Biden takes sole credit for Israel-Hamas deal and warns of ‘oligarchy’ threatening democracy in farewell speech

President Biden delivered his farewell address to the nation Wednesday night, taking a victory lap for the Israel-Hamas ceasefire agreement and warning Americans of an “oligarchy” in the United States that “threatens our entire democracy.”

“My fellow Americans, I speak to you tonight from the Oval Office. Before I begin, let me address some important news from earlier today. After eight months of nonstop negotiations, my administration—by my administration—has reached a cease-fire and the Hostage Agreement has been entered into by Israel and Hamas, the elements of which I detailed in May of this year,” Biden said in his inaugural address.

“This plan was developed and negotiated by my team, and 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,” he continued. .

Israel and Hamas reached a cease-fire agreement on Wednesday that also secured the release of hostages. A recent meeting between Trump’s incoming Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reportedly played a key role in the deal, sources told Fox News Digital.

PRESIDENT BIDEN RELEASES RESIGNATION LETTER, SAYS IT HAS BEEN ‘PRIVILEGE OF MY LIFETIME TO SERVE THIS NATION’

President Joe Biden waves with sunglasses

President Biden arrives to board Air Force One at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland on August 15, 2023. (Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images)

In his farewell address, the president also warned Americans that there is a “dangerous concentration of power in the hands of a very few ultra-wealthy people.”

I would like to warn the country about some things that give me great concern. … It is a dangerous concentration of power in the hands of a very few ultra-wealthy people. The dangerous consequences if their abuse of power is left unchecked,” he said.

BIDEN BALKS, WHEN ASKED ABOUT TRUMP DESERVING CREDIT FOR ISRAEL-HAMAS ARMS DEAL: ‘IS IT A JOKE?’

“Today, an oligarchy is taking shape in America of extreme wealth, power and influence that literally threatens our entire democracy. Our basic rights, freedoms and a fair chance for everyone to get ahead,” he continued.

Biden at Oval Office desk

US President Joe Biden delivers his farewell address to the nation from the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC on January 15, 2025. (MANDEL NGAN/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)

Biden will officially leave the Oval Office on January 20, when President-elect Trump will be sworn in as the 47th president around noon that same day.

Biden’s speech also focused on the American Dream and the “most powerful idea” that “we are all created equal.”

“The very idea of ​​America was so great that we felt the whole world needed to see. The Statue of Liberty, a gift from France after our Civil War. Like the very idea of ​​America, it was built not by one person, but by Many People , from all backgrounds and from all over the world, the Statue of Liberty does not stand still, literally, atop a broken chain of human servitude, and she literally moves.

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“A nation of pioneers and explorers, of dreamers and doers, of ancestors native to this land, of ancestors who came with power. A nation of immigrants came to build a better life, a nation that holds a torch. The most powerful idea ever, in the history of the world, that we are all created equal, that we all deserve to be treated with dignity, fairness and justice, that democracy must defend and be defined and enforced, displaced in every possible way, our rights, our freedoms, our dreams,” he said.

President Joe Biden speaks from the Oval Office for his farewell address to the American people

President Joe Biden speaks from the Oval Office for his farewell address to the American people (Fox News)

BIDEN SAYS HE HAS CARRIED OUT ‘MOST AGGRESSIVE CLIMATE AGENDA’ IN HISTORY AS HE DESIGNS CALIFORNIA’S MONUMENT

Biden went on to call for a number of policies that US leaders should implement in the coming years, such as reforming the tax code to ensure that billionaires “start paying their fair share” and to “amend the Constitution to make clear that no president, no president, is immune from crimes he or she commits while in office.”

“We have to get dark money, that’s the hidden funding behind a lot of campaign contributions. We have to get it out of our politics. We have to pass an 18-year … term for the strongest ethics reform.. . for the Supreme Court. We need to ban members of Congress from trading stocks while in Congress,” he said.

Biden has spent more than 50 years in public office and made his mark on the national map in 1972, President Richard Nixon’s landslide re-election year, when at age 29 he beat a Republican in a Senate race in Delaware. .

President Joe Biden addresses the nation from the Oval Office

President Biden addresses the nation from the Oval Office of the White House, July 24, 2024, about his decision to drop his re-election bid. (Evan Vucci, Pool via AP)

Biden served for 36 years the united states senate, one of the longest Senate careers in the chamber’s history before joining former President Barack Obama’s ticket during the 2008 election and serving as vice president for eight years.

“After 50 years of public service, I gave you my word. I still believe in the idea that this nation stands for. A nation where the strength of our institutions, the character of our people, matter and must endure. Now it’s your turn May you all be keepers of the flame. May you also love it, God bless you,” Biden said.

BIDEN STILL REGRETS QUITTING 2024 PRESIDENTIAL RACE, THINKS HE COULD HAVE BEAT TRUMP: REPORT

Biden was sworn in as president in 2021

Joe Biden is sworn in as the 46th president of the United States at the US Capitol in Washington on January 20, 2021. (Reuters/Jim Bourg)

DONALD TRUMP ELECTED AS THE NEXT PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES

The 46th president defeated Trump in the 2020 election and was set to run against him again last year, but abruptly dropped out of the presidential race as concerns about his mental acuity grew. Vice President Kamala Harris was quickly endorsed by Biden and other high-profile Democrats to take up the mantle as the party’s presidential nominee, but lost the election as Trump swept all seven battleground states.

Obama with his hand on Biden's shoulder

President Biden and former President Barack Obama (Reuters/Kevin Lamarque)

Biden has been an outspoken and repeated critic of Trump’s, calling him a “real threat to this nation” but vowing to ensure a peaceful transfer of power and that he will “of course” attend Trump’s inauguration.

A Fox News poll released Wednesday found Trump to be the most popular he’s ever been.

FOX NEWS POLL: TRUMP IS THE MOST POPULAR HE’S EVER BEEN

The poll found that 52% of voters approve of Trump’s handling of the transition, while 46% disapprove, a reversal from 2017 when only 37% approved and 54% disapproved.

NEW POLLS SHOW BITE LEAVING OFFICE WITH APPROVAL RATES STILL BURIED DEEP IN NEGATIVE TERRITORY

While a CNN poll conducted by SSRS found that 36% of Americans approve of the job Biden is doing in the White House, with 64% reporting that they disapprove.

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Fox News’ Breck Dumas, Victoria Balara and Paul Steinhauser contributed to this report.