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Biden warns in farewell address that ‘oligarchy’ of ultra-rich threatens U.S. democracy

President Biden speaks from the Oval Office.
President Biden gives his farewell address from the Oval Office on Wednesday.
(Mandel Ngan / Associated Press)
  • Speaking from the Oval Office, Biden sounded alarm over the accumulation of power and wealth among a small few.
  • Earlier in the day, he heralded a long-awaited cease-fire agreement between Israel and Hamas.
  • He implicitly acknowledged that his promises remained unfulfilled in an open letter released Wednesday morning.

President Biden used his farewell address to the nation Wednesday to warn of an “oligarchy” of the ultra-wealthy taking root in the country and of a “tech-industrial complex” that is infringing on Americans’ rights and the future of democracy.

Speaking from the Oval Office as he prepares to hand over power Monday to President-elect Donald Trump, Biden seized what is likely to be his final opportunity to address the country before he departs the White House to spotlight the accumulation of power and wealth in the U.S. among just a small few.

“Today, an oligarchy is taking shape in America of extreme wealth, power and influence that literally threatens our entire democracy, our basic rights and freedoms, and a fair shot for everyone to get ahead,” Biden said, drawing attention to what he sees as “a dangerous concentration of power in the hands of a few ultra-wealthy people. Dangerous consequences if their abuse of power is left unchecked.”

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Invoking President Eisenhower’s warnings about the military-industrial complex when the Republican left office in 1960, Biden added, “I’m equally concerned about the potential rise of a tech-industrial complex that could pose real dangers to our country as well.”

Biden used his 15-minute address to offer a model for a peaceful transfer of power and — without mentioning Trump by name — raise concerns about his successor.

It marked a striking admonition by Biden, who is departing the national stage after more than 50 years in public life, as he has struggled to define his legacy against the return of Trump to the Oval Office. The president warned Americans to be on guard for their freedoms and their institutions during a turbulent era of rapid technological and economic change.

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His speech in the Oval Office was the latest in a series of remarks on domestic policy and foreign relations that are intended to cement his legacy and reshape Americans’ views of his term. Earlier in the day, he heralded a long-awaited cease-fire agreement between Israel and Hamas, which his administration helped broker and promises to end more than a year of bloodshed in the Middle East.

“It’ll take time to feel the full impact of what we’ve done together, but the seeds are planted and they’ll grow and they’ll bloom for decades to come,” Biden said, tacitly acknowledging that many Americans say they have yet to feel the impacts of his trillions of dollars in domestic initiatives.

Biden sounded the alarm about oligarchy as some of the world’s richest individuals and titans of its technology industry have flocked to Trump’s side in recent months, particularly after his November victory.

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Billionaire Elon Musk spent more than $100 million helping Trump get elected, and executives including Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg and Amazon’s Jeff Bezos have donated to Trump’s inaugural committee and made pilgrimages to the president-elect’s private club and estate in Florida for an audience with him.

While Biden criticized social media companies for retreating from fact-checking on their platforms, Trump’s incoming communications director and press secretary were sharing posts on X that falsely claimed Biden’s address was a prerecorded speech. The president has blamed his poor standing among the public on misinformation on social media and the challenges he has faced reaching voters in the disaggregated modern media ecosystem.

A cease-fire deal, announced by U.S. and Qatari mediators, promises to end more than a year of conflict in Gaza Strip. Some Israeli hostages would be exchanged for Palestinian prisoners under the agreement.

Biden isn’t leaving the White House in the way that he hoped. He originally tried to run for reelection, brushing aside voters’ concerns that he would be 86 years old at the end of a second term. After stumbling in a debate with Trump, Biden dropped out of the race under pressure from his own party, and Vice President Kamala Harris became the Democratic nominee.

The speech Wednesday night capped not only Biden’s presidency but his five decades in politics. He was once the country’s youngest senator at 30 years old after being elected to represent his home state of Delaware in 1972.

Biden pursued the presidency in 1988 and 2008 before becoming Barack Obama’s vice president. After serving two terms, Biden was considered to be retired from politics. But he returned to center stage as the Democratic nominee in 2020 and ousted Trump from the White House.

As he highlighted his commitment to ensuring a peaceful transition of power, including holding briefings with Trump’s team and coordinating with the incoming administration on the Middle East negotiations, Biden also called for a constitutional amendment to end immunity for sitting presidents. That came in response to a Supreme Court ruling last year that granted Trump sweeping protections from criminal liability over his role in trying to overturn his 2020 loss to Biden.

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Biden spoke from the Resolute Desk, photos of his family visible behind him in the Oval Office. First Lady Jill Biden, his son Hunter, some of his grandchildren, Harris and her husband, Doug Emhoff, sat watching.

As Biden spoke about Harris, saying she’d become like family, the first lady reached over and grabbed her hand.

Megerian writes for the Associated Press.

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