Joseph R. Biden Jr. began his 2020 campaign on Thursday, casting it as a rescue mission for a country facing a dire threat from its elected leader, President Trump. His announcement video was a three-and-a-half minute statement of political values, and an attempt to address why a 76-year-old former vice president is now returning to the campaign trail.

Below is a transcript of the video, annotated with our observations.

Charlottesville, Va., is home to the author of one of the great documents in human history. We know it by heart: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights.”

We’ve heard it so often, it’s almost a cliché. But it’s who we are. We haven’t always lived up to these ideals; Jefferson himself didn’t. But we have never before walked away from them.