President Biden will deliver his farewell address to the nation to mark the end of his four years as president on Wednesday, the White House announced.
He will deliver his last address at 8 p.m. from the Oval Office in the White House.
The president’s final remarks will follow his exit foreign policy speech
on Monday, during which he will focus on his administration’s work to strengthen America’s standing around the world.
Press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre didn’t comment on if the president will give a final press conference when questioned about it during the White House briefing on Friday.
The president leaves office on January 20, when President-elect Trump is sworn into office. Biden ran for reelection against Trump and dropped out of the race in July, amid pressure from Democrats following a dismal debate performance against the president-elect that raised questions over his age and fitness.
His address about why he decided
to ultimately drop his reelection bid was also given from the Oval Office. Another notable Oval Office address during the Biden presidency was his primetime plea
to lower the temperature of politics after an assassination attempt on Trump in July.
Vice President Harris took over the Democratic ticket and lost to Trump in November, when Democrats also lost Senate control and failed to flip the House.
As he prepares to leave the White House, Biden’s party faces questions over how to rebuild and who their future leadership will be.
WASHINGTON — Rudy Giuliani was found in contempt of court Friday for the second time this week — by a second federal judge — for continuing to spread lies about two former Georgia election workers after a jury awarded the women a $148 million defamation judgment.
U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell in Washington, D.C., found Giuliani violated court orders barring him from defaming Wandrea “Shaye” Moss and her mother, Ruby Freeman. She ordered him to review trial testimony and other materials from the case, and warned him that future violations could result in possible jail time.
Moss and Freeman sued Rudy Giuliani for defamation for falsely accusing them of committing election fraud in connection with the 2020 election. His lies upended their lives with racist threats and harassment.
Shortly before the hearing began, Giuliani slammed the judge in a social media post, calling her “bloodthirsty” and biased against him and the proceeding a “hypocritical waste of time.”
Giuliani smiled and chuckled as the judge explained why she was holding him in contempt of court. Howell said it is “outrageous and shameful” for Giuliani to suggest that he is the one who has been treated unfairly in this case.
“This takes real chutzpah, Mr. Giuliani,” she said.
After the judge finished reading her decision from the bench, Giuliani asked her when she wrote it. He asked her why he had to travel to Washington to attend the hearing if she had already reached a decision in advance.
“Remarkable,” he said.
“It is remarkable,” the judge replied.
“Remarkable that you can do that in three or four minutes,” Giuliani added.
Giuliani continued to complain about the judge as he left the courtroom.
“It was a farce,” he said, describing the judge as “completely biased and prejudiced.”
Giuliani briefly testified during Friday’s hearing, only to authenticate records about his personal finances.
The judge didn’t fine Giuliani for his most recent defamatory comments about the case, but she said would impose daily fines of $200 if he doesn’t certify within 10 days that he has complied with her order to review trial testimony and other case-related material.
“I don’t care what she did. She is a completely farcical judge,” he said outside the courtroom. “She didn’t consider a damn thing I said. She wrote it beforehand.”
A jury sided with the mother and daughter, who are Black, in December 2023 and awarded them $75 million in punitive damages plus roughly $73 million in other damages.
“Mr. Giuliani started lying about Plaintiffs in December of 2020, and refused to stop after repeatedly being told that his election-rigging conspiracy theory about Plaintiffs was baseless, malicious, and dangerous,” the plaintiffs’ lawyers wrote
.
Giuliani’s attorneys argued that the plaintiffs haven’t presented “clear and convincing” evidence that he violated a court order in the defamation case in comments that he made on November podcasts about alleged ballot counting irregularities in Georgia.
“Giuliani acted with the good faith belief that his comments did not violate the (judgment) and he should not be subject to contempt sanctions,” his lawyers wrote
.
On Monday in New York, Judge Lewis Liman found Giuliani in contempt of court for related claims that he failed to turn over evidence to help the judge decide whether he can keep a Palm Beach, Florida, condominium.
Giuliani, who testified in Liman’s Manhattan courtroom Jan. 3, said he didn’t turn over everything because he believed the requests were overly broad, inappropriate or even a “trap” set by plaintiffs’ lawyers.
Giuliani, 80, said in a court filing
that he will attend Friday’s hearing before Howell despite having travel-related concerns about his health and safety. He said he gets death threats and has been told to be careful about traveling.
“I had hoped the Court would understand and accommodate my needs. However, it appears I was mistaken,” he said in the filing.
On the witness stand, Moss and Freeman described fearing for their lives after becoming the target of a false conspiracy theory that Giuliani and other Republicans spread as they tried to keep Trump in power after he lost the 2020 election to Democrat Joe Biden. Moss told jurors she tried to change her appearance, seldom leaves her home and suffers from panic attacks.
“Money will never solve all my problems,” Freeman told reporters after the jury’s verdict. “I can never move back into the house that I call home. I will always have to be careful about where I go and who I choose to share my name with. I miss my home. I miss my neighbors, and I miss my name.”
DAKAR, Senegal — The United States announced Friday that it would be returning $52.88 million in seized assets to Nigeria as part of a yearslong corruption probe against former oil minister Diezani Alison-Madueke and associates, according to a joint statement by Nigeria’s minister of justice and the United States government.
It marks the first repatriation of assets linked to Alison-Madueke, who served as Nigeria’s oil minister from 2010 to 2015. She rose to prominence as a powerful figure under former President Goodluck Jonathan, and became the first female president of the oil alliance OPEC.
The seized assets, including a superyacht and prime real estate in New York and California, were confiscated in 2023 by U.S. authorities during Alison-Madueke’s trial.
Of the repatriated funds, $50 million will be allocated to rural electrification programs in Nigeria, while the remaining $2.88 million will be disbursed as a grant by the African country to the International Institute for Justice to support rule of law and counterterrorism operations.
As a minister, Alison-Madueke had pledged to transform the oil sector but was accused by authorities of looting millions of dollars in public funds alongside her associates. Authorities say that many such assets were allegedly domiciled in the United States and the United Kingdom.
Although she has consistently denied any wrongdoing, Nigeria’s anti–graft agency has secured court orders seizing houses, cars and jewelry in Nigeria, which it claims were proceeds of corruption connected to the former minister and her associates.
Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg criticized the Biden administration for pushing for censorship around COVID-19 vaccines, the media for hounding Facebook to clamp down on misinformation after
Gearing up for its 2025 running, the La Grange Pet Parade organizers began the year by opening registrations for the 79th edition of the oldest and most famous pet parade in Illinois.
This year’s parade will be on Saturday, May 31, and registration forms can be found at its website, lagrangepetparade.org
.
“We try to have it open in the new year, right away,” parade coordinator Molly Price said. “It goes through the first Friday of May.”
The parade has a different theme each year, and this year is One Sweet Day, in reference to the candy many participants give to the crowd.
Price wanted marchers to know they should hand out the candy at the curb, instead of throwing it, because it inevitably winds up in the street, creating a dangerous situation for children in the crowd.
Price is part of Pet Parade Charities, the nonprofit that stages the event, and has been on the job since 2017. She stressed the organizers had not set a limit on how many entrants could participate, but estimated the biggest year she could remember was about 120 entrants.
While there isn’t a set criteria for acceptable entrants, they do prefer marchers that will spark the crowd’s interest.
“We do ask that they bring entertainment value,” Price said. “Think about entertaining the crowd. The crowds are there to have fun … anything to get the crowd laughing having fun.”
Julian Love, 2016 graduate of Nazareth Academy and safety for the Seattle Seahawks, was the grand marshal for the 2024 La Grange Pet Parade. (Hank Beckman/for the Pioneer Press)
She said the planning committee enjoys those that bring energy, whether it be by music, a cheer or donning costumes. In last year’s parade, the Keillor family all dressed as cicadas to coincide with the double brood emergence.
This year’s grand marshal and presenting sponsor has not been determined, with the planning committee still working things out in those areas.
The parade began in 1947 as a project of the La Grange Chamber of Commerce, whose president, Ed Breen, owner of Breen’s Cleaners, had the idea to create an event that would feature the village’s children and family pets. The parade grew over the years to include entrees from local businesses, schools, and nonprofits.
Since the 1990s, LTTV from Lyons Township High School has covered the parade. Last year, WGN-TV covered the parade for the first time since the 1970s, when it was a regular feature of the channel.
DuPage Shrine Club members drive little cars Sept. 18, 2021, during the La Grange Pet Parade. (James C. Svehla-Pioneer Press)
Over the years, the parade grew to the point where its proceeds went to several pet-related charities, the most prominent being K9 for Veterans. The Plainfield-based charity runs a training camp for service dogs on West Roosevelt Road in Chicago.
K9 for Veterans mission is to train animals to serve former members of the nation’s armed forces that suffer from post traumatic stress disorder.
But that donation isn’t the only expense the charity has; it costs about $80,000 to actually stage the parade, in addition to the village of La Grange’s cost of another $20,000 for employee overtime and police services.
Other nonprofit groups marching in the parade, such as the Jesse White Tumblers, the South Shore Drill Team and the Medinah Shriners Act, also come with a fee, Price said.
“Some are nonprofits themselves and are meant to keep kids off the streets and give them an outlet for performing, so that they’re more occupied,” Price said.
Information about how to donate to Pet Parade Charities, and the different levels of sponsorship, can be found at lagrangepetparade.org
.
Hank Beckman is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press.
