Joe Biden interview
Seacrest interviews Biden during On Air With Ryan Seacrest about his advise to college students.
What we’ve done is increased the commitment to the community colleges by $25 billion federally. That’s number one. Secondly, you will find what’s happening in your county I expect, community colleges are now partnering with businesses who are looking for employees. For example, I just was with Siemens. Siemens is a gigantic corporation. They had a choice to spend half a billion dollars to build a plant in China or in North Carolina. They chose North Carolina. They did it for a whole range of reasons, but one of them is to be able to partner with the community colleges where they went in and helped them set up tech programs, where they guarantee internships and then jobs for anybody who passes through the program. Number three, what we’ve done is seen to it that you are now able to afford to go to there [community college], but you either qualify for a Pell Grant, you qualify for a direct loan, [or] you qualify for a tax write off if you’re doing it yourself at 28. You can write off the cost of the bulk of that education. College tuition has gone up in the last ten years over 280+% more than healthcare and so, there are a lot of things that these universities and community colleges can do to bring cost down by modernizing.
Presidential debate livestream
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Naval Observatory water fight
0 CommentsThe Vice President engages in a squirt gun fight with relatives and reporters, during the annual media picnic held at his official residence. Guests at the event are also treated to a live country band performance, an inflatable obstacle course, and a mini bungee bounce.
‘Migrant children can stay in US’
Biden’s visit to Guatemala to address the number of illegal immigrants entering the US from that country turned into a mixed message. After meeting with Central American leaders Biden says:
We do intend, and everyone agreed, it is necessary to put them back in the hands of a parent in the country from which they came.
Then, later on in his statement he indicated that some children will be able to stay in the US:
We’re sending immigration judges, attorneys to represent these young people and families with young people, and asylum officers. They have a right under our law to make the case — make the case that we’re here because we’re avoiding persecution. We’re avoiding something will physically affect our safety.
Will live off taxpayer’s money
At the White House Summit on Working Families, Biden claims he has no savings account and plans to live off of taxpayers when he retires. He also claims he has no stocks or investments.
I have no savings account, but I have a great pension and a great salary
Tells governors: ‘We’re looking to you’
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Biden tells governors that it is up to them to lead the country out of gridlock. At the National Governors Association meeting, he says Democratic and Republican governors “are the best hope we have.”
You gotta lead us out of this mess we’re in…You’re doing all you can. You’re attracting investment, while the federal government is sitting on its hands. We’re looking to you.
Biden warns ISIS
Biden says the U.S. is grieving the deaths of Foley and Sotloff and will bring ISIS to justice:
They should know we will follow them to the gates of hell until they are brought to justice. Because hell is where they will reside. Hell is where they will reside.
He says America will not be intimidated by brutal acts like the beheading by ISIS of the two journalists:
We came back after 9/11. We dusted ourselves off and we made sure that Osama bin Laden would never, ever again threaten the American people. We came back after Boston strong, blaming no one but resolving to be certain that this didn’t happen again. As a nation, we’re united, and when people harm Americans, we don’t retreat. We don’t forget.
Funeral speach
0 CommentsVice President Biden speaks at the funeral of officer Rafael Ramos about the spirit of the officers murder, Ramos and his partner officer Wenjian Liu.
Being a cop was not what they did, it was who they were. You all joined for essentially the same reason. There was something about you that made you think that you could help. That you had a duty.
LGBT progress ‘incomplete’
On the International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia Biden promotes equality for homosexuals. He says progress in America:
remains incomplete, but the momentum has shifted in the right direction.
He equates “religious condemnation” of homosexuality with “violence with impunity, mistreatment by police, the denial of health care … and social isolation.”
Progress has also been made in many places around the world. But in too many places, life for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender individuals is actually getting worse. In too many places, LGBT community members face violence with impunity, mistreatment by police, the denial of health care, or religious condemnation and social isolation.
Hospitalized
Biden’s office says that his son Beau is being treated at Walter Reed Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland. Officials do not specify what he is being treated for, though a source with knowledge of the Biden family calls the situation “serious.”
Proud of middle class focus
At a Center for American Progress event Biden says that he’s proud that he’s spent his career focused on the middle class.
In this town, being referred to as ‘Middle Class Joe’ is meant as an insult. No, I really mean it. Because you’re not sophisticated if you’re middle class. Because even among some of we Democrats, we’re sophisticated jerks lots of times.
He stands by the straightforward comments that have gotten him into trouble:
I got criticized for saying LaGuardia was like a Third World airport. Guess what? The governor and everybody else, including The New York Times, calls it a Third World airport. And they’re changing it. We have to invest.
He advises Democrats making a White House bid:
We should run on what we’ve done. Whoever’s running should also talk about what the resurgence in place in the future is, and talk about in 2016 what we’ve done. Some say this amounts to a third term for President Obama. I call it sticking to what works and expanding on it to restore the middle class.
Requires secure treatment facility
A Walter Reed spokesperson says that the eldest son of vice president Biden was hospitalized at a military hospital because it was secure enough to allow regular visits from his father. She will not say whether he remains there, contending that releasing any information would violate his privacy.
[The hospital] often admits individuals as a matter of security precaution. The vice president and Dr. (Jill) Biden’s regular visits to see their son necessitate his treatment in a facility that is more secure than a traditional hospital.
It remains unclear when Biden was admitted.
Criticizes China
Biden says Beijing’s policies in the South China Sea are adding to tensions and the potential for conflict in the region at a graduation ceremony at a naval academy in Maryland. He says that freedom of navigation and the peaceful resolution of territorial disputes are being tested by Chinese actions in the disputed waters, the source of territorial disputes among several countries, and that the United States’ role is to keep the peace.
They’re building airstrips, the placing of oil rigs, the imposition of unilateral bans on fishing in disputed territories, the declaration of air-defence zones, the reclamation of land, which other countries are doing, but not nearly on the massive scale the Chinese are doing. Tensions run high. As I speak, they run high, but you will be there to keep the peace.
Biden also says that as part of the pivot in US foreign policy towards the Asia-Pacific there would be a significant shift of its military forces into the region.
That’s why 60 per cent of the United States naval forces will be stationed in the Asia Pacific by 2020.
Plays golf
Biden spends a rare weekend in the nation’s capital and joins Obama’s regular weekend golf game at TPC Potomac at Avenel Farm, a private golf club in Potomac, Maryland. Two aides round out Obama’s foursome. Obama usually plays with aides at when he’s at the White House. His golf party often includes bigger names when he plays away from home.
Beau Biden dies at 46
Beau Biden dies of brain cancer nearly two years after he was first diagnosed. Joe Biden was at his son’s side when he died:
It is with broken hearts that Hallie, Hunter, Ashley, Jill and I announce the passing of our husband, brother and son, Beau, after he battled brain cancer with the same integrity, courage and strength he demonstrated every day of his life. The entire Biden family is saddened beyond words. We know that Beau’s spirit will live on in all of us-especially through his brave wife, Hallie, and two remarkable children….More than his professional accomplishments, Beau measured himself as a husband, father, son and brothe. His absolute honor made him a role model for our family. Beau embodied my father’s saying that a parent knows success when his child turns out better than he did.
Laid in honor
Beau Biden is laid in honor in the Delaware Senate Chamber, attended by politicians and local officials, as well as New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and United Nations Ambassador Samantha Power. Governor Markell:
[He] was a model for what a public servant should be as well as a model husband, father and son…He cared deeply about the people of Delaware. We, the people of Delaware, loved Beau, if possible, even more.
On Beau’s relationship with his father:
Your dad beamed with pride and love for you. Never has a son’s love been so genuine and so deep.
Delivers eulogy
President Obama delivers the eulogy at Biden’s funeral, speaking for 25 minutes at St. Anthony of Padua Catholic Church to about 1,000 mourners, including former President Bill Clinton and his wife, Hillary.
He did in 46 years what most of us could not do in 146. He left nothing in the tank…He lived a life where the means were as important as the ends. He made you want to be a better daughter or son or a better brother or sister. And better at your job, a better soldier. He made you want to be a better person…Isn’t that finally the measure of a man, the way he lives, how he treats others no matter what life may throw at him? We do not know how long we’ve got here. We don’t know when fate will intervene. We cannot discern God’s plan.
About 200 people inside the parish gymnasium watch Obama and others speak on two monitors, while several hundred people listened to the service from loudspeakers outside on the church property. Joe Biden did not speak during the two-hour ceremony.
Announces photonics initiative
Biden and Cuomo announce a photonics initiative in Rochester, that will hire about 100 scientists and other experts and get to work on a handful of research projects within about five months. The $600 million initiative includes $110 million in federal funding, $250 million from New York state, and the rest from private companies. Supporters say the project could mean thousands of jobs for the region as it brings together government, industry and academia to advance photonics research and its use commercially.
You’ve gone from making Brownie cameras to lenses that are now mapping the far side of Pluto…AIM Photonics is going to act as a central hub and will give Rochester photonics businesses the space and the capacity they need to generate the next generation breakthroughs and secure American leadership in the manufacturing of integrated photonics.
Arrives in U.S.
Pope Francis arrives for his first visit to the U.S. and is greeted by President Obama, Vice President Biden and their families at Joint Base Andrews, outside Washington. On the plane from Cuba Francis dismisses suggestions that he is a socialist, saying that despite his warnings of the inequities in the global economic system, his beliefs are consistent with the established social doctrine of the Church. After a brief private meeting with Obama in a VIP suite, the pope leaves for the residence of the Vatican ambassador to the United States in a black Fiat hatchback car with the number plate SCV 1.
Will not run for president
In a statement made from the White House Rose Garden with his wife Jill and President Obama, Biden says he will not run for president, ending months of speculation.
I believe we’re out of time — the time necessary to mount a winning campaign…As my family and I have worked through the grieving process, I’ve said all along — what I’ve said time and again to others — that it may very well be that process, by the time we get through it, closes the window on mounting a realistic campaign for president – that it might close….While I will not be a candidate, I will not be silent. I intend to speak out clearly and forcefully, to influence as much as I can.