A call for unity
Biden delivers message of hope to nation facing turmoil, dire pandemic
WASHINGTON — “Politics doesn’t have to be a raging fire destroying everything in its path,” President Joe Biden told the American people moments after he took the oath of office and became the 46th president of the United States. “Every disagreement doesn’t have to be a cause for total war.”
In the middle of a pandemic and following a riot at the Capitol, Biden delivered an optimistic message that acknowledged the steep challenges ahead.
“We have much to do in this winter of peril, and significant possibilities. Much to repair, much to restore, much to heal, much to build and much to gain,” Biden said. “Few people in our nation’s history have been more challenged, or found a time more challenging or difficult than the time we’re in now.”
While he did not mention now-former President Donald Trump by name, he did
speak of Jan. 6 when “a riotous mob thought they could use violence to change the will of the people” by preventing Congress from certifying the Electoral College vote in his favor.
“It did not happen. It will never happen. Not today, not tomorrow, not ever,” Biden declared. “Not ever.”
Biden warned that the fabric of the nation’s democracy was tearing but could be repaired.
“I know the forces that divide us are deep and they are real. But I also know they are not new. Our history has been a constant struggle between the American ideal that we are all created equal and the harsh, ugly reality that racism, nativism, fear, demonization have long torn us apart,” Biden said. “This is our historic moment of crisis and challenge, and unity is the path forward, and we must meet this moment as the United States of America.”
With the coronavirus having killed more Americans in one year than the U.S. death toll from World War II, Biden urged the country to seek unity. “We’re going to need each other,” he said. And he called for a moment of silence for the dead.
“There’s no accounting for what fate will deal you,” Biden said in remarks that spoke to the personal losses of his first wife and young daughter in 1972 and his son Beau, who passed away from cancer in 2015.
A contrast to Trump’s speech
Biden’s address differed in almost all respects from Trump’s inaugural address four years ago, one expert said.
“His content was very positive, a stark contrast with 2016,” speech coach and communications specialist Ruth Sherman told the Review-journal, with a reference to Trump’s 2016 “American carnage” speech. “This seems to be his personality, but also purposeful in comparison with his predecessor.”
“If it’s a leader’s job to give voice to people’s fears, anxieties and worries, to comfort them and to encourage them to work together to move forward, then he succeeded,” Sherman added.
But Ken Khachigian, a onetime speechwriter for President Ronald Reagan, gave Biden a C-plus. “He raises his voice as if that’s the only way he can make his point,” he said.
Khachigian objected to Biden’s portrait of America as a racist, nativist nation, instead of the global leader for opportunity. “It was a portrait of an America I didn’t recognize,” Khachigian said, and “not anything like the America that everyone wakes up to in Idaho Falls or Nashville or Dearborn or Sacramento.”
“In that respect, I thought the unity he called for was a fake unity,” Khachigian concluded.
But another expert called the speech a welcome change.
“After four years of fearing and fighting Trump, from causing more pain, division, chaos and suffering, it’s such a relief to have competent, compassionate leadership actively dedicated to helping and healing,” said Dan Newman, a former adviser to Vice President Kamala Harris.
History made
It was a historic moment that began with Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, the first Latina to serve on the top court, swearing in Harris, the first woman, the first African American and the first Asian American to serve as vice president.
Chief Justice John Roberts administered the oath to Biden, who at 78 is the oldest man to be sworn into office, as his wife, Jill Biden, held a 5-inch-thick Bible that has been in his family for 128 years.
Ahead of the ceremony, Biden posted a tweet to his wife that said “I love you, Jilly, and I couldn’t be more grateful to have you with me on the journey ahead.”
The moment tied a bow on Biden’s decadeslong pursuit of the Oval Office that began in 1987, resumed for the 2008 cycle, and took a detour when President Barack Obama chose the then-delaware senator as his running mate that year.
Backdrop of crisis
The peaceful transfer of power transpired amid a pandemic that has killed some 400,000 Americans and prompted the new chief executive to ask most Americans to watch the ceremony from home to slow the spread of the coronavirus.
Biden focused on what he sees as America’s four national crises – COVID-19, racial inequity, climate change and an economy hampered by the pandemic.
On his first day in office, Biden prepared to sweep away Trump policies with the signing of multiple executive orders and the sending of a bill to Congress, the U.S. Citizenship Act of 2021, that would provide for legal status and a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants.
Rather than stick with tradition by greeting Biden at the White House and attending the inaugural, Trump and first lady Melania Trump left the White House on Wednesday morning.
Vice President Mike Pence, Trump’s stalwart wingman for most of the term, and his wife, Karen — along with many members of Congress — attended the inauguration and skipped Trump’s departure from Washington.