Former President Biden Warns of 'Dark Days' for America
The former President warned that attacks on free speech and limits on executive power threaten the nation. As Trump continues his attacks on the Constitution, such warnings ring louder than ever.
The country is in crisis, former President Biden said on Sunday. In a speech in Boston, the former President warned that the current administration’s attacks on Freedom of Speech and its expansion of the executive branch’s power had put the nation into a state of “dark days.” Biden’s remarks are not only a warning but also a reminder that the state of our nation is dire.
What Happened?
Former President Biden was in Boston on Sunday to receive the lifetime achievement award from the Edward M. Kennedy Institute. The award ceremony, meant to commemorate Biden’s public service as Senator, Vice-President, and eventual President, was one of the first times that the former President stood before the nation since he completed his first round of treatment for prostate cancer. Despite all of the things he could have discussed, warning the nation about the Trump administration was the thrust of his speech.
During his speech, Biden warned that democracy was not a fragile thing and that the current administration was dangerous to the body politic. Explaining his concerns, Biden said:
“In over 50 years of public life, this is one of the worst I’ve seen. Our very democracy is at stake in my view...It’s no time to give up. It’s time to get up. Get up now!”
Why This Matters
It is not the first time Biden has warned about the threat that Trump poses to the country. During his bid for a second term, then-President Biden argued that Trump would be an existential threat to the country and that he was “the election-denier-in-chief.” Such proclamations have come to fruition, and we now see those warnings alive and well in our day-to-day lives.
Across the nation, the Trump administration has thrown the rule of law out the window—asserting judges can’t evaluate or determine the legality of his policies. In Trump v. State of Illinois and City of Chicago (2025), the administration’s lawyers have asserted that the President’s claim to have the power to deploy the National Guard can’t be challenged by the courts.
In his argument for the administration, Solicitor General D. John Sauer asserted that the judiciary consistently “countermands the exercise of the President’s Commander-in-Chief authority and projects its own authority into the military chain of command.” In other words, the courts have subjected the President to judicial review, much to the administration’s chagrin. Said review is a fundamental component of American constitutional law.
Sauer continues, arguing that the President’s authority over affairs that he deems necessary, in this case, deploying the national guard, is beyond the power of the courts and that in the cases where such courts have ruled against him, those courts were “mistaken to conclude that a federal court may review the President’s judgment at all.” These are not the words of a man who believes that he his required to uphold the Constitution—these are the arguments of a man who thinks he is above it.
Such arguments reek of despotism. At a time when the President is seemingly pursuing a war with Venezuela, he has previously mused about killing Venezuelans without Congressional approval and has already done so several times, checks on the power of the President become all the more necessary.
From the very beginning of our republic, no official was without limitations on their power. As the Supreme Court ruled in Marbury v. Madison (1803):
“It is emphatically the duty of the Judicial Department to say what the law is. Those who apply the rule to particular cases must, of necessity, expound and interpret the rule. If two laws conflict with each other, the Court must decide on the operation of each.”
The presidency, by its very nature under the Constitution, must be checked by the judiciary to ensure that the Constitution is upheld. It is through the Constitution that the executive gets its power, and it is through the Constitution that its power is restricted. Former President Biden’s warning about dark days is yet another reminder that the current Commander-in-Chief has rejected that very principle and that he must be opposed.
References
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