New Delhi:
From warning Americans about an “oligarchy taking shape” to standing guard against a misinformation avalanche, outgoing US President Joe Biden on Thursday delivered a farewell speech from the Oval Office.
Here are the key quotes from the 82-year-old’s speech:
1. “Today, an oligarchy is taking shape in America of extreme wealth, power and influence that literally threatens our entire democracy,” he said,
2. Biden warned of a “tech industrial complex” that is “a dangerous concentration of power in the hands of a very few ultra-wealthy people.”
3. “We see the consequences all across America, and we’ve seen it before, more than a century ago, but the American people stood up to the robber barons back then and busted the trust. They didn’t punish the wealthy. Just made the wealthy play by the rules everybody else had,” Biden added.
4. “Americans are being buried under an avalanche of misinformation and disinformation, enabling the abuse of power,” said Biden.
5. Warning of rhetorical dangers of AI, he said America must take the “lead” over China on the transformative technology.
6. Biden said that “powerful forces” threatened his climate achievements.
7. “You know, it will take time to feel the full impact of all we’ve done together, but the seeds are planted, and they’ll grow, and they’ll bloom for decades to come,” Biden said in his farewell address.
8. “The free press is crumbling. Editors are disappearing. Social media is giving up on fact checking. The truth is smothered by lies told for power and for profit.”
9. He said that days before his administration’s tenure comes to an end, a ceasefire and hostage deal has been reached in the Israel-Palestine conflict. “After eight months of nonstop negotiation, a ceasefire and a hostage deal has been reached by Israel and Hamas,” he said.
10. “It’s been the honor of my life to see the resilience of essential workers getting us through a once-in-a-century pandemic, the heroism of service members and first responders keeping us safe, the determination of advocates standing up for our rights and our freedoms,” Biden said.
