Joe Biden blasted Republican opposition to his student debt relief programme, calling out by name several GOP critics who had seen millions of dollars in pandemic loans forgiven.
“I don’t want to hear it from Maga Republican officials,” Mr Biden said during a speech at the historically black Delaware State University in Dover on Friday.
The president said Marjorie Taylor Greene and her husband had more than over $180,000 in business loans forgiven in the Paycheck Protection Programme.
“(Greene) said it’s completely unfair for us to forgive student loans for working and middle-class Americans.”
He went on to say Florida GOP lawmaker Vern Buchanan had described federal student loan forgiveness as “reckless”.
“Guess how much he got forgiven? $2.3m. This is not a joke. Can’t make this stuff up.”
The president added that Republican governors had written him a letter to say “this relief only helps the elite few”.
“Y’all know you’re the elite few?” he asked the student audience, to widespread laughter.
Ted Cruz had said the $10,000 in federal aid cancellation was for “slackers who don’t deserve relief”, Mr Biden said.
“Who in the hell do they think they are?”
Mr Biden told the packed auditorium at Delaware State that nearly 22 million people had applied for federal loan relief in the week since the online application went live last Friday, in comments reported by the Associated Press.
Individuals who earn under $125,000 a year are entitled to $10,000 debt cancellation, while those who received Pell Grants to attend college were eligible for an additional $10,000.
“Folks, it takes less than five minutes,” Mr Biden said, adding that the process didn’t require any forms or creating an account.
Most applicants had been able to file for relief from the smartphones, he said.
Mr Biden has been campaigning in several states this week ahead of midterm elections on 8 November.
