A Change of Power at the US Capitol
Updates From January 22nd
As part of his 11th-hour pardons, Trump issued a raft of 73 pardons and 70 reduced criminal punishments known as commutations, one of which was for Steve Bannon, former White House strategist who pled not guilty against charges of defrauding donors in a online fundraiser for “We Build the Wall”. According to CNN’s reporting of a senior Trump adviser’s opinion, Trump hopes for Bannon to help him lead a second presidential campaign in 2024. Meanwhile, former First Lady of the US, Melania Trump outsourced her ‘thank you’ notes to staff instead of writing them herself, and she has been receiving backlash for the action alongside a 47% unfavorability vote from a CNN poll.
As the sun rose on the morning of a day hoped to mark a better US presidential tenure than the one that just ended, the events of the day finally began with Joe and Jill Biden attending a church service at the Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle in Washington – Biden is now only the second Catholic president of the US. More commonly, services have been held at St. John’s Episcopal Church, “The Church of the Presidents” located across Lafayette Square, but Biden chose to hold his service at St. Matthew instead, a church named after the saint patron of civil servants. The Biden family attended a mass led by Father Kevin O’Brien that morning with VP Harris and her family, and four bipartisan congressional leaders including Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell and Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer in attendance.
A source familiar with the happenings confirmed that while the outgoing president Trump and first lady Melania did leave individual notes for Joe and Jill Biden, the contents had not been revealed or made clear. Meanwhile, 17 freshmen GOP wrote their new president a letter committing their intentions to work with him. The letter was led by Republican Representative from Texas, Beth Van Duyne and included signatures from 16 other GOP House freshmen: “We firmly believe that what unites us as Americans is far greater than anything that may ever divide us. In that spirit, we hope that we can rise above the partisan fray to negotiate meaningful change for Americans across the nation and maintain the United States’ standing as the best country in the world.”
Reporting from January 21st
After four years of a tenure that made people not only hate a US president the most and divide the country into supporters/Republicans and those against him/Democrats, but also impeach one twice for the first time in a single tenure, Donald J. Trump has finally left the building as the 45th President of the United States of America. Just this past month alone (and it’s not even over yet), Trump was able to make all of the first three weeks of January 2021 memorable, though not in a positive light for all of the three instances. Now, as Joe Biden and Kamala Harris take their oaths as the 46th President and 49th Vice President of the USA, not just Americans but most people across the globe are both quietly and vocally hoping for them to bring peace and actually do good for once as a US president/vice president duo.
On Wednesday January 20th, 2021, Democratic party candidates Joe Robinette Biden Jr. and Kamala Devi Harris took their Presidential and Vice Presidential oaths at the United States Capitol in a ceremony that is held every four years on January 20th (unless the 20th falls on a weekend). Biden was sworn in by Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts while Harris was sworn in as the first female, first Black and first South Asian VP by Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor. Prior to their latest designations, Biden had served as the 47th VP until 2017, and Harris had served as a US Senator for California until 2021. Their spouses took their positions in government as well: Jill Tracy Biden became the 46th First Lady of the US and is an American educator; Douglas Craig Emhoff became the 1st Second Gentleman of the US, becoming the first husband and the first Jewish spouse of a US VP. As the new government officials took their posts at the US Capitol, their official Twitter handles went live with the renewed information too, alongside a new handle going live for the Second Gentleman.
For the first time in 150 years since Johnson skipped Grant’s inauguration in 1869, a US president boycotted his successor’s inaugural ceremony when Trump flew back to his Mar-a-Lago home on Palm Beach, Florida early on Jan 20th. He had acquired the estate in 1985 and declared it as his primary residence in 2019. Reports have surfaced about him making the estate a permanent residence.
The United States Presidential Inauguration Day 2021 had factors never seen before like the National Mall getting shutdown due to the pandemic, a lack of a raft of tickets for each Congress member to distribute at will, a lack of the general public and the public parade, and the absence of the Inauguration Ball. Instead, each of the Congress members could only bring a Plus One, the parade was held virtually, the lawn where the crowd would have stood was covered in 191,500 US flags of varying sizes, and 25,000 National Guard troops assisted in keeping the ceremony safe and protected in the horrifying wake of the Wednesday, January 6th Trump-led riots early this month. The only requirement laid out by the US Constitution for an incoming elected candidate to be sworn-in is for him to say the following words in the presence of a judge at noon of January 20th: “I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.” Thus, none of the pomp that has been a part of Inauguration Days in the past are necessary for a president to actually be able to take on his duties by law. Both, the speech and placing the president’s hand on a Holy Bible are also just part of custom.
Stay tuned for yesterday’s happenings and our post series on Biden’s first month as the 46th President in office for the USA.
Credit: Alex Wong/Getty Images/CNN
