Bloomberg News
@Bloomberg-News·2.8M subscribers·40.1K videos
Biden Decries American 'Oligarchy' Taking Shape in Farewell Address
Posted
January 16, 2025
Views
5,363
Likes
136
Comments
58
Engagement
January 16, 2025
5,363
136
58
3.62%
Every word spoken in this episode is indexed. Type any phrase to jump straight to the moment it was said.
Type any word or phrase that may have been spoken. Click a result to seek the player to that exact moment.
Try a name, a topic, or a quoted line
0:40Now PlayingPresident Joe Biden warned Americans of a “dangerous concentration of power” in the hands of a “very few ultra-wealthy people” and the impact he feared it would have on the country’s democracy as he delivered a farewell address Wednesday from the Oval Office. #biden #politics #trump
“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, a fair shot for everyone to get ahead,” said Biden, who was joined by his family and longtime aides.
The president said he worried of the consequences if wealthy Americans used their influence to win tax breaks, roll back efforts to combat climate change, and decrease accountability. Biden drew a parallel to former President Dwight Eisenhower’s farewell address, which warned of a “military industrial complex,” saying the nation now faced a threat from a “tech industrial complex.”
The speech, which capped the president’s five-decade career in politics, also returned to familiar themes about the need to preserve and protect democratic ideals. Taken as a whole, it offered a direct and populist critique of successor Donald Trump and his allies — many of whom are drawn from the ranks of the country’s business and financial elite.
--------
Subscribe to our YouTube channel
Subscribe to Bloomberg Originals
Bloomberg Quicktake brings you global social video spanning business, technology, politics and culture. Make sense of the stories changing your business and your world.
Connect with us on…
Breaking News on YouTube
Sentinel Indexing in Progress
Metadata and chapters are available. Claim extraction for this episode is pending.
All video content is delivered via YouTube embedded players in accordance with the YouTube Terms of Service. Sentinel provides research tools that promote discovery and accountability across political media.
