Biden lectures on 'oligarchy' and 'misinformation'? Joe can't leave fast enough. | Opinion
President Joe Biden used his farewell speech to lecture on subjects on which he has zero high ground. He instead cemented his legacy as a liar and hypocrite.
President Joe Biden can’t leave the Oval Office fast enough.
And his farewell address to the American people Wednesday evening served as a final reminder of why we’ll be glad when he’s gone from the White House.
Biden has spent the last five decades in elected office. He should have simply focused on his career in his farewell speech, leaving with some grace.
That’s far from what he did.
Biden used his final minutes in front of the camera to once again lecture the country on “democracy,” the “soul of our nation” and “misinformation.” He threw in another one, too: “oligarchy.”
These are all subjects on which Biden has zero high ground, and he succeeded in cementing his legacy as a liar and hypocrite.
Let’s briefly walk through what he said.
Biden takes a shot at Trump, Musk and oligarchs
Although Biden didn’t mention President-elect Donald Trump or billionaire (and Trump bestie) Elon Musk by name, they played a prominent role in his speech.
“I want to warn the country of some things that give me great concern," Biden said. "And that’s the dangerous concentration of power in the hands of a very few ultrawealthy people."
“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, and a fair shot for everyone to get ahead.”
Trump has tapped Elon Musk, the Tesla and SpaceX CEO and the world’s richest person, to serve as a close adviser, including with an effort to cut the size of our government.
Why shouldn’t Trump bring on one of America's best minds?
The wealthy have always had influence in politics. And Biden and the Democrats know this very well. In fact, after Biden dropped out of the race last year, Vice President Kamala Harris attracted donations from far more billionaires than Trump did.
When Oprah, Hollywood stars and famous musicians campaigned for Harris, apparently that was all hunky-dory in Biden’s mind.
Yet, the world is ending if Musk – the chief innovator of our time – decides to support Trump?
Biden warns of misinformation in the media. That’s rich coming from him.
Biden also spent time warning of the dangers of “misinformation” and “disinformation” in the media.
“I’m equally concerned about the potential rise of a tech industrial complex that could pose real dangers for our country, as well,” he said. “Americans are being buried under an avalanche of misinformation and disinformation, enabling the abuse of power. The free press is crumbling, editors are disappearing.”
Give me a break.
Throughout his presidency, Biden and his bureaucrats served as threats to free speech and the dissemination of truth, whether it related to the Biden family or COVID-19.
When he was campaigning for president in 2020, Biden claimed stories about his son Hunter’s now infamous laptop were Russian disinformation. Social media sites like Facebook and Twitter faced intense pressure to censor these reports just weeks before the election. And they did.
It turns out that it wasn’t disinformation at all. It was 100% true.
Biden also had the audacity to take aim at Meta, which owns Facebook, to criticize the private company’s new policy against fact-checking.
“Social media is giving up on fact-checking,” he said. “The truth is smothered by lies told for power and for profit. We must hold the social platforms accountable to protect our children, our families and our very democracy from the abuse of power.”
Last week, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg told podcaster Joe Rogan about the pressure campaign from the Biden administration to censor information, even when it was true.
“They pushed us super hard, to take down the things that were honestly were true,” Zuckerberg said. “They basically pushed us and said, you know, anything that says that vaccines might have side effects, you basically need to take down.”
That sounds the opposite of democratic to me.
That’s not even mentioning all the lies Biden and his advisers told for months about the president’s deteriorating health, referring to true stories about his obvious decline as “cheap fakes.”
In Biden’s parting words, he did a great job of reminding us why voters awarded Donald Trump the right to replace him next week – and why the country will be better off when he exits the stage.
Ingrid Jacques is a columnist at Paste BN. Contact her at ijacques@usatoday.com or on X, formerly Twitter: @Ingrid_Jacques