Former US President Joe Biden returned made a public appearance after months on Tuesday night, delivering a pointed rebuke of Donald Trump’s handling of Social Security, calling it “breathtaking” but not in a positive way.
Speaking at a disability advocacy conference in Chicago, the 82-year-old Democrat accused Donald Trump of inflicting deep damage on a critical safety net relied upon by more than 70 million Americans.
“In fewer than 100 days, this new administration has done so much damage and so much destruction. It’s kind of breathtaking,” Biden told the audience of roughly 200 at the national conference of Advocates, Counselors and Representatives for the Disabled.
“They’ve taken a hatchet to the Social Security Administration,” Biden added.
Biden’s first public appearance since exiting White House
Joe Biden, whose appearance came as Democrats across the country launched a coordinated “Social Security Day of Action” with the aim of spotlighting what they call a systematic dismantling of the programme under Donald Trump, marked his first major public speech since he left office in January, following his failed reelection campaign.
While largely sticking to his prepared comments, Biden also shared personal anecdotes about his working-class upbringing and repeatedly referred to as “this guy” at Trump, who, for his part, continues to name-check and blame Biden for a range of national challenges.
“We can’t go on like this as a divided nation, as divided as we are,” Biden said. “As I said, I’ve been doing this a long time. It’s never been this divided. Granted, it’s roughly 30 per cent, but it’s a 30 per cent that has no heart.”
‘His bedtime…’: White House’s swipe at Biden
The above-mentioned remark drew immediate backlash from conservatives, who framed it as an attack on Trump’s voter base. A spokesperson for Biden did not immediately clarify the comment.
Taking a swipe at the former president’s age and stamina, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt commented on Biden’s nighttime speech.
“I’m shocked that he is speaking at nighttime,” she said during the day’s briefing. “I thought his bedtime was much earlier than his speech tonight,” AP quoted Leavitt.
Leavitt also pointed to a new memorandum Donald Trump signed on Tuesday, aimed at cracking down on Social Security fraud, a directive which will extend the agency’s fraud prosecutor programme to at least 50 US attorney offices and establish new Medicare and Medicaid fraud teams in 15 more.
In an unusual move, the Social Security Administration responded directly to Biden’s comments on its official X account, saying: “Former President Joe Biden is lying to Americans.”
The Donald Trump administration has trigerred controversy with its swift workforce reductions, including thousands of layoffs at the Social Security Administration. The agency is also under fire for allowing Trump adviser Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to access citizens’ personal Social Security data—part of broader, contested efforts to implement tighter identity checks.
Billionaire Elon Musk, one of Trump’s closest advisers, has previously called Social Security “the biggest Ponzi scheme of all time.”
