By David Wright, Tami Luhby and Arlette Saenz, CNN
(CNN) — Former President Joe Biden offered his first public critique of President Donald Trump’s second term Tuesday, painting the Trump administration’s handling of the Social Security Administration as destructive.
“Look what’s happened now. Fewer than 100 days, this new administration has made so – done so much damage and so much destruction. It’s kind of breathtaking it could happen that soon,” the former president said in his first public remarks since leaving office earlier this year.
Biden never mentioned Trump by name but warned against cuts and changes underway at the Social Security Administration and accused the current administration of taking a “hatchet” to the organization.
The agency is undergoing a massive reorganization – including slashing staff and changing policies – led by tech billionaire Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency. Concerned Americans have been flooding Social Security’s phone lines and field offices, concerned that their benefits are at risk.
“There’s 7,000 employees, 7,000 out the door in that time. Including the most seasoned career officials. Now they’re getting ready to push thousands more out the door,” Biden said.
And without explicitly mentioning Musk – who is leading the charge to slash the federal workforce and spending throughout the government – Biden criticized a culture he likened to “tech startups” in the new administration.
“They’re following that old line from tech startups – the quote is, ‘move fast, break things.’ Well they’re certainly breaking things. They’re shooting first and aiming later. And as a result, the result is a lot of needless pain and sleepless nights,” the former president said.
And while the president delivered a call for unity in his remarks, warning that the nation has “never been this divided,” he included a sharp barb at a “thirty percent” of the country that he said have “no heart.”
“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 thirty percent, but it’s a thirty percent that has no heart. It’s what we see in America. It’s what we believe in. Fairness. And that’s the America we can never forget or walk away from,” Biden said.
Biden spoke at the national conference of Advocates, Counselors and Representatives for the Disabled (ACRD) in Chicago, where he alternated between forceful condemnation of Republican policymaking and a defense of the entitlement program, which provides benefits to more than 73 million people with disabilities, retired Americans and others.
He criticized the effects of the personnel cuts at the agency, saying that “already we can see the effects, for example, thousands of people who use the Social Security website every single day to check on their benefits and submit their claims. But now, the technology division of the Social Security administration has been cut in half. And so the website’s crashing. People can’t sign onto their accounts. What do you think it does?”
Biden also accused Republicans of purposely wrecking the agency so they can “rob” Social Security’s trust fund to secure funding for an extension of tax cuts passed during the first Trump administration.
“You’ve got to ask yourself, why is this happening? Why are these guys taking aim at Social Security now?” Biden asked. “They want to wreck it so they can rob it.”
He went on, “And 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 benefited the wealthiest Americans and the biggest corporations. That’s going to cost $5 trillion. Where are they gonna get $5 trillion to pay for it. Well they’re going to continue to run the deficit up. What they always do, by running up the national debt, number one. And then by taking the money from someplace else.”
The Social Security Administration quickly responded to Biden’s remarks, accusing him of “lying” in a series of posts on X.
The agency posted that Trump has “repeatedly promised to protect Social Security” and wants to end taxation on benefits to boost seniors’ income. It denied that half of its technology team has been laid off and said it invested $16.5 million to modernize phone services.
Also, it noted that the agency’s inspector general found $72 billion in improper payments between fiscal years 2015 and 2022 and that more than 2 million “illegal aliens” were assigned Social Security numbers in the most recent fiscal year. (Immigrants receive Social Security numbers when they gain work authorization.)
Biden also peppered his remarks with jokes, making several sarcastic references to his age, which emerged as a key issue in the 2024 presidential campaign before he suspended his bid and turned over the Democratic nomination to Vice President Kamala Harris.
“By the way, those 300-year-old folk getting that Social Security, I want to meet them, because I’d like to figure out how they do that,” he said at one point, referencing viral claims of Social Security fraud that have flourished on social media as the Trump administration pursues its cuts. “Hell of a thing man, I’m looking for longevity. Cause it’s hell when you turn 40 years old.”
And he joked about his own history working on the Americans With Disabilities Act, for which he was being honored at the conference. “As a United States Senator 400 years ago – I was looking back on it, god almighty, I’ve been doing this 50 years – it’s hell turning 40 years old,” Biden said.
Biden’s speech came as many Democrats stage a national day of action against feared cuts to the program, with protests planned across the country.
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