July 28, 2016

Watch the Dramatic Ending to Joe Biden’s Convention Speech

Wow.


Vice President Joe Biden ripped into Donald Trump as a charlatan spinning a false narrative of national decline in a fiery address to the Democratic National Convention on Wednesday in Philadelphia. After a brief introduction by his wife, Jill, Biden made the case for Hillary Clinton. “There’s only one person in this race who has always been there for you, and that’s Hillary Clinton’s life story,” he said. “She’s been there. She’s always been there, and so has Tim Kaine.”

But the speech shifted into high gear when the subject turned to Donald Trump.

“To state the obvious, and I’m not trying to be a wise guy here, I really mean it: that’s not Donald Trump’s story,” Biden said. “Just listen to me for a minute without booing or cheering. I really mean this. His cynicism is unbounded. His lack of empathy and compassion can be summed up in a phrase I suspect he’s most proud of having made famous: ‘You’re fired.’ I mean really, I’m not joking. Think about that. Think about everything you learned as a child, no matter where you were raised. How can there be pleasure in saying ‘you’re fired!’ He’s trying to tell us he cares about the middle class? Give me a break. That’s a bunch of malarkey!”

Biden at times appeared to take personal offense to Trump’s candidacy, dismissing him on foreign policy as a man who “confuses bluster with strength” while “embracing dictators like Vladimir Putin.” On domestic economic issues, he twisted the knife. “He has no clue about what makes America great—actually he has no clue, period,” Biden said.

He returned to theme of national character again in a dramatic closing. “Americans have never ever ever ever let their country down,” Biden said. “Never. Never! Ordinary people like us who do extraordinary things. We’ve had candidates before who attempted to get elected by appealing to fears but they’ve never succeeded because we do not scare easily. We never bow. We never bend. We never break when confronted with crisis. No, we endure. We overcome. And we always always always move forward. That’s why I can with absolutely conviction I am more optimistic about our chances today than when I was elected as a 29-year-old kid to the Senate. The 21st century is going to be the American century because lead not only by our power but by the power of our example. That is the history of the journey of America. And God willing, Hillary Clinton will write the next chapter in that journey.”

“We are America. Second to none. And we own the finish line. Don’t forget it.”

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WE CAME UP SHORT.

We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

So we urgently need this specific ask, what you're reading right now, to start bringing in more donations than it ever has. The reality, for these next few months and next few years, is that we have to start finding ways to grow our online supporter base in a big way—and we're optimistic we can keep making real headway by being real with you about this.

Because the bottom line: Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. We really need to see if we'll be able to raise more with this real estate on a daily basis than we have been, so we're hoping to see a promising start.

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