Two years after their last debate, Biden jabs at Trump: ‘What a loser’

Former U.S. president Joe Biden says there is ‘corruption on a scale never seen before in American history in any administration.’

HANOVER, Maryland — As he rallied Maryland Democrats at a state party fundraiser Saturday night, former U.S. president Joe Biden decried the actions of the man who succeeded him in the White House, painting him as vain and corrupt.

“It’s not just his vanity projects, tearing down the East Wing of the White House making room for his ballroom, putting his name on the Kennedy Center, building an arch in his own honour, even hiring his own pool guy to fix the reflecting pool. Woah! What a loser,” Biden told attendees of the gala, which was held at a Maryland casino.

“The reflecting pool reflects something even worse than the narcissism and incompetence at the core of this administration,” he continued. “It’s the corruption, the corruption, the brazen, blatant corruption. Corruption on a scale never seen before in American history in any administration.”

Biden’s 10-minute speech amounted to one of his most pointed critiques of U.S. President Donald Trump since leaving office. He delivered it exactly two years after he stood on a different stage for a CNN presidential debate against Trump, a moment that derailed the Democratic president’s second-term aspirations and shifted the course of his political legacy.

“What makes me angry is that Trump wants to give taxpayers’ money, your money, to the Jan. 6th insurrectionists. That’s what he wants to do,” Biden told the crowd. “These people don’t deserve to be compensated. They deserve to be put in jail for a long, long, long time.”

Since leaving the White House, Biden has not shied away from criticizing Trump, accepting invites to party events in Maryland, South Dakota and his home state of Delaware in the past month to try to rally Democrats during Trump’s second term.

But it comes as he continues to navigate a complicated post-presidency as many in his party remain frustrated with his handling of the 2024 election. A recent CNN poll conducted by SSRS found only 30 per cent of the American public held a favourable view of Biden – lower than at any point during his time in the White House.

The latest speech also coincides with his family’s reemergence on the political scene to the chagrin of some Democrats. Former first lady Dr. Jill Biden released her memoir and embarked on a promotional tour, offering her own take on the 2024 saga, which aggravated many Democrats who felt it was reopening old party wounds.

“We had a duty to win and we didn’t,” Andrew Bates, a former spokesperson for Biden who was among his fiercest defenders, told the New York Post. “I think about that all the time. But I don’t see why that painful conversation for the party needed to be publicly reopened right now.”

“Call me up, and say it to my face,” the former first lady clapped back when asked about the comment at a book tour stop in Washington, D.C., a response that drew criticism from many former aides. (Dr. Biden and Bates spoke the next day, a source familiar with the matter said.)

The Bidens’ son, Hunter, seems to be everywhere and talking about everything. He’s drawn a large following on social media – more than 800,000 followers on X – where he’s fired off a steady stream of posts on his past struggles with drug addiction and musings about politics. He’s sat for lengthy podcast interviews, including a two-hour sit-down with the controversial right-wing podcaster Candace Owens.

In an interview on California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s podcast, Hunter Biden spoke openly about how one of his father’s most controversial decisions will be remembered.

“He chose me over his legacy. Because no matter what you say that’s going to be one of the first things that is written about him,” Hunter Biden said of his father’s decision to pardon him after insisting he would not do so.

Attempts to shape Biden’s legacy could come into sharper focus in the coming months. The former president has spent much of the year working on his memoir, though an official release date has yet to be announced.

His presidential library has gotten off to a slower start than his predecessors’. Biden announced it would be housed in Delaware but has yet to unveil an official location. A source familiar with the situation said those details could be finalized in the near future.

His team continues to fundraise for that operation, but the eventual library is expected to be much smaller in scale than former U.S. president Barack Obama’s US$850 million presidential centre in Chicago where Biden joined other presidents to attend the opening ceremony last week.

All of this has played out as the 83-year-old continues to battle prostate cancer that has metastasized to the bones, undergoing radiation and hormone therapy after receiving the diagnosis months after leaving the White House. “I think Joe will live with cancer for the rest of his life,” Dr.Jill Biden said in a recent interview with NBC.

Continuing the fight

Though he’s faced pessimism from some corners of the Democratic Party, Biden has still looked for ways to be helpful to Democrats when he can. Biden endorsed two former officials in his administration in the weeks before their primaries: Keisha Lance Bottoms, who is running for governor in Georgia, and Dan Koh, a congressional candidate in Massachusetts.

At the event Saturday in Maryland, Biden visited with Gov. Wes Moore and Sen. Chris Van Hollen, two Democrats from the state seen as potential 2028 presidential hopefuls.

Moore introduced Biden at the event, recounting how the former president helped send millions to the state for recovery efforts following the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore in 2024.

“He helped us, not just rebuild, he helped us heal. He surged federal assets to the city to help clear wreckage, because he knew that millions were hoping and needed and counting on that,” Moore said. “While president Biden might not be a Marylander by birth, president Biden helped to show us all what it means to be Maryland tough and Baltimore strong.”

Adrienne Green, a Democrat from Baltimore, attended a meet-and-greet with Biden ahead of his speech. She said she was excited to meet him and believes he’s doing “well for his age,” but also spoke of the need for both parties to find a new crop of leaders.

“I think they bring wisdom and counsel that’s valued and should be,” she said. “But I do think we are at a place and a point in both parties, quite frankly, Democrat and Republican, where the torch needs to be passed.”

Democratic Rep. Sarah McBride of Delaware is among those who Biden checks in with on a regular basis. The two met for lunch in Delaware last week, talking about U.S. President Trump’s impact on the world stage.

“I think voters are concerned with the present and the future, and I think that we need an all-hands-on-deck approach, and that that includes the voices of people like Joe Biden and Barack Obama, and retired political leaders from throughout our party’s history, and I’m grateful for Joe’s leadership,” McBride told CNN in a phone conversation Saturday.

As he stood before Democrats on Saturday night, Biden insisted he was “still fighting” for the party as he offered encouragement to Democrats in their time out of power.

“To all you who love our country, my message tonight is straightforward and simple: Get up, dammit. Get up now. Continue this fight!” he said to applause.

By Arlette Saenz, CNN