As you already know, the assassin’s bullet came within a quarter of an inch of taking my life. So many people have asked me, “What happened? Tell us what happened, please.” And therefore, I will tell you exactly what happened, and you’ll never hear it from me a second time because it’s actually too painful to tell. It was a warm, beautiful day in the early evening in Butler Township in the great Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Music was loudly playing, and the campaign was doing really well. I went to the stage, and the crowd was cheering wildly. Everybody was happy. I began speaking very strongly, powerfully, and happily because I was discussing the great job my administration did on immigration at the southern border. We were very proud of it. Behind me and to the right was a large screen that was displaying a chart of border crossings under my leadership. The numbers were absolutely amazing. In order to see the chart, I started to, like this, turn to my right and was ready to begin a little bit further turn, which I’m very lucky I didn’t do, when I heard a loud whizzing sound and felt something hit me really, really hard on my right ear. I said to myself, “Wow, what was that? It can only be a bullet,” and moved my right hand to my ear, brought it down. My hand was covered with blood, just absolutely blood all over the place. I immediately knew it was very serious that we were under attack. And in one movement proceeded to drop to the ground. Bullets were continuing to fly as very brave Secret Service agents rushed to the stage. And they really did; they rushed to the stage. These are great people at great risk, I will tell you, and pounced on top of me so that I would be protected. There was blood pouring everywhere, and yet, in a certain way, I felt very safe because I had God on my side. I felt that. The amazing thing is that prior to the shot, if I had not moved my head at that very last instant, the assassin’s bullet would have perfectly hit its mark, and I would not be here tonight. We would not be together. The most incredible aspect of what took place on that terrible evening in the fading sun was actually seen later. In almost all cases, as you probably know, when even a single bullet is fired, just a single bullet, and we had many bullets that were being fired, crowds run for the exits or stampede, but not in this case. It was very unusual. This massive crowd of tens of thousands of people stood by and didn’t move an inch. In fact, many of them bravely but automatically stood up looking for where the sniper would be. They knew immediately it was a sniper and then began pointing at him. You can see that if you look at the group behind me. That was just a small group compared to what was in front. Nobody ran, and by not stampeding, many lives were saved. But that isn’t the reason that they didn’t move. The reason is that they knew I was in very serious trouble. They saw it. They saw me go down. They saw the blood and thought, actually most did, that I was dead. They knew it was a shot to the head. They saw the blood. And there’s an interesting statistic: the ears are the bloodiest part. If something happens with the ears, they bleed more than any other part of the body. For whatever reason, the doctors told me that. They said, “Why is there so much blood?” He said, “It’s the ears. They bleed more.” So we learned something. But they just… they just… this beautiful crowd, they didn’t want to leave me. They knew I was in trouble. They didn’t want to leave me. And you can see that love written all over their faces. Incredible people. They’re incredible people. Bullets were flying over us, yet I felt serene. But now the Secret Service agents were putting themselves in peril. They were in very dangerous territory. Bullets were flying right over them, missing them by a very small amount of inches. And then it all stopped. Our Secret Service sniper, from a much greater distance and with only one bullet used, took the assassin’s life, took him out. I’m not supposed to be here tonight. Not supposed to be here. Thank you. But I’m not. And I’ll tell you, I stand before you in this arena only by the grace of Almighty God. In watching the reports over the last few days, many people say it was a providential moment. Probably was. I was in a closed area, surrounded by Secret Service. The crowd was confused because they thought I was dead. And there was great, great sorrow. I could see that on their faces as I looked out...

Hello, everyone. Well, I must say I’m very impressed with this meeting room. It’s amazing. I feel like I’m in a waterfall. It’s really lovely here, and that was an incredible performance. So, I must say I’m quite delighted to be here this morning, talking to you and experiencing this wonderful event and everything that Indonesia has to offer. It’s amazing being here in Bali and Indonesia. Hopefully, everyone saw the mangrove forests because those are very impressive. It’s several hundred thousand acres of mangroves that I think have been replanted, if I recall correctly. There are a lot of great things happening in Indonesia and the rest of the world. Overall, I would say I’m quite sort of optimistic for the future. I think we should never be complacent or entitled, but I do think that if we are not complacent and entitled, the future will actually be great for the world. I think we’re headed to a bright future overall. With respect to water, I’ve always thought we call Earth “Earth,” but actually, Earth is 70% water by surface area. Technically, I think if aliens came here and a lot of people think aliens have come here because they’re always asking me about aliens, they would name us “Water” because we are 70% water and only 30% land. What that means is the potential for solving any given water issue is extremely good because there is so much water. There’s obviously desalination required at times and the transport of water, but desalination, as I think most people know, has become very inexpensive. So really, the availability of fresh water is simply about energy and transport. When I talk to even very well-read, very smart people in the United States, they will often think, “Well, the water crisis is unsolvable,” but in fact, it is very solvable, and we are continuing breakthroughs in the efficiency of desalination. I think we’ve got a great water future ahead of us, and I think a great sustainable energy future ahead of us. As I mentioned, because the cost of desalination has dropped so much, if you’re just talking about water for individual consumption or water in, say, a hydroponics facility… we’re not simply putting it on the ground for crops but actually have some sort of contained facility that minimizes the amount of evaporation. I think you can basically turn any part of the world green, including the entire world. So it just begs the question of where does the energy come from, and here’s where I think solar energy is very much underestimated in terms of its capability. If you think about what the Earth would be without the sun, the Earth would be a frozen dark ice ball at roughly three degrees above absolute zero. It would be quite unpleasant, very cold and dark, but because of the sun, we are at quite a nice temperature, quite pleasant, roughly 300 degrees above absolute zero. The sun powers almost the entire ecosystem; it is solar-powered. When you say, “Well, how much land would it take to generate electricity?” There’s a gigawatt per square kilometer of solar radiation that reaches the surface. For every square kilometer, there’s a peak power of roughly a gigawatt, which is comparable to a power station. Now, the sun doesn’t shine all the time, obviously, so when you net all of that out and say, “Well, how much energy per day does one square kilometer yield?” it’s roughly one gigawatt hour per square kilometer per day, which is still a lot. If you do the rough math to power the United States, which is a heavy user of electricity, it would take less than a 200 kilometer by 200 kilometer solar array to power the entire United States. If you drive through the United States, there are plenty of sections of the United States where there are basically no people. Or another way to think of it is a small section of the Sahara could power all of Europe or the world. I’m not saying you would be so concentrated in the placement of solar power because it’s better to be more distributed, but the sheer magnitude of solar power that is available is often not quite understood. But the math of it is very clear. ...

Our nation with this election has a precious, fleeting opportunity to move past the bitterness, cynicism, and divisive battles of the past, a chance to chart a new way forward. Not as members of any one party or faction, but as Americans. And let me say, I know there are people of various political views watching tonight, and I want you to know, I promise to be a president for all Americans. You can always trust me to put country above party and self, to hold sacred America’s fundamental principles from the rule of law to free and fair elections to the peaceful transfer of power. I will be a president who unites us around our highest aspirations, a president who leads and listens, who is realistic, practical, and has common sense, and always fights for the American people. From the courthouse to the White House, that has been my life’s work. As a young courtroom prosecutor in Oakland, California, I stood up for women and children against predators who abused them. As Attorney General of California, I took on the big banks, delivered $20 billion for middle-class families who faced foreclosure, and helped pass a homeowner bill of rights, one of the first of its kind in the nation. I stood up for veterans and students being scammed by big for-profit colleges, for workers who were being cheated out of the wages they were due, for seniors facing elder abuse. I fought against the cartels who traffic in guns and drugs and human beings, who threaten the security of our border and the safety of our communities. And I will tell you, these fights were not easy, and neither were the elections that put me in those offices. We were underestimated at practically every turn, but we never gave up, because the future is always worth fighting for. And that’s the fight we are in right now, a fight for America’s future. Fellow Americans, this election is not only the most important of our lives, it is one of the most important in the life of our nation. In many ways, Donald Trump is an unserious man, but the consequences of putting Donald Trump back in the White House are extremely serious. Consider not only the chaos and calamity when he was in office, but also the gravity of what has happened since he lost the last election. Donald Trump tried to throw away your votes. When he failed, he sent an armed mob to the United States Capitol, where they assaulted law enforcement officers. When politicians in his own party begged him to call off the mob and send help, he did the opposite. He fanned the flames. And now, for an entirely different set of crimes, he was found guilty of fraud by a jury of everyday Americans and separately found liable for committing sexual abuse. And consider what he intends to do if we give him power again. Consider his explicit intent to set free violent extremists who assaulted those law enforcement officers at the Capitol, his explicit intent to jail journalists, political opponents, and anyone he sees as the enemy, his explicit intent to deploy our active duty military against our own citizens. Consider the power he will have, especially after the United States Supreme Court just ruled that he would be immune from criminal prosecution. Just imagine Donald Trump with no guardrails and how he would use the immense powers of the presidency of the United States, not to improve your life, not to strengthen our national security, but to serve the only client he has ever had, himself. And we know what a second Trump term would look like. It’s all laid out in Project 2025, written by his closest advisors, and its sum total is to pull our country back to the past. But America, we are not going back. We are not going back. We are not going back.

You've been doing this for years. For years, you've been coming in public and testifying under oath that there's absolutely no link. Your product is wonderful. The science is nascent. Full speed ahead. While internally, you know full well your product is a disaster for teenagers. And yet, you keep right on doing what you're doing. Right? That's not true. That's not true. Chairman Durbin, Ranking Member Graham, and members of the committee, every day teens and young people do amazing things on our services. These are apps to create new things, express themselves, explore the world around them, and feel more connected to the people they care about. Overall, teens tell us that this is a positive part of their lives but some face challenges online. So we work hard to provide parents and teens support and controls to reduce potential harms. Being a parent is one of the hardest jobs in the world. Technology gives us new ways to communicate with our kids and feel connected to their lives, but it can also make parenting more complicated. And it's important to me that our services are positive for everyone who uses them. We are on the side of parents everywhere, working hard to raise their kids. Over the last eight years, we've built more than 30 different tools, resources, and features. Parents can set time limits for their teens using our apps, see who they're following, or if they report someone for bullying. For teens, we've added nudges to remind them when they've been using Instagram for a while or if it's getting late and they should go to sleep, as well as ways to hide words or people finding out. We put special restrictions on teen accounts on Instagram. By default, accounts for under 16s are set to private, have the most restrictive content settings, and can't be messaged by adults that they don't follow or people they aren't connected to. With so much of our lives spent on mobile devices and social media, it's important to look into the effects on teen mental health and well-being. I take this very seriously. Mental health is a complex issue, and the existing body of scientific work has not shown a causal link between using social media and young people having worse mental health outcomes. A recent National Academies of Science report evaluated over 300 studies and found that research, quote, "did not support the conclusion that social media causes changes in adolescent mental health at the population level." End quote. It also suggested that social media can provide significant positive benefits when young people use it to express themselves, explore, and connect with others. Still, we're gonna continue to monitor the research and use it to inform our roadmap. Keeping young people safe online has been a challenge since the internet began, and as criminals evolve their tactics, we have to evolve our defenses too. We work closely with law enforcement to find bad actors and help bring them to justice, but the difficult reality is that no matter how much we invest or how effective our tools are, there are always more there's always more to learn and more improvements to make. But we remain ready to work with members of this committee, industry, and parents to make the internet safer for everyone. I'm proud of the work that our teams do to improve online child safety on our services and across the entire internet. We have around 40,000 people overall working on safety and security, and we've invested more than $20 billion in this since 2016, including around $5 billion in the last year alone. We have many teams dedicated to child safety and teen well-being, and we lead the industry in a lot of the areas that we're discussing today. We build technology to tackle the worst online risks and share it to help our whole industry get better, like Project Lantern, which helps companies share data about people who break child safety rules, and we're founding members of Take It Down, a platform which helps young people prevent their nude images from being spread online. We also go beyond legal requirements and use sophisticated technology to proactively discover abusive material. And as a result, we find and report more inappropriate content than anyone else in the industry. As the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children put it this week, META goes, quote, "above and beyond to make sure that there are no portions of their network where this type of activity occurs." End quote. ...