‘End this uncivil war’
New president calls for all Americans to support him in inaugural address appealing for unity in a divided nation
JOE BIDEN yesterday called for America to end its “uncivil war” between political factions as he attempted to draw a line under the divisions of Donald Trump’s presidency.
In his inaugural address beside the Capitol after being sworn in as the 46th US president on his family bible, Mr Biden talked of the need for “tolerance”, “humility” and a better understanding of each other.
The Democrat urged those who did not vote for him to hear him out, saying that “politics need not be a raging fire destroying everything in its path”. While the message of unity was the dominant theme of the speech, Mr Biden also spelt out the daunting challenges he hopes to overcome.
He talked of the need to counter “political extremism, white supremacy [and] domestic terrorism”, forces seen in the mob which two weeks ago stormed the building he stood beside.
Mr Biden also held a moment of silence for America’s more than 400,000 victims of Covid-19, promised to rebuild the economy and pledged to take on the scourge of racial injustice.
“This is America’s day. This is democracy’s day,” Mr Biden said at the start of his speech, framing his ascent to power as proof that the country’s democratic institutions still stand strong.
He added later: “We have learnt again that democracy is precious. Democracy is fragile. And at this hour, my friends, democracy has prevailed.”
Those comments were a reference to the immense pressure on the transfer of power created in large part by Mr Trump’s refusal to admit defeat. The outgoing president was absent yesterday, flying straight to Florida and becoming the first president to snub his successor’s inauguration in such a manner since Andrew Johnson in 1869.
The ceremony was a moment of personal triumph for Mr Biden, coming 48 years after he became a senator and 34 years after he embarked on the first of three White House bids.
It was also historic on a number of fronts. At 78, Mr Biden is the oldest president to take office. Kamala Harris, who was sworn in moments before Mr Biden, became the first woman, first African-american and first Asian-american to become vice-president.
Mr Biden put unity at the heart of his first presidential address as he spoke overlooking the National Mall, empty of people due to security concerns.
“I understand that many Americans view the future with some fear and trepidation,” he said.
“We must end this uncivil war that pits red against blue, rural versus urban, conservative versus liberal.
“We can do this if we open our souls instead of hardening our hearts. If we show a little tolerance and humility. If we’re willing to stand in the other person’s shoes just for a moment.”
In another passage echoing the central theme, Mr Biden said: “History, faith and reason show the way, the way of unity. We can see each other not as adversaries but as neighbours. We can treat each other with dignity and respect. We can join forces, stop the shouting, and lower the temperature.
“For without unity, there is no peace, only bitterness and fury. No progress, only exhausting outrage. No nation, only a state of chaos.
“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.”
Mr Biden’s call for unity was reflected in the day’s ceremonies. Despite Mr Trump’s absence, Mike Pence, the outgoing vice-president, attended the inauguration. At one point he was seen chatting and laughing with Ms Harris, doing what Mr Trump had declined to by being seen before the cameras with his successor. Also in attendance were George W Bush, Barack Obama and Bill Clinton. All three men and their wives joined Mr Biden and Ms Harris to lay a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery, another display of bipartisanship.
A cloud of fear had hung over the run-up to the inauguration as security protections were scaled up in the wake of the Jan 6 attack on the Capitol.
Yet the day passed without incident as crowds stayed away from the centre of Washington, where 25,000 National Guard members had been stationed and fences installed to stop pedestrians getting anywhere near the Capitol.
Mr Biden arrived at the White House by foot yesterday afternoon, walking the final stretch of the route with his family. Last night, he began using executive orders and other presidential actions to end some of his predecessor’s most controversial policies.
Among the leaders to offer their congratulations was Boris Johnson, who hailed Mr Biden’s entry into the presidency as a “step forward” for America.
Squinting into the sun with a hand on the Bible, Joe Biden said the words he dreamed of uttering for at least half his life. “I, Joseph Robinette Biden Jr, do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the office of president of the United States.”
Mr Biden, 78, had spent 36 years as a US senator, eight years as US vice president and tried three different times to reach the top job.
Here, standing before the US Capitol shortly before noon with relatives nearby and the world watching, he finally achieved his goal. Yet as he looked away from John Roberts, the Supreme Court’s chief justice administering the oath of office, and across the grand sweep of Washington DC’S National Mall, the scene was not the one he had pictured for so long. Before him were the great and good of American politics not bunched together but sitting on seats spread six feet apart, a reminder of the deadly Covid-19 pandemic which he is now in charge of tackling in the US.
A little further down Capitol Hill were scores of National Guard members, a sign of the threat of violence hanging over the event. Beyond a newly installed 7ft fence – itself embodying the division of the country he now leads, erected after a mob of Donald Trump’s supporters stormed the Capitol – was a stretch of empty land. In a normal inauguration hundreds of thousands of Americans would be there to see the moment power was peacefully transferred, the act on which US democracy relies. But the Mall was closed to visitors. The US secret service considered a crowd too dangerous given fears of a repeat of the bloodshed seen earlier this month in the city. Instead, there was a sea of tiny American flags. Mr Biden, a man of deep Catholic convictions – in part due to his Irish roots – had started the day at church.
He had spent his final night as a private citizen in Blair House, a building just across the street from the White House. It would be the closest he and Mr Trump would come to meeting in Washington. Mr Trump, still disputing his election defeat if no longer attempting to cling to power, had already announced he would skip the inauguration, becoming the first sitting president in 152 years to snub the event.
Instead he got up early and held his own farewell event at a military base.
Frank Sinatra’s My Way played as Air Force One took off with Mr Trump on board one last time.
Mr Biden headed to mass at the Cathedral of St Matthew the Apostle moments after Mr Trump had spoken, with US cable news channels carrying the split screen live.
Invited were not just Democratic congressional leaders but Mitch Mcconnell, the Republican Senate leader who facilitated Mr Trump’s legislative wins and rarely spoke out against him. It was an early sign of the unity message that dominated Mr Biden’s inauguration.
From there Mr Biden was driven in a motorcade of more than a dozen cars, as law enforcement officers lined the street. Arriving at the US Capitol, he walked hand-in-hand with his second wife Jill, whom he credits with rebuilding his life after the car crash in 1972 that killed his first wife and baby daughter, up the building’s steps.
As the Bidens and Kamala Harris, the incoming vice-president, and her husband Doug Emhoff, made their way through the Capitol, former US presidents were seated.
They had been introduced one by one. “The honourable William J Clinton”; “The honourable George W Bush”; “The honourable Barack H Obama.” Only Jimmy Carter, aged 96 and in frail health, was missing from the club – not including, once the clock struck noon, Mr Trump.
His deputy was there, however. Mike Pence, the US vice-president, snubbed Mr Trump’s farewell speech to attend the inauguration. Later he chatted with his successor, Ms Harris.
For Bernie Sanders, Mr Biden’s rival for the Democrat nomination, it was a case of what might have been. The Vermont senator sat alone wearing an anorak and a pair of oversized brown and white mittens – a gift from a Vermont teacher, made partly from recycled plastic bottles.
Two weeks earlier the stage where the audience sat, on the Capitol’s western side, had been mounted by seething Trump supporters trying to stop Mr Biden’s win being confirmed.
In a nod to that day of anger, Eugene Goodman, the black police officer widely praised for his attempts to hold back the rioters, was picked to escort Ms Harris to the ceremony.
The speeches preceding Mr Biden’s were heavy with symbolism, talking about the fragility of America’s democratic tradition but also optimism for what could come next.
“We pledge today never to take our democracy for granted,” said Amy Klobuchar, the Democratic senator from Minnesota. There was religion. Mr Biden, with a black face mask on and hands gloved from the cold, bowed his head as the Rev Leo Jeremiah O’donovan III started his prayer.
“Gracious and merciful God, at this sacred time we come before you in need, indeed on our knees,” Rev O’donovan said. “But we come still more with hope and with our eyes raised anew to the vision of a more perfect union in our land.”
There was also glamour. Lady Gaga, wearing a vast red gown with a black top, with a brooch of a golden dove carrying an olive branch, sung the national anthem. Jennifer Lopez, all in white with sparkling jewelled earrings, sang a medley of This Land Is Your Land and America the Beautiful.
Ms Harris’s oath of office, which had preceded Mr Biden’s, was historic in itself. The pair fist-bumped after she formally became the first woman, African-american and Asian-american to be vice-president.
And then it was Mr Biden’s turn. When he lowered his right hand after uttering the crucial words, he smiled, turned left to his wife, accepted a kiss on the cheek and a hug.
Moments later he addressed the nation for the first time as the 46th US president. “This is America’s day”, he said, looking out at the Mall’s sea of flags. “This is democracy’s day.”