Former President Joe Biden suggested that the U.S. is currently facing “dark days.”

During a ceremony where he was honored with the Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the United States Senate’s lifetime achievement award for inspired leadership, Biden described the current state of affairs as the “worst” he has seen in his many decades of “elected public life,” opining that “our very democracy is at stake in my view.”

“Friends, I can’t sugarcoat any of this. These are dark days,” Biden asserted.

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But the Democrat said that the U.S. is one of the only nations that comes out of each crisis it faces “stronger” than before.

Biden said that he believes the U.S. will “emerge … stronger, wiser, more resilient, more just, so long as we keep the faith,” urging people to “fight like hell.”

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The lifetime achievement award recognizes Biden for serving 36 years as a senator, eight years as vice president alongside President Barack Obama, and four years as president. Before his time in federal posts, he served on the New Castle County Council in Delaware.

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Biden, who left office earlier this year at the age of 82, was the oldest person ever to serve as president in American history.