joe biden. of course, you know the first debate is just 12 days away. election day is 47 days from now. people around the country have already started voting in some dates. here in pennsylvania, people will begin mailing in their ballots within days. as you can see, i'm not wearing a mask tonight. i tested negative for coronavirus this morning. i'll be keeping my distance, as will all of the programs in tonight's town hall who are here. so let's get going. please welcome former vice president joe biden. [ applause ] >> hey, buddy. >> thanks for being here. >> i got tested, too. >> all right, we're good. >> how are you? >> i'm good. >> thanks for having me. good to be home. >> have you ever been to an event like this? >> in delaware, we did this on the night we did nominated. >> of course. >> hey, buddy. >> all right. let's start with the coronavirus in the united states. we're approaching nearly 200 deaths so far, more than any

other country so far. the first question is from shawnee adams, a democrat from philadelphia. >> good evening, vice president biden, how are you? and anderson. my sister lost due to contracting covid-19 on the job. no, she was not a doctor or nurse. she worked in the environmental services department of a hospital. as a result, my niece is without a mother, my parents are without a daughter, and we are without a sister. my sister was full of life and had a smile that lit up the room. vice president biden, what plan do you have in place to keep us from contracting covid-19 virus in our workplace? >> first of all, i feel so badly for you. you know, we talk about almost 200,000 deaths, and it's almost like background noise. but it means a lot of empty

chairs, a lot of children without their mothers or fathers, a lot of people not able to see their parents, so my heart goes out to you and your sister, as well. and her children. it's just incredible. look, there's three things we should be doing. number one, we should make sure that we have national standards laid out so how people can, in fact, go to work safely and have a national standard. you can't mandate it, but as president of the united states, i would lay out the broad strokes of what has to be done to make people safe in the workplace, and safe in school. and that requires us to have rapid testing, the protective gear available from the very beginning like this president hasn't done. making sure we provide for the ability for workplaces to have the wherewithal to provide for the safety. that requires some federal funding, particularly kids going back to school. making sure we're in a position that there's testing and tracing, and get testing quickly.

there's a whole range of things we should have done. i laid it out all the way back in march how we should do that. the president continues to think that masks don't matter very much, although he says it and has these large gatherings with everybody around with no masks on. and it's extremely dangerous. and so there's a lot of people, a lot of people hurt. a lot of people not being able to see their families. a lot of people gone. a lot of empty chairs, and it's got to stop. it stops by eliminating -- not eliminating, but making sure he's not elected as president of the united states. >> mr. vice president, president trump said he down played the coronavirus because he didn't want to cause panic. if you were president, could you see a scenario where you down played critical information so as not to cause panic? >> not at all. the idea that you're going to not tell people what you've been

told that this virus is incredibly contagious, seven times more contagious than the few -- the flu. you preet bharabreathe the air,t into your lungs. what has he done -- and colombia medical school pointed out if he acted one week earlier, he would have saved 37,000 lives. all the way back, and i was on one of your shows, all the way back in march, i was calling for the need for us to have masks, have the president's staff tell us what's going on. but he knew it and did nothing. it's close to criminal. >> we have a question from william, a social studies teacher from dunmore. >> the messaging on the coronavirus has been all over the place since february. it's caused so many people in this country to ignore the

virus, and not take the necessary precautions. how will you get the proper messaging out to all americans to keep them informed as to how to properly protect themselves and others from this pandemic? >> what presidents say matter. people listen. i will make it clear what is needed to be done. i cannot mandate people wearing masks, but we've just been told, we should expect another 215,000 dead by january. but if we wore a mask, we would save 100,000 of those lives. we have to make sure we lay out to the american people the truth, tell them the truth. and i would make sure that i would call every governor in the country into the white house and say you should be putting mandates out. and if they don't, i would call the mayors in their towns and say put out mandates. you can save lives. and we should be providing for the ppe, the protective gear

that's needed. you know, you know what recently happened? the president of the united states said no longer would we, in fact, provide masks for schools, for schools, pay them to have the masks in schools because it was not a national emergency. what is he talking about? it's totally irrational. this is all about one thing, the stock market. he doesn't want to see anything happen. it's all about his re-election. it should be about the american people, and they're in trouble. if we don't do it -- by the way, his own cdc director contradicted him recently. he said if, in fact, you just wore this mask, nothing else but this mask, you would save between now and january another 100,000 lives. and so we have to be honest with the american people, they're tough. franklin roosevelt said, things get worse and worse until they get better and better, but you

have to shoot from the shoulder. there's never been a time they have not been able to step up. this president should step down. >> mr. president, you called the president's rallies irresponsible, yet you praised peaceful protesting this sirm. what is the difference between it comes to covid safety? >> i think covid safety is a problem no matter where people are wearing masks, if they don't have masks on. the context of praising people who protest peacefully is there was a lot of question of a right to speak. not to loot, not to burn, not to do anything that causes damage. the right to speak out makes sense. but we should be careful across the board, but there is a big difference between people walking, moving along, and people sitting down, cheek to jaw, shoulder to shoulder, a thousand of them, breathing on one another, indoors and out, that causes real serious problems.

>> you said about a month ago, for the next three months, all americans should -- you would like to see all americans wearing masks. >> yes. >> and that you would push governors to institute mandates for mask wearing. back in the pandemic in 1918, in some states, in some towns, they had actually outdoor courts to fine people who weren't wearing masks. is that something you would like to see happen in states? >> i would like to see the governors enforce mask wearing, period. i can do that on federal property. as president, i will do that. on federal land, i would have the authority. if you're on federal land, you must wear a mask. in a federal building, you must wear a mask. and we could have a fine. this is about saving people's lives. there's no question that it saves people's lives. >> some say it's individual liberty to not wear a mask. >> what bill barr recently said is outrageous. you're taking away freedom. i will tell you what takes away your freedom, not being able to

see your kid, not being able to go to the football game or baseball game, not seeing your mom or dad sick in the hospital, not being able to do the things, that's what is costing us our freedom. and it's been the failure of this president to deal with this virus, and he knew about it. he knew the detail of it. he knew it in clear terms. imagine had he at the state of union said back in january, i wrote an article for "usa today" saying we've got a real problem. imagine if he had said something. how many more people would be alive? >> this is joe vadalia, a high school teacher, a democrat. joe, thanks for being here. >> hi, vice president. welcome home. i am a high school teacher who has multiple sclerosis. i am on a drug that has compromised my immune system. my question for you is when the students come back in person to

school, will you and your administration mandate the vaccine to be taken like the mmr to enter school when it becomes safe and available to the public because i love teaching, but i don't want to die. and have my wife lose another best friend like how she lost her mother to covid-19. >> oh, man, i'm so sorry. joe, look, first of all, i don't trust the president on vaccines. i trust dr. fauci. if fauci says a vaccine is safe, i would take the vaccine. we should listen to the scientists, not to the president, number one. number two, i think we should be requiring that you have -- it's estimated by superintendents around the country, in order to make schools safe for returning, we need to spend about $200

billion to do that, to sansanit, to provide for more teachers in smaller classes, making sure the ventilation systems are functioning. dealing across the board to make it safer so that schools when they open are safer. with regard to you, you should be in a position where, if in fact, the vaccine, there's no vaccine that's going to be guaranteed 100%. so you're going to have a tough decision you have to make. and whether or not -- you should be in a position where you are behind plastic, you are in a sanitized circumstance, and you're a teacher. i would not take the chance, even if everyone had been vaccinated because of your compromised immune system. and by the way, some teachers have already died. and i wife is a full-time teacher, been teaching her whole life. and she plans on teaching at least one course, if we win as the first lady, at the community college she's taught at.

one of the things we have to do is make sure you are protected, the teachers are protected. but also students have access to protection. >> the vaccine policy in schools is done by states and localities. but as president, would you want to see -- would you encourage states that they would have to guarantee that all students who went to school had taken the vaccine? >> it depends on the state of the vaccine. it depends on the state of the vaccine. i've been briefed by seven of the leading folks in the nation as of two days ago, and there's variations. some of the -- they're arguing it could take care of an increase by 40%, 50%, 60% that you won't get the covid virus. we have to see. and by the way, with regard to children, i should have said this, there have been no tests on the vaccine on children yet. no child test has been done yet. so i wouldn't mandate that children have to take a vaccine

until they do that. and they're telling me that won't be able to happen by the numbers until sometime in the middle of 2021. >> you said you trust fauci. do you trust the current head of the fda, the current head of the cdc and would you keep them in their positions? >> well, it's premature to say. all i know is that the rank and file people, the scientists are solid and they're serious. but you've seen how the president has tried to push things through and put a lot of pressure on them. i'm impressed by the head of the cdc now standing up and saying, mr. president, wearing this mask is going to save more lives than the vaccine between now and the end of the year. >> mr. vice president, this is sheila, a registered nurse from scranton, a republican who voted for president trump in 2016. she's also the widow of a police officer who lost his life last year to cancer caused by toxins at the site of the world trade center. sheila, sorry for your loss.

>> if there's any angels, it's nurses. docs let you lives, nurses make you want to live. so thank you for what you do. >> thank you. and good evening and welcome back. there are many frontline workers who are making much less than people on unemployment who benefitted from the extra $600 in stimulus payments. i have personally spoken to people who refuse to even look or apply for jobs because of the extra money. what is your plan to get americans back to work and off the government payroll? >> first of all, i have a plan to deal with the need for additional health care workers and pay them a wage that is a living wage that's real. i won't bore you with the details, but if i get you your name, we'll send you the materials, number one. number two, the fact is, there are 20 million people right now, many of them in scranton and around the region, who in fact

worry whether they're going to pay their mortgage next month. there are tens of thousands who are going to lose their apartments and be out in the streets. the president has postponed the ability of the requirement they have to pay, but guess what? next quarter, they have to make up for whatever they got this quarter in terms of free rent, quote unquote, not having to pay. so it makes no sense to do what the president is doing. people can't make that up. as long as covid is going on, at the rampant rate it is, and you know better than i do, we're talking roughly 36,000 new cases a day and close to a thousand cases a day average. you know, here we are yesterday 1200 deaths in the united states. all of canada had nine. last friday, we had a thousand deaths. all of canada had zero deaths. this president is doing it all wrong. we need to make a fundamental

change in the way we're moving. by the way, if you're a nurse, you're taking a shot, you're taking a chance. you really are. and your husband, you know, growing up in scranton and delaware, i grew up and there were three things all my friends became, a cop, a firefighter or a priest. i wasn't qualified for any of them. but all kidding aside, they derv deserve, when they pin on that shield in the morning, they deserve to go home safely, period. there's no exceptions. >> mr. vice president, this is joseph farley, a democrat from dunmore, he works at a patient center here in scranton. >> welcome home, mr. biden. >> joseph or joe? >> joe is fine, just like you. >> my mother called me joseph and i knew i was in trouble. >> no, joe is fine. but mr. vice president, welcome home. right now i do work in a cancer center in the area. i make under $15 an hour.

during these covid times, unfortunately, i had to open a credit card with 25% interest just to cover my groceries. i barely am making ends meet. i receive no hazard pay, no raise. i'm struggling, not only mentally, but financially. i look up to you and as a middle class health care worker, do you have any plans to stand up for us health care workers? >> absolutely. and the idea you're not making a minimum $15 an hour is just wrong. wrong. no one should have to work two jobs to be able to get out of poverty. you're busting your neck, and what you're doing is saving people's lives. >> exactly. >> you're risking your own in this moment of covid. you know better than what i do. what happens is, as a preexisting condition, what's

happening here is a lot of people who have cancer, who are taking various drugs, they in fact are more susceptible to catching covid and dying than anyone else. so first of all, thank you. number two, the reason i'm running is because, look, the interesting thing for me is, i view this -- i really do view this campaign as a campaign between scranton and park avenue. and i really mean it. because you know, the way we were raised up here in this area, an awful lot of hardworking people busting their neck. all they ask for is a shot, just a shot. all that president trump could see from park avenue is wall street. all he thinks about is the stock market. how many of you all own stock in scranton? not a whole lot of people own stock. so we have to make sure that health care workers are paid and paid a decent wage. and $15 an hour isn't enough for a health care worker.

so, again, i won't take the time now, but joe, if you -- if i can get your address, let me get to you. go to jobiden.com and you'll see what i talk about with regard to health care workers. and by the way, mental health, you know as well as i do, and the nurse just up here knows, we're in desperate need -- the more people two are at risk and worried today than any time in modern times. and especially the youngest generation. people between the ages of 7 and 17, they are more at risk in terms ofme the mental insecurit than any generation. so we have to make sure we have more social workers and psychologists in our schools. look, we learn, drug abuse doesn't cause mental illness, mental stress and mental illness cause drug abuse. we have learn sod much that we could change so much. and that's why we have to make

sure that the super wealthy pay their fair share so we can do the things we have to do to make life better for hard-working middle class folks. >> you referenced something that the attorney general just said yesterday or just said last night. you haven't ruled out shutting down the country in the future if the pandemic worsens and science leads you to that. the attorney general said last night that lockdowns were the greatest intrusion on civil liberties in u.s. history, other than slavery. >> well, look, two things. one, they have taken out of context about the lockdown. i was asked if, in fact, there was a national emergency, and every -- all the experts said lock it down. we're not talking about locking down the whole country. what we need, anderson, a criteria from state to state, within states as to what constitutes the risk in each of the regions. you could very well have to have stay at home orders relative to

a city or a community, and another community, a rural community not have that at all. because the rate of infection is much lower. number one. number two, think of what he has said. look, wearing this mask is about making sure, and when you wear it, making sure that no one else gets sick. it's not to protect you so much, but to make sure you don't infect someone else. i call that a patriotic requirement. i call that what we should be doing right now. and if the president had done his job, had done his job from the beginning, all the people would still be alive. all the people -- i'm not making this up. just look at the data. look at the data. and we're now being told, there's going to be no -- i pray to god there's a vaccine tomorrow that could be available to everyone. first of all, once a vaccine is made available, and you know this well, once it's made available, it's going to take a long, long time to be able to

distribute it throughout the country. you're not going to have 325 million vials to begin with. and the way it's transported, there's two kinds of vaccines they're talking about. any way, one relates to changing your cell structure and the other is engaging your immune system. they require different ways they can be transported. one is required to have -- to be transported at 70 degrees below zero and taking two shots. so the idea that that's going to be a vaccine and everything is going to be fine tomorrow is just not rational, not reasonable. >> do you think the comments by the attorney general contribute to people -- i mean encourage people not to wear masks? >> sure. quite frankly, they're sick. think about it. did you ever think, any of you, the attorney general say following the recommendations of the scientific community to save you and other people's lives is

equivalent to slavery? people being put in chains? you lost your freedom because he didn't act. the freedom to go to that ball game, the freedom of your kid to go to school, the freedom to see your mom and dad in the hospital. the freedom just to walk around your neighborhood because of failure to act. responsibly. this is -- i -- i -- anderson, i've been doing this a long time. i never, ever thought i would see such a thoroughly, totally irresponsible administration. it's just -- it's -- just -- it's almost -- it's one of the reason it is you take a look the pew foundation poll, guess what? russia, putin, china, xi jinping are trusted by more of the

people in the world than the president of the united states of america. one of the reasons they cite is covid. the way he's handled covid. this is not only causing us life lost here, but it's causing us to lose our influence in ways that are profound. >> this is kristen, she works for a family owned chocolate manufacturing in dunmore. she's a democrat. welcome. >> good evening. my mother was diagnosed with cancer two years ago at the able of 66. the cost has been astronomical. but she and my father had long careers at good companies that afforded them the opportunity to save for retirement, helping to pay for her care. mr. vice president, what is your plan to make health care affordable so americans don't have to drain their savings? >> first of all, in the middle of this pandemic, what is the president doing? he's in federal court, federal

court, trying to do away with the affordable care act, 100 million people with preexisting conditions like your mom would not have to pay more for their insurance. but guess what happens if, in fact, he wins? that's number one. number two, what i would do is make sure that we reinstate the affordable care act, number one. and add a public option to that affordable care act, so that nobody in the united states of america would go without being able to be covered for what they need. with regard to covid, for example, i don't want to get too -- my son died of cancer. he came home from iraq and i have to tell you, it really offended me when he volunteered to go there for a year and he came home because of stage four cancer. and the president referred to guys like my son, he won the

bronze star, referred to him as -- talk about losers. my point is this. the idea that health care is debated as whether or not it's a right or a privilege, it's an absolute right. so we have to make sure, particularly in the moment of covid, that any cost relating to covid are, in fact, free. the federal government guarantees you will be taken care of. one of the reasons why people aren't going in and getting tested is they're afraid of the bill they'll receive. they'll afraid of what will happen. with your mom, it's a difficult disease to care for. and that's why one of the things i've done -- any way, i'm going on too much about cancer. i apologize. one of the things that i strongly believe is we have to be in a position where we

provide for all the research and all the effort to deal with cancer. and look, we can beat this disease. but we have to invest significant amounts of money, billions of dollars to do it. and it can be done. it can be done. >> we're going to take a quick break. when we come back, we'll have more questions from our audience for former vice president joe biden. thank you. [ applause ] ♪ limu emu & doug you know limu, after all these years it's the ones that got away that haunt me the most. [ squawks ] 'cause you're not like everybody else. that's why liberty mutual customizes your car insurance, so you only pay for what you need.

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welcome back. we're live from a very unique cnn drive-in town hall event. tonight, we're at the home of scranton rail riders at pnc field. i just want to start with a question of my own. the first debate is 12 days away. president trump was asked how he's preparing for it. he said, i sort of prepare every day by just doing what i'm doing. how are you preparing for the debate? >> about the same way, although i have gone back and talked about and looked at not only the things he said, but making sure i can concisely say what i'm for and what i'm going to do. >> do you have somebody playing president trump, and if so -- >> not yet. there are a couple of people, they asked me questions if they

were like as if they were president trump. but i'm looking forward to it. >> our next questioner is a democrat from philadelphia, a program coordinator and museum educator. >> philly girl. i married a philly girl. >> officially girls are the best. good evening anderson, and vice president biden. mail-in ballots is in question for the november 3rd question. if elected, what steps would you take to ensure voters in future elections do not face the same uncertainty that their vote will be counted in time for election results? >> number one, i would not try to throw into question the legitimacy of the election like this president and the people around him have done, number one. number two, i would make sure that the post office and i would move very quickly to try to get states to agree that they would

open ballots before the actual deadline that night. so that -- because people have to mail in. number three, what i've been doing now, and i continue to do is try very hard to get as many poll workers available who are qualified to be able to particularly -- because we still have -- well, we won't hopefully in two more years, but to make sure that we have early voting, we have same-day registration, and we're in a position where you're automatically registered once you become 18 years of ablablge. it's all about people showing up and voting. and i'm confident, notwithstanding all the efforts the president has made, i think you're going to see a massive turnout. if you wonder, go to iwillvote.com to figure out when you're going to vote, what your polling place is, plan now. >> the president just this

morning tweeted the results from the november election "may never be accurately determined." given everything that we've been hearing from the president, i'm wondering what you expect the days and weeks after the election to look like? >> look, if the president had even remote confidence that he was likely to win the election, he wouldn't be doing this. remember, i wasn't on your show, but i said some months ago, i predict the president is going to try to move the election day. guess what? he suggested maybe we should move the election date, postpone the election. and so he's done every single thing, including having a postmaster general who still doesn't know who dismantled those machines, who ordered to picking up those places to mail your ballots. i mean, it's just all about trying to delegitimize the

effort. >> president trump has said that he's not yet said he would be willing to accept the results of the november election. would you commit tonight to accepting the results of the election? >> sure, the full results. count every vote. look, i mean, can anybody -- anybody think of any president early on who said i'm not sure i'm going to accept the results of the election, it depends? what's happened to us? this is not who we are. this is not what america is. no president's never said anything like that. >> i want to introduce mavis ball, who served as member of the school board for her son's school. >> hello, vice president biden. black parents across america need to know how much different will the talk be with our sons and daughters about police interaction under your

administration? >> it will be fundamentally different. but let me make it clear. one of the things people say i know i understand, is my mother would say, come walk in my shoes for a while and tell me you understand then. very few white parents have to say to their kid, once they get their license, make sure if you are pulled over, don't reach for the glove box, make sure you do whatever the police officer says. the vast majority of police are decent, honorable people. one of the things i've found is, the only people who don't like bad cops more than we don't like them are police officers. and so what we have to do is we have to have a much more transparent means by which we provide for accountability within police departments. as president of the united states, what i will do is i will nationally bring together police chiefs, police officers, the union people, the african-american leadership, the communities of -- the brown communities, the civil

leadership, the sit at the table and agree on the fundamental things that need to be done, including rigorous back ground checks on those who apply for and become police officers. two, teaching people how to deescalate. three, providing for a 911 calls like what happened in lancaster. making sure that you have psychologists and psychiatrists available to go out to deal with those circumstances. we can change, we start at that process before. i'm confident it can work again. and, again, without vilifying -- there's bad cops, there's bad police officers, i mean, there's bad senators, there's bad congressman, bad docs, there's people who aren't meeting standards in every single, solitary profession. i'm confident the vast majority of the police are prepared to sit down in the white house in a commission like barack and i started to sit down and lay out what the minimum basic

requirements are, and what is out of bounds, period. including the ability for us to be able to go in and look at a pattern and practice of police departments so they're completely transparent. >> mr. vice president, bob woodward asked president trump about white privilege and whether or not he benefitted from it. and the president said no, i don't feel that way at all and mo sort of mocked bob woodward. do you see ways you have benefitted from white privilege? >> sure. grow up to scranton. we're used to guys who look down their knows at us. look at us and they think we don't -- we're not equivalent to them. if you don't have a college degree, you must be stupid. if, in fact, you didn't go to an ivy school. what bothered me, to tell you the truth, maybe it's my scranton roots, i don't know. but when you guys started talking on television about

biden, if he wins l be the first person without an ivy league degree to be elected president. i said who the hell makes you think i need an ivy league degree to be president? i'm not joking. i'm not joking. like, guys like me, the first in my family to go to college, and my dad busted his neck and came up here, worked here, lost his job like a lot of people did here. it used to be a bad joke in the '60s in scranton, no one is in scranton, everybody is from scranton because so many people lost their jobs. we are as good as anybody else, and guys like president trump, who inherited everything and squandered what they inherited are the people i've always had a problem with. not the people who are busting their neck. >> president trump signed the first step act, which advocates for criminal justice reform. why should voters believe that

you are the right person to build on that legislation, given that in the administration you had with president obama, you guys weren't able to get a first step act? >> well, guess what? we proposed the first step act. and what we did was in our administration, there are 38,000 fewer federal prisoners than there were when we started our administration. we moved to eliminate the disparity between crack cocaine and powder cocaine. so a black guy getting a nickel bag and snorting coke went mandatory to jail. someone who did a line, you know, in park avenue got arrested, they got probation. so we have tried to change mistakes made. we made significant changes and we'll make more. look at what he's done. look at where we are. he has refused to do the kinds of things that need to be done to fundamentally change the criminal justice system. including making sure that there's equal application of justice.

>> this is bill barrett, a retired police chief of wilkes bury and a member of the city council. >> didn't i meet you when you were chief? >> we did, sir. >> i'm looking at you like i know you. >> good evening. as mentioned, i am very concerned about the violence taking place in our cities across this country, especially concerned about the lack of respect shown towards law enforcement officers and the military. can you tell us how you will address this and bring our nation back together? >> first of all, protesting is one thing, the right to speak is one thing. violence of any kind, no matter who it's coming from, is wrong, and people should be held accountable. burning down automobile lots, smashing windows, setting buildings on fire. but here's the deal, i've

condemned every form of violence, no matter what the source is. no matter what the source is. the president has yet to condemn, as you probably noticed those guys walking around and not doing a damn thing about them. this is absolutely -- look, his own -- his own former -- uh, umm, press secretary, kellyanne conway said, and i'm paraphrasing, chaos and violence are good for our administration. they're good for us. the president talking about, in joe biden's america. i've got to remind him, he's president. i'm not the president. this is donald trump's america. do you feel safer in donald trump's america when he incites these kinds of things? the idea is, it's wrong, no matter what the source is. where it comes from. i condemn it all, and people should be held accountable.

but folks, i'm waiting for the day he says i condemn all those guys as much as i do every other organizational structure. and by the way, when you put that badge on, chief and you walk out the door, you have a right to come home to your family, safely, period, period. >> a lot of protesters have called for defunding police. this summer, murder rates in some big cities have shot up. chicago murders are up 52% so far. new york up 23%. los angeles up 15%. there are a lot of people who worry about a breakdown of law and order in this country. are you one of them? >> i am worried that as long as the administration continues to preach hate and division, talking about people in ways they talk about them, that i am worried. but here's the deal, we're in a situation in the united states where -- by the way, in our administration, violent crime

went down 15%. we didn't have to worry about protecting public buildings. we were able to do it without sending in our military. did you ever think you would sew a day -- you can't answer me, i know -- but ever think you would see a day when six four-star generals walked away from this president, several of them said they were ashamed at how he conducted himself? a president who stands out there when people are peacefully protesting in front of the white house, no violence whatsoever. he gets the military to go in, put tear gas, move people, physically move them out of the way so he can walk across to a protestant church and hold a bible upside down. i don't know if he ever opened it. upside down and then go back to a bunker in the white house. what are we talking about here? it's simply wrong to engage the military in dealing with

domestic unrest as it relates to violence as a consequence of people protesting. we can take care of this. it can be taken care of. we took care of it in our administration. there's no need to escalate this. and think of what the rest of the world is looking. i mean, i don't read the international press, but i get it delivered to me all the time through my advisers and old security people. they're looking at us like what in god's name is going on in the united states of america. >> we're going to take a quick break. we'll be back with more from former vice president joe biden.

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[ applause ] >> welcome back to our drive-in town hall with former vice president joe biden. our next question is from tom. he works as a business agent from the iron workers union. he is a democrat. tom, welcome. >> good evening, mr. vice president. mr. cooper. with the abundance of natural gas in northeast pennsylvania, do you support the continuation of fracking safely and with proper guidelines of course and growing the industry to add additional jobs to our region? >> yes, i do. i do. in addition to that, we can

provide for right now as you know there are thousands of uncapped wells because a lot of companies have gone out of business whether they're gas or oil facilities. we can put to work right away 250,000 people from the iron workers and other disciplines making union wages, capping those wells that are leaking methane and are a danger to the community. and so not only do i continue to support it -- jobs -- it's important for this community. it's important for pennsylvania and ohio and other states. it's an important business. and it's a lot of wages involved in that. but beyond that, beyond that we can also get people working now capping the wells that are left uncapped right now across this region and all the way -- there's hundreds of thousands of them all across the nation. and that will put a lot of people to work. >> let me just follow up on that. you said you won't ban fracking but that you wanted to gradually

move away from it ultimately. it sounds like to some you are trying to have it both ways, that, i mean, politically it is understandable why you might say that but if fracking contributes to climate change and climate change is an existential threat why should fracking continue at all? >> well, fracking has to continue because we need a transition. we're going to get to net zero emissions by 2050 and we'll get to net zero power emissions by 2035. but there is no rationale to eliminate right now fracking, number one. number two, those jobs that are out there, whether it's an ibw worker or an iron worker or a steel worker, what i am proposing is that, you know, when trump thinks about global warming, he thinks hoax. when i hear global warming i think jobs. what i'm going to make sure we do is we can transition in a way, for example, we're going to

build -- the reason why all these unions have endorsed me is that they know my position that i'm going to make sure we have 500,000 charging stations on our highways so we can own the electric car market, creating a million jobs. and we can lead the world. and in detroit. we can lead the world in making sure we move electric vehicles. as president of the united states i'll have one of the largest fleets. we spent $600 billion a year federal money for federal contracts. i want to make sure all those contracts are all products made in america including the chain that provides for every one of those products. i'm going to do away with the tax break that the president gave people who send jobs abroad to make sure that if you in fact have a contract, with taxpayers, my money you must use american products, you must buy american

products, and you must not be in a position where you're exporting. we have 25 -- over 50% more people moving jobs overseas as a consequence of these contracts. so it's all backwards. and this is going to provide a lot of good paying jobs for people in the trades. >> let me introduce you to hannah cannon a democrat from allen town where she runs a bike program for a local nonprofit. >> good evening. as you know the entire west is on fire. air quality is poor in many areas. the climate crisis cannot be ignored. i participated in many climate actions in recent years and am about to become a mother for the first time. as you know black, hispanic, and communities in poverty are more vulnerable to the climate crisis. are you a firm supporter of the green new deal and how can you make sure our communities are protected? >> i have laid out in detail what i'll do, and i'm going to see it that, i said, we get to a net zero power grid by 2035 so

no president can turn around and change what we're doing. we'll get to net zero emissions by the year 2050 before. in the meantime there is so much we can do and still make it better for people. we're going to invest in close to a trillion dollars over time in the near time for infrastructure. we're going to build green infrastructure. for example, i propose we spend a hundred billion dollars on making sure our schools have the right ventilation. making sure schools in fact are safe. making sure schools are in a position where they are not generating the use of more energy. we're going to build back buildings that in fact are going to provide for -- we're going to vastly cut down on the amount of fossil fuels that we use. >> let me just jump in though. she was asking about the green new deal. do you back that or do you think it's too much? >> oh, i don't think it's too much. i have my own deal. i laid it out in great detail.

the democratic party has adopted it as a platform. it requires for us to move in a direction to fundamentally change the way in which we deal with the environment. i'm the guy that ran the recovery act which invested over $90 billion in bringing down the cost of renewable energy so it is now more competitive than for coal or oil or for gas. and so there is no reason why we can't transition in an orderly way. by the way, before i actually went through the whole thing i sat down with every one of the major unions. they all endorsed me. i said, look. this is what it is going to mean for you. it is not only good for the environment. it is going to provide jobs and you're not going to lose your jobs. you're not going to lose your jobs. not producing the same energy. producing different kind of energy. >> we're going to take another quick break. we'll be back with more questions for presidential candidate joe biden, next.

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welcome back to a special cnn drive-in town hall with former vice president joe biden. [ applause ] i want to bring in this doctor from lance down. she works as a mental health worker. good evening. >> good evening, vice president biden. good evening, mr. cooper.

my question is a two-parter. how will you handle russia's involvement with trump? how will we know the many ways he has compromised the united states? >> well, i made it clear that early on that in attempting to interfere with our election is a violation of our sovereignty. and if it's done again, which it appears to being done, there will be a price to pay. there will be a price to pay. putin knows -- the reason he doesn't want me as president, he knows me. and he knows i mean it. i don't mean war. but they'll pay a price for it and it'll be an economic price. number one. number two, one of the things we have to do is make sure that we investigate exactly what involvement there has been in our election and to protect against it. one of the things we have to do as well is provide the states with the wherewithal to be able to upgrade their list, their machinery, and to make sure

their encryption is -- deal with the notions that can make safe the voting rolls and make it more difficult to have cyber intrusions into anything that's being done. that requires money. there is a plan that's been put together in the senate by the democrats, and i would push that plan. but it requires us to help states provide for the wherewithal to change the nature of the machinery, and i think we have to be able to be in a position where you have a paper ballot left after what happens with regard to the actual counting and the voting machine. >> let me ask, fbi director chris wray said just today russia has been very active to influence the election and, quote, denigrate you. you said that there would be economic price to pay for russia if they continue with this. can you be more specific? what is the price to pay?

>> it wouldn't be prudent for me to be more specific, but i assure you they will pay a price. >> do you believe russia is an enemy? >> i believe russia is an opponent. i really do. and, look. putin's overwhelming objective is to break up nato, to fundamentally alter the circumstance in europe so he doesn't have to face an entire nato contingent, any one country he is stronger than, and look what's happening now. look what's happening in belarus. look what's happening in his response. look what's happening, though, in countries like romania. look what's happening in terms of the authoritarian nature of some of the regimes changing. >> do you view china as an opponent? the president says you've been too cozy with china. too accepting of them and the international community. >> i'm not the guy -- look. china -- we now have a larger trade deficit with china than we've ever had. in our administration when the world trade organization he

keeps going on just ruled that his trade policy violated the world trade organization. we sued, we went to the world trade organization 16 times. >> do you view china as an opponent? >> i view china as a serious competitor. that's why i think we have to strengthen our relationships and alliances in asia. that's why we have to in fact make -- i made it clear as you may recall that when i was in china and xi said to me that they're setting up an identification zone. i was with the national security team. i said we're not going to pay attention. he said what do you expect me to do, bring it down? i said we're not going to pay attention. we'll fly right through it. we are going to abide by international norms. that's what we do and insist they do. >> justin, welcome. >> thanks, anderson. hello, vice president. >> hey, justin. >> i come from the small coal town just down the line. >> i know the city. >> i know you do.

i'm an army veteran who served in afghanistan 2013-2014. i want to know if you are elected will you bring my brothers and sisters home and our military involvement in these unnecessary, endless wars that don't have any end in sight? >> yes, i would. it is now public knowledge. i was opposed to the significant increase in our presence at the time in afghanistan. and because i thought the only presence we should have is a counterterrorism presence. not a counterinsurgency presence. the idea that we're ever going to break up the network in western pakistan is just not going to happen but we have to be in a position where we can make it clear that if need be we could respond to terrorist activities coming out of that region directed toward the united states. it does not require a large force presence. we got that presence down to lower than it is now.

this president is the one that increased the number not reduced the number. >> this is gary hartman. president of the company that makes the steel frames used to transport shipping containers. he is a republican who voted for president trump in 2016. gary, welcome. thank you. >> vice president biden, in pennsylvania where we produce the intermodal container capacities, we are a small family owned business facing unfair trade container chassis, imports from we'll call a massive state owned entity in china. the products are currently under section 301 but the chinese have found a way to undermine the relief of the tariff. so as president how would you address china's unfair trade policies? >> i would make it clear, just what we did in our administration, that when they use state owned enterprises, which is what they're doing, state owned enterprises to

undercut the price that they can charge to be able to come and compete with american manufacturing, that they in fact would be denied that opportunity. i would also make it clear that when you, in fact, it's got to be -- if any of that is being purchased by any government agency, that it will not -- we will not purchase anything that is not made in america. including the down river line of what has to be done. all the parts. you can't do what he's doing now. you can't do where he's given a tax break to companies that in fact go overseas, bring their -- and then import the product back into the united states of america even though the headquarters is here. the chain, though, you go overseas and they bring it back in cheaper than you being able to produce it and so i'm going to make sure that it is made in

america. i believe and i mean that. we've been talking about this policy for a hundred years. we've never fully done it. we can and must do it now. >> this is julie from sacramento, pennsylvania. she is cfo for her family potato farm, member of the pennsylvania farm bureau, also a republican who voted for president trump in 2016. julie, welcome. >> thank you. >> how are you feeling now, julie? >> i'm -- good evening. over regulation puts an extreme burden on small and family owned farms and is a contributing factor to many farms going out of business. policies during the obama administration such as the rules under the waters of the u.s. act threaten to increase that regulation. as does policies proposed through the green new deal, which your climate plan embraces. >> no it doesn't embrace -- >> excuse me. if i could finish. >> i'm sorry. i apologize.

>> thank you. how do you plan to decrease the regulatory burden for farmers and businesses as a whole? >> two ways. number one, we should provide for your ability to make a lot more money as farmers by dealing with you being able to put land in land banks and you get paid to do that to provide for more open space and provide for the ability of you to be able to be in a position that we are going to pay you for planting certain crops that in fact absorb carbon from the air. that is part of what the plan relates to in terms of agriculture and the environment. but as it relates to -- if you are talking about regulation as it relates to fertilizer and water tables, that's a different thing. in the united states, in my state of delaware, we have a $4 billion industry -- chickens. and poultry.

and all the manure, quite frankly, that is a consequence of chickens and so it is polluting the chesapeake bay. what we've found out, we invested a lot of money and found out you can pelletize this and take out the methane so you are in a position where you can use that fertilizer without the damage that was being done before. the same way with horse manure and cow manure and pig manure. and we can create thousands of jobs in rural america as a consequence of setting up these small industries within communities. and so that's the way you'll be able to continue to farm without worrying about whether or not you're polluting and being in a position where you're able to make money by what you do in the transition as well as be able to grow more. >> mr. vice president, this is susan connors who runs a local

hvac business. she is a democrat. susan, welcome. >> thank you, anderson. mr. vice president, i look out over my biden sign in my front yard and i see a sea of trump flags and yard signs and my question is, what is your plan to build a bridge with voters from the opposing party to lead us forward toward a common future? >> well, you've got it exactly right. i said when i announced the next president of the united states is going to inherit two things. a divided nation and a world in disarray. and remember how i so roundly was criticized during the prime race saying i plan to unite the nation. i'm running as a democrat but i'm going to be everyone's president. i'm not going to be a democratic president. i'm going to be america's president. i have made my whole career based upon bringing people together and bringing the parties together. i've been relatively good at doing that.

i learned a long time ago and i apologize anderson has heard me say this. when i first got to the senate i was 29 years old when i got elected. turns out when i was hiring staff my wife and daughter and three children were christmas shopping. tractor-trailer broad sided and killed my wife and daughter and my two boys were badly injured and they weren't sure they were going to make it. i didn't want to go to the senate. a group of senators came to me and said, including two republicans, just come and stay for six months. help us organize. i was so foolish. we had 58 democratic senators, a democratic governor-elect. he would have appointed a democrat but i'm the first senator i ever really knew. i went and agreed to do it. end result was i have to meet with the majority leader of the senate a guy named mike mansfield with more integrity in his little finger than most people have in their whole body. i'd meet with him. it took me about five weeks to figure out he'd give me an assignment. i'd go in tuesday at 5:00 and get an assignment. no senators get assignments.

i found out about five weeks later he was just taking my pulse seeing how i was doing emotionally. it was okay. third week in march i mean in may after realizing what this was all about i walked into the senate floor, if you ever watch spoin y c-span you see the gold leaf on the doors. walked through those doors down into the well of the senate and a senator was ripping into two people who are very good friends of mine. bob dole was still a good friend and very ill and ted kennedy who has passed away. they introduced the precursor to the americans with disabilities act and this senator was ripping them a new ear saying no one has a right to confiscate my property, telling me i have to curb cut. it's wrong. i thought what an awful thing but i was more afraid of being late for my meeting with the leader than to take him on. i walked in and sat down in front of this gentleman named mike mansfield. he always had a pipe in his hand. mostly never lighted. looked at me and said what's the

matter, joe? i went on for three minutes about how this senator had no social redeeming value. how could he not care about people with disabilities? he looked at me and he said, joe, what would you say if i told you he and his wife sitting in their living room the night he was elected in '72 sitting in the living room in '71 reading their local paper and there was a young man's picture in the paper with steel braces from under his arms down to his ankles and two crutches and looking out and an advertisement saying all i want for christmas is someone to love me and take me home. he said, what would you say if i told you they adopted that young man? i said i'd be embarrassed. he said, well they did, joe. he taught me the most important lesson i learned in public life. he said, joe, it is always appropriate to question another man's or woman's judgment. it is never appropriate to question their motive because you don't know. and once you question motive you can never get to an agreement. by the way, you're in the pocket of the cement industry.

let's talk about making more highways. you can't get it done. so i've never done that. and i've been able to get an awful lot done because i've never questioned motive. i don't rip the cord. i'm going to be america's president not a democratic president. i'm a democrat, proud of it. but america's president. >> do you think it's still possible to reach across the aisle? >> yes, i do. >> the lines are so divided. >> in case you haven't seen, a group of republicans have said they're prepared to work with joe biden if he's elected. happen to see that? it was recently published. on the hill. i'm confident i can. i'm confident that with president trump out of the way and his vitriolic attitude and his way of just getting after people, revenge, with that gone there's going to be an awful lot of republicans who should have spoken up already but in fact i think there is going to be somewhere between six and eight republicans ready to get things

done from, from dealing with cancer, from dealing with health care, from dealing with covid, from dealing with the infrastructure. and i think we're going to win back the democratic senate. >> mr. vice president, thank you very much for your time tonight. we appreciate it. >> thank you everybody. >> we thank everybody who's here. we also visited president trump to a cnn town hall and look forward to the president joining us before the election perhaps and we thank our drive-in audience for their questions and for hosting us. stay tuned for "primetime" next. thank you, anderson. i am chris cuomo. welcome to "primetime" joe biden calling for president trump to step down because of what he calls his failure to get this country together and moving forward in a time of