Biden to focus on unification
Despite violence, new president to keep speech positive.
WASHINGTON — Joe Biden will assume the presidency at the peak of a deadly pandemic in a city on lockdown, its streets cleared and many subway stations closed, with about 20,000 National Guard troops patrolling against domestic terrorism and in front of a U.S. Capitol still under repair after a violent insurrection.
But rather than pivot his plans after the recent riot at the U.S. Capitol, advisers say he has scripted a series of inaugural events built around the same unifying themes of postpartisanship and governmental competence that undergirded his campaign. Biden’s answer to the roughly
1 in 3 Americans who doubt his legitimacy and a departing president who refuses to formally hand off power will be a program of nationally televised inaugural broadcasts anchored around the country’s potential to unite in the face of crisis.
Aides say little was changed in the programming after the U.S. Capitol riot, with most curbs — like the absence of guests on the National Mall — dictated by the pandemic. The decision to focus beyond the current circumstance is aimed at what Democrats widely see as a moment of political opportunity, as the Republican Party struggles with an internal crisis of identity brought about by President Donald Trump’s rejection of the 2020 election results and his repeated incitement of his supporters.
Biden’s target audience is not the minority of the country that has rejected his election but the much larger group of Americans, including Trump voters, who are open to changing the channel on the dystopian present.
“The inaugural gives us a fresh start, an ability to begin closing a very dark chapter in our history and start a new journey,” said Stephanie Cutter, a co-executive producer of the inauguration. “Given recent events, there is more willingness on the other side of the aisle to reset and protect our democratic norms than there has been for more than four years.”
The combined cavalcade of problems facing Biden — a crisis of electoral legitimacy combined with health, economic and race relations emergencies — ranks with the most strained inaugural moments in American history.
“If you have a substantial number of people who don’t believe Biden was legitimately elected, that is an awful side of the age we are living in,” presidential historian Michael Beschloss said. “We are in an age when if you have someone like President Trump who wants to generate a fog of lies, it is much more possible to do so.”
That is not the only reason the inaugural events are likely to play a bigger role in Biden’s presidency than they did for Trump, who could harness attention at will, frequently dominating national attention with a tweet.
The hope to broaden Biden’s appeal has led the inaugural committee, which is raising millions of dollars from corporate and individual donors, to spend significantly on a production that will be experienced almost as a streamed or broadcast video. Biden’s inaugural address, the most momentous of the events, is just one part of the broader ceremony.