A pro-Gaza protester heckled Joe Biden during his fiery keynote speech telling Maryland Democrats to “get up and fight back” against President Donald Trump.
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HANOVER, Md. — On the two-year anniversary of the disastrous debate performance that ended his reelection campaign, former president Joe Biden stood in the concert venue of a Maryland casino Saturday night, accusing President Donald Trump of corruption.
“He even hired his old pool guy to fix the Reflecting Pool. Whoa, what a loser,” Biden said to the loudest applause of his 10-minute speech.
Outside the casino, which rises from the parking lot near the TJ Maxx of a suburban mall, a handful of protesters held signs reading “Biden at Dems gala WTF” and “Go Home Genocide Joe.”
But inside the concert hall hosting a boxing-themed “Fight Back & Win” gala to raise money for the Maryland Democratic Party, attendees showered affection on the former president.
They treated him as a light from better times — even as consensus grows among Democrats that Biden‘s decision to run for reelection in 2024 before dropping out eased Trump’s path to the White House.
Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott (D) called Biden “my favorite president” and listed federal Biden-era programs that helped the city. Maryland Lt. Gov. Aruna Miller (D) told a story about the time Biden called to wish her mother a happy 86th birthday.
Biden lit into Trump.
“It’s simply stunning to me. He has no shame. And, frankly, it’s embarrassing for the country,” Biden said of the ways Trump’s personal fortune has grown while he is in office.
When a pro-Palestinian protester started yelling over Biden’s remarks, the crowd drowned her out with boos until security escorted her from the room.
Biden, who coughed intermittently as his speech got underway, looked back at the teleprompter and kept going. He did not mention his aggressive metastatic prostate cancer, nor anything else about his personal life, focusing only on the “dark days” under his successor.
He talked about his father coaching him to get up and keep going when something goes wrong.
“To all of you who love this country, it’s time to get up, damn it,” Biden said forcefully. “Get up. Get up now. Continue this fight.”
Biden has occupied an unusual post-White House lane, remaining largely on the sidelines, with fundraising for his library reportedly sluggish, while his family stepped squarely into the political spotlight.
His son Hunter Biden relaunched an X account and went viral with posts trolling the MAGA base, candidly discussing drug use and addiction, and defending his father’s legacy.
Former first lady Jill Biden’s memoir “View from the East Wing” set off another round of Democratic ruminating over the 2024 presidential election, particularly as she described fear Biden might be suffering a stroke as she watched that fateful presidential debate two years ago.
Democrats are still relitigating how Trump ended up in the White House.
Hillary Clinton said earlier this month that Biden “made a terrible mistake, for himself, for his legacy and for the country” by not handing the baton to a younger generation sooner. Had he kept what many interpreted as a promise to only run for one term, she said, “we would have had a real contest, and very sadly, I believe that whoever emerged from that contest … would have beaten Donald Trump.”
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But as Biden took the stage in Maryland, there was no blame.
Biden has long enjoyed wide support among Black Democrats, who make up a third of Maryland’s electorate in a deep-blue state with one of the highest concentrations of Black politicians leading its government.
In the run-up to the 2022 midterms, when Republicans had political momentum and flipped nine seats in the House, Biden held his election-eve rally at Bowie State University, a historically Black university.
And Maryland Gov. Wes Moore has been a loyal Biden ally, among the few prominent Democrats to aggressively defend Biden‘s initial decision to stay in the presidential race after the debate.
“President Biden doesn’t have to be here; he doesn’t have to do this,” Moore said during Saturday night’s gala, recounting the critical ways Biden helped Maryland when the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore collapsed in 2024.
Biden has made sacrifices for the country “in ways that, in some cases, have been deeply unfair,” Moore said.
The Maryland Democratic Party said Biden’s appearance raised $250,000, the most since Moore was inaugurated in 2023. The former president’s appearance before a crowd twice as large three weeks ago at the South Dakota Democratic Party’s annual fundraiser raised more than $275,000, state party officials told a local news outlet.
A former official with Biden’s and Kamala Harris’s presidential campaigns, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the matter candidly, lamented the timing of Maryland’s gala.
“It’s an own goal to schedule a celebratory event on the second anniversary of the debate,” the staffer said.
Maryland Democratic Party Chair Steuart Pittman said he felt energy during 83-year-old Biden’s remarks.
“Let’s give it up for President Biden,” Pittman said from the stage. “Was I the only one in tears?”
He said in an interview that he, too, was skeptical when younger activists brought up inviting Biden as a keynote speaker, but they persuaded him that the former president, despite everything, would be a hit.
“I questioned it, as the old guy,” said Pittman, 64. “I mean, do you want the past, or do you want the future?”
Now, Pittman has come around: “Over time, people will be so nostalgic about Joe Biden.”
Aside from trashing Trump, the former president encouraged Maryland Democrats to work to make the country a fair and decent place. He told them he loved them, before seeking direction on how to get off the stage.
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