Joe Biden used his first speech since leaving office to slam the Trump administration and its welfare policies.
The former president was speaking at a conference in Chicago as part of a disability rights event.
Although he never mentioned Trump by name, he did criticise the “new administration” that had taken power after him.
In particular, he hit out at Trump and his government’s approach to the Social Security system. Trump and Elon Musk have spoken extensively about how they believe the department is beset with fraud and huge savings can be made through cuts and job losses.
Biden told the conference: “In fewer than 100 days, this new administration has done so much damage and so much destruction. It’s kind of breath-taking.”
Later in his speech, he hit out at the ‘tech bro’ culture in Trump’s administration, in a clear reference to the impact Musk has had in government.
Criticising some of Musk’s previous comments about Social Security, Biden offered his theory as to why the world’s richest man was so keen to cut back on money in this department.
He said: “Why are these guys taking aim at Social Security now? Because they’re following that old line from tech startups – ‘move fast, break things.’
“They’re certainly breaking things. They’re shooting first and aiming later, and as a result there is a lot of needless pain and sleepless nights.
“My friend Governor O’Malley knows what they’re really up to. He said, and I love this quote, ‘they want to wreck it so they can rob it.”
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