Live coverage: Biden’s farewell speech comes on heels of raucous confirmation hearings

From left: Second gentleman Doug Emhoff, Vice President Harris, first lady Jill Biden, Hunter Biden and his wife Melissa Cohen Biden listen as President Joe Biden delivers his farewell address from the Oval Office. (Mandel Ngan/Pool via AP)

Biden’s Oval Office speech is over. It lasted about 17 minutes.

To close his remarks, and his five decades of public service that ended with his four-year presidency, Biden called on Americans to “stand guard” to protect the idea of the United States.

“After 50 years of public service, I give you my word, I still believe in the idea of where this nation stands. A nation where the strength of our institutions and the character of our people matter and much endure. Now its your turn to stand guard,” Biden said.

The president added, “May you all be the keeper of the flame. May you keep the faith. I love America, you love it too.”

Biden gave thanks to Vice President Harris in the closing remarks of his farewell address to the nation.

“Of course, to Kamala and her incredible partner. A historic vice president. She and Doug have become like family to me, and to me, family is everything,” Biden said, as he thanked his loved ones and those who served in his administration. Harris was with him in the Oval Office as he addressed the nation.

Biden endorsed Harris for the White House after his historic exit from the 2024 race last year.

The outgoing president also gave his “deepest appreciation” to First Lady Jill Biden, who was with him for the remarks.

Biden said the country should “amend the constitution to make clear no president is immune from crimes he or she commits while in office.”

“The president’s power is not unlimited. It’s not absolute. And it shouldn’t be,” Biden said.

The comments were a clear nod to a Supreme Court ruling that granted presidents wide immunity for official acts, upending the legal cases against President-elect Trump.

Biden warned in his speech of misinformation and disinformation as top issues facing the American public, calling out technology companies and social media platforms for ending fact checking programs, as Meta recently did.

“Americans are being buried in an avalanche of misinformation and disinformation, enabled in the abuse of power. A free press is crumbling, editors are disappearing, social media’s giving up on fact checking,” Biden said. “The truth is smothered by lies, both for power and profit.”

Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, announced last week it would end its fact checking program.

Biden raised a few areas that he said have given him “great concern” about the direction of the country, including what he described as an “oligarchy taking shape in America.”

“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.

Biden did not specify any individuals during his remarks.

For Biden’s address, first lady Jill Biden, Vice President Harris and second gentleman Doug Emhoff sat to his left. Biden’s son, Hunter Biden, and his family were also present.

Just before Biden started speaking, he waved to a grandchild and the first lady told him, “you look great, Joe,” according to reporters in the room.

Additionally, about a half dozen senior administration officials were in the room, including press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, chief of staff Jeff Zients, and top adviser Bruce Reed.

Biden rattled off a series of legislative accomplishments during his time in office, including a series of investments in infrastructure, manufacturing and veterans’ health.

But he acknowledged he may not get full credit for those accomplishments for years to come.

“It will take time to feel the full impact of all we’ve done together,” Biden said. “But the seeds are planted. And they’ll grow and they’ll bloom for decades to come.”

Biden opened his farewell address by speaking about a major diplomatic breakthrough: A ceasefire agreement between Israel and Gaza that will allow for the release of American hostages.

“This plan was developed and negotiated by my team and will be largely implemented by the incoming administration,” Biden said. “That’s why I told my team to keep the incoming administration fully informed. Because that’s how it should be, working together as Americans.”

Biden began his Oval Office address shortly after 8 p.m.

He began by talking about the Israel-Hamas ceasefire deal.

John Ratcliffe emerged largely unscathed from a hearing before the Senate Intelligence Committee that appeared to pave the way for him to serve as the next director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).

Ratcliffe, experienced a rough-and-tumble confirmation process to become the director of national intelligence (DNI) in 2020. But this go-around much more cordial and bipartisan as Democrats direct their ire at President-elect Trump’s more controversial nominees.

Wednesday’s hearing was wide-ranging and included back-and-forths with members on a number of topics, including intelligence gathering, threats the U.S. faces on the global scale and some of Ratcliffe’s actions as DNI at the end of Trump’s first term.

Here are five takeaways from his hearing.

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) promised to make the State Department “relevant again,” during his confirmation hearing to lead the agency, facing a receptive audience among Senate colleagues he has served with for more than a decade.

Rubio is expected to receive broad bipartisan backing, with a number of Senate Democrats expressing full-throated support for his confirmation to be America’s top diplomat.

“I’ve always been struck working with Senator Rubio on this committee, since I came to the Senate in January 2013, that he has a very well-developed sense of the world and a passion and interest in all corners of it,” Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.), said during the hearing. 

Kaine later announced he’d be a “Yes” vote on Rubio’s confirmation. It marked a stark contrast to his grilling of Pete Hegseth, Trump’s Pentagon pick, the previous day. 

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee will hold a business meeting on Monday to vote to advance Rubio’s nomination to the Senate floor. 

“I hope I can earn your support – either you think I’ll do a good job, or you are trying to get rid of me,” Rubio said to laughs.

Here are five key takeaways from Rubio’s hearing.

Fracking CEO Chris Wright is on track to be the nation’s next Energy secretary despite a few tense moments during his confirmation hearing. 

The tension largely centered around climate change. Wright acknowledges that the planet is warming, but has downplayed the phenomenon’s connection to extreme weather. 

Nevertheless, even some Democrats expressed support for his nomination, including Sen. John Hickenlooper (Colo), who introduced Wright at the start of the hearing.

“He’s a scientist who has invested his life around energy. He is indeed an unrestrained enthusiast for fossil fuels in almost every regard, but he studied nuclear,” Hickenlooper said. “His first years of working were in solar. He has experience in wind. He is a practitioner and a key innovator around geothermal.”

“I have high optimism we can work together,” Hickenlooper added. 

READ MORE HERE.

Pam Bondi, President-elect Trump’s pick to lead the Department of Justice, echoed attacks on the agency she would lead if confirmed, but demurred on how she might handle tests of its independence.

Bondi is a more traditional pick to lead the department than Trump’s initial choice, former Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.). She’s a longtime prosecutor and spent two terms as the Florida attorney general, where she focused in particular on battling drugs.

But she’s a controversial pick for Democrats as someone who worked on Trump’s 2020 election challenges and has been highly critical of the investigations, even calling for “prosecutors to be prosecuted.”

HERE ARE 5 TAKEAWAYS FROM THE HEARING.

The Senate concluded its first Office of Management and Budget confirmation hearing for Russell Vought on Wednesday.

Vought brushed off question from reporters afterward about the concerns regarding his comments on the Impoundment Control Act.

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee gaveled out Rubio’s confirmation hearing Wednesday after several hours of questioning.

Rubio received praise from both sides of the aisle at points during the hearing, and multiple senators projected confidence that he would be confirmed to the post as Trump’s secretary of State.

Russell Vought said he doesn’t think the Impoundment Control Act is constitutional during his Senate confirmation hearing for the Office of Management and Budget on Wednesday.

“No, I don’t believe it’s constitutional,” he said, when asked by Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) about the law, which governs Congress’s role in the budget process. “The president ran on that view. That’s his view, and I agree.”

“You are simply going to take the law in your own hand,” Blumenthal responded.

Vought pushed back, saying, “I did not say that, nor did I imply that on behalf of the incoming administration. I said earlier to a question from Sen. Peters that the incoming administration is going to have to take the president’s view on this, as he stated in the campaign.”

Blumenthal said in response that he he is “aghast … someone in this responsible of a position would in effect say that the president is above the law, and that the United States Supreme Court is entitled to their opinion, but mine should supersede it.”

Chair Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) ended the hearing by calling President-elect Trump’s attorney general pick Pam Bondi “eminently qualified.”

Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) pushed back on GOP criticism Democrats were upset by Pam Bondi’s closeness with President-elect Trump, saying he was certain she would someday face an ethical challenge.

“That’s not our concern. It’s not our concern that you’re loyal to the former president. President has a right to choose people who he believes will be loyal to him. Our concern comes when that loyalty to the president conflicts with your duty, conflicts with the Constitution, conflicts with your oath,” he said.

“You may say you believe that conflict will never come, but every day, week, month and year of the first Trump administration demonstrated that conflict will come. Jeff Sessions may not have believed it would come to him, it came to him. Bill Barr may not have believed it would come to him. It came to him. It came to everyone. It will come to you, and what you do in that moment will define your attorney generalship, your public service.”

Rubio said he “without a question” believes Cuba is a state sponsor of terrorism, comments that come after the Biden administration announced plans to lift the designation on the country.

The White House said this week it would remove Cuba from the list of State Sponsors of Terrorism in exchange for the release of political prisoners jailed for protesting the regime a few years ago.

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) suggested the secretary of State contender could reverse the decision if confirmed to the President-elect Trump’s Cabinet.

“The president sets our foreign policy, and my job is to execute it,” Rubio said. “I would just remind anyone on this recent deal with Cuba … nothing that was agreed to is irreversible or binding on the new administration.”

Pam Bondi said she would not allow her personal views to impact decisionmaking on abortion policy as attorney general.

Bondi made the comments after Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) asked about mifepristone, noting that Justice Deparment is currently defending access to the abortion pill.

“I will look at that policy. I am personally pro-life. I’ve always been pro-life, but I will look at that policy. I will not, not let my personal beliefs affect how I carry out the law.”

Still, Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) noted that in Florida, the state imposes mandatory waiting periods for an abortion and parental consent requirements.

Bondi responded that the Supreme Court’s decision on Dobbs leaves abortion policy to the states.

Sen. Gary Peters (D-Mich.) grilled Vought over Ukraine aid that had been frozen under the first Trump administration.

“Under your leadership in 2019, OMB illegally withheld $214 million that Congress appropriated to the Department of Defense to provide security assistance to Ukraine,” Peters said, adding that the Government Accountability Office concluded the actions violated law and that they “then forced Congress to reappropriate the funds.”

Peters then asked Vought, if he’s confirmed, would he “commit to follow the law and not allow OMB or withhold funding from programs that Congress has appropriated?”

Vought pushed back, saying he disagreed “with the characterization of the General Accounting Office” and said in his “time at OMB, we followed the law consistently.”

Peters then asked Vought if he thought it was “within the law” to “withhold funds that are appropriated by Congress.”

Vought countered, arguing no funds were withheld “inappropriately” and that the administration was “engaged in the policy process with regard to how funding would flow to Ukraine.”

Rubio warned that the U.S. has lost deterrence strength in key parts of the global arena.

“We have lost deterrence in multiple theaters around the world,” Rubio said. “I think that it’s important to reestablish deterrence. And to the extent that that’s been lost for a variety of reasons, the lack of deterrence is an invitation to war.”

Rubio suggested that development “in some ways” contributed to Russia’s war on Ukraine.

Rubio was responding to questions from Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) that accused the Biden administration of undermining allies and appeasing enemies over the last four years.

The secretary of State hopeful did not directly name-drop Biden in his answer, but stressed his belief Trump would work to make foreign policy stronger.

Russell Vought, Trump’s pick to lead OMB, said the president does not have the unilateral ability to cancel student loan debt.

“But it seems like the Biden administration did that. It went to the judicial branch. They found it to be unconstitutional, and yet, President Biden continued to forgive student debt. What would be your point of view on that?” Sen. Bernie Moreno (R-Ohio) asked.

Vought responded, “We believe that was not the right course of action, that the president did not have that authority, and I think an example of the Biden administration’s unwillingness to follow the law.”

Rubio raised concerns about foreign influence on the Panama Canal, amid President-elect Trump’s talk of taking control of the key passageway.

“The concerns about Panama have been expressed by people on both sides of the aisle for at least the entire time that I’ve been in the United States Senate, and they’ve only accelerated further. It is a very legitimate issue we face there,” Rubio said.

Though he said he still had to review legal research, Rubio said he was “compelled to suspect that an argument could be made” that the terms under which the canal were turned over had been violated.

“While, technically, sovereignty over the canal has not been turned over to a foreign power, in reality, a foreign power today possesses, though their companies — which we know are not independent — the ability to turn the canal into a choke point in a moment of conflict, and that is a direct threat to the national interest and security of the United States.”

Trump has raised alarm that China is controlling the trade route, though the Panama Canal Authority has dismissed those claims.

Russell Vought, President-elect Trump’s pick to head the White House budget office, downplayed his past comments about the usefulness of shutting down the federal government to achieve conservative policy aims.

Vought, under pointed questioning from Sen. Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.), said he would seek to avoid future government shutdowns as director of the Office of Management and Budget, drawing a scoff from Hassan.

“You have repeatedly, Mr. Vought, called for brinksmanship around government shutdown and opposed bipartisan deals to keep the government open,” Hassan said.

“If confirmed, you’d play a role in negotiations to avoid a government shutdown later this spring. Why have you repeatedly advocated the use of a government shutdown as a bargaining chip?” she asked.

Vought said Hassan was mischaracterizing his position on respecting the need to keep the government open.

“Senator, I don’t think I have been a person that has wanted to have government shutdowns. I’ve had to be the one that kept the government open, consistent with the law, for the longest shutdown in history. I know the impact it has on the federal government,” he said, referring to the 35-day shutdown during Trump’s first term that was sparked by a fight over funding the southern border wall.

READ MORE HERE.

Marco Rubio said antisemitism is a “unique danger” facing the U.S. and the international community.

“The suffering that it inflicted on the world — historically, but in the last century — is unimaginable and can never be allowed to be repeated. And it’s something that we should make sure we’re constantly speaking out against,” Rubio said.

The secretary of State contender said the legitimacy of some international organizations is in jeopardy because “they’ve become havens for antisemitic activity that is oftentimes is disguised as anti-Israel.”

“We cannot ignore what antisemitism has cost humanity in the past, because if that lesson is forgotten, it will very quickly repeat itself, potentially in every region on the planet.”

Pam Bondi declined to say whether she would investigate special counsel Jack Smith, even as she criticized his investigation into President-elect Trump as “horrible.”

“I haven’t seen the file. I haven’t seen the investigation. It would be irresponsible for me to make a commitment,” she said.

But as she faced pushback from questioner Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), she criticized Smith’s investigation.

“Senator, what I have seen on the news is horrible.”

Bondi has dismissed prior questions about potential prosecutions as hypotheticals, but Schiff said this case was “one very specific, nonhypothetical.”

“The president has said Jack Smith should go to jail,” Schiff said.

Bondi has previously been critical of investigations into Trump.

“The Department of Justice, the prosecutors will be prosecuted — the bad ones,” Bondi said in a 2023 Fox News appearance. “The investigators will be investigated.”

Rubio said President Biden’s administration got “played” by Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro, whose inauguration the White House has called illegitimate.

“I was in strong disagreement with the Biden administration, ’cause they got played the way I knew they would get played,” Rubio said.

“They entered into negotiations with Maduro, he agreed to have elections, the elections were completely fake, they leveraged migration against us to get those concessions, and now they have these general licenses where companies like Chevron are actually providing billions of dollars of money into the regime’s coffers, and the regime kept none of their promises,” the secretary of State hopeful said.

In a second Trump term, all of that needs to be “reexplored,” Rubio said.

The Biden administration last week announced new sanctions against allies of Maduro in opposition to his claim of election victory, calling the inauguration “a desperate attempt to seize power.”

“The Venezuelan people and world know the truth — Maduro clearly lost the 2024 presidential election and has no right to claim the presidency,” U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement.