MSNBC Fawns Over Biden Farewell, Bolsters Fake ‘Oligarchy’ Narrative

Jorge Bonilla
January 16th, 2025 12:27 AM

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Predictably, the prime time hosts at MSNBC oohed and aahed over President Joe Biden’s farewell address with a verve normally seen emanating from television production studios in Pyongyang. But in this case, they went above and beyond their customary cheerleading. They also worked hard to bolster the post-speech narrative of the perils of a Trump-adjacent oligarchy.

Never mind that Biden himself was yanked off the Democrat ballot at the current oligarchy’s request, and never mind that some of these Trump-supporting tech bros were Democrats until the other day (and may still be, in some cases). The Narrative demands that people ignore the evidence before their eyes and ears. 

Thus we arrive at the MSNBC panel’s 30+ minute panel discussion of a 17-minute speech. Chris Hayes and Rachel Maddow kick off the sycophancy:

CHRIS HAYES: The 46th president of the United States, Joseph Robinette Biden, giving the final public address as an elected politician, as a man inher- inhabiting the highest office of the land of his long 50 year career, one that began at the constitutional limit. Elected at 29, sworn in at 30 to be a United States Senator, suffering a horrific tragedy in the interim between that election in the fall of that year and being sworn in the next. Losing his wife, children- offering a sharp and stark warning about what he said was the dangerous concentration of power in the hands of a very few ultra wealthy. An oligarchy taking shape in our country, harkening back to Dwight D. Eisenhower's outgoing warning of the military-industrial complex, what he called equally concerning tech-industrial complex.

I'm joined now by Rachel Maddow, host of The Rachel Maddow Show, Joy Reid, host of The ReidOut, Jen Psaki, host of Inside with Jen Psaki and Alex Wagner, host of Alex Wagner Tonight. And Rachel, when he got to that turn in the speech, you could just sort of feel everything kind of go to a different level.

RACHEL MADDOW: Yeah. You know, Chris, I had wondered heading into this speech whether he was going to try to give some sort of warning to the country when we had advice, basically planning advice, that the speech might not be very long. And when we saw The White House today release what they called a letter, but was really about a hundred-plus page long book explaining his- his view of his own accomplishments during this term I had wondered, okay, well, they're not taking a lot of time in this speech. They have spelled out the, the, the, the list of accomplishments in writing ahead of the speech. So maybe this speech is going to be for something else. Maybe this is going to be a warning.

I did not expect it to be this stark, as you said. He just- he said “tonight there is an oligarchy taking shape in America, a dangerous concentration of power in the hands of a very few ultra-wealthy people, a tech-industrial complex that poses real dangers.” He- he talked about a tide of misinformation and disinformation enabling the abuse of power. Not just saying misinformation and disinformation are bad on their own, but why are they there? They are there to enable the abuse of power.

He talked about the free press crumbling, which put a shiver down my spine, and then talked about how truth is being sacrificed for lies for the purposes of power and profit. So this is important because he has essentially decided not to brag on the way out about what he did. He did a little of that, but really, he's taken this last moment to say, here is what we've got right now. And this is why this is not just dangerous, because it doesn't sound American. It's dangerous because this is what they're doing to you with this oligarchy, with this concentration of power, and what- with what they're doing to the press and the truth. And that is stark and sober. And like I said, it put a chill down my spine. I think he’s correct and I’m glad he took this time to say it.

This is how Maddow et. al laid down the foundation of the “oligarchy” narrative. A bit later on, they reinforce this narrative by forcing viewers to suspend disbelief. You see, we were always under the governance of a creeping oligarchy. This was their reaction to Joe Biden’s attempt at recreating the classic Eisenhower moment wherein he warned about the military-industrial complex:

 

JOE BIDEN: I'm equally concerned about the potential rise of a tech-industrial complex that could pose real dangers for our country as well. Americans are being buried under an avalanche of misinformation and disinformation, enabling the abuse of power. The free press is crumbling, editors are disappearing. Social media is giving up on fact checking. The truth is smothered by lies told for power and for profit. We must hold the social platforms accountable to protect our children, our families and our very democracy from the abuse of power.

CHRIS HAYES: As the 46th President, just moments ago in his farewell address to the nation. Still with me, Rachel Maddow, Joy Reid and Jen Psaki. Joy, one of the things that is striking about this warning about the tech-industrial complex is- I think everyone feels a little headspun by how quickly this has all seemed to congeal in terms of Bezos, Zuckerberg, you know, there was first Elon Musk, but this sort of kissing the ring. First It's like we're changing our policies, but also we're going to the inauguration and we're going to throw an inauguration ball and we're going to give him money. And then Melania is going to get a deal. Like suddenly the sort of vision of what this could, like- an oligarchy, not in some metaphorical sense.

JOY REID: Yeah.

HAYES: But in the very real and recognizable sense of like a few guys and the head of the country.

REID: Right. And the question is, who owns the ring? Because it's not quite clear that Trump is the owner of it. Because in the end, when they're sitting on that dais, they're going to be sitting in a position of tremendous power over him. One of the other pieces of news, Rachel, mentioned him, Biden making news. He said we should ban Members of Congress from trading in stock while in office. One of the sort of dirty little secrets is the oligarchy was already here. Like America has sort of been hurtling toward oligarchy from the very beginning, when it was a few plantation owners and everyone else couldn't vote. Right? Even, you know, white men without land couldn't vote. And we've been sort of trying to pull ourselves away from it.

And the 20th Century, which is the century that so offends Leonard Leo and Sam Alito and others. The 20th century was the era, the American Century, when America pulled itself back from this notion of oligarchy to an incredible extent, invented a middle class. The things President Biden was talking about in that first nine minutes? Those are the things that the 20th century built when we beat back the robber barons and got- and beat back the trust and established an income tax, which didn't exist until the 20th century, established women's rights, civil rights, immigrant rights. That's the 20th century.

And these oligarchs, who's not- they've always been there. Who do you think was paying for, you know, Rush Limbaugh? He was a very wealthy man. Fox is owned by an oligarch. Who do they think is funding the Ben Shapiro and other podcasts? The oligarchy has been hidden in the background the whole time. And Biden is this pivot president, as America is hurtling toward sort of falling in love with these rich tech gods, these tech bros.

Then you have Biden sort of sandwiched in the middle of Trump, and Trump trying to go the oligarch way the first time with some hurdles, and then Biden offering this small pivot where suddenly labor is, is getting wins, right where he's standing on picket lines, where you're suddenly seeing unions come back and you're seeing him say, no, we're going to build our bridges, our roads, stuff that regular folks can enjoy. You have this pivot and then we're going back. He- he is that wedge that was between us and an oligarchy we've been hurtling toward for a very long time. The repeal of the 20th century is what's happening in this country. And Biden tried to hold the dam together, and now he's- he’s walking away but he’s saying you still have to try to hold the line. 

What is Joy Reid even talking about here? Who paid for Rush Limbaugh was Premiere Radio Networks because he, unlike Reid, was at the apex of his profession in terms of reach and ratings. Reid and Hayes are Men in Black neuralizing the viewing public in real time, trying to get them to forget that Biden just pardoned his own son for a slew of financial crimes related to the sale of influence, as is customary in an oligarchy. Biden is just as much a part of the oligarchy as anyone else, but he’s out in four days and he can’t tout his administration on TV. So we get a fake Eisenhower moment.

The segment closed, naturally, with a cheap shot at Elon Musk.

MADDOW: Oligarchies suck for 99.99% of people who live in them, and President Biden is finally starting to give that practical warning.

HAYES: That's a great point. One of the lessons of this era, it's not the most important one, is that even $250 billion can't actually make you cool. Something that we've learned over the last weeks.

REID: Firm but fair. So true.

HAYES: Rachel Maddow, Joy Reid and Jen Psaki. Thank you all.

With this “oligarchy” narrative, the media will finalize their shift from Regime to Resistance. Never mind that the narrative is fake and little more than a smoke bomb thrown by a failed president on the way out the door. They’ll run with it just the same.

 

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