After 85 days of silence, Joe Biden returns to the public stage. A thank-you speech became sharp criticism of the current Trump government.
Bastian Brauns reports from Washington
85 days have passed since Joe Biden left the White House. 85 days in which America and the rest of the world hardly had a moment to take a deep breath. With “Trump-Speed”, as the press spokeswoman for the current US President likes to say, the new government has set itself up at the radical renovation and dismantling of numerous authorities and ministries. In addition, there are questionable mass deportations, the growing social division and a great economic uncertainty as a result of chaotic customs policy.
But on Tuesday evening, all this noise seemed to fall silent in a simple hall in Chicago at least for a moment.
Joe Biden, the 46th President of the United States, returned to public life for the first time since the end of his office. In front of a hall full of human and disabled rights activists, Trump’s predecessor gave a speech that was not only political, but also emotionally performed.
Biden didn’t speak quickly. He stumbled across his words, he repeated himself, occasionally wandered off. Nevertheless, Joe Biden showed that despite teleprompter he understood what he spoke of. It was an appearance like from past times.
We were officially a thank -you speech before the disabled organization “Advocates, Counselors and Representative for the Disabled”, which Joe Biden honored for his many years of merit in social policy. But the former president quickly turned them into one of the sharpest attacks that have been on the current Trump government for weeks. Biden attacked the drastic cuts and restructuring at the social security authority (social security administration) particularly strongly. The topic of social justice remains a home game for bidges even after 50 years in politics.
“In less than 100 days, this new government has caused so much damage and destruction – that is really breathtaking,” said Biden. “You literally created the ax to the social security authorities.” He waived general places and described in concrete examples of how around 7,000 experienced employees had been released and how technical failures already made millions of seniors and people with disabilities impossible to get their services.
“The website just crashes,” said Biden. “People can no longer register. They are wrongly informed that their services have been hired.” And further: “Imagine the panic of a pensioner who lives alone and is simply dependent on her social security payment. How is she supposed to sleep at night?” Said Biden.
The sentence, which probably got stuck with the audience, was the one who quoted bidges from the tech industry: “Move Fast and Break Things”, which means: “Act quickly and break things”. The Trump government supported by Elon Musk would be based on this motto, Biden said. “They want to destroy it (the social system) to rob it,” he said, accusing the Republicans to specifically weaken public institutions in order to then justify massive tax reliefs for super -rich.
“They want to make tax cuts permanently for the rich,” said Biden. “That will cost us $ 5 trillion. And where should this money come from? From social insurance and from Medicaid.” Then he asked a rhetorical question: “What the hell do these people actually believe who they are?” People who had paid into these systems would now be portrayed by the Trump government as a fraudster and parasite.
When Biden referred to a appearance by Trump’s Minister of Commerce, the billionaire Howard Lutnick, he became particularly clear. He had played possible delays in social security payments in an interview with the remark that his 94-year-old mother-in-law would not complain about it. Biden was stunned: “No wonder – her son -in -law is a billionaire.” It was a classic bidden – half outrage, half Irish ridicule – but with a clear moral core. “It’s not just about money,” he said. “It’s about people. It’s about a promise.” A promise that has existed in America for almost a hundred years.
