Former President Joe Biden on Thursday accused President Donald Trump and his administration of “trying to dismantle the constitution.”
At the National Bar Association’s 100th Annual Awards Gala, Biden said the Trump White House is “doing its best” to pursue the nation’s core principles, saying “they have often done it with the help of Congress, which was made possible by the Supreme Court in the country.”
The speech reflected the theme of “the soul of the nation” in Biden’s 2020 and 2024 presidential elections.
“There are moments in our country’s life that are so harsh that they divide everything that has come before from everything. It is moments where we stand up to the harsh truths about ourselves, our institutions, our democracy itself,” Biden said in a speech on July 31. “We, in my view, are these moments in American history.”
The former president also swiped through the law firm that had dealt with the Trump administration and said he was “bent towards a bully.”
Biden, who accepted the association’s C. Francis Stradford Award, called on the room’s lawyers to protect the rule of law.
“It means taking a client who can’t write a big check but needs protection of basic fundamental rights. It means signing on to that simple thing that may attract the rage of people in power, but you know it’s right,” Biden said.
Biden and Obama contrast with Trump’s reaction
Biden’s remarks came more than a week after former President Barack Obama issued a statement in response to a charge of Trump’s treason and the AI-generated video posting of President 44th’s arrest.
The statement stemming from the spokesman called Trump’s comments “a ridiculous, weak attempt at distraction” from the ongoing controversy over the Trump administration’s handling of sex offender Jeffrey Epstein’s crime files.
Trump has his own share of criticism of Biden, both recently and in the past. In April, Trump blamed his predecessor on the poor economy, saying, “This is Biden’s stock market, not Trump’s stock,” adding, “We need to get rid of Biden’s Overhan.”
At a 2022 rally in Arizona, Trump said “Biden has completely humiliated our country.”
In a rare post-presidential public appearance on Thursday evening, Biden said the Trump administration’s “difficult truth” “sought to erase fairness, equality and justice itself.”
Biden’s remarks repeated his first post-president speech in April, accusing Trump of “taking hatch” to the Social Security Agency.
