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Biden's first post-White House speech: Former prez ‘rambles’ over blaring music, slams Trump | Video
Joe Biden slammed the Trump administration’s approach to Social Security during his first speech since leaving office, often speaking in a hushed tone.
Former president Joe Biden slammed the Trump administration’s approach to Social Security during his first speech since leaving office. Biden spoke in Chicago for roughly a half hour before disability advocates on Tuesday, April 15, referring to President Donald Trump as “this guy” instead of his name. He often spoke in a hushed and subdued tone.
Social media posts referred to Biden's speech as “incoherent rambling.”
Biden started speaking while the music was still playing. He blasted Trump’s tenure at the White House so far saying that in “fewer than 100 days, this new administration has made so much ... damage and so much destruction. It’s kind of breathtaking.”
‘Why are these guys taking aim at Social Security now?’
Calling out the Trump administration’s approach towards social security, Biden said, “You’ve got to ask yourself: Why is this happening? Why are these guys taking aim at Social Security now?”
“Well, they’re following that old line from tech startups. The quote is: Move fast, break things. And they’re certainly breaking things. They’re shooting first and aiming later. The result is a lot of needless pain and sleepless nights,” he added.
Biden quoted former Governor Martin O’Malley of Maryland as saying, “They want to wreck it so they can rob it.” He accused the Republicans of using government cuts to fund tax rebates for billionaires and big business.
Biden went on to point out that there was still broad support for Social Security. He said, “The vast majority of Americans, including many wealthy Americans, still support – thank God – Social Security, and very wealthy billionaires still support social security. They may not rely on themselves, but they know – they know – Social Security deserves to be protected for the good of the nation as a whole.”
Biden also criticised Republican efforts to extend the 2017 tax cuts passed during Trump’s first term, warning that Republicans can only afford to extend those cuts by “running up the deficit” and “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,” Biden said.
‘And I remember seeing kids going by, at the time called ‘colored kids’'
During his speech, Bidenreferred to black children as “colored kids” while explaining what motivated him to get involved in politics. He used the outdated term, which is considered offensive, while talking about his childhood move from Scranton, Pennsylvania, to Wilmington, Delaware, noting that he had “never seen hardly any black people” before his family relocated to The First State.
“I was only going in fourth grade,” Biden said, recalling his mother driving him to Catholic school in Wilmington. “And I remember seeing kids going by, at the time called ‘colored kids,’ on a bus go by — they never turned right to go to Claymont High School.”
Biden added that the fact that black children were not allowed to attend public school with white kids “sparked my sense of outrage as a kid.”
At the end of his speech, Biden called for unity, which was the defining message of his 2020 presidential run. “It can’t go on like this,” he said. “It’s never been this divided.”
White House spokesman Steven Cheung blasted Biden following the speech, saying the former president’s "incoherent speech" showed he had a "feeble mind" in a "rapid decline to new lows." "President Trump has repeatedly promised to protect Social Security and ensure higher take-home pay for seniors by ending the taxation of Social Security benefits. Anybody saying otherwise is either stupid or an all-out liar, or both in Biden’s case," Cheung said, according to NBC News.
