WASHINGTON (TNND) — Former President Joe Biden warned Thursday that the White House is trying to dismantle the Constitution.

He told attendees of a gala held by the National Bar Association, a century-old organization of black attorneys and judges, that the Trump administration is trying to erode a precedent of government checks and balances.

“I’m proud I’ve appointed judges doing their best to be independent, fair and impartial, respecting the rule of law and upholding the Constitution. I wish I could say the same for the executive branch, which seems to be doing its best to dismantle the Constitution – oh, I’m being deadly earnest, man – which seems to be what’s going on,” Biden said.

President Donald Trump has at times dismissed judges who ruled against him as activists, claiming they are acting unfairly and violating the law. Biden said the White House has engaged in “cruel” overreaches while basic “freedoms” are being rolled back, noting how Congress is "sitting on the sidelines” and the Supreme Court is enabling Trump with some of its rulings.

“Our courts are meant to be a valid check on the excesses of other branches of government, especially when Congress and our executive overreach and run afoul of our constitutional safeguards as they are doing now,” Biden said.

Republicans, who are in the majority of the House of Representatives and Senate, have publicly supported Trump’s actions and passed legislation the president has promoted. The legality of the executive and legislative branch’s actions has been debated in court, though, a setting Biden expressed the importance of.

“Next year, we’ll celebrate 250 years since the signing of the Declaration of Independence. But all that soaring rhetoric are just words on pages if we the people don’t uphold them. The lawyers and judges, all of you in this room, are the first and the last line of defense doing just that. I mean it,” the former president said. “An informed and engaged bar willing to fight for and take risks to protect our basic rights. A bench prepared to recognize those rights and rule consistent with the Constitution.”

Many Americans understand that the Constitution, laws, courts and their judges matter as pressure intensifies under Trump, Biden added.

“In our lives, the life of our nation, there are moments so stark that they divide all that came before of everything that followed. Moments that force us to confront hard truths about ourselves, our institutions, and democracy itself. We are, in my view, at such a moment of American history, reflected in every cruel executive outreach, every rollback of basic freedoms, every erosion of long-standing established precedent,” Biden explained.

The National News Desk requested comment from the White House Friday around 11:15 a.m. but did not receive a response by publication. The Trump administration has defended its president's actions, though.

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