Former President Joe Biden took shots at the Trump administration’s Social Security policies in his first major speech since leaving the White House on Tuesday evening.
“Seriously, people are now genuinely concerned for the first time in history, for the first and only time in history, that Social Security benefits may be delayed or interrupted,” Biden said from the Advocates, Counselors and Representatives for the Disabled (ACRD) conference in Chicago on Tuesday evening.
“In the 90 years since Franklin Roosevelt created the Social Security system, people have always gotten their Social Security checks. They’ve gotten them during wartime, during recessions, during the pandemic. No matter what, they got them. But now, for the first time ever, that might change. It would be a calamity for millions of families, millions of people,” he added.
The ACRD conference was billed as the 46th president’s first public speech since leaving the White House. Biden, however, has delivered other public remarks since Jan. 20, Fox Digital found, including speaking before the National High School Model United Nations in March, which received little media attention, as well as joining an International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers event this month.
ACRD is an advocacy organization that works to equip “disability professionals with the tools, technology, and training to lead the industry forward,” according to its website.
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Biden’s keynote address, which ran less than an hour, overwhelmingly focused on his accomplishments with Social Security when he was president, taking aim at how the Trump administration is allegedly keeping the elderly up at night with worry over their Social Security benefits, as well as cracking a few jokes about his decades in politics.
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“Why are these guys taking aim at Social Security now?” Biden asked, referring to the Trump administration. “Well, they’re following that old line from tech startups. The quote is, ‘Move fast, break things.’ They’re certainly breaking things. They’re shooting first and aiming later.”
“The result is a lot of needless pain and sleepless nights,” Biden said.
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The Trump administration has cut about 7,000 Social Security Administration staffers since taking office as part of its mission to cut government fat and bureaucracy and realign agencies with “America First” policies. Democrats have slammed President Donald Trump over the cuts, claiming he will cut Social Security benefits to seniors.
The White House has repeatedly rejected claims that the Trump administration will cut such benefits, vowing to “always protect” Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid benefits.
Biden continued that the Trump administration is allegedly looking to “wreck” Social Security to “rob it.”
“My friend, [Maryland] Gov. [Martin] O’Malley, knows what they’re really up to. He says, and I love his quote, ‘They want to wreck it so they could rob it.’ They want to wreck it so they could rob it. Why do they want to rob it? In order to deliver huge tax cuts to billionaires and big corporations and keep it going. They want to make permanent the 2017 tax cuts, which overwhelmingly benefits the wealthiest Americans and the biggest corporations. That’s going to cost $5 trillion. Where are they going to get $5 trillion to pay for when they continue to run the deficit up?”
“What they always do … by running up the national debt, No. 1, then by taking the money from someplace else. What are the two big pots of money out there in raw numbers? Social Security and Medicaid. … Republicans, these guys are willing to hurt the middle class and the working class in order to deliver significant, greater wealth to their already very wealthy [friends]. Who in the hell do they think they are?” he said.
Former Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., and former Democrat Social Security Administrator and Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley joined the event. O’Malley presented Biden with ACRD’s “beacon of hope award” for his accomplishments as president, including his leadership during the COVID-19 pandemic and fighting for the “dignity of every person.”
Biden added that the nation is “divided” under Trump and can’t continue on the same path.
“We can’t go on like this as a divided nation, as divided as we are. I said, I’ve been doing this a long time, it’s never been this divided. Granted, it’s roughly 30%, but it’s a 30% that has no heart,” he continued.
The Trump administration’s official Social Security X account hit back after the speech that “Biden is lying to Americans” before providing a detailed list of “facts,” including that Trump has repeatedly pledged to protect benefits and that no field office has been closed since Jan. 20.
“SSA is taking commonsense steps to transform how we serve the public – last month, we spent $16.5 million to modernize telephone services nationwide. We’re developing cutting-edge, AI-powered tools to streamline simple tasks,” the thread continued. “SSA Inspector General report released while Joe Biden was President found $72 billion in improper payments from fiscal years 2015 through 2022.”
The event comes as political books investigating the 2024 campaign cycle hit the shelves, including “Uncharted: How Trump Beat Biden, Harris, and the Odds in the Wildest Campaign in History” and “FIGHT: Inside the Wildest Battle for the White House.”
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Excerpts from Chris Whipple’s “Uncharted” reported that White House staffers allegedly kept Biden from socializing with others, including close allies and friends, out of fear the 46th president “might say the wrong thing or might feed the mental acuity narrative.” He also appeared “absolutely exhausted” ahead of his ill-fated debate against Trump in June, according to the book, which opened the floodgates to public concern over Biden’s mental acuity as he tripped over his words and lost his train of thought during the debate.
Biden has been spending his days in both Delaware and the nation’s capital since his Oval Office exit, with the 46th president working on his own book while also meeting with various Democratic Party leaders, NBC News reported in March.
