President Biden delivered his farewell address to the nation Wednesday evening, taking a victory lap for the cease-fire deal between Israel and Hamas and warning Americans about an “oligarchy” in the U.S. that “threatens our entire democracy.”
“My fellow Americans, I’m speaking to you tonight from the Oval Office. Before I begin, let me speak to important news from earlier today. After eight months of nonstop negotiation, my administration — by my administration — a cease-fire and hostage deal has been reached by Israel and Hamas, the elements of which I laid out in great detail in May of this year,” Biden said in his opening remarks.
“This plan was developed and negotiated by my team and will be largely implemented by the incoming administration. That’s why I told my team to keep the incoming administration fully informed, because that’s how it should be, working together as Americans.”
Israel and Hamas reached a cease-fire agreement Wednesday that also ensured the release of hostages. A recent meeting between Trump’s incoming Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reportedly played a pivotal role in the deal, sources told Fox News Digital.
PRESIDENT BIDEN RELEASES FAREWELL LETTER, SAYS IT’S BEEN ‘PRIVILEGE OF MY LIFE TO SERVE THIS NATION’
President Biden arrives to board Air Force One at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland Aug. 15, 2023. (Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images)
The president in his farewell address also warned Americans there is a “dangerous concentration of power in the hands of a very few ultra wealthy people.”
“I want to warn the country of some things that give me great concern. … That’s a dangerous concentration of power in the hands of a very few ultra-wealthy people. The dangerous consequences if their abuse of power is left unchecked,” he said.
BIDEN BALKS WHEN ASKED IF TRUMP DESERVES CREDIT FOR ISRAEL-HAMAS CEASE-FIRE DEAL: ‘IS THAT A JOKE?’
“Today, an oligarchy is taking shape in America of extreme wealth, power and influence that literally threatens our entire democracy. Our basic rights, freedoms and a fair shot for everyone to get ahead.”
President Biden delivers his farewell address to the nation from the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, D.C., Jan. 15, 2025. (Mandel Ngan/Pool/AFP via Getty Images)
Biden will officially exit the Oval Office Jan. 20, when President-elect Trump will be sworn in as the 47th president around noon that day.
Biden’s speech also focused on the American dream and the “most powerful idea” that “all of us are created equal.”
“The very idea of America was so big, we felt the entire world needed to see. The Statue of Liberty, a gift from France after our Civil War. Like the very idea of America, it was built not by one person, but by many people, from every background and from around the world. Like America, the Statue of Liberty is not standing still. Her foot literally steps forward atop a broken chain of human bondage. She’s on the march, and she literally moves,” he said.
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“A nation of pioneers and explorers, of dreamers and doers, of ancestors native to this land, of ancestors who came by force. A nation of immigrants came to build a better life, a nation holding a torch. The most powerful idea ever, in the history of the world, that all of us, all of us are created equal. That all of us deserve to be treated with dignity, justice and fairness. That democracy must defend and be defined and be imposed, moved in every way possible, our rights, our freedoms, our dreams.”
President Biden speaks from the Oval Office for his farewell speech to the American people (Fox News )
Biden continued to call for a series of policies U.S. leaders should enact in the coming years, such as reforming the tax code to ensure billionaires “begin to pay their fair share” and to “amend the Constitution to make clear that no president, no president, is immune from crimes that he or she commits while in office.”
“We need to get dark money, that’s that hidden funding behind too many campaign contributions. We need to get it out of our politics. We need to enact an 18-year … term for the strongest ethics reform … for Supreme Court. We need to ban members of Congress from power, from trading stock while they’re in the Congress,” he said.
Biden has spent more than 50 years in public office, making his mark on the national map in 1972, President Richard Nixon’s landslide re-election year, when he beat a Republican incumbent in a long-shot Senate race in Delaware at the age of 29.
President Biden addresses the nation from the Oval Office of the White House July 24, 2024, about his decision to drop his re-election bid. (Evan Vucci, Pool via AP)
Biden served 36 years in the U.S. Senate, one of the longest Senate careers in the chamber’s history, before joining former President Barack Obama’s ticket during the 2008 election and serving as vice president for eight years.
“After 50 years of public service, I gave you my word. I still believe in the idea for which this nation stands. A nation where the strength of our institutions, the character of our people, matter and must endure. Now it’s your turn to stand guard. May you all be the keeper of the flame. May you keep the faith. I love America. You love it too. God bless you all. May God protect our troops. Thank you for this great honor,” Biden concluded.
Joe Biden is sworn in as the 46th president of the United States at the U.S. Capitol in Washington Jan. 20, 2021. (Reuters/Jim Bourg)
DONALD TRUMP ELECTED AS THE NEXT PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES
The 46th president defeated Trump in the 2020 election and was about to square off against him again last year but abruptly dropped out of the presidential race as concerns surrounding his mental acuity mounted. Vice President Kamala Harris was quickly endorsed by Biden and other high-profile Democrats to take up the mantle as the party’s presidential nominee but lost the election as Trump swept all seven battleground states.
President Biden and former President Obama (Reuters/Kevin Lamarque)
Biden has been an outspoken and repeated critic of Trump, calling him a “genuine threat to this nation,” but vowed to ensure a peaceful transfer of power and that, “of course,” he will attend Trump’s inauguration.
A Fox News Poll released Wednesday found Trump is the most popular he’s ever been.
FOX NEWS POLL: TRUMP IS THE MOST POPULAR HE’S EVER BEEN
The poll found that 52% of voters approve of Trump’s handling of the transition, while 46% disapprove, which is a reversal from 2017, when just 37% approved and 54% disapproved.
NEW POLLS SHOW BIDEN LEAVING OFFICE WITH APPROVAL RATINGS STILL BURIED DEEP IN NEGATIVE TERRITORY
A CNN poll conducted by SSRS found 36% of Americans approve of the job Biden is doing in the White House, and 64% reported they disapprove.
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Fox News’ Breck Dumas, Victoria Balara, and Paul Steinhauser contributed to this report.
