Joe Biden says ‘oligarchy’ is emerging in America in final speech at the White House
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US President Joe Biden has warned that an “oligarchy is emerging in America” that risks damaging democracy, and he criticized an emerging “tech industrial complex” for has caused a dangerous concentration of wealth and power in the country.
Biden’s comments in his farewell address to Americans from the Oval Office on Wednesday night amounted to a veiled attack on Donald Trump’s closest allies in corporate America, including the billionaire Technology Elon Musk, just 5 days before he transfers power to the Republican Party.
Biden said he wanted to warn the country about “the dangerous concentration of power in the hands of a very few super-rich” and the risk of “unchecked abuses of their power.”
He quoted the late President Dwight Eisenhower’s warning in his 1961 farewell speech at the military-industrial complex and pointed to the interactions between governments and nations. technology are at risk of similar dangers.
“I am also concerned about the potential rise of a technological-industrial complex that could pose real dangers to our country. Americans are buried under a wave of misinformation and disinformation, facilitating abuses of power. The free press is collapsing. Editors are disappearing. Social media is giving up on fact-checking,” Biden said.
Biden’s words were a reference to the world’s richest man, Musk, owner of social media platform Trump and has become one of his closest allies during the transition to the Trump administration. Trump’s new administration.
Some of Silicon Valley’s top executives, from Amazon’s Jeff Bezos to Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg, have also embrace Trump since his election victory and is expected to take key positions at the inauguration ceremony in Washington on Monday.
Biden also used his comments to cast a positive light on his one-term presidency, which ended in major political defeat when he abandoned his belated re-election bid in late July , passing the campaign torch against Trump to vice president Kamala. Harris – an attempt that ended in bitter failure.
Biden’s approval ratings hit a new low as he relinquished the presidency and a political career in Washington that spanned more than five decades. According to the FiveThirtyEight polling average, only 36.7% of Americans approve of his performance on the job and 55.8% disapprove.
Biden said he hopes his performance will be evaluated more favorably in the future.
“It will take time to feel the full impact of all we have done together, but the seeds have been planted, they will grow and will bloom for decades to come,” he said. .
Biden not only faced heated criticism from Republicans but also reprimands from Democrats, who blamed him for seeking re-election despite his advanced age. He is now 82 years old.
Biden’s presidency has been defined by a record-breaking job market and strong recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic, as well as a series of legislative achievements on the economy. But the pain of high inflation has become a major political weakness for him.
On foreign affairs, he noted Western support for Ukraine following Russia’s full-scale invasion of the country in 2022, but his response to the conflict in the Middle East, including staunch supporter of Israel’s war in Gaza, has drawn backlash from progressive Democrats. , weakening the unity of his political coalition.
It wasn’t until Wednesday, five days from leaving office, that Biden — with help from Trump aides — was able to broker a deal. ceasefire agreement to free hostages held by Hamas.
“This plan was developed and negotiated by my team and will largely be implemented by the incoming administration. That’s why I’ve asked my team to keep the incoming administration fully informed, because that’s the way to do it, working together as Americans,” he said at the start his speech.
