Joe Biden's inauguration with a promise to 'heal' America

Wednesday, 20 January 2021 - 11:51

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With a promise to 'heal' America, which in recent months witnessed a chaotic election and messy transition of power, Joseph R Biden will take the oath to become the 46th president of the United States today.

Biden, who is known around the world for his stint as the vice president during the Obama administration, will be the oldest person ever sworn in as president of the country. He turned 78 in November.

President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris will be sworn in at the West Front of the US capitol during the 59th Presidential Inauguration ceremony.

Biden's inauguration is taking place under the shadow of the unprecedented health crisis and protests in the US.

The security in the capital has been beefed up amid a high level of security concerns following the January 6 Capitol riots.

In his victory speech in his hometown, Wilmington, Delaware in November, Biden pledged to unite the country as he called it 'a time to heal in America'.

"I pledge to be a president who seeks not to divide, but to unify; who doesn't see red states and blue states, only sees the United States," Biden said

Four years after he left the Beltway for his hometown in Delaware, Biden returned to Washington DC a day before his swearing-in. Before boarding a private plane for Joint Air Force Base Andrews on his way to Washington DC, Biden said, “I am honoured to be your next President and Commander in Chief. I will always be a proud son of the state of Delaware."

Kamala Harris, 56, will be the first-ever woman Vice President and also the first African American and India-origin person to occupy the second most powerful position in the US.

Biden said that 12 years ago Barack Obama, a Black man, greeted him at the train platform before he became his Vice President, and now he departs to "meet a Black woman of South Asian descent" to become President and Vice President.

Joseph Robinette Biden, Jr. was born in Scranton, Pennsylvania in 1942 and moved to Delaware as a child.

At age 29, Biden became one of the youngest people ever elected to the United States Senate. Weeks later, tragedy struck the Biden family when his wife Neilia and daughter Naomi were killed and sons Hunter and Beau critically injured in an auto accident

Biden was sworn into the U.S. Senate at his sons' hospital bedside and began commuting from Wilmington to Washington every day. For five years, he raised Beau and Hunter as a single father, with the help of his sister Valerie and his family.

Biden married again five years after Neilia's death, to his current wife Jill. The couple married on June 17, 1977, at the United Nations Chapel in New York City and has one daughter together, Ashley Blazer, who was born in 1981.

The 2020 race marked Biden's third attempt at running for President. He first tried in 1988 but dropped out after allegations of plagiarism. He ended his second attempt in 2008 after garnering less than one per cent in the crucial Iowa caucuses.

Biden served as vice president in the former president Barack Obama administration for two terms from 2008 to 2016

On December 20, it is anticipated there will be roughly 1,000 guests in attendance, the majority of whom will be members of Congress and their guests. US President Donald Trump has said he will not be joining Biden at the inauguration.

It's customary for an outgoing president and other former presidents to sit behind a new president, symbolizing the peaceful transfer of power. Biden called Trump's decision not to attend "one of the few things he and I have ever agreed on."


Joe Biden is set to swear-in as the 46th President of the United States on Wednesday, with the message of unity and the enormous task of healing a bitterly divided country. Four years after he left the Beltway for his hometown in Delaware, Biden returned to Washington DC a day before his swearing-in. Before boarding a private plane for Joint Air Force Base Andrews on his way to Washington DC, Biden said, “I am honoured to be your next President and Commander in Chief. I will always be a proud son of the state of Delaware."

Harris, 56, will be the first-ever woman Vice President and also the first African American and India-origin person to occupy the second most powerful position in the US.

Biden said that 12 years ago Barack Obama, a Black man, greeted him at the train platform before he became his Vice President, and now he departs to "meet a Black woman of South Asian descent" to become President and Vice President.

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