October 27, 2020

Joe Biden gave a speech in the deep South — heavy Trump country — to deliver one of his closing arguments to voters. Speaking from Warm Springs, Georgia, Biden appealed to voters there to help him get control of the pandemic, and promised to never "wave the white flag," as Trump has done.

According to CNN:

In the speech, he evoked the words of Martin Luther King Jr. and Pope Francis, saying he would seek to "ensure that our better angels prevail over our worst instincts."

The speech underscored how -- even as the coronavirus pandemic has upended the campaign and American life -- Biden's central message has largely remained unchanged since he launched his campaign in April 2019, criticizing Trump on moral grounds.

Biden also, though, vowed to act. Channeling the history of when Franklin D. Roosevelt retired to Warm Springs living out his last days, he recalled the moments the world mourned after finding out FDR had died.

BIDEN: When news of FDR’s death went out on the wires, an editor in Chicago turned to his colleagues and said, “Clear the decks for action.”

So — I say to you today: If you give me the honor of serving as your President, clear the decks for action, for we will act.

We will act on the first day of my presidency to get COVID under control. We will act to pass my economic plan that will finally reward work — not wealth — in this country.

We will act to pass my health care plan to provide affordable, accessible health care to every American.

We will act to pass the Biden climate plan, meeting the challenge of the climate crisis while creating millions of new, high-paying union jobs.

We will act to address systemic racism in our country.

We will act to give working people a fair shot again in this country.

Going so far as to call Trump and his cronies in the GOP "forces of darkness," describing them as "Charlatans, the Con-Men, the phony Populists — who have sought to play to our fears, appeal to our worst appetites, and pick at the oldest scabs we have for their own political gain," Biden urged us to come together to heal:

BIDEN: With our voices and our votes, we must free ourselves from the forces of darkness, from the forces of division, and from the forces of yesterday — from the forces that pull us apart, hold us down, and hold us back.

It was as powerful and hopeful a message as anyone could deliver, and nothing spells optimism like delivering it in Warm Springs, Georgia.

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