It's to provide for security, but I think it's to help the least among us.
I mean, if government's not helping level the playing field for, you know, and right now, you know, we have, and, you know, Dallas, you want to defend this position, we have, and this is one reason I'm a Democrat, we have, the Republican Party is drafting a budget bill for next year,
right now, which will take Medicaid away from poor people, so that Elon Musk I'm going to stay with the people on Medicaid.
And not with Elon Musk.
That's what makes me a Democrat.
A minute ago, you mentioned your mother.
It was about this exact time when you were appearing on this program in the last hour of the Washington Journal, 10 years ago, that your mother called into this program.
Joyce Woodhouse is her name, and this is that moment from 10 years ago.
You're right, I'm from down south.
Oh God, mom.
And I'm your mother.
Is this really your mother?
Yeah, we were not together this Thanksgiving.
We are most years.
I would really like a peaceful Christmas, and I love you both.
December 16, 2014, Dallas Woodhouse.
You mentioned your mom.
How is she doing?
I mean, she's still sharp as a tack.
She doesn't quite get along as, you know, as good as she did, but neither do Brad and I.
And I'll notice that on that clip, She said she loves us both.
She didn't say she loves us both equally.
Just for the record.
We know that the glorious Brad comes from a town you've never seen anything like it.
One thing I want to say about that clip that's interesting is I always remember it is that it did not sound to me at the time like it does when you play the clip.
In other words, Steve Scully says Interrupted like no one.
So shocked.
Well, I promise you, if a Joyce from North Carolina calls in in the next half hour, we will bump her up to the top.
But in the meantime, let me let you talk to Earl in Redding, California, Republican.
Earl, you're on with the Woodhouse Boys.
Hey, thank you very much.
I find this a very interesting discussion with these two gentlemen.
I got motivated to call today.
I try to call every 30 days.
I'm an Agent Orange volunteer Vietnam veteran.
I live on a fixed - Thank you for your service.
Oh, thank you for mentioning it.
I live on a Social Security and a veteran's agent, on my Agent Orange, okay?
And here's some facts I want to share with Brad, because he's big on facts.
And you guys tell me if I'm wrong, okay?
Please, both of you.
I'll get off the phone, but I want to give you a couple facts that I see.
I lost 20 % of my fixed income in the last four years.
That's a fact, okay?
That's $2 ,000.
And it's $2 ,000 that I donated to homeless and veterans and help people, you know, give them rooms and boards and what have you.
We're going to leave this program, but you can watch it at C -SPAN .org as we take you live to the White House, where President Biden and First Lady Jill Biden are hosting a Hanukkah holiday reception here on C -SPAN.
Ready?
Good evening, everyone.
Great to see you all.
On behalf of President Biden, First Lady Jill Biden, and my wife, Vice President Harris, to the White House and happy pre -Hanukkah.
To the President and First Lady, thank you so much for your friendship, your kindness, your support over these last four years.
Kamala and I are forever grateful and we love you so much.
Thank you.
Just looking around this room and I see so many familiar faces and I'm reminded of when I first came into this role as the first ever second gentleman.
Many of you have heard me say this before.
Now, I thought being the first man ever in this role was going to be a pretty big deal.
And it was.
But it turned out that being the first Jewish person ever to be a White House principal wasn't even bigger.
And I promised that I would continue as second gentleman to live openly, proudly, and with joy as a Jewish person.
And that's exactly what I did.
And with Kamala's love and encouragement, I was able to do that every step of the way.
So thank you, Kamala.
Kamala and I proudly affixed a mezuzah on our doorpost at the Vice President's residence.
There's actually two mezuzahs, a mezuzot, as I've been told.
We've hosted Shabbat dinners.
We've welcomed students to our home for Rosh Hashanah.
We held Passover seders and sang Dayen.
And every Hanukkah, we light our menorah and place it in the window for the entire world to see.
And this year, we're going to do it again.
And this year, as we prepared to leave a legacy of our time at the Vice President's residence, we planted a pomegranate tree.
This tree commemorates both the pain and perseverance of the Jewish people.
And it also honors the victims of October 7th.
And those who were taken hostage on that horrific day in Israel and those who are still being held captive.
But even as we saw anti -Semitism continue to grow and rise in our country and around the world, I walked around with my head held high, my shoulders and chest back, so proud to be a Jew.
I encourage our community to do the same, not to cower and not to live in fear ever.
And in spite of this scourge of anti -Semitism, we came together.
And I was proud to host many of you at a roundtable at the White House where we discussed how to overcome this hate.
And then we worked together to create the first ever national strategy to counter anti -Semitism.
And we could not have done it without this guy, President Biden.
We really couldn't.
This is historic.
And I want to thank you for that and your steadfast leadership and commitment for prioritizing this strategy and making sure that we got it done.
And after the strategy was complete, I traveled around the country and around the world, building coalitions and uniting people of all different backgrounds.
Because we know hate, it's like a venom coursing through the veins of our democracy.
We all need to be against it.
So our work does not stop here.
It does not stop when we leave the White House.
So tonight, I am rededicating myself to fighting anti -Semitism and hatred of all kinds.
I'm going to continue to speak out when it matters most, and I'm going to continue to show up for our community when these challenges persist.
Last year, I had the honor of visiting the town where my great -grandparents were from in the old country.
I never thought that this kid, born in Brooklyn, raised in Jersey, whose great -grandparents fled persecution from what is now Poland, would be standing here today in the White House with the President of the United States.
I am so honored to have served as your nation's first -ever second gentleman, and I thank you for welcoming me so warmly.
So now...
Please join me in welcoming Deputy National Security Advisor for Cyber and Emerging Technology, Ann Neuberger.
Thank you so much.
Good evening, everyone.
As we gather here in the White House to honor Hanukkah, I think about the power of this moment, telling the story of God's miracles and the faith Jews have held onto for centuries,
the power of miracles that have brought each of us here.
The woman whose name I carry, my great -grandmother, lost her life in Auschwitz.
My grandmother survived and bore her number from Auschwitz on her arm and in her heart.
From her, my parents taught me to be deeply grateful for the gift of welcome that America provided us and to so many of the families in this room whose histories are tied To the hope we found in the light cast by Lady Liberty's torch.
It's perhaps uniquely appropriate that Hanukkah is the final holiday we celebrate with President Joe Biden here at the White House.
Because this is a holiday that celebrates faith, hope, and the power of a little light to dispel a whole lot of darkness.
And over the course of his entire life and career, President Biden has embodied that enduring spirit in his personal life.
His faith in even the darkest hours inspires us all to find strength during our own challenges.
And as President, we all recall his historic trip to Israel soon after October 7th.
As our people reeled from pain, President Joe Biden came to pay a Shiva call.
He came to mourn with us.
To hold us through our suffering and remind us to never lose hope.
That's President Joe Biden, always inspiring people to lead with dignity, integrity and faith and to spread their light in the darkness.
As a community, our deep appreciation, Mr. President, is more than words and I personally feel so blessed and grateful to be among the countless lives you've touched.
Thank you for your leadership.
My name is Joe Biden.
I'm Joe Biden's husband.
And I was raised by, some of you know me well, by a righteous Christian, my dad.
My dad used to come home and rail against the fact that we didn't let the ship in after Auschwitz, we didn't bomb the railroad tracks, etc.
And my dad would always talk about our obligations.
And my dad was the one who inspired me.
And I see my fellow father -in -law out there, Ronnie Oliver.
Ronnie is a good friend.
And what happened was that my dad always thought that we had an obligation to step up and talk about what happened.
And he inspired me to take every one of my children and grandchildren.
When they reached the age of 14, their first trip in an aircraft overseas was to the camp.
And I wanted them to see what it was like.
I wanted them to see that no one could have misunderstood what was going on in those camps.
And so they toured the camps.
They toured them so I wanted them to know that you couldn't pretend it didn't happen.
And it should never happen again.
And so I learned a long time ago, you don't have to be a Jew to be a Zionist.
I'm a Zionist.
Good morning, everyone.
Jill and I and Kamala and Doug are honored to host you here at the White House.
Doug, thank you for being such a great friend.
And thank you, Ann.
You've been a true friend and a real leader.
And tell your son how proud I am.
She has a beautiful son.
And I want to thank you all for being here tonight.
Look, when you walk around the White House, you feel the history and the story of our nation.
We're good to go.
We're good to go.
We're good to go.
Every aspect of it.
And it's permanent.
It's permanent.
But I know this year's Hanukkah falls on the hearts that are still very heavy.
It's the second Hanukkah since the horrors of October 7th.
Over a thousand slaughtered.
Hundreds taken hostage.
Unspeakable sexual violence and so much more.
The trauma of that day and its aftermath is still raw and ongoing.
I've gotten over a hundred hostages out.
I will not stop until I get every single one of them home.
Last month, we secured a ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon so residents can safely return home.
I've said many times before, my commitment to the safety of the Jewish people and security of Israel and its right to exist as an independent nation -state remains ironclad.
I know the Jewish community is also suffering from the despicable surge of anti -Semitism in America and all around the world.
It's immoral.
It's wrong.
And it must stop now.
And Doug, I want to thank you.
Thank you for your leadership in this effort.
I really mean it sincerely.
And I know it's hard to find hope while carrying so much sorrow.
But from my perspective, the Jewish people have always embodied the duality of pain and joy.
You know, the late Rabbi Jonathan Sacks said, a people that can walk through a valley of shadow of death and still rejoice is a people that cannot be defeated.
That resilience and that capacity to find faith and joy despite centuries of persecution and pain is your light, like the light of miracles throughout the Jewish history,
from the menorah oil lasting eight days to the miracle of Israel itself.
Look, let me close with this.
Throughout my life, rabbis, Jewish friends, colleagues have always been there for me and my family when we've gone through very tough times.
And I mean it sincerely.
Been there.
We're good to go.
I think?
Shine your light.
Shine the light of optimism.
And above all, keep the faith.
Keep the faith.
May God bless you.
Happy Hanukkah.
And now I turn it over to Rabbi Cosgrove.
By the way, I visited his synagogue in New York.
He was so nice to me after I heard it, too.
Rabbi, it's all yours, kid.
Go get him.
Mr. President and Dr. Biden,
on behalf of the American jury, with one voice, And one heart, we are here to say we love you and we will miss you.
We love you friendship with and support for the Jewish people.
The lessons taught to you by your father of blessed memory on the price of inaction and the lessons you have taught us all on the perils of indifference.
Thank you for taking a stand against the scourge of anti -Semitism and for your steadfast support of Israel.
Especially in our darkest hour on October 7th and ever since, protecting Israel's security, working to bring hostages home and easing the suffering of all people, Israelis and Palestinians alike.
Thank you for the legacy you leave for all of us of empathy, of civility and being a mensch that is the heart of our great nation.
Mr. President and Dr. Biden, for all these and so many more reasons, we love you and we will miss you.
Tonight, we celebrate Chanukah by kindling the lights of the menorah.
Chanukah doesn't actually start for a bit, so when we sing the blessings, we're going to substitute Hashem in place of God's name.
Chanukah tells a story of our Maccabee ancestors, who upon entering the temple, That was destroyed by the Greeks, found a single cruise of oil, enough for just one night.
And it miraculously lasted for eight.
The sages asked the obvious question.
If there was enough oil for one night, then that first night technically was not a miracle.
Hanukkah should be a seven night festival.
And while explanations abound for the miracle of the first night, the one that I believe speaks most urgently to this moment is that upon entering the ruins of the temple, one imagines that our ancestors asked themselves,
how can we possibly get through this darkness?
And yet, they did not give in to despair.
They found the spiritual reserves to kindle that first light of faith.
To light the candle at all.
That was the miracle of the first night.
A greater miracle perhaps than all the other days combined.
As did our ancestors in their day.
So too in our own.
Tonight we have entered this house and we light the candle choosing hope over despair and light over darkness.
Committed to bringing miracles into our world.
Please join me in reciting the three blessings, loud and proud, followed by Ma 'o Sur.