President Joe Biden on Monday issued preemptive pardons for Gen. Mark Milley, Dr. Anthony Fauci and members of Congress who served on the committee investigating the January 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, using extraordinary executive prerogative as a shield against revenge by his incoming successor, Donald Trump.

President Joe Biden has said he is commuting the sentences of almost 2,500 people convicted of nonviolent drug offenses, setting a presidential record.

Newsweek has contacted the White House for comment via email.

Why It Matters

This latest round of clemency sets a presidential record, with Biden now holding the distinction of issuing the most individual pardons and commutations in U.S. history.

After decades of dreaming of the White House, for Joe Biden, the reality of his term in office must feel extremely bittersweet.

First, despite all the naysayers over the years, he finally won the presidency in 2020. Then, he secured major legislative victories like the Inflation Reduction Act and made history by appointing the first Black women to be vice president and to serve on the Supreme Court. But he also presided over a bungled withdrawal from Afghanistan, rising concern over border security and stubbornly high inflation.

President Biden in his farewell address to the nation on Wednesday took aim at Big Tech and warned of "dangerous consequences" if a "concentration of power in the hands of a very few ultra-wealthy people" goes unchecked.

Why it matters: Biden's warning that an "oligarchy" was "taking shape in America" comes as the world's richest person, Elon Musk prepares to co-lead the incoming Trump administration's new Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) as his companies including SpaceX hold government contracts.

President Biden delivered his farewell address to the nation Wednesday evening, taking a victory lap for the cease-fire deal between Israel and Hamas and warning Americans about an "oligarchy" in the U.S. that "threatens our entire democracy."

Outgoing US President Joe Biden warned of the dangers of an oligarchy gaining power as he delivered his farewell address and brought a decades-long career in politics to an end.

"Today, an oligarchy is taking shape in America of extreme wealth, power and influence that really threatens our entire democracy, our basic rights and freedom," he said on Wednesday.

Biden, 82, took aim at an ultra-wealthy "tech-industrial complex" which he said could wield unchecked power over Americans.

As Joe Biden campaigned for president in 2020, national and global discussion focused on one issue: the COVID-19 pandemic. As then-President Donald Trump downplayed the pandemic’s severity, Biden pledged to increase COVID-19 testing, vaccinate 50 million people in 100 days and get the virus under control.

On paper, few US presidents could boast the foreign policy bona fides of Joe Biden, a veteran statesman with nearly a half-century of experience before he even stepped into office.

But as his term comes to an end, critics have said that the president will leave a legacy of cautious and underpowered diplomacy, as even allies have conceded that the administration is still grasping for a cornerstone foreign policy success.

A federal court on Thursday invalidated the Biden administration’s ambitious overhaul of Title IX, handing the Democratic president a significant defeat on transgender rights as he prepares to leave office.

U.S. District Chief Judge Danny Reeves granted summary judgment to a five-state coalition challenging the Department of Education’s regulatory change of adding “gender identity” to Title IX, which bans sex discrimination in education.