Biden’s inauguration theme: ‘America United’
WASHINGTON — The theme for President-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration will be “America United,” an issue that’s long been a central focus for Biden but one that’s taken on added weight in the wake of the violence at the U.S. Capitol last week.
In an announcement shared first with The Associated Press, the Presidential Inaugural Committee said that the theme “reflects the beginning of a new national journey that restores the soul of America, brings the country together, and creates a path to a brighter future.
In keeping with the theme of unity, the committee also announced that after Biden is officially inaugurated, he, Vice President-elect Kamala Harris and their spouses will lay a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Arlington National Cemetery and will be joined there by former Presidents Barack Obama, George W. Bush and Bill Clinton and their wives.
It will be one of Biden’s first acts as president, a show of bipartisanship at a time when the national divide is on stark display.
Security will be tight. The National Park Service announced Monday that it would shut down public access to the Washington Monument until Jan. 24, citing threats surrounding the inauguration.
Biden didn’t express concern about his own personal security at the inauguration.
“I’m not afraid of taking the oath outside,” he said. “It is critically important that there’ll be a real serious focus on holding those folks who engaged in sedition and threatening the lives, defacing public property, caused great damage — that they be held accountable.”
President Donald Trump is skipping Biden’s inaugural, a decision Biden said was a “good thing.”