President Joe Biden said Thursday he is worried about the fragility of American democracy in the last interview of his presidency.
The president spoke with MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell, a day after he addressed the nation from the Oval Office to warn about the concentration of power and wealth in government and the reshaping of an American oligarchy. The host asked Biden if he felt a sense of relief ending his administration.
“No,” Biden replied. “But there was a sense of serious concern. You’ve known me a long time. I really am concerned about how fragile democracy is. That sounds corny, but I really am concerned, because you have heard me say it a hundred times.”
“I really think we’re in an inflection point in history here, where, unrelated to any particular leader, things are going to change drastically,” he went on.
The remarks are similar to those Biden made in his Wednesday address, where he warned about the disappearance of facts on social media and a crumbling free press. But he said the power of the billionaire class — a pointed criticism of President-elect Donald Trump’s close association with Elon Musk and other tech executives — was the key threat to “democracy, our basic rights [and] our freedoms.”
“The reason for all the safeguards out there is, in a very trite way to say it, is to keep the bullies from taking advantage of everybody else,” Biden told O’Donnell on Thursday. “I guess what I’m worried about is that the thing that keeps it on track are the guardrails: that there’s a Supreme Court that’s independent, but accountable. There is a Congress that you speak your mind, but you’re held accountable to basic standards. There’s a presidency that says you have really limited powers. I mean, you’re the top dog, but you can’t dictate everything.”
The Countdown To Trump Is On
Already contributed? Log in to hide these messages.
Biden went on to say he believed he had some major policy accomplishments during his administration, but added he didn’t spend enough time on the politics surrounding them and that may have hamstrung the Democratic Party at times.
“I’m not a very good huckster,” the president said. “Ironically, I almost spent too much time on the policy and not enough time on the politics, because, I mean, you have some senators in Congress, Democratic senators in Congress saying, ‘Well, you know, Joe Biden did this, and this is done by so and so and so and so, and this is built by the Democratic Party kind of thing.’”
Biden added that he felt claiming responsibility for political wins, to him, was “almost bad taste.”