WASHINGTON: Thirty-four years after first seeking the job, Joe Biden was to be sworn in as the 46th US president Wednesday, drawing a curtain on the most tumultuous administration of modern times and charting a new course to tackle Covid-19 and unite a splintered nation.
Outgoing President Donald Trump entered the White House four years ago as a brash billionaire outsider, but he is being ousted by a polar opposite whose devotion to service, deep knowledge of Washington, and personal scars will unquestionably set a different tone.
Biden, a 78-year-old former vice president and longtime senator, was to take the oath of office at 1700 GMT (0100 MYT, Thursday) on the US Capitol’s West front, the very spot where pro-Trump rioters clashed with police two weeks ago before storming Congress in a deadly insurrection.
While a transition of power will occur much as it has for more than two centuries, this inauguration is unlike any other.
Official Washington has taken on the dystopian look of an armed camp, protected by some 25,000 National Guard troops tasked with preventing any repeat of this month’s attack.
And with the pandemic raging, the general public is essentially barred from attending the swearing-in, leading to unprecedented optics: an empty National Mall on Inauguration Day.
His inaugural speech will last between 20 and 30 minutes, according to a source familiar with preparations, and “he will reach out to all Americans, and call on every citizen to be part of meeting the extraordinary challenges facing all of us.”
To symbolise the new spirit, Biden has invited the two top senators—Democrat Chuck Schumer and Republican Mitch McConnell—and other congressional leaders to attend a church service with him Wednesday before the inauguration.
Biden’s first day is expected to be packed, with aides saying recently he would sign perhaps a dozen executive orders that could address the pandemic, the ailing US economy, climate change and racial injustice in America.
The European Union’s top officials expressed relief on Wednesday that they would again have a friend in the White House as Joe Biden replaces Donald Trump.
Charles Michel, president of the European Council, said the moment should be seized to form a new “founding pact” between democratic powers.
He was joined in the European Parliament by Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Council, to address MEPs hours ahead of Biden’s inauguration.
“This time-honoured ceremony on the steps of the US Capitol will be a demonstration of the resilience of American democracy,” she said.
“And the resounding proof that, once again, after four long years, Europe has a friend in the White House.”
But Brussels’ top official warned the fact that millions of Americans had voted for Trump and that some of them had rioted on his behalf on January 6 should serve as a warning.
“President Trump may be history in a few hours, but his supporters remain.
More than 70 million Americans voted for Trump in the election,” she said.
“A few hundred of them stormed the Capitol in Washington, the heart of American democracy, just a few days ago.
“And this really is what it looks like when words put into deeds, when hate speech and fake news become a real danger to democracy,” she said.
“Despite established democracy being embedded here, we cannot assume that we are immune to these phenomena.”
Von der Leyen compared the US riot to a recent attempt by German activists to storm the Reichstag in Berlin in protest at coronavirus lockdown measures.
And she cited the case of Jo Cox, a British MP who was murdered by a far-right activist weeks before the UK voted to leave the European Union.
“Of course, there are differences with the storming of the Capitol, but there are also people here who feel wronged and angry”, she warned.
Europeans should beware of “people who adhere to wildly rampant conspiracy theories, an often confused mixture of completely absurd fantasies”, she said.
Michel, who hoped to host Biden at an EU-US summit in parallel with a Nato meeting in Brussels early in the new president’s term, struck a more upbeat tone.
“Law, order and democracy, have prevailed over this disgraceful attempt to overturn the election. American democracy has proven its strength and resilience,” he said.
“Let’s build a new founding pact for a stronger Europe, for a stronger America and for a better world.”
