"Today an oligarchy is taking shape in America that literally threatens our democracy, our basic rights, our freedoms," the president said.

In a 20-minute farewell address, President Joe Biden said he was optimistic about the promise of America. But he also offered a warning about an emerging tech-industrial complex and dark money in politics.

President Joe Biden offered up a few surprises in his farewell address. Instead of simply summing up his term in office, he warned Wednesday about the increasing influence of the ultrawealthy, criticized disinformation on social media and called for continuing the fight against climate change.

For the second time in a week, the outgoing president sounded the alarm on “abuse of power” and the ongoing assault on democracy.

To call this Biden’s political tragedy would be crass. This, after all, is a man who lived unending personal anguish after burying his first wife and two of his children. But it’s the fate he’s been handed by history — and his own grave electoral miscalculation.

Speaking from the Oval Office, the president warned of a rising oligarchy, a potential tech-industrial complex and the threat of the climate crisis in his farewell address to the nation.