Former president Joe Biden assailed President Donald Trump and Republicans for their attacks on Social Security in his first address since leaving the White House on Tuesday.
The former president spoke to the Advocates, Counselors, and Representatives for the Disabled’s national conference, his first since he left the White House in January after President Donald Trump took office.
“Social Security is more than just a government program,” he said. “It’s a sacred promise.”
In recent months, Biden has mostly stayed away from the public eye. He left office incredibly unpopular having already had to exit the 2024 presidential election early. But many continue to attribute the loss of his former vice president Kamala Harris to Trump on Biden’s radioactive brand.
Nevertheless, Biden’s first post-presidential address since leaving Pennsylvania Avenue focused on a topic close to his heart: preserving Social Security from Republican attacks.
“They want to wreck it, so they can rob it,” he said. Biden also criticized Republicans for trying to cut not just Social Security, but Medicaid. Last week, the Republican-controlled House of Representatives passed a budget framework to begin the process to enact massive spending cuts while also extending Trump’s 2017 tax cuts.
The legislation instructs the committee that oversees Medicaid to find $880 billion worth of cuts. On Monday, House Speaker Mike Johnson opened the door to taking able-bodied workers and young men off of Medicaid, the health care program meant for low-income people, children and people with disabilities.
“What are the two big pots of money out there in raw numbers? Social Security and Medicaid,” Biden said. “These guys are willing to hurt the middle class and the working class in order to deliver significant, greater wealth to the already very wealthy. Who in the hell do they think they are?”
Biden also assailed various members of the Trump administration for their comments on Social Security.
Specifically, he pointed to Elon Musk, who leads Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency, for calling Social Security a “Ponzi scheme.”
“What the hell are they talking about?” Biden said. “People earned these benefits. They paid into that benefit. They rely on that benefit.”
Musk has also said that dead people and people who are as old as 300 years old receive benefits, which has debunked repeatedly. Rather, recipients with incomplete birth dates will default to a reference point of more than 150 years ago.
Biden, 82, used Musk’s claims to make a joke about his age, which became a pressing issue during his 2024 presidential campaign during his one debate with Trump where Biden gave a sometimes hoarse and rambling delivery.
“By the way, those 300-year-old folks on Social Security, I would like to meet them,” he joked. “Hell of thing, man. I’m looking for longevity. Because it is hell when you turn 40 years old.”
In recent weeks, Musk has sought to have DOGE explore his supposed “fraud epidemic” within the government program which provides direct payments to senior citizens. But last month, a court issued a temporary restraining order to prevent DOGE from going on a fraud “fishing expedition.”
The former president also criticized Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, who said that if his mother-in-law missed a Social Security payment, she would not complain.
“She’s probably a lovely woman,” he said. “No kidding. Her son-in-law is a billionaire. What about that 94-year old-mother that’s living all by herself?”
Biden’s delivery throughout the address was similar to his performance in his final years as president as he occasionally trailed off and whispered before going louder. That delivery that showed visible signs of his age led many Democrats in 2024 – led by former president Barack Obama, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and former House speaker Nancy Pelosi – to say that he should step aside.
His address comes as Democrats attempt to recuperate after their brutal loss where Republicans not only regained the White House but also control of the Senate.
In recent months, Democrats have sought to have newer voices, with Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez hitting the road with Sen. Bernie Sanders, an octagenerian himself, to Republican areas. Meanwhile, Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey, a more moderate Democrat, delivered a marathon 25-hour address to oppose Republican policies and show his own stamina.
