Biden sworn in as nation’s 46th President
Biden took the oath of office just before noon Wednesday during a ceremony at the U.S. Capitol. The presidential oath was administered by U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts.
President Joe Biden says “democracy has prevailed” in a country reeling amid a pandemic and a violent melee two weeks ago at the U.S. Capitol. In his first remarks as president, Biden said Wednesday that his swearing-in marks a day of “history and hope.”
Biden said in his inaugural address that the country has “learned again that democracy is precious.”. He added, “The dream of justice for all will be deferred no longer.”
More history was made at Biden’s side, as Kamala Harris became the first woman to be vice president. The former U.S. senator from California is also the first Black person and the first person of South Asian descent elected to the vice presidency and will become the highest-ranking woman ever to serve in government.
Suddenly, if only for a freeze-frame moment, everything old was new again, starting when Joe Biden stepped outside into his day, and Donald Trump vanished inside Air Force One for his flight to private life in Florida.
Democratic and Republican leaders worshipped together at church, just one tradition dusted off. The centuries-old rituals of a peaceful transfer of power unfolded from the high platform of the flag-bedecked Capitol, still recovering from insurrection.
With Trump gone, calls for and scenes of unity and grace were the order of the day, exactly four years after his dark talk of “American carnage.”
As if their footsteps had been choreographed, Biden emerged from Blair House across the White House on his way to church just as the outgoing president disappeared into the plane at Joint Base Andrews. But the outgoing president was not one to coordinate anything with the incoming one. And not long later, Trump issued one more pardon.
Trump never conceded the election, declined to attend the inauguration, upended the tradition of sending a government plane to bring the president-elect to Washington and didn’t extend the usual invitation to greet the almost-president to the White House before the swearing in.
Biden was opening his presidency without a welcome or even personal acknowledgement from the man he defeated. Under threat of conviction from the Senate on an accusation of inciting insurrection, Trump departed with a perfunctory nod to those who have died from the coronavirus, an obligatory mention of wishing “luck” to the next administration without mentioning Biden’s name, a premature claim on any success Biden might have, and the cloudy threat of a return.
“Have a nice life,” Trump said in remarks to well-wishers upon his departure. As Air Force One flew low along the coast, Biden’s inauguration played on Fox News on television aboard the flight. Trump’s family was on board. He spent some of the flight with flight staff who went up to him to say goodbye. Rituals of the republic went on without him.
In a striking tableau at the Capitol, three former presidents and first ladies of different parties mingled as though at a cocktail party.
The inauguration crowds were sparse by design, with invitation-only guests at the immediate scene and 200,000 small flags standing in the place of the citizens who would have come if the capital’s core hadn’t been under military lock and key and if no pandemic had been sweeping the country.