Remarks by the Vice President on Departure from West Columbia, South Carolina

THE VICE PRESIDENT: It's good to be back in South Carolina. And I spent a lot of time today with young leaders and students -- college students -- who talked about their priorities, wanting to know that their leaders, their elected leaders are going to focus and are focusing on the biggest and most pressing issues they face.

We talked extensively about the leadership that our administration has been providing on the climate crisis -- $370 billion -- and what that means in terms of not only addressing the crisis but creating the jobs that will do the work of mitigation, doing the work of doing the research so that farmers and families are not so burdened and, frankly, devastated by the extreme weather that we've been seeing.

We talked about what our administration has been doing to lower costs, be that bringing down the cost of insulin by capping it at $35 a month, to what we need to do and what we are doing to bring down energy costs.

So, all of this conversation is an important conversation about the issues that Americans really care about.

Meanwhile, in Washington, D.C., you have senators who are attempting to pass a national ban on abortion, attempting to criminalize healthcare providers, doctors for simply doing the job that they were trained and want to do, which is to deliver healthcare, including reproductive healthcare.

So there's a clear disconnect between the priorities of everyday Americans and a push to attempt to put a national ban on abortion. And we're going to have to keep doing what we know is responsible and right, which is addressing the everyday needs of folks but also respecting a woman's right to make decisions about her own body.

Thank you all.