Washington, Apr 16 (UNI) Former US President Joe Biden has warned that America is a country where “nobody’s king", as he lambasted President Donald Trump’s early actions as destructive.
In his first remarks after leaving office, Biden also warned that further Social Security cuts could affect millions of Americans.
Biden’s remarks in Chicago at the 2025 national conference of Advocates, Counselors, and Representatives for the Disabled marked his first public rebuttal of the Trump administration in the early days of his post-presidential life.
Without uttering Trump’s name, Biden called the Republican White House’s actions so far “breathtaking” in terms of their level of destruction during a 27-minute address before disability advocates at a downtown Chicago hotel.
“Fewer than 100 days, this new administration has made so — has done so much damage and so much destruction. It’s kind of breathtaking that it could happen that soon,” Biden said, NPR reported.
The former Democratic president warned the country has never been “this divided.”
“Nobody’s king. Nobody’s the boss. Everybody has a shot. All people are asking for is a shot,” Biden said. “Honesty, decency, where hard work is rewarded. Have some faith in each other. Fairness, simple fairness. We can’t go on like this as a divided nation, as divided as we are.”
Biden also responded to Musk’s claims that Social Security is a “Ponzi scheme", but referred to Trump’s influential adviser as “one of them.”
“What the hell are they talking about? People earn these benefits. They paid into that benefit. They rely on that benefit,” Biden said. “And no one, no one, no one should take it away.”
While Trump has continued to disparage Biden in the early days of his presidency, including a Truth Social on Monday which dubbed him “Crooked Joe Biden", the former Democratic president had been keeping quiet in his Trump critiques prior to Tuesday’s address.
The Social Security Administration has endured its share of controversy under Trump’s second term, including a lawsuit over Trump’s decision to allow Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, to access Social Security numbers.
Trump and Musk also slashed thousands of jobs at the SSA, with more planned — and recipients have reported massive outages on an online benefits portal.
In introducing Biden at the conference, former Social Security Administration Commissioner Martin O’Malley said Trump and Musk have “gutted the Social Security Administration with a chainsaw".
He called the Trump administration claims about dead people and illegal immigrants receiving benefits fraudulently “a big lie".
“The American people aren’t buying it,” O’Malley said. “They’re not buying it because it’s not true.”
Democrats have been sounding the alarm on potential cuts to Social Security for months, which they fear will be used to subsidize tax cuts for the wealthy. Gov. JB Pritzker last month accused Trump and Musk of gutting the Social Security Administration and requiring recipients to show up in person “to prove that they deserve to get social security.”
The Social Security Administration last month announced a plan that would have required in-person identity checks for new and existing recipients. That plan, however, was partially reversed, with the Social Security Administration saying that people who aren’t able to use an online portal can complete their claim on the phone, instead of in-person. Those changes began on April 14.
Meanwhile, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt took a jab at Biden during Tuesday’s White House briefing.
“I’m shocked that he is speaking at nighttime,” Leavitt said. “I thought his bedtime was much earlier than his speech tonight.”
UNI RN