Washington: U.S. President Joe Biden used his farewell address to the nation on 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 on 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, Los Angeles Times reported.
“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.”
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.” according to media reports.
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.
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.
“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. media reports said.
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.
The speech on 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.
UNI
