Joe Biden has a lot of problems with the American people, and we got to hear about them last night from the Oval Office.

For being a dead lame duck, Biden has given more speeches in the last week than he had in the months leading up to Election Day, where it seemed that he had virtually disappeared on permanent vacation. We have now heard him give a planned foreign policy speech, along with an attempted victory lap after the hostage deal between Israel and Hamas was announced. But this speech was supposed to be a final farewell to the American people, straight from the very presidential setting of the Oval Office. Joe had put out a farewell letter earlier on Wednesday, which Toni covered here. The letter was apparently the Cliff Notes version of the speech he gave on Wednesday night, as many of the same lines were used again. The entirety of the speech can be watched here.

Naturally, because he just had to try and pat himself on the back one more time, he opened his speech bragging about the hostage deal.

My fellow Americans, I’m speaking to you tonight from the Oval Office. Before I begin, let me speak to important news from earlier today. After eight months of nonstop negotiation, my administration — by my administration — a cease-fire and a hostage deal has been reached by Israel and Hamas, the elements of which I laid out in great detail in May of this year.

This plan was developed and negotiated by my team, and it will be largely implemented by the incoming administration. That’s why I told my team to keep the incoming administration fully informed. Because that’s how it should be: Working together as Americans.

Sure, old Joe is totally all about “working together” – which is why he had to emphasize that it was HIS administration who got the deal, as if the influence of Donald Trump didn’t move the deal forward. And then Biden got to his favorite subject – one that he has harped on many times during his term in office. THE SOUL OF AMERICA! Here we go again.

This will be my final address to you, the American people, from the Oval Office, from this desk, as president. And I’ve been thinking a lot about who we are and, maybe more importantly, who we should be.

Biden then talks about the construction of the Statue of Liberty in an attempt to use the statue as a metaphor. And then he tries to turn the metaphor into a sledgehammer.

The Statue of Liberty is also an enduring symbol of the soul of our nation, a soul shaped by forces that bring us together and by forces that pull us apart. And yet, through good times and tough times, we have withstood it all. A nation of pioneers and explorers, of dreamers and doers, of ancestors native to this land, of ancestors who came by force. A nation of immigrants who came to build a better life. A nation holding the torch of the most powerful idea ever in the history of the world: that all of us, all of us are created equal. That all of us deserve to be treated with dignity, justice and fairness. That democracy must defend, and be defined, and be imposed, moved in every way possible: Our rights, our freedoms, our dreams. But we know the idea of America, our institution, our people, our values that uphold it, are constantly being tested.

Ongoing debates about power and the exercise of power. About whether we lead by the example of our power or the power of our example. Whether we show the courage to stand up to the abuse of power, or we yield to it. After 50 years at the center of all of this, I know that believing in the idea of America means respecting the institutions that govern a free society — the presidency, the Congress, the courts, a free and independent press. Institutions that are rooted — not just reflect the timeless words, but they — they echo the words of the Declaration of Independence: “We hold these truths to be self-evident.” Rooted in the timeless words of the Constitution: “We the People.” Our system of separation of powers, checks and balances — it may not be perfect, but it’s maintained our democracy for nearly 250 years, longer than any other nation in history that’s ever tried such a bold experiment.

In the past four years, our democracy has held strong. And every day, I’ve kept my commitment to be president for all Americans, through one of the toughest periods in our nation’s history. I’ve had a great partner in Vice President Kamala Harris. 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.

Um, yeah, about those “rights and freedoms” – Biden attempted to steamroll right over them in the name of the COVID pandemic, right down to attempting to use OSHA to force a vaccine mandate on American workers. First responders were fired for refusing the vaccine, and members of the military were discharged. All is apparently forgiven and forgotten in Joe Biden’s mind!

Biden went on to brag about the economy, talking about infrastructure and semiconductors and high-speed internet (even though his administration never actually got around to that), and then said this little gem of a line (or was it a threat?):

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.

Tyler Vargas-Andrews, who was badly injured in Afghanistan at Abbey Gate and has testified about what happened that day, laid Joe Biden out flat with a single tweet.

I and so many others felt it over 3 years ago President Biden. https://t.co/2eTVMcCv17 pic.twitter.com/Xs0ZISQB60

— Tyler Vargas-Andrews (@TylerAndrews13) January 16, 2025

If there is a tweet that better sums up Joe Biden’s legacy at one go, I have yet to see it. That is a knockout punch. Biden will always wear the failure of Afghanistan, and when books are written about his administration, it will always be brought up. He will never escape that failure. But being Joe Biden means never having to say you’re sorry. It’s time to… wait for it… complain about the wealthy taking control of everything! You see, the fact that social media has slipped beyond the power of his White House to control, and that his White House’s attempts at control have been so exposed by Mark Zuckerberg, Biden wants to bitch about “misinformation,” “disinformation,” and the fact that some very rich men refused to, or no longer will, bend the knee to Democrats when it comes to controlling speech.

That’s why my farewell address tonight, I want to warn the country of some things that give me great concern. And this is a dangerous — and that’s the dangerous concentration of power in the hands of a very few ultrawealthy people, and the dangerous consequences if their abuse of power is left unchecked. 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. We see the consequences all across America. And we’ve seen it before.

More than a century ago, the American people stood up to the robber barons back then and busted the trusts. They didn’t punish the wealthy. They just made the wealthy play by the rules everybody else had. Workers want rights to earn their fair share. You know, they were dealt into the deal, and it helped put us on the path to building the largest middle class, the most prosperous century any nation the world has ever seen. We’ve got to do that again.

Americans are being buried under an avalanche of misinformation and disinformation enabling the abuse of power. 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. We must hold the social platforms accountable to protect our children, our families and our very democracy from the abuse of power.

Funny how Joe Biden doesn’t mind the “ultrawealthy” when they give him money or show up for medals.

Biden's Presidential Medal of Freedom awardees, with net worth, earlier this month:

George Soros, $7 billion
David Rubenstein, $4 billion https://t.co/KFREIFQsb9

— Alec MacGillis (@AlecMacGillis) January 16, 2025

Biden then went on to echo one of his favorite refrains – make the wealthy “pay their fair share!”

You know, in the years ahead, it’s going to be up to the president, the presidency, the Congress, the courts, the free press, and the American people to confront these powerful forces. We must reform the tax code. Not by giving the biggest tax cuts to billionaires, but by making them begin to pay their fair share.

How about making your deadbeat son pay HIS fair share of taxes, Joe? Oh wait, you let a wealthy man pay off Hunter’s tax bills, and then you pardoned your derelict jackass of a son. That WASN’T an “abuse of power,” Joe?

Oh wait, he has more to say about money! And maybe a few Constitutional amendments that he thinks should happen, but gosh darnit, he just never got around to these.

We need to get dark money — that’s that hidden funding behind too many campaign contributions — we need to get it out of our politics. We need to enact an 18-year time limit, term limit, time and term, for the strongest ethics — and the strongest ethics reforms for our Supreme Court. We need to ban members of Congress from trading stock while they are in the Congress. We need to amend the Constitution to make clear that no president, no president is immune from crimes that he or she commits while in office. The president’s power is not limit — it is not absolute. And it shouldn’t be.

First of all…

Joe Biden opposes dark money in politics unless it's first laundered through his son's art sales https://t.co/utRIebvNWd

— Sunny (@sunnyright) January 16, 2025

Second, any kind of term limit for Supreme Court justices would take a Constitutional amendment, but he just tossed that in like a hand grenade. And his comments about presidential immunity are clearly a swing at Donald Trump. But the biggest sucker punch in that paragraph? When he calls for banning members of Congress from stock trading while in office. If that isn’t a direct shot at Nancy Pelosi, I don’t know what is. It’s almost as if he’s saying “if Hunter can’t trade on my name and get ten percent for the Big Guy, then you guys in Congress are going to be CUT OFF, you hear?” I don’t disagree with Biden here – I just find it hilarious that he says this less than a week before he leaves office, when he can do absolutely nothing about it!

Joe Biden is not happy about leaving office, and he let us all know it. While he ended the speech thanking his family, Kamala Harris (oh really?), those who have worked in his administration, and the American people, it’s clear that this is not the way he planned for it to end. He wanted to be president for another term. That he was shoved off the ticket has left him bitter and angry. He knows his legacy will be summed up this way:

That’s his note in history. “Sucked so bad Trump came back. Even after everything Trump did.”

— Michael Watson (@MichaelWatsonDC) January 16, 2025

Just four more days of Joe Biden, and then this insanity of pretending that an old man well past his cognitive prime was ever fully in charge will end. It can’t come soon enough. Joe Biden, you will not be mourned or missed, and the American people are done listening to you. We are ready to move on.

Featured image: original Victory Girls art by Darleen Click