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This article is more than 1 year old ‘This is democracy’s day’: Biden sworn in as 46th president of the United States This article is more than 1 year old Millions watch inauguration from home as chief justice administers oath of office at Capitol, two weeks after mob riot Joe Biden sworn in as president […] More
A presidency like no other ended in an inauguration like no other. The twin forces of Covid-19 and domestic terrorism bent the event – and its host city – out of shape. There were no cheering crowds on the Mall and this was no “shining city on a hill”. Instead Washington DC was wrapped in perimeter fencing, road barricades and security checkpoints. Meanwhile 20,000 troops from the national guard patrolled a Capitol that had been sacked two weeks earlier by insurrectionists wishing to overturn the election result. We asked the photographer Jordan Gale to record this extraordinary inauguration – he has been in the city since Saturday – and he captured these sombre images that reflect a city, and country, in the grip of terror and anxiety. – John Mulholland More
Once a dashing young senator, now a lion in winter, Joe Biden walked up the presidential lectern he could finally call his own after half a century of striving.The message that the 46th US president wanted to send a pained nation was the one that has defined his own life in the face of incalculable personal and political loss: resilience.“We will press forward with speed and urgency, for we have much to do in this winter of peril and possibility,” Biden told the audience at the US Capitol in Washington on Wednesday, as the sun finally broke through clouds that had brought fleeting snow. “Much to repair. Much to restore. Much to heal. Much to build. And much to gain.”That winter of peril includes a raging pandemic that has killed more than 400,000 Americans and a fraying body politic: two weeks after a mob encouraged by Donald Trump sacked the Capitol, this could no longer be described as a peaceful transfer of power.Now it is Biden’s great misfortune to have realised, at 78 years old, a lifetime ambition at a moment of what he called “the cascading crises of our era”. It is also his good fortune to have no alternative but to think big and aim high. The quintessentially moderate, middle-of-the-road candidate might go down as radical and transformational because that is what the moment demands.Just before noon, the oldest US president ever elected was sworn in on a 19th-century Bible: five inches thick with a Celtic cross the cover, it has been in his family since 1893. It was also used by his late son, Beau Biden, when he was sworn in as attorney general of Delaware in 2007. Biden, wearing a navy suit and navy overcoat, both by the designer Ralph Lauren, turned to kiss his wife, Jill, in an ocean blue wool tweed coat, and the sun shone.Against the backdrop of a heavily fortified Washington, this was a strangely calm and serene inauguration in the eye of a national storm. The public had been urged to stay away because of the pandemic and then forced to do so by a ring of steel and 25,000 national guard troops following the insurrection at the US Capitol two weeks earlier.[embedded content]Instead of thousands of people crowding elbow to elbow, the Capitol lawn was dotted with a hundreds of physically distanced guests, TV crews and portable toilet cubicles but otherwise yawned empty. Beyond the Ulysses S Grant Memorial, a giant statue of the former general and president on horseback, the mall offered the beautiful sight of thousands of flags representing those who could not be here.It meant the politicians, judges and performers on the main platform were like actors performing in the dead air of a near empty theatre. Star turns – Lady Gaga singing the national anthem into a gold microphone – that would once have evoked raucous cheers were greeted with polite applause. The oddity of it all was compounded by the sight of former presidents and first ladies wearing face masks.Bill and Hillary Clinton took their place first beneath the Capitol dome, topped by the monumental Statue of Freedom, and west front bedecked in red, white and blue. They were followed by George and Laura Bush, then Barack and Michelle Obama. Vice-President Mike Pence and his wife, Karen, emerged to a particularly cold gust of wind. The tableau’s message was unmissable: the political establishment had reasserted itself, the old order was restored.Trump, the first president in a century and a half to snub his successor’s inauguration, had bolted to his luxury estate in Florida earlier in the day. In a “departure ceremony” at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland, he told supporters: “So, just a goodbye. We love you. We will be back in some form.” Perhaps inevitably, he departed to the strains of Frank Sinatra’s My Way.A man who hates being called a ‘loser’ more than anything has been replaced by a man who knows loss in his bonesIn some ways it felt like Trump’s presidency ended the day he was banned by Twitter in the wake of the Capitol riots, a penalty that may have stung more than being impeached for the second time by a House of Representatives he little understood.Even so, at the moment he officially became a former president on Wednesday, it was as if a great weight had been lifted off millions of shoulders, as if the miasma of lies and outrages had been exorcised at last. As they realised Trump will no longer live inside their heads day and night, the collective exhale was almost audible.A man who hates being called a “loser” more than anything has been replaced by a man who knows loss in his bones. That current of empathy made Biden the right candidate at the right time.But 74 million people did vote for Trump. Polls suggest that a majority of them do not regard Biden as a legitimate president. In austere remarks, he noted that “democracy has prevailed” but acknowledged that none of the looming crises – pandemic, economy, racial justice, climate – can be tackled in a nation at war with itself.“The answer is not to turn inward, to retreat into competing factions, distrusting those who don’t look like you, or worship like you do, or don’t get their news from the same sources you do,” Biden said. “We must end this uncivil war that pits red versus blue. Rural versus urban. Conservative versus liberal. We can do this if we open our souls, instead of harden our hearts.”It had taken four years but Biden’s speech was a rebuttal of Trump’s at the same spot four years before. For one thing, he pledged allegiance to truth: “We must reject the culture in which facts themselves are manipulated and even manufactured.”He added: “Recent weeks and months have taught us a painful lesson. There is truth and there are lies, lies told for power and for profit. And each of us has a duty and a responsibility as citizens, as Americans, and especially as leaders, leaders who have pledged to honor our constitution and protect our nation, to defend the truth and defeat the lies.”Elected with the help of African American voters, and after a summer in which Black Lives Matter protests convulsed the nation, Biden also embraced the cause of equality. “A cry for racial justice some 400 years in the making moves us. The dream of justice for all will be deferred no longer,” he said, describing “a rise in political extremism, white supremacy, domestic terrorism that we must confront and we will defeat”.Minutes earlier, Kamala Harris had been sworn in as the first woman, first African American and first Asian American vice-president. It was a moment that resonated in the small crowd, through social media and around the world. After the Trump era, dominated by white men, the administration will look like America again.Biden said: “Don’t tell me things can’t change.”The message was underlined, and the show nearly stolen, by the 22-year-old national youth poet laureate, Amanda Gorman. She recited: “The new dawn blooms as we free it, for there is always light if only we’re brave enough to see it, if only we’re brave enough to be it.”Biden, Clinton, Bush and Obama moved on to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery, maintaining the solemn tone and show of unity. Later the new president arrived at the White House, walking hand in hand with Jill and followed by family members.Reporters shouted out “Mr President!”, which must have been a sweet sound. Suddenly he ran over to a couple of them and gave them fist bumps; he also walked over to greet children, a spring in his step. The Bidens then walked up the White House driveway, pausing to wave to photographers.Biden knows this place well, having served as vice-president for eight years. Once, he stood alongside Obama to announce he would not run as a candidate for president in 2016 – at that moment, it seemed his ambitions had been extinguished.The past four years have been compared to a Shakespearean tragedy: a mad king, a plague, a tragic climax that may now produce catharsis. Jeffrey Wilson, a lecturer at Harvard University and author of the book Shakespeare and Trump, said he had heard echoes of Richard III, with Biden emerging as his successor, Henry VII, at end of the play.“Richard III has been, for the majority of the play, absolutely energetic, captivating, fascinating, just a shot of adrenaline that we get wrapped up in,” he said. “And then what happens is you get to the end of that play and you realise that the boring, good government of Henry VII is so much better than the exhilarating tyranny of Richard III.“Richard III ends with the dawning of a new day and this new leader is not fun or inspiring – he’s pious and boring – but he represents a return to order and we can all go back to our lives, back to our barbecues without this constant conversation about the evil plaguing national politics.” More
Joe Biden promised to marshal a spirit of national unity in a wide-ranging speech that addressed the coronavirus pandemic, the climate crisis and political polarisation. ‘I know speaking of unity can sound to some like a foolish fantasy these days,’ Biden said. ‘I know the forces that divide us are deep and they are real. I also know they are not new’
Joe Biden sworn in as 46th president of the United States
And breathe: the world exhales as the madness of the Trump era ends
US politics live More
Joe Biden has been sworn in as the 46th president of the United States.
Biden declared that ‘democracy has prevailed’ during a ceremony that honoured the ritual transfer of power at the US Capitol, where exactly two weeks ago a swarm of supporters loyal to his predecessor stormed the building in a violent and futile last bid to overturn the result of the election.
Kamala Harris also made history as she was sworn in as America’s first female, black and Asian-American vice-president. Other highlights of the day included the US youth poet laureate, Amanda Gorman, who received a standing ovation for her recital her poem, The Hill We Climb
Joe Biden sworn in as 46th president of the United States More
For four years the world had held its breath, but at last came the moment to exhale. Ever since noon on 20 January 2017, when Donald Trump took the oath that made him president of the United States, the people of the planet had found themselves in a state of heightened alert: what new madness might the most powerful man on earth unleash? Within months, he had seemed to threaten nuclear war with North Korea – in a tweet directed at Kim Jong-un, he boasted that “I too have a Nuclear Button, but it is a much bigger & more powerful one than his, and my Button works!” – and there were days when it seemed rational to wonder if America, and the rest of us, would even survive four years of a Trump presidency.Eleven minutes before noon local time, it became possible to breathe out once more. Joe Biden recited the magical incantation by which a single US citizen is transformed into the head of government, head of state and symbol of the republic. As he uttered the words “So help me God,” his hand on a thick Bible, a wave of blessed relief rippled through millions of Americans – and all those, anywhere, who had lived through the stress of the Trump era. The TV networks had helpfully shown footage of the military aide who carries the nuclear “football”, the case containing the codes required to launch the mighty US atomic arsenal, and there was comfort in knowing that that aide now answered to Biden, not the man who a few hours earlier had fled to his resort in Florida.Technically, the oath had come early. According to the constitution, the presidency was not fully in Biden’s hands until just after 12, and even those last remaining minutes were capable of inducing anxiety. “Phew,” tweeted one commentator when the moment finally passed.But relief was not the only emotion on display in a ceremony performed before a National Mall packed with flags rather than people in an eerily empty Washington, hollowed out by both the pandemic and security fears prompted by this month’s storming of the Capitol. There was joy, too, most visible in the face of Kamala Harris after she had sworn her own oath. There have been 46 US presidents and 49 vice-presidents, but until Wednesday every one of them had been a man. Harris became the first woman, and the first person of colour, to occupy America’s second highest office. The elation of that moment, the exuberance of it, somehow found expression in the performances of Lady Gaga and Jennifer Lopez, which soared.What would once have seemed ritual and routine acquired an emotional punch. The sight of Mike Pence on the platform was oddly stirring. Given his boss’s refusal to attend the inauguration, Pence’s appearance – and those of other Republicans – looked like an act of defiance, signalling acceptance of the democratic legitimacy of the proceedings. The presence of former presidents – Bill Clinton, George W Bush, Barack Obama – suggested the chain of American democracy remained intact, even if its most recent link was missing and broken.[embedded content]That message was conveyed most eloquently by Biden himself. His speech was light on rhetorical splendour, but it matched the moment perfectly. It was like him: humane, decent, rooted. He asked for silence for those who had been lost to the pandemic, a simple act of acknowledgment that had eluded his predecessor. He named the challenges that confront him and the country – the virus, the war on truth, the climate crisis – and asked Americans to at least hear him out and come together. “We must end this uncivil war,” he said.It was tempting to look on this man – solid and seasoned – and imagine that something like normality might return. And when another woman of colour, the 22-year-old Amanda Gorman, closed things out with a poem that brought delight, you could just glimpse a land that had been barely visible these last four years: an America the rest of the world might admire once more. More
This article is more than 1 year old And breathe: the world exhales as the madness of the Trump era ends Jonathan Freedland This article is more than 1 year old After four years in a heightened state of alert, many people the world over now hope that sanity will return For four years the […] More
Chief Justice Roberts, Vice-President Harris, Speaker Pelosi, Leader Schumer, Leader McConnell, Vice-President Pence, distinguished guests and my fellow Americans.
This is America’s day. This is democracy’s day. A day of history and hope. Of renewal and resolve.
Through a crucible for the ages, America has been tested anew and America has risen to the challenge. Today, we celebrate the triumph not of a candidate, but of a cause: the cause of democracy. The will of the people has been heard and the will of the people has been heeded. We have learned again that democracy is precious. Democracy is fragile.
And at this hour, my friends, democracy has prevailed.
So now, on this hallowed ground where just days ago violence sought to shake this Capitol’s very foundation, we come together as one nation, under God, indivisible, to carry out the peaceful transfer of power as we have for more than two centuries.
We look ahead in our uniquely American way – restless, bold, optimistic – and set our sights on the nation we know we can be and we must be. I thank my predecessors of both parties for their presence here. I thank them from the bottom of my heart.
You know the resilience of our constitution and the strength of our nation. As does President Carter, who I spoke to last night but who cannot be with us today, but whom we salute for his lifetime of service.
I have just taken the sacred oath each of these patriots took – an oath first sworn by George Washington. But the American story depends not on any one of us, not on some of us, but on all of us. On “we the people” who seek a more perfect union.
This is a great nation and we are a good people.
Over the centuries through storm and strife, in peace and in war, we have come so far. But we still have far to go. We will press forward with speed and urgency, for we have much to do in this winter of peril and possibility. Much to repair. Much to restore. Much to heal. Much to build. And much to gain.
Few periods in our nation’s history have been more challenging or difficult than the one we’re in now. A once-in-a-century virus silently stalks the country. It’s taken as many lives in one year as America lost in all of world war II. Millions of jobs have been lost. Hundreds of thousands of businesses closed. A cry for racial justice some 400 years in the making moves us. The dream of justice for all will be deferred no longer. A cry for survival comes from the planet itself. A cry that can’t be any more desperate or any more clear. And now, a rise in political extremism, white supremacy, domestic terrorism that we must confront and we will defeat.
To overcome these challenges – to restore the soul and to secure the future of America – requires more than words. It requires that most elusive of things in a democracy:
Unity.
Unity. More
