President-elect Joe Biden in Washington DC. Making a sober entrance to the nation’s capital Tuesday, ready to assume power as America reels from the coronavirus pandemic, soaring unemployment and grave concerns about more violence as he prepares to take the oath of office today to be sworn is as President of the United States in the 2021 inauguration.
He flew into a military airbase just outside the capital on Tuesday afternoon and then motorcade into a fortress D.C. — a city that’s been flooded by some 25,000 National Guard troops guarding a Capitol, White House and National Mall that are wrapped in a maze of barricades and tall fencing.
Two weeks ago, enraged by his false claims that November’s election was stolen with millions of fraudulent votes.
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2021 Inauguration – Joe Biden to be sworn in as US president today
The 78-year-old Democrat will be the oldest US president in history at a scaled-back ceremony in Washington that has been largely stripped of its usual pomp and circumstance, due both to the coronavirus as well as security concerns following the January 6 assault on the US Capitol by supporters of outgoing President Donald Trump.
With only a small number of attendees present, the Democrat will take the oath of office before US Chief Justice John Roberts just after noon, placing his hand on an heirloom Bible that has been in the Biden family for more than a century.
I am very honored to be part of the Presidential Inauguration tomorrow alongside so many incredible people. Tune in at 8:30pm as we ring in the new Administration of @JoeBiden and @KamalaHarris. #Inauguration2021 pic.twitter.com/9RvANRYuEe
— Jon Bon Jovi (@jonbonjovi) January 19, 2021
Shortly before Biden departed for Washington, the U.S. reached another grim milestone in the pandemic, surpassing 400,000 deaths from the virus, according to Johns Hopkins University.
“These are dark times,” Biden told dozens of supporters in an emotional sendoff in Delaware before departing for Washington. “But there’s always light.”
Running mate Kamala Harris
Kamala Harris, the daughter of immigrants from Jamaica and India, will become the first Black person, first woman and first Asian American to serve as vice president after she is sworn in by US Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, the court’s first Latina member.
In a break with more than a century and a half of political tradition, Trump plans to depart the White House ahead of the inauguration, declining to meet with his successor and affirm the peaceful transfer of power.
Vice President Mike Pence, former US Presidents George W Bush, Barack Obama and Bill Clinton, and both McCarthy and McConnell are all expected to attend Biden’s inauguration ceremony.
President Trump has still not formally conceded the November 3 election. He will hold a sendoff event at Joint Air Force Base Andrews in the morning, although top Republicans, including Pence, are not expected to attend.
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