“He has no shame. Frankly, it’s embarrassing to the country,” Biden said at a Democratic gala on Saturday, June 27
Credit: Mustafa Hussain/Bloomberg via Getty; Tasos Katopodis/Getty
NEED TO KNOW
- Joe Biden criticized Donald Trump at a Maryland Democratic Party event on June 27, calling him a “loser”
- Biden insulted Trump over “vanity projects” like the Reflecting Pool renovations and White House ballroom
- He also accused Trump of corruption and profiting billions from his presidency, calling it “embarrassing to the country”
Former President Joe Biden called Donald Trump a “loser” during a fiery critique of the renovations and other projects he has overseen during his second term as president.
Biden, 83, criticized the president, 80, for his “vanity projects” — including the White House ballroom construction, the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool renovations and his attempted Kennedy Center renaming — at the Maryland Democratic Party's Back & Win Summit and Gala on Saturday, June 27.
While discussing Trump's second term during his keynote speech at the inaugural gala held at Live! Casino & Hotel in Hanover, Md., Biden drew boos and laughter from the crowd of Democrats.
“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 honor, even hiring his own pool guy to fix the Reflecting Pool,” Biden said in footage shared by CBS News. “Woah! What a loser.”
Credit: Sean Rayford/Getty
After a round of applause at his “loser” declaration, Biden continued, “Look, folks, it's not just that. The Reflecting Pool reflects something even worse than the narcissism and incompetence at the core of this administration: It's the corruption.”
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“The corruption,” he continued. “The brazen, blatant corruption. Corruption on a scale never seen before in American history in any administration.”
“Trump has made billions of dollars as he returned to the White House. It's simply stunning to me,” Biden said of the president. “He has no shame. Frankly, it's embarrassing to the country. Trump couldn't care less. Making money off the presidency is the only reason he wants to be president.”
Since returning to the White House for a second term in the wake of Biden's presidency, Trump has ordered a slew of changes and renovations across Washington, D.C.
He is turning West Potomac Park into the National Garden of American Heroes and ordered a more than $14 million renovation of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool to make it "American flag blue," an effort thwarted almost immediately by a massive algae bloom.
Credit: Mustafa Hussain/Bloomberg via Getty; Tasos Katopodis/Getty
Trump also added a temporary arena to the White House for an Ultimate Fighting Championship event and is renovating the East Wing of the White House to add a ballroom — which has become an increasingly popular talking point for the president in recent months.
An analysis of his public remarks that The Washington Post published in April found that Trump has publicly discussed the construction of the ballroom on roughly a third of days so far this year — about as much as he has talked about health insurance and “affordability.”
As Biden pointed out in his Saturday keynote address, Trump also unsuccessfully attempted to add his name to the Kennedy Center.
Last year, Trump dismissed the center's trustees and replaced them with people who elected him chairman and voted to add his name to the center. In February, he said the venue would close in July for two years of renovations, and three months later, a judge not only blocked this but also ruled that Trump's name was added to the center illegally. It has since officially been removed.
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