>> since the day she arrived in

congress, speaker pelosi has been a tireless champion of equality. on a personal note, my wife, sherrill, and i and our four sons are grateful. colleagues, it is my great honor to welcome the most accomplished and effective legislator of our lifetime, speaker nancy pelosi. ms. pelosi: thank you so much. i'm so honored by your introduction. this is a very special evening for me, my colleagues. to be introducing for the very first time joe biden as president of the united states. and i -- my heart could notting fill -- could not be filled with more joy to have that occasion marked by introducing him to our house democratic caucus. that joy is also increased by being introduced by angie craig and i'm so glad she referenced her wife and her four sons, whom i love hearing about, now

in front of the president of the united states. thank you, angie, for your leadership, your friendship, and your very generous introduction. you make this evening very special to me. a special evening. first time, mr. president, that i'm introducing you as president of the united states to my great house democratic caucus. that makes it even better. my colleagues, as you know, our nation is blessed with joe biden as president of the united states. he is an extraordinary president. he knows how to get the job done. when our nation faced the great recession, it was joe biden who led the implementation and accountability, helping to create and save millions of jobs. that experience served him well with the american rescue plan. when the democratic caucus was passing the affordable care act, joe bidens with a partner for progress in the white house -- joe biden was a partner for from pro-gress in the white

house and that experience served him well as we face the coronavirus crisis. joe biden has been a voice of resilience with a clear path to lead us out of this crisis. one other front i want to tell you about of joe biden i've seen with parents and victims of gun violence, listening to them and offering them the empathy, grace and courage that he can give them as someone with a terrible understanding of a father who has shared their experience. continuing on the family front, jill and joe biden have taken their experiences to help ensure that service members, military families and veterans have their service respected. the support that they need and the benefits they have earned. he is our commander in chief. and joe biden is the first president in 40 years to have a son who served in a war. he knows what it's like for military families, of those who are deployed.

he knows the roles that our hedo heroes have -- hidden heroes have for our veterans. he's concerned about other veterans who have suffered from cancer. many after being exposed to toxins in the burn pitts of iraq -- pits of iraq. that's just one railroad for his enthusiasm for the cancer moon shot, demonstrated as recently as today by bipartisan meeting on cancer at the white house. i've seen president biden working behind the scenes, hammering out solutions for the american people. he's a leader with the humility to seek expertise and science and the confidence to act upon. on the policy side, president biden has been a long-time legislative partner, including for gun violence prevention and of course with his connection to america's working families. on the global front, president biden is a distinguished world

leader who commands and respect -- the respect of allies and adversaries alike. i especially personally enjoyed seeing, as a catholic, i enjoyed seeing him received at the van can when the pope was nog -- vatican when pope francis was inaugurated. on the political front, joe biden has campaigned with or for many members of congress. almost everyone in this virtual setting. thank you, mr. president, for being there and for -- with us and for us. my husband, paul, always says i wonder how long it will be before nancy starts talking about our grandchildren. our grandchildren. my grandchildren have for many, many years been long-time friends of joe biden. they have a range in age, but all of them love joe biden. but let me tell you one story. i think with 2013, 4 and 5-year-olds, paul and thomas,

we were at an event, the dccc in new york and joe biden was the speaker. they were so excited to see him because they heard so much about him from their cousins. they had swinging doors, have to get through the doors at one part of the store to the next. here they are. the place is packed and jammed. kids are making all this noise over there on the side. and all of a sudden i hear them pronounce, in order to open these doors, we do not say open sesame, we say open biden. that's our magic word. open biden. i love it. now more than ever, we need a

battle-tested forward-looking leader who will fight for the people. a president with the values experienced in -- and the strategic thinking to bring our nation together and to build a better, fairer world. as president, he's taking us to new heights of inclusion in the success of america. president biden is a leader who is the personification of hope and courage, values, authenticity and integrity. joe biden as president and with democratic majorities in the house and senate, we will deliver both progress -- bold progress for the people. and now it is my privilege to present the 45th president of the united states as my children -- grandchildren would say, open biden. mr. president. president biden: nancy, i love you. there's no one i'd rather work with than you. we've been friends a long time.

and your whole family, your daughters and it's just been a great relationship. i think that angie was absolutely correct. you've been the consummate leader. i've been here a long time and there's been no speaker who has been your equal, although there's been some great speakers. you just have a special way about you, nancy. and you're also very, very, which is important, you're kind but you're tough. you know what's right and you stick by it. i admire the devil out of you. i want to thank somebody i campaigned for. he was leading by 30 points until i campaigned for him. but he still won anyway. hakeem jeffries. and vice chair aguilar for putting this conference together and including me. i want to thank the entire leadership team and all your committee chairs for taking an

important step empty american rescue plan last week. you all showed at a time when the american people are depenning on us, and they are dess -- depending on us, and they are desperately in need of us, that a diverse caucus isn't a divided caucus. congressman clyburn, i also want to note that it was almost exactly a year ago today that you delivered the endorsement to me in south carolina that meant so much to me and my campaign. you're a great friend. on the night of that primary, america had confirmed only -- fewer than 100 covid cases. that's just a year ago. breonna taylor and george floyd were still alive. california had yet to suffer the worst -- what would become the worst fire season in recorded history. and there have been no violent insurrection at the capitol hill and i could go on. a lot's changed.

my point is this. in the year that has passed, all the challenge i spoke about that night, jobs and the economy, affordable, accessible health care, climate change and the need to root out institutional racism, the need for unity and healing, have all become urgent, urgent, urgent, urgent. especially in light of the pandemic that has taken the lives of over, as of yesterday, 518,720 americans. fellow americans who have lost their lives. more than 400,000 businesses, mostly small businesses, many minority businesses, have been shuttered. the cost of millions of jobs. 1.3 million public sector ed cation -- sector, education, nurses, cops, firefighters,

essential workers have lost their jobs. so my message today is really simple. you, you this caucus, have shown the american people the difference between democratic leadership and what we just had. leadership makes a difference. and you're continuing to do so. for example, i know that this week you're working on the protect our democracy reforms. as well as the george floyd justice in policing act. both of which i strongly support. and i know the past couple of days you've had briefings and conversations on immigration, health care, foreign policy, climate crisis and a lot more. and as you work on all of these, i urge you to continue to speak up and speak out about the american rescue plan. here's why. you know, the confidence in the american government has been plummeting since the late 1960's to what it is now. many remember that in 2009 we

expended a lot of political capital, nancy and i and others, in the recovery act. it was an act that had less than .2 waste or fraud in it -- .2% waste or fraud in it, according to the experts. the economists told us we saved america from a depression. but we didn't adequately explain what we had done. barack was so modest he didn't want to take a victory lap. each piece isn't just defensible, it's urgent and overwhelmingly supported by the people. it's good policy and it's good politics. i'm not sure we've ever seen something that is needed as

blade as the american rescue plan, that was as broadly popular. nancy and i have passed some really important things in our careers. but they haven't -- they've been badly needed, but they haven't been overwhelmingly popular. sir, i served in the congress for 36 years before becoming vice president for eight. we never had anything this urgent and this ambitious that was so widely embraced. 3/4 of the american people will together -- are together with us on this. 3/4. nearly unanimous support among democrats. more than 70% of independents. in poll after poll, 60% of republicans. i'll say that again. 60% of republicans support what we're doing. a bipartisan group of more than 425 mayors, democrat and republican, the afl-cio and business leaders. look, the show of unity we're seeing is unprecedented. it isn't just about some of the

-- the sum of the total package. americans are lock step on each of the major elements of the plan and they know what they are. they support what we're doing on vaccines. look at the progress we've made with your health. we had very little supply, now we will have enough vaccine because of the work we've done with your help. enough vaccine by the end of may to be able to vaccinate every single adult in america. it will not be done by then but that supply will be there. they support what we're doing on direct payments. on unemployment insurance. on food and nutrition support. on keeping people in their homes. on safely reopening our schools. staying unified as we complete this process to pass the american rescue plan won't just make a difference in our fight against covid-19 and our efforts to rebuild the economy, it will also show the american people we're capable of coming

together for what matters most to them. they've lost faith in government. this is a time to re-establish that faith and the reason why they should have faith, because we're doing the right thing. it's a show of strength and a first step forward to restoring their faith in the capacity of government. to have their backs. and if we deliver on this, it also builds momentum. it builds real enthusiasm as well. and i will make everything else we want to deliver this will make everything more possible to get it done. that's why starting off this victory is so important because it's so consequential to their lives. we know how much we have to do. but all starts -- it all starts here. it starts by bringing this home, bringing home what you've done all the way. and i know we're all making some small compromises, but i

want to thank you, i want to thank you for the work you've done, i want to thank you for the work we're going to continue to do. i know parts of this and everything else we seek to do are not easy. but people are going to remember how we showed up in this moment. how we listened to them, to them. to them. and how we took action. i believe we're going to come through this and i think the people's memories will be long. if we continue to stay laser focused on getting shots in people's arms, responding to the economic crisis, it's going to open up a lot of hearts and a lot of doors for us tomorrow to do the many more things we know we have to do. i want to thank you all. i really mean it. from the bottom -- i want to thank you. thank you, thank you, thank you . i'm happy to take questions if that's what i'm supposed to do, nancy. whatever y

>> new york governor andrew cuomo said he will not resign. he spoke about the state's coronavirus response. this is just over 40 minutes. governor cuomo: good afternoon. from my far right, director of state operations, to her left, special counsel. to my right, the commissioner of the department of health. to my left, secretary to the governor and