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      When is Inauguration Day 2021? What You Need to Know

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      AdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyInauguration Day: What You Need to KnowWashington is preparing for unrest, and planners urge people not to attend during a pandemic, but virtual events are intended to keep up the spirit of celebration.President Trump’s inauguration in 2017, when the Capitol stage was packed with guests.Credit…Chang W. Lee/The New York TimesJan. 14, 2021, 7:38 a.m. ETJoseph R. Biden Jr. will become president of the United States at noon on Jan. 20 in a scaled-back inauguration ceremony. While key elements will remain traditional, many events will be downsized and “reimagined” to better adapt the celebration to a nation battling the coronavirus. Here’s a guide to the event.What will the inauguration look like?Although many of the events will be virtual, Maju Varghese, the executive director of the Presidential Inaugural Committee, said the goal was an “inclusive and accessible celebration that brings Americans together and unifies our nation, especially during such a tough time for our country.”Mr. Biden will be sworn in by Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. on the Capitol’s West Front sometime before noon. The new president is then expected give his inaugural address and conduct a review of military troops, as is tradition.But instead of a traditional parade before cheering spectators along Pennsylvania Avenue as the new president, vice president and their families make their way to the White House over a mile away, there will be an official escort with representatives from every branch of the military for one city block.For remote viewers, the inaugural committee has planned what it is calling a virtual parade across the country featuring music, poets and dancers “paying homage to America’s heroes on the front lines of the pandemic.”At 5:30 p.m. Jan. 19, the evening before Mr. Biden takes the oath, the committee will hold a lighting ceremony around the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool in remembrance of people in the United States who have lost their lives in the coronavirus pandemic.There will also be a prime time television event Jan. 20 featuring celebrities including Tom Hanks, Justin Timberlake and Jon Bon Jovi that aims to “showcase the American people’s resilience, heroism, and unified commitment to coming together as a nation to heal and rebuild.”Is there expected to be unrest?For weeks, Washington has been preparing for the possibility of protesters. But the nation’s capital was kicked into high alert after a violent mob breached the Capitol building on Wednesday and forced lawmakers to halt the official counting of Electoral College votes to affirm Mr. Biden’s victory.Mayor Muriel E. Bowser has warned that extremists who support Mr. Trump might continue to wreak havoc and she extended the city’s public emergency through Jan. 21. The F.B.I. and Secret Service have ramped up security efforts around the inauguration. Experts have warned that some far-right extremist groups are already discussing an assault on Inauguration Day similar to the deadly attack on the Capitol.Unrest on Inauguration Day is not unprecedented: During Mr. Trump’s inauguration in 2017, crowds in Washington damaged storefronts, threw rocks and bricks at police officers and lit a limousine on fire in protest of Mr. Trump’s election. The day ended in more than 200 arrests.Will President Trump attend?President Trump announced Friday that he would not attend Mr. Biden’s inauguration.Mr. Biden called that decision “one of the few things he and I have ever agreed on.”Still, it is a major break with tradition for a president to skip the ceremonial heart of the country’s democracy: the peaceful transfer of power.Vice President Mike Pence will attend, an aide said Saturday, after Mr. Biden made clear on Friday that he was welcome.Only three presidents have missed their successor’s swearing-in: John Adams in 1801, his son John Quincy Adams in 1829 and Andrew Johnson, a Democrat who sat out the 1869 inauguration after he was replaced in favor of a Republican, Ulysses S. Grant.Who will attend? And can I attend?George W. Bush, has confirmed he would travel to Washington for Inauguration Day, along with Laura Bush, the former first lady. Barack Obama and Bill Clinton are also expected to attend, along with former first ladies Michelle Obama and Hillary Clinton. Jimmy Carter, who at 96 is the oldest living former president, announced that he and his wife would not attend. It will be the first presidential inauguration Mr. Carter has missed since he was sworn in.Traditionally, the Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies would distribute hundreds of thousands of tickets to the swearing-in ceremony for members of Congress to invite constituents, but this year tickets are not available to members of the public. Planners are urging people to stay home and participate in virtual inaugural events to prevent large crowds that could easily spread the coronavirus.Events will be live streamed by the Presidential Inaugural Committee and by The New York Times.Why is a presidential inauguration so important?The 20th Amendment to the Constitution requires that the term of each elected president and vice president begin at noon Jan. 20 of the year after the election. Every president has taken the oath of office, and they cannot assume their positions without doing so.Symbolically, it marks the peaceful transfer of power from the current president to the next. Inauguration Day will be all the more important this year, as Mr. Biden ascends to the presidency at a time when political division has threatened the nation’s democratic institutions and his predecessor has gone to extreme lengths to stay in power.The inauguration is also a notable fund-raising opportunity for the incoming president. Though traditional events like balls have been canceled, Mr. Biden’s inaugural committee is offering special “V.I.P. participation” to corporations and well-heeled individuals who can use the opportunity to curry favor with the new administration.Excess donations cannot be transferred to federal campaigns or party committees. Past inaugural committees have given unspent funds to charities for disaster relief as well as groups that decorate and maintain the White House and the vice president’s residence.AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

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      What Trump Told Supporters Before Mob Stormed Capitol

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      #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }The Presidential TransitionLatest UpdatesHouse Moves to Remove TrumpHow Impeachment Might WorkBiden Focuses on CrisesCabinet PicksAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyIncitement to Riot? What Trump Told Supporters Before Mob Stormed CapitolHere is a closer look at what the president said at a rally of his supporters, which is a central focus of the impeachment case being prepared against him.In a speech just before the riot at the Capitol on Wednesday, President Trump told his supporters that they would have to “fight much harder.”Credit…Pete Marovich for The New York TimesJan. 10, 2021Updated 7:00 p.m. ETWASHINGTON — The speech that President Trump delivered to his supporters just before they attacked the Capitol last week is a central focus as House Democrats prepare an article of impeachment against him for inciting the deadly riot.Mr. Trump had urged supporters to come to Washington for a “Save America March” on Wednesday, when Congress would ceremonially count President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s win, telling them to “be there, will be wild!” At a rally just before the violence, he repeated many of his falsehoods about how the election was stolen, then dispatched the marchers to the Capitol as those proceedings were about to start.Here are some notable excerpts from Mr. Trump’s remarks, with analysis.Trump urged his supporters to ‘fight much harder’ against ‘bad people’ and ‘show strength’ at the Capitol.“Republicans are constantly fighting like a boxer with his hands tied behind his back. It’s like a boxer. And we want to be so nice. We want to be so respectful of everybody, including bad people. And we’re going to have to fight much harder. …“We’re going to walk down to the Capitol, and we’re going to cheer on our brave senators and congressmen and women, and we’re probably not going to be cheering so much for some of them, because you’ll never take back our country with weakness. You have to show strength, and you have to be strong.”The president’s speech was riddled with violent imagery and calls to fight harder than before. By contrast, he made only a passing suggestion that the protest should be nonviolent, saying, “I know that everyone here will soon be marching over to the Capitol building to peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard.”During Mr. Trump’s impeachment last year, one of his defenses was that the primary accusation against him — that he abused his power by withholding aid to Ukraine in an attempt to get its president to announce a corruption investigation into Mr. Biden — was not an ordinary crime, so it did not matter even if it were true. Most legal specialists said that made no difference for impeachment purposes, but in any case that argument would not be a defense here. Several laws clearly make it a crime to incite a riot or otherwise try to get another person to engage in a violent crime against property or people.Trump told the crowd that ‘very different rules’ applied.“When you catch somebody in a fraud, you are allowed to go by very different rules. So I hope Mike has the courage to do what he has to do, and I hope he doesn’t listen to the RINOs and the stupid people that he’s listening to.”Whipping up anger against Republicans who were not going along with his plan for subverting the election, like Vice President Mike Pence, Mr. Trump told the crowd that “different rules” now applied. At the most obvious level, the president was arguing that what he wanted Mr. Pence to do — reject the state-certified Electoral College results — would be legitimate, but the notion of “very different rules” applying carried broader overtones of extraordinary permission as well. (“RINO” is a term of abuse used by highly partisan Republicans against more moderate colleagues they deem to be “Republicans in Name Only.”)Trump insinuated that Republican officials, including Pence, would endanger themselves by accepting Biden’s win.“I hope Mike is going to do the right thing. I hope so. I hope so, because if Mike Pence does the right thing, we win the election. … And I actually — I just spoke to Mike. I said: ‘Mike, that doesn’t take courage. What takes courage is to do nothing. That takes courage.’”“I also want to thank our 13 most courageous members of the U.S. Senate, Senator Ted Cruz, Senator Ron Johnson, Senator Josh Hawley. … Senators have stepped up. We want to thank them. I actually think, though, it takes, again, more courage not to step up, and I think a lot of those people are going to find that out. And you better start looking at your leadership, because your leadership has led you down the tubes.”Mr. Trump twice told the crowd that Republicans who did not go along with his effort to overturn the election — Mr. Pence as well as senators like Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the majority leader, who did not join in the performative objections led by Mr. Hawley and Mr. Cruz — were actually the ones being courageous. In context, the president’s implication is that they were putting themselves at risk because it would be safer to go along with what he wanted. During the ensuing riot, the mob chanted “Hang Mike Pence.”Trump suggested that he wanted his supporters to stop the certification of Biden’s electoral win, not just protest it.“We will never give up. We will never concede. It doesn’t happen. You don’t concede when there’s theft involved. Our country has had enough. We will not take it anymore, and that is what this is all about. And to use a favorite term that all of you people really came up with, we will stop the steal. …“You will have an illegitimate president. That is what you will have, and we can’t let that happen. These are the facts that you won’t hear from the fake news media. It’s all part of the suppression effort. They don’t want to talk about it. They don’t want to talk about it. …“We fight like hell, and if you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore.”Two months after he lost the election, Mr. Trump repeatedly told his followers that they could still stop Mr. Biden from becoming president if they “fight like hell,” a formulation that suggested they act and change things, not merely raise their voices in protest.As he dispatched his supporters into what became deadly chaos, Trump falsely told them that he would come, too.Now it is up to Congress to confront this egregious assault on our democracy. And after this, we’re going to walk down, and I’ll be there with you. … We are going to the Capitol, and we are going to try and give — the Democrats are hopeless, they are never voting for anything, not even one vote, but we are going to try — give our Republicans, the weak ones, because the strong ones don’t need any of our help, we’re try — going to try and give them the kind of pride and boldness that they need to take back our country.”As he sicced his supporters on Congress, Mr. Trump assured them that he would personally accompany them to the Capitol. In fact, as several of his followers and police officers were being injured or dying in the ensuing chaos, the president was watching the violence play out on television from the safety of the White House.AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More