Biden targets oligarchs and extreme wealth in his farewell address News about Joe Biden
US President Joe Biden has said ‘powerful powers’ are threatening to overturn his climate policy as Trump prepares to take office.
United States President Joe Biden used his final official address as president to warn of the dangers of “oligarchy” and “extreme wealth” to democracy as President-elect Donald Trump prepares to begin his second term with an administration packed with billionaires.
“Today, an oligarchy of extreme wealth, power and influence is taking shape in America that literally threatens our entire democracy, our basic rights and freedoms and fair opportunities for all to thrive,” Biden said in a televised address from the Oval. White House office on Wednesday night.
Biden’s speech comes five days before Trump’s Jan. 20 inauguration and just hours after Israel and Hamas announced they had agreed to truce in Gazaan outcome that appears to have eluded the Biden administration for months despite widespread opposition to the war among many Americans.
In his speech, Biden warned of the “dangerous concentration of power in the hands of a few ultra-rich people” and the “dangerous consequences if their abuse of power goes unchecked.”
President-elect Trump’s incoming administration has at least 11 billionaires in official positions, according to the Democratic Party. Among them is the richest man in the world, a billionaire Elon Muskwho Trump said would co-lead the so-called Department of Government Efficiency.
Biden also warned that “powerful forces” are threatening to undo his climate achievements, such as unprecedented forest fires burn in Los Angeles, the second largest city in the USA.
Biden began his speech with a brief reference to the newly announced cease-fire agreement between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip, which Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attributed in part to Trump.
“After eight months of non-stop negotiations by my administration, Israel and Hamas have reached a ceasefire and hostage agreement,” Biden said.
Biden added that as his team was negotiating the deal, he told them to “keep the incoming administration fully informed” since they would be “heavily enforcing it.”
Although he claimed the ceasefire as an achievement of his presidency, many voters in the 2024 presidential election said they could not support the Democratic Party because of Biden’s staunch support for Israel’s war on the Gaza Strip.
Biden, 82, dropped out of the race for a second term after voters and his own party expressed concern about his performance in the first presidential debate against then-Republican candidate Donald Trump, with Biden’s running mate, Kamala Harrishe went on to run for president and then lost to Trump.
Biden used his final days in office to impose a comprehensive ban on offshore oil and natural gas drilling in more than 625 million acres (253 million hectares), including “the entire US East Coast, the eastern Gulf of Mexico” and parts of the “Northern Bering Sea in Alaska”.
This is seen as an apparent move to thwart Trump’s promise to “drill, drill” for oil on “day one” of his second term.
In his farewell address, Biden said that “it will take time to feel the impact of all that we have done together, but the seed has been planted, and it will grow and flourish for decades.”
