Responses from lawmakers underlined the very democratic fragility the president looked to highlight<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Joe Biden\u2019s farewell address warning that \u201can oligarchy is taking shape\u201d which threatens American democracy sparked polarized reactions from lawmakers that seemed to validate the very democratic fragility the president looked to highlight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Speaking from the Oval Office for the final time before president-elect Donald Trump\u2019s return to power, on Wednesday Biden sounded an alarm<\/a> about America\u2019s future. \u201cToday, an oligarchy is taking shape in America,\u201d he said, that posed a challenge to \u201cour basic rights and freedoms\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Biden urged the US to beware what he described as a growing \u201ctech-industrial complex\u201d, appearing to deliberately echo the 1961 farewell address by a previous president, Dwight Eisenhower, whose warning of a \u201cmilitary-industrial complex\u201d became a byword for the overreach of American corporate power in the democratic sphere.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Biden\u2019s remarks amounted to a not-so-veiled jab at the tech billionaires Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg and Jeff Bezos, who have collectively not just amassed hitherto unseen wealth but have all recently made public gestures of support for Trump. All three are expected to attend Trump\u2019s inauguration on Monday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Within hours, however, Biden\u2019s speech had devolved into another partisan battleground \u2013 perhaps the clearest illustration of the political division that has dogged his presidency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cPresident Biden delivered his farewell address to a nation that is stronger because of his leadership,\u201d the former House speaker and California representative Nancy Pelosi wrote on X<\/a>. She praised what she called \u201cfour historic years of progress, hope and unity for American families\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Republican lawmakers appeared to see a different speech entirely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cJoe Biden\u2019s legacy in one word: Failure,\u201d the Georgia representative Andrew Clyde said on X<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The South Carolina representative Nancy Mace accused Biden<\/a> of using his farewell not looking at China, Russia and Iran but to attack American citizens, by \u201ccalling them \u2018oligarchs\u2019 and \u2018a threat to democracy\u2019\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The sharply divergent interpretations came as Biden prepared to hand the presidency back to Trump, who defeated Kamala Harris, the vice-president, in November following Biden\u2019s dramatic withdrawal from the race last summer amid concerns about his age and fitness for office.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Even as he warned of democracy\u2019s fragility, Biden championed his administration\u2019s achievements, including major infrastructure investments, clean energy initiatives, and prescription drug reforms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The former president Barack Obama praised these accomplishments<\/a>, noting \u201c17 million new jobs, historic wage gains, and lower health care costs\u201d under Biden\u2019s watch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Republicans dismissed the claims. \u201cJoe Biden\u2019s presidency will be defined by weakness, failure and dangerously liberal policies,\u201d the Oklahoma congressman Kevin Hern wrote on social media<\/a>, while the Florida senator Rick Scott said<\/a> Biden\u2019s speech \u201cshould have been a formal apology\u201d for what he termed \u201cendless lawfare\u201d and \u201cinflation-fueling policies\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The president\u2019s warnings about concentrated wealth and power came alongside calls for constitutional amendments to ensure presidential accountability \u2013 remarks that seemed particularly pointed given Trump\u2019s pending return to office.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Biden argued that no president should be immune from prosecution for crimes committed while in office, a statement that some Republicans interpreted as a partisan attack rather than a broader democratic principle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Hours before the address, Biden had announced what may prove his final diplomatic achievement: a breakthrough ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas that could end the 15-month conflict in Gaza. The deal, which Biden first proposed last spring and which Trump\u2019s team helped finalize, offered a rare moment of bipartisan cooperation \u2013 though it barely featured in lawmakers\u2019 responses to his farewell.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Instead, reactions split predictably along party lines, with Democrats such as the Wisconsin representative Mark Pocan saying he will \u201calways be proud<\/a>\u201d of the achievements in creating millions of jobs and turning around the economy, while Republicans counted down the days until Trump\u2019s return.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cHopefully he has time to finish packing up his boxes after tonight\u2019s speech because President Trump arrives back at the White House in 5 days,\u201d wrote the Indiana Representative Rudy Yakym on X<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Biden\u2019s speech illustrated how his presidency, which began with ambitious promises to restore America\u2019s soul and unite a divided nation, ends with those divisions still stark. While speaking of a \u201ccrumbling\u201d free press, rising disinformation and dark money in politics \u2013 systemic issues that ought in theory to transcend party lines \u2013 they were nevertheless immediately absorbed by politicians into a preferred partisan lens.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe\u2019re sad to see you go, but the legacy you\u2019ve created will impact our society for years to come,\u201d wrote<\/a> the Mississippi representative Bennie Thompson, a Democrat, while Lisa McClain, the Republican representative for Michigan, offered a sharply different take<\/a>: \u201cJanuary 20th could not come soon enough.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n