Thank you everybody for being here. This is amazing, really amazing Biden in Provincetown?
Good, my name is Mark Walsh's. I'm more commonly known. So you're the guy that's married to Brian about a crime epidemic. Let me start by just saying, I'm so thankful that you spend your hard earned money to be here today. We know how important it is that the Biden Harris ticket is reelected next year.
As some of you might remember, and then Vice President Biden and Dr. Biden came here in 2012, right in August, right before the real act of 2012. At that time, we raised a lot of money up at the monument. But I was I told the first lady that actually she has bragging rights when she goes home because we've doubled the amount of raised
dark power I want to start by thanking a lot of folks that helped us to get here today. First of all, we had an incredible power to host committee here. I want to start by thanking Alex Ricci and Marty Davis for those of you may know Alex and Marty, but they have been incredibly committed to LGBTQ equality, to the arts and to Provincetown for so long with their support with their money in their efforts. So thank you so much. We're indebted to you. We really I also want to acknowledge our close community I got Alice count accomplice Lotro. I apologize if I if I miss anybody that has said at first, Brooklyn Angelou, we have Joe DiMartino and Jason, just defining sorry, Joseph, Jason, Gabby Hannah and Marcy Feller, Kathy gostream. Cory Cory Johnson, the former speaker, the New York City Council, how long martini and Jonathan Hawkins, Terrence Mac, Ricardo Rodriguez and Michael Kelly, Tom sharp and Phillip Locke, Felipe Lara, and of course, my husband, he has been just killing himself.
We have got an amazing delegation here representing a lowercase I want to acknowledge. We have state senator Julian Cyr, who's
representing them Sarah pink. Further up the tape we have state senator Sue Moran. From the Select Board of the town of Provincetown, Lesley Sandberg,
Eric, John golden Austin Bella. And we have our province Todd town manager, Alex Morrison, thank you. I also want to just take a minute to thank the folks that made this happen here the Biden Victory Fund and the Democratic National Committee staff, especially James Conlon. The advance team has been amazing. The United States Secret Service are here protecting the First Lady
doubt it's actually working this event from the Catered Affair from Bergson music from Rafanelli event staff and DJ trenches in the back. You may already noticed like the Pilgrims done, Mayflower actually arrived about 100 yards away from here 403 years ago, and this land was actually the land is a whopping, whopping no Indian. So I want to acknowledge this, that this was sacred ground. So I can kind of tell a really brief story about Dr. Biden, when she was here in 2012, as the Vice President, I had the privilege of working for the State Department. And you know, I can't do political stuff. But I was Mr. Rafanelli spouse. So we greeted the Vice President and Dr. Biden upon arrival, and he looked at me strangely, what are you doing here? Why are you here? But we're able to eject gave me an opportunity to thank him for it because you might remember he was the one who they said got over his skis and said that he was in favor of gay marriage. When I thanked him for that, I thank the vice president and he turned to start to bind. He said, You have heard of thing. She's been out to me for 15 years.
As a friend and advocate and a true hero to our community, to LGBTQ, and let's not forget, the Respect for Marriage Act was signed by President Biden. I spoke longer than an hour but I got the mic. So I now want to introduce and welcome my husband and my boss Brian Rafanelli. Me
Somebody's recording this you're gonna call me boss. Hi, everyone. So welcome to them all in house. This is really sacred ground for our dear friend and I know a lot of you knew Dan and his family gave us the pleasure of buying this magnificent house after he passed three years ago Thanksgiving and this house is meant to celebrate. We are committed to bringing people together to doing great things. So today, we have over 325 people on the Mullen House lawn
Dr. Biden welcome Provincetown. I want to start with a story 48 years ago, tomorrow when I was 13, for my birthday, my aunt and uncle brought me here to Provincetown, five siblings, and they would bring us on our birthdays, to have our portraits painted. We were going out to whalers work. And they would sketch out our faces. It's a it's a kind of a weird portrait, my part. My hair is not white. But I bring up the story because I was number four or five. And so my siblings, of course, would come back from this magnificent magical place. And they would describe Provincetown, and the most extraordinary, sometimes unusual, sometimes interesting ways. But what was so beautiful about the story, what was really my ocho my uncle Ray, who brought us to this place that they loved, they loved how inclusive it was, they loved how so many different people gathered at the end of the world. I, I am I know, for myself, for Mark, we never imagined that 48 years later, we would be here in this magnificent place celebrating this magnificent woman. I just want to quickly talk to you about the money. And I had a couple of my friends when I was calling them to ask to give telling me that it was getting a little aggressive. And I'm not gonna apologize for that. I had another friend call me and tell me that me a lot of people were saying it was a little too early. And I said, Well, it's interesting. There's 79 million reasons why it's not. So we have already raised $79 million. And by the way, our number is not inside that $70 million. So I'm very excited about that. But look, I might be a competitive guy. So when my friend Anthony and I. When When we reached out and said, might Dr. Biden come to Provincetown, he said, Are you sure? And I'm like, I'm sure you sure we you know, what do you think you can do? Brian? Now, you know, on this lawn, we've had Secretary Pete Buda judge, we've had Hillary Clinton. But I'm here to tell you today we broke every single
time we're gonna come back to the money, the money is critical. And I know that these elections are so expensive. And I know when we all hear these numbers, we just can't believe it. But guess what, we just have to get over that. The fact is, early money is the best kind of money, early money. It's money that we can continue to invest. We can tell the story. We can be at the top of the moniker of news all over the world of what is happening with Joe Biden and selection and his reelection is critical. So thank you.
Very quickly, because I know Dr. Biden is going to talk about her husband. But I want you to think about the next time you're having a conversation about President Biden being reelected with Vice President Kamala Harris. I want you to think about the accomplishments. It's all about the accomplishments. That's what the American people care about. Talking about roads and bridges, and again, our friend T secretary and T. President Biden put him in that amazing position first openly gay cabinet member. We're thrilled about that. Guns. We've had the first real federal gun control legislation passed in 25 years. Quality Mike brought it up a quality in gay marriage. The President saw what was happening saw the decision comes down and codified marriage for us.
roads and bridges, guns, equality, gay marriage COVID student loan forgiveness are standing in the world. Those are accomplishments. Again, when people are asking about President Biden running, talk about his accomplishments. So enough about the President, I want to talk a little bit about my friend, Dr. Biden, look, I just had the honor of working with Dr. Biden to plan Her granddaughter's wedding. And it's really a magnificent experience for me when this is happening, because I actually get to see a real family gathering together, and a magical, important, emotional moment, after every meeting that and Dr. Biden attended every meeting for her granddaughter, Naomi, I was just just mesmerized by her patients, by her mentorship. She's incredibly supportive. She held back, she, she gave great advice. Sometimes, most of the time, actually fairly quiet about all these things. But what she wanted was to celebrate her granddaughter and her future son in law, grandson in law, and let them have this magical moment at the White House, you are an exceptional person, a beautiful First Lady. A teacher, by the way.
About the White House is it's sort of America's largest banquet facility. And the First Lady is responsible for all overseeing every single detail of that, and it's a lot of work. So she's she's also running this amazing house, but working full time. So I think of you as an extraordinary person, but just like one of us. And I think that's critical and important. So thank you for that.
I know I'm a better I know I'm better, because of this support my husband gives me and that we give to each other. And we know our president is a better person because of Dr. Biden. Lady of the United States.
Thank you, Brian. And Mark. You know, Mark, and I traveled the world together in the Obama Biden administration, when he worked at the State Department, as he said, and didn't we have so much fun. And while I initially knew Brian through Mark, I got to know him very well, as he said, when he helped us with, you know, just a little wedding at the White House. Last November, and but honestly, Brian, I mean, it was, it was Stunning. Stunning, was magnificent. If any of you saw any of the pictures of it, and we're so grateful that you made our granddaughters dreams come true. So thank you.
Your work is not just about creating wonderful events, but about finding the beauty and the connection in those moments that really define us. And that's what you did in 2020. And what you're doing this defining moment, seeing the beauty in what we all can accomplish together. So thank you to to you and mark as well as Alex and Marty for bringing us together in support of Joe's reelection campaign.
For 39 years, right, you've been committed to one another. 46 So I get it
and some of you know, Alex is a self described, agitator and accurate she's always working to make the world better than how she failed. And Marty when I read that you were an artist. I googled your work and wow, it is fresh.
Thank you really both from the bottom of my heart, and hello pekao
My husband pretty well, but I wanted to tell you a little bit about myself because I don't know, you know, a lot of you I hadn't met before. So I grew up the oldest of five girls in a in the outside of the Philadelphia suburbs. You can probably hear that Philadelphia in my accent, I don't know.
So I spent my summers watching Phillies baseball games, and waitressing at the Jersey Shore to make money for college. I dreamed of what my life would become, I knew that I wanted two things. I wanted a marriage, like my parents, that was strong and loving and full of laughter. And I wanted a career. And I set out to find those things. But my path was a little bit meandering. So think back, some of you some of you campus, some of you who are here, if you remember, it was the 70s. Now, remember the difference, Vietnam? Love beats equal rights. I wore my hair down to the middle of my back, and so did most of the men I dated. One day, I was asked out on a date from out of the blue. And that evening, I had some young senator showed up at my door. And, you know, I took one look at his perfect suit, and his leather loafers. And I thought, thank God, it's only one day. Well, one day, eventually turned into a marriage. And if I'm really being honest, it was five marriage proposals. But that was not part of my plan. And more than that, it wasn't just my heart that was on the line. As many of you may know, Joe's wife, Amelia, and baby daughter, Naomi were killed in a car accident. And Beau and hunt, were injured. And then, after all that bow and Hunt had lost. I knew that if I said yes to Joe, it had to be forever. And I real. Eventually, I realized that my love for them outweighed any fears I had. So I said yes to Joe. And these years later, I'm so proud of the life that we've built with our sons and our daughter Ashley.
Brian reference, I teach writing at a community college outside of DC, and in my classes, I'm a writing teacher. So in my classes, we often talk about the stories we tell and how they shape our identity. And they can isolate us or they can make us angry or afraid. But stories can inspire us to rise to kindness as well. They can remind us that our differences are precious, and our similarities infinite, that our community, our country is capable of beautiful and powerful things. And I saw that this summer, as we hosted the largest ever Pride event
was a family picnic with kids running all around. And it was a hot but it was a happy day. And Secretary Pete was there with with Cheston and their kids, Penelope and Gus, along with many members of this community, who are a part of our administration. So incredible to see so many families laughing and sharing a meal together, feeling safe, just to be themselves. And then a couple of weeks later, I went to two other pride festivals, one in Tennessee and one in Minnesota. Well, they couldn't have been more different. The energy was there. There was joy and electricity, you know, fragile by the looming war. work that we knew was on the other side of that celebration. And since Joe has taken office, we've made so many so much incredible progress in so many ways. And with his leadership, he has created third team million jobs and lead a manufacturer
brought people from both sides of the aisle to gather which he said he would do find common ground. The bipartisan infrastructure law and passing the first major federal common sense gun legislation.
This community, we've ended the ban on transgender servicemembers.
Conversion therapy
I hope you're proud, because you made that possible case wins are your wins. But we know that there's so much more work to do. You know, we're caught between the push and the pull of progress. There are bullies who want to drag us backwards in so many battles yet to brave, and it's not going to be easy. You know, a few years ago, I had to tell my class that I would miss the next session for personal reasons. Now, my students have a lot of shining qualities, but boundaries are not one of them. So they immediately begin chatting, Dr. V. Dr. B, where are you going? Well, my sister was having the first of her cancer treatments, a stem cell transplant, and she would be in her hospital room for over six weeks. So I tried to explain to my class, you know, with as much composure as I could muster, but you know, the words caught in my throat. So I turned to face the whiteboard behind me, hoping to, you know, hold back my emotions. And when I turned back around, my entire class was standing. And they lined up, and they gave me a hug, one by one. Until that moment, I didn't realize how much I was struggling, or how much I needed them. Sometimes our strength comes from within us. And sometimes it can. Sometimes we need to lean on the people around us, and hope that we can carry the weight of our lives together. Yes, there are challenges ahead. We know what's in store if these Magga Republicans win. We've already lived it. Right? The safety of the LGBTQ Americans even more at risk US policy being dictated, dictated by late night tweets, a constant assault on our most sacred institutions, our democracy and our freedoms. Freedom and Democracy think about it. freedom and democracy are on the line in this election. But we aren't going to let that happen.
Have the optimism and the drive and passion to write a different story. And most of all, we have the candidate who is ready to finish the job.
Today, and we need you. So I want to I want you to go out and tell your friends. Why this matters. Protecting the LGBTQ community defending women's rights
from the bottom up and the middle out, acting now on climate
always ready for this fight. His optimism never falters. He has a vision for our future and he's making it real, but we can't do it without your help. So let's help him finish the job together we are going to win this election
all of my heart thank you for being part of this movement. Thank you for your faith in what we can do when we come together. Thank you for helping us finish the job
before we do let's go Joe, we have one more thing to do and you know it's Brian's birthday he references so and 25 people
Alright folks, the lawns that have not added smack so next year, let's quadruple this invite Dr. Biden back
