Former Vice President Joe Biden delivered another stinging indictment of President Donald Trump in a college convocation speech Saturday without ever mentioning the President by name.
“This past election season churned up some of the ugliest realities that still remain in our country,” Biden said at Cornell University, echoing criticism he has voiced since November’s election. “Civilized discourse and real debate gave way to the coarsest rhetoric stroking our darkest emotions.”
“I thought we had passed the days where it was acceptable for political leaders on local and national levels to bestow legitimacy to hate speech and fringe ideologies,” he continued.
Biden accused Trump of capitalizing on the worries of voters who were “uncertain and anxious.”
“We saw how playing to their fears, rather their hopes, rather than their better angels, can still be a powerful political tool,” Biden said.
Biden directly referred to Trump only once as “your President.” However, he denounced a number of Trump’s proposals, including his plans to build a border wall and his travel ban from certain Muslim-majority countries.
Biden slammed the notion that the United States has fallen behind other nations, saying that it “was time for the country to wake up.”
The former vice president noted that he did not think the current strain of populism — the one he sees as rooted in fear — would last.
“I assure you this is a temporary state of affairs, the American people will not sustain this attitude for long, I promise you,” Biden said. “In moments like this, it is more important than ever that we get back to basics, that we hold fast to what has always made America great and unique.”
“You cannot define an American based on ethnicity, religion, race. America is an idea, that’s the uniqueness of who we are and it’s embodied in what we say we believe, even when we haven’t lived up to our ideals,” he added.
Beyond his condemnations of the current administration, Biden urged the graduating class not to “disengage” from politics.
“Don’t fool yourself into thinking that disengaging from the system that you believe is broken is going to hold you harmless from its failures,” he said. “What happens in your country, your community, your neighborhood affects you.”
