拜登在告别演讲中警告称，美国超级富豪的“寡头政治”威胁着民主的未来
【中美创新时报2025 年 1 月 16 日编译讯】（记者温友平编译）乔·拜登总统周三在告别演讲中向全国发出了严厉警告，称超级富豪的“寡头政治”正在美国扎根，而“科技工业综合体”正在侵犯美国人的权利和民主的未来。美联社 ZEKE MILLER、CHRIS MEGERIAN 和 COLLEEN LONG对此作了下述详细报道。
拜登准备于周一将权力移交给当选总统唐纳德·特朗普，他在椭圆形办公室发表讲话，抓住了离开白宫前最后一次向全国发表讲话的机会，重点关注美国权力和财富集中在少数人手中的情况。
拜登表示：“今天，美国正在形成一个拥有巨额财富、权力和影响力的寡头政治，这实际上威胁着我们的整个民主、我们的基本权利和自由，以及每个人获得成功的公平机会。”他指出，“权力危险地集中在少数超级富豪手中，如果他们滥用权力，将会产生危险的后果。”
拜登援引了艾森豪威尔总统 1961 年离任时对军工联合体崛起的警告，并补充道：“我同样担心科技工业联合体的潜在崛起，这也可能对我们的国家构成真正的危险。”
拜登利用 15 分钟的讲话提出了和平移交权力的模式，并且——没有提到特朗普的名字——对他的继任者表示担忧。
拜登在任期进入最后一周之际，大力推行其外交政策
这是拜登发出的惊人警告，他在公众生活中工作了 50 多年，即将离开国家舞台，他一直在努力定义自己的遗产，并让国家坚强起来，防止特朗普重返白宫。这一次，这位曾多次称特朗普对国家治理体系构成威胁的总统走得更远，警告美国人在技术和经济快速变化的动荡时代要警惕他们的自由和制度。
拜登敲响了寡头政治的警钟，因为最近几个月，尤其是在特朗普 11 月获胜之后，一些世界上最富有的人和科技行业巨头纷纷涌向特朗普一边。亿万富翁埃隆·马斯克花费了超过 1 亿美元帮助特朗普当选，Meta 的马克·扎克伯格和亚马逊的杰夫·贝佐斯等高管向特朗普的就职委员会捐款，并前往特朗普在佛罗里达州的私人俱乐部与当选总统会面，他们试图讨好他的政府并影响其政策。
拜登在椭圆形办公室发表的讲话是他发表的一系列关于国内政策和外交关系的讲话中的最新一次，这些讲话旨在巩固他的遗产并重塑美国人对他任期的悲观看法。当天早些时候，他宣布以色列和哈马斯之间将达成一项期待已久的停火协议，这可能结束中东一年多的流血冲突。
“我们需要时间才能感受到我们共同努力的全部影响，但种子已经种下，它们会生长，并在未来几十年开花，”拜登说。这是一种默认，许多美国人表示，他们尚未感受到他在国内举措上花费的数万亿美元的影响。
就在拜登批评社交媒体公司放弃在其平台上进行事实核查的同时，特朗普即将上任的通讯主管和新闻秘书在 X 上分享了错误地声称总统发表了预先录制的演讲的帖子。拜登将自己在公众中的糟糕表现归咎于社交媒体上的虚假信息以及他在分散的现代媒体生态系统中接触选民所面临的挑战。
拜登针对他提出的问题提出了自己的一套解决方案：修改税法以确保亿万富翁“支付他们应得的份额”，消除隐藏的资金来源流入政治竞选活动，为最高法院成员设定 18 年的任期限制，并禁止国会议员交易股票。他的政策处方是在拜登准备退出国家舞台之际，他的政治资本跌至最低点，而且在他执政四年期间，他在白宫几乎没有为推进这些事业做出任何努力。
美联储的数据显示，美国最富有的 0.1% 人的总财富是底层 50% 人财富总和的五倍多。
拜登并没有以他希望的方式离开白宫。他试图竞选连任，无视选民对他第二任期结束时将年满 86 岁的担忧。在与特朗普的辩论中失利后，拜登在党内压力下退出竞选，副总统卡马拉·哈里斯成为民主党候选人。
周三晚上的演讲不仅结束了拜登的总统任期，也结束了他五十年的从政生涯。1972 年，他当选为家乡特拉华州的代表，时年 30 岁，曾是美国最年轻的参议员。
拜登在 1988 年和 2008 年竞选总统，之后成为巴拉克·奥巴马的副总统。在连任两届后，拜登被认为已经退出政坛。但他在 2020 年以意想不到的民主党候选人身份重返舞台，成功将特朗普赶出白宫。
拜登强调自己致力于确保权力和平过渡，包括与特朗普团队举行简报会并与即将上任的政府就中东谈判进行协调，他还呼吁修改宪法，取消现任总统的豁免权。这是对去年最高法院一项裁决的回应，该裁决授予特朗普全面的刑事责任保护，因为他在试图推翻 2020 年败给拜登的选举结果中扮演了重要角色。
拜登在坚决办公桌上发表讲话，椭圆形办公室里可以看到他家人的照片。第一夫人吉尔·拜登、他的儿子亨特、他的一些孙辈、哈里斯和她的丈夫道格·埃姆霍夫坐在那里观看。
当拜登谈到哈里斯时，说她会变得像家人一样，第一夫人伸手握住她的手。
题图：1 月 15 日，乔·拜登总统在椭圆形办公室发表告别演讲。Pool/Getty
附原英文报道：
Biden warns in farewell address that an ‘oligarchy’ of ultrarich in US threatens future of democracy
By ZEKE MILLER, CHRIS MEGERIAN and COLLEEN LONG The Associated Press,Updated January 15, 2025
President Joe Biden delivers his farewell address from the Oval Office on Jan. 15.Pool/Getty
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden used his farewell address to the nation Wednesday to deliver stark warnings about an “oligarchy” of the ultra-wealthy taking root in the country and a “tech-industrial complex” that is infringing on Americans’ rights and the future of democracy.
Speaking from the Oval Office as he prepares to hand over power Monday to President-elect Donald Trump, Biden seized what is likely to be his final opportunity to address the country before he departs the White House to spotlight the accumulation of power and wealth in the U.S. among just a small few.
“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,” Biden said, drawing attention to ”a dangerous concentration of power in the hands of a few ultra-wealthy people and the dangerous consequences if their abuse of power is left unchecked.”
Invoking President Dwight Eisenhower’s warnings about the rise of a military-industrial complex when he left office in 1961, Biden added, “I’m equally concerned about the potential rise of a tech-industrial complex that could pose real dangers to our country as well.”
Biden used his 15-minute address to offer a model for a peaceful transfer of power and — without mentioning Trump by name — raise concerns about his successor.
As he enters his final week in office, Biden promotes his foreign policy
It marked a striking admonition by Biden, who is departing the national stage after more than 50 years in public life, as he has struggled to define his legacy and to steel the country against the return of Trump to the Oval Office. This time, the president, who has repeatedly called Trump a threat to the nation’s system of governance, went even further, warning Americans to be on guard for their freedoms and their institutions during a turbulent era of rapid technological and economic change.
Biden sounded the alarm about oligarchy as some of the world’s richest individuals and titans of its technology industry have flocked to Trump’s side in recent months, particularly after his November victory. Billionaire Elon Musk spent more than $100 million helping Trump get elected, and executives like Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg and Amazon’s Jeff Bezos have donated to Trump’s inaugural committee and made pilgrimages to Trump’s private club in Florida for audiences with the president-elect as they seek to ingratiate themselves with his administration and shape its policies.
Biden’s speech in the Oval Office is the latest in a series of remarks on domestic policy and foreign relations he has delivered that are intended to cement his legacy and reshape Americans’ grim views on his term. Earlier in the day, he heralded a long awaited ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas, which could end more than a year of bloodshed in the Middle East.
“It’ll take time to feel the full impact of what we’ve done together but the seeds are planted and they’ll grow and they’ll bloom for decades to come,” Biden said. It was a tacit acknowledgement that many Americans say they have yet to feel the impact of his trillions of dollars spent on domestic initiatives.
At the same time that Biden was criticizing social media companies for retreating from fact-checking on their platforms, Trump’s incoming communications director and press secretary were sharing posts on X that falsely claimed the president had delivered a prerecorded speech. Biden has blamed his poor standing with the public on misinformation on social media and the challenges he has faced reaching voters in the disaggregated modern media ecosystem.
Biden offered his own set of solutions for the problems that he laid out: change the tax code to ensure billionaires “pay their fair share,” eliminate the flow of hidden sources of money into political campaigns, establish 18-year term limits for members of the Supreme Court and ban members of Congress from trading stocks. His policy prescriptions come as his political capital is at its nadir as Biden prepares to exit the national stage, and after he has done little to advance those causes during his four years in power at the White House.
Federal Reserve data shows the wealthiest 0.1% of the country combined holds more than five times the wealth of the bottom 50% combined.
Biden isn’t leaving the White House in the way that he hoped. He tried to run for reelection, brushing aside voters’ concerns that he would be 86 years old at the end of a second term. After stumbling in a debate with Trump, Biden dropped out of the race under pressure from his own party, and Vice President Kamala Harris became the Democratic nominee.
The speech Wednesday night capped not just Biden’s presidency but his five decades in politics. He was once the country’s youngest senator at 30 years old after being elected to represent his home state of Delaware in 1972.
Biden pursued the presidency in 1988 and 2008 before becoming Barack Obama’s vice president. After serving two terms, Biden was considered to be retired from politics. But he returned to center stage as the unlikely Democratic nominee in 2020, successfully ousting Trump from the White House.
As he highlighted his own commitment to ensuring a peaceful transition of power, including holding briefings with Trump’s team and coordinating with the incoming administration on the Middle East negotiations, Biden also called for a constitutional amendment to end immunity for sitting presidents. That came in response to a Supreme Court ruling last year that granted Trump sweeping protections from criminal liability over his role in trying to overturn his 2020 defeat to Biden.
Biden spoke from the Resolute desk, photos of his family visible behind him in the Oval Office. First lady Jill Biden, his son Hunter, some of his grandchildren, Harris and her husband, Doug Emhoff, sat watching.
As Biden spoke about Harris, saying she’d become like family, the first lady reached over and grabbed her hand.
