President Biden delivers remarks on security assistance to Ukraine
[Applause] good afternoon everyone what a great day to welcome the 46th president of the united states joe biden to alabama as a point of personal privilege it's such a pleasure for me to be back here in troy alabama the hometown of the great late john lewis the boy from troy i want to thank president biden for traveling to the great state of alabama to visit the lockheed martin facility which is playing such a critical role in helping the ukraine people fight to defend their democracy over the past few months we have been cl closely watching the troubling situation in the ukraine we know that the cost of putin's bloody war and i commend the biden harris administration for uniting our allies and sending a clear message to putin that america will continue to stand for democratic values by taking strong steps to hold russia accountable congress has already approved billions of dollars in humanitarian military and economic support but we must do more and that is why i'm here today to support the biden harris administration and president biden's ask of us a new bill on more legislation to support and giving provide aid to the ukraine mr president i look forward to continuing to work with you and my colleagues in congress to support the people of ukraine as they bravely defend this threat to democracy everywhere i also would like to thank all of the alabama workers from lockheed martin who have joined us today they deserve a round of applause to have a chance to have a chance to see the javelins these shoulder-armed missiles that are taking out tanks in the ukraine was a joy but to know that we have such manufacturing right here in the state of alabama is truly a joy i know that the people here in troy and especially here at the lockheed martin facility are getting into good trouble and i know that john lewis is smiling to know that this president is in his hometown of troy alabama [Applause] please welcome the chief executive officer of lockheed martin jim taylor good afternoon everybody on behalf of our 114 000 lockheed martin team members all around the world i'm pleased to welcome you to our pike county operations it is an honor to host the president of the united states at our facility president biden your visit here highlights at our facility the dedicated workforce everything that they're doing to enhance our national security and protect america's interests all around the world we're also delighted to have many distinguished guests on site this afternoon to the many local state and federal officials and community leaders here today i thank you for joining us i also appreciate your continued support of lockheed martin's operations here in pike county and throughout the state of alabama for nearly 30 years the team here has produced some of the most advanced technologies in the world every day members of our us military soldiers sailors airmen and our allies across the globe depend on the systems we make right here to defend against threats on land at sea and in the air we're delighted to have you all here today to meet some of our 600 patriotic teammates who work diligently to support those who are standing up for freedom and democracy from the earliest days of our company's founding we've also been committed to working with our leaders in government to advance policies that encourage investment innovation and job creation we appreciate the president's support for the united states innovation and competition act the act would help strengthen our national competitiveness protect our intellectual property and expand america's vital domestic semiconductor industry today i also have the privilege of introducing one of those lockheed martin team members who embodies the spirit of pike county operations linda griffin is a senior assembler on the production line and is one of this facility's longest tenured employees linda you and your colleagues should be very proud of the important work you all do and again thanks to everyone here for joining us today [Applause] [Music] please welcome the president of the united states joseph r biden jr accompanied by senior missile assembler linda griffin [Music] thank you jim my name is under griffith and i've been live in alabama all my life i have worked in lockheed martin more than 25 years [Applause] i had worked up i had worked on several programs including javelin where i have touched every single one of the 50 000 javelin mixer that had been built in troy 50 000. i consider my teammate's family and i can say that the entire lockheed martin team is honored by this special guest today it is a great honor to introduce to you the president of the united states [Applause] [Music] [Applause] i tell you what linda the fire ceo of this company i'd be worried well good afternoon everybody and thank you jim for the invitation to be here today and linda for the warm welcome today and congressman sewell owen soul thank you for all you do for the people of the state in the country and for your friendship our friendship i wanted to come down to alabama to make sure that the american people know what workers this food and by the way you have a seat please take it by the way sometimes the press is always fair with me but once every once in a while i make a mistake not like what once a a speech but anyway i years ago when i started started talking to this for this job i said please take your seats there weren't any seats everyone was standing or no chairs so i just want to make sure i checked when you had seats look the american people know what work at this facility you're doing and support to support ukraine's fight for freedom and the bottom line is i came to say thank you thank you thank you that's the reason i'm here i've been in those battlefields where these missiles are fired and uh i spent a lot of time going in and out of iraq and afghanistan maybe a total of 40 times and i tell you what you're uh i and i've been in ukraine a lot prior to the war and on the border since the war and it's it's amazing what you've done we see on the news every single day the atrocities and the war crimes that are being committed by russian forces in ukraine directed by vladimir putin and it really is gut-wrenching we see the incredible bravery the ukrainian fighters defending their country from with everything they have and by the way it's not just their warriors it's not just their military it's people on the street people on the street staying behind a lot have gotten out five million but a lot of staying including women as well as men stand to fight for their country and and we know that the united states is leading our allies and partners around the world to make sure the courageous ukrainians who are fighting for the future of the nation have the weapons and the capacity and ammunition and equipment to defend themselves against putin's brutal war a lot of war crimes being committed but we don't what we don't see we don't always see is the work that so much of that makes so much of this possible and that's you it's not hyperbole it's you you make it possible you make it possible for them to have a shot you know during world war ii the united states was known as the arsenal democracy there was rosie the riveter who actually got to meet quite frankly before she passed away and a lot of people who in fact kept the uh keppa going i was a slight digression i went over for the 50th anniversary of the uh the end of world war ii and uh and i was in normandy and i went up afterwards with the uh to the cemetery and uh i was walking by myself and it's it's it's incredible it's immaculate it's perfectly manicured and the headstones are all the same i looked down one row and i saw three names same names father and two sons who had died in the landing and i was bent down and i was reading the dates of their births and all of a sudden i heard behind me it changed up and i turned around and there was a gentleman who had to be in his early 80s in a wheelchair being wheeled by his son who big guy looked like hoss cartwright and his and his wife and one other and a daughter and he saluted me so i saluted him and at the time and i turned and i said thank you for what you did thank you for saving literally saving civilization and he put his hand on his wife's his wife his hand was on his shoulder and he said no no she didn't she did i looked at her and said she built the landing craft that got us in here she and her friends they're the ones that did it and he went on and he filled up and all of a sudden it dawned on me you're doing it you really are doing it you're making a gigantic difference for these poor sons of guns who are under such enormous enormous pressure and firepower those javelins i saw those ten for every tank that there is in ukraine right now you're changing people's lives we built the weapons now you really do but we built the weapons and equipment that helped defend freedom and sovereignty in europe years ago but that's true again today you know some of the best most effective weapons in our arsenal those javelin missiles like the ones manufactured right here in pike county they're highly portable they're extremely effective against a wide range of armored targets they can hit targets up to 400 meters away and have a fire and forget capability that means a person firing can i know you know because for anybody who may be listening can change positions or take cover before that javelin even strikes home it's a target in fact they've been so important there's even a story about ukrainian parents naming their children not a joke their newborn child javelin or javelina not a joke so the brave people of ukraine including the many civilians who have taken up arms to defend their country deserve every ounce of credit for pushing back the russian assault and frustrating putin's desire to dominate ukraine we're at an inflection point in history for real it comes along about every six or eight generations where things are changing so rapidly that we have to be in control folks there's an ongoing battle in the world between autocracy and democracy xi jinping the leader of china who i've talked about spent more time with the nato world leader has over 78 hours on either in person or on the telephone with him and the fact of the matter is he just is straightforward about it he says that democracies cannot be sustained in the 21st century not a joke they cannot be sustained because things are moving so rapidly democracy require consensus and it's hard to get consensus therefore they can't keep up with an autocracy one-man rule but that's not going to be the case if that happens the whole world changes i mean because of you in this first really battle if you will for that to determine whether that's going to happen is because you're making it possible you're making it possible for the ukrainian people to defend themselves without us having to risk getting a third world war by sending in american soldiers fighting russian soldiers my dad used to have an expression he said the only war worse than one that's intended is one that's unintended you're allowing the ukrainians to defend themselves and quite frankly they're making fools of the russian military in many instances a big part of the reason they've been able to keep up fighting and to make this war a strategic failure for russia is because the united states together our allies and partners have had their back the united states alone has committed more than 5 500 javelins to ukraine you're changing the nation you really are add to that significant supplies from our allies and partners as well as many thousands of other anti-tank and anti-air weapons helicopters armored vehicles artillery coastal defense systems before russia attacked we made sure russia had javelins and other weapons the strength of the defenses so ukraine was ready for whatever happened in the last two months we continued to move even more resources and equipment at a rapid pace into ukraine we've made sure that there are no interruptions in the flow of equipment to ukraine since russia invaded ukraine just over two months ago we have sent more than three billion dollars in security assistance to ukraine alone us not counting our allies and that money is a direct investment in defending freedom and democracy itself because if you don't stand up to dictators history has shown us they keep coming they keep coming their appetite for power continues to grow and every worker in this facility and every american taxpayer is directly contributing to the case for freedom and that's something we can all be incredibly proud of in my view last week i sent congress to excuse a point of personal privilege talking like an old senator but sent a supplemental budget a fancy way of saying we need more money to make sure the united states can continue to send weapons directly to the front lines of freedom in ukraine and to continue to provide economic and humanitarian assistance to help the ukrainian people and i urge the congress to pass this funding quickly to help ukraine continue to succeed against russian aggression just as they did when they won the battle of kiev and to make sure the united states and our allies can replenish our own stocks of weapons to replace what we've sent to ukraine as i said from the beginning this fight is not going to be cheap but caving to aggression would even be more costly we either back the ukrainian people as they defend their country or we stand by as russia continues its atrocities and aggression i know what the answer is i think you all do too i bet i know what the answer to this plan is there's something else here that to be understood being the arsenal of democracy also means good-paying jobs for american workers in alabama and states all across america where defense equipment is manufactured and assembled 265 people here at this plant are directly employed working on the javelin program all told lockheed martin has brought nearly 3 000 jobs to alabama the armed force of the united states of america will continue to be the best arm most capable fighting force in the history of the world in order to do that we have to make sure our vital defense supplies are getting the inputs and supplies they need to produce and protect and provide the full capacity i learned on the tour today that each of the javelins you produce includes more than 200 semiconductors i've been a broken record as a professional telly on our need to be able to produce more semiconductors in the united states we invented the sucker going to the moon we the united states we're the one that modernized it we've done more than anybody else but guess what we stopped investing in ourselves we stopped investing in ourselves and so now we're what back in the game making sure that we become we become the primary producer of those semiconductors computer chips that power much of our modern lives on our phones our cars almost anything that has an on off switch and the semiconductor is critical to defense production capacity as you know you all know better than i do that's why we're making it as hard as we can for russia to get hold of these semiconductors and advanced technologies that it could use to upgrade its military during this conflict and why we're taking steps to make it easier to source what we need here in the united states during a global semiconductor shortage and just one more there's just one more reason why congress has to act quickly to provide the emergency funding of the so-called chips act by passing a broader bipartisan innovation act so we can produce tens of millions of these chips there's something we have to focus on and something i focused on from my earlier stages of our administration i'm determined to make sure the united states holds its technological high ground in competition with the nations especially china as we move forward folks you know we we used to invest as a nation years ago 35 years ago we invested two percent of our entire gdp in research and development we do half of that now we do half of that we should be number one in the world now we're number 13 in the world my administration we're changing that the united states used to own the innovation field in fact it was a department of research program that established darpa the first development of an anti-tank missile with advanced infrared guidance systems that culminate in today's javelin the bipartisan innovation act is going to help reverse decades-long decline in federal research and development investment and it should create and support entire families and expand u.s manufacturing and strengthen our national security wherein god's name is written that the united states can no longer be a leading manufacturer in the world we've created just in the last 17 months 465 000 permanent manufacturing jobs in america we have the best workers the most competent employees the best science in the world and by funding the chipset we're going to ensure that semiconductors the power of the economy and our national security are made here in america again today all all the world's most advanced ships are made overseas but the events of the past few years have proven beyond a doubt that america's security should never be held hostage to events overseas not a pandemic not a war not the politics of ambition or other countries fundamentally there's a nationalist a national security issue this is one of the reasons why the chinese communist party is lobbying folks to oppose this bill and it's an issue that unites democrats and republicans so let's get it done let's get it done in an introduction linda said she personally touched every single solitary javelin 50 000 that had been manufactured in this plant 20 years ago i was worried to shake your hand i thought you may be electrocuted but that's where they start right here with american skill american craftsmanship american patriotism and just a few days ago the wall street journal quoted a young hungarian fighter saying and i quote without the javelins would have been very hard to stop the enemy pushing ahead end of quote so these weapons touched by the hands your hands are in the hands of ukrainian heroes making a significant difference that's something each and every day you could and should be proud of and i'm once more urging congress to quickly pass this supplemental funding bill over 300 billion dollars to help the ukrainians so they can keep they can keep all of the very very all of you very very busy for a while here so again let me end where i began i came for basic reason from the bottom of my heart to say thank you thank you thank you thank you what you do thank you what you continue to do unless you go out in the field and see it you don't realize what a difference you're making may god bless you all and may god protect our troops thank you so much [Applause] [Music] 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2022-05-09 13:18
