Joe Biden's farewell address

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Joe Biden's farewell address
Part of the presidency of Joe Biden and the second presidential transition of Donald Trump
President Joe Biden delivers his farewell address to the nation in the Oval Office of the White House.
DateJanuary 15, 2025 (2025-01-15)
Time8:00 p.m. EST
Duration17 minutes
Location Oval Office, White House
Washington, D.C., U.S.
Type Speech
ParticipantsPresident Joe Biden
OutcomeThe Biden administration ends and the second Trump administration begins at noon EST on January 20, 2025.
Media Video
  2021
TBD 

Joe Biden's farewell address was the final official speech of Joe Biden as the 46th President of the United States, delivered in the Oval Office on January 15, 2025.

Contents

Background

Biden served his term as the 46th President of the United States, winning the 2020 presidential election against incumbent Republican president Donald Trump. He was inaugurated on January 20, 2021.

Address

Biden began his speech at 8:00 p.m. EST from the Oval Office. [1] Biden's wife Jill, [2] his son Hunter, Hunter's wife Melissa, their son Beau, Biden's granddaughter Finnegan, and vice president Kamala Harris and her husband Doug Emhoff were present in the Oval Office during the speech. [3] He initially covered the history of the United States and described the Statue of Liberty as a representation of the U.S. [4] Biden claimed that an oligarchy was taking hold in the U.S., [5] [6] invoking Dwight D. Eisenhower's farewell address, in which Eisenhower argued that the military–industrial complex was influencing the country; he criticized the "tech-industrial complex". He boasted of provisions to combat climate change in the Inflation Reduction Act. [7] Biden indirectly criticized Meta Platforms's decision to end its fact-checking program. [8]

See also

Related Research Articles

Oligarchy is a form of government in which power rests with a small number of people. These people may or may not be distinguished by one or several characteristics, such as nobility, fame, wealth, education, or corporate, religious, political, or military control.

The expression military–industrial complex (MIC) describes the relationship between a country's military and the defense industry that supplies it, seen together as a vested interest which influences public policy. A driving factor behind the relationship between the military and the defense-minded corporations is that both sides benefit—one side from obtaining weapons, and the other from being paid to supply them. The term is most often used in reference to the system behind the armed forces of the United States, where the relationship is most prevalent due to close links among defense contractors, the Pentagon, and politicians. The expression gained popularity after a warning of the relationship's detrimental effects, in the farewell address of U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower on January 17, 1961.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Oval Office</span> Office of the President of the United States in the White House

The Oval Office is the formal working space of the president of the United States. Part of the Executive Office of the President of the United States, it is in the West Wing of the White House, in Washington, D.C.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Farewell speech</span> Speech given by an individual leaving a position or place

A farewell speech or farewell address is a speech given by an individual leaving a position or place. They are often used by public figures such as politicians as a capstone to the preceding career, or as statements delivered by persons relating to reasons for their leaving. The term is often used as a euphemism for "retirement speech," though it is broader in that it may include geographical or even biological conclusion.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Beau Biden</span> American politician and lawyer (1969–2015)

Joseph Robinette "Beau" Biden III was an American politician, lawyer, and officer in the Army Judge Advocate General's Corps from Wilmington, Delaware. He was the eldest child of 46th U.S. president, Joe Biden and Neilia Hunter Biden, served as the 44th attorney general of Delaware from 2007 to 2015, and was a major in the Delaware Army National Guard in the Iraq War. He died of glioblastoma at the age of 46 in 2015, at which time he was a candidate for the Democratic nomination for governor of Delaware in the 2016 gubernatorial election. A portion of the 21st Century Cures Act was named the Beau Biden Cancer Moonshot initiative after him.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joe Biden 1988 presidential campaign</span> American political campaign

The 1988 presidential campaign of Joe Biden, a Democratic U.S. Senator from Delaware, began in June 1987. Originally, Biden was regarded as potentially one of the strongest candidates in the field. In September 1987, however, reports emerged that he had plagiarized a speech by the British Leader of the Opposition and Labour Party Leader, Neil Kinnock. Other allegations of past law school plagiarism and exaggerating his academic record soon followed and Biden withdrew from the race later that month.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hunter Biden</span> American businessman and lobbyist (born 1970)

Robert Hunter Biden is an American attorney and businessman. He is the second son of former president Joe Biden and his first wife, Neilia Hunter Biden. Hunter Biden was a founding board member of BHR Partners, a Chinese investment company, in 2013, and later served on the board of Burisma Holdings, one of the largest private natural gas producers in Ukraine, from 2014 until his term expired in April 2019. He has worked as a lobbyist and legal representative for lobbying firms, a hedge fund principal, and a venture capital and private equity fund investor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Family of Joe Biden</span> American presidential family

The family of Joe Biden, the 46th president of the United States, includes members prominent in law, education, activism and politics. Biden's immediate family was the first family of the United States from 2021 to 2025. They were also the second family of the United States from 2009 to 2017 during Biden's vice presidency under Barack Obama. Biden's family is mostly descended from the British Isles, with most of their ancestors coming from Ireland and England, and a smaller number descending from the French.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">United States Oval Office Address</span> Speech by the President of the United States

An Oval Office address is a type of speech made by the president of the United States, usually in the Oval Office at the White House. It is considered among the most solemn settings for an address made by a leader, and is most often delivered to announce a major new policy initiative, on the occasion of a leader's departure from office, or during times of national emergency.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dwight D. Eisenhower's farewell address</span> 1961 speech by U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower

Eisenhower's farewell address was the final public speech of Dwight D. Eisenhower as the 34th president of the United States, delivered in a television broadcast on January 17, 1961. Perhaps best known for advocating that the nation guard against the potential influence of the military–industrial complex, a term he is credited with coining, the speech also expressed concerns about planning for the future and the dangers of massive spending, especially deficit spending, the prospect of the domination of science through federal funding and, conversely, the domination of science-based public policy by what he called a "scientific-technological elite". Eisenhower played a significant role in the creation of this "elite" and its position of power, and thus there is an element of irony in his warning against it. This speech and Eisenhower's Chance for Peace speech have been called the "bookends" of his administration.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Neilia Hunter Biden</span> First wife of President Joe Biden (1942–1972)

Neilia Hunter Biden was an American teacher. She was the first wife of Joe Biden, who would later become the 46th president of the United States. She died in a 1972 car crash with their one-year-old daughter, Naomi; their two sons, Beau and Hunter, were injured but survived the incident. Her death occurred six weeks after her husband's election to the U.S. Senate.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Inauguration of Joe Biden</span> 59th United States presidential inauguration

The inauguration of Joe Biden as the 46th president of the United States took place on Wednesday, January 20, 2021, on the West Front of the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C. It was the 59th inauguration and marked the commencement of Joe Biden's only term as president and Kamala Harris' only term as vice president. Biden took the presidential oath of office, before which Harris took the vice presidential oath of office.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Valerie Biden Owens</span> American political strategist (born 1945)

Valerie Biden Owens is an American political strategist, campaign manager and former educator. She is the younger sister of Joe Biden, the 46th president of the United States. In 2016, President Barack Obama nominated her as alternate representative of the United States to the 71st Session of the General Assembly of the United Nations.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Donald Trump's first farewell address</span> The first farewell address of Donald Trump

Donald Trump's first farewell address was the final official speech of Donald Trump as the 45th President of the United States, delivered as a recorded, online video message on January 19, 2021. The farewell address was delivered the day before Joe Biden, who defeated him in the 2020 United States presidential election, was sworn in as his successor. Trump was the first president to not attend his successor's inauguration since Andrew Johnson in 1869.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Early life and career of Joe Biden</span>

Joseph Robinette Biden Jr., the 46th president of the United States, was born on November 20, 1942, at St. Mary's Hospital in Scranton, Pennsylvania, to Catherine Eugenia "Jean" Biden and Joseph Robinette Biden Sr. The oldest child in a Catholic family, Biden has a sister, Valerie, and two brothers, Francis and James.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2022 State of the Union Address</span> Speech by US president Joe Biden

The 2022 State of the Union Address was given by the 46th president of the United States, Joe Biden, on March 1, 2022, at 9:00 p.m. EST, in the chamber of the United States House of Representatives to the 117th United States Congress. It was Biden's first State of the Union Address and his second speech to a joint session of the United States Congress. Presiding over this joint session was the House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, accompanied by Kamala Harris, the vice president, in her capacity as the president of the Senate.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Battle for the Soul of the Nation speech</span> 2022 speech by US President Joe Biden

The Battle for the Soul of the Nation was a speech given by U.S. President Joe Biden on September 1, 2022, two months before the 2022 midterm elections. It was televised during prime time from the front of Philadelphia's Independence Hall. Biden was critical of Donald Trump and Republicans adhering to the Make America Great Again movement.

The following is a timeline of the presidency of Joe Biden during the second quarter of 2023, from April 1 to June 30, 2023. To navigate between quarters, see timeline of the Joe Biden presidency.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Public Law 118-50</span> United States legislation

Public Law 118-50 is an appropriations bill enacted by the 118th Congress and signed into law by president Joe Biden on April 24, 2024. It provides $95.3 billion of foreign aid for Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan, and includes the 21st Century Peace through Strength Act, which itself includes the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act. It also includes the Protecting Americans' Data from Foreign Adversaries Act that bans data broker companies from selling Americans personal data to U.S. foreign adversaries.

The expression tech–industrial complex describes the relationship between a country's tech industry and its influence on the concentration of wealth, censorship or manipulation of algorithms to push an agenda, spread of misinformation and disinformation via social media and artificial intelligence, and public policy. The expression is used to describe Big Tech, Silicon Valley, and the largest IT companies in the world. The term is related to the military-industrial complex, and has been used to describe the United States Armed Forces and its adoption of AI-enabled weapons systems. The expression was popularized after a warning of the relationship's detrimental effects, in the farewell address of U.S. President Joe Biden on January 15, 2025.

References

  1. Kanno-Youngs, Zolan (January 15, 2025). "Biden is speaking from the Oval Office for his farewell address to the nation". The New York Times . Retrieved January 15, 2025.
  2. Rogers, Katie (January 15, 2024). "Jill Biden, the first lady, is in the Oval watching as her husband delivers his final address from behind the Resolute Desk". The New York Times . Retrieved January 15, 2025.
  3. Rogers, Katie (January 15, 2024). "Hunter Biden, Melissa Biden and their son, Beau, are in the Oval, as is Finnegan Biden, one of the president's granddaughters". The New York Times . Retrieved January 15, 2025.
  4. Kanno-Youngs, Zolan (January 15, 2025). "Biden has begun his farewell address by tracing the history of the United States". The New York Times . Retrieved January 15, 2025.
  5. Huer, Mike; Coote, Darryl (2025-01-15). "Biden warns of growing threat of unchecked power in farewell address". United Press International. Retrieved 2025-01-16.
  6. Baker, Peter (January 15, 2025). "Biden's warning of an unelected oligarchy taking power in America echoes Dwight Eisenhower's warning about the military-industrial complex". The New York Times . Retrieved January 15, 2025.
  7. Kanno-Youngs, Zolan (January 15, 2025). "Biden is now talking about his administration's success securing a record investment to combat climate change". The New York Times . Retrieved January 15, 2025.
  8. Kanno-Youngs, Zolan (January 15, 2025). ""Social media has given up on fact checking," Biden says as he warns about what he calls misinformation online". The New York Times . Retrieved January 15, 2025.