Former Vice President Joe Biden on Tuesday again referred to a malaise of the American spirit in the past decade, despite serving in government with President Barack Obama for eight years.
The former vice president spoke after receiving a lifetime achievement award at the National Minority Quality Forum’s Annual Summit on Health Disparities in Washington, DC.
“One of the things that has disappointed me in the last six, seven, eight years, is that growing up, most of us were taught, ‘This is America, we can do anything if we set our mind to it,'” Biden told the audience. “But now we kind of walk around like, ‘Woe is me, what are we going to do.?”
Last week, Biden expressed similar frustrations about the last decade, noting that he was tired of ungrateful elites who forgot to thank blue-collar workers for their service to the country.
“We’ve gotten so damn sophisticated, we’ve gotten so damn elitist,” Biden said. “I hate the way things have changed over the last 15-20 years.”
Biden was the vice president from 2009 to 2017.
The former vice president was recognized for his efforts in the Obama administration to cure cancer and his work to continue the fight through the Biden Cancer Initiative.
Biden revealed during his speech that he went for a walk with Obama in the Rose Garden after he decided not to challenge Hillary Clinton for the Democratic nomination in 2016.
“I said something spontaneously I had not intended to say,” Biden said. “I said my one regret of not running is that I wouldn’t be the president that presides of the end of cancer as we know it.” he said.