Joe Biden se despede da presidência e dos "fellow Americans" alertando sobre as ameaças representadas pela oligarquia que pretende dominar seu país.
Presidents often use their final chance to speak to the American people to warn of dangers ahead. George Washington’s farewell address in 1796 resonated with the humility of a president who regarded himself as the servant of the people rather than the other way around. He also warned of the dangers posed by partisan politics – in a way that seems remarkably prescient today. “It agitates the community with ill-founded jealousies and false alarms, kindles the animosity of one part against another, foments occasionally riot and insurrection. It opens the door to foreign influence and corruption, which finds a facilitated access to the government itself through the channels of party passions,” Washington said. In 1961, Dwight Eisenhower, a former general who helped win World War II, remarked that a vast military was necessary to face down the Soviet Union – but he worried how it would change society and the world. “In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist,” Eisenhower said. |
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Biden delivers his farewell address from the Oval Office in the White House, in Washington, DC, on Wednesday. Clockwise from left; Biden, second gentleman Doug Emhoff, Vice President Kamala Harris, first lady Jill Biden, Biden's son Hunter Biden and daughter-in-law Melissa Cohen Biden. |
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And on Wednesday night, in the Oval Office, it was President Joe Biden’s turn to say goodbye. “My eternal thanks to you, the American people,” the president said from the Oval Office at just after 8 p.m. on the East Coast. “After 50 years of public service, I give you my word. I still believe in the idea for which this nation stands, a nation where the strengths of our institutions and the character of our people matter and must endure.” Then came his George Washington moment. “Tonight, I want to warn the country of some things that give me great concern,” Biden said. He cited “a dangerous concentration of power in the hands of a very few ultra wealthy people” and sounded an alarm about “dangerous consequences if their abuse of power is left unchecked.” No prizes for guessing who he was talking about. With a clear eye on Donald Trump’s new superfan Elon Musk and the group of tech tycoons gathering around the president-elect, Biden warned that an oligarchy was taking shape in America. Then he echoed Ike. “I’m equally concerned about the potential rise of a tech industrial complex that can pose real dangers for our country as well,” Biden said. “Americans are being buried under an avalanche of misinformation and disinformation, enabling the abuse of power. The free press is crumbling … social media is giving up on fact checking. The truth is smothered by lies told for power and for profit.” |
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Biden as a newly-elected senator on November 10, 1972. (Guy DeLort/WWD/Penske Media via Getty Images) |
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Biden was resolute, and had a photo of his late son Beau, who died of brain cancer, on the table over his left shoulder. But the burden of a grueling four-year presidency that is ending in his ninth decade was poignantly evident in his reedy voice and slurring words. If Biden is still up to the work of being president, age robbed him of the power to sell his ideas and to paint the national narrative months ago. |
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President-elect Donald Trump and Biden debate at CNN's Atlanta studios on June 27, 2024. |
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As he closed, with his political energy all but exhausted, Biden was like the aged magician Prospero in Shakespeare’s “The Tempest,” alone on the stage when his “charms are all o’erthrown.” “Now it’s your turn to stand guard. May you all be the keeper of the flame, may you keep the faith,” Biden told the country. “I love America. You love it too. God bless you.” But the reality of what will happen at noon on Monday hovered like a dark cloud over the address. Biden said his presidency would be a bridge — and it was. But he didn’t build it to a promised new Democratic generation. Instead, he’s the president who stayed too long and whose administration thus arched between two terms of a nemesis he once defeated and then let back into power: Donald Trump. |
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