Joe Biden returned to the political spotlight Friday night, delivering a rare public speech in Omaha at a Nebraska Democratic Party gala, where he launched familiar attacks against President Donald Trump. With noticeable difficulty reading from the teleprompter and frequent pauses, Biden accused Trump of destroying the country “with a wrecking ball.”
“I knew Trump was going to take a wrecking ball to the country,” Biden said. “I didn’t know there was going to be an actual wrecking ball,” referencing construction work on the White House’s East Wing. He called the physical renovations a “perfect symbol” of what he claimed was Trump’s dismantling of the Constitution and democracy.
Biden’s speech veered from criticism of gold-trimmed decorations in the Oval Office to claims that Trump has turned a “golden age” into a “very, very dark moment.” Still, Biden claimed there was cause for optimism, citing recent Democrat wins in solid-blue states like New York, New Jersey, Virginia, and California as signs of a party resurgence.
“The Democratic Party is back!” Biden proclaimed, though many observers noted he had been absent from the very campaigns he was celebrating. Democrat candidates in New Jersey and Virginia notably relied on former President Barack Obama to headline rallies, not Biden.
The 82-year-old former president also used the moment to revisit common talking points, exaggerating his record and weaving in references to cancer treatment. “I was on the Foreign Relations Committee when I was 24 years old,” he claimed, despite the factual inaccuracy.
He ended with a broadside against Republicans for the ongoing government shutdown, accusing them of slashing healthcare funding to benefit the wealthy. As of Saturday, the White House had offered no official comment on Biden’s return to the stage.
