President Biden warns of 'oligarchy' as he bids farewell
By: Joey Garrison and Francesca Chambers (USA TODAY)
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Joey GarrisonFrancesca ChambersUSA TODAY
WASHINGTON ― President Joe Biden delivered a vigorous defense of his record and warned of an American "oligarchy" in a primetime address from the Oval Office as he bid farewell to four years in the White House and a five-decade political career.
"Today, an oligarchy is taking shape in America of extreme wealth, power and influence that threatens our entire democracy, our basic rights, the freedoms and the fair shot for everyone to get ahead," Biden said.
Biden, who will be replaced by President-elect Donald Trump in five days, recalled the situation he inherited four years ago: a country in the grip of a raging pandemic and an economic crisis.
"In the past four years, our democracy has held strong, and every day I've kept my commitment to be president for all Americans through one of the toughest periods in our nation's history," Biden said. "I'm so proud of how much we've accomplished together for the American people, I wish the coming administration success because I want America to succeed."
In the final days of his presidency, the 82-year-old Biden has tried to assert a legacy defined by signature laws he pushed through in his first term ‒ overcoming a razor-thin Democratic majority in the Senate ‒ to unleash historic infrastructure spending, a resurgence of clean-energy factories and investments in the microchip industry to catch up to China.
"It will take time to feel the full impact of all we've done together. But the seeds are planted."
On the foreign policy front, Biden has touted his record restoring the nation's global alliances and leading international support for Ukraine following Russia's invasion and war.
A Mideast deal
Biden's address came after he announced a long-awaited ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas that will pause the war in Gaza and result in a phased release of the remaining hostages in Gaza including three Americans and the remains of four deceased Americans.
"This plan was developed and negotiated by my team, and it'll be largely implemented by the incoming administration," Biden said at the beginning of his remarks.
Trump immediately claimed credit for the deal, writing in a post on social media that it wouldn't have happened without his election victory over Vice President Kamala Harris in November.
Biden is exiting the White House with a mixed legacy and an approval rating of just 34%, according to a USA TODAY/Suffolk University poll this week. Meanwhile, Americans by a 52%-45% margin now say they approve of Trump's job performance during his first term ‒ a far rosier assessment than he ever received while in office.
Since the election, Biden has faced finger-pointing from Democrats who argue he helped lead to Trump's return to power by waiting until 107 days until the election to drop out of the race and thus limiting the time Harris had to mount her campaign.
Despite concerns about his age, Biden announced plans to seek reelection in the spring of 2023, only to drop out last July following a disastrous debate performance against June that exposed an aging president who sounded incoherent at times and struggled to make his case against Trump.
Throughout his term, Biden repeatedly warning that Trump is a threat to a democracy and framed stopping him as a "battle for the soul of the nation." But Biden failed in his push to make Trump a footnote in American history. And on Monday, he will attend Trump's inauguration ceremony and watch as Trump is sworn in as the 47th president.
Before that moment, Biden is set to travel to Charleston, South Carolina on Sunday in what will be his final full day as president. White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre declined to say what Biden will be doing there.
Ahead of his farewell address, Biden issued an open letter to Americans touting his accomplishments and calling it "the privilege of my life to serve this nation for over 50 years."
"Nowhere else on Earth could a kid with a stutter from modest beginnings in Scranton, Pennsylvania, and Claymont, Delaware, one day sit behind the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office as President of the United States," Biden said in the letter. "I have given my heart and my soul to our nation. And I have been blessed a million times in return with the love and support of the American people."
Reach Joey Garrison on X @joeygarrison and Francesca Chambers at @fran_chambers
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Joe saved the most important truth for last.
Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and Mark Zuckerberg are all scheduled to be on stage with Trump at the inauguration. WTF ?
Biden's world:
When Bezos, Zuckerberg, Cook, the soros, Musk,Scott, Dorsey etc are writing checks, censoring news and otherwise working to elect Democrats, it's democracy.
When one or two billionaires stop helping Democrats, its oligarchy.
Did Bezos Musk and Zuckerberg ask for seats on the stage at the inaugural or did Trump invite them? Three of the richest people in America , and all public figures , will be there paying homage to Trump on his big day.
There is an oligarchy forming and Trump is in the middle of it expecting to get his cut.
It sounds like a joke, but there is a great deal of truth to it. You forgot to list Bloomberg. Bloomberg alone has dumped more cash into the Biden and Democratic coffers than any billionaire in US history. And money was only the tip of the iceberg given his massive media influence. Forbes July 2024 article HERE .
And yes these billionaires, especially Bloomberg with his media conglomerate, commanded huge political influence. One of the mainstays of any oligarchy is the command of the media. Bezos (Washington Post) and Zuckerberg (Facebook/Meta) did the Biden administration's bidding as well, and are finally admitting it now.
Whether boasting about this sort of influence on the inaugural stage, or doing it in secret behind closed doors and with little media coverage, the result is the same. It seems disingenuous at best for Biden to call it an " oligarchy taking shape " now after his career was built on the very same obscene levels of wealth and media influence.
Billionaire influence running up to the Nov 2024 election HERE .
It has been reported that at the inauguration Musk Bezos and Zuckerberg, who are all public figures, will be seated behind Trump in seats that will make it visually obvious they have favor with Trump.
What billionaires associated with Biden have such large influence over how Americans interface with the future in this information age? In my opinion there has always been an oligarchy in America in that rich people funded politicians and benefited from the laws those presidents and congresspeople advocated.
This further oligarchy will be of those magnates that have immense control over how Americans will experience new and existing technologies, and will use that control to increase their own power.
There have been numerous stories in the past few years about how the tech oligarchs are anti-democratic in their thinking. Some of them dont think we should have a one man one vote system. They think they are entitled to determine the future of our country. There is a belief in the "strongman" theory of government among these people.
JD Vance was to be their foot in the door in the new administration. Why havent we heard much from JD Vance since the election? Because the tech oligarchs now have made inroads with Trump himself and no longer need JD to be a middleman. Vance is being shuffled back.
Bloomberg is the perfect example.
Much like Biden giving George Soros the Medal of Freedom in a public ceremony did.
Which must be why Vance was hosting a $250k per plate fundraiser yesterday in Florida. Yep, quite the back-burner.
Huh?
George Soros is a well-known philanthropist.
Why does Vance need to do a fund raiser? He won.
Future legal fees?
I was gonna say that lol
Good point. Note that article was from July 2024 when Biden was still in the race and Musk had not yet made many of his contributions. However, the point remains that support from billionaires and those that influence the majority of our media and tech industries were a very big part of Biden's campaign in 2020 and Biden/Harris in 2024 .
I also posted an update that was assembled just before the election with Harris now in the race. Same situation.
Billionaire influence running up to the Nov 2024 election HERE .
You are kidding right? You don't think huge donors like Bloomberg, Bill Gates, Stephen Spielberg, Warren Buffet, George Soros, and most of the social media and tech world millionaires/billionaires have massive influence with respect to the bulk of our media and the shape of our future?
Well that's my point. So why wasn't it called an "oligarchy" before? This certainly isn't new or something just emerging now that the idiot Trump is coming back to the Whitehouse. Someone like Biden, who has definitely benefitted from it, certainly can't point fingers now in my opinion.
I was wondering about that too. The Politico Article says it will go to the "Trump-aligned MAGA Inc. super PAC". Oh goodie more spending on political fundraising! Since Trump couldn't keep up with the Democratic fundraising in the last two elections, Vance is apparently trying to get a head start. These super PACs need to go.
Who has donated hundreds of millions of dollars to Democrat candidates and party and nothing to Republican candidates and party. It's rich when Biden talks about the dangers of the oligarchy while ignoring all those billionaires who donate to the Democrat side.
Isn't that what politicians do after they've won a race, figure out how to win the next one? Vance is not the president who will be leaving Washington and not going to be running for any again, he will be running for another office in the future. This is what politicians do, they fund raise for the next go-around. The money raised from this according to the article will go to the MAGA Inc. super PAC. Vance could be hoping he's the standard bearer for the party in 2028 and this money will possibly to go the nominee then.
The oligarchs that Biden warned about
This off-topic so delete if you want, John, but that Middle East peace deal? It hasn't happened yet. We have 3 days until Sunday. Anything can happen. I personally don't trust either side to uphold the deal. And if it doesn't happen, trmp will blame Biden even tho he's taking credit for it now.
when things go wrong in with anything trump has his hand in, it is always someone else's fault.
Indeed 5 days later, the ceasefire has entered its third day. Trump mentioned it in his inaugural speech yesterday but amazingly to me, he did not take sole credit for it like I thought he might. What he should have done in that moment is make a point that things like that can get done when we all work together, and then praise Biden for his part in that. But no, same old ego that won't let that happen. If the agreement had failed, I think John is right, Trump definitely would have blamed Biden. If it fails now, before it is complete, who do you think will blame who at that point?