Slightly before noon on Wednesday, Joe Biden faced the National Mall from the west front of the Capitol building and was sworn in as the 46th President of the United States. A day constrained by coronavirus still brought a slew of firsts, as Kamala Harris stood beside him as the first female vice president in American history. Hours earlier, Donald Trump had departed quietly by helicopter from the White House lawn.
Of course even a peaceful transition of power has its ups and downs and carries its winners and losers. The lack of spectators and a relatively subdued ceremony still afforded plenty of space for historic speeches, flights of poetry, and full-throated song.
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Winners
Joe Biden
After flagging in the early phase of a breathtakingly long election campaign, Joe Biden found his second wind and has scarcely put a foot wrong or uttered a word out of place since assuming the Democratic candidacy. His speeches as president-elect cycled through the same themes, centring upon a message of unity. During his inauguration speech Biden again vowed to serve as a president for all Americans, and he issued a familiar clarion call which no doubt rings hollow for some, stating that the United States can still be great when all of its people work together.
If the themes and phrases sound repetitive, Biden strives for unity through the constancy of his message. He invariably manages to strike the right tone, sentimental without seeming soft, urging moderation and reconciliation while offering a steadfast commitment to modern Democratic principles. The incoming Biden administration has found its four pillars of faith, focusing in turn on the coronavirus pandemic, the economic recovery, racial injustice which incorporates aspects of immigration reform, and the environment.
As president, some of the talk will subside and Joe Biden will face the unenviable task of compelling disparate groups to action. Republicans will swiftly erect partisan walls, sometimes impossible to mount, while he will have to quench the thirst of factions within his own party. Yet with a long congressional record when it comes to reaching across the aisle, Biden may succeed in taking some of the sting out of the political tail, imbuing what he described on Wednesday as an ‘uncivil war’ with a little more patience and civility.
He is the right man for the moment. His tendency to reiterate and prolong his speeches is undercut by a homespun style which can even hew close to Donald Trump’s in emotional resonance. The religious pageantry of the occasion on Wednesday – which included Mass at the Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle with congressional leaders before the inauguration ceremony took place – might seem overblown, but the sincerity of his faith can serve as a balm for traditional conservatives while cutting across minority demographics.
The rhetorical flourishes are finely wrought and there is just enough variation to keep things interesting. Early in his inauguration speech, Biden paraphrased Abraham Lincoln and said ‘My whole soul is in this’. He does not seem overawed or emboldened or even particularly impressed by the presidency. The job was there to be done and he intends on doing it.
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Kamala Harris
As vice president Kamala Harris is expected to embody what can seem like a barrage of firsts: upon her inauguration on Wednesday she became the first female, the first black, and the first Asian American vice president. That’s not a conglomerate, and sceptics will be sure to analyse her commitments piece by piece, but she seems ready to embrace the task with an easy poise and singular personality.
Whether she was walking down Pennsylvania Avenue hand-in-hand with her husband and nieces to the beats of the Howard University marching band, or giving her first vice presidential speech where she encouraged Americans to face the moment ‘undaunted’, her energy and sense of purpose feels buoyant.
She was also quickly at work. By Wednesday night, fulfilling her duties in her new role as presiding officer of the Senate, Harris had sworn in the incoming Democrats Alex Padilla of California and Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff of Georgia, producing a 50-50 split in the chamber. Harris will cast the decisive vote in the case of a tie, giving her unusual sway over the legislative branch: serving under Barack Obama, Vice President Joe Biden cast no tie-breaking votes in his eight years in office. The new makeup of the Senate is also a win for Chuck Schumer, who for the first time ascends as majority leader.
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Amanda Gorman
At the age of just twenty-two years old, on Wednesday Amanda Gorman became the youngest inaugural poet in American history. In the process she added a jolt of youth to a small but select band of inaugural poets, which includes Robert Frost, Maya Angelou, Miller Williams, Elizabeth Alexander, and Richard Blanco.
In 2017, Gorman was named the first ever National Youth Poet Laureate. That September she opened the literary season at the Library of Congress with a reading of her poem ‘In This Place: An American Lyric’, which referenced protests in Charlottesville and Boston’s Copley Square. Her poem on Wednesday, titled ‘The Hill We Climb’, drew inspiration from iconic American orators like Abraham Lincoln and Martin Luther King Jr. and from the musical Hamilton, and was completed in the wake of the Capitol riots just two weeks before inauguration day.
Sharing in the theme of unity, replete with Biblical references while conjuring an Americana from the ‘sunbaked south’ to the ‘gold-limbed hills of the west’, Gorman spoke passionately through words at once stirring an reflective, purposeful and forthright while reaching out in an encompassing embrace. Gesturing towards recent events, she said:
Somehow we’ve weathered and witnessed
a nation that isn’t broken
but simply unfinished.
and ascending the summit:
Scripture tells us to envision
that everyone shall sit under their own vine and fig tree
and no one shall make them afraid.
If we’re to live up to our own time,
then victory won’t lie in the blade,
but in all the bridges we’ve made.
That is the promise to glade,
the hill we climb,
if only we dare.
It’s because being American is more than a pride we inherit,
it’s the past we step into
and how we repair it.
so to speak a birthright to repair.
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Jennifer Lopez
The frame of social progress is easily stretched, but Jennifer Lopez felt like a comfortable fit as the celebrated Latina artist performed on the occasion of the inauguration of the first black, female vice president. Her medley – which placed the Woody Guthrie folk song ‘This Land Is Your Land’ together with the more overtly patriotic ‘America the Beautiful’ – looked and sounded pitch-perfect as flags fluttered like a tide against the backdrop of the Washington Monument. Lopez’s rendition was pensive but also hopeful.
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Mike Pence
The sole representative of the Trump administration at the inauguration on Wednesday, Mike Pence has grown in stature over the past couple of weeks. His condemnation of the Capitol riots as he carried out his conventional role in the Senate, overseeing the counting and confirmation of electoral votes, served to provide the sense of a decisive break from President Trump. His attendance on Wednesday only added to the newfound air of decorum. It’s still not easy to see where Pence might fit in four years, but for the time being he has made himself a plausible voice in the future of the Republican Party.
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Jen Ellis
For devout progressives, fervent advocates of wealth redistribution, or citizens firmly in favour of knitted goods, Bernie Sanders stole the show on Wednesday, not least thanks to the highlight of his winter attire, a pair of fluffy brown-and-white-patterned mitten gloves. In fact the mittens were sewn together out of old woolen sweaters, cut up and lined with fleece made from recycled plastic. The artisan responsible is Jen Ellis, a second-grade teacher who lives in Essex Junction in Sanders’ home state of Vermont.
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Avril Haines
On Wednesday evening Joe Biden saw his first Cabinet nominee confirmed by the Senate. By a vote of 84 to 10, Avril Haines was approved as the first female director of national intelligence, and will serve as the head of the eighteen member organisations which make up the intelligence community of the United States. Biden may find further appointments a little harder to come by as the Senate seeks to hammer out a power-sharing arrangement in light of the chamber’s 50-50 split.
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Bruce Springsteen
In lieu of the traditional inaugural ball, Bruce Springsteen opened the socially-distanced primetime television special Celebrating America with a rollicking performance of ‘Land of Hope and Dreams’ on the Lincoln Memorial steps. The special, hosted by Tom Hanks, was a pleasant if fairly staid saunter through presidential history and community responses to the coronavirus pandemic, with features from Barack Obama, George Bush, and Bill Clinton, the International Space Station, and the cellist Yo-Yo Ma. Springsteen suitably revved the engines, while Katy Perry belted out as a lavish fireworks display brought the day’s events to a close.
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Losers
Donald Trump
But not so fast. The former president turned a partisan fight over the integrity of November’s election results into a rowdy brawl that left blood on the floors and excrement over the walls of the Capitol. As he stepped out of the White House he swung a foot in the vicinity of the comeback trail, telling the small crowd ‘Hopefully it’s not a long-term goodbye. We’ll see each other again’ before he boarded Marine One.
Yet when Trump and his dwindling entourage disembarked after the short trip to Joint Base Andrews – to a typically incongruous soundtrack which included ‘Gloria’ by Laura Branigan and his stalwart campaign anthem, the Village People’s ‘Y.M.C.A.’ – the outgoing president’s mood was unusually magnanimous. Without mentioning Joe Biden by name, he wished ‘great luck and great success’ to the incoming administration. He showed genuine sympathy for the travails of his family, and thanked even some of his erstwhile allies with warm messages for members of Congress and his vice president Mike Pence.
Trump inevitably found time to boast a few accomplishments, honing in on the military and his support for the vets. But his tone was reconciled rather than angry, subdued without seeming too despondent. In a rare rapprochement with tradition, he left a letter to his successor in the White House, with Joe Biden refusing to divulge the contents while he described its message as ‘generous’. Defeat at the ballot box rarely ends in a blaze of glory, but as ‘My Way’ blared and he embarked for Mar-a-Lago on Air Force One, Trump abstained from one last petroleum-fuelled shot.
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Lady Gaga
Every occasion turns into amateur theatrics night in the company of Lady Gaga. Her sonorous rendition of the national anthem certainly filled the stage, but it was overwrought and even a little overindulgent given the otherwise laid-back and low-key circumstances. After a tentative walk down the steps in a billowing red skirt, the presentation seemed to strive for Eva PerĆ³n with the enunciation of Queen Elizabeth. Instead as she held one arm nobly aloft, Gaga came across more like Hyacinth Bucket with less warble.
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Foo Fighters
Foo Fighters are a fine band, as in just fine: like how someone might say ‘It’s fine I guess’ as they flick the playlist to something more invigorating. Their rendition of ‘Times Like These’, spaced-out to the point of plodding, strove valiantly in the latter stages for an approximation of raucous rock and roll. But the whole performance which aired as part of Celebrating America was at best insipid and at worst mawkish.
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Kevin McCarthy and Ted Cruz
After Mike Pence, House minority leader Kevin McCarthy and Texas senator Ted Cruz were the most prominent Republicans on display at the Biden inauguration. They were among the scores of congressional figures who objected to the certification of electoral votes by Congress two weeks ago, thereby throwing their considerable weight behind the baseless claims and furious rhetoric of the president. Their presence was a show of good faith at least on behalf of the incoming administration, not liked but merely tolerated.
