{"id":316481,"date":"2025-08-04T06:38:17","date_gmt":"2025-08-04T06:38:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/316481\/"},"modified":"2025-08-04T06:38:17","modified_gmt":"2025-08-04T06:38:17","slug":"joe-biden-says-us-is-facing-existential-fight-with-marginalized-groups-dramatically-under-attack-joe-biden","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/316481\/","title":{"rendered":"Joe Biden says US is facing \u2018existential\u2019 fight with marginalized groups \u2018dramatically under attack\u2019 | Joe Biden"},"content":{"rendered":"

Former United States President Joe Biden<\/a> took the stage at the National Bar Association\u2019s 100th Annual Awards Gala in Chicago to deliver remarks honoring the United States civil rights legacy, and the state of the country.<\/p>\n

Speaking amid continual scrutiny around his physical and mental health, Biden played up the importance of a strong judicial branch, and characterized the US as at a moment in time that \u201cmakes us confront hard truths.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSo many of you have fought to make this country live up to its highest ideals,\u201d Biden said. \u201cNot since the tumultuous days of the 1960s has this fight been so existential to who we are as a nation, with marginalized groups so dramatically under attack.\u201d<\/p>\n

Founded in 1925, the National Bar Association is the largest and oldest network of law professors, judges, and lawyers in the US. Biden\u2019s speech focused heavily on the contributions of Black lawyers to America\u2019s civil rights history, and the need to continue that legacy, in light of an administration that he said \u201cseeks to erase history, erase quality, erase justice itself.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe see the apparent glee of some of our politicians while watching immigrants who are in this country legally torn from the arms of their family, dragged away in handcuffs from the only home they\u2019ve ever known,\u201d Biden said. \u201cMy friends, we need to face the hard truths of this administration.\u201d<\/p>\n

Law firms representing those opposing the Trump administration\u2019s agenda have been targeted<\/a> with executive orders by the administration. Some have capitulated<\/a> to the tune of tens of millions of dollars<\/a>. Federal judges, increasingly on the receiving end of harsh rhetoric and threats to their safety, have weighed creating their own security forces<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe see the law firms, bowing to pressure, bending to bullies, instead of staying rooted in justice of the law,\u201d Biden said.<\/p>\n

The gala is not the first speaking engagement of the summer that Biden has used to take aim at current US President Donald Trump. In June, he offered oblique criticism of the Trump administration during a Juneteenth celebration service at the Reedy Chapel AME Church, one of the places in Texas where an order<\/a> proclaiming the end of slavery was read on 19 June 1865.<\/p>\n

Earlier this month, Biden delivered a keynote address at the Society for Human Resource Management conference in San Diego. During a question and answer session, Biden said he was \u201cworking like hell<\/a>\u201d to finish a memoir of his presidency as he contends with his prostate cancer diagnosis.<\/p>\n

In his book, a reflection of the 46th president\u2019s four years in office, Biden will probably attempt to shape his legacy \u2013 and to confront questions about his mental health and physical fitness that clouded his final years in office and ultimately forced to end his bid for re-election.<\/p>\n

While Biden heaped praise on former vice-president Kamala Harris during his speech, he did not reference his decision to step down mid-election.<\/p>\n

In sporadic public appearances<\/a> since leaving the White House, Biden has hit back against new reporting that alleges a \u201ccover up\u201d by the then-president\u2019s closest aides to hide his frailty and decline from an American public who polls showed believed he was too old to serve another four years.<\/p>\n

Biden\u2019s speech did not directly address these allegations, although he did note his two of his claims to fame in US politics<\/a> \u2013 being the youngest person ever elected to the US Senate, and the oldest person elected to the presidency.<\/p>\n

The White House and congressional Republicans have amplified the claims, opening investigations into whether Biden was in control when he made a series of notable clemency decisions at the end of his presidency. In an interview with the New York Times this month<\/a>, Biden said he orally authorized<\/a> every pardon and commutation issued during his term and called Republicans who said his staff abused the presidential autopen \u201cliars\u201d.<\/p>\n

Hours before Biden spoke, Mike Donilon, one of the former president\u2019s top advisers and longest-serving aides, gave a closed-door interview to the House Oversight Committee as part of the Republican-led panel\u2019s investigation into Biden\u2019s cognitive decline. On Wednesday, Steve Ricchetti<\/a>, another top adviser to the former president, also appeared before the committee.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former United States President Joe Biden took the stage at the National Bar Association\u2019s 100th Annual Awards Gala…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":316482,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5311],"tags":[49,978,659],"class_list":{"0":"post-316481","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-states","8":"tag-united-states","9":"tag-us","10":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114969123719520997","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/316481","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=316481"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/316481\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/316482"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=316481"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=316481"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=316481"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}