Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. he became the 46th president of the United States on Wednesday, completing the most discouraging transfer of power in recent U.S. history.
Inaugurated in a fortified Washington in the shadow of the coronavirus pandemic, the 78-year-old Democrat was sworn in at the U.S. Capitol in front of a sparse bipartisan crowd. He enters the White House exactly two weeks after a mob inflamed by his predecessor, Donald Trump, stormed the Capitol, disrupting the transition to the Biden administration and leaving five people dead.
Biden was sworn into the position of Chief Justice John Roberts, with his left hand on a family Bible. Speaking after he became president, he declared: “Democracy has prevailed.”
“In this consecrated ground where, just a few days ago, violence tried to shake the foundations of the Capitol, we come together as one nation, under God, indivisible, to carry out the peaceful transfer of power as we have done for more than two centuries, ”Biden said.
Joe Biden is sworn in as the 46th President of the United States on the Western Front of the United States Capitol in Washington on January 20, 2021.
Kevin Lamarque | Reuters
Biden, the oldest U.S. president, faces swirling crises as he and Vice President Kamala Harris take power. At age 56, she becomes the first woman, the first black American and the first South Asian to become vice president.
Biden will try to streamline the largest vaccination effort in U.S. history to contain a virus that has caused more than 400,000 lives nationwide. Its aim will be to boost an economy in which some 18 million people receive unemployment benefits and food banks are experiencing a demand that has not been seen in decades.
“In the work ahead, we will need each other. We need all our strength to persevere during 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, fueled Trump’s misinformation questioning the legitimacy of his victory in the November election. In his inaugural speech, the president said the country must “reject the culture where facts are manipulated and even fabricated.” Biden called on Americans to “defend the truth and defeat lies.”
Democrat Biden won the presidency in November on his third attempt. His first attempt came during the 1988 presidential cycle, followed by a major 2008 loss to his future boss Barack Obama.
Biden served two terms as Obama’s vice president from 2009 to 2017. He took office after 36 years in the Senate representing Delaware, a state that Biden has said will “write the [his] Biden joined the Senate when he was 30 years old.
Last year, the president presented himself as the most equipped person to defeat Trump. There were concerns in his party that his history of racial justice and the social safety net did not leave him ready to face the country’s challenges. Biden pledged to “restore the soul of America” and secured his party’s presidential nomination after early setbacks.
Tragedy and compassion
During the campaign during the pandemic, Biden intended to show compassion built through tragedy. There was often talk of the deaths of his first wife, Neilia, and his young daughter, Naomi, in a 1972 car accident, and his adult son Beau, who passed away from brain cancer in 2015.
Biden enters the charge trying to curb the pain caused by the pandemic. During his statements, he paused for a moment of silence to acknowledge the Americans who died from the virus, asking the country to “honor them by becoming a people and a nation that we know we can and should of being “.
Working with narrow majorities in the House and Senate, Biden will first try to approve a $ 1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package. Other priorities include health care, immigration and climate change, some of which will begin to be dealt with by executive orders on the first day in office.
Biden said the country “will be judged by how we resolve these cascading crises of our era”: the pandemic, threats to democracy, systemic racism, economic inequality and climate change.
Throughout his campaign, the Democrat claimed he could win Republicans for his cause, especially for his relations in the Senate. The next two years will test his influence in a Trump-centered GOP. Democrats will need 10 Republican votes to pass most legislation in the House.
Trump’s shadow
Trump’s presence was outlined during the day’s ceremonies. 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 Thursday morning, hours before Biden took his oath of office. After making brief comments to supporters, Trump withdrew to Air Force One while Biden attended a Catholic Mass with masked Republican and Democratic leaders in Congress.
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 did former presidents Obama, George Bush and Bill Clinton.
McCarthy, the House Minority Whip, Steve Scalise, R-La., And Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, were one of the lawmakers who voted against counting Biden’s victory in Congress hours after the attack on the Capitol and then they attended his inauguration.
The inauguration took place with a smaller crowd, their faces covered to curb the spread of the virus. The January 6 uprising, during which some rioters stormed into the Capitol and shouted “Hang Mike Pence,” sparked a security crackdown.
The streets around the Capitol were closed Wednesday. More than 25,000 members of the National Guard patrolled Washington in a show of strength.
The National Guard examined the forces amid concerns about privileged threats, eliminating two people for “inappropriate” comments and 10 more for other reasons.
This story is unfolding. Please check for updates again.
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