Former President Joe Biden tells lawyers convention in Chicago: 'We need new heroes'

Olivia Olander, Chicago Tribune on Aug 1, 2025

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CHICAGO — Former President Joe Biden called on attorneys to lead the fight to uphold the Constitution during the Trump administration in a speech at a downtown Chicago hotel on Thursday in which he also reflected on his more than five-decade career in politics and beginnings as a young lawyer.

“It’s not enough to honor the heroes who came before us. We need new heroes now,” Biden said at the convention of the National Bar Association, a group of predominantly Black American lawyers and judges.

It was Biden’s second public appearance in Chicago since leaving office, as he takes on a smattering of speaking engagements, confronts a cancer diagnosis and works on his memoir.

During his more than 20 minute speech, Biden spoke about his career and the country with a long lens, noting at one point next year’s 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence and calling the founding document “just words on pages, if we the people don’t uphold it.”

The administration of President Donald Trump is “doing its best to dismantle the Constitution,” Biden said later, without mentioning the president by name. “I’m being deadly earnest, man.”

The lawyers’ association honored Biden for his work in office, including his appointments of Black U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson and a diverse slate of federal judges.

Biden disclosed in May he was diagnosed with an aggressive form of prostate cancer that had spread to his bones. He has not provided updates this summer about the disease but in May said he felt optimistic about his treatment.

Prior to the announcement of his diagnosis, the former president this spring spoke before an audience of national advocates in Chicago, his first major appearance since leaving office in January. At that event, he also criticized the Trump administration, saying it was creating fear among the elderly over potential cuts to disability benefits.

The oldest president in U.S. history at the end of his term, Biden has so far led a mostly quiet life after leaving office. He shared at a conference in San Diego about a month ago that he’s working on a memoir, and a source familiar with his activities said Thursday he’s spending time writing and meeting with friends and former staff.

In Chicago, he reminisced before the audience of attorneys on his decision to leave a “prestigious” law firm in his 20s to become a public defender, and eventually seek public office to become one of the country’s youngest-ever U.S. senators.

“Can’t sugarcoat this: these are dark days. But you all are here for the same reason that I left that prestigious law firm,” Biden said. “It’s because our future is literally on the line.”

The former president, who is 82, moved carefully and had few verbal stumbles during his more than 20 minute speech.

He joked about his age, saying at one point that “it’s hell turning 40 twice.”

Biden for more than a year has faced questions about his physical and mental decline while in office, both from opponents in the Trump administration and from some members of his own party who have looked back unfavorably at his decision to run for re-election last year — a legacy that’s expected to dog national Democrats into the 2028 race.

Biden stayed in the running until last July, leaving Democrats without a competitive primary field and Vice President Kamala Harris with only a few months to campaign against President Donald Trump. Harris recently shared that the title of her memoir is taken from the length of her abbreviated campaign, which ended in a loss to Trump: “107 Days.”

Gov. JB Pritzker, widely seen as an potential Democratic presidential contender, publicly stood behind Biden until the former president dropped out of the race, though he later added he had some concern about Biden’s electoral chances following his debate performance last year.

Pritzker’s office said he had a separate event Thursday night. Mayor Brandon Johnson delivered brief remarks preceding the former president.

The National Bar Association also honored civil rights leader the Rev. Jesse Jackson Sr. at its convention. Jackson, who was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease a decade ago, didn’t speak at a small press conference but at one point put his arm around his son, U.S. Rep. Jonathan Jackson, when the younger Jackson knelt down beside his wheelchair.

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