Former President Joe Biden called those “dark days” as he urged Americans to remain sanguine and not let up amid what he said were attacks on free speech and President Donald Trump’s testing of the limits of executive power.
“Since its founding, America has served as a beacon for the most powerful idea of government ever in the history of the world,” Biden said. “The idea is stronger than any army. We are more powerful than any dictator.”
Biden, 82, spoke publicly to an audience in Boston on Sunday evening for the first time since completing radiation therapy for an aggressive form of prostate cancer after receiving the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Edward M. Kennedy Institute.
He said America depends on a presidency with confined powers, a functioning Congress and an autonomous judiciary. With the federal government facing its second-longest shutdown ever, Trump has used the funding rounds to exert up-to-date power over the government.
“Friends, I can’t sugarcoat any of this. These are dark days,” Biden said, before predicting that the country would “rediscover its true compass” and “emerge as we always have – stronger, wiser and more resilient, more just, as long as we keep the faith.”
Biden listed examples of people standing up to the current administration’s threats, citing federal workers resigning in protest as well as universities and comedians who were targeted by Trump.
“The late-night hosts continue to champion free speech knowing their careers are at stake,” he said.
Biden also appealed to Republican elected officials who vote against or openly oppose the Trump administration.
“America is not a fairy tale,” he said. “For 250 years it has been a constant back and forth, an existential struggle between danger and possibility.”
He ended the speech by asking people to “get back up.”
The Democrat left office in January after serving one term in the White House. Biden dropped his re-election bid after coming under pressure following a disastrous debate against Trump and concerns about his age, health and mental fitness. Vice President Kamala Harris launched her candidacy immediately afterward, but lost to Trump last November.
In May, Biden’s post-presidency announced that he had been diagnosed with prostate cancer and that it had spread to his bones.
Prostate cancer is classified according to its aggressiveness using the so-called Gleason score. The scores range from 6 to 10, with prostate cancer behaving more aggressively at 8, 9 and 10. Biden’s office said his score was 9.
