It was the day after President Joe Biden’s formal Farewell Address to the Nation.

As we remember, he had started his live Oval Office address rather traditionally. Then, just over halfway through, Biden made an epic, historic turn – and warned us that our democracy was being threatened by the rise of a powerful “oligarchy.” Right here in America.

Now, the day after he had warned his way into history, Biden was conducting his last scheduled Oval Office TV interview. And it was going quite differently. MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell had begun this interview that was being recorded for later broadcast, by asking how it felt to have been in government longer than any other president. And Biden had answered by mainly reminiscing and ruminating, in a relaxed stream of conscious fashion. Soon, he was scrolling us through the familiar Biden bio pic version of his life, which may well have bored all who have been trained to focus on the big picture.

But if we were listening with open ears and an open mind, we would have heard that our soon-to-be departing president was giving us the sort of very personal hint that may even have been missed by all who have been academically trained to focus on the big picture. But as someone who has known Biden well for decades, I think my friend has just inadvertently given us a personal insight into the compassion that has pushed Biden into wanting to lead us to fight back against the threat from the oligarchs in our midst.

“I got involved in public life because of the abuse of power,” Biden began, and then shifted incongruously into his life story of being bullied as a kid. “The worst thing that ever happened to me was I used to stutter when I was a kid and they really made fun of me…. I was a runt when I was a kid. …I learned how to fight when I didn’t want to fight. When you’re made fun of, you learn to step up….

“But what it did was it made me realize that there’s so damn many bullies around.”

“Bullies” – there it was. He brought it up several times and observed that he now tends to “extrapolate” being bullied “all the way to (how it applies to) democracy.”

He continued: “The reason for all the safeguards out there is …to keep the bullies from taking advantage of everybody – basic guardrails. And I think this concentration of enormous wealth and power (applies) in a circumstance where everything is changing. And what’s changing is how we communicate with each other…. Who’s out there saying, ‘No, you can’t print that! It’s not true!’?”

And so it was that Biden had just eased that interview back to the other urgent point he made in his Farewell Address the night before: “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.”

Also: “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.”

Speaking of fact-checking: News screens have been overflowing with coverage of the sudden ascendency of incoming President Donald Trump’s most influential insider – the world’s richest man, Elton Musk. He’s in charge of cutting and reshaping the entire government in the name of efficiency. Indeed, seated on the platform at Trump’s Inauguration will be three maxi-billionaires (also the world’s three wealthiest people): Tesla CEO and the head of social media giant X Elon Musk (reportedly worth $429.8 billion); Amazon founder and Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos (worth $235.3 billion, Forbes estimates) and Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg (reportedly worth $212.6 billion).

Meta and X have abandoned fact-checking. That is too bad in the case of one who especially needs fact-finding help – Musk. He has become infamous for circulating massive amounts of misinformation, conspiracy theories and false claims about all manner of things including false posts during mass tragedies including storms and fires.

O’Donnell ended his interview with perhaps the best question asked of the Biden presidency: “How does this oligarchy affect people out there who have never used the word ‘oligarchy’?”

America’s departing 46th president replied: “If a decision is made that the multi-billionaires …begin to control all the apparatuses from the media to the economy, who do I get to fight back for me?”

And: Who gets to own the bully pulpit?

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