Inauguration Live Updates: Biden Is Sworn In as 46th President, Kicking Off New Era in Washington
Kamala Harris is the first woman and the first woman of color to serve as vice president. Democrats will take control of both chambers of Congress.
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Watch live coverage of the inauguration ceremony for Joseph R. Biden Jr. as the next president of the United States.CreditCredit...Chang W. Lee/The New York Times
Joseph R. Biden Jr. was sworn in as the 46th president of the United States by Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr.
“Please raise your right hand and repeat after me. “I, Joseph Robinette Biden Jr., do solemnly swear.” “I, Joseph Robinette Biden Jr., do solemnly swear.” “That I will faithfully execute.” “That I will faithfully execute.” “The Office of President of the United States.” “The Office of President of the United States.” “And will, to the best of my ability.” “And will, to the best of my ability.” “Preserve, protect and defend.” “Preserve, protect and defend.” “The Constitution of the United States.” “The Constitution of the United States.” “So help you God.” “So help me God.” “Congratulations, Mr. President.” [applause]
Joseph R. Biden Jr. was sworn in as the 46th president of the United States by Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr.CreditCredit...Erin Schaff/The New York Times
Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. was sworn in as the 46th president of the United States on Wednesday, taking office at a moment of profound economic, health and political crises with a promise to seek unity after a tumultuous four years that tore at the fabric of American society.
With his hand on a five-inch-thick Bible that has been in his family for 128 years, Mr. Biden recited the 35-word oath of office swearing to “preserve, protect and defend the Constitution” in a ceremony administered by Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., completing the process at 11:49 a.m., 11 minutes before the authority of the presidency formally changes hands.
The ritual transfer of power came shortly after Kamala Devi Harris was sworn in as vice president by Justice Sonia Sotomayor, her hand on a Bible that once belonged to Thurgood Marshall, the civil rights icon and Supreme Court justice. Ms. Harris’s ascension made her the highest-ranking woman in the history of the United States and the first Black American and first person of South Asian descent to hold the nation’s second highest office.
“This is America’s day,” Mr. Biden said as he began his Inaugural Address. “This is democracy’s day.”
After a deeply tumultuous transition, including the storming of the Capitol by supporters of now-former President Donald J. Trump, “democracy has prevailed,” Mr. Biden said, in a speech that immediately laid out the contrast between himself and his predecessor.
“Few people in our nation’s history have been more challenged or found a time more challenging or difficult than the time we’re in now,” Mr. Biden said, before explicitly acknowledging the devastating toll of the coronavirus in a way Mr. Trump never did.
He went on, “To overcome these challenges, to restore the soul and secure the future of America, requires so much more than words and requires the most elusive of all things in a democracy: unity.”
Mr. Biden’s plea for the country to come together echoed a defining theme of his presidential campaign, a message that has only taken on greater urgency in recent weeks.
“We must end this uncivil war that pits red against blue, rural versus urban, conservative versus liberal,” he said. “We can do this if we open our souls instead of hardening our hearts.”
And four years after Mr. Trump spoke of “American carnage” in his Inaugural Address, Mr. Biden seemed to offer a direct rebuttal.
“Politics doesn’t have to be a raging fire, destroying everything in its path,” he said. “Every disagreement doesn’t have to be a cause for total war. And we must reject the culture in which facts themselves are manipulated and even manufactured.”
The ceremony on a chilly, breezy day with a smattering of snowflakes brought to a close the stormy and divisive four-year presidency of Mr. Trump. In characteristic fashion, Mr. Trump once again defied tradition by leaving Washington hours before the swearing in of his successor rather than face the reality of his own election defeat, although Mike Pence, his vice president, did attend.
Mr. Trump flew to Florida, where he plans to live at his Mar-a-Lago estate. But within days, the Senate will open the former president’s impeachment trial on the charge that he incited an insurrection by encouraging the mob that attacked the Capitol on Jan. 6 in an attempt to stop the final receipt of the Electoral College votes ratifying his defeat. The tumult of the past four years is not at all over.
“Recent weeks and months have taught us a painful lesson,” Mr. Biden said in his address. “There is truth and there are lies.”
But he sought to emphasize the long arc of history.
“Here we stand, looking out on the great Mall where Dr. King spoke of his dream,” he said. “Here we stand, where 108 years ago at another inaugural, thousands of protesters tried to block brave women marching for the right to vote. And today we mark the swearing in of the first woman in American history elected to national office, Vice President Kamala Harris. Don’t tell me things can’t change.”
Kamala Harris was sworn in as the first Black woman and first Indian-American to hold the office of vice president. Her oath of office was administered by Justice Sonia Sotomayor.
“Please raise your right hand and repeat after me. I, Kamala Devi Harris, do solemnly swear.” “I, Kamala Devi Harris, do solemnly swear.” “That I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States.” “That I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States.” “Against all enemies, foreign and domestic.” “Against all enemies, foreign and domestic.” “That I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same.” “That I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same.” “That I take this obligation freely.” “That I take this obligation freely.” “Without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion.” “Without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion.” “That I will well and faithfully discharge.” ”That I will well and faithfully discharge.” “The duties of the office on which I am about to enter.” “The duties of the office upon which I am about to enter.” “So help me God.” “So help me God.” [applause]
Kamala Harris was sworn in as the first Black woman and first Indian-American to hold the office of vice president. Her oath of office was administered by Justice Sonia Sotomayor.CreditCredit...Erin Schaff/The New York Times
On Wednesday, 212 years after John Adams became the nation’s first vice president, Kamala Harris became the first woman — and the first woman of color — sworn into the office. The history-making moment is a milestone for Americans who have fought tirelessly for generations to see faces that resemble their own in the government’s executive branch.
But Ms. Harris’s role in the new administration will be much more than a symbolic one.
With the Senate now split evenly between Democrats and Republicans, Ms. Harris may find herself casting the decisive vote in many crucial moments, as the vice president wields tiebreaking power. Ambitious legislation on the coronavirus, the economy, climate change and other policy matters will be high on President Biden’s agenda, and her vote may prove critical. One of her first official acts in her new role will be to swear in three new Democratic senators.
Many expect Mr. Biden will also rely on her prosecutorial chops and her personal energy as a crucial member of the administration. And given speculation that Mr. Biden, who is 78, may not seek a second term, Ms. Harris is sure to face intense scrutiny over her own political future.
But for many, it’s the voice she will offer to women and people of color that was being reflected on as she took office.
“That’s so important, to have a Black woman, a South Asian woman’s perspective, on the big issues that this administration has to tackle,” said Representative Barbara Lee, Democrat of California and a longtime ally of Ms. Harris’s. “She’ll bring a justice lens, a racial justice lens, racial equity, to everything and every policy and every decision that’s going to be made.”
Across the country, women are wearing pearls on Wednesday to mark the occasion, a nod to the signature pearls that Ms. Harris has worn throughout major milestones in her life, and is likely to wear again when she is sworn in for her history-making turn as the first female vice president. Justice Sonia Sotomayor, who as the first woman of color to serve on the Supreme Court has broken barriers of her own, will administer the oath.
Hillary Clinton, the only woman ever to receive a major party’s presidential nomination, highlighted the barrier-breaking nature of Ms. Harris’s achievement in a tweet on Wednesday.
It delights me to think that what feels historical and amazing to us today—a woman sworn in to the vice presidency—will seem normal, obvious, "of course" to Kamala's grand-nieces as they grow up. And they will be right. pic.twitter.com/1gQOvmNipB
“It delights me to think that what feels historical and amazing to us today — a woman sworn in to the vice presidency — will seem normal, obvious, “of course” to Kamala’s grand-nieces as they grow up,” she wrote, posting a photo of Ms. Harris with the two little girls. “And they will be right.”
A field of flags was planted on the National Mall to represent the thousands of Americans who would normally attend the inauguration.Credit...Jason Andrew for The New York Times
President Biden was sworn into an office he has sought for more than 30 years, and Vice President Kamala Harris became the first woman — and the first woman of color — to hold that title. But there was no crowd on the National Mall to celebrate the moment.
Instead, there was a sea of flags representing the people who could not be there because of the pandemic that has killed more than 400,000 Americans, and the streets of Washington were filled with 25,000 National Guard troops deployed to prevent a repeat of the riot former President Donald J. Trump incited at the Capitol two weeks ago.
It was, as Mr. Trump might have put it, an inauguration the likes of which no one has seen before.
Mr. Biden and Ms. Harris arrived at the Capitol after attending Mass, the latter accompanied by Officer Eugene Goodman of the Capitol Police, who has been praised for leading rioters away from the Senate chamber after they stormed the Capitol. In coats and gloves, before gathered lawmakers and dignitaries, they took the oaths of office: Mr. Biden from Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and Ms. Harris from Justice Sonia Sotomayor.
The traditional ceremonies of the transfer of power went off without a hitch — a reminder that in spite of the extraordinary circumstances, and Mr. Trump’s explicit efforts to undermine it, American democracy remained intact.
“This is the day when our democracy picks itself back up, brushes off the dust and does what America always does: goes forward as a nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all,” Senator Amy Klobuchar — the top Democrat on the Senate Rules Committee, which organized the inaugural — told the television cameras.
The oaths of office were bookended by Lady Gaga singing the national anthem and Amanda Gorman, a 23-year-old poet, captivating the small crowd with a poem that she finished writing after the riot at the Capitol.
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Former presidents and first ladies, and leaders from both parties attend the inauguration of Joseph R. Biden Jr.CreditCredit...Ruth Fremson/The New York Times
The new president and vice president left the Capitol shortly after noon, but the formalities were not over. Ms. Harris was expected, later in the day, to swear in the Senate’s three incoming members: Jon Ossoff and the Rev. Raphael Warnock, elected this month in Georgia, and Alex Padilla, who will replace Ms. Harris as the junior senator from California.
Before the inaugural proceedings began, the soon-to-be senators posed for photos in front of the Capitol as their new colleagues elbow bumped them. Senator Jacky Rosen, Democrat of Nevada, could be heard explaining to Mr. Ossoff that the seating arrangement in front of the Capitol steps was unusual, and that normally they would be overlooking the swearing-in.
Three of the five living former presidents were in attendance: Barack Obama, George W. Bush and Bill Clinton. Former President Jimmy Carter, who is 96, stayed home for health reasons.
The newest addition to that roster, Mr. Trump, chose to leave Washington rather than attend the inauguration and confront the reality of his loss, breaking from the tradition of almost every departing president in United States history. His final trip on Air Force One took him to West Palm Beach, Fla., where he will take up his new residence at his Mar-a-Lago resort.
“Have a good life,” he told supporters at Joint Base Andrews, discarding prepared remarks and ignoring advisers who thought he should have thanked Mr. Biden by name.
Vice President Mike Pence, who enraged Mr. Trump two weeks ago by following the Constitution and affirming Mr. Biden’s victory, was present along with his wife, Karen Pence, as his own job was turned over to Ms. Harris.
When the ceremony was over, Ms. Harris and her husband, Doug Emhoff, escorted the Pences out.
President Biden is expected to sign 17 executive orders, memorandums and proclamations from the Oval Office on Wednesday afternoon, according to his top policy advisers.Credit...Doug Mills/The New York Times
President Biden will unleash a full-scale assault on his predecessor’s legacy on Wednesday, acting hours after taking the oath of office to sweep aside former President Donald J. 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, Mr. Biden will sign 17 executive orders, memorandums and proclamations from the Oval Office on Wednesday afternoon, according to the president’s top policy advisers.
Individually, the actions are targeted at what the incoming president views as specific, egregious abuses by Mr. Trump during four tumultuous years. Collectively, his advisers said Mr. Biden’s assertive use of executive authority was intended to be a hefty and visible down payment on one of his primary goals as president: to “reverse the gravest damages” done to the country by Mr. Trump, as they said Tuesday.
“We don’t have a second to waste when it comes to tackling the crises we face as a nation,” Mr. Biden said Tuesday night on Twitter after arriving in Washington on the eve of his inauguration. “That’s why after being sworn in tomorrow, I’ll get right to work.”
Mr. Biden’s actions largely fall into four broad categories that his aides described as the “converging crises” he inherits on Wednesday: the pandemic, economic struggles, immigration and diversity issues, and the environment and climate change.
President Biden has spent most of his life struggling with his words.
Yet, over the course of the 2020 campaign, and especially in the two months since his victory over former President Donald J. Trump, Mr. Biden has transformed himself into a steady hand who chooses words with extraordinary restraint.
The self-described “scrappy kid from Scranton,” who called Mr. Trump a “clown” and told him to “shut up” during their first debate, refused to take the political bait Mr. Trump laid for weeks after the election with his attempts to overturn the results. Rather than get sucked into the Trumpian chaos, Mr. Biden focused on announcing his cabinet and helping his party win two runoff races in Georgia. And with a second impeachment trial looming in the Senate, Mr. Biden has maintained his steadfast faith in the political center.
“There’s a more of a sense of a calm resolve now,” said Representative Lisa Blunt Rochester, Democrat of Delaware, who has known Mr. Biden for decades and served as a co-chair of his campaign. “Even the words that he uses that are fiery are very intentional now. He is where he is supposed to be at this moment.”
The coming year will test Mr. Biden’s self-discipline, as he takes office amid urgency from his own party to mark a decisive break with the Trump era by pushing through an aggressive policy agenda in the face of a divided Republican Party that is looking come together around a new foe. Mr. Biden and his aides are staking much on his ability to find the right words to restore America’s reputation, win bipartisan support in Congress and unite an anxious nation.
At Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s inauguration as president of the United States, Lady Gaga performed “The Star-Spangled Banner.”
[Singing of ”The Star-Spangled Banner”]
At Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s inauguration as president of the United States, Lady Gaga performed “The Star-Spangled Banner.”CreditCredit...Ruth Fremson/The New York Times
When Lady Gaga performed the national anthem at President Biden’s swearing-in ceremony on Wednesday, it was the culmination of a yearslong relationship in which the two have shared the spotlight.
Before the inauguration, Lady Gaga said on Twitter that she was honored to sing “The Star-Spangled Banner” at Mr. Biden’s inauguration, which she called “a ceremony, a transition, a moment of change.”
In a second tweet, she added: “My intention is to acknowledge our past, be healing for our present, and passionate for a future where we work together lovingly. I will sing to the hearts of all people who live on this land.”
At the Capitol, she wore an oversized gold pin depicting a dove, a traditional symbol of peace, as she sang into a golden microphone while Mr. Biden looked on.
Lady Gaga campaigned in November with Mr. Biden in Pennsylvania, a key battleground state that he won. The evening before Election Day, she performed at the Biden campaign’s final rally.
Her appearance drew criticism from President Donald J. Trump’s campaign, which accused her of being an anti-fracking activist, and from Mr. Trump himself.
“Lady Gaga is not too good,” Mr. Trump said at a rally in November. “I could tell you plenty of stories. I could tell you stories about Lady Gaga. I know a lot of stories.” He did not elaborate.
The singer’s ties to Mr. Biden date back to his time as vice president, when they worked together on the White House’s campaign to fight sexual assault on college campuses.
In 2016, Mr. Biden introduced Lady Gaga at the Academy Awards, where he plugged the campaign against sexual assault and she performed her song “Til It Happens to You,” made for a documentary about that issue. The two later appeared together to promote the White House’s campaign. In 2017, after Mr. Biden left office, they also filmed a public service announcement about sexual assault.
“I’m here today with not only a great friend, but a fierce advocate,” Mr. Biden said in the video.
Amanda Gorman, 22, is the youngest inaugural poet in U.S. history.Credit...Erin Schaff/The New York Times
About two weeks ago, the poet Amanda Gorman was struggling to finish a new work titled “The Hill We Climb.” She was feeling exhausted, and she worried she wasn’t up to the monumental task she faced: composing a poem about national unity to recite at President Biden’s inauguration.
“I had this huge thing, probably one of the most important things I’ll ever do in my career,” she said in an interview.“It was like, if I try to climb this mountain all at once, I’m just going to pass out.”
Ms. Gorman managed to write a few lines a day and was about halfway through the poem on Jan. 6, when pro-Trump rioters stormed into the halls of Congress, some bearing weapons and Confederate flags. She stayed awake late into the night and finished the poem, adding verses about the apocalyptic scene that unfolded at the Capitol that day:
We’ve seen a force that would shatter our nation rather than share it,
Would destroy our country if it meant delaying democracy.
And this effort very nearly succeeded.
But while democracy can be periodically delayed,
It can never be permanently defeated.
When Ms. Gorman, 22, recited her poem at Wednesday’s inauguration, she became the youngest inaugural poet ever in the United States. Ms. Gorman joined a small group of poets who have been recruited to help mark a presidential inauguration, among them Robert Frost, Maya Angelou and Miller Williams.
Ms. Gorman fell in love with poetry at a young age and distinguished herself quickly as a rising talent. Raised in Los Angeles, where her mother teaches middle school, she would write in journals at the playground. At 16, she was named the Youth Poet Laureate of Los Angeles. A few years later, when she was studying sociology at Harvard, she became the National Youth Poet Laureate, the first person to hold the position.
Still, while she has been in the spotlight before, she’s never performed her work for a televised audience that will likely number in the tens of millions.
Plus, none of Ms. Gorman’s inaugural poet predecessors faced the challenge that she does. She set out to write a poem that would inspire hope and foster a sense of collective purpose, at a moment when Americans are reeling from a deadly pandemic, political violence and partisan division.
Officer Eugene Goodman at the inauguration on Wednesday.Credit...Erin Schaff/The New York Times
Eugene Goodman, a Capitol Police officer who was captured on video facing down members of the mob that breached the Capitol on Jan. 6 and diverting them from entering the Senate chamber and potentially saving lives, was elevated to serve as the No. 2 security official in the Senate for the inaugural events on Wednesday.
As the acting deputy Senate sergeant-at-arms, Officer Goodman, a Black man who fended off a mostly white throng, was part of the official escort accompanying Vice President Kamala Harris to the platform outside the Capitol where she was sworn into the nation’s second-highest office.
The mention of his name was greeted with loud applause as he appeared at the arched entranceway where rioters breached the building exactly two weeks earlier.
Officer Goodman, who was filmed and photographed luring the mob away from the unguarded doors to the Senate chamber a minute before they were locked, has been hailed as a hero on Capitol Hill for preventing the invaders from breaching the chamber while senators were still inside. Officer Goodman’s actions gave the lawmakers time to evacuate to a secure location before the rioters could enter.
A bipartisan trio of lawmakers has introduced legislation that would award Officer Goodman the Congressional Gold Medal for his bravery during the rampage.
In the wake of the Jan. 6 siege, a massive security failure, the top security officials on Capitol Hill — including the House and Senate sergeants-at-arms — resigned, with permanent successors yet to be named.
President Trump’s first post on @POTUS on Twitter, Jan. 20, 2017.Credit...Twitter
On Wednesday, as President Biden assumes the White House, several social media companies will be completing their own transitions of highly followed official accounts.
The handoff won’t be as seamless as it was four years ago, when President Barack Obama turned over the keys of much of his social empire to President Donald J. Trump, including the millions of followers from the official Twitter handles. Mr. Trump’s team used the accounts as megaphones for the administration’s agenda and built the follower numbers: @POTUS had 33.3 million followers, @WhiteHouse had 26 million, @FLOTUS had 16.4 million and @VP had 10.3 million. The @POTUS account alone nearly tripled in followers under Mr. Trump.
But this year, Twitter will not carry over the followers of each account once Mr. Biden becomes the president. Instead, accounts with much smaller followings, mostly created last week, will be transformed into the official ones.
@PresElectBiden, an account that has posted just once, became @POTUS, taking its 1.4 million followers with it.
Vice President Kamala Harris brought her 5.6 million followers from her own account @SenKamalaHarris over to @VP.
The account for Mr. Biden’s transition, @Transition46, had 1.7 million followers and became @WhiteHouse.
And @FLOTUSBiden, Jill Biden’s new account with about 660,000 followers, became @FLOTUS.
Watch President Trump’s Final White House Departure
On Wednesday, before President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. is sworn in, Mr. Trump and Melania Trump said goodbye to the White House.
You are amazing people. This is a great, great country. It is my greatest honor and privilege to have been your president. I will always fight for you. I will be watching. I will be listening. And I will tell you that the future of this country has never been better. I wish the new administration great luck and great success.
On Wednesday, before President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. is sworn in, Mr. Trump and Melania Trump said goodbye to the White House.CreditCredit...Anna Moneymaker for The New York Times
President Donald J. Trump departed the White House on Wednesday morning for the last time as the commander in chief after four tumultuous years that shook the nation, choosing to leave town rather than face the reality that he lost re-election to President Biden.
“Have a good life, we will see you soon,” Mr. Trump said at the end of off-the-cuff remarks delivered to supporters at Joint Base Andrews, discarding a prepared statement and ignoring advisers who thought he should have thanked Mr. Biden by name.
“We were not a regular administration,” Mr. Trump said, delivering a truncated version of his self-aggrandizing campaign rally speech, and imploring those gathered — most without masks — to “remember” all of his accomplishments.
“We will be back in some form,” he added, before walking away from his last appearance as the nation’s commander in chief to the strains of “Y.M.C.A.” by the Village People. His vice president, Mike Pence, did not attend his farewell event.
Despite flouting most of the conventions associated with the peaceful transfer of power, Mr. Trump did abide by one presidential norm — leaving the traditional note to Mr. Biden in the Oval Office, according to a White House official.
It was not clear what the letter said. Mr. Pence, who tried briefly and belatedly to ease the transition, also left a note for his successor, Kamala Harris, aides said.
Mr. Trump left the White House on a red carpet, hand in hand with Melania Trump, who wore a dark suit and sunglasses, and spoke briefly with reporters before boarding his helicopter, where he stood in the doorway one last instant, waving goodbye with his right hand.
The Marine One helicopter took off from the South Lawn of the White House at about 8:18 a.m. for the short flight to Joint Base Andrews in suburban Maryland, where Mr. Trump held the farewell event, including a 21-gun salute, with administration veterans and other supporters. After that, he and Mrs. Trump boarded Air Force One for the journey to Florida, where they will reside. The plane landed about an hour before Mr. Biden’s oath of office.
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Former President Donald J. Trump and the former first lady Melania Trump arrived in Florida after leaving the White House, and skipping the inauguration ceremony.CreditCredit...Marco Bello/Reuters
Air Force One landed at Palm Beach International Airport at 10:54 a.m., bringing Mr. Trump to his adopted home state for his final hour as president.
The tarmac was silent as the plane rolled down and around the runway, other than the occasional clicking of a photo camera and the roar of the engine. Mr. Trump and Mrs. Trump stepped off the plane about 10 minutes later.
Mr. Trump, who had considered staging a rally for his return to private life, waved at a small contingent of supporters, perhaps 20 people, who silently waved back. He did not take questions.
Mr. Trump surrendered the building after a late night of signing last-minute pardons and other clemency orders for 143 people, including Stephen K. Bannon, his former chief strategist; Elliott Broidy, one of his top fund-raisers in 2016; and a series of politicians convicted of corruption. The White House did not announce the pardons until after midnight and then followed up at 1:07 a.m. with an order revoking the ethics rules Mr. Trump had imposed on his own former aides.
In slipping out of Washington before the festivities on Wednesday, Mr. Trump capped a norm-busting tenure by defying one last convention. He refused to host the traditional coffee that presidents hold for their successors at the White House on the morning of the inauguration. And he opted to skip the swearing-in ceremony at the Capitol, normally a symbol of the American tradition of peaceful transfer of power that is attended by both departing and incoming presidents.
No president has refused to attend his successor’s inauguration since 1869, when Andrew Johnson, miffed that Ulysses S. Grant would not share a carriage with him to the Capitol, refused at the last minute to get into the separate carriage arranged for him and skipped the ceremony. (Woodrow Wilson traveled to the Capitol for Warren G. Harding’s inauguration in 1921, but did not remain for the ceremony because of his failing health.)
Mr. Trump leaves office by one measure as the most unpopular president in the history of polling. He is the only president since Gallup began surveys under Harry S. Truman to never garner the support of a majority of the public for a single day of his presidency, and his 41 percent average approval over the course of his tenure is the lowest of any president in that time.
Mr. Trump, however, never came to terms with his defeat in the 2020 election.
“Could you imagine if I lose?” he said at a rally in Georgia in October. “My whole life, what am I going to do? I’m going to say I lost to the worst candidate in the history of politics. I’m not going to feel so good. Maybe I’ll have to leave the country. I don’t know.”
Mr. Trump, who went on to lose by seven million votes in the popular tally and 306-232 in the Electoral College, spent the two months after the election trying to overturn the results with false allegations of widespread fraud that were rejected by Republican and Democratic election officials and scores of judges, including some whom he had appointed.
The House last week impeached Mr. Trump for inciting an insurrection after a crowd of his supporters attacked the Capitol on Jan. 6, and the Senate is poised to put him on trial in days, even though he will no longer be in office. Although it will be too late to remove him from power, a Senate conviction would amount to a bipartisan repudiation in the history books, and lawmakers could also disqualify him from holding office again, thwarting his talk of running for president again in 2024.
Instead, he boasted of his accomplishments cutting taxes, eliminating regulations, appointing conservative judges and revising trade deals. “The movement we started,” he said, “is only just beginning,”
President Trump spoke to supporters at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland before boarding Air Force One for the last time as president.Credit...Pete Marovich for The New York Times
Former President Donald J. Trump used the final speech of his term on Wednesday morning to repeat many of the same falsehoods and exaggerations he told over the last four years.
He falsely claimed, as he has previously done almost 300 times, to have passed the “largest tax cut and reform in the history of our country by far” despite the 2017 tax cut ranking below several others.
Mr. Trump also boasted once more to have presided over the “greatest economy,” with “numbers” that were “at a level that nobody had ever seen before.” Annual average growth, even before the coronavirus pandemic decimated the economy, was lower under Mr. Trump than under recent former Presidents Bill Clinton and Ronald Reagan.
And he heralded his legacy in transforming the judiciary, exaggerating the number of appointments to “almost 300” and claiming that it was “record-setting.” In reality, Mr. Trump appointed 229 judges, a large amount for a one-term president but well below the total number for Presidents Barack Obama (320), George W. Bush (322) and Bill Clinton (322).
Mr. Trump also used his final speech as president to once again wrongly take credit for creating the Veterans Choice health care program that was signed into law by his predecessor in 2014. As president, Mr. Trump signed a measure making changes to the program.
He also falsely claimed that the Department of Veterans Affairs could not fire employees before he took office. In reality, Mr. Trump signed a law to encourage whistle-blowing and made it easier to fire bad employees at the department.
Al Pirro, seen with his then-wife Jeannine Pirro, at the U.S. Federal Courthouse in White Plains, N.Y., in 2000, was pardoned by former President Donald J. Trump on Wednesday.Credit...Joyce Dopkeen/The New York Times
In the waning minutes of his term, former President Donald J. Trump granted a pardon to Al Pirro, the ex-husband of Jeanine Pirro, his favorite Fox News host, an administration official said.
Mr. Pirro was convicted of tax evasion and conspiracy in 2000, while his wife was the district attorney in Westchester County. He was sentenced to 29 months in prison. While the possibility of Mr. Pirro receiving a pardon had been discussed in recent days, it appeared to have been dropped when it was not among the 143 grants of clemency and pardons the president announced early Wednesday morning.
Hours before he departed the White House for the final time, Mr. Trump bestowed pardons and commutations on a roster of corrupt politicians and business executives, including Stephen K. Bannon, his former chief strategist, and Elliott Broidy, one of his top fund-raisers in 2016.
It also was a final lashing meted out by Mr. Trump at a criminal justice system that he had come to view as unfairly hounding him and his allies. It came as the Senate prepared for his second impeachment trial, on a charge of inciting the deadly riot at the Capitol this month, and could be another factor in influencing whether Republicans join Democrats in voting to convict him.
The latest round of pardons and commutations followed dozens last month, when Mr. Trump pardoned associates like Paul Manafort and Roger J. Stone Jr., and four Blackwater guards convicted in connection with the killing of Iraqi civilians.
Here are other people who were granted clemency by Mr. Trump:
The rapper Lil Wayne, born Dwayne Michael Carter Jr., received a full pardon after pleading guilty to possession of a firearm and ammunition by a felon in December. Mr. Trump also granted a commutation to another rapper, Kodak Black, whose legal name is Bill Kapri (though he was born Dieuson Octave). In 2019, he was sentenced to nearly four years in prison for lying on background paperwork while attempting to buy guns.
Dr. Salomon E. Melgen, 66, a major Democratic donor and eye doctor had his remaining prison sentence commuted. He ran a series of clinics in Florida that fraudulently told Medicare patients that they had eye diseases and then performed medically unnecessary tests and procedures, falsely billing the federal government at least $42 million, according to prosecutors.
A Miami real estate developer, Robert Zangrillo, who was charged in 2019 in the sweeping investigation of college admissions known as Varsity Blues. Federal prosecutors accused Mr. Zangrillo of conspiring to pay a bribe so that his daughter would be admitted to the University of Southern California as a crew recruit, and also paying someone to take online classes for her, to improve her grades for her college application. Mr. Zangrillo, who was one of more than three dozen parents charged in the case, had pleaded not guilty and was set to stand trial on multiple fraud and conspiracy charges in September.
Andrew Weissmann, second from left, was a prosecutor who worked for the special counsel in the Russia investigation, Robert S. Mueller III.Credit...Al Drago for The New York Times
The moment that Donald J. Trump’s presidency ended, a former prosecutor from the special counsel’s office in the Russia inquiry publicly unveiled an argument that Mr. Trump’s White House had erred in a wave of contentious pardons last month — leaving some recipients vulnerable to new prosecutions.
“If the Biden administration’s Department of Justice wants to rectify some of Trump’s abuse of the pardon power, there are now options at its disposal,” the former prosecutor, Andrew Weissmann, wrote in an essay posted on the legal website Just Security just after noon.
Mr. Weissmann argued on Wednesday that the wording of Mr. Trump’s pre-Christmas pardons was “oddly” drafted. The pardons narrowly covered the recipients’ convictions — rather than broadly relieving them of all potential liability for their actions.
Many of the recipients could be charged with more crimes than those for which they were convicted, he said.
For example, he noted, Mr. Manafort admitted as part of a plea deal over reduced charges that he was guilty of other crimes for which he was never convicted. They included 10 counts of financial crimes over which a jury in a Virginia trial had hung, and others offenses like witness tampering that had been laid out in an indictment in a District of Columbia case.
It would be “unusually simple” to bring new charges against him, Mr. Weissmann argued, in part because prosecutors could use Mr. Manafort’s sworn admissions of his guilt as evidence.
Mr. Weissmann observed that other pardons Mr. Trump granted just before Christmas, including to his longtime informal adviser and friend Roger J. Stone Jr., and to Philip Esformes — “the single largest health care fraudster in history” — were similarly narrow. (The texts of the pardons Mr. Trump issued on his last full day in office are not yet public.)
An exception, Mr. Weissmann wrote, was Mr. Trump’s former national security adviser Michael T. Flynn, who was pardoned in November. That pardon was broadly worded to cover all of Mr. Flynn’s conduct — not just the offense to which he pleaded guilty.
Mr. Weissmann was a frequent target of Mr. Trump and his allies, who accused him of bias; in a memoir published last year, he said that his personal views had no bearing on the crimes that Russian operatives and Trump aides committed.
Biden and Harris Attend Mass With Republican and Democratic Leaders
President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris attended Mass with leaders of both parties at the Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle in Washington Wednesday before the inauguration.
Priest: “On this day, where we emphasize national unity, we welcome people of all faith traditions, and all political preferences, for we are all sons and daughters of God. Lord Jesus, you came to reconcile us to one another and to the father. Lord, you heal the wounds of sin and division. Christ have mercy.” “Christ have mercy.” “Lord Jesus, you intercede for us with your father. Lord have mercy.” “Lord have mercy.”
President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris attended Mass with leaders of both parties at the Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle in Washington Wednesday before the inauguration.CreditCredit...Doug Mills/The New York Times
Ahead of the inauguration, President Joseph Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris attended Mass at the Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle in downtown Washington on Wednesday morning, joined by congressional leaders from both parties in a display of unity after weeks of tumult.
Lawmakers in attendance included Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the Democratic leader; Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican leader; Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California; and Representative Kevin McCarthy of California, the minority leader.
At the corner of 17th Street and Rhode Island Avenue, a crowd of journalists, police officers and curious onlookers stood behind a waist-high metal fence, straining to see the president-elect as he walked into the church.
The streets were still wet after an early morning rain, but the sun was shining, lighting up the dome of the church and its brick red wall.
“I’m just here hoping to get a glimpse,” said Brittany Rogers, 35, a security guard from Baltimore who was visiting Washington for the day. “This is a new beginning, a fresh start. I feel really good.”
Mr. Biden, a Catholic who regularly attends Mass, was accompanied by his wife, Jill Biden. Ms. Harris was joined by her husband, Doug Emhoff.
The second inauguration of President Lincoln at the U.S. Capitol on March 4, 1865, was the first time African-Americans took part in an inaugural parade. Credit...National Park Service
The basics of the inauguration are simple: The new president takes a 35-word oath on a date prescribed by the Constitution.
But the formula has left plenty of room for novelty. As inaugurations evolved over the decades, many became turning points in tradition, marked by mishaps, innovation and spontaneous gestures.
George Washington was a man of few words. His second Inaugural Address had 135 of them, making it the shortest ever delivered. In 1817, James Monroe became the first president to take the oath and give his Inaugural Address outdoors, in front of the Old Brick Capitol. William Henry Harrison spoke the longest, delivering 10,000 words in 1841.
The Date
Inauguration Day wasn’t always in January. Washington took the oath of office on April 30, 1789. In the 19th century, March 4 was written into the Constitution as Inauguration Day. But in 1933, the ratification of the 20th Amendment established that the terms of the president and the vice president would instead end at noon on Jan. 20.
The first president to be inaugurated on Jan. 20 was Franklin D. Roosevelt, who was sworn in to office for a second term in 1937, with a large crowd looking on despite a cold, soaking rain.
The Hat
Top hats were the traditional headgear of choice for many presidential inaugurations. But Dwight D. Eisenhower replaced it in 1953 with a homburg in a break with “official sartorial tradition,” The New York Times reported. John F. Kennedy reverted to the traditional hat in 1961, before it faded away as official garb.
The Parade
Abraham Lincoln’s second inauguration, in 1865, was the first time African-Americans took part in an inaugural parade. Women participated in the inaugural parade for the first time in 1917, at the beginning of Woodrow Wilson’s second term. In 1977, Jimmy Carter became the first to set out by foot for more than a mile on the route to the White House. Mr. Carter’s walk with his wife, Rosalynn, and their 9-year-old daughter, Amy, became a tradition that has been matched — in ceremony if not in length — by the presidents who followed.
The Technology
Inaugurations have reflected innovations in technology and industry. In 1921, Warren G. Harding was the first to ride to his inauguration in an automobile. Fast-forward to bulletproof, closed limousines, which made their appearance in 1965 under Lyndon B. Johnson.
Audiences expanded with developments in technology. In 1845, James Polk’s inaugural address reached more people by telegraph. In 1897, William McKinley’s inauguration was captured on a motion picture camera, and Calvin Coolidge’s in 1925 was transmitted on radio.
Ronald Reagan, a former actor, had a television camera placed inside his limousine during the ride from the Capitol to the White House in 1985. And in 1997, Bill Clinton’s inauguration was the first to be streamed live on the internet.
When Joseph R. Biden Jr. was sworn in as the 46th president of the United States on Wednesday, it was a moment of political triumph that was decades in the making. His long career in public office spanned eight presidents, from Richard M. Nixon to Barack Obama, but the nation’s highest office always eluded him. Now, Mr. Biden, 78, finally joins their ranks.
By the end of the day, the Bidens will arrive at the White House to a deep-cleaned living quarters where their bags will be unpacked, their furniture arranged and their favorite foods stocked in the fridge.Credit...Anna Moneymaker for The New York Times
The time has finally come for former President Donald J. Trump to find a permanent space at Mar-a-Lago for his $50,000 room-size golf simulator, not to mention the 60-inch television he proudly displayed above the dining room table, his collection of Brioni suits and the first lady’s matching Louis Vuitton luggage she has hauled around the globe.
By Wednesday at 12:01 p.m., all the first family’s stuff will have followed him out the White House door, en route to his new home in Palm Beach, Fla. And by the end of the day Joseph R. Biden Jr. and his wife, Jill, will arrive to a deep-cleaned living quarters where their bags will be unpacked, their furniture arranged and their favorite foods stocked in the fridge.
It’s the awkward pas de deux performed every four or eight years when one family moves in and another moves out, an undertaking carried out by the 90-person White House residence staff in about five hours. A complicated, highly choreographed process is done on a tight schedule that often requires boxing up whatever has been left unpacked — some outgoing presidents are more prepared to leave the executive mansion than others.
This year, people involved in the process said, moving day also involves additional cleaning and safety precautions because of the coronavirus.
“The staff is sleeping on cots, in stairwells,” said Anita McBride, who served as chief of staff to the first lady Laura Bush, including during the 2009 handoff to the Obamas. No matter how prepared they are, she said, “it’s always chaotic.”
It’s all part of a White House ritual that Mr. Trump hasn’t completely disrupted. But as with everything else in politics and in life, this year will be more difficult than most.
Vice President Kamala Harris served up the bipartisan message in a bright single-breasted coat and dress from Christopher John Rodgers.Credit...Erin Schaff/The New York Times
Forget red and blue (states). The theme of the Biden inauguration was “America United,” and the color of the day seemed to be purple — the shade that bridges the divide by bringing both colors together (not to mention one of the original signature colors of the suffragists, whose dreams are now being realized with the first woman vice president).
“Purple is the color of loyalty, constancy to purpose, unswerving steadfastness to a cause,” the National Woman’s Party wrote in a newsletter in 1913.
Though Dr. Jill Biden coordinated her blue Markarian coat with her husband’s blue Ralph Lauren tie, Vice President Kamala Harris served up the bipartisan message in a bright single-breasted coat and dress from Christopher John Rodgers, as did former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in a grape Ralph Lauren pantsuit. And Michelle Obama, the former first lady, wore wine trousers with a coordinated turtleneck and long coat from Sergio Hudson, a young Black designer.
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Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in a grape Ralph Lauren pantsuit. And Michelle Obama, the former first lady, wore wine trousers with a coordinated turtleneck and long coat from Sergio Hudson, a young Black designer.Credit...Ruth Fremson/The New York Times
Masks were also part of the material culture of this inauguration. Dr. Biden wore a sky blue mask that appeared custom-made to match her coat, and other members of her family chose a similar monochrome theme. Ms. Harris opted for a shiny black number that complimented her purple outfit, one of her signature mask looks.
Many men opted for paper medical masks, but a few went for solid shades or face coverings that featured insignia.
