President Joe Biden devoted a great deal of his farewell address warning of the concentration of power and wealth, particularly when it comes to what he dubbed the “tech industrial complex.”
In a speech from the Oval Office, Biden did not name Elon Musk, who stands to take a central role in Donald Trump‘s administration, or Jeff Bezos and Mark Zuckerberg, who have taken blatant steps to woo the former Celebrity Apprentice host.
But borrowing a phrase from Dwight D. Eisenhower, who warned of the rise of the military industrial complex in his final speech to the nation, Biden said that he was “equally concerned about the potential rise of the tech industrial complex.
“It can pose real dangers to our country as well. Americans are being buried under an avalanche of misinformation and disinformation, enabling the abuse of power. The free press is crumbling. Editors are disappearing. Social media is giving up on fact checking. Truth is smothered by lies, told for power and for profit. We must hold the social platforms accountable, to protect our children, our families in a very democracy from the abuse of power.”
Biden’s warning were part of a broader alarm about the abuse of power being unchecked.
“Today, an oligarchy is taking shape in America — 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.
Musk’s role in the incoming administration has raised big concerns that he will wield excessive influence on the Trump administration, all the while reaping the windfall from government contracts. Musk poured tens of millions to help return Trump to the White House, and he has suggested that he will continue to bankroll challengers to lawmakers who are in his disfavor.
Meanwhile, a number of tech titans have lined up behind Trump. Last week, Zuckerberg announced that Meta would stop fact-checking on its platforms, a nod to an incoming president who has blasted the social media platforms’ content moderation practices.
Musk, meanwhile, suspended fact-checking on Twitter after he purchased it and later rebranded it as X, replacing it with a community notes system, one that Zuckerberg plans to adopt. Musk himself has spread lies and misinformation from his own account.
Biden’s warning underscored what had eluded his presidency for much of his term, as he and his advisers had trouble getting their message through in a diffused information environment where legacy media audiences were dwindling.
Through his four years in office, Biden’s administration often battled the spread of falsehoods on social media, particularly as it sought vaccine acceptance to address the Covid pandemic.
The president ran through his legislative and other accomplishments in the earlier part of the speech, including the passage of the infrastructure law, another aimed at boosting the semiconductor industry and another to bring down the cost of prescription drug prices. He touted the passage of significant climate change legislation while mentioning the creation of 17 million new jobs, surpassing his predecessors.
“It will take time to feel the full impact of all we have done together, but the seeds are planted,” Biden said.
Biden’s administration has tried to address the rise of artificial intelligence, including with largely voluntary initiatives by major firms like OpenAI to establish safeguards. But despite months of sessions devoted to the concerns over AI, Congress never passed any significant law.
“Unless safeguards are in place, AI could spawn new threats to our right, our way of life, to our privacy, how we work and how we protect our nation,” Biden said. “We must make sure AI and safe and trustworthy.”
Biden earlier this week gave a farewell speech devoted to foreign policy, but this evening he did make mention that Ukraine “is still free, and we pulled ahead of our competition with China.”
The president also started his speech by talking of the breakthrough ceasefire deal reached earlier today between Israel and Hamas.
Trump has tried to take credit for the deal, but Biden said, “This plan was developed and negotiated by my team and will be largely implemented by the next administration.”
During the transition period, Biden has met with his successor, and even posed for pictures with him. The outgoing president will attend the swearing in ceremony that Trump shunned four years ago.
In tonight speech, though, Biden made clear that his respect for tradition does not mean that he still doesn’t see a threat to democracy ahead.
“I still believe in the idea for which this nation stands, a nation where the strength of our institutions and the character of our people matter and must endure,” he told viewers. “Now it’s your turn to stand guard. May you all be the keeper of the flame.”
Here is a letter Biden wrote to the American people today:
Four years ago, we stood in a winter of peril and a winter of possibilities. We were in the grip of the worst pandemic in a century, the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, and the worst attack on our democracy since the Civil War. But we came together as Americans, and we braved through it. We emerged stronger, more prosperous, and more secure.
Today, we have the strongest economy in the world and have created a record 16.6 million new jobs. Wages are up. Inflation continues to come down. The racial wealth gap is the lowest it’s been in 20 years. We’re rebuilding our entire nation—urban, suburban, rural, and Tribal communities. Manufacturing is coming back to America. We’re leading the world again in science and innovation, including the semiconductor industry. And we finally beat Big Pharma to lower the cost of prescription drugs for seniors. More people have health insurance today in America than ever before. I signed one of the most significant laws helping millions of veterans who were exposed to toxic materials and their families, as well as the most significant climate law ever and the first major gun safety law in nearly 30 years. Today, the violent crime rate is at a 50-year low.
I ran for president because I believed that the soul of America was at stake. The very nature of who we are was at stake. And, that’s still the case. America is an idea stronger than any army and larger than any ocean. It’s the most powerful idea in the history of the world. That idea is that we are all created equal, endowed by our Creator with certain unalienable rights, among them life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. We’ve never fully lived up to this sacred idea, but we’ve never walked away from it either. And I do not believe the American people will walk away from it now.
Vice President Harris and I asked our staff to prepare a detailed summary of the progress we’ve made together throughout the last four years. Below, I’m sharing our record with you. I hope you’ll do your part to build on the progress we’ve made.
It has been 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. 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.
History is in your hands. The power is in your hands. The idea of America lies in your hands. We just have to keep the faith and remember who we are. We are the United States of America, and there is simply nothing beyond our capacity when we do it together.
Thank you.
Joseph R. Biden, Jr.
English (US) ·