jobs and trillions of dollars to economic growth in the years to come. It is an eight-year program. These are good-paying jobs that can’t be outsourced. Nearly 90 percent of the infrastructure jobs created in the American Jobs Plan do not require a college degree. Seventy-five percent don’t require an associate’s degree. The American Jobs Plan is a blue-collar blueprint to build America. That’s what it is.

And I recognize something I’ve always said, in this chamber and the other, good guys and women on Wall Street. But Wall Street didn’t build this country. The middle class built the country. And unions built the middle class. So that’s why I’m calling on Congress to pass the Protect the Right to Organize Act, the PRO Act, and send it to my desk so we can support the right to unionize.

And by the way, while you’re thinking about sending things to my desk, let’s raise the minimum wage to $15. No one, no one working 40 hours a week, no one working 40 hours a week should live below the poverty line. We need to ensure greater equity and opportunity for women. And while we’re doing this, let’s get the Paycheck Fairness Act to my desk as well. Equal pay. It’s been much too long. And if you wonder whether it’s been too long, look behind me.

And finally, the American Jobs Plan will be the biggest increase in nondefense research and development on record. We’ll see more technological change — and some of you know more about this than I do — we’ll see more technological change this the next 10 years than we saw in the last 50. That’s how rapidly artificial intelligence, and so much more, is changing. And we’re falling behind the competition with the rest of the world.

Decades ago, we used to invest 2 percent of our gross domestic product in America, 2 percent of our gross domestic product in research and development. Today, Mr. Secretary, that’s less than 1 percent. China and other countries are closing in fast. We have to develop and dominate the products and technologies of the future. Advanced batteries, biotechnology, computer chips, clean energy.

The secretary of defense can tell you — and those of you who work in national security issues know, the defense department has an agency called DARPA, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. The people who set up before I came here — and that’s been a long time ago — to develop breakthroughs that enhance our national security. That’s their only job. And it’s a semi-separate agency, it’s under the Defense Department. It’s led to everything from the discovery of the internet to GPS and so much more. It’s enhanced our security.

The National Institutes of Health, the N.I.H, I believe, should create a similar advanced research projects agency for health. And that would — here’s what it would do: It would have a singular purpose, to develop breakthroughs to prevent, detect and treat diseases like Alzheimer’s, diabetes and cancer. I’ll still never forget when we passed the cancer proposal in the last year as vice president, almost $9 million going to N.I.H. You’ll excuse the point of personal privilege. I’ll never forget you standing, Mitch, and saying, name it after my deceased son. It meant a lot.

But so many of us have deceased sons, daughters and relatives who died of cancer. I can think of no more worthy investment. I know of nothing that is more bipartisan. So let’s end cancer as we know it. It’s within our power. It’s within our power to do it.

Investments in jobs and infrastructure like the ones we’re talking about, have often had bipartisan support in the past. Vice President Harris and I meet regularly in the Oval Office with Democrats and Republicans to discuss the jobs plan. And I applaud a group of Republican senators who just put forward their own proposal. So let’s get to work. I wanted to lay out, before the Congress, my plan, before we go to into the deep discussions.

I would like to meet with those who have ideas that are different, that they think are better. I welcome those ideas. But the rest of the world is not waiting for us. I just want to be clear, from my perspective, doing nothing is not an option. Look, we can’t be so busy competing with one another that we forget the competition that we have with the rest of the world to win the 21st century.

Secretary Blinken can tell you, I spent a lot of time with President Xi — traveled over 17,000 miles with him, spent over 24 hours in private discussions with him. When he called congratulate, we had a two-hour discussion. He’s deadly earnest on becoming the most significant, consequential nation in the world. He and others, autocrats, think that democracy can’t compete in the 21st century with autocracies, because it takes too long to get consensus.

To win that competition for the future, in my view, we also need to make a once-in-a-generation investment in our families and our children. That’s why I introduced the American Families Plan tonight, which addresses four of the biggest challenges facing American families and, in turn, America. First is access to good education. This nation made 12 years of public education universal in the last century. It made us the best-educated, best-prepared nation in the world. It’s, I believe, the overwhelming reason that propelled us to where we got in the 20th century.

But the world’s caught up, or catching up. They’re not waiting. I would say parenthetically, if we were sitting down and put a bipartisan committee together and said, OK, we’re going to decide what we do in terms of government providing for free education, I wonder whether we’d think, as we did in the 20th century, that 12 years is enough in the 21st century. I doubt it. Twelve years is no longer enough today, to compete with the rest of the world in the 21st century. That’s why my American Families Plan guarantees four additional years of public education for every person in America, starting as early as we can.

The great universities in this country have conducted studies over the last 10 years. It shows that adding two years of universal, high-quality preschool for every 3-year-old and 4-year-old, no matter what background they come from, puts them in the position of being able to compete all the way through 12 years and increases exponentially their prospect of graduating and going on beyond graduation.

Research shows, when a young child goes to school — not day care — they’re far more likely to graduate from high school and go to college or something after high school. When you add two years of free community college on top of that, you begin to change the dynamic. We can do that. And we’ll increase Pell Grants and invest in historical Black colleges and universities, tribal colleges, minority serving institutions. The reason is, they don’t have the endowments.

But their students are just as capable of learning about cybersecurity, just as capable of learning about metallurgy — all the things that are going on that provide those jobs of the future. Jill is a community college professor who teaches today as first lady. She’s long said — if I heard it once, I’ve heard it a thousand times. “Joe, any country that out-educates us is going to outcompete us.” She’ll be deeply involved in leading this effort. Thank you, Jill.

Second thing we need, American Families Plan will provide access to quality, affordable child care. It will guarantee — what I’m proposing in legislation, it will guarantee that low- to middle-income families will pay no more than 7 percent of their income for high-quality care for children up to the age of 5. The most hard-pressed working families won’t have to spend a dime.

Third, the American Families Plan will finally provide up to 12 weeks of medical leave, paid medical leave. We’re one of the few industrial countries in the world — no one should have to choose between a job and a paycheck or taking care of themselves or their loved ones, or their parent or spouse or child.

And fourth, the American Family Plan puts directly into the pockets of millions of Americans. In March, we expanded a tax credit for every child in a family, up to $3,000 per child if they’re under 6 years of age — excuse me, under, over 6 years of age — and $3,600 for children over 6 years of age. With two parents, two kids, that’s $7,200 in their pockets they’re getting to help taking care of your family.

And that will help more than 65 million children and help cut child care poverty in half. We can afford it. We did that in the last piece of legislation we passed. Let’s extend that child care tax credit at least through the end of 2025. The American Rescue Plan lowered health care premiums for nine million Americans who buy their coverage under the Affordable Care Act. I know that’s really popular on this side of the aisle. But let’s make that provision permanent so their premiums don’t go back up.

In addition to my families plan, I’m going to work with Congress to address this year other critical priorities for American families. The Affordable Care Act has been a lifeline for millions of Americans, protecting people with pre-existing conditions, protecting women’s health. The pandemic has demonstrated how badly, how badly it’s needed. Let’s lower deductibles for working families in the Affordable Care Act and let’s lower prescription drug costs.

We know how to do this. The last president had that as an objective. We all know how outrageously expensive drugs are in America. In fact, we pay the highest prescription drug prices of anywhere in the world right here in America. Nearly three times, for the same drug nearly three times what other countries pay. We have to change that. And we can. Let’s do what we talked about for all the years I was down here in this body, in Congress. Let’s give Medicare the power to save hundreds of billions of dollars by negotiating lower drug prescription prices.

By the way, it won’t just — it won’t just help people on Medicare. It will lower prescription drug costs for everyone. And the money we save, which is billions of dollars, can go to strengthen the Affordable Care Act and expand Medicare coverage benefits without costing taxpayers an additional penny. It’s within our power to do it. Let’s do it now. We talked about it long enough, Democrats and Republicans. Let’s get it done this year.

This is all about a simple premise: Health care should be a right, not a privilege, in America. So how do we pay for my jobs and family plan? I made it clear, we can do it without increasing the deficit. Let’s start with what I will not do. I will not impose any tax increase on people making less than $400,000. But it’s time for corporate America and the wealthiest 1 percent of Americans to just begin to pay their fair share. Just their fair share.

Sometimes I have arguments with my friends in the Democratic Party. I think you should be able to become a billionaire or a millionaire. But pay your fair share. Recent studies show that 55 of the nation’s biggest corporations paid zero federal tax last year. Those 55 corporations made in excess of $40 billion in profit. A lot of companies also evade taxes through tax havens in Switzerland and Bermuda and the Cayman Islands. And they benefit from tax loopholes and deductions for offshoring jobs and shifting profits overseas. It’s not right.

We’re going to reform corporate taxes so they pay their fair share and help pay for the public investments their businesses will benefit from as well. We’re going to reward work, not just wealth. We take the top tax bracket for the wealthiest 1 percent of Americans, those making over $400,000 or more, back up to where it was when George W. Bush was president, when he started, 39.6 percent. That’s where it was when George W. was president.

We’re going to get rid of the loopholes that allow Americans to make more than $1 million a year and pay a lower tax rate on their capital gains than Americans who receive a paycheck. We’re only going to affect three-tenths of 1 percent of all Americans by that action. Three-tenths of 1 percent. The I.R.S. is going to crack down on millionaires and billionaires who cheat on their taxes. It’s estimated to be billions of dollars by think tanks left, right and center.

I’m not looking to punish anybody. But I will not add a tax burden, additional tax burden on the middle class of this country. They’re already paying enough. I believe what I propose is fair, fiscally responsible, and it raises revenue to pay for the plans I propose and will create millions of jobs that will grow the economy and enhance our financial standing in the country. And here some would say they don’t want to raise taxes on the wealthiest 1 percent, or corporate America. Ask them, whose taxes do you want to raise? Instead, whose are you going to cut?

Look, the big tax cut of 2017. Remember, it was supposed to pay for itself — that was how it was sold — and generate vast economic growth. Instead, it added $2 trillion to the deficit. It was a huge windfall for corporate America and those at the very top. Instead of using the tax saving to raise wages and invest in research and development, it poured billions of dollars into the pockets of C.E.O.s. In fact the pay gap between C.E.O.s and their workers is now among the largest in history. According to one study, C.E.O.s make 320 times what the average worker in a corporation makes. It used to be below 100.

The pandemic has only made things worse. Twenty million Americans lost their job in the pandemic, working- and middle-class Americans. At the same time, roughly 650 billionaires in America saw their net worth increase by more than $1 trillion, in the same exact period. Let me say it again. 650 people increased their wealth by more than $1 trillion during this pandemic and they’re now worth more than $4 trillion. My fellow Americans, trickle-down, trickle-down economics has never worked. It’s time to grow the economy from the bottom and the middle out.

You know, there’s a broad consensus of economists left, right and center, and they agree what I’m proposing will create millions of jobs and generate historic economic growth. These are among the highest-value investments we can make as a nation. I’ve often said our greatest strength is the power of our example, not just the example of our power. My conversations with world leaders — and I’ve spoken to 38, 40 of them now — I’ve made it known, I’ve made it known, that America is back.

You know what they say? The comment I hear most of all from them? They say: “We see America’s back, but for how long? But for how long?” My fellow Americans, we have to show not just that we’re back, but that we’re back to stay, and that we aren’t going to go alone. We’re going to do it by leading with our allies. No one nation can deal with all the crises of our time, from terrorism to nuclear proliferation, mass migration, cybersecurity, climate change, as well as what we’re experiencing now, pandemics.

There’s no wall high enough to keep any virus out. And our own vaccine supply, as it grows to meet our needs — and we’re meeting them — will become an arsenal for vaccines for other countries, just as America was the arsenal for democracy for the world. And in consequence, influenced the world. Every American will have access before that occurs, every American will have access to be fully covered by Covid-19 from the vaccines we have.

Look, the climate crisis is not our fight alone. It’s a global fight. The United States accounts, as all of you know, for less than 15 percent of carbon emissions. The rest of the world accounts for 85 percent. That’s why I kept my commitment to rejoin the Paris Accord, because if we do everything perfectly, it’s not going to matter. I kept my commitment to convene a climate summit right here in America with all the major economies of the world: China, Russia, India, European Union. I said I would do it in my first hundred days.

I want to be very blunt about it. I had — my intent was to make sure that the world could see that there was a consensus, that we are at an inflection point in history. The consensus is, if we act to save the planet, we can create millions of jobs and economic growth and opportunity to raise the standard of living of almost everyone around the world. If you’ve watched any of it — and you were all busy, I’m sure you didn’t have much time — that’s what virtually every nation said, even the ones who aren’t doing their fair share.

The investments I propose tonight also advance a foreign policy, in my view, that benefits the middle class. That means making sure that every nation plays by the same rules in the global economy, including China. In my discussions with President Xi, I told him we welcome the competition. We’re not looking for conflict.

But I made absolutely clear that we’ll defend America’s interests across the board. America will stand up to unfair trade practices that undercut workers and American industries like subsidies from state to state-owned operations and enterprises and the theft of American technology and intellectual property. I also told President Xi that we’ll maintain a strong relationship in the Indo-Pacific, just as we do for NATO and Europe. Not to start a conflict, but to prevent one.

I told him what I said to many world leaders, that America will not back away from our commitments, our commitments to human rights and our fundamental freedom and our alliances. I pointed out to him, no responsible American president could remain silent when basic human rights are being so blatantly violated. An American president has to represent the essence of what our country stands for.

America is an idea, the most unique idea in history. We are created, all of us equal. It is who we are. And we cannot walk away from that principle and in fact say we are dealing with the American idea. With regards to Russia, I know it concerns some of you. I made it clear to Putin that we are not going to seek — excuse me — escalation but their actions will have consequences if they turned out to be true. And they turned out to be true. So I responded directly and proportionally to Russia’s interference to our elections and the cyberattacks on our government and our business.

They did both of these things, and I told them we would respond, and we have. We’ll also cooperate when it is our mutual interest. We did it when we extended the New Start Treaty on nuclear arms and we are working on climate change. But he understands, we will respond. On Iran and North Korea, nuclear programs present serious threats to American security and the security of the world. We’re going to be working closely with our allies to address the threats posed by both of these countries through diplomacy as well as stern deterrence.

And American leadership meaning ending the forever war in Afghanistan. We have — we have, without hyperbole, the greatest fighting force in the history of the world. I am the first president in 40 years who knows what it means to have a son serving in a war zone. Today we have service members serving in the same war zone as their parents did. We have service members in Afghanistan who were not yet born on 9/11. The war in Afghanistan, as we remember the debates here, were never meant to be multigenerational undertakings of nation building.

We want Afghanistan to get terrorists, the terrorists who attacked us on 9/11. And we said we would follow Osama bin Laden to the gates of hell to do it. And if you’ve been to the Upper Kunar Valley, you’ve kind of seen the gates of hell. And we delivered justice to bin Laden. We degraded the terrorist threat in Afghanistan. And after 20 years of value — valor and sacrifice, it is time to bring those troops home.

Look, even as we do, we’ll maintain over the horizon the capacity to suppress future threats to the homeland. Make no mistake, in 20 years, terrorists — terrorism has been metastasized. The threat evolved way beyond Afghanistan. Those in the intelligence committees, the foreign relations committee, defense committees, you know well we have to remain vigilant against the threats to the United States wherever they come from. Al Qaeda and ISIS are in Yemen, Syria, Somalia, other places in Africa and the Middle East and beyond.

And we won’t ignore what our intelligence agents have determined to be the most lethal terrorist threat to our homeland today: White supremacy is terrorism. We are not going to ignore that either. My fellow Americans, look, we have to come together to heal the soul of this nation. It was nearly a year ago before her father’s funeral when I spoke to Gianna Floyd, George Floyd’s young daughter.

She’s a little tyke, so I was kneeling down to talk to her, so I can look at her in the eye. She looked at me, she said, “My daddy changed the world.” Well, after the conviction of George Floyd’s murderer, we can see how right she was — if, if we have the courage to act as a Congress. We have all seen the knee of injustice on the neck of Black Americans. Now is our opportunity to make some real progress.

The vast majority, men and women wearing the uniform and a badge, serve our communities and they serve them honorably. I know them, I know they want — I know they want to help meet this moment as well. My fellow Americans, we have to come together to rebuild trust between law enforcement and the people they serve, to root out systematic racism in our criminal justice system and enact police reform in George Floyd’s name that passed the House already.

I know Republicans have their own ideas and are engaged in productive discussions with Democrats in the Senate. We need to work together to find a consensus. But let’s get it done next month, by the first anniversary of George Floyd’s death. The country supports this reform and Congress should act. We have the giant opportunity to bend the arc of the moral universe toward justice, real justice.

And with the plans outlined tonight, we have a real chance to root out systematic racism that plagues America and American lives in other ways. A chance to deliver real equity: good jobs, good schools, affordable housing, clean air, clean water, the ability to generate wealth and pass it down to generations because you have an access to purchase a house. Real opportunities in the lives of more Americans — Black, white, Latino, Asian-Americans, Native Americans.

Look, I also want to thank the United States Senate for voting 94-1 to pass Covid-19 Hate Crimes Act to protect Asian-Americans and Pacific Islanders. You acted decisively. You can see on television the viciousness of the hate crimes we’ve have seen over the past year and for too long. I urge the House to do the same and send that legislation to my desk, which I will glad, anxiously sign.

I also hope that Congress will get to my desk the Equality Act, to protect L.G.B.T.Q. Americans. To all transgender Americans watching at home, especially young people, who are so brave, I want you to know, your president has your back. Another thing, let’s reauthorize the Violence Against Women Act, which has been law for 27 years. Twenty-seven years ago, I wrote it.

It will close — the act that has to be authorized now — will close the boyfriend loophole to keep guns out of the hands of abusers. The court order said this is an abuser, you can’t own a gun. It’s to close that loophole that exists. You know it is estimated that 50 women are shot and killed by an intimate partner every month in America, 50 a month. Let’s pass it and save some lives.

Now I need not tell anyone this, but gun violence is becoming an epidemic in America. The flag at the White House was still flying at half-mast for the eight victims of the mass shooting in Georgia when 10 more lives were taken in a mass shooting in Colorado. And in the weekend between those two events, 250 other Americans were shot dead in the streets of America. 250 shot dead. I know how hard it is to make progress in this issue. In the ’90s we passed universal background checks, a ban on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines that hold 100 rounds that can be fired off in seconds. We beat the N.R.A. Mass shootings and gun violence declined, check out the report, over 10 years.

But in the early 2000s, the law expired. We have seen daily bloodshed since then. I’m not saying that if the law had continued, we wouldn’t have seen bloodshed. More than two weeks ago in the Rose Garden, surrounded by some of the bravest people I know, the survivors and families who lost loved ones to gun violence, I laid out several of the Department of Justice actions that being taken to impact this epidemic. One of them is banning so-called ghost guns.

These are homemade guns built from a kit including directions how to finish the firearm. The parts have no serial numbers. So they show up at crime scenes and they can’t be traced. The buyers of those ghost kits are not required to pass any background checks. Anyone, from a criminal or terrorist, could buy this kit and within 30 minutes have a weapon that’s lethal. But no more. And I will do everything in my power to protect the American people from this epidemic of gun violence, but it’s time for Congress to act as well.

Look. I don’t want to be become confrontational. We need more Senate Republicans to join the overall majority of Senate Democrat colleagues and close the loopholes required in background check purchases of guns. We need a ban on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines. And don’t tell me it can’t be done. We did it before and it worked. Talk to most responsible hunters and gun owners. They’ll tell you there’s no possible justification for having 100 rounds in a weapon. You think they’re wearing Kevlar vests?

These kinds of reasonable reforms have overwhelming support from the American people, including many gun owners. The country supports reform, and Congress should act. This shouldn’t be a red or blue issue. And no amendment to the Constitution is absolute. You can’t yell fire in a crowded theater. From the very beginning, there were certain guns, weapons that could not be owned by Americans. Certain people could not own those weapons, ever. We’re not changing the Constitution. We’re being reasonable. I think this is not a Democrat or Republican issue, I think it’s a Republican issue.

And here’s what else we can do. Immigration has always been essential to America. Let’s end our exhausting war over immigration. For more than 30 years, politicians have talked about immigration reform and we’ve done nothing about it. It’s time to fix it. On Day 1 of my presidency, I kept my commitment and sent a comprehensive immigration bill to the United States Congress.

If you believe we need a secure border, pass it, because it has a lot of money for high-tech border security. If you believe in a pathway to citizenship, pass it. There’s over 11 million undocumented folks, the vast majority here overstayed visas. Pass it. We can actually — if you actually want to solve the problem, I have sent a bill to you, take a close look at it.

We also have to get at the root of the problem of why people are fleeing particularly to our southern border from Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador. The violence. The corruption. The gangs. The political instability. Hunger. Hurricanes. Earthquakes. Natural disasters.

When I was president, my president — when I was vice president, the president asked me to focus on providing help needed to address the root causes of migration. And it helped keep people in their own countries instead of being forced to leave. And the plan was working, but the last administration decided it was not worth it. I’m restoring the program and asked Vice President Harris to lead our diplomatic effort to take care of this. I have absolute confidence she will get the job done.

Now look, if you don’t like my plan, let’s at least pass what we all agree on. Congress needs to pass legislation this year to finally secure protection for Dreamers, the young people who have only known America as their home. And, permanent protection for immigrants who are here on temporary protective status who came from countries beset by man-made and natural-made violence and disaster. As well as a pathway to citizenship for farmworkers who put food on our tables.

Look, immigrants have done so much for America during this pandemic and throughout our history. The country supports immigration reform. We should act. Let’s argue over it. Let’s debate over it. But let’s act.

And if we are to truly restore the soul of America, we need to protect the sacred right to vote. Most people — more people voted in the last presidential election than any time in American history, in the middle of the worst pandemic ever. That should be celebrated. Instead, it’s being attacked. Congress should pass H.R. 1 and the John Lewis Voting Rights Act and send them to my desk right away. The country supports it. And Congress should act now.

Look, in conclusion, as we gather here tonight, the images of a violent mob assaulting this Capitol — desecrating our democracy — remain vivid in all our minds. Lives were put at risk, many of your lives. Lives were lost. Extraordinary courage was summoned. The insurrection was an existential crisis, a test of whether our democracy could survive. And it did.

But the struggle is far from over. The question of whether our democracy will long endure is both ancient and urgent, as old as our republic, still vital today? Can our democracy deliver on its promise that all of us — created equal in the image of God — have a chance to lead lives of dignity, respect and possibility? Can our democracy deliver on the most pressing needs of our people? Can our democracy overcome the lies, anger, hate and fears that have pulled us apart?

America’s adversaries, the autocrats of the world, are betting we can’t. And I promise you, they’re betting we can’t. They believe we are too full of anger and division and rage. They look at the images of the mob that assaulted this Capitol as proof that the sun is setting on American democracy. But they are wrong. You know it, I know it. But we have to prove them wrong. We have to prove democracy still works, that our government still works, and we can deliver for our people.

In our first 100 days together, we have acted to restore the people’s faith in our democracy to deliver. We’re vaccinating the nation, creating hundreds of thousands of jobs. We’re delivering real results, people, they can see it, feel in their own lives. Opening doors of opportunity. Guaranteeing some more fairness and justice. That’s the essence of America. That’s democracy in action.

Our Constitution opens to the words, as trite as it sounds, “We the people.” It’s time we remembered that “We the people” are the government. You and I. Not some force in a distant capital. Not some powerful force that we have no control over. It’s us. It’s “We the people.”

In another era when our democracy was tested, Franklin Roosevelt reminded us, in America, we do our part. We all do our part. That’s all I’m asking. That we do our part, all of us. If we do that, we’ll meet the central challenge of the age by proving that democracy is durable and strong. Autocrats will not win the future. We will. America will. And the future belongs to America.

As I stand here tonight before you in a new and vital hour of life in democracy of our nation, and I can say with absolute confidence: I have never been more confident or optimistic about America. Not because I am president. Because of what’s happening with the American people. We’ve stared into the abyss of insurrection and autocracy, pandemic and pain, and “We the people” did not flinch.

At the very moment our adversaries were certain we would pull apart and fail, we came together. We united, with light and hope, we summoned a new strength, new resolve to position us to win the competition of the 21st century. On our way forward to a union, more perfect, more prosperous and more just, as one people, one nation and one America.

Folks — as I’ve told every world leader I’ve met with over the years — it’s never, ever, ever been a good bet to bet against America and it still isn’t. We are the United States of America. There is not a single thing — nothing, nothing beyond our capacity. We can do whatever we set our mind to if we do it together. So let’s begin to get together.

God bless you all, and may God protect our troops. Thank you for your patience.

Scott Morrison, 2022

Delivered at Brisbane , May 15th, 2022

Scott John Morrison (born 13 May 1968) is an Australian politician serving as the 30th and current Prime Minister of Australia having become the leader of the governing Liberal Party in August 2018. He previously served in Cabinet from 2013 to 2018, including as Treasurer.

Elections contested

How good is it to be in Queensland? Thank you all very, very much.

How good? How good indeed.

Australians all one and free.

I acknowledge the Turbal and Yuggera peoples, the traditional custodians of the land on which we gather today and I pay my respects to their Elders, past, present and emerging.

I honour all who have served or are serving in our Australian Defence Forces and I just thank them. I thank them for their courage, for their service and their love of our country.

I also honour those who, for the past two years in particular, have come together to support their fellow Australians in times of great need - our health workers, our researchers and scientists, our emergency workers, our community leaders.

We love our country.

And we gather at a time of great consequence and decision for our nation. For you, for your family, for our nation.

And three years ago, we faced a similar decision.

At that time I spoke to you about the promise of Australia, and how I planned to keep it as Prime Minister.

A promise that allows Australians, quietly going about their lives, to realise their simple, honest and decent aspirations.

Where you’re rewarded and respected for your efforts and your contribution. I said, if you have a go, you get a go.

An Australia where you accept, you know where you are accepted and you are valued regardless of your age, your ethnicity, your religion, your gender, your sexuality, your level of ability and your needs you may have, your wealth, your income.

An Australia where you can live in an economy that enables you and your family to enjoy the best possible living standards and be able to plan for your future with confidence.

A country where you can live in an environment that is clean and is healthy.

A country where, if you or your family, God forbid, get sick, you’ll get access to world-class and affordable healthcare.

A country where your children get the best possible start in life; a great education and they can grow up safe.

A country where older Australians are respected, where their savings are secure, and they get the help they need.

A country that honours the service and sacrifice of all those who have gifted us our freedoms.

A country that acknowledges our Indigenous Australians and strives to ensure that every single Indigenous girl and boy grows up in this country with the same opportunities as every other Australian. That’s the promise of Australia.

None of us could have imagined what followed that last election. We already knew drought, many years, particularly here in Queensland. We had already experienced devastating floods, particularly up in the North of Queensland. But more would follow, as we know and most recently as would the fires, as would the cyclones, the pandemic - 1 in 100 years - and the global recession it caused.

It’s been one of the most challenging times we have ever known. But I’m here to tell you today, that despite what we have faced, we have remained true to the promise of Australia, and Australia has prevailed. We have kept, as a Government, the promise of Australia.

And Australians, despite everything thrown at us, Australia has stood tall.

Our economic growth higher than all other advanced economies. Our AAA credit rating in tact – one of only nine countries to do that in the world.

The biggest Budget turnaround, Josh Frydenberg, in over 70 years. More Australians in work than ever before.

Unemployment at 4 per cent – the equal lowest level in nearly 50 years, and down from 5.7 per cent when we first came to Government. Youth unemployment, youth unemployment at 8.3 per cent, down from a peak of more than 16 per cent.

On almost every measure - growth, jobs, debt levels, fatality rates, vaccine rates – Australia’s recovery is leading the advanced world. But can I tell you from my heart and Michaelia Cash knows this probably better than anyone else, nothing fires me up more than seeing young people get into jobs. Nothing.

You know when Josh Frydenberg and I, Josh and I stood together before the Australian people in the early stages of that pandemic, back in March 2020, we stood in my courtyard, our courtyard down the PM’s courtyard down in Canberra, our nation was gripped by fear and uncertainty. We stood on the edge of an abyss.

And as we stared into it, Josh and I were confident of one fundamental truth. If we backed Australians, Australians would prevail. And so JobKeeper was born, and the many other measures that followed. Constantly supporting Australians to find their way forward.

We kept our head in the crisis. We knew when to step in and how, importantly, and when to step back. We made sure we got it right as best we could.

But we weren’t perfect, and not everything went to plan. But you know when it didn’t, and while others were criticising, we just worked feverishly to turn it around and make up the ground.

What followed was the largest economic and public health response in Australia’s history.

We gave our fellow Australians that assurance in those very difficult times that tomorrow would be OK, so they could say the same thing to their children, to their employees and I’m quite sure indeed to themselves also.

As a Leader, this was a time for strength, it was a time for pushing through. I had one focus as your Prime Minister - save the country. And we did. And we did.

We began setting up though at the same time, we just didn’t stop with that. We began even in the midst of the pandemic to set up the opportunities for on the other side of the pandemic.

No, it’s not just enough for Australians to just get through, to make it through.

We knew that Australia’s longer term success would be determined by what we did during the pandemic to set up for success on the other side.

And as you saw us battling this virus in real time, each day, we were also preparing at the same time, our country for the opportunities that we knew would come.

We kept the apprentices in training and we got more and more and more of them to join their ranks.

We backed businesses, particularly small, family, medium-sized businesses to invest in their post pandemic recovery with record tax incentives to go and purchase new equipment that would enable them to take on the new business that they also knew would follow.

We created the modern manufacturing plan to set up a new era in advanced manufacturing to take advantage of we knew would be the changes to supply chains on the other side of the pandemic.

We struck trade deals with the United Kingdom, with India most recently and ASEAN nations as well.

We got on with building of the big infrastructure projects and got on with the detailed planning of of the projects that would need to follow, so we could move ahead.

And we kept doing the work to guarantee essential services that Australians rely on, including our $19.1 billion in our response plan to the Aged Care Royal Commission that I called. A plan that is now being implemented.

We delivered a comprehensive and real plan to achieve net zero emissions by 2050 through technology, not taxes.

And we acted decisively to keep Australians safe, protecting our national security, in the face of threats and coercion.

Securing the most imprtant defence agreement with the United States and the United Kingdom, known as AUKUS, since ANZUS was made more than 70 years ago.

Friends, together we’ve been building an economic bridge to the other side, during a time of great global uncertainty. And here we are.

We now stand on a different edge to the one that I spoke of before. One that where fear doesn’t dominate, but aspiration, something we know a lot about as Liberals and Nationals, for the Australian people.

This requires a very different approach from us as a Government, to the mode we’ve had to be in over these many difficult years.

But it’s also been one that we have been preparing for, and we are ready to get on with, if you give us your support next Saturday. We stand on the edge of a new era of opportunity.

Better days are now ahead. But we cannot take them for granted.As a Government we have the higher gears to secure that opportunity.And I know our economic plan is working, because Australians are working.And we’re heading in the right direction.

I also know Australians, they’re tired of politics. It’s been an exhausting time and they’ve certainly had enough of Governments telling them how to live their lives and I agree.

But now we must focus on the choice that you are making at this election as it will have very real consequences for you and your family. And if re-elected, you will see me as your Prime Minister, our Government and our nation hit that extra gear needed to secure our nation’s future for those better days.

To make things truly better. To step beyond where we are today and put the pandemic behind us.

Only the Liberals and Nationals will be able to do this because we understand the Australian economy.

You know we are not loose units on the economy. We’re not uninformed or reckless on the economy.We know how our economy works.We know how to manage money.And those before us knew as well. And I acknowledge our former Prime Ministers here today in John Howard and Tony Abbott. They showed us the way and we follow that way.

We know what Government can do and, importantly though, what it can’t and it shouldn’t.

We have a proven economic plan that has been tested in the most difficult economic circumstances since the Great Depression, 30 times worse than the Global Financial Crisis of more than a decade ago.

And we will apply the hard lessons we have learned from these difficult times so we can take Australia to the next level. So that’s where I’m focused, friends - on the future, on your future. And today, I want to speak about our priorities and plans for the future. As I said at the first day of this election campaign, I said this election is about you.

It’s about how we create the right conditions for you to reach your goals, the ones you have set for you and your family.

By keeping our economy strong, with more jobs, better wages and lower taxes, and putting downward pressure on those rising interest rates and rising costs of living, that we all know are driven by those global forces we’re facing around the world.

By supporting more Australians into homeownership, in caring for their family, perhaps starting a business, contributing to their community, and retiring with dignity.

By guaranteeing those essentials that Australians rely on, with record investments in Medicare, in hospitals, in schools, and aged care and other services.

By keeping our nation safe, by protecting women from violence and abuse, by keeping Australians safe online, especially our children, by taking on the social media platforms and big tech companies. By building our resilience to the impacts of natural disasters and investing in stronger defence and keeping our borders secure.

We also know that, as individuals, we can only reach our full potential with the support, and the sense of belonging, that comes from others. Most powerfully expressed in the family. Strong families, they are the building blocks of a good society, indeed a great one.

And we must ensure they should provide the place for children to feel safe and to be loved.

They teach us respect and support for others. Families are the transmission belts for our society’s values and culture, and in turn, community.

We believe in the power of local communities - in all their wonderful diversity. And we understand how important faith and culture is to those local communities.

You know, Australia is the most successful multicultural, multifaith, immigration nation on earth. We have achieved this because we respect and we value our diversity, yes, but we all know that together as Australians we love this country equally and together with a patriot’s love.

Throughout this campaign, I’ve been inspired by that energy and spirit of so many communities right across Australia, and well before that. Our mission is not to mould these communities into some government template or to put Government at the centre of community life. God forbid.

But to empower communities to create their own future in a strong economy.

And we have a strong plan to achieve just that. Let me speak about that.

We have a plan to create 1.3 million more jobs over the next five years, including 450,000 of those jobs in regional Australia.

Since 2013, we’ve created over 1.9 million jobs in Australia, including 1.1 million jobs for women.

Unemployment, as I said, is already at 4 per cent and falling and the Reserve Bank says we can get unemployment to 3.5 per cent.

Just think about that. We’re approaching a point in this country where everyone who has the capacity and desire to work can get a job.

A job. That’s what gives you choices, the pride and the purpose and a future. And these are things we believe so passionately in as Liberals and Nationals.

And by creating jobs, by driving down unemployment, by growing our economy and improving what businesses can earn, because they pay the wages, we create the conditions for sustainable increases in wages.

We all want to see wages rise, of course we do, but those who think you can just arbitrarily do it, you can increase wages some other way than the one I’ve just outlined to you, they don’t get it. That approach only results in higher interest rates and higher costs of living, taking back any gains, leaving you worse off.

Our plan to grow the economy begins with keeping taxes low and cutting red tape to drive the investment and enable Australians to keep more of what they earn.

We’ve given clear commitments to the Australian people at this election. No new taxes on Australian new workers.

On retirees. On superannuation. No new taxes on superannuation. Or on small businesses. On housing. On emissions. On electricity. No carbon tax.

And in a resource state here in Queensland and to our great Western Australian friends and right around the country, no mining tax. And we’ll keep that official speed limit that I put in place as Treasurer, and Josh has continued, to ensure we keep those taxes low on taxes, to ensure that we can keep expenditure under control and create more jobs, repairing the Budget without increasing taxes.

Under our plan, more than $100 billion in permanent tax cuts will be delivered over the next four years, helping Australians manage cost of living pressures, encouraging workforce participation, rewarding hard work and delivering a stronger economy.

And together with lower taxes, we have a practical plan to deal with cost of living pressures.

And can I tell you, the most important thing you can do is to manage the Government’s finances well.

If you can’t manage money, you just push up the cost of living and you push up interest rates.

And I want to acknowledge Simon Birmingham and Josh Frydenberg for the great leadership that they have shown in that regard in our team.

You know in the Budget, we also announced a series of initiatives that soften the impact right now on cost of living, halving petrol tax, direct payments to pensioners, providing further tax relief. But we’ve also announced we’re: • expanding eligibility for the Commonwealth Seniors Health Card to an extra 50,000 older Australians who’ve saved hard for their retirement and deserve a fair go • by freezing deeming rates to guarantee the level of income payments for around 450,000 age pensioners and 440,000 other payment recipients, so they have certainty, and • we’re delivering that $10 cut per general script which means the maximum price Australians will pay for those PBS medicines drops by $10.

Home ownership is one of the great dividends of a strong economic plan. It enables Australians to be able to own that home.

It is deep in our Party’s history and we have a strong plan to ensure Australians can do just that.

For most, including Jen and I, it is the largest asset you will ever own and it’s a source of your security in retirement.

Buying your first home it’s never easy - it wasn’t easy 30 years ago either, but I must admit it’s harder today - but it’s something you’ll never forget.

Over the years, it has become harder and that’s why three years ago, I said I wanted more Australians to be able to realise their dream of owning their own home. And we’ve delivered.

I launched our Home Guarantee Scheme - which has allowed tens of thousands of Australians to buy their first home with a deposit of as little as 5 per cent, or 2 per cent for single parents.

You know, there’s more than 2,200 single parent families who have so far bought a home using that scheme - 85 per cent of them single mums.

It’s saved families, it’s saved families on average four years securing their deposit, and as much as eight years in some cases. This is transformational stuff we’ve seen in the last three years.

In the last three years, our policies, our housing policies have helped over 300,000 Australians into home ownership directly. Through HomeBuilder, the First Home Super Saver Scheme, all of which were opposed by the Labor Party.

We have helped 27,600 Australians accelerate their deposit savings through their super to get closer to that dream and through $5.5 billion in low cost finance to National Housing Finance and Investment Corporation, that I established as Treasurer, to support 27,500 social and affordable dwellings being delivered by great community housing organisations across the country.

But there is more we can do, and must.

And we’ve got to start with freeing up more homes for people to be able to access. The supply of homes.

And we know that for many older Australians there comes a time that that three or four bedroom house, well, it’s just a bit big. It’s more than what you need. And more than what you really want to look after anymore.

And we want to remove the barriers to senior Australians downsizing to residences that better suit their needs and their lifestyle.

And that’s why we have allowed Australians nearing retirement to make a post-tax contribution of up to $300,000 to superannuation when they sell their family home.

Now, this has helped to free up larger homes for younger families, but today, I want us to go further.

And from 1 July this year, we will further lower the age of eligibility for this to 55 years.

Now, this will increase, this will increase the opportunity for people to downsize and increase the supply of family housing stock in the market.

Currently when an older Australian sells their home, the proceeds of the sale are also exempt from the pension pension assets test for one year.

But from, and from 1 January 2023, we will double that. We will double it to two years - giving seniors more time to plan and help them look to downsize while maintaining their pension, so they don’t have to worry about that.

This will align the pension assets test for people not entering aged care with those who are, with a uniform two year exemption from the assets tests after downsizing.

As well as giving senior Australians greater certainty and more time to adjust to those new circumstances.

Now, our opponents have a different vision of home ownership in this country.

The real difference is that Labor always wants to put the Government at the centre of everything.

We want to put you and your family at the centre.

We want Australians to own their own home. Not the Government.

So to ensure that we can do that, today, I want to announce to you the next stage of our plan to help Australians own their own home.

We want to further help Australians get past what is the biggest hurdle on their path to home ownership and we started this process with the Home Guarantee Scheme - and that is the difficulty in saving for a deposit - and be able to use their own money to do it.

And that’s why a re-elected Coalition Government will allow first home buyers to invest a responsible portion of their own superannuation savings into their first home. This would apply to both new and existing homes.

And whatever amount is invested will be returned to your super when you sell the home, including the share of the capital gain from the sale of that home.

The maximum amount able to be invested under this plan is the lower of $50,000 for each individual or 40 per cent of your total superannuation balance.

Superannuation is there to help Australians in their retirement. The evidence shows that the best thing we can do to help Australians achieve financial security in their retirement is help them own their own home.

You can already use, you can already use your super to purchase an investment property, but not your own home.

Other countries, such as New Zealand and Canada, also have policies that allow people to use their retirement savings to help them buy their home. And under a Morrison Government, you will be able to do that too.

This is about increasing, increasing the choices available to you within your super - it’s your money - to allow you to invest in your first home.

This will make sure that investing part of your super to purchase a first home will also though, and importantly, because we’ve been careful about the design of our policy - we think these things through - we do not want it to affect your long-term savings for retirement.

So this will responsibly ensure that the majority of your super remains in your existing fund and maintains the diversification in your savings.

But this will be a game changer for thousands of Australian families who sit and look at that money on their balance and go, if only I had that to help me now.

There is no limit on who can use it. You don’t have to sell it if you get a pay rise or someone wants to go back to work full time. There are no complex rules about income thresholds or who gets what when you do an improvement. You don’t have to check with the Government every time you go to Bunnings to buy a can of paint.

Because it’s your home and it’s your super.

This will make it that bit easier, you know, for Australians to buy their first home sooner? Taking years off the need to pay rent and challenges of saving, because it’s it’s tough. And it’s going to get you closer to the life you want for you and your family.

Only the Coalition has a comprehensive plan to help Australians realise their dream of owning their own home.

And there are 300,000 Australians today who can attest to that fact.

We have a plan also to back Australia’s 3.6 million small businesses and create another 400,000 small and family businesses over the next five years - 100,000 by the way we’ve created just last year.

We’ve cut the small business tax rate from 30 per cent to 25 per cent - the lowest small business tax rate in 50 years.

We’re offering new tax incentives for small business to invest in skills, in digital technology and improve their energy efficiency, their energy efficiency to get their costs down. And we’ve expanded the Instant Asset Write Off through to 2022-23.

Our plan invests in infrastructure and skills development, to upskill our workforce and meet the demands of a growing economy.

A plan to open the pathways for young people into jobs - with 220,000 apprentices currently in trade training, right now, the highest number since records began in 1963.

There’s an additional $3.7 billion to support 800,000 new training positions.

We believe in training Australians. We believe in training Australians with more low and fee-free places, under JobTrainer also, 478,000 places already created in areas of skills’ needs.

We’re delivering the big infrastructure projects across the country, as the Deputy Prime Minister knows and leads us and well done, Barnaby.

Nation building projects. The Melbourne to Brisbane Inland Rail. The Beveridge Interstate Freight Terminal where I was the other day in Beveridge - opposed by Labor. The Western Sydney International Airport - I didn’t talk about it, I started building it. Upgrading the Bruce Highway here in Queensland. Working with the Western Australian State Government to build METRONET over there in Western Australia.

You know, I really do want to pay tribute to the Deputy Prime Minister, and his predecessor Michael McCormack, for the many work, much work that has been done before him and I know Barnaby would join me in doing that, but particularly I want to pay credit to Barnaby for this, for his advocacy on behalf of regional Australia.

In this Budget - yeah. In this Budget and in our plan, we’re undertaking transformational investments in regional powerhouses to unlock the wealth of the regions, because as Baranby says, if you want the stuff on the boat coming in, you’ve got to be putting stuff on the boat going back out. So we’re unlocking the Hunter, we’re unlocking the Pilbara, we’re unlocking the wealth of the Northern Territory and the region known as the Middle Arm, we’re unlocking the wealth of Central and North Queensland here in the great state of Queensland.

We’re investing $7.4 billion in more dams, water projects, alongside our record $120 billion infrastructure pipeline.

Affordable, reliable energy, with lower emissions, is also part of our economic plan. Affordable, reliable energy that Australian businesses need to power ahead, and we can do that at the same time as reducing emissions to achieve net zero by 2050. We can do it while reducing household electricity bills - they’ve fallen by 10 per cent, electricity bills, since I became Prime Minister.

Our approach is based, in reducing emissions, on two core principles.

The first one is that it’s technology, not taxes, that’s what solves this.

And not just here, but across our region, across the world.

We can’t just address it here in Australia. And we want Australia to be part of the economic opportunity that comes with addressing those issues with greater technology in areas such as hydrogen and others which will be of great economic value to Australia.

But secondly, we will not leave regional Australia behind or make them pay for these commitments.

We are building major new clean energy investments to provide affordable and reliable energy. Down in Tassie with Marinus Link, the battery of the Nation, in New South Wales with Snowy 2.0, and well done Angus Taylor. And in $1.5 billion in hydrogen investments including major hubs in Gladstone and in Townsville in here in Queensland, as well as in Darwin, in the Pilbara, in Kwinana, in Port Bonython, in Bell Bay and the Hunter.

You know, advanced manufacturing and collaboration to achieve that is really transforming our economy.

We are implementing our plan to secure sovereign manufacturing capability in this country.

We’re making things here and we make great things.

And we have a plan to ensure that Australia keeps doing that and be the first place in the southern hemisphere to manufacture mRNA vaccines, down in Victoria.

We’re bringing universities and business together through our Trailblazer University program, incentivising collaboration and rewarding researchers for their commercial success.

And today, I’m pleased to announce that the final two of our six Trailblazer Universities will be here in Queensland, with a strong footprint in regional Queensland.

The University of Queensland will lead, will lead our Food and Beverage Trailblazer, in partnership with QUT and the University of Southern Queensland.

There’s an investment of $50 million from the Commonwealth and that has attracted a further $110 million in co-investment towards developing new agri-food technology. This is how you grow an economy. This is expected to create 1,700 new skilled jobs by 2035.

And the University of Southern Queensland will lead its own regionally headquartered Trailblazer in Toowoomba - there we go - geared towards building Australia’s sovereign space capability.

Partnering with the University of South Australia and the Australian National University, USQ will accelerate the development of launch technologies, as well as build job-ready skills from STEM to space engineering.

Together, our six Trailblazer Universities are creating 170 industry partnerships, generating an estimated 7,400 jobs and attracting more than $1 billion in co-investment.

Now I appreciate your patience today, Ladies and Gentlemen, but as you can see, I’ve got a big plan.

I’m seeking a second term, because I’m just warming up.

So let me give you some more plans. Let me tell you some more plans.

Australian families need to know that their Government can fund the essential services they rely on, not just talk about it. Another reason why strong economic management is so important to our everyday lives.

You may think he’s the Treasurer, but in a way, he and Simon Birmingham are the Health Minister as well, because if they don’t do their job, then Greg Hunt wouldn’t have been able to do the magnificent job that he’s been able to do as our amazing Health Minister.

We’re providing record funding for health, education and aged care.

Medicare is guaranteed by a strong economy, as does funding for our hospitals that grow year on year.

We’re are providing a record $3 billion in investment for mental health services as part of our Mental Health and Suicide Prevention Plan, which has been a personal mission of mine.

We have struck agreements, and I want to thank David Coleman, on mental health funding with every state and territory, a joint investment of some [inaudible] dollars that will help improve the coordination of care for some of our most vulnerable Australians and address the suicide rate in this country.

We’ve approved new or amended listings of some 2,900 medicines on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme since we came to Government, including new medicines for prostate cancer, for breast cancer, for cystic fibrosis and for Spinal Muscular Atrophy, just to name a few.

Our fiscal management means we can continue to list these new medicines on the PBS and make landmark new investments in health as well. Like expanding the eligibility for Continuous Glucose Monitoring services for all Australians with type 1 diabetes.

We’ll provide significant new investments for all of our, those who are here today from rural and regional Australia, my wonderful rural and regional team from the Liberals and the Nationals. We make major commitments on rural health workforce, making it more affordable also I should say to access IVF services. There’s increases to perinatal mental health support through the Gidget Foundation, in particular. We’re helping women who suffer with that terrible ordeal over their life with Endometriosis and provide additionally funding for medical research.

Now, I’m sure we all know that in our, in our own lives there has been someone and indeed, perhaps even yourself, who’s been touched by cancer and impacted by cancer. There’s approximately 150,000 cancer diagnoses in each, in each year in Australia.

And to support these Australians, in the last financial year alone, Federal Government expenditure for cancer treatments, research, and screening and support programs was almost $5 billion. It was $4.95 billion.

Australians can access free screening programs for cervical cancer, for breast cancer, for bowel cancer and we’ve made additional investments to support women with ovarian cancer. An absolutely awful and devastating cancer.

We have supported access to new treatments in Australia for cancer including the game changing CAR-T cell therapy which was previously only available by going overseas. It happens here in Australia under our Government.

And whilst Australia has some of the leading cancer survival rates in the world, with a five-year survival rate of 70 per cent for all cancers, we are determined to do more.

And that’s why today I announce that we will put $375 million on the table to establish a new Comprehensive Cancer Centre, right here in Queensland, right here in Queensland, to provide world-class cancer care for Queensland cancer patients.

Combining research, diagnosis, treatment and care through a Comprehensive Cancer Centre that is proven to lead to better health outcomes and a great chance of survival for patients.

But it’s not just in Queensland we’re doing it.

This builds on the commitments that we’ve made, Michaelia, in Western Australia, and to all our Western Australian team. And South Australia, Anne and Simon, to complement existing centres that are in Victoria and New South Wales and we will have established a national network of Comprehensive Cancer Centres as a Government.

These investments in health and cancer care are only possible when you can deliver a strong economy.

Because if you just, otherwise you’re just talking about stuff. You can’t deliver it without that.

And the last area I wanted to touch on today, is that a strong economy is vital for the defence of our nation.

The benign security environment that Australia enjoyed, and indeed most of the world, the Western World, enjoyed from the fall of the Berlin Wall to the Global Financial Crisis, that’s history. That’s behind us. We live in a far more dangerous and disorderly world and that has been most significantly demonstrated most recently by Russia’s barbaric invasion of Ukraine.

But here also in the Indo-Pacific, we face rapid militarisation as well as increased malign activities in the form of espionage, disinformation, cyber-attacks, foreign interference and economic coercion.

In this environment, the last thing Australia can afford is weak leadership.

And that is why I am so proud of my security team.

I am very proud of Australia’s Foreign Minister, Marise Payne. And I’ll speak to the others in a moment.

But she understands and she champions this every single day on the job and she never rests.

That we want an open, sovereign Indo-Pacific region, free from coercion and hegemony.

A region where all countries, large and small, including our Pacific family of course, can engage freely with each other, guided by international rules and norms.

We also need to be realists, as Marise is, to protect ourselves and stand up to those who seek to coerce us.

We must continue to harden our defences and build our deterrent capability and defend our values wherever they are challenged. And I can tell you, Peter Dutton understands that. As does Melissa Price.

Building on the world’s most successful border protection regime in the world that stopped the boats once again - John Howard did it last time, Tony and I did it this time - ended the deaths and closed the detention centres.

Building on the laws to counter foreign interference and espionage.

Our stronger foreign investment laws.

Our laws to make our critical infrastructure more secure, including from cyber threats.

In Karen Andrews has been a very strong Home Affairs Minister, and she follows, I like to think, not a bad line of them over the last few years. I’m sure Peter agrees.

But she’s prepared to do what it takes to enforce our laws and protect our borders. That’s her day job. It’s also her night job. She does it every day.

And so does Peter Dutton. A great Queenslander and a great Defence Minister who is revolutionising our defence force – with a 10-year defence plan worth more than $270 billion.

An investment in state-of-the-art ships, vehicles, aircraft and equipment delivered by Australian workers.

We’re committed more than $100 billion over the next two decades to develop a sovereign Australian guided weapons enterprise.

And in the Budget, we announced the largest ever investment in Australia’s cyber preparedness, which Peter led. A 10-year, $9.9 billion investment in offensive and defensive cyber capabilities, because we know that in any conflict the first shot fired won’t be in a metal case, it’ll be in bits and bytes.

A strong economy is the reason why we can continue to build stronger defence capabilities and have turned around the appalling situation that we inherited when defence spending fell to its lowest level since prior to the Second World War.

An additional investment of $454 million to accelerate the Loyal Wingman Project, which I announced today.

This is a next generation stealth, unmanned aerial vehicle, leveraging artificial intelligence, to support manned aircraft to conduct air combat, reconnaissance and surveillance missions.

The first military combat aircraft to be designed, engineered and manufactured in Australia in 50 years. How good’s that? World-leading, first-of-class.

The investment will fund the build of a further seven aircraft and the establishment of more than 120 additional highly skilled engineering and other technology jobs, particularly, right here in Brisbane, Rob Vasta, Ross Vasta.

Ladies and Gentlemen, I began this campaign by explaining why I love Australia. And we all do. Of course we do.

I love Australia and Australians because of our hope.

I love their optimism.

I love their kind heartedness to one another, when it really, really matters.

I deeply admire, as Josh and I know, their resilience, as we’ve gone through this terrible pandemic.

I admire their aspiration. The aspiration of Australians who want the best for themselves, their families and their fellow Australians.

A lot like those young trades students, Luke, that we met at your old school here in Brisbane, who plan to run their own businesses. More than half of them. How good is that?

As a Prime Minister, you pour your heart and soul into this job every single day. You do all you can to help Australians achieve their aspirations.

You don’t get everything right. I’ve never pretended that I have, but I tell you what, I never leave anything on the field.

It’s a great privilege to serve in this role. It’s the great professional privilege of my life.

And I’m seeking a second term to ensure that we can take this to the next level. To those better days.

We have so hard together, friends, to get to where we’ve needed to get to. We have worked so hard.

And our plan will take us, will take us to where we’ve been working hard to get to.

Our team will continue to put it in every single day, because we all love our country and we love our fellow Australians.

We know that our effort depends on a strong economy.

And that’s why this election is a choice about who is best placed to manage our $2.1 trillion economy into the future.

A choice between a strong economy or a weaker one, that only makes your life harder, not better.

A choice between a stronger future, or a more uncertain one, in an already terribly uncertain world.

A choice between a Government and a Prime Minister that you do know and a Labor opposition that you just don’t know.

Now is the time to seize the opportunities we have worked so hard for to create that better future for Australia by supporting your local Liberal and National candidates next Saturday.

To deliver more jobs, to get unemployment below 4 per cent, and to get the skilled workforce to go with them.

To deliver ongoing tax relief for workers and small businesses.

To provide cost of living relief now and manage money well to ensure we keep the pressures down on cost of living into the future.

To give more Australians the opportunity to own their own home, with their own money.

To invest in those better roads, the better rail, the water infrastructure and the renewable energy.

To guarantee record investments in health and other essential services you rely on.

And to keep Australians safe by investing in stronger defence and securing our borders.

Together, we’re building a strong economy and a stronger future.

Let’s not turn back now.

Thank you, everyone.

A project by The Museum of Australian Democracy at Old Parliament House

Secretary of State Antony Blinken makes surprise visit to Ukraine, will deliver speech Tuesday

S ecretary of State Antony Blinken made an unannounced visit to Ukraine on Tuesday to reaffirm US support for the war-torn country. 

The State Department said the top Biden administration diplomat would be meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and other key officials during his stop in Kyiv to “discuss battlefield updates, the impact of new U.S. security and economic assistance, long-term security and other commitments, and ongoing work to bolster Ukraine’s economic recovery,” according to the Associated Press. 

Blinken, 62, is also slated to deliver a speech in the Ukrainian capital later Tuesday in which he will tout Ukraine’s “strategic successes” amid Russia’s invasion, a senior US official told the outlet. 

The secretary of state is also expected to stress that Ukraine must ramp-up efforts to fight government corruption if it seeks to integrate itself with the West, according to the US official. 

The trip marks Blinken’s fourth visit to Ukraine since Russian troops stormed its border in February of 2022. 

His visit comes days after the Biden administration pledged another $400 million in military aid to Ukraine from existing US stockpiles. 

The latest package will provide Ukraine with much-needed surface-to-air missiles, artillery rounds and High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS) and ammunition, among other pieces of offensive and defensive weaponry. 

It is the third tranche of aid for Kyiv since Congress approved $60 billion in additional funding last month. 

The senior US official told the Associated Press that some of the US-provided artillery, air defense interceptors and long-range ballistic missiles have already reached the front lines. 

With additional American aid in hand, Zelensky said Monday that the objective of his military is “crystal clear — to thwart Russia’s attempt to expand the war.” 

“Now we are getting more and more results, destroying the occupier’s infantry and machinery,” the Ukrainian president said in his nightly address , noting that fierce fighting continues in the Kharkiv region and other parts of the country near the Russian border. 

“It’s a challenging moment,” Blinken said during an interview with CBS’ “Face the Nation” on Sunday.

“We are not going anywhere, and neither are more than some 50 countries that are supporting Ukraine,” he added. “That will continue, and if Putin thinks he can outlast Ukraine, outlast its supporters, he’s wrong.’’

The US has provided Ukraine roughly $50.6 billion in military aid since Russia’s invasion. 

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Trump's speeches follow a familiar playlist, featuring greatest hits among new tunes

Stephen Fowler

Former President Donald Trump speaks during a rally on May 1 at Avflight Saginaw in Freeland, Mich. Nic Antaya/Getty Images hide caption

Former President Donald Trump speaks during a rally on May 1 at Avflight Saginaw in Freeland, Mich.

In 2024, a Donald Trump campaign speech is many things: a forum to air grievances against his opponents and ongoing criminal proceedings, a safe space to test his popularity among supporters and a lengthy stream of consciousness responding to political news of the day.

A Trump speech also gives insight on how he would govern in a second term if he wins the election this November.

Like a Phish concert but with more grievance, this is what it's like at a Trump rally

The former president's campaign events are surreal to experience: all-day affairs that are equal parts religious revival and massive pep rallies, powered by an infamous musical playlist that runs for hours before he speaks.

It's an eclectic mix of songs that reflects Trump's personal tastes, ranging from Elton John's "Tiny Dancer" to music from Phantom of the Opera to Village People's "Y.M.C.A.," culminating with Lee Greenwood's country classic "God Bless The U.S.A." as he walks on stage to thunderous applause.

It's also helpful to think of what Trump says at these events as its own curated playlist: never the same topics in the same order, heavy on the greatest hits but with plenty of space left for new tracks that riff on what's popular.

Familiar refrains and one-hit wonders

Plenty of Trump's speech is tied to where he is, who he's talking to and how it fits in the political moment.

Picture this: it's the night before the first presidential primary contest, so Trump's remarks in Indianola, Iowa, feature diss tracks against top rivals Nikki Haley and Ron DeSantis, plus crowd pleasing mentions of tariffs and increased access to ethanol, both topics important to Iowa's farmers.

But there's also plenty of typical Trumpian fare that could've been delivered anywhere:

"These caucuses are your personal chance to score the ultimate victory over all of the liars, cheaters, thugs, perverts, frauds, crooks, freaks, creeps, and other quite nice people," Trump said.

It can be hard for even seasoned observers to track what's new or notable in his speeches. The run time is often more than an hour and can switch tone and topics at random.

Donald Trump's campaign speeches feature familiar attacks against opponents like Joe Biden, plus one off riffs on his policy proposals. Scott Olson/Getty Images hide caption

Donald Trump's campaign speeches feature familiar attacks against opponents like Joe Biden, plus one off riffs on his policy proposals.

Still, there are common threads, including attacks against the array of criminal charges against him, as prosecutors allege everything from election interference to business fraud to mishandling classified documents.

For example, in 15 major speeches reviewed by NPR from this year, Trump says his indictments far outpace the reputation of a notorious gangster: Al Capone — or, as Trump affectionately refers to him, "Alphonse."

"This was the roughest, meanest gangster in history," Trump said at the Black Conservative Federation's gala in Columbia, S.C., earlier this year. "I've been indicted more than Alphonse Capone, Scarface. If he had dinner with you, and if he didn't like the tone of your voice, he would kill you that night. You would never see your family again. You were dead."

At that February event, Trump also mused that his indictments help him appeal to Black voters.

Remixing his favorite tunes

The tone and tenor of Trump's campaign speeches have taken a darker turn in 2024, like in Dayton, Ohio, where he warned of a "bloodbath" for the auto industry if he loses the election. Scott Olson/Getty Images hide caption

The tone and tenor of Trump's campaign speeches have taken a darker turn in 2024, like in Dayton, Ohio, where he warned of a "bloodbath" for the auto industry if he loses the election.

Trump's 2024 campaign speeches have many commonalities — like verses that mock President Joe Biden's age, appearance, activities and actions as president.

"I mean the guy can't put two sentences together, he can't find the stairs to a platform," Trump said in Richmond, Va.

There's also unique riffs that raise eyebrows and make headlines, like the time in Conway, S.C., where Trump said he wouldn't defend some NATO allies against Russia .

"If we don't pay and we're attacked by Russia, will you protect us?" Trump said another NATO leader asked him one time. "'No, I would not protect you. In fact, I would encourage them to do whatever the hell they want.'"

Republicans play cleanup on aisle Trump after former president's NATO comments

Then, in Dayton, Ohio, Trump warned his defeat could be terrible for the automotive industry.

"If I don't get elected, it's going to be a bloodbath for the whole ... that's going to be the least of it," Trump said. "It's going to be a bloodbath for the country. That'll be the least of it."

As the year has progressed, Trump's rallies have taken a darker, more defiant tone, and his "greatest hits" are increasingly hitting back at groups that he feels have wronged him, or aren't on board with the "Make America Great Again" vision.

In North Carolina and Virginia, Pennsylvania and Nevada to hear Trump tell it, there will be no America unless he is in charge and Biden is vanquished.

"He's a demented tyrant who is trying to destroy our democracy," Trump said of the president in Schnecksville, Pa.

In Las Vegas, Trump told a roaring crowd to think of the 10 worst presidents in American history.

"They would not have done near the destruction to our country as Crooked Joe Biden and the Biden administration have done," he said.

"He's destroying our country," Trump said, echoing his remarks in Pennsylvania.

The hostile phrasing around the promise to implement hardline policies like mass deportations — and expanding the powers of the presidency to punish opponents — is a feature, not a bug, of Trump's campaign message.

It's a message that says the stakes are too high to ignore.

"We will fight for America like no one has ever fought before," he intoned in Greensboro, N.C., as an instrumental with ties to the QAnon movement played underneath. "2024 is our final battle."

While no two rallies are exactly the same, the final notes of a Trump speech are like a catchy political earworm as he vows to make America powerful, wealthy, strong, proud and safe once more, ending with his signature promise to "Make America great again."

Former President Donald Trump and attorney Susan Necheles attend his trial at the Manhattan Criminal court, Tuesday. Less than a week after a pair of campaign rallies, Trump is mandated to be back in court almost everyday, making the Manhattan courtroom his campaign trail stop of necessity. Win MacNamee/AP hide caption

Former President Donald Trump and attorney Susan Necheles attend his trial at the Manhattan Criminal court, Tuesday. Less than a week after a pair of campaign rallies, Trump is mandated to be back in court almost everyday, making the Manhattan courtroom his campaign trail stop of necessity.

Trump's last two rallies last week were held on the only day of the week his New York trial was not in session. But, in his first stop, he largely avoided talking about that trial that has kept him off the campaign trail .

In front of his biggest fans once again, Trump's verbal playlist in Waukesha, Wis., featured comedic asides, like telling a protester to "Go home to mom!"

Away from his New York trial, Donald Trump's campaign rallies are business as usual

Between his usual comments about closing the southern border, deporting migrants and claiming global conflict would cease if he was in charge, Trump made inflammatory remarks about Palestinian refugees that garnered little media attention .

"Under no circumstances shall we bring thousands of refugees from Hamas-controlled terrorist epicenters like Gaza to America," he said.

Trump reiterated support for a travel ban from Muslim-majority countries, and implied an influx of migrants to the U.S. would lead to a terrorist attack similar to the Oct. 7 attack in Israel.

"We do not need a jihad in the United States of America," he added to cheers from the crowd.

A few hours later, Trump curated a different vibe in Freeland, Mich., making no mention of Gaza. He did, however, give significant airtime to his criminal proceedings and how much they cramped his campaign style.

"As you know, I have come here today from New York City where I'm being forced to sit for days on end in a kangaroo courtroom with a corrupt and conflicted judge enduring a Biden sideshow trial," he said.

And because it's the Trump show, that applause line was soon followed by a familiar refrain.

"Has anyone ever heard of Al Capone? Scarface!" he quipped.

Until the New York hush money trial has wrapped, Trump's main act will be headlining the inside (and outside) of a Manhattan courtroom.

He'll take his show on the road again Saturday in New Jersey, where you can expect familiar tunes, both verbal and musical, like the Sam and Dave song "Hold On, I'm Comin'" that typically ends his rallies.

• Immigration
• Donald Trump
• Alphonse Capone

Raphael Warnock Now a Top Biden Ally In Georgia

May 14, 2024 at 7:31 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Atlanta Journal Constitution : “For much of his first two years in office, Warnock took steps to steer clear of Biden as he fought a 2022 reelection campaign, scoring the only statewide Democratic win to offset what was otherwise a red wave in Georgia.”

“But with another term safely in hand, Warnock and Biden are now more closely linked than ever as the president fights to repeat his victory in Georgia.”

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Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.

Goddard is the owner of Goddard Media LLC .

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The White House 1600 Pennsylvania Ave NW Washington, DC 20500

Remarks by President   Biden Before Meeting with the White   House Competition   Council

5:09 P.M. EST

THE PRESIDENT:  Hello, everyone.  Please — please sit down.  Well, it’s good to see all.  Let’s have a Cabinet meeting.  (Laughter.)  Really, thank you for what you all are doing.  We got a lot more good things to do as well.

Back in July, I signed, as you all know, an executive order to promote competition and build — build an economy that works for everybody, not just a few.  And the competition results in lower prices for families, competition results in fair wages for workers, and, as you all know, competition encourages companies to innovate. 

And — but what we’ve seen over the last few decades is less competition and more concentration that literally holds economy back.  And in too many industries, a handful of giant companies dominate — dominate the entire market.  And we see it in big ag — I need not tell the Secretary of Agriculture that; he’s forgotten more about this than I know — in big tech, big pharma.  The list goes on. 

And rather than competing for customers, they’re consuming their competitors.  And rather than doing what they should be doing, they’re doing the opposite — having a negative impact. 

All told, between generating higher prices and lower wages, lack of competition costs the median American family household, according of study done at NY- — at NYU, $5,000 a year — the median-income family.

My executive order is changing that, as everyone at this table knows.  It includes — it included 72 specific actions for federal agencies to take and help restore competition in our economy.  It includes creating a Competition Council — you all — and — comprised of Cabinet members and heads of several independent agencies to coordinate and monitor our progress all across the entire federal government.

In six months since I issued the order, we’ve met every deadline that my — my order calls for so far.  And here are just three examples.  “The right to repair” — sounds kind of silly saying it that way, but it’s — but we call it “the right to repair” — is literal. 

Too many areas, if you don’t own a product — excuse me, if you own a product, from a smartphone to a tractor, you don’t have the freedom to choose how or where to repair that item you purchased.

It’s broke.  “Well, what do I do about it?”  If it’s broke, you had to go to the dealer and you had to pay the dealer’s cost — the dealer’s price.

If you tried to get it fixed — if you tried to fix it yourself, some manufacturers actually would void the warranty when they sold the ve- — sold the product to you or disable the features on that product they sold you.

Denying the right to repair raises prices for consumers, means independent repair shops can’t compete for your business.  And my expe- — my executive order announced that support for the right to repair, rather — right after I issued my order, I was pleased to see the Federal Trade Commission unanimously announce that it would ramp up — unanimously announced it would ramp up enforcement against illegal repair restrictions.

That was allowed [followed] by major companies to — or by voluntarily agreeing to change their restrictions on repairs.

And — excuse me — what’s happened was a lot of these companies said, “You’re right.  We’re going to voluntarily do it.  You don’t have to order us to do it.”  And voluntarily said, “We’ll do it.” For example, Apple and Microsoft are changing their policies so folks will be able to repair their phones and laptops themselves — although I’m not sure I know how to do that.  (Laughter.)

I — when I have any problem with my phone, I call my daughter.  (Laughter.)

But it’s going to make it easier for millions of Americans to repair their electronics instead of paying an arm and a leg to repair or just throwing the device out.

Hearing aids.  Roughly 48 million people suffer from hearing loss in America — 48 million.  But to get a hearing aid, folks have to get — go see a specialist and then get a prescription and then they pay thousands of dollars for a pair of hearing aids.

But the big part is why only — that’s a big part of why only one in five people who could benefit from a hearing aid actually use one.  And so, my competition executive order changes that.

In October, the Food and Drug Administration released a new proposed rule that would make it possible for hearing aids to be sold over the counter without a prescription.

We expect this is going to lower costs for hearing aids from thousands of dollars to — literally to hundreds of dollars, saving people hundreds and hundreds of dollars.

And people will — can pick them up at a local pharmacy, saving time and money, and helping the tens of million people with hearing loss who don’t have hearing aids now.

Third area: mergers.  In too many industries, big companies — big companies can use their power to squeeze out smaller competitors, stifle new competition, raise prices, reduce the choice for customers, and exploit their workers.

Well, I’ve said it before: Capitalism without competition is — is not capitalism; it’s exploitation.

So, the Department of Justice and other agencies with oversight authority have ramped up their efforts to scrutinize these mergers.  It includes challenging or blocking mergers that are bad for the economy and your pocketbooks.

For example, the Department of Justice just took action to block a mega-merger that would have resulted in two brokerages dominating the insurance industry, which would result in customers having fewer choices, higher prices, and lower-quality services.

The bottom line: This isn’t just about quick wins.  It’s about reversing decades of concentration that have hurt workers, consumers, and small businesses.  It didn’t happen at any one time.  It’s been over a period of time now — a long time.

This is just the beginning, though.  In the coming weeks and months, Americans can expect to see more — more protections for farmers and ranchers selling products like beef, pork, and poultry; more options and better prices for consumers; more clarity on the actual price you’ll pay for high-speed Internet services and airline tickets. 

We’re also going to keep pushing on other priorities and — from my executive order, like addressing the non-compete clauses that affect one in five workers.  One in five workers have to sign a non-compete clause. 

It stunned me that’s how this — as Brian will tell you, this is how this came about, really — this whole competitive council.  I knew all what was going on, but when I realized how many people out there with no special insight to having access to patents or anything else had to sign a non-compete clause — people making hourly wages — all designed to keep prices down for — or to keep wages down and prices up.

But one in five workers at a given — and gave them, the company, the power over their careers.

The bottom line is: Our economy shouldn’t be about people working for capitalism.  It should be about capitalism working for people, for everyone.

Now I’m going to turn this over to Brian so we can get this meeting started.  But, again, thank each and every one of you here on this council.  I really mean it. 

You know, I think even when we decided to do this council, some of you — you all thought it was a good idea, but I’ll be — I’d be surprised if some of you didn’t go, “Whoa, I didn’t realize how restrictive some of this was — how restrictive some of this was.”  But you’re going to make a difference in ordinary people’s lives.  Ordinary people’s lives are going to make a difference. 

So, anyway, Brian, the floor is yours.

MR. DEESE:  Thank you, sir.  We’re going go and give the press corps a moment to exit, and then we’re going to start our meeting. 

Q    Mr. President, can you give us a brief update on your call with European leaders on what’s happening in Ukraine today?

THE PRESIDENT:  The only reason I don’t like doing this is you never report on why I’ve called a meeting.  And this is really important. 

I had a very, very, very good meeting.  Total unanimity with all the European leaders.  We’ll talk about it later. 

MR. DEESE:  Thank you.

Q    Will you send troops to Ukraine, sir?

Q    Why are you sending 8,500 troops to Ukraine, possibly?

Q    Will you take questions on inflation then?  Do you think inflation is a political liability ahead of the midterms?

THE PRESIDENT:  No, it’s a great asset.  More inflation.  What a stupid son of a bitch.

5:18 P.M. EST

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Trump cheered by thousands in big rally at the Jersey Shore

• Updated: May. 14, 2024, 3:50 p.m. |
• Published: May. 11, 2024, 8:23 p.m.

Former President Donald Trump speaks during his beachfront campaign rally in Wildwood on Saturday. Dave Hernandez | For NJ Advance

• Eric Conklin | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com
• Matt Gray | For NJ.com
• Brent Johnson | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

With boardwalk rides towering around him, former President Donald Trump on Saturday evening made sweeping vows about New Jersey, continued attacks on President Joe Biden , and railed about his legal troubles in a speech before thousands of supporters at a campaign rally on the beach in Wildwood.

Back on the campaign trail after a key week in his hush-money case , the presumptive Republican presidential nominee also compared his ( quickly debated ) crowd size to Bruce Springsteen’s, referenced Hannibal Lecter while warning about undocumented immigrants, threw punches the Garden State’s most recent two governors, and announced an endorsement in the state’s closely watched U.S. Senate race.

Trump started his 90-minute speech in the famed Jersey Shore city by once again predicting he will pull off an unlikely feat that no White House contender from his party has accomplished since 1988: carry the deep-blue Garden State, which he has lost twice by double digits.

“As you can see today, we’re expanding the electoral map,” he told the audience gathered on the sand six months to Election Day. “We’re going to win the state of New Jersey.”

Trump blasted Biden, his Democratic opponent, over the economy, repeatedly linking him to high inflation. At one point, he argued high prices on food which as hot dogs — like the one he said he ate just before the event — are draining Americans’ wallets.

The former Atlantic City casino mogul , who still spends summers at the golf club he owns in Bedminster , said voters in New Jersey and neighboring Pennsylvania — a critical swing state — should support him if they want “lower costs, higher income, and more weekends down at the Shore.”

He also declared he knows the Jersey Shore “better than more than most of the people that are here, I hate to tell you that,” adding “there’s nothing like it.”

“If you want to keep it going, you have to vote for a gentleman named Donald J. Trump,” said Trump, decked in a navy suit, red tie, and red MAGA hat.

“If Joe Biden wins this election, the middle class loses and New Jersey loses.”

And as former New York Giants Lawrence Taylor and Ottis Anderson watched from the crowd, Trump proclaimed dominance over New Jersey’s most beloved rock star.

“Is there anything better than a Trump rally?” Trump asked. “Bruce Springsteen. We have a much bigger crowd than Bruce Springsteen. Right?”

In other words, it was a Jersey edition of a sprawling, irreverent, and often-fact-checked Trump rally speech.

Biden, meanwhile, held a private fundraiser in Seattle on Saturday during which he said Trump is “clearly unhinged,” according to a report by CNN .

“It’s clear that … when he lost in 2020, something snapped in him,” the president told attendees. “Just listen to what he’s telling people.”

Still, Biden, the presumptive Democratic nominee, said he believes the election will be “close.”

Saturday marked the second time in four years Trump hosted a rally in Wildwood. The last time was a winter-season event inside the local convention center in 2020, 10 months before he lost to Biden.

This one was held outside along the Atlantic Ocean, with the boardwalk’s famous ferris wheel and Great White roller coaster providing the backdrop, during a breezy and busy May weekend. It comes as Trump and Biden prepare to face off in a rematch in November.

Trump said there were 100,000 people on hand. Lisa Fagan, a spokeswoman for the city, told The Associated Press she estimated the crowd to be between 80,000 and 100,000, based on having seen “dozens” of other events in the same space. That’s despite Wildwood’s mayor saying the area of the event could accommodate up to 40,000.

Debates over the crowd size erupted on social media.

U.S. Rep. Jeff Van Drew , R-2nd Dist., said from the stage this was the largest political rally in New Jersey history — though it likely falls short short of when then-presidential hopeful Franklin D. Roosevelt appeared in Sea Girt in 1932, a gathering that reportedly drew 120,000 people.

A number of people began exiting the beach as Trump’s speech passed the hour mark.

• MORE: Wild scene at Jersey Shore beach awaits arrival of former President Trump’s rally

Saturday’s event also came as Trump continues to be on trial in a courtroom two hours north in Manhattan, a case that has limited his time on the campaign trail. This was only his third rally since the trial started four weeks ago.

He faces three other unrelated criminal indictments , as well.

Trump appeared in Wildwood under a judge’s gag order that limits his legal ability to comment publicly on witnesses, jurors, and some others connected to the trial. The judge already has fined him $9,000 for violating the order and warned jail could follow if he doesn’t comply.

At the rally, Trump compared himself to notorious gangster Al Capone.

“I got indicted more than him,” Trump said. “On bulls**t, too.”

He also alleged, without evidence, that Biden is behind the criminal charges he faces, saying he has been “forced to endure a Biden show trial, all done by Biden.” He derided the president as a “total moron,” as well.

Plus, he referred to Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg as ”Fat Alvin” and said the judge is “highly conflicted.”

Trump has repeatedly accused the Biden administration and Democratic officials in New York of using the legal system to block his return to the Oval Office. Prosecutors allege Trump broke the law to conceal an affair with porn actor Stormy Daniels that would have hurt his first presidential bid.

Last week, Trump was forced to sit through testimony from Daniels, who described a sexual encounter with the former president in stunning detail. Trump is set to return to the courtroom next week, when prosecution witness Michael Cohen, Trump’s former fixer, expected to take the witness stand.

Democrats held a press call Friday ahead Trump’s appearance, noting the U.S. lost a net 2.7 million jobs during his time in office — a period affected by the coronavirus pandemic. Under Biden, U.S. employment is 10% above where it was when he took office.

New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy , a Democrat, also smacked Trump on social media .

“As Trump holds his rally today in NJ, he remains focused on himself, not the American people,” Murphy wrote. “Joe Biden continues to deliver results: investing in infrastructure, reducing prescription drug costs, and protecting reproductive freedom. The choice is clear.”

National polls show a tight race . In New Jersey, a recent survey from Emerson College found Biden leading Trump here by 7 percentage points and by only 5 when third party candidates are added.

Though New Jersey is heavily Democratic, there are pockets of MAGA support here. Wildwood is in the middle of one swath.

Saturday’s crowd also included many residents who said they came from out of state, including Pennsylvania. While some questioned why Trump would spend time in New Jersey, a Trump campaign official told CNN the campaign believes it could get local TV coverage in nearby Philadelphia.

“I went to school in Pennsylvania,” Trump, a 1968 graduate of the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, reminded them.

Trump said he plans to make a play for several other traditionally blue states, such as Minnesota and Virginia.

“And actually many other states. This guy’s so damn bad, it could be all of them,” he said of Biden.

Toward the end of his speech, Trump noted New Jersey is “home to some of the toughest, smartest, and most talented Americans ever to walk the face of the earth.”

“This is the state that pioneered the boardwalk, the diner, the motion picture, and gave the world America legends like Thomas Edison, Buzz Aldrin, Frank Sinatra, and so many more,” he said.

“Now, we are a nation in decline. We are a failing nation. We are a nation that has lost its confidence, has lost its willpower and has lost its strength. ... But we are not going to allow this horror to continue.”

That wasn’t the only time Trump mentioned Sinatra, a Hoboken native. In his remarks about hot dogs, he recalled how Sinatra once told him: “Never eat before you perform.”

“I’m not performing. I’m a politician, if you can believe it,” Trump said.

It would be a huge upset for Trump to take New Jersey. He lost the state to Biden by 16 percentage points in 2020 to Democrat Hillary Clinton by 14 points in 2016. Registered Democrats outnumber registered Republicans here by about 1 million.

Michael Tyler, communication director for Biden’s campaign, rejected the idea of Trump winning the state.

“I think here on Planet Earth in the Biden campaign, we’re going to remain laser-focused on winning 270 electoral votes,” Tyler said. “We’re focused on communicating directly with the voters who are actually going to decide this presidential election.”

• MORE: Democrats strike at Trump ahead of N.J. rally

During Saturday’s speech, Trump also repeated his unfounded claims that the 2020 election was stolen from him, called mail-in voting “corrupt,” thanked the U.S. Supreme Court justices he appointed for helping overturn Roe v. Wade, said he would leave abortion policies up to the states, and promised to deport any foreign student who bring “jihadism or antisemitism” to colleges in the U.S.

He also stood by Israel in its war with Hamas in Gaza, saying he supports the country’s “right to win its war on terror.”

“Is that OK? I don’t know,” Trump said. " I don’t know if that’s good or bad politically. I don’t care.”

During comments about curbing undocumented immigration, Trump brought up “the late, great Hannibal Lecter,” the notorious serial killer/cannibal in the 1991 film “The Silence of the Lambs.”

“He’s a wonderful man,” Trump said.

He noted the scene at the end of the movie, where Lecter says he is “having an old friend for dinner” as he peers toward his next victim.

“Remember the last scene? ‘Excuse me, I’m about to have a friend for dinner,’ as this poor doctor walked by. ‘I’m about to have a friend for dinner.’”

Trump has mentioned the character before when making claims that mental patients are coming over the U.S. border — which his campaign has not shown evidence to support .

Meanwhile, Trump cracked jokes about Republican Chris Christie , a one-time ally turned rival who consistently blasted the former president during a presidential campaign that ended weeks before the New Hampshire primary .

“Does anybody like Chris Christie?” Trump asked. “He was a major case of Trump derangement system.”

He referred to Christie as a “fat pig,” as well — an insult he has used before .

Trump then knocked Murphy, promising supporters that if he wins in November, they “won’t have to worry about Gov. Murphy and his 157 windmills” — nods to the wind turbine program at the center of the Democratic governor’s energy policies .

“We are going to make sure that ends on Day 1,” Trump said.

Trump’s appearance was a spectacle in Wildwood. From the boardwalk, curious onlookers peered through gaps in a blue plastic barrier attached to a chain link fence running the length of the venue space. Some tore holes in the plastic to get a better view as Trump spoke.

Trump flew from New York City to New Jersey in his trademark blue plane, which soared low over the rally around 4 p.m. His motorcade — carrying North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, a possible vice presidential pick — passed under the boardwalk around 5:30 p.m.

The former president arrived on stage around 6:30 p.m. to a roar from the crowd. He finished his remarks just before 8 p.m.

Trump also weighed into a critical local race, endorsing Mendham Borough Mayor Christine Serrano Glassner in the high-stakes election for the New Jersey U.S. Senate seat currently held by indicted Democrat Robert Menendez .

Serrano Glassner is running in the primary for the Republican nomination against developer Curtis Bashaw. She has ties to the former president: Her husband, Republican operative Michael Glassner, helped manage Trump’s 2016 campaign and was chief operating officer of Trump’s 2020 re-election bid.

“She’s a fantastic woman,” Trump said. “I’m giving her my complete and total endorsement.”

Both Serrano Glassner and Bashaw — who lives in nearby Cape May — were in the audience at the rally.

“I was going to stay out of it, but you’re running against a Christie person,” Trump said of Bashaw, who donated to Christie’s presidential campaigns.

Earlier in the rally, Van Drew, a Republican who represents Wildwood in Congress, told the audience “we remember four years ago, when we had a great economy.”

“There is nothing wrong with saying you believe in America,” said the congressman, a former Democrat who switched parties in 2020 and became a vocal Trump backer.

He also touted Trump’s stance on immigration to a cheering crowd.

“Immigration is a good thing,” Van Drew said. “Legal immigration.”

Spotted along the boardwalk were a few people wearing T-shirts that read “Proud Boys,” a right-wing group the Anti-Defamation League has labeled as extremist . Among the crowds gathered at the entrance to the beach awaiting Trump’s arrival were three masked Proud Boys members .

Police said no permits for counterprotests were filed with Wildwood.

NJ Advance Media staff writers Spencer Kent and Andre Malok and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Thank you for relying on us to provide the local news you can trust. Please consider supporting NJ.com with a voluntary subscription.

Eric Conklin may be reached at [email protected] .

Matt Gray may be reached at [email protected] .

Brent Johnson may be reached at [email protected] .

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UK politics: government to appeal against ruling that blocks Rwanda deportations in Northern Ireland – as it happened

Rishi Sunak says Belfast judgment will not affect his plans and the Good Friday agreement should not be used to obstruct Westminster policy

• 1d ago Afternoon summary
• 1d ago No 10 declines to deny report saying Cameron discussed Ukraine war ending in peace deal with Trump
• 1d ago Starmer says there will be 'no watering down' of Labour's new deal for working people
• 1d ago Sunak says ministers will appeal against Belfast court ruling on Rwanda policy, which he says won't stop flights leaving in July
• 1d ago DWP says it is planning to increase fines for people who falsely claim benefits
• 2d ago 'Common sense' minister Esther McVey announces ban on civil servants wearing rainbow lanyards
• 2d ago Labour MP Chris Bryant being treated after skin cancer detected in his lung
• 2d ago DUP says Northern Ireland will be 'magnet for asylum seekers' unless government amends migration law
• 2d ago Sunak's speech and Q&A - summary and analysis
• 2d ago Court rules Rwanda deportation law should not apply in Northern Ireland because it breaches Good Friday agreement
• 2d ago Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar accuses SNP of 'squandering opportunities' of Scottish parliament
• 2d ago Starmer says Sunak wrong to say Britain less safe under Labour
• 2d ago Sunak says UK will keep backing Ukraine, playing down report hinting Trump win could lead to west backing peace deal
• 2d ago Sunak claims Labour would not be able to maintain military support for Ukraine for as long as necessary
• 2d ago Sunak says Britain will be less safe under Labour
• 2d ago Sunak says Elphicke defection shows Starmer is 'completely and utterly unprincipled' and doesn't stand for anything
• 2d ago Sunak rejects claim Tories have not spent enough on defence
• 2d ago Sunak says he would ignore ECHR injunctions 'every single time' in order to get deportation flights off to Rwanda
• 2d ago Sunak says 'it's just not true' to say 14 years of Tory government to blame for all problems facing Britain
• 2d ago Sunak says Starmer's shift from embracing Jeremy Corbyn to Natalie Elphicke show he has 'no principles'
• 2d ago Sunak says next election will be choice 'between future and past'
• 2d ago Starmer urges Labour's mayors to set 'gold standard' for local growth plans
• 2d ago Nadhim Zahawi named chair of Very Group after saying he's quitting as MP at election
• 2d ago Minister apologises to women affected by birth trauma after UK inquiry
• 2d ago Labour Chris Bryant suggests Buckland should face standards inquiry for covering up Elphicke's alleged lobbying bid
• 2d ago Sunak suggests next five years will be ‘some of most dangerous’ in UK history and he’s best leader to keep people safe

Sunak says ministers will appeal against Belfast court ruling on Rwanda policy, which he says won't stop flights leaving in July

Rishi Sunak has said the judgment from the high court in Belfast this morning saying parts of the Illegal Migration Act cannot apply in Northern Ireland (see 1.39pm ) will not affect his plans to send asylum seekers to Rwanda in July, ITV’s Carl Dinnen reports.

Sunak also said the government would appeal against the ruling. And he says the Good Friday agreement should not be used to obstruct Westminster policy on illegal migration.

NEW. The PM says the government will appeal against the ruling in the Belfast High Court disapplying parts of the Illegal Migration Act. — Carl Dinnen (@carldinnen) May 13, 2024

NEW. The PM says the government will appeal against the ruling in the Belfast High Court disapplying parts of the Illegal Migration Act.

Sunak; “This judgment changes nothing about our operational plans to send illegal migrants to Rwanda this July or the lawfulness of our Safety of Rwanda Act.”

Sunak; “I have been consistently clear that the commitments in the Good Friday Agreement should be interpreted as they were always intended, and not expanded to cover issues like illegal migration.”

Thanks for following today’s developments. We will be closing this blog shortly but you can read all our UK politics coverage here .

Afternoon summary

Rishi Sunak has vowed to fight the next election on the UK’s security, attacking Labour and Keir Starmer in a fiercely political speech in which he said: “The choice at the next election is: who do you trust to keep you safe?” See 2.28pm for a full summary of the speech and Q&A.

The cornerstone of Rishi Sunak’s Rwanda deportation policy should not apply in Northern Ireland because it undermines human rights protections guaranteed in the region under post-Brexit arrangements, a high court judge has ruled.

The government will drop plans to criminalise rough sleepers for being deemed a nuisance or having an excessive smell after Tory MPs threatened a revolt over the proposals.

Esther McVey, the “minister for common sense”, has said she will crack down on diversity initiatives in the civil service, including banning the wearing of rainbow lanyards.

Puneet Gupta, a businessman whose firm has given £50,000 to the Conservatives, has described growth under Rishi Sunak as “stagnant” and pledged to support Labour instead, Aubrey Allegretti reports in the Times.

At the afternoon lobby briefing the PM’s spokesperson echoed what Rishi Sunak himself said about the Belfast high court judgment about the Illegal Migration Act – that it won’t stop flights to Rwanda taking off in July. (See 4.24pm .)

But the spokesperson did not dispute that, if the judgment were allowed to stand, it might stop asylum seekers who travel from Britain to Northern Ireland being deported to Rwanda.

No 10 declines to deny report saying Cameron discussed Ukraine war ending in peace deal with Trump

There was no Downing Street lobby briefing this morning, because Rishi Sunak was giving his speech at around the time it would have taken place. At the afternoon lobby briefing, the PM’s spokesperson went a little bit further than Sunak did himself this morning in disowning the report saying that David Cameron told Donald Trump backing military aid to Ukraine now would put him in a better position to negotiate a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine if it becomes president in January. (See 12.58pm .)

The report has generated controversy because it implied the UK government might be willing to join Trump in urging Ukraine to accept a compromise peace settlement in the event of Trump being elected president.

Asked if the Sunday Times report was accurate, the PM’s spokesperson repeatedly said he did not “recognise” what the paper reported. But he would not describe it as inaccurate, or wrong.

The spokesperson also insisted that the UK remained committed to ensuring that the Russian invasion of Ukraine fails. He said:

We have been unequivocal. Putin must fail. We will provide Ukraine with support for as long as is necessary. And, now more than ever, it is vital that the international community continues to support Ukraine.

Starmer says there will be 'no watering down' of Labour's new deal for working people

Keir Starmer said today there would be “no watering down” of the Labour party’s new deal for working people.

Speaking in Wolverhampton, where he chaired a meeting with Labour mayors (see 11.02am ), Starmer said:

I’m absolutely committed to our new deal for working people … This will be the biggest levelling up of workers’ rights in a generation, so there will be no watering down.

There have been repeated reports claiming the plans are being watered down in response to concerns raised by business.

Tony Blair is an evangelist for new technology, which he believes has enormous potential to transform the way public services are delivered, and his thinktank has put out a statement supporting what Rishi Sunak said in his speech today (see 2.28pm ) about the potential benefits of artificial intelligence (AI). Benedict Macon-Cooney, chief policy strategist at the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change , said:

The prime minister is right to recognise that science and tech should be our new national purpose. We are entering a transformational age with AI – one of just a few technologies in history powerful enough to accelerate the course of economic progress. In health, in education and in climate it will offer new opportunities to solve the challenges we all face. But it should also give leaders a completely different outlook on governing that goes beyond the old debates on tax and spend. In defence, in particular, we must be far bolder than simply increasing spending. New technologies and capabilities, including AI, are reshaping warfare. Technological superiority is critical to keeping us safe. The opportunities now presented by AI technology might yet be the most exciting and expansive for government. Leaders who grasp that opportunity have every reason to be optimistic about our future.

DWP says it is planning to increase fines for people who falsely claim benefits

The Department for Work and Pensions has said that it wants to increase fines for people who falsely claim benefits. The new penalty would apply to people not facing criminal action, the DWP said. The plan would also include the burden of proof being lowered.

The DWP set out the plan in an updated version of its plan to tackle fraud in the welfare system. Referring to the proposal for a new civil penalty aimed at fraudsters, it said:

This will ensure that where fraud has taken place, there is always an appropriate consequence so that offenders cannot gain from the system. The penalty reforms include lowering the burden of proof and broadening the scope of cases the penalty can be applied to. It will ensure that this applies across all types of payments, with those exploiting access to vital grant payments for no good reason being punished in cases where criminal proceedings are not taken forward.

Parliament has published a review of the operation of the independent complaints and grievance scheme (ICGS), the scheme set up to deal with allegations about MPs engaging in bullying or sexual misconduct. Among several recommendations, it says MPs should have to complete mandatory training on parliament’s behaviour code within six months of election or re-election.

'Common sense' minister Esther McVey announces ban on civil servants wearing rainbow lanyards

Esther McVey , the Cabinet Office minister, said this morning that civil service diversity roles will be cut back as part of a “common sense fightback”.

As PA Media reports, McVey, who was dubbed “minister for common sense” by Tories when she was appointed last year, also said in a speech that there would be no more spending on external equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) contracts without an explicit sign-off from a minister, and no more EDI-focused Whitehall jobs outside human resources.

She said such roles presented a “distraction” from the core purpose of the civil service and an “inappropriate backdoor politicisation” of Whitehall.

Addressing the Centre for Policy Studies thinktank, McVey said:

At the heart of these changes are value for money for the taxpayer and better customer service for the public. People want their public servants to be getting on with the job of making their lives better, not engaging in endless internal discussions about ideology, and I am not prepared to see pointless job creation schemes for the politically correct.

Any EDI roles would be moved into human resources and focused exclusively on statutory requirements, she said, adding there were the equivalent of around 400 full-time employees working on EDI across the civil service.

In addition to changes to EDI roles, McVey promised a crackdown on civil servants’ lanyards, saying they should not be a “random pick and mix” but “a standard design reflecting that we are all members of the government delivering for the citizens of the UK”. She said:

Working in the civil service is all about leaving your political views at the building entrance, and trying to introduce them by the back door via lanyards should not happen.

As the Times reports, asked what was wrong with civil servants wearing a rainbow lanyard to express solidarity with LGBT people, McVey replied:

You don’t need political activism in a visible way … you’re putting it on to make a statement, and what we’re saying is actually, your political beliefs remain at the front door and when you come in, you’re part of a happy team.

Lucille Thirlby , assistant general secretary of the FDA, the union representing senior civil servants, said she was surprised McVey was making policy on lanyards. As HuffPost UK reports , Thirlby said:

At a time when the country is facing serious challenges, should the colour of a civil servant’s lanyard really be a ministerial priority? Equality, diversity and inclusion is a serious topic worthy of serious consideration and debate. Unfortunately, we got nothing of the sort from Esther McVey, who instead rattled off of a tick list of culture-war talking points.

Labour MP Chris Bryant being treated after skin cancer detected in his lung

The Labour MP Chris Bryant is having immunotherapy after skin cancer was detected in his lung, he has said. The shadow creative industries minister said he had “every hope” of being successfully treated. Kevin Rawlinson has the story here.

DUP says Northern Ireland will be 'magnet for asylum seekers' unless government amends migration law

The DUP has said the government should legislate to ensure that immigration law in Northern Ireland is the same as in Britain.

In response to this morning’s Belfast high court judgment about the Illegal Migration Act (see 1.39pm ), the DUP leader Gavin Robinson issued a statement saying that without action to close the loophole exposed by the court judgment, Northern Ireland will be a “magnet for asylum seekers”.

The DUP has repeatedly warned that the government’s efforts on immigration would not apply in Northern Ireland. The government repeatedly closed its mind to the incompatibility of their legislation with the Northern Ireland protocol, yet our concerns have been accepted by the high court in Belfast this morning. Whilst today’s judgement does not come as a surprise, it does blow the government’s irrational claims that the Rwanda scheme could extend equally to Northern Ireland completely out of the water. We presented the government with an opportunity during the passage of the safety of Rwanda bill in the House of Commons and the Lords to accept an amendment which would have put beyond doubt what it claims to be the case around the operation of the scheme. It is telling that it chose not to do so … It is imperative that immigration policy applies equally across every part of the United Kingdom. As unionists, we are clear that our national parliament should have the ability to make decisions on immigration that are applicable on a national basis. If that were not the case, it would not only be a constitutional affront but would make Northern Ireland a magnet for asylum seekers seeking to escape enforcement.

Sunak's speech and Q&A - summary and analysis

Rishi Sunak started his speech by saying that the next election would be a choice between “the future and the past”, but it felt as if he could not decide whether the future was something to dread, or to look forward to. At one point he was suggesting the future might bring nuclear war; at another, he came close to promising a cure for cancer. Overall, as Sam Freedman argues (see 12.11pm ), it was weak on message coherence.

But the speech was not really about the future. It was about Labour, and the most effective passage – the one where Sunak seemed most confident of his argument, and most emotionally engaged – came when he accused Keir Starmer of being unprincipled in embracing Natalie Elphicke. (See 11.44am .) You can expect to hear this point ad nauseam between now and the election.

Sunak linked this to a broader argument about security, and claimed there is now a dividing line between the Conservatives and Labour on defence spending. This was a weaker line because, although Labour has not yet committed to matching the Tory promise to raise defence spending to 2.5% of GDP, Sunak is only committing to doing this by 2030, which is not just after the forthcoming election, but beyond the one after that.

Here are the main points from the speech and Q&A.

Sunak said that Keir Starmer’s decision to let Natalie Elphicke, the very rightwing Tory, join Labour showed that he was “completely and utterly unprincipled”. In his speech he said:

Labour have almost nothing to say about [the future]. No plans for our border. No plans for our energy security, no plans for our economy either. And no principles either. Keir Starmer has gone from embracing Jeremy Corbyn to Natalie Elphicke all in the cynical pursuit of power at any price.

And during the Q&A he went further. Asked about Elphicke’s defection, he said:

I think it shows less about her and it’s more about Keir Starmer. And it shows him to be completely and utterly unprincipled. This is someone who went from embracing Jeremy Corbyn to embracing Natalie Elphicke. It just tells you that you can’t trust what the guy says. Right? And if you’re trying to be everything to everyone, fundamentally you don’t stand for anything. I think that will be increasingly clear to people.

Sunak said that Britain would be less safe under a Labour government. Asked by the BBC’s political editor, Chris Mason , if he was saying that Britain would be less safe under Starmer, and if his argument to the electorate was “better the devil you know”, Sunak replied:

In a word, yes.

And, in response to another question, Sunak said that he was committed to raising defence spending to 2.5% of GDP. He went on:

Keir Starmer can’t stand here and make that pledge and, actually, the Labour party and Keir Starmer not matching our investment on defence spending emboldens our adversaries. What do you think Putin thinks when he sees that? That he thinks the West isn’t prepared to make the tough choices to invest in their security? Because Russia’s economy has mobilised for war, he is continuing to be aggressive, we need to meet that aggression with strength.

Sunak said that he was committed to giving Ukraine military aid to resist Russian aggression “for as long as is necessary”. He played down suggestions that the government is getting ready for a point where it might have to back a peace deal – although he did not deny a report saying David Cameron floated this scenario in his meeting with Donald Trump. (See 12.58pm .)

And Sunak claimed that Labour would not be able to continue to support Ukraine militarily as effectively as the Conservatives. He explained:

It’s because of that increase in defence spending [the pledge to raise it to 2.5% of GDP by 2030] that I can stand here and provide more support to Ukraine … And we can say that that support to Ukraine will be provided for as long as necessary to repel Russian aggression. Keir Starmer can’t stand here and make that pledge and, actually, the Labour party and Keir Starmer not matching our investment on defence spending emboldens our adversaries.

Sunak said that, while he accepted the Conservatives had made mistakes, they could not be blamed for everything that had gone wrong in the past 14 years. In his speech he said:

Now I’m not saying that the past doesn’t matter. I know people are feeling anxious and uncertain. That their sense of confidence and pride in this country has been knocked. I understand that. I accept it and I want to change it. But what I cannot accept is Labour’s idea that all the worries you have are because of 14 years of Conservative government. And that all you need to do is change the people in office and these problems will magically disappear. It’s just not true. In the last 14 years, we’ve made progress in the most difficult conditions any governments has faced since the Second World War. A world leading economy, we’ve seen the 3rd highest growth rate in the G7, and created 4 million jobs, 800 a day. We took difficult decisions to restore our country’s financial security and control national debt, and that allowed us to support the country through Covid, deliver the fastest vaccine roll-out in the world, provide record funding to the NHS, and protect state pensions with the triple lock.

He accused Labour of campaigning in a wholly negative way. In his speech he said:

Labour have no ideas. What they did have they’ve U-turned on. They have just one thing. A calculation, that they can make you feel so bad about your country, that you won’t have the energy to ask what they might do with the incredible power that they seek to wield … I refuse to accept the doomsterism and the cynical narrative of decline that my opponents hope will depress people into voting for them.

He declined to give enthusiastic backing to the prospect of having Boris Johnson campaign for the party at the election. Asked if he would welcome this, given that his speech was all about the future, he just said he wanted “every Conservative'” to be part of the campaign.

He said President Putin had taken the world closer to nuclear war than it had been at any point since the Cuban missile crisis. In his speech he said:

The dangers that threaten our country are real. They are increasing in number. An axis of authoritarian states like Russia, Iran, North Korea, and China is working together to undermine us and our values. War has returned to Europe, with our NATO allies warning that if Putin succeeds in Ukraine, they might be next. War rages, too, in the Middle East as Israel defends itself not only against the terrorists of Hamas but a barrage of missiles fired – for the first time – directly from Iran. Right now in Africa, conflicts are being fought in 18 different countries. And Putin’s recklessness has taken us closer to a dangerous nuclear escalation than at any point since the Cuban missile crisis.

He said artificial intelligence could double productivity within a decade. In his speech he said:

Technologies like AI will do for the 21st century what the steam engine and electricity did for the 19th. They’ll accelerate human progress by complementing what we do, by speeding up the discovery of new ideas, and by assisting almost every aspect of human life. Think of the investment they will bring, the jobs they’ll create, and the increase in all our living standards they’ll deliver. Credible estimates suggest AI alone could double our productivity in the next decade. And in doing so, help us create a world of less suffering, more freedom, choice, and opportunity. Just imagine. Every child in school with their own personalised tutor, and every teacher free to spend more time personally developing each student. New frontiers in medical diagnostics where a single picture of your eyes can not only detect blindness but predict other diseases like heart attacks or Parkinson’s.

He claimed that technological advances (as well as “post-Brexit regulatory freedoms”) could “fundamentally” reduce the risk posed by cancer. In his speech he said:

Yet even here, if we are bold enough, there can be cause for new hope. We already know we can prevent most lung cancer cases – the UK’s leading cause of cancer deaths – by stopping smoking. That’s why I took the important decision to create a smokefree generation. And with huge breakthroughs in early diagnosis and new treatments, like the MRNA vaccine for skin cancer, I believe we can be just as bold and ambitious in improving rates of cancer survival. Because if we can bring together my vision of a country transformed, with our world class education system that trains the PhD oncologists and apprentice lab technicians, and our dynamic economy that attracts investors and incubates the billion-pound biotech businesses of the future, our post-Brexit regulatory freedoms to approve trials in a safe but faster way, and the scale of our NHS to help us research and trial those new drugs in a way no other country can, then just one example of the incredible achievements this country can make would be to make a generational breakthrough against this cruel disease and fundamentally change what it will mean for our children and grandchildren to hear the word cancer.

This was probably the most boosterish passage in the whole speech. Even Boris Johnson never tried to argue that Brexit would cure cancer.

It is very common now for party leaders to take questions at press conferences and after speeches from a list of journalists agreed by advisers in advance, instead of just from anyone who puts their hand up. As Robert Hutton from the Critic reveals, this morning Rishi Sunak did not just have a list of names; he even had pictures to help him identify the right reporter.

How Rishi Sunak press conferences work. Reporters put their hands up, but this is what the prime minister has in front of him... pic.twitter.com/gqtjnTOc47 — Robert Hutton (@RobDotHutton) May 13, 2024

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