“I have this strange notion — we are a democracy. Some of my Republican friends and some of my Democratic friends even occasionally say, 'Well, if you can't get the votes, by executive order you're going to do something.' Things you can't do by executive order unless you're a dictator.”
“Biden attempted to cancel roughly $400 billion in student loans through executive action, bypassing Congress entirely.”
Explicitly criticized using executive orders to bypass Congress as dictatorial, then used executive authority to implement one of the largest executive spending programs in history
“The liberal wing of the Democratic Party is now for 60 new death penalties... The liberal wing of the Democratic Party has 70 enhanced penalties... The liberal wing of the Democratic Party is for 100,000 cops. The liberal wing of the Democratic Party is for 125,000 new state prison cells.”
“Nobody should be in jail for a nonviolent crime... We should be letting people out of jail, not locking them up.”
Biden not only supported but actively bragged about the punitive aspects of the 1994 crime bill, then ran for president on undoing many of its provisions without fully owning the original policy's consequences
“Biden voted for the Defense of Marriage Act defining marriage as between a man and a woman.”
“I am absolutely comfortable with the fact that men marrying men, women marrying women, and heterosexual men and women marrying another are entitled to the same exact rights.”
Voted for DOMA which explicitly defined marriage as heterosexual, then became one of the most prominent champions of same-sex marriage, eventually signing the Respect for Marriage Act that repealed DOMA