Democrat Joe Biden was sworn in as president of the US on Wednesday, assuming the helm of a country reeling from deep political divides, a battered economy and a raging coronavirus pandemic that has killed more than 400,000 Americans.
With his hand on an heirloom Bible that has been in his
family for more than a century, Biden took the presidential oath of office
administered by US Chief Justice John Roberts just after noon, vowing to
“preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the US”.
Biden, 78, became the oldest US president in history at a
scaled-back ceremony in Washington that was largely stripped of its usual pomp
and circumstance, due both to the coronavirus and security concerns following
the January 6 assault on the US Capitol by supporters of outgoing President
Donald Trump.
The norm-defying Trump flouted one last convention on his
way out of the White House when he refused to meet Biden or attend his
successor's inauguration, breaking with a political tradition seen as affirming
the peaceful transfer of power.
Trump, who never conceded the November 3 election, did not
mention Biden by name in his final remarks as president on Wednesday morning,
when he touted his administration's record and promised to be back “in some
form”. He boarded Air Force One for the last time and headed to his Mar-a-Lago
retreat in Florida.
Top Republicans, including vice-president Mike Pence and
the party's congressional leaders, attended Biden's inauguration, along with
former US Presidents Barack Obama, George W. Bush and Bill Clinton.
Biden's running mate, Kamala Harris, the daughter of immigrants
from Jamaica and India, became the first Black person, first woman and first
Asian American to serve as vice-president after she was sworn in by US Supreme
Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, the court's first Latina member.
Harris used two Bibles, including one owned by Thurgood
Marshall, the first Black US. Supreme Court Justice.
Biden takes office at a time of deep national unease, with
the country facing what his advisers have described as four compounding crises:
the pandemic, the economic downtown, climate change and racial inequality. He
has promised immediate action, including a raft of executive orders on his
first day in office.
The ceremony on Wednesday unfolded in front of a heavily
fortified US. Capitol, where a mob of Trump supporters stormed the building two
weeks ago, enraged by his false claims that the election was stolen with
millions of fraudulent votes.
The violence prompted the Democratic-controlled US House of
Representatives to impeach Trump last week for an unprecedented second time.
Thousands of National Guard troops were called into the
city after the siege, which left five people dead and briefly forced lawmakers
into hiding. Instead of a throng of supporters, the National Mall on Wednesday
was covered by nearly 200,000 flags and 56 pillars of light meant to represent
people from US states and territories.
Biden, who has vowed to “restore the soul of America,” will call for American unity at a time of crisis in his inaugural address, according to advisers.
His inauguration is the zenith of a five-decade career in
public service that included more than three decades in the US Senate and two
terms as vice-president under former President Barack Obama.
But he faces calamities that would challenge even the most
experienced politician.
The pandemic in the US reached a pair of grim milestones on
Trump's final full day in office on Tuesday, reaching 400,000 US deaths and 24
million infections — the highest of any country. Millions of Americans are out
of work because of pandemic-related shutdowns and restrictions.
Biden has vowed to bring the full weight of the federal
government to bear on the crisis. His top priority is a $1.9 trillion plan that
would enhance jobless benefits and provide direct cash payments to households.
But it will require approval from a deeply divided
Congress, where Democrats hold slim advantages in both the House and Senate.
Harris was scheduled to swear in three new Democratic senators late on
Wednesday, creating a 50-50 split in the chamber with herself as the
tiebreaking vote.
Biden will waste little time trying to turn the page on the
Trump era, advisers said, signing 15 executive actions on Wednesday on issues
ranging from the pandemic to the economy to climate change. The orders will
include mandating masks on federal property, rejoining the Paris climate accord
and ending Trump's travel ban on some Muslim-majority countries.
Though Biden has laid out a packed agenda for his first 100
days, including delivering 100 million Covid-19 vaccinations, the Senate could
be consumed by Trump's upcoming impeachment trial, which will move ahead even
though he has left office.
The trial could serve as an early test of Biden's promise
to foster a renewed sense of bipartisanship in Washington.
Trump issued more than 140 pardons and commutations in his
final hours in office, including a pardon for his former political adviser,
Steve Bannon, who has pleaded not guilty to charges that he swindled Trump
supporters as part of an effort to raise private funds for a Mexico border
wall.
But Trump did not issue pre-emptive pardons for himself or
members of his family, after speculation that he might do so.
— Reuters
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