All eyes, and ears, were on President Joe Biden and his inaugural message at his inauguration.
With Biden’s wife Jill, son Hunter Biden and daughter Ashley Biden by his side, Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts administered the oath as Biden was sworn in as the 46th President Wednesday.
Biden focused his address on calling for the country to unify after suffering from deep political divisions and a global pandemic. Biden said his inauguration was a day to “celebrate triumph, not of a candidate, but a cause. Democracy.”
On a day when 200,000 tickets would normally be distributed for people to watch Inauguration Day festivities in person, a crowd of just over 2,000 was on hand on a chilly day in Washington, D.C. “This is America’s day. This is democracy’s day,” Biden said. ”America has been tested anew and America has risen to the challenge.”
Biden also said he would do what he could to end the “Uncivil war” going on in a deeply divided country. “Through a crucible for the ages, America has been tested anew, and America has risen to the challenge,” Biden said in his address. “Today we celebrate the triumph not of a candidate but of a cause: the cause of democracy…At this hour, my friends, democracy has prevailed.”
Biden spoke directly to the tens of millions of people who voted for Donald Trump and supported the outgoing president during a brutal campaign and through a post election time period where Trump and millions of others felt the election was stolen. “To overcome these challenges to restore the soul and secure the future of America requires so much more than words. It requires the most elusive of all things in a democracy: unity,” he said. “We must end this uncivil war that pits red against blue, rural versus urban, conservative versus liberal. We can do this – if we open our souls instead of hardening our hearts.”
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