Biden warns of new American ‘oligarchy’ in farewell speech as Trump takes credit for Israel ceasefire: Live

More of the president-elect’s cabinet nominees will face the Senate committees today, with Doug Burgum, Scott Turner, Lee Zeldin and Scott Bessent all up for review.

Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi, in line for US attorney general, appeared yesterday (picking up where Matt Gaetz left off) and was grilled repeatedly about her support for Trump’s Big Lie four years ago, refusing to answer “yes” or “no” on whether she had any evidence to prove it.

Here’s Alex Woodward’s report on her hearing.

Here’s everything you need to know about the 47th president’s upcoming swearing-in ceremony from Katie Hawkinson.

The president-elect’s latest social media post finds him applauding his hires to his new administration while also lashing out at old enemies, including but not limited to: “Charles Koch, ‘Dumb as a Rock’ John Bolton, ‘Birdbrain’ Nikki Haley, Mike Pence, disloyal Warmongers Dick Cheney, and his Psycho daughter, Liz, Mitt Romney, Paul Ryan, General(?) Mark Milley, James Mattis, Mark Yesper, or any of the other people suffering from Trump Derangement Syndrome”.

Before that, he had insisted on the same platform that ceasefire agreed in the Middle East on Wednesday “could have only happened as a result of our Historic Victory in November, as it signaled to the entire World that my Administration would seek Peace and negotiate deals to ensure the safety of all Americans, and our Allies”.

“We have achieved so much without even being in the White House. Just imagine all of the wonderful things that will happen when I return to the White House, and my Administration is fully confirmed, so they can secure more Victories for the United States!” he added.

Here’s Eric Garcia on who really deserves the credit.

The Democrat is leaving office with a slightly higher approval rating than Trump did after his first term, a new poll shows.

The outgoing president’s final approval rating is 36 percent compared to Trump, who had a rating of 34 percent when he left the White House in 2021, the CNN poll conducted by SSRS found.

However, Biden’s four years in office are regarded by Americans more as a failure (61 percent) than a success (38 percent), the survey found.

After a half-century in public service, one might have expected Joe Biden to exit the world stage with a speech urging Americans to remember him fondly for the productive legislative record his administration compiled, or his work shoring up alliances and bringing two new members of NATO into the now 32-member bloc.

But he opted not to use the coveted prime-time air time to brag.

Instead, he delivered a surprisingly sharp warning.

Here’s more from Andrew Feinberg.

In the same speech from the White House, the president called for the creation of a new constitutional amendment to demolish the concept of presidential “immunity” from criminal prosecution.

“We need to amend the Constitution to make clear that no president, no president, is immune from crimes he or she commits while in office,” he said.

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

Last summer, the Supreme Court’s conservative majority granted sitting presidents absolute “immunity” from criminal prosecution for actions stemming from “official” duties and “presumptive” immunity for actions in the “outer perimeter” of the functions of the presidency.

That ruling marked a seismic victory for Donald Trump, who argued that his attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election are “immune” from prosecution in the sprawling federal criminal case against him.

The outgoing US president Joe Biden warned in his farewell speech last night that a new gilded age of “robber barons” is in danger of eroding Americans’ hard-won freedoms unless the government takes steps to ensure that the ultra-wealthy pay a fair share in taxes and aren’t allowed to exercise “outsized” power.

In remarks deliberately tailored to echo Dwight Eisenhower’s warnings about the dangers of the military-industrial complex, Biden said he was just as concerned as Eisenhower had been about what he described as a “tech industrial complex that could pose real dangers for our country”.

That, combined with a dangerous “concentration of technology power and wealth,” he added, is forming a new “oligarchy” 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”.

However, the inauguration ceremony will be more than just a swearing-in — Trump’s team has just released the schedule of events, revealing those who will perform at the event, The Spectator World reports.

Here’s what you need to know about the line-up for Trump and Vances’ inauguration:

Jordan, a Republican who represents Ohio’s fourth congressional district, made the remarks while speaking on Newsmax on Tuesday.

Michelle Del Rey has the story.