‘Speech for the History Books’; ABC, CBS, NBC Hail Biden’s ‘Extraordinary’ Farewell

Curtis Houck
January 15th, 2025 10:40 PM

Text to Speech

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ABC, CBS, and NBC broke in Wednesday night for President Biden’s farewell address and, while they were never in total awe like they were with Barack Obama, they still showed their stripes in cheering the “advocate for working people” giving “very personal” “speech for the history books” and delivering an “extraordinary” message about the decline of “fact-checking” and an “oligarchy...that literally threatens our entire democracy.”

CBS led the way with a full ten minutes of post-speech chit-chat. Outgoing CBS Evening News anchor Norah O’Donnell restated her favorite parts, saying Biden “not only tout[ed] his accomplishments as President — 17 million jobs...also talking about strengthening NATO, and then ending his remarks with a warning — warning of an unelected oligarchy of tech barons essentially taking power in America.”

Face the Nation moderator and incoming CBS Evening News co-anchor Margaret Brennan boasted of how Biden didn’t give a “fond farewell,” but instead an “extraordinary” message consisting of a “number of warnings of the guardrails of democracy that he says are in peril, one of them, our very industry.”

“He said the free press is crumbling, pointing to social media, making that connection back to technology and lack of fact-checking. He talked about the need to hold accountable social platforms. All of this seemingly, in that space, framing around some of the political forces of the moment who are aligned with Donald Trump,” she added before later pompously concluding Biden really honed in on “the threats to the forces that underpin our democracy” like “fact-checking.”

Chief elections and campaign correspondent and anti-Trump author Robert Costa swooned over the “deeply personal” speech by someone “began his career at Scranton Joe, as someone who was an advocate for working people” and thus channeling Dwight Eisenhower’s own farewell address about the military industrial complex (click “expand”):

 

 

Well, at one level, it was deeply personal, Norah, you did see the photos of the family sitting behind President Biden, including his late son, Beau Biden. Earlier in the day, I was meeting with President Biden’s close friends like Senator Chris Coons and they expected him to advocate for his record, but was most striking — which you mentioned, the echo of Dwight D. Eisenhower, January 17th, 1961, President Eisenhower in his own farewell address warned the nation of a so-called military-industrial complex. Now, President Biden, as he departs the presidency come is warning of an “tech industrial complex,” and this comes as Elon Musk, the billionaire and others like Jeff Bezos are prepared to sit on that dais at the inaugural, President-Elect Trump on January 20th, and you see President Biden, who began his career at Scranton Joe, as someone who was an advocate for working people, ending his presidency as someone underscoring his own progressive values, really sending a signal to the left in this country that he stood with them on their core economic issues.

O’Donnell went next to senior White House correspondent Weijia Jiang, who admirably had a different take:

After chief White House correspondent Nancy Cordes noticed the similarities between Biden’s inaugural and farewell addresses and what Trump was posting on Truth Social during the speech, O’Donnell brought in one final voice in senior White House and campaign correspondent, Ed O’Keefe.

O’Donnell tried to lift up Biden’s line about “the seeds” of his so-called accomplishments having been “planted” for Americans to, in her words, “eventually feel them,” but O’Keefe had a brutal start in citing Biden’s poll numbers.

He then wondered whether history would be kinder to him like it’s already been for George W. Bush (click “expand”):

 

 

[A]s you mentioned, 39 percent approval rating, not the greatest number to go out with, but what he’s hoping for and what he is signaling his history is going to be kinder to him. And he’s — in recent interviews, he has lamented the fact that, when various Covid stimulus checks went out in the early years of his presidency, he didn’t sign them and put his name on them, to reinforce that it was him who was helping Americans, believing now in hindsight that that would have helped in the short-term, at least shore up the belief among Americans that he was doing what he could to help. And so, saying “the seeds are planted and they will grow and bloom for generations to come,” he’s speaking to his infrastructure plan, the Covid relief that was established, the fact that his administration at least worked to support and protect Ukraine and its ongoing struggle with Russia and it’s a statement that other unpopular presidents have made, as well. George W. Bush is the one that comes to mind most immediately come who said I am more worried about what history will say about me and, even a few years removed since, given the whims of the Republican Party, and the way the world has gone, history is already treating him kinder that it was in the beginning. To the point about oligarchy, Norah, also important, he is not the first American president to warn of this. John Adams wrote about the few, the wellborn, and the rich, and concerns that this country was going to put too much emphasis on them. This is a problem that has come up before it has been addressed, and he is signaling to his party tonight, focus on that, that populist message, and maybe that’s the way to win back the White House.

ABC and NBC were far back on the time count of post-speech analysis with only two minutes and 45 seconds on the former and three minutes and two seconds on the latter.

On NBC, Meet the Press moderator Kristen Welker was the lone standout in ebullience for Biden’s speech, delivering the laughable “history books” line and comparing Biden to Obama:

While ABC was similar to NBC on the time count, they were limited to, well, pointless restatements of key lines (serving as their way of voicing agreement):

Of course, both Muir and Bruce honed in on Biden whining about the lack of respect for the legacy media’s fact-checking efforts (read: censorship campaigns).

“This was a chance for President Biden to tout his accomplishments, try to define his own legacy, but also argue the importance of American democracy and the need to protect it, saying the ideals of America are constantly being tested. He issued a harsh warning to the oligarchs, he said, in this country who are taking shape, that are threatening our democracy,” Bruce said in part.

From Tel Aviv, chief foreign correspondent Ian Pannell had it both ways by saying the world under Joe Biden has “been a tumultuous period...from Afghanistan to Ukraine, relations with China and, of course, the crisis here in the Middle East,” but said this ceasefire deal could be “his crowning achievement” and “a legacy worth having” if it becomes “an enduring peace[.]”

To see the relevant transcripts from January 15, click here (for ABC), here (for CBS), and here (for NBC).

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