Rachel Maddow has predictably fawning reaction to Biden farewell speech about American oligarchs: 'It put a chill down my spine!'

Rachel Maddow talked up Joe Biden's farewell speech Wednesday night after he used the occasion to warn about an 'oligarchy taking shape' that threatens US democracy.

Maddow, 51, insisted the speech sent 'a chill down her spine', on a night where several progressive news personalities said much of the same.

She was joined by fellow MSNBC heavyweights Joy Reid, Chris Hayes, and Alex Wagner, along with Former Biden White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki.

All appeared to agree, with Reid, 56, saying Biden's warnings about potential abuses of power 'needed to be said', while panning conservatives who called the comments 'radical'.

Maddow, meanwhile, focused on the parts of the speech that warned about a tech 'oligarchy' quietly forming ahead of the looming administration - and the future of the country.

The conversation came on a special edition of All In with Chris Hayes, days after it was revealed MSNBC's marquee host would return to cable five-night-a-week. This comes in contrast to her current one appearance on primetime, and will persist for the the first 100 days of Trump's second presidency.

The Rachel Maddow Show remains the struggling station's crown jewel, and will be taking Wagner's primetime timeslot. SpinCo CEO Mark Lazarus, the new boss of the media conglomerate that now oversees MSNBC, is the architect behind the plans.

Despite drawing more than double Wagner's viewership in the 9pm timeslot, Maddow’s ratings were down by 43 percent in the weeks following Trump’s win, and her January 6 broadcast remained down 26 percent from her October average.

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'You know, Chris, I had wondered heading into this speech whether [Biden] was going to try to give some sort of warning to the country,' Maddow, fresh off a  pay-cut that will see her paid $5million less each year for the next half-decade, began.  

'That the speech might not be very long... The White House today released what they called a letter, but was really about a hundred-plus-page long book explaining his view of his own accomplishments during this term.'

Noting how the notice 'spelled out the list of accomplishments in writing ahead of the speech, she recalled predicting  the speech would be reserved 'for something else.'

'Maybe this Is going to be a warning,' she said, speaking from a past perspective. 'I did not expect it to be this stark.'

The news host proceeded to dive into the president's comments, which began with the assertion: 'Tonight, there is an oligarchy taking shape in America.'

'A dangerous concentration of power in the hands of a very few ultra wealthy people,' Maddow repeated, likely with headlines surrounding Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg on the mind. 'A tech industrial complex that poses real dangers.'  

'He talked about a tide of misinformation and disinformation enabling the abuse of power,' Maddow continued, tasked with kicking off the conversation.

'He talked about the free press crumbling, which put a shiver down my spine, and then talked about how truth is being sacrificed for lies, for the purposes of power and profit.

'This is important,' she reiterated, 'because he has essentially decided not to brag on the way out.

'He’s taken this last moment to say, "here is what we’ve got right now, and that "this is not just dangerous because it doesn’t sound American, it’s dangerous because this is what they’re doing to you, with this oligarchy, with this concentration of power - with what they’re doing to the press and the truth."

'And that is stark and sober,' Maddow concluded. 'And like I said, it put a chill down my spine.

'I think he’s correct, and I’m glad he took this time to say it.'

This paved the way for an equally emphatic Reid, who agreed about Biden's comments 'need[ing] to be said'.

Eventual responding to critics who called the speech one of the 'worst' in history, the ReidOut star first characterized Biden as an 'aggressively progressive politician in a certain way

'He really does believe in what could be called America first,' she said, mentioning Trump's promised policy.  

'He believes that if you're going to have the AI Industry, it needs to be in America. He really aggressively believes in repatriating some of this sort of internationalized commerce that has really hurt the working class and bringing it back.

'But that part where he then gives this warning that could have really that we've been talking about on the air, right,' Reid went on, at this point honing in the politician's warning.

'This concentration of power in the hands of this tech industrial complex, the smothering of the lies being smothered for power and profit, saying the people Must govern, essentially saying that this thing that he loves so much, this America, is literally being essentially stolen.

'You do see this concentration of power by tech oligarchs who have seized control of our politics and are about to have an office in the Eisenhower building in our capitol,' she said of new Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) co-boss Musk

He and other figures recently seen cozying up to the Republican like Zuckerberg and Amazon's Jeff Bezos 'are about to essentially co-run this country' she said.

Responding to conservatives who called Biden's comments 'radical' she said, 'I think a lot of people on the right [think that', but it needed to be said.'

Wagner and Psaki went on to weigh in, with the latter saying she was really stuck by the president's 'tone', which she thought indicated seriousness.

'If you look back at Joe Biden's speeches, and I was there for many of them - I was in many preps for many of them - typically, he does a more traditional announcement of the policy. "This is what we're doing." 

'He doesn't speak as frequently as directly to the American public as he just did,' Psaki said before mentioning Biden's closing comment where he told those watching 'it is now your turn to stand guard.'

Psaki called the remarks particularly 'striking' - saying 'it meets the moment that we're in.'

'That you're looking at a person who is going to be an embracer of the oligarchs who Alex [Wagner] just mentioned,' she said. 'The main leaders of these tech companies, who are probably going to have - we'll see - unfettered access to the Oval Office.'

Wagner agreed, calling the concept 'scary.' 

 SpinCo CEO Lazarus, meanwhile, has recently expressed his desire for the new direction multiple times over the past month, as insiders told The Ankler last month that he's seeking to shed the station's perception of liberal bias.

Primetime personalities Reid and Stephanie Ruhle have also been presented with pay cuts, along with Morning Joe co-host Jonathan Lemire, the outlet reported.  

Maddow, meanwhile, had reportedly been earning a $30million salary for her weekly show - the second highest paid anchor in television news after Sean Hannity at Fox News.

The schedule marks a huge increase in on-air time for Maddow following her reduced schedule - which cost the network about $500,000 an episode. 

In the 25-54 demographic, MSNBC averaged 55,000 in December, compared to 114,000 in December 2023. CNN averaged 69,000, compared to 108,000. Fox News averaged 292,000, compared to 214,000 a year earlier. 

Execs remain hopeful the scheduling shift will change the tide.