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Good evening and welcome to PBS News live coverage of President Biden's address to the nation.

I'm Geoff Bennett and I'm Amna Navaz with only 4 days remaining in Mr. Biden's presidency.

The White House is billing tonight's Oval Office speech as a farewell address, a chance for the president to highlight his achievements and to affirm his legacy from 50 years of public service, and this will be the 2nd time the president has spoken to the nation today.

That's after announcing a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas.

Our White House correspo.

find it Larboro Lopez is at the White House.

Laura, what do we expect to hear tonight from President Biden.

Jeff, the president is expected to talk about the crises that he has led the nation through that includes the COVID-19 recovery, uh, bringing the economy out of the pandemic as well as the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East, and this is his 5th and final Oval Office address that is expected to sum up his five decades in politics.

5th and final address on a momentous day for the president, having just announced that historic ceasefire deal.

We're going live now to the Oval Office and President Biden.

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 8 months of nonstop negotiation.

My administration.

by my administration A ceasefire and hostage deal has been reached by Israel and Hamas.

The elements of which I laid out in great detail in May 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.

If that's how it should be.

Working together as Americans.

This will be my final address to you from 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.

Long ago in New York Harbor, an ironworker installed beam after beam, day after day.

He was joined by steel workers, stonemasons, engineers.

They built not just a single structure.

But a beacon of freedom.

The very idea of America was so big.

We felt the entire world needed to see.

The Statue of Liberty.

A gift from France after our civil war.

Like the very idea of America was built not by one person, but by many people.

From every background And from around the world.

Like America The Statue of Liberty is not standing still.

Her foot literally steps forward atop a broken chain of human bondage.

She's on the march.

And she literally moves.

She was built to sway back and forth to withstand the fury of stormy weather.

To stand the test of time because storms are always coming.

She sways a few inches, but she never falls into the current below.

An engineering marvel.

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've stood it all.

A nation of pioneers and explorers.

Of dreamers and doers.

Of ancestors native to this land.

Of ancestors who came by force.

The nation of immigrants came to build a better life.

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.

All of us deserve to be treated with dignity.

Justice and fairness.

That democracy Must defend And be defined And be in imposed.

Moved In every way possible.

Our rights, our freedoms, our dreams.

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.

But 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 institution is govern a free society.

The presidency The Congress The courts A free and independent press.

Institutions that are rooted.

Not just not reflect the timeless words, but they 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 4 years.

Our democracy is held strong.

And every day I've kept my commitment to be president for all Americans.

You're one of the toughest periods in our nation's history.

I've had a great partner and Vice President Kamala Harris.

It's been the honor of my life.

To see the resilience.

Of a sense of workers getting us through 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.

Instead of losing their jobs.

To an economic crisis that we inherited millions of Americans.

Now I have the dignity of work.

Millions of entrepreneurs and companies.

Creating new businesses and industries.

Hiring American workers, using American products.

Together We've launched a new era of American possibilities.

One of the greatest modernization of infrastructure in our entire history.

A new roads, bridges, clean water.

Affordable high-speed internet.

For every American We invented the semiconductor.

Smaller than the tip of my little finger.

And now it's bringing those chip factories and those jobs back to America where they belong.

Creating thousands of jobs.

Finally Give me Medicare, the power to negotiate low prescription drug prices from millions of seniors.

And finally Doing something to protect our children and our families.

By passing the most significant gun safety law in 30 years.

And bringing violent crime to a 50-year low.

Meeting our sacred obligation to over 1 million veterans so far.

We're exposed to toxic materials.

and to their families Providing medical care and education benefits and more.

For their families.

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.

At home we've created nearly 17 million new jobs, more than any other single administration a single term.

Speaker 12 [8:08:17 PM] More people have health care than ever before.

And overseas we strengthen NATO.

Ukraine is still free.

And we've pulled ahead of our competition with China.

So much more I'm so proud of how much we've accomplished together.

For the American people.

And I wish the incoming administration's success.

Because I want America to succeed.

That's why I held my duty.

To ensure a peaceful and orderly transition of power.

To ensure we lead by the power of our example.

I have no doubt that America's in a position to continue to succeed.

That's why my farewell address tonight.

I want to warn the country of some things that give me great concern.

This is a dangerous concert and that's a dangerous concentration of power.

In the hands of a very few ultra wealthy people.

The dangerous consequences.

If they're abuse of power is left unchecked.

Today An oligarchy is taking shape in America of extreme wealth, power, and influence that really 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.

But the American people stood up.

To the robber barons back then.

And busted the trust.

They didn't punish the wealthy.

This made the wealthy pay to play by the rules, everybody else had to do.

Workers want rights to earn their fair share.

You know, they were dealt into the deal.

And helped put us on a path to building the largest middle class, most prosperous century, any nation in the world has ever seen.

We've got to do that again.

The last 4 years, that's exactly what we've done.

People should be able to make as much as they can.

But pay play by the same rules, pay their fair share of taxes.

So much is at stake.

Right now The existential threat of climate change.

Has never been clear.

Just look across the country.

From California to North Carolina.

That's why I signed the most significant climate and clean energy law ever.

Ever in the history of the world and the rest of the world is trying to model it now.

It's working Creating jobs and industries of the future.

Now we prove that we don't have to choose between protecting the environment and growing the economy.

We're doing both.

The powerful forces.

Want to wheel their unchecked influence to eliminate the steps we've taken to tackle the crime and crisis to serve their own interest.

For power and profit.

We must not be bullied the sacrifice in the future.

The future of our children and our grandchildren.

Must keep pushing forward.

And push faster There's no time to waste.

It's also clear that American leadership and technology.

is unparalleled an unparalleled source of innovation.

That can transform lives.

We see the same dangers.

The concentration of technology, power and wealth.

You know, it's farewell addressed President Eisenhower.

Spoke of the dangers of the military industrial complex.

He warned to stand about and I quote, A potential For the disastrous rise.

of misplaced power, end of quote.

6 days 6 decades later.

I'm equally concerned about the potential rise.

Of a tech industrial complex.

It could pose real dangers for our country as well.

Americans are being buried.

Under an avalanche of misinformation and disinformation.

Enable in the abuse of power.

The free press is crumbling.

Others are disappearing.

Social media is giving up on fact checking.

Truth is smothered by lies.

To for power and for profit.

We must hold the social platforms accountable.

Protect our children.

Our families In a very democracy from the abuse of power.

Meanwhile Artificial intelligence.

Is the most consequential technology of our time.

Perhaps of all time.

Nothing offers more profound possibilities and risks for our economy.

And our security Our society A very for humanity.

Artificial intelligence even has the potential to help us answer my call and cancer as we know it.

But unless safeguards are in place.

AI could spawn new threats to our rights, our way of life to our privacy.

How we work and how we protect our nation.

We must make sure AI is safe and trustworthy.

And good for all humankind.

In the age of AI.

It's more important than ever.

That the people must govern.

And as the land of liberty, America Not China Must lead the world in the development of AI.

You know, in the years ahead.

Go to be It could be up to the president.

The presidency, the Congress, the courts, the free press and the American people.

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.

We need to get dark money.

That's that hidden funding behind too many campaigns contributions.

We need to get it out of our politics.

When you do an act in 18-year time limit.

Term limit Time and turn for the strongest ethics and the strongest ethics reforms for a Supreme Court.

We need to ban members of Congress from from trading stock while they're 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.

presence power is not limit.

It's not absolute.

And it shouldn't be.

And in a democracy, there's another danger.

the concentration of power and wealth.

It erodes the sense of unity and common purpose.

It causes distrust and division.

Participating in our democracy.

Becomes exhausting and even disillusioning.

People don't feel like they have a fair shot.

We have to stay engaged in the process.

I know it's frustrating.

A fair shot is what makes America America.

Everyone's entitled to a fair shot, not a guarantee, but just a fair shot and even Plainfield.

Going as far as your hard work and talent can take you.

We can never lose that essential truth remain who we are.

I've always believed And I've told other world leaders America can be defined by one word.

Possibilities.

Only in America.

Do we believe anything is possible.

Like a kid with a stutter from a modest beginnings in Scranton, Pennsylvania.

Claymont Delaware Sitting behind the this desk in the Oval Office.

As President of the United States.

That's the magic of America.

It's all around us.

Upstairs in the residence of the White House.

I've walked by a painting of the Statue of Liberty.

I don't know how many times.

In the painting There are several workers climbing on the outstretched arm.

The statute that holds the torch.

Reminds me every day I pass it.

Of the story and soul of our nation.

And the power of the American prayer people.

There's a story of a veteran.

This is a veteran, son of an immigrant.

Whose job was to climb that torch and polish the amber paints.

So rays of light could reach out as far as possible.

He was known as the keeper of the flame.

He once said that the statue of Liberty.

speaks a silent universal language.

One of hope That anyone who sees and speaks freedom can understand.

Yes We sway back and forth to withstand the fury of the storm.

To stand the test of time.

A constant struggle.

Constant struggle A short distance between peril and possibility.

What I believe Is the America of our dreams is always closer than we think.

It's up to us to make our dreams come true.

Let me close.

By stating my gratitude to so many people.

To the members of my administration.

As well as public service and first responders across the country and around the world.

Thank you for stepping up to serve.

To our service members And their families.

It's been the highest honor of my life to lead you as commander in chief.

And of course to Kamala.

And our incredible partner.

Historic vice president.

She and Doug have become like family to me.

Family's everything.

My deepest appreciation.

Amazing first lady was with me in the ovals today.

For our entire family.

You're the love of my life and the life's of my love.

My eternal thanks to you, the American people.

After 50 years of public service, I give you my word.

I still believe in the idea.

For which this nation stands.

nation where the strengths of our institutions.

The character of our people matter.

It must endure.

Now it's your turn to stand guard.

May you all be the keeper of the flame.

And you keep the faith.

I love America.

You love it too.

God bless you all.

May God protect our troops.

Thank you for this great honor.

President Biden speaking to the American public for the final time before he leaves office next week.

A farewell to a nation he has served for half a century.

We're joined now by our correspondents who have been watching the president's remarks.

Lisa Desjardin covers Congress and our White House correspondent Laura Baron Lopez is at the White House.

So Laura, one of the things we heard President Biden say, he warned of what he called a dangerous concentration of power in the hands of a few wealthy people.

He warned of an oligarchy taking shape in this country.

What other themes and, and, and remarks stood out to you.

That's right, Jeff.

I mean, ultimately the president's speech could potentially be summed up by one of the lines he said at the very beginning where he said that he was reflecting on who we are as a nation and who we should be and.

In that vein, a lot of this speech he was dedicated to those warnings that you just referenced, yes, he talked about the accomplishments that he made, whether it was the infrastructure bill, whether it was passing semiconductors and and create more job creation, as well as, uh, allowing Medicare to negotiate drug prices, and he said that it may take time for the American public to fully feel the effect of the things that he accomplished in his one term, but the majority of the Speech was about bigger themes about what he still sees as a threat to democracy and questions of separation of power of checks and balance, uh, the fact that he said that no president is immune from crimes committed well in office and that a president's power is not absolute, very clear warnings that he's making about what he still sees as a threat posed by the incoming president Donald Trump and what Donald Trump has forecasted about what He would do to exert his control and try to expand much of the presidential powers.

And Lisa we saw in their messages from the president directed certainly straight to the American people saying you are now the keepers of this flame to lawmakers as well.

There seem to be messages directed at the incoming administration as well.

All of this is unfolding as you've been covering the confirmation hearings for many of these incoming administration members, what did you take away from some of his warnings about, as Laura was mentioning, respecting democratic institutions.

Well, this is a man who's had a truly remarkable in our history of political career.

I covered just a small part of that career, 20 years, so it shows how long he's been in office.

He ran for office 13 different times, as as a politician, so he has taken a long view here and he knows that this is yet another pivot point.

What I took from these remarks is at times we've seen, uh, President Biden, including in his convention speeches stressed something that I didn't hear tonight, the battle for the soul of America.

Instead, this was a more sort of tangible speech about what he sees are the direct and specific problems right now.

Now he could have talked a lot more at length about his own accomplishments.

For example, we just got an incredible jobs report, you know, his jobs record is something I think economists will be talking about for years.

That's not where his mind is.

His mind as you all are reporting, is instead on the oligarch taking power which he said threatening freedoms and the phrase he repeated again and again, a fair shot for people.

It was also interesting to me, someone who was privileged enough to cover both his campaign and now President-elect Trump's campaign.

We talk a lot about President Trump in terms of the 1980s being formational for him, but I think he goes back to an even older time, maybe the 1880s really with all this imperialism and populism, and here we heard the phrase robber barons that uh President Biden is talking about.

He's saying that there are dangers that have been in this country before from oligarchs that we are now returning to, and he wants people to pay attention.

And, and Larro Lopez, a majority of Americans poll after poll has shown this.

Give President Biden low favorability ratings.

They disapprove of of his how he's conducted himself in in office.

How does the White House reconcile that disconnect, that gap between what the White House views as their achievements and and the perception among the majority of Americans.

Oh, I think Jeff, that we heard some of the president's response to that tonight when he specifically talked about social media giving up on fact checking and he talked about the level of disinformation and the tech industrial across the tech industrial complex which is what he called it, that is something that this White House, the Democrats, that aides inside the White House have vented a lot about throughout the presidency, which is essentially that they feel as though despite the fact that President Biden did a lot to bring the country back from The COVID-19 pandemic, despite statistics and data showing that the economy is rebounding that they feel as though he hasn't gotten credit for that, or the job creation as a result of the infrastructure bill and new climate change actions that he's implemented and and so they ultimately have blamed some of that on this new information environment that the country is in on lies spread across easily across social media and the responsibility that this president believes the people in charge of those social media companies have in trying to make sure that facts are what reached the public and not lies and disinformation also a lot of White House aides have often said what the president said tonight, which is that again they think that ultimately Americans will look back on President Biden's time in office very differently than they view it right now in the current moment, and, uh, potentially very similar to the way Americans viewed some of President Obama's action.

such as the Affordable Care Act, they believe that ultimately the public will credit him for some of the actions that he took and that it will take time as the president said tonight, and that's how they reconcile it, Jeff, but ultimately right now leaving office, you're right, his uh polling numbers do not look very good, and we have a poll, a recent poll out today from uh PBS News Marist and NPR and in it it shows that the president's disapproval rating is at 50. in his approval rating is at 42% currently, Jeff Lisa, meanwhile, we know he's been leading the nation for 4 years.

He's also been leading his party.

What are your Democratic sources tell you about this moment?

I have been texting with a lot of Democrats elected lawmakers at the Capitol.

I can't find one yet who was watching this speech, and in fact, as we talk now as he talks about the future of the country, what are Democrats doing?

A number of them are at Democratic National Committee headquarters for a forum for the candidates who want to lead the party, so Biden is talking about his legacy, but the party is moving on to someone else.

A lot of questions with the party's future ahead and as the president mentioned tonight concerns that he has for the country's future as well.

Meanwhile, that concludes our special live coverage of President Biden's address.

Our thanks to Lisa and Laura for their insights tonight.

Thanks to you for joining us.

I'm Amna Navaz and I'm Jeff Bennett.

We'll have much more on the news hour tomorrow night.

Right now we return you to your regularly scheduled PBS programs.

Our thanks to you for joining us.

This program was made possible by the corporation for Public Broadcasting and by contributions to your PBS station from viewers like you.

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