Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. became the 46th American president on Wednesday and completed the most frightening transfer of power in recent American history.
The 78-year-old Democrat was inaugurated in a fortified Washington under the shadow of the coronavirus pandemic and took the oath of office at the American Capitol in front of a sparse two-party crowd. He enters the White House exactly two weeks after a mob ignited by his predecessor, Donald Trump, stormed the Capitol and disrupted the transition to Biden’s government, killing five people.
Biden took the oath of office of Chief Justice John Roberts, with his left hand on a family Bible. After becoming president, he said, “Democracy has prevailed.”
“On this sacred ground where violence, just a few days ago, attempted to shake the foundation of the Capitol, we come together as one nation, under God, indivisible, to carry out the peaceful transfer of power as we already have more than two centuries, ” Biden said.
Joe Biden will be sworn in as the 46th President of the United States on the Western Front of the American Capitol in Washington on January 20, 2021.
Kevin Lamarque | Reuters
Biden, the oldest US president, is facing tortuous crises as he and Vice President Kamala Harris take power. At 56, she becomes the first woman, the first black American and the first South Asian American to become vice president.
Biden will attempt to streamline the largest vaccination effort in U.S. history to contain a virus that has claimed more than 400,000 lives nationwide. It aims to boost an economy in which about 18 million people receive unemployment benefits and food banks have been inadequate for decades.
“In the work ahead, we are going to need each other. We need all our strength to persevere through this dark winter,” the president said.
Biden will try to implement a broad agenda as he navigates a country where millions of people, including members of Congress, are being misinformed by Trump by the legitimacy of his victory in the November election. The president said in his inaugural address that the country ‘must reject the culture where facts are manipulated and even produced’. Biden called on Americans to “defend the truth and defeat the lies.”
Democrat Biden won the presidency in November in his third try. His first attempt came during the 1988 presidential cycle, followed by a 2008 primary loss to his future boss Barack Obama.
Biden served two terms as Obama’s vice president from 2009 to 2017. He takes office after 36 years in the Senate representing Delaware, a state that Biden said will be written on [his] heart. Biden joined the Senate when he was thirty.
The president presented last year as the person best equipped to defeat Trump. Concern is bubbling in his party that his record of racial justice and the social safety net has left him unprepared to face the country’s challenges. Biden promised to “restore the soul of America” and clinched his party’s presidential nomination after early obstacles.
Tragedy and compassion
Biden campaigned during the pandemic to show compassion built by tragedy. He often opened up about the deaths of his first wife, Neilia, and his young daughter, Naomi, in a car accident in 1972, and the deaths of his adult son Beau in 2015 of brain cancer.
Biden takes office to combat the pain caused by the pandemic. During his remarks, he paused for a moment to recognize the Americans who died from the virus and asked the country to ‘honor them by becoming a people and a nation we know we can and should be. ‘
If he works with narrow majorities in the House and Senate, Biden will first try to pass a $ 1.9 billion coronavirus relief package. Other priorities include health care, immigration and climate change – of which he will begin executive orders on his first day in office.
Biden said the country “will be judged on how we can resolve these fierce crises in our era” – the pandemic, threats to democracy, systemic racism, economic inequality and climate change.
The Democrat has claimed throughout his campaign that he could win Republicans for his cause, especially because of his relations in the Senate. The next two years will test its influence in a Trump-centered GOP. Democrats will need ten Republican votes to pass most of the legislation in the House.
The shadow of Trump
Trump’s presence threatens the ceremonies of the day. He became the first president since Andrew Johnson in 1869 not to attend the inauguration of his successor.
He left the White House for Florida on Thursday morning, hours before Biden took his oath of office. After giving brief remarks to supporters, Trump leaves in Air Force One while Biden attends a Catholic Mass with masked Democratic and Republican congressional leaders.
Trump’s second-in-command, Mike Pence, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., And House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-California, attended the inauguration. So do former presidents Obama, George Bush and Bill Clinton.
McCarthy, House Minority Whip Steve Scalise, R-La., And Senator Ted Cruz, R-Texas, were among the lawmakers who voted to count Biden’s victory in Congress a few hours after the Capitol attack and then his inaugurated.
The inauguration took place with a smaller crowd, with faces covered to slow down the spread of the virus. The January 6 uprising, during which some rioters stormed the Capitol and shouted ‘Hang Mike Pence’, led to heightened security.
Streets around the Capitol were closed on Wednesday. More than 25,000 members of the National Guard patrolled Washington in a protest rally.
The national guard investigated the forces amid concerns about threats by the inside, and they removed two people due to ‘inappropriate’ comments and ten more for other reasons.
This story unfolds. Please come and check for updates.
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