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WASHINGTON. — Democrat Joe Biden was sworn in as the 46th president of the US yesterday, 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 after 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 yesterday 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 former 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 judge 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, who has vowed to “restore the soul of America,” wants American unity at a time of crisis in his inaugural address.
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 Obama.
But he faces calamities that would challenge even the most experienced politician.
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.
The ceremony yesterday 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.
Thousands of National Guard troops were called into the city after the siege, which left five people dead and briefly forced legislators into hiding. Instead of a throng of supporters, the National Mall was covered by nearly 200 000 flags and 56 pillars of light meant to represent people from US states and territories.
Biden unleashed a full-scale assault on his predecessor’s legacy, acting hours after taking the oath of office to sweep aside Trump’s pandemic response, reverse his environmental agenda, tear down his anti-immigration policies, bolster the sluggish economic recovery and restore federal efforts aimed at promoting diversity.
Moving with an urgency not seen from any other modern president, Biden was due to sign 17 executive orders, memorandums and proclamations. — Agencies.
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