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On a rainy Tuesday afternoon, the ballroom at the Hyatt Regency in downtown Chicago was packed. Delegates, advocates, and policy wonks filled the rows, murmuring with anticipation.
For the first time since stepping down from the presidency in January, Joe Biden was about to speak publicly — and though his political chapter in the White House had closed, the gravity of his message made clear that he had no intention of retreating from public life.
“We can’t go on like this — as a divided nation,” Biden said, his voice firm yet weathered. “We’re better than this. We have to be.”
With those words, the 82-year-old former president delivered a speech that served as both a policy defense and a rallying cry. Speaking at the 2025 National Conference of Advocates, Counselors and Representatives for the Disabled (ACRD), Biden launched into a passionate critique of the Trump administration’s handling of Social Security, and offered what may be the clearest articulation yet of the existential battle Democrats believe they face in the months — and years — ahead.
Social Security was the central focus of Biden’s remarks — a program he referred to, once again, as “a sacred promise.”
He painted a dire picture of its current state, lambasting what he characterized as a full-frontal assault on the agency by President Trump’s administration and his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), a new executive initiative led by billionaire tech magnate Elon Musk.
“They’ve taken a hatchet to it,” Biden said. “They’ve gutted staffing, shuttered offices, and slashed resources like this is some kind of corporate cost-cutting operation. This isn’t a business. This is people’s lives.”
In the last three months, DOGE has overseen a reported 28% reduction in Social Security Administration (SSA) personnel, including closures of nearly 200 field offices in rural and urban communities.
The administration has justified the moves under a broader “efficiency mandate” — a Trump-era policy initiative intended to eliminate what the president deems as government “waste and duplication.”
But critics see something more calculated: an attempt to shrink government by sabotaging its essential functions.
“Trump, Musk, and their allies in Congress have made it clear — they don’t believe in Social Security,” said House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries at a news conference in D.C. earlier that day. “They want to destroy it by a thousand cuts. We won’t let them.”
At the center of the controversy is Elon Musk, now Trump’s so-called “Cost-Cutting Czar,” and head of the newly formed DOGE. The agency, which was established by executive order in February, has sweeping power to audit, reorganize, and restructure any federal department.
Musk, known for his libertarian-leaning skepticism of public institutions, has previously described Social Security as “a Ponzi scheme” on his social media platform, X. His remarks have drawn fierce backlash from both Democrats and advocacy groups, especially in light of DOGE’s sweeping reforms.
“They want to replace empathy with algorithms,” Biden said in his speech. “They think your grandma’s benefits should be managed by a chatbot.”
That comment drew laughter and applause — but the sentiment behind it was deadly serious. Several watchdog groups have warned that the technological overhaul of the SSA being piloted by DOGE could leave millions of seniors and disabled Americans confused, disenfranchised, or unable to access basic services.
“Try telling a 78-year-old in rural Kentucky to verify their identity through an app that doesn't work half the time,” said Martin O’Malley, the former Maryland governor and Biden’s Commissioner of Social Security, who introduced the former president at the event.
“This isn’t modernization. It’s marginalization.”
Biden’s speech was notable not just for its content, but for the context in which it came. Since leaving office in January — after withdrawing from the 2024 race and endorsing now-retired Senate Majority Leader Amy Klobuchar — Biden has remained largely silent in public.
Tuesday’s speech marked his first formal public appearance, and though he avoided discussing his own political future or the 2024 campaign’s painful collapse for Democrats, he made clear that his silence was not meant to be permanent.
“I may be off the stage,” he said, “but I haven’t left the fight.”
Those in the room took it as both reassurance and a call to action.
“He’s still the moral center of the party,” said Rep. Lauren Underwood (D-IL), who attended the speech. “And frankly, we need him. Because we’re dealing with an administration that is breaking every norm and institution it touches.”
In Washington, Republican lawmakers have attempted to downplay the controversy, painting Biden’s speech as partisan fearmongering. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, in a recent interview, dismissed concerns about benefit cuts.
“My mother-in-law gets Social Security,” he said. “If she missed a payment, she’d understand. We all make sacrifices.”
The quote, quickly circulated by Democratic operatives, was used by Biden — albeit without naming Lutnick directly.
“I don’t know whose mother-in-law they’re talking about,” Biden quipped. “But I can guarantee you, millions of Americans wouldn’t find a missed check very understanding.”
Biden also called out “some Republican members of Congress” for their efforts to “cut and gut” the program.
“Who the hell do they think they are?” he asked, his voice rising. “They didn’t build this program. American workers did. And now they want to tear it down from the inside?”
Tuesday also marked the kickoff of the Democratic Party’s “Save Social Security” Days of Action, spearheaded by Jeffries and the House Democratic caucus. With Congress in recess, lawmakers have returned to their districts for rallies, roundtables, and media blitzes to mobilize public opposition to the Trump administration’s actions.
“We face an unprecedented assault on the basic promise of retirement security in America,” Jeffries said. “This is our red line.”
Advocacy groups are also mobilizing. The AARP, AFL-CIO, and National Disability Rights Network have all launched new campaigns urging Americans to contact lawmakers and demand protection for the SSA.
“We are watching the slow unraveling of the social contract,” said NDRN Executive Director Curt Decker. “And we need voices like President Biden’s to wake people up.”
But perhaps the most haunting moment of Biden’s speech came not in his policy prescriptions, but in his diagnosis of the national mood.
“We are angry,” he said. “We are suspicious. We are broken in ways we haven’t fully reckoned with. And this — this is what happens when we stop seeing each other as fellow Americans and start seeing each other as enemies.”
He continued: “We can’t go on like this. Not as a divided nation. Not for long.”
Those words — simple, direct, and devoid of political jargon — struck a chord. Many attendees, even seasoned political veterans, said they left the event shaken by the scope of the challenge ahead.
In the final moments of his speech, Biden looked out at the crowd, his voice steady but low.
“I’m not here to talk about me,” he said. “I’m here to remind you what’s at stake. Social Security is not charity. It’s not welfare. It’s a promise — from one generation to the next. And if we let that promise die, we lose more than a program. We lose a piece of who we are.”
As applause filled the hall, some wondered whether this would be the first of many appearances — or simply a last word from a man determined to speak out one final time.
Either way, the message was clear: Biden may be out of office, but the fight to preserve his legacy — and the legacy of Social Security itself — has only just begun.
