Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. was sworn in Wednesday as the 46th president of the United States, pledging to unite the country and confront an array of convulsing challenges dividing a fractured nation.
“This is our historic moment of crisis and challenge,” Biden said in an inaugural address that called on the nation to end its “uncivil war” and embrace a united front amid a series of daunting problems.
“Unity is the path forward. And we must meet this moment as the United States of America. If we do that, I guarantee you we will not fail.”
With his hand on his family Bible, Biden recited the oath taken by his predecessors, the pinnacle of a career in public leadership that began a half century ago.
Moments before, Kamala D. Harris took her oath of office, making her the country’s first female vice president, and also the first Black American and first with Indian heritage to hold the second highest office in the land.
She had placed her hand on twin Bibles, one from a family friend and the second belonging to Thurgood Marshall, the first African American justice of the Supreme Court.
Biden replaces outgoing president Donald Trump, whose scandal-plagued single term was constantly dogged by accusations that he failed to uphold his own oath — including in recent weeks as he refused to concede the election, tried to browbeat his vice president, Mike Pence, to violate the Constitution and inspired a deadly riot by supporters against the U.S. Capitol.
Biden, who at 78 is the oldest man to be sworn in as president, secured the office by pledging to be the polar opposite of Trump — to cool tempers rather than inflame them. He has promised to undo much of Trump’s legacy and restore what he refers to as “the soul of America” by proving that the past four years represented an aberration rather than an enduring rift in the national fabric.
Early Wednesday he announced the first in a blizzard of actions reversing the Trump administration on a wide range of issues.
Four years after Trump gave a dark and defiant inaugural address pledging to end “American carnage,” Biden took office seeking to appeal to the country’s more hopeful sentiments and make a plea for unity.
“Politics doesn’t have to be a raging fire, destroying everything in its path,” he said in his speech, calling on the nation to “start afresh.”
He cited his inauguration as a symbol of the country turning the page after its very democracy was tested like never before. “
We’ve learned again that democracy is precious, democracy is fragile — and at this hour, my friends, democracy has prevailed,” he said.
While Biden described America as a “place of hope and light, of limitless possibilities,” during an emotional goodbye ceremony in Delaware on Tuesday, the scene surrounding his inauguration in Washington on Wednesday offered a visceral reminder of the dark challenges he now faces as leader of the free world.
