Former President Joe Biden speaks at the national conference of Advocates, Counselors, and Representatives for the Disabled in Chicago on April 15.Nam Y. Huh/AP
On Tuesday, former President Joe Biden gave his first public speech following the end of his presidency in January, at the Chicago national conference of Advocates, Counselors, and Representatives for the Disabled.
“Everyone deserves to be treated with dignity,” Biden said in a speech that ran just under 30 minutes. “That means making sure that more than 60 million Americans who live with disabilities are treated with dignity. That is who we are as Americans.”
His successor may disagree. In addition to current President Donald Trump’s ableist comments—including ones about his own disabled grandnephew—his Project 2025-inspired dismantling of the Department of Education and the recent shutdown of the Administration for Community Living by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. greatly harm disabled people.
“Fewer than 100 days into this new administration, they have done so much damage and destruction,” Biden said. “It is kind of breathtaking it could happen that soon.”
Biden also noted his role as a co-sponsor of the 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act in the Senate, calling it “one of the most consequential civil rights laws in American history.”
Moreover, Social Security has been under attack since Trump’s return to office. As former Social Security Administration Commissioner Martin O’Malley, who introduced Biden, said at the event, the Trump administration is spreading misinformation about undocumented people draining Social Security funds, along with false claims about dead people on the agency’s rolls.
That hunt for benefits fraud, which audits suggest is quite rare, puts Americans’ wellbeing—including that of many disabled people—in jeopardy. “Social Security is more than a government program,” Biden said. “It’s a sacred promise.”
Biden sees that promise at risk, he elaborated, not just from spurious fraud claims, but also from other Trump White House actions—like mass firings at the already-understaffed Social Security Administration and service cuts leading to growing lines and access burdens at the agency’s remaining offices.
Biden also criticized the disruptions led by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, which he said have led to “a lot of needless pain and sleepless nights” for the millions of people, including disabled people, who depend on Social Security.
