Shoulders than anyone else, making sure people feel safe walking down the street, making sure garbage gets collected, s are safe andsafes are ope open. Everyday life things, they are not partisan things, they are just practical things. People look to you, democrats and republicans. You know, you are also on the front lines of emergencies, from fires to floods to school shootings, Public Health issues, helping to save lives as well as livelihoods. That is why i made it a priority for my entire career to work closely with you, from the time i got to the senate 180 years ago. [laughs] as well as my tenure as vice president. If i have the honor of becoming a president , i speak this commitment to you you are going to have access directly to the white house. I am going to be right there with you, helping you and your communities based on what you think you need and the challenges you are facing. Because the present mayor pointed out it is about the bottom up. It does not go from the top down. We are dealing with four historic crises all at once, a once in a century pandemic that has claimed over 200,000 devastatinges, a economic recession, a longoverdue reckoning on racial injustice, a Climate Change that is ravaging communities all across the country. Ineed not tell it to mayors california, oregon, and washington state. Not one of those crises should have a partisan dimension. I really mean that. Not one single one. If i get elected president , i am not going to be the democratic president , i am going to be the american president , whether you voted for me or against me, whether your city is red or blue, i will be there for you, i promise you. Leading with the facts and with reality, putting the wellbeing of our constituents first, uniting people around solutions that work for everybody. Thiscally, that is not how Current Administration is wired. The only thing that matters with this president is a problem that affects you personally. The devise everything into red and blue, blue states, red states, democratic states. Is why the day before we held 200,000 deaths, the president held a Campaign Rally and insisted the virus affect virtually nobody, and then went on to withquote, except people heart conditions and other problems. To be referred to by the president as nobodys, ask them about the antiseat at the kitchen table. Kids who lost their teachers, friends and grandparents, coworkers, sisters and brothers, they will not see again. The policies will affect all of us, every one of us, in every community. You know, i think this may be the toughest time in a long time to be a mayor, especially a big city mayor, in fact, i am sure it is true across the board. Mayors have faced adversity before. Some may remember in 2008, the economy was in freefall. We were losing 700,000 jobs a month because of the recession. Families lost and i know you remember this families lost more than 16 trillion families in personal wealth. Aople who had never missed mortgage payment all of a sudden were underwater, being foreclosed on, because the number of foreclosures that occurred on our streets, significantly reducing the value of their home. It was devastating. We did not solve it by saying, you are on your own. It is what it is. With yourwe were together. Passedur leadership, we the economic recovery act. Keeping Law Enforcement and firefighters on the job. Tosent more than 50 billion school district, saving more than 300,000 education jobs. We provided middleclass tax relief, helping families to send their kids to college, to buy their first home. We invested in the future. We put 48 billion dollars in infrastructure projects, building 42,000 miles of road. Nearly 27,000 bridges to go along with the biggest Clean Energy Investment in all of our history. Said it then, and i will say again, you should be able to make the decisions that your city most needs. It should not have to go through your state legislature and all of that. You should have the opportunity. Even conservative economists acknowledge that what we did saved us from a depression. When the president gave me the honor of leading the recovery effort, the first thing i did, i went to the mayors. Some of you were still around then. I spoke with over 200 mayors. Because of you, we came through the moment together. I really mean it. I was on the phone constantly. That at the same approach we should be taking today. It starts with the budget. You have to balance the budget. We are getting squeezed like never before. Local Services Getting pared back, it is a poll jobs are falling by the wayside, furloughs and layoffs compounding the devastation. We still have no Effective National standard for curbing the virus. This is infuriating. The science insists we could save 110,000 we are expecting close to 200,000 more lives lost between now and january. 110,000 by date of january by simply wearing masks. Is straining your budgets even more, because it openingsinesses from even more, it keeps Emergency Rooms fall, holding down cities from springing back to life. None no reason that we cant Work Together, we cant Work Together to overcome these challenges. You know, the house passed the h. E. R. O. E. S. Act, which provided 915 billion in local and state governments. It is collecting dust right now in the senate. The majority leader, who i know well, says, let the states go bankrupt. We should have a local Emergency Fund that drives resources straight to you, expands your health infrastructure, reimburses overtime pay two essential workers and first responders. Needs your country whatever your Community Needs the most, it is not all about resources, the. Cryinge when people are out for justice, exercising the right to peacefully protest, falling on you to keep the peace, and, god, it is a tough job under any circumstances. It is nearly impossible when the president scapegoats mayors and fans the flames of visions. Division. We can combat violence while still addressing the pain and rooting out systemic racism. And all as you all deal with the effects of extreme weather fires, floods, superstorms it is like we have never seen. You know, we can Work Together to invest in our communities, to make them more resilient to Climate Change. In some places, it is about flooding. In some places, it is about the wiped out by storms, along the coast where i live. Sometimes it is just keeping people safe from fires. But it also is about being able to create millions of jobs, modernizing your buildings and your transportation system, making your community stronger, greener, better positioned to seize the opportunity in the years ahead. That is what i plan on doing. That is what i did when i was vice president. That is what i would do if i have your honor of being that is what we will do if i have the honor of being your president. What we cannot do is divide ourselves into pieces. That is the only strategy this president seems to know, but it does not work. It can distract you from a problem, it can create a new problem to divide your attention, but i cannot actually solve anything. You will know better than that. Dividing ourselves gets us nowhere. We have to Work Together in good faith, competently, efficiently. We can disagree on policies. We have to cooperate. It is the only way we are going to come out of these crises and ensure that our best days are still ahead, which i firmly believe they are. That is what we have done, tried to do in this campaign. That is where i will do as president , work with all of you, democrats, republicans, independents. As i said, if i am elected president , i will not be a democratic president , i will be an american president blue states, red states it does not matter to me. I promise you, every American Community deserves the full support of an american president. Look, being a mayor, and i am not kidding about this, it is hard under the best of circumstances. The worst thing a president can do is to drive wedges and make your job tougher because he thinks that benefits him or stirs up chaos in your communities you deserve a partner who will listen to you. Who will work with you. Work on your priorities. Someone who gets your back and saves back, works to cover your back, no matter what you are and no matter what challenge you are facing. You know, this moment we are facing now is not a partisan moment, it is an american moment. It sounds corny, doesnt it . But it is true. It is an american moment. It is to overcome anger and division that has held us back for far too long. We can emerge from these crises. We can do what we are best at together,nite, work and it starts with the mayors. And i really mean that. It starts with all of you. If i am elected, you will have direct access to the white house. I want to thank you all, because we need you to build back a better. You are the foundation stone, not a joke. You are the ones leading the way. And what people dont realize is, over the last six years, more young people are moving into cities than out of cities. Heres so much so many possibilities. We have got to stop the hate and division, though. We have got to stop pouring flames on the fire. We have got to support the strength of the american people. That is what you will do. You do it everyday. I want to make it clear to you, i have never been more optimistic and i have been doing this a long time about the prospects of this country than i am today. The blinders have been taken off the american people. They understand what is going on now. They understand. They understand it is about all of us. ,hey want to get things done and so it is going to start with you. I promise i will have your back. Look at my record. I have. And i want to make sure that your ideas are the ones that are funneled up. You dont have to go through a state legislature or go through a governor, you can go straight to the federal government, straight to me. I really mean it. So god bless you, may god protect our troops, and thank you for what you do. Your job is too hard for me. [laughs] thank you, mr. Vice president. It is an honor to have you with us today. Thank you for your support. Thank you for being in the Virtual Conference today leadership Conference Today in our virtual fall meeting. I want to thank everyone who was put dissipated in our session on the past two days. On a personal note neville, i want to thank you on a personal level, i want to thank hereone reaching out to us in louisville, raising to the challenges. Our campaign 2020 coverage continues with candidates campaigning and debating. Cspan, your unfiltered view of politics. Today, President Trump announces his choice to fill the vacancy on the supreme court. Reports say the president has chosen seven Circuit Court judge amy coney barrett. Live coverage begins on cspan at 5 00 p. M. Eastern. Next, former law clerks of the late Justice Ruth Bader ginsburg joined two biographers and two federal judges in remember and her life and career. This discussion comes from Georgetown University law center. It runs an hour and a half. Good evening. I am bill trainer, dean of georgetown