I’d love to talk to every one of you, but I’m getting the sign here.  I better cut.  They’re going to — 
 
SENATOR MANCHIN:  I was afraid you were going to get the hook.  (Laughter.) 
 
THE PRESIDENT:  But — but — but, look —
 
SECRETARY RAIMONDO:  I was going to say, we could do this all day, but —
 
THE PRESIDENT:  The — the point — let me conclude by saying this: This is not going to waste money, what we’re talking about each of you doing; it’s going to grow the economies.  It’s going to keep us in a position where we are the most advanced economy in the world and where we bring along the people who have made this country.
 
You know, I joke — and I don’t want to — I shouldn’t get political, but — let me put it this way: The people who built the country are hardworking people who work with the sweat of their brow and their hands.  And — and they’ve — they’ve — they’re — they’re the ones that created the middle class.  And I think this going to enable that same group of people, like most of us were raised by, to be able to have an opportunity to continue to do well and to take us through this next phase. 
 
Because, you know, there’s that — I always — Joe and my colleagues in the Senate used to always kid me for — for quoting Irish poets, but —
 
”All is changed.  It’s changed utterly: A terrible beauty has been born,” as the Irish poet said.  And we’ve got to take advantage of it, and I think we can.  I really, genuinely think we can. 
 
And I look forward to meeting all of you at some point along the way.  And we’re going to continue to keep this moving because there’s $3 billion total in this, and it’s going to grow the economy.  Everybody is better off. 
 
When you grow the economy, everybody from the local drugstore to the — to the local supermarket to the local church — everything grows.  And that’s what this is about. 
 
Anyway, thank you all. 
 
SECRETARY RAIMONDO:  Thank you, Mr. President.
 
SENATOR MANCHIN:  If I can say one thing to you, Mr.  President? 
 
THE PRESIDENT:  Yes. 
 
SENATOR MANCHIN:  Thank you for not forgetting and not leaving anybody behind.  I can’t tell you how much this means to our hardworking people in West Virginia. 
 
And they are truly appreciative — the families are — to be able to stay where they love and they — and their heritage and their roots are.  So many of them had to leave.  You’ve given them that opportunity.  And you didn’t forget, and you kept that promise.  And I appreciate it. 
 
THE PRESIDENT:  Well, Joe, remember I’m from hard-coal country: Scranton.  (Laughter.)  All right? 
 
Okay, anyway, thank you all so very, very much.  And thank you, Madam Secretary. 
 
SECRETARY RAIMONDO:  Congratulations.  Congratulations, everybody.  And we’re excited to work with you to make all of this a huge success. 
 
And thank you, Mr. President. 
 
THE PRESIDENT:  Thanks.  All right.  (Applause.)
 
Q    Mr. President, do you consider — Mr. President, do you consider all Trump supporters to be a threat to the country?
 
THE PRESIDENT:  Come on.  Look, guys. 
 
Q    Just, Mr. —
 
THE PRESIDENT:  You keep trying to make that case.  I don’t consider any Trump supporter a threat to the country. 
 
I do think anyone who calls for the use of violence, fails to condemn violence when it’s used, refuses to acknowledge when an election has been won, insists upon changing the way in which the rules — you count votes — that is a threat to democracy.  Democracy.
 
And everything we stand for — everything we stand for rests on the platform of democracy. 
 
When people voted for Donald Trump and support him now, they weren’t voting for attacking the Capitol.  They weren’t voting for overruling an election.  They were voting for a philosophy he put forward. 
 
So I am not talking about anything other than: It is inappropriate — and it’s not only happening here, but other parts of the world — where there’s a failure to recognize and condemn violence whenever it’s used for political purposes, failure to condemn the — the — an attempt to manipulate electoral outcomes, a failure to acknowledge when elections were won or lost.
 
Thank you.
 
12:15 P.M. EDT

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