Former President Joe Biden on Sunday urged Americans not to give in to despair, calling this period under President Donald Trump “dark days” for the nation and warning of growing threats to free speech and the balance of power in government.
“Since its founding, America served as a beacon for the most powerful idea ever in government in the history of the world,” Biden said. “The idea is stronger than any army. We’re more powerful than any dictator.”
Speaking publicly for the first time since completing radiation therapy for an aggressive form of prostate cancer, Biden, 82, addressed an audience in Boston after receiving the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Edward M. Kennedy Institute.
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The former president said the United States depends on a limited executive branch, a functioning Congress and an autonomous judiciary, all of which he warned are being tested. With the federal government in its second-longest shutdown on record, Biden said Trump has used the funding lapse “to exercise new command over the government.”
“Friends, I can’t sugarcoat any of this. These are dark days,” Biden said. “But we will find our true compass again and emerge stronger, wiser and more just — so long as we keep the faith.”
Biden praised those who he said have stood up to the Trump administration’s pressure — including federal employees who have resigned in protest, universities under scrutiny, and late-night comedians who “shine a light on free speech knowing their careers are on the line.”
He also commended Republican officials who have defied Trump. “America is not a fairy tale,” Biden said. “For 250 years, it’s been a constant push and pull — an existential struggle between peril and possibility.”
Biden, who ended his 2024 reelection campaign amid concerns about his age, health and debate performance, endorsed his vice president, Kamala Harris, who went on to lose to Trump last November.
In May, his post-presidential office disclosed that he had been diagnosed with prostate cancer that had spread to his bones. His doctors reported a Gleason score of 9, indicating an aggressive form of the disease. He completed a course of radiation therapy earlier this month, though his future treatment plan remains unclear.
Biden is next scheduled to headline a Nebraska Democratic Party event in Omaha next month.
