CHICAGO – Former President Joe Biden returns to the nationwide stage Tuesday to raise liberal issues that President Donald Trump’s agenda is threatening the well being of Social Safety.
The 82-year-old Democrat has largely prevented talking publicly since leaving the White Home in January, which is often the custom for rapid previous presidents. That is whilst Trump steadily blames Biden for most of the nation’s issues, typically attacking his predecessor by title.
Biden is predicted to combat again in an early night speech to the nationwide convention of Advocates, Counselors and Representatives for the Disabled in Chicago. Whereas Biden has made a handful of public appearances in latest weeks, Tuesday’s high-profile deal with focuses on a important problem for tens of thousands and thousands of Individuals that would outline subsequent 12 months’s midterm elections.
“That is an all arms on deck second, which is why President Biden’s voice on this second is so necessary,” Democratic Home chief Hakeem Jeffries mentioned in a name with reporters forward of Biden’s speech.
NEW YORK, NEW YORK – MARCH 23: Former U.S. President Joe Biden and Jill Biden (L) arrive to the opening of “Othello” on Broadway on the Ethel Barrymore Theatre on March 23, 2025 in New York Metropolis. (Photograph by James Devaney/GC Pictures)
White Home press secretary Karoline Leavitt, in the meantime, took a shot on the former president’s age when requested about his speech.
“I’m shocked that he’s talking at nighttime,” Leavitt mentioned throughout Tuesday’s White Home press briefing. “I assumed his bedtime was a lot sooner than his speech tonight.”
She mentioned that Trump, who’s 78 years previous, would signal a presidential memorandum Tuesday afternoon “geared toward stopping unlawful aliens, and different ineligible individuals, from acquiring” Social Safety advantages. The memorandum will broaden the Social Safety Administration’s fraud prosecutor program to at the very least 50 U.S. lawyer workplaces, and set up Medicare and Medicaid fraud prosecution packages in 15 U.S. lawyer workplaces, Leavitt mentioned.
Regardless of such strikes, the Social Safety Administration has been stricken by controversy underneath Trump’s management.
The Republican president nearly instantly started slashing the federal government workforce upon his return to the White Home, together with 1000’s of staff on the Social Safety Administration.
Together with a deliberate layoff of seven,000 staff and contentious plans to impose tighter identity-proofing measures for recipients, the SSA has been sued over a choice to permit Trump adviser Elon Musk’s Division of Authorities Effectivity to entry people’ Social Safety numbers and different personally identifiable info.
Musk, the world’s richest man and one in all Trump’s most influential advisers, has known as Social Safety “the most important Ponzi scheme of all time.”
On the identical time, Social Safety recipients have complained about lengthy name wait occasions because the company’s “my Social Safety” advantages portal has seen a rise in outages. People who obtain Supplemental Safety Earnings, together with disabled seniors and low-income adults and youngsters, additionally reported receiving a discover that mentioned they have been “not receiving advantages.”
The company mentioned the discover was a mistake. And the White Home has vowed that it could not lower Social Safety advantages, saying any modifications are supposed to scale back waste and fraud.
Biden will likely be joined in Chicago by a bipartisan group of former elected officers, together with former Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., former Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., and former Social Safety Administrator Martin O’Malley.
“Social Safety is a sacred promise between generations,” O’Malley mentioned. “We’re deeply grateful to the President for becoming a member of us at ACRD to debate how we will preserve that promise for all Individuals.”
Biden is just not anticipated to make frequent public appearances as he transitions into his post-presidency. He nonetheless maintains an workplace in Washington, however has returned to Delaware as his common residence base. Trump has revoked his safety clearances.
Whereas Biden could also be able to assist his occasion with fundraising and messaging, he left the White Home with weak approval scores. Biden additionally faces blame from some progressives who argue he should not have sought a second time period. Biden ended his reelection bid after his disastrous debate efficiency in opposition to Trump and made manner for then-Vice President Kamala Harris, who misplaced to Trump within the fall.
Simply 39% of Individuals had a positive opinion of Biden in January, in accordance with a Gallup ballot taken shortly after Trump’s inauguration.
Views of the Democratic former president have been primarily unchanged from a Gallup ballot taken shortly after the November election. They broadly monitor with the steadily low favorability scores that Biden skilled all through the second half of his presidential time period.
