'Never been more optimistic': speeches, songs and celebrations cap Biden's inauguration day –as it happened

Amanda Gorman, the 22-year-old poet who transfixed the inauguration crowd this morning, has given an interview to a visibly smitten Anderson Cooper on CNN.

Here’s a clip of the interview.

And here’s a story and video of her delivering her poem, entitled The Hill We Climb. And here’s a full transcript of the poem.

It’s been an inauguration day like no other. The photographer Jordan Gale recorded the preparations for the day for the Guardian US, with the results gathered in this remarkable essay.

Here’s more from the Guardian’s arts writer Adrian Horton:

Hello again from the couch in front of Celebrating America, which has played so far as a technically competent, mostly seamless Zoom compilation of good, if bland and sometimes cringeworthy, intentions.

The special is organized around a celebration of American people – those who feed us (food pantry workers, farmers), care for us (nurses and medical professionals), teach us (teachers), supply us (delivery workers) – represented by private citizens from around the country.

But the main TV draw is, of course, the musical performances by an array of stars, noted more for their broad fanbases than any particular genre or tie to American democracy – Bruce Springsteen, the Foo Fighters, Justin Timberlake. Some of the performances have drawn praise amid the quick-shifting parade of this special’s desktop aesthetics: John Legend’s stirring rendition of I’m Feeling Good made the special’s trademark optimism momentarily arresting, while Yolanda Adams’s Hallelujah soundtracked a moving recap of nationwide tributes to the 400,000 Americans lost to the pandemic.

Other performances, such as Bon Jovi’s treacly Here Comes the Sun were, uh, less well-received. “This Tim McGraw and FGL colorblind song is the absolute worst of country,” tweeted sociologist Tressie McMillan Cottom of the duet between country artists McGraw and Florida Georgia Line’s Tyler Hubbard.

The former presidents hammered on the message of “unity” Biden chose as a theme for the day.

“It was a reminder that we can have fierce disagreements and recognize each other’s common humanity and that as Americans we have more in common than what separates us,” Obama said.

It’s a dissonant message, so soon after a deadly attack on the US Capitol, amid a growing threat of rightwing extremism.

After a tribute to healthcare workers, Sandra Lindsay, an ICU nurse in new York who was the first person in the US to get the FDA-approved Covid-19 vaccine.

“Our nurses care for thousands of Covid patients daily. We are often the last people to hold their hands,” she said. “It has taken a toll.”

“Some days, I don’t know how I got through it,” she had told the New York Times in December. “Some days I didn’t know how I got home, but I knew I had to rest and get ready to come back and do it again. Because I did not want to leave my team to do it alone.”

Here’s a video from when she received her vaccination:

The program turned to memorializing those who have died of Covid-19.

Reminders that hundreds of thousands of Americans have died were present throughout the day, as we saw Biden, Harris and other leaders in face masks, maintaining physical distance, as Biden signed executive actions mandating masks on federal property, as we watch a virtual celebration in lieu of an Inaugural Ball.

But in the middle of the program, the Celebration of America took a moment to mourn and remember, with a performance of Hallelujah by Yolanda Adams.

And we’re getting a compilation of Broadway performers singing Seasons of Love from Rent ...

Marking the milestone of putting 2,102,400 minutes of the Trump administration behind.

We’re now into the capstone of a secure (thanks to nearly 25,000 national guardsmen), surprisingly smooth inauguration day in Washington: the 90-minute celebrity extravaganza known as Celebrating America, a collection of music performances, tributes to America’s essential workers, and nods to better days ahead.

And there’s no more perfect star to host such an event than Tom Hanks, the beloved everyman actor and one of the few cultural figures on whom most Americans can agree (for a full feel-good summary of Hanks’s legendary, evergreen niceness, please see Taffy Brodesser-Akner’s profile in the NY Times from 2019).

From Forrest Gump to the heroic pilot Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger, Saving Private to Mr Rogers in A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood, Hanks has built a career on playing ordinary Americans rising to extraordinary occasions, men whose unremarkable decency, resilience and kindness evince extraordinary heroism. (Hanks was also the celebrity whose coronavirus diagnosis on 11 March, 2020 was for many the moment the direness of the pandemic really sank in.)

On screen and off, Hanks tends to immediately impart a sense of security — the future in good hands — through the basic principle of caring for those around you under higher ideals. In a year during which much-lauded but deeply under-supported essential workers have kept the country functioning, for a program designed to impart the Biden administration’s intent to work for all Americans (Trump voters included), there are few cultural figures who could hold the center like Hanks.

“I’ve never been more optimistic about America than I am this very day,” Biden said.

“Because of you, democracy has prevailed. That’s why Jill and I, Kamala and Doug, wanted to make sure that our inauguration was not about us, but about you, the American people,” he said.

Looking forward, he added, “America’s story depends not on any one of us, not on some of us, but on all of us – on we, the people. That’s the task before us, the only way we’ll get through the darkness around us.”

Bon Jovi did a cover of the Beatles’ “Here comes the sun” - sparking some vexation...

The Department of Homeland Security says it will “cease adding individuals into” the Remain in Mexico program.

The Trump administration policy, called the Migrant Protection Protocols, requires asylum seekers to wait in Mexico while awaiting their day in US immigration court.

Some 60,000 people were sent across the border due to the policy, and many remain there in limbo, facing dangerous, unstable conditions. “Current COVID-19 non-essential travel restrictions, both at the border and in the region, remain in place at this time. All current MPP participants should remain where they are, pending further official information from US government officials,” the DHS said in a statement.

The pandemic has caused immigration courts to pause the processing of migrants caught up in the Remain in Mexico policy, so those who are stuck across the border have faced an extra layer of uncertainty.

Read more on the Biden administration’s immigration plans:

Asked what it was like for Biden to head into the White House today, Psaki said Biden felt “an incredible sense of calm, some joy, and he felt like he was coming home”.

On coronavirus relief, Psaki reiterated that Biden’s “preference is to move forward with a bipartisan bill”. But he is “not going to take any tools off the table” to pass measures.

The administration here is in line with what Senate Democrats, including Bernie Sanders – who is at the helm of the Budget Committee – have said. “We should hear what my Republican colleagues have to say, but we are not going to spend months and months and not address the incredible pain millions of families are experiencing,” Sanders said.

In the Senate, 60 votes are required to pass major legislation, but some things – including anything related to budget and taxation – can be passed with 51 votes, via a process called reconciliation.

Psaki addressed the issue of misinformation: “There are a number of ways to combat misinformation. One of them is accurate information and truth and data and sharing information even when it is hard to hear.”

She told the press she would return to daily briefings, including Covid-19 updates with health officials. “Not Saturday or Sunday; I’m not a monster,” she said.

Joe Biden’s first call with a foreign leader will be with Justin Trudeau, the prime minister of Canada.

Biden will speak with Trudeau on Friday. “I expect they will certainly discuss the important relationship with Canada as well as his decision on the Keystone pipeline,” Psaki said.

Trudeau today congratulated Biden on his inauguration but also issued a statement saying “we are disappointed” in the US president’s decision to cancel the permit for the Keystone XL, the 1,200-mile pipeline meant to transport crude oil from Canada to Nebraska.

Read more:

“When the president asked me to serve in this role, we talked about the importance of bringing truth and transparency back to the briefing room,” Psaki said. She emphasized that while she may at times find herself at odds with the press pool, she is committed to bringing transparency to her role.

Almost a thousand staff were on that massive video call.

“I need your help badly,” Biden told them. “I’m going to make mistakes. When I make them, I’ll acknowledge them – and I’ll tell you. And I’ll need your help to help me correct them.”

Joe Biden moved to reinstate the US to the Paris climate agreement just hours after being sworn in as president, as his administration rolls out a cavalcade of executive orders aimed at tackling the climate crisis.

Biden’s executive action will see the US rejoin the international effort curb the dangerous heating of the planet, following a 30-day notice period. The world’s second largest emitter of greenhouse gases was withdrawn from the Paris deal under Donald Trump.

Biden is also set to block the Keystone XL pipeline, a bitterly contested project that would bring huge quantities of oil from Canada to the US to be refined, and halt oil and gas drilling at Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante, two vast national monuments in Utah, and the Arctic national wildlife refuge wilderness. The Trump administration’s decision to shrink the protected areas of Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante will also be reviewed.

The flurry of first-day action on the climate crisis came after Biden, in his inauguration speech, said America needed to respond to a “climate in crisis”. The change in direction from the Trump era was profound and immediate – on the White House website, where all mentions of climate were scrubbed out in 2017, a new list of priorities now puts the climate crisis second only behind the Covid pandemic. Biden has previously warned that climate change poses the “greatest threat” to the country, which was battered by record climate-fueled wildfires, hurricanes and heat last year.

The re-entry to the Paris agreement ends a period where the US became a near-pariah on the international stage with Trump’s refusal to address the unfolding disaster of rising global temperatures. Countries are struggling to meet commitments, made in Paris in 2015, to limit the global temperature increase to 1.5C above the pre-industrial era, with 2020 setting another record for extreme heat.

“It’s just a huge day to get rid of this myopic, benighted administration and welcome in a new president who manifestly is committed to strong, meaningful action,” said Todd Stern, who was the lead US negotiator in Paris. “Rejoining Paris is just the first step, but it’s a big first step.”

Biden is expected to convene an international climate summit in the spring to help accelerate emissions cuts and will probably submit a new US emissions reduction goal to help it reach net zero emissions by 2050. “We can’t be afraid or diffident about exercising leadership again but we need a sense of humility in light of what has occurred over the past four years,” Stern said of America’s return to climate diplomacy. “The message is ‘we are back, let’s move hard.’ It will be deliberate, aggressive and strategic.”

Gina McCarthy, Biden’s top climate adviser, said Biden will in all reverse “more than 100” climate-related policies enacted by Trump.

Read more:

Joe Biden is the first president in recent memory to take office without any of his cabinet confirmed.

The process has been delayed by the ongoing pandemic, riots at the capitol, and Republican’s resistance to accepting the election results. Until now, incoming residents for the past 30 years had at least some of their cabinet confirmed by Inauguration Day.

Today, Republican senator Tom Cotton – who had put a hold on the nomination of Avril Haines, Biden’s pick for director of national intelligence – said he’s ready to move forward with a vote.

“For the information of all Senators who wanted know if we’d have a vote tonight specifically on the nomination of Avril Haines to be DNI,” he said. “I was the last person to object to holding that vote. I no longer object.”

Meanwhile, Josh Hawley, the Republican senator of Missouri who was pictured raising a fist towards Trump supporters at the Capitol riot, had blocked consideration of Alejandro Mayorkas, Biden’s Homeland Security nominee.

As Biden sat down to sign a stack of executive orders in the Oval Office on Wednesday, it was clear more had changed in the room than the administration.

Trump’s portrait of Andrew Jackson – the censured and fellow populist 19th-century president – was replaced with Benjamin Franklin, meant to signal Biden’s interest in science, according to the Washington Post. Other intentional changes include a portrait of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and paired paintings of Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton – representing two people with vastly differing ideologies who worked together.

Placed on the mantle and other shelving are now busts of Martin Luther King, Rosa Parks, and Robert Kennedy. Also notable are a bust of César Chávez, the American labor leader and Latin American activist, and a sculpture of the Chiricahua Apache Tribe, which belonged to late senator Daniel K Inouye, the first Japanese-American elected to both houses of Congress.

Biden chose the Resolute desk from the six desks traditionally offered, the same one used by Trump and Obama. There have also been some cosmetic changes, including different rugs, curtains and wallpaper. We can’t help wonder if Biden is trying some feng shui to get rid of some of that stale energy.

Bernie Sanders wrote in an op-ed for The Guardian today: “Democrats, who will now control the White House, the Senate, and the House, must summon the courage to demonstrate to the American people that government can effectively and rapidly respond to their pain and anxiety.”

A record-breaking 4,000 Americans are now dying each day from Covid-19, while the federal government fumbles vaccine production and distribution, testing and tracing. In the midst of the worst pandemic in 100 years, more than 90 million Americans are uninsured or underinsured and can’t afford to go to a doctor when they get sick. The isolation and anxiety caused by the pandemic has resulted in a huge increase in mental illness.

Over half of American workers are living paycheck to paycheck, including millions of essential workers who put their lives on the line every day. More than 24 million Americans are unemployed, underemployed or have given up looking for work, while hunger in this country is at the highest level in decades.

Because of lack of income, up to 40 million Americans face the threat of eviction, and many owe thousands in back rent. This is on top of the 500,000 who are already homeless.

Meanwhile, the wealthiest people in this country are becoming much richer, and income and wealth inequality are soaring. Incredibly, during the pandemic, 650 billionaires in America have increased their wealth by more than $1tn.

As a result of the pandemic education in this country, from childcare to graduate school, is in chaos. The majority of young people in this country have seen their education disrupted and it is likely that hundreds of colleges will soon cease to exist.

Climate change is ravaging the planet with an unprecedented number of forest fires and extreme weather disturbances. Scientists tell us that we have only a very few years before irreparable damage takes place to our country and the world.

And, in the midst of all this, the foundations of American democracy are under an unprecedented attack. We have a president who is working feverishly to undermine American democracy and incite violence against the very government and constitution he swore to defend. Against all of the evidence, tens of millions of Americans actually believe Trump’s Big Lie that he won this election by a landslide and that victory was stolen from him and his supporters. Armed rightwing militias in support of Trump are being mobilized throughout the country.

In this moment of unprecedented crises, Congress and the Biden administration must respond through unprecedented action. No more business as usual. No more same old, same old.

Democrats, who will now control the White House, the Senate and the House, must summon the courage to demonstrate to the American people that government can effectively and rapidly respond to their pain and anxiety. As the incoming chairman of the Senate budget committee that is exactly what I intend to do.

Read more:

As Democrats take control of the Senate, Bernie Sanders has taken on his new role as chair of the powerful Senate Budget Committee.

At the helm of the Budget Committee, Sanders will be in charge of the reconciliation process, which allows Congress to move through legislation without the 60-vote supermajority needed to overcome filibuster. Reconciliation can be used to move through key coronavirus relief measures, including stimulus payments.

Sanders has said that he’d love for a bipartisan effort on coronavirus relief, but he won’t let a desire for bipartisanship delay action.

“We should hear what my Republican colleagues have to say, but we are not going to spend months and months and not address the incredible pain millions of families are experiencing,” Sanders said.

Chuck Schumer of New York spoke on the Senate floor, as majority leader.

“This will be an exceptionally busy and consequential period for the US Senate. There is much to do,” Schumer said. “We are ready to get to work.”

With their razor-thin majority, Democrats in the Senate will have to balance the impeachment trial of Donald Trump with an urgent need to push through coronavirus relief.

To pass major legislation, a bipartisan, 60-vote supermajority will be required – but there’s a lot the Democrats can do with 51 votes, through a process called budget reconciliation.

Kamala Harris has arrived at the Capitol to swear in three new Democratic senators, giving her party control of the chamber.

The Senate is now in session, and Kamala Harris will soon swear in three new Democratic senators -- Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff of Georgia and Alex Padilla of California.

Warnock and Ossoff run their Senate runoff races earlier this month, and Padilla was appointed to serve out the remainder of Harris’ term.

After the three senators are sworn in, the Senate will be evenly split, 50-50, between Democrats and Republicans. With Harris serving as a tie-breaking vote, Democrats will take control of the chamber.

Amazon has published an open letter to Joe Biden, hours into his presidency, offering to help with efforts to distribute the Covid-19 vaccine.

“We are prepared to leverage our operations, information technology, and communications capabilities and expertise to assist your administration’s vaccination efforts,” wrote Dave Clark, the head of Amazon’s consumer business.

“Our scale allows us to make a meaningful impact immediately in the fight against Covid-19, and we stand ready to assist you in this effort.”

In the letter, Clark said that Amazon has an agreement with a “licensed third-party occupational health care provider” to administer vaccines to its employees, including warehouse employees, some who have died from Covid-19.

It is unclear whether Amazon had extended this offer to the Trump administration or if it has already been in talks with Biden’s team. The company had asked the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to give priority access to the vaccination for its front-line workers.

While the agency has not singled Amazon out for priority, it has deemed essential workers not in healthcare as priority recipients in “Phase 1c” of vaccine distribution, which follows the vaccination of healthcare workers and people over 75.

Disillusionment has come upon some believers of QAnon, the baseless conspiracy theory that a cabal of Satan-worshipping Democrats, celebrities and billionaires run the world while overseeing a pedophilic human trafficking scheme, as Joe Biden officially become president of the United States Wednesday afternoon.

QAnon supporters believed that Wednesday’s inauguration ceremonies would bring a type of doomsday that would ultimately end with top Democrats being arrested and Donald Trump starting a second term.

But things went peacefully. No Democrats were arrested. Trump, now a former president, is in Palm Beach.

Screenshots of confused and disappointed QAnon supporters on online forums were shared on Twitter. One QAnon believer posted a comment titled “Anyone else feeling beyond let down now?” with a description that said: “It’s like being a kid and seeing the big gift under the tree thinking it is exactly what you want only to open it and realize it was a lump of coal the whole time.”

Others said they felt sick and “sad and confused” as inauguration continued smoothly.

To make things harder for believers, Ron Watkins, who moderated QAnon base 8kun, posted a message essentially telling supporters to go back to their regular lives.

“We have a new president sworn in and it is our responsibility as citizens to respect the Constitution,” Watkins wrote. “As we enter the new administration please remember all the friends and happy memories we made together over the past few years.”

Some people pointed out that QAnon has created real rifts between families and friends that will not be easily repaired even as their theories are debunked.

Kamala Harris walked down Pennsylvania Avenue to the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, where her office is.

The new vice-president walked down the street while holding hands with her husband, second gentleman Doug Emhoff.

When a reporter shouted at Harris asking how today feels, the vice-president responded she was just “walking to work”.

Harris will soon swear in three Democratic senators -- Raphael Warnock, Jon Ossoff and Alex Padilla -- giving her party control of the chamber.

Joe Biden made a couple stops as he walked toward the White House along the inaugural parade route.

The president stopped to share a fist-bump with Al Roker. When the legendary weatherman asked Biden how today feels, the president responded, “Feels great.”

The president also stopped to take a question from NBC News reporter Mike Memoli, who has covered Biden since 2007.

Memoli asked Biden what this moments means for him, as it comes more than three decades after he first ran for president. Biden replied, “It feels like I’m going home.”

Joe Biden made some detours as he walked along Pennsylvania Avenue to the White House.

At one point, the new president ran ahead to give Al Roker, America’s favorite weatherman, a fist bump.

Biden also stopped to say hello to Muriel Bowser, the mayor of Washington, DC.

Joe Biden has exited his limo to walk along some of the inaugural parade route with his wife, Dr Jill Biden, and their family.

It was unclear whether the new president would walk along Pennsylvania Avenue, due to concerns about security and coronavirus.

The Bidens are making their way to the White House, which will serve as their home for the next four years.

Vice-president Kamala Harris was escorted to the White House by the Howard University marching band.

Harris is an alumna of Howard, making her the first graduate of a historically black university to become vice-president.

Bernie Sanders explained to CBS News why he chose to wear a rather understated khaki coat and mittens to Joe Biden’s inauguration this morning.

“You know, in Vermont, we know something about the cold,” the senator said. “We’re not so concerned about good fashion. We want to keep warm.”

Sanders’ outfit delighted many inauguration viewers, and Twitter users jumped to photoshop the former presidential candidate into various absurd locations.

Before leaving office, Donald Trump reportedly issued a directive for thirteen members of his family to receive Secret Service protection for another six months.

The Washington Post reports:

Under federal law, Trump, his wife Melania and their 14-year-old son are the only members of his immediate family entitled to Secret Service protection after they leave office.

The couple will receive it for their lifetimes, and Barron is entitled to protection until he turns 16. Former Vice President Mike Pence and his wife Karen Pence will also receive continued Secret Service security for the next six months under the same law governing protection.

But Trump wanted every family member who had been protected by the Secret Service during his administration to be covered for another six months, according to the people familiar with his directive, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe security arrangements.

That means the expensive, taxpayer-funded security will continue for his daughter Ivanka Trump and her husband Jared Kushner, their three children, his son Donald Trump Jr. and his four children, his son Eric Trump and his wife Lara and his daughter Tiffany Trump.

As is typical with presidential transitions, there are already new photos up in the West Wing to celebrate Joe Biden’s inauguration.

A CNN reporter shared these photos from the White House:

Earlier today, White House reporters captured photos of bare walls in the West Wing, after photos of Donald Trump were taken down in preparation for Biden’s inauguration.

The teams who clean the White House between occupants and change the furniture and décor to the wishes of the incoming president are having an unusual time on this inauguration day.

On the one hand, they have more of a task because the presidential mansion will need to be deep-cleaned to purge it of any traces of the coronavirus that might be lingering, during an ongoing pandemic.

But on the other hand they have more time to get the job done, because instead of hosting his successor for tea and a tour, Donald Trump departed the White House with his wife Melania shortly after 8am on Wednesday, and Joe and Jill Biden are not expected to arrive at the White House until around 4pm ET.

Trump hosted several events at the White House last year that became notorious as super-spreader events for coronavirus, including the former president catching the disease himself. By 4pm today, all that will have been expurgated.

NBC News reported:

‘This year, the most important aspect of the move is cleaning it out, doing the deep clean,’ said Martha Kumar, the director of the White House Transition Project and author of the book ‘Before the Oath: How George W. Bush and Barack Obama Managed a Transfer of Power.’

‘It’s more than just the residence ... you’ve had all the parties where the virus has spread, and you’ve had (the virus) in the West Wing, and you’ve had it in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building. They have rooms with ceilings 25 feet high. Cleaning that place is tough.’

Before the Bidens move in, the White House will have received a top-to-bottom cleaning totaling nearly half a million dollars ... That’s on top of the normal changeover costs that come when a new administration takes over.

The new tab included a $44,000 charge for carpet cleaning, $29,000 for curtain cleaning in both the White House and the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, and a $115,000 charge for new carpets in the East Wing, West Wing and EEOB, NBC News reported.

Around 95 people work for the White House residence staff — butlers, chefs, ushers, housekeepers and florists, many of whom stay on for decades.

Joe Biden and Kamala Harris have arrived at Arlington National Cemetery to lay a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

In his campaign speeches, Biden frequently mentioned that his late son, Beau, who died in 2015, was a veteran.

Recent former presidents, with the exception of Donald Trump of course, are accompanying Biden and Harris to Arlington.

Poet Amanda Gorman was widely praised for her recitation of a poem at Joe Biden’s inauguration this afternoon.

At 22, Gorman is the youngest inaugural poet in recent history. If you missed Gorman’s stirring performance, watch it here:

Now that Joe Biden has officially taken over the White House, people are spotting updates on the White House’s new website.

Biden has released a Spanish version of the website – something that was also maintained by Barack Obama and George W Bush – after Donald Trump took down the White House’s Spanish communication website after taking office in 2017.

The threat of climate change is also back on the website and is listed as one of Biden’s top priorities. Once Trump took office, his administration started to delete any mentions of climate change from federal websites.

Biden’s team has also removed Trump’s 1776 report, which he made as an attack against the New York Times’ 1619 Project, which casted a spotlight on the year the first slave ship arrived in America.

Now that Trump’s presence is no longer on the official White House website and its social media accounts, the National Archives and Records Administration just launched the Donald J. Trump Presidential Library website that includes an archive of the White House’s website and social accounts during Trump’s presidency.

Joe Biden just completed his first action as president at the US Capitol: Signing the Inauguration Day Proclamation and his nominations for cabinet and sub-cabinet positions.

Biden has spent the last few weeks announcing his cabinet picks, and Congressional hearings for two of his secretaries began yesterday.

Later this afternoon, Biden is expected to sign 17 executive actions including a package of immigration actions that will immediately reverse elements of Donald Trump’s immigration policies, including an end to the travel ban and an attempt from Trump to exclude undocumented people from the US Census. Biden is scheduled to sign these orders around 5 pm DC time.

During his inaugural address, Joe Biden held a moment of silence to honor the more than 400,000 Americans who have died of coronavirus.

Biden and Kamala Harris held a memorial service for coronavirus victims at the Lincoln Memorial yesterday, the same day that the US death toll surpassed 400,000.

“In my first act as president, I’d like to ask you to join me in a moment of silent prayer to remember all those who we lost in this past year to the pandemic, those 400,000 fellow Americans -- moms, dads, husbands, wives, sons, daughters, friends, neighbors, and co-workers,” Biden said in his inaugural speech.

“We’ll honor them by becoming the people and the nation we know we can and should be."

In the moments following Joe Biden taking his oath of office, Pope Francis, the head of the Catholic Church, published an open letter to Biden congratulating him on his entry into office.

“I extend cordial good wishes and the assurance of my prayers that Almighty God will grant you wisdom and strength in the exercise of your high office.”

Pope Francis alluded to the Covid-19 pandemic, calling it the “grave crises facing our human family” and said response to it calls for “farsighted and united responses”.

“I pray that your decisions will be guided by a concern for building a society marked by authentic justice and freedom,” Pope Francis wrote in his letter.

“I likewise ask God, the source of all wisdom and truth, to guide your efforts to foster understanding, reconciliation and peace within the United Stations and among the nations of the world in order to advance the universal common good.”

Biden is the second Catholic US president, the first being John F Kennedy, and he attended a pre-Inauguration mass this morning at the Cathedral of St Matthew the Apostle in Washington.

At least two Republican senators praised Joe Biden’s inaugural speech, saying it represented a necessary moment of unity for the nation.

Mitt Romney of Utah said Biden’s speech was “very strong and very much needed”. “We as a nation come together if we are told the truth,” Romney said.

Lisa Murkowski of Alaska echoed that sentiment, saying Biden’s speech was “very uplifting” and “very well done”.

“All the other speakers really seemed to complement the president’s words,” Murkowski said. “I thought it was very well done. I thought it was what we needed.”

Richard Luscombe reports from West Palm Beach:

Donald Trump arrived at Mar-a-Lago, his glitzy resort on Florida’s Palm Beach island, just as the final moments of his turbulent presidency ticked away.

Supporters lined the route from Palm Beach international airport to the island bridge to welcome Trump and the former First Lady, his wife, Melania, home.

A parade of a dozen or more vehicles ferried the ex-president away from the airport as Air Force One refueled and prepared for its empty return trip to Washington.

Trump’s cavalcade drove slowly east along Southern Boulevard with the former president seen grinning broadly, waving and flashing thumbs up at those who turned out to greet him.

He left a scene of deflation in his wake. Supporters rolled up their flags, stowed signs in their cars and departed quietly. Within 15 minutes of his passing, a main thoroughfare of “Trump country” was once again a construction site, and only a handful of law enforcement officers rolling up security tape remained.

In his last act as president, Donald Trump pardoned Albert Pirro Jr., the ex-husband of Fox News host Jeanine Pirro, in the last hour of his presidency. Pirro was convicted of conspiracy and tax evasion.

Pirro appears to be the person on Trump’s long list of pardons that he has granted within the last 24 hours. Pirro joins 73 others, including Steve Bannon and rapper Lil Wayne, whose loyalty to Trump has paid off in forgiveness for federal crimes.

Just minutes before Joe Biden became president of the United States, Trump landed in Palm Beach, Florida, after giving a farewell speech at Joint Base Andrews.

Joe Biden has taken over the @POTUS Twitter handle, and he used his first tweet to promise “bold action and immediate relief for American families”.

“There is no time to waste when it comes to tackling the crises we face,” the new president said. “That’s why today, I am heading to the Oval Office to get right to work delivering bold action and immediate relief for American families.”

Kamala Harris has also taken over the @VP Twitter account. Shortly after Harris was sworn in, the vice-president’s account shared this message: “Ready to serve.”

Kamala Harris was just sworn in as vice president, officially making her the first woman, Black American and Asian American to hold the title.

People around the country celebrated her swearing-in, noting the moment marks many firsts in American history.

That supreme court justice Sonia Sotomayor, the first Latina and woman of color to serve on the court, administered Harris’ oath added another layer of poignancy to the occasion.

Perhaps the reaction from those celebrating the moment in history can be summed up by Barack Obama exclaiming “Alright!” after Harris finished saying her oath.

Amanda Gorman received a standing ovation after she finished delivering her poem for the inauguration.

The 22-year-old artist concluded her poem with these words: “There is always light if we are brave enough to see it. If only we are brave enough to be it.”

After Joe Biden finished his inaugural speech, Garth Brooks sang “Amazing Grace.” He asked the crowd and everyone watching at home to join him in singing the last verse.

Poet Amanda Gorman then recited a poem for the event. The 22-year-old artist is the youngest inaugural poet in recent history.

Joe Biden said America would provide a positive example to the world under his leadership as president.

“We’ll lead not merely by the example of our power, but by the power of our example,” Biden said.

Acknowledging the challenging times ahead for the country as it continues to battle coronavirus, Biden said, “Folks, this is a time of testing.”

The president added, “We will be judged, you and I, by how we resolve these cascading crises of our era. Will we rise to the occasion? Will we master this rare and difficult hour?”

Biden wrapped up his speech after about 21 minutes, marking a rather short inaugural address.

Joe Biden also used his inaugural address to make a pledge to the country’s global allies, after four years of Donald Trump’s “America first” agenda.

“We will repair our alliances and engage with the world once again, not to meet yesterday’s challenges but today’s and tomorrow’s challenges,” the new president said.

Joe Biden condemned the Capitol rioters who tried to overturn the will of the people by violently disrupting the congressional certification of his victory in the presidential election.

“It did not happen. It will not happen: not today, not tomorrow, not ever,” the president said.

Biden also pledged to be a “president for all Americans,” including those who did not support him, and he called for the nation to make a fresh start today.

“We must reject the culture in which facts themselves are manipulated and even manufactured,” Biden said.

Joe Biden said the nation “must confront” white supremacy, possibly becoming the first president to utter that phrase in an inaugural address.

“The dream of justice for all will be deferred no longer,” the president said.

Biden also called on the nation to unify after four years of Donald Trump’s divisive presidency.

“This is our historic moment of crisis and challenge, and unity is the path forward,” the president said.

There is now a musical interlude between the swearing-in of Kamala Harris and the swearing-in of Joe Biden.

Jennifer Lopez, dressed in all white, performed a rendition of “This Land Is Your Land” after Harris took the oath of office. The song then transitioned into “America the Beautiful”.

Lady Gaga is now singing the National Anthem at Joe Biden’s inauguration, using a gold microphone.

The artist wore a black and red ball gown with a gold dove near her shoulder and a long train.

Lady Gaga arrived in Washington and greeted some of the National Guard members who have been providing security for the inauguration.

Echoing Amy Klobuchar, Roy Blunt used his remarks at the inauguration to address the violent attack on the Capitol earlier this month.

The Republican senator said the attack “reminds us that a government designed to balance and check itself is both fragile and resilient”.

Roy Blunt, the top Republican on the Senate rules committee, spoke after Amy Klobuchar, and the senator joked about the snow at the Capitol today.

“I should’ve known when Senator Klobuchar got involved there would be a touch of snow involved,” Blunt said.

Klobuchar launched her presidential campaign on a very snowy day in her home state of Minnesota.

Senator Amy Klobuchar celebrated today as a new start for the country, two weeks after the Capitol was attacked by a violent mob.

“This is the day when our democracy picks itself up, brushes off the dust and does what America always does — goes forward,” the Democratic senator said.

Klobuchar added that this moment was a chance to “rededicate ourselves to this cause”.

Kamala Harris, the first African American to serve as vice-president, and Barack Obama, the first African American to serve as president, shared a fist bump as Harris arrived on the Capitol platform.

And a meteorological update: as Joe Biden and Harris
prepared to be sworn in, it started snowing at the Capitol.

This is quite the split-screen. As Mike Pence arrived on the Capitol platform, Donald Trump and his family were walking out of Air Force One for the last time.

The outgoing president will be at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida as his successor, Joe Biden, is sworn in.

As former presidents arrived at the Capitol for Joe Biden’s inauguration, Air Force One touched down in Florida.

Donald Trump did not go back to the press cabin to talk to reporters during his trip down to Florida, according to the White House pool.

Trump will be the first president in more than 150 years to not attend the inauguration ceremony of his successor. His vice-president, Mike Pence, is in attendance.

The supreme court justices have arrived and are taking their seats for Joe Biden’s inauguration.

Justice Sonia Sotomayor will first swear in Kamala Harris, and chief justice John Roberts will then swear in Biden.

Sotomayor was the first woman of color to be confirmed as a supreme court justice, and she will swear in the first woman of color to become vice president.

The former presidents and former first ladies in attendance today are now being introduced at the inauguration.

Bill and Hillary Clinton were introduced first, followed by George W and Laura Bush. Barack and Michelle Obama are now making their entrance.

Bernie Sanders arrived at Joe Biden’s inauguration in his typical understated manner, wearing a khaki coat and mittens.

The outfit sparked some jokes that the former presidential candidate looked like he was on his way to the post office.

A BuzzFeed News reporter noted that Sanders received the mittens from a supporter two years ago. They are made from repurposed wool sweaters and recycled plastic bottles.

One could almost imagine the credits rolling on a screen as Donald Trump and his family departed on Air Force One toward Florida, the morning sun gleaming down on the plane as Frank Sinatra’s “My Way” – a popular funeral song – played at Joint Base Andrews, where Trump delivered his farewell speech.

“The soundtrack that we continue to hear throughout these scenes is surreal, perhaps surreally appropriate,” noted CNN anchor Anderson Cooper on live TV as the plane could be seen preparing for takeoff, his co-anchor laughing.

While Trump may have been trying to take on a somber tone during his farewell speech, ominously saying at the end “have a good life, we will see you soon”, the song that played immediately after is one that is notable for its presence at celebrations.

“It’s fun to stay at the Y.M.C.A.!” could be heard on full blast as Trump waved to the crowd after climbing the steps of Air Force One, his family following behind him. (They, unfortunately, did not break out into the song’s dance before entering the plane.)

Trump’s music preferences at rallies and events has been a point of interest during his four years in office. “Y.M.C.A.” appears to be a favorite, along with “Gloria” by Laura Branigan and “Don’t Stop Believin’” by Journey, both of which played at Joint Base Andrews before Trump gave his farewell speech Wednesday morning.

Though multiple left-leaning artists have publicly asked Trump to stop playing their music at his events, including Victor Willis of the Village People and Bruce Springsteen, Trump usually plays whatever his heart desires, which means a lot of Elton John (“Tiny Dancer” was playing as Air Force One was taxiing).

Joe Biden and Kamala Harris released their inauguration playlist earlier this week, ushering out an era of “Y.M.C.A.” and into one with Mary J. Blige, SZA and conflict-free Springsteen.

An update on the supreme court: a court spokesperson told CNN that the building did receive a bomb threat, but it was not evacuated. The court and its surrounding grounds were checked for possible threats.

The US Capitol feels calm, serene and rather chilly. The lawn where you would normally expect thousands of people is mostly barren except for some physically distanced plastic chairs, a bank of TV cameras and some portable toilets. Every now and then a helicopter buzzes overhead.

The National Mall has become a sea of flags in lieu of Americans who cannot attend. Pennsylvania Avenue is jarringly deserted: cars, buses and more toilets. But celebratory flags are visible in the distance.

Two giant TV screens have been playing interviews with former presidents and showing footage of old inaugurations - a sharp reminder of the missing crowds this time.

However, guests are beginning to gather at the west front, bedecked in red, white and blue, and the Marine band is playing under the Capitol dome. So as he fulfills a half-century ambition to become US president, Joe Biden will have at least a flavour of pomp and circumstance.

Capitol Police office Eugene Goodman, who was applauded for leading rioters away from the Senate chamber during the attack on the Capitol earlier this month, escorted Kamala Harris into the building.

The supreme court is reportedly being evacuated because of a bomb threat, as Washington prepares for the inauguration of Joe Biden.

A CNN reporter noted an increased National Guard presence after the threat was reported:

There are expected to be 25,000 National Guard troops in DC today to provide security for the inauguration.

Security concerns around the inauguration have intensified since the violent attack on the Capitol earlier this month.

Paul Ryan, the former Republican speaker of the House, is attending Joe Biden’s inauguration today.

Asked about the significance of today’s events, Ryan told reporters, “Our institutions were tested this year, and our institutions passed the test. I’m here out of respect for the peaceful transfer of power and for the institutions.”

Ryan, who ran for vice-president in 2012, added, “Joe Biden is the legitimately elected president of the United States, and I’m here to honor this process.”

Donald Trump and his allies have of course continued to insist (with absolutely no valid evidence) that Biden won the presidential election because of widespread fraud.

Those lies culminated in the violent attack on the Capitol two weeks ago, as Congress certified Biden’s victory in the election.

The Guardian’s Sam Levine reports on one of Joe Biden’s first expected executive orders:

One of Joe Biden’s first actions as president will be to reverse Donald Trump’s effort to exclude undocumented immigrants from the census data used to determine how many seats in congress each state gets.

The US has long allocated seats based on the total population of states, regardless of immigration status. The Trump move was widely seen as a political one that benefitted Republicans.

In 2015, Thomas Hofeller, a widely respected GOP redistricting expert, wrote that drawing Texas districts based only on eligible voters would be “advantageous to Republicans and non-Hispanic whites.”

The move will immediately end a nearly three-year effort from the Trump administration. It began in 2018 with a failed effort to add a citizenship question to the census - a move that was subsequently blocked by the supreme court.

After that decision, Trump issued two executive orders; one instructed the census bureau to exclude undocumented immigrants from the apportionment count, while a second to use existing government data to produce records of non-citizens. Biden’s executive order will undo them both.

The Census Bureau faced enormous challenges in trying to get everyone to respond to the decennial survey this year because of the Covid-19 pandemic as well as deep distrust of the Trump administration, particularly in immigrant communities. The Biden-Harris transition said in a statement that it would ensure the bureau had enough time to produce accurate data.

“President-elect Biden will sign an Executive Order to revoke the prior Administration’s orders setting out an unlawful plan to exclude noncitizens from the census and apportionment of Congressional representatives,” it said in a statement.

“President-elect Biden will ensure that the Census Bureau has time to complete an accurate population count for each state. He will then present to Congress an apportionment that is fair and accurate so federal resources are efficiently and fairly distributed for the next decade.”

Marco Rubio, the acting Republican chairman of the Senate intelligence committee, said he will not be attending the inauguration today.

“I am in DC but will not be attending todays inauguration because I am working on addressing the remaining objections to an expedited Senate confirmation of President-Elect Biden’s nominee for Director of National Intelligence,” Rubio said in a tweet. “It’s important we do this as soon as possible.”

Avril Haines, Joe Biden’s nominee to serve as the director of national intelligence, testified before the Senate intelligence committee yesterday and pledged to keep politics out of her decisions if confirmed.

Barack Obama congratulated Joe Biden as the former vice-president prepares to take the oath of office in a couple of hours.

“Congratulations to my friend, President @JoeBiden! This is your time,” the former president said in a tweet, which included a photo of the two.

Obama and his wife, former first lady Michelle Obama, will be in attendance for today’s inauguration.

George W Bush and Laura Bush have arrived at the Capitol to attend Joe Biden’s inauguration. The former president and former first lady waved at reporters as they walked into the building.

A spokesperson for Bush announced earlier this month that he would attend the inauguration. With Donald Trump on his way to Florida, Bush is the only Republican president in attendance for today’s inauguration.

And the surgeon general, Dr Jerome Adams, has confirmed that the incoming administration has asked for his resignation.

In a statement, Adams said, “During my tenure I have visited with people from all across America. And despite all that you may read on social media or see on tv, I can assure you that from Alaska to Alabama, from Maine to Montana, and from California to the Carolinas, Americans mostly want the same thing. They want a fair shot at being their best and healthiest self, and to be able to support the health and well being of their families.”

Joe Biden is expected to sign a flurry of executive orders after taking the oath of office at noon, and the president-elect is already making immediate staffing decisions as well.

According to the Washington Post, Biden intends to quickly request the resignation of the surgeon general, Dr Jerome Adams.

The Post reports:

Adams, who was nominated by President Trump, was sworn in as surgeon general on Sept. 5, 2017, to serve the office’s standard four-year term, which expires this September. The anesthesiologist and former Indiana health commissioner — a political independent who crafted a close relationship with then-Indiana Gov. Mike Pence — had emerged as a key spokesman for Trump’s coronavirus response, regularly appearing on national TV and using social media to advocate for public health measures such as social distancing. However, Adams’s visibility also made him a target last spring for Democrats, who accused him of defending Trump’s statements.

Biden has nominated Vivek H. Murthy, surgeon general under President Barack Obama and a close adviser of the president-elect, to be the nation’s new surgeon general, but Murthy first needs to undergo Senate confirmation hearings, which have yet to be scheduled. The people with knowledge of the decision said the incoming Biden administration would choose an acting surgeon general as soon as Wednesday, bypassing Deputy Surgeon General Erica Schwartz, a career civil servant.

Joe Biden will be sworn in at the Capitol today, but the signs of destruction there are still visible, two weeks after a pro-Trump mob stormed the building.

A CNN reporter spotted Capitol Hill workers removing scaffolding from a newly repaired window that was damaged during the attack.

Moments after Donald Trump departed Washington, Joe Biden’s Twitter account shared this message: “It’s a new day in America.”

That may foreshadow the themes of Biden’s inaugural speech. The president-elect based his campaign on the promise to restore “the soul of the nation,” and he is likely to voice a similarly hopeful message today.

In a painfully fitting end to his presidency, Donald Trump took off on Air Force One as Frank Sinatra’s “My Way” played on the tarmac.

Here’s a sample of the lyrics from the famous song: “Regrets, I’ve had a few / But then again, too few to mention / I did what I had to do / And saw it through without exemption ... But more, much more than this / I did it my way”.

Trump is en route to Mar-a-Lago in Florida and will not be in attendance for Joe Biden’s inauguration.

This is Joan Greve in Washington, taking over for Martin Belam.

Joe Biden will take the oath of office in less than three hours, officially kicking off his four-year term as president of the United States.

The president-elect is currently attending a church service at Cathedral of St Matthew the Apostle in Washington, his only event before the inauguration. The incoming vice-president, Kamala Harris, and first lady, Dr Jill Biden, are also in attendance.

The church service is another reminder that Biden will be just the second Catholic to serve as US president, after John F Kennedy.

As we wait for Donald Trump to depart for his last flight on Air Force One Senator-elect Rev. Raphael Warnock has just reminded us on social media that as well as a change of president in the White House, there will also be a change in the Senate today.

This afternoon Kamala Harris, having been sworn in as vice president, will swear in Warnock along with Jon Ossoff and Alex Padilla to the Senate. That will leave it split 50-50 between Democrats and Republicans, with Harris having the casting vote.

As Donald Trump is in the air in Marine One, Senate Republican majority leader Mitch McConnell and House Republican minority leader Kevin McCarthy are going to church with Joe Biden, Kamala Harris and their families.

Trump’s own event will be devoid of those senior Republicans, and his vice-president, Mike Pence. It leads to the dramatic split screen vision of Trump leaving the White House for the last time, talking to a small cluster of press outside the door, while “the Beast”, the fortified presidential vehicle is outside Blair House ready to take Joe and Jill Biden to the church service.

Normally, the outgoing president and his successor would ride in “the Beast” together to the US Capitol for the inauguration, but as we have heard so much about, Trump is the first president for more than 150 years not to fulfill his obligation to pass the torch seamlessly and respect the incoming president personally by attending the swearing in.

Marine One has not flown directly towards nearby Joint Base Andrews. The green presidential helicopter is circling over downtown Washington, flying past the Washington Monument after taking a spin around the US Capitol.

This is typically what the outgoing president and first lady do after their successors have been sworn in.

From their low-altitude flight path, the Trumps would have been able to see the US Capitol heavily guarded by up to 25,000 National Guard troops, two weeks after the Congressional seat was sacked by fanatical supporters egged on by the president at a rally prior, as they tried to overturn the result of the election by force.

Here are some more pictures of Donald Trump’s unprecedented departure from the White House by helicopter after declining to attend the inauguration of his successor later today.

Marine One is currently landed on the White House lawn, waiting to take Donald Trump away, although he doesn’t seem in any hurry to go. Aides have been photographed carrying boxes out to it.

Rep. Ilhan Omar’s initial reaction to today’s events is short and sweet – “praise be to god”.

Reuters have rounded up some key reactions from world leaders to Joe Biden’s impending arrival in the White House. Here’s a selection:

British prime minister Boris Johnson: I look forward to working with him Biden, and with his new administration, strengthening the partnership between our countries and working on our shared priorities: from tackling climate change, building back better from the pandemic and strengthening our transatlantic security.

European commission president Ursula von der Leyen: The United States is back. And Europe stands ready. To reconnect with an old and trusted partner, to breathe new life into our cherished alliance. I look forward to working together with Joe Biden.

German president Frank-Walter Steinmeier: Today is a good day for democracy. In the United States of America, it has faced tremendous challenges and endured. Despite the attempts to tear at America*s institutional fabric, election workers and governors, the judiciary and Congress, have proven strong. I am greatly relieved that, today, Joe Biden is being sworn in as president and will be moving into the White House. I know many people in Germany share this feeling.

Italian prime minister Giuseppe Conte: We are looking forward to the Biden presidency, with which we will start working immediately in view of our presidency of the G20. We have a strong common agenda, ranging from the effective multilateralism that we both want to see, to climate change, green and digital transition and social inclusion.

We are expecting Donald Trump to depart the White House and head for Joint Base Andrews within the next half hour for his “sendoff ceremony”.

In the meantime, here are some of the defining images and footage of his time in office, put together by our interactive team and picture desk – updated to include the scenes of the pro-Trump mob ransacking the US Capitol on 6 January.

Kevin Liptak at CNN this morning has an incredibly stark write-up of Trump’s era – and the humbling end of it for a president who has prided himself on his tough guy image and being a “winner”:

The all-consuming, camera-hungry, truth-starved era that fixated the nation and exposed its darkest recesses officially concludes at noon Wednesday. The president, addled and mostly friendless, will end his time in the capital a few hours early to spare himself the humiliation of watching his successor be sworn in.

He departs a city under militarized fortification meant to prevent a repeat of the riot he incited earlier this month. He leaves office with more than 400,000 Americans dead from a virus he chose to downplay or ignore. Even many of Trump’s onetime supporters are sighing with relief that the White House, and the psychology of its occupant, may no longer rest at the center of the national conversation.

At least some of the 74 million Americans who voted for Trump in November are sad to see him go. Scores of them attempted an insurrection at the US Capitol this month to prevent it from happening at all. The less violent view him as a transformative president whose arrival heralded an end to political correctness and whose exit marks a return to special treatment for immigrants, gays and minorities.

One thing Trump’s presidency undoubtedly accomplished: revealing in stark fashion the racist, hate-filled, violent undercurrents of American society that many had chosen previously to ignore. It became impossible to overlook as Trump’s presidency concluded with violent riots of White nationalists and neo-Nazis at the Capitol.

Read more here: CNN – Trump departs Washington a pariah as his era in power ends

Here’s Amanda Holpuch in New York and Lauren Gambino in Washington with a bit more detail on that proposed Biden immigration plan for us:

Biden administration officials briefed reporters on Tuesday on the incoming president’s day one immigration plans. They include executive orders to reverse Trump’s attempt to exclude undocumented people from the census, end the travel ban, roll back a Trump-era policy on deportation priorities and end an emergency declaration Trump used to divert funds to the wall on the US-Mexico border.

Biden will also unveil legislation that creates a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants, calls for increased technology at the border and attempts to address the root causes of immigration.

He will also issue a presidential memo to underline the administration’s support for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (Daca) program, which allows people who were brought to the US as children without legal documents to temporarily get work visas and be protected from deportation. Trump ended Daca in 2017, but the decision was embroiled in legal challenges and eventually rejected by the supreme court.

In another memo, Biden will extend a program that protected roughly 4,000 Liberians in the US who hold a protected immigration status known as Deferred Enforced Departure (DED).

An interior enforcement executive order will reverse an order Trump signed five days after he took office that dramatically expanded interior immigration law enforcement by no longer prioritizing the deportation of criminals.

Biden will also end the travel ban. The order will also instruct the state department to restart visa processing for the affected countries and to develop a proposal to remedy harms caused by the bans, including those who had visas denied. It also allows for increased screening and vetting of travelers through information sharing with foreign governments.

The incoming administration emphasized it plans to address the root causes of migration, including by sending aid to the Central American countries where the climate crisis, violence, corruption and poverty have driven an increase in family immigration.

Read more here: Biden plans day-one immigration moves to reverse ‘inhumane’ Trump policies

Images of a heavily militarized Washington have left local residents disoriented, and prompted condemnation from military veterans in Congress “I expected this in Baghdad. I never imagined this in Washington,” said Seth Moulton, a Massachusetts congressman who fought in Iraq, to the Guardian.

“It’s hard to see the pantheon of our democracy fortified like the war zones I used to know,” tweeted Jason Crow, a Colorado congressman, saying that he had fought in Iraq and Afghanistan “so we could enjoy peace at home”.

Other American veterans said the images from Washington were surreal, but not exactly surprising. Matt Gallagher, a writer and Army veteran who served in Iraq, described “this strange sense of inevitability”, as he looked at the photographs of concertina wire and traffic control points and “young national guardsmen, many of whom were probably born around 9/11”.

There’s been plenty of pushback to attempts to compare the current state of Washington DC to a war zone.

“The troops are not speaking a foreign language, manning checkpoints, traveling in convoys so secure that they would be authorized to shoot cars that drive in between them. They’re not raiding homes. Let’s not trivialize military occupation,” Laila Al-Arian, an American journalist, wrote last week.

Tom Porter, a policy spokesman for the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, told the Guardian that veterans had been making plenty of dark jokes about Washington’s Green Zone, asking whether the city was now disposing of trash and human waste by setting it on fire with jet fuel in giant “burn pits”, as the military has done in the Middle East.

“Those that have actually been to a war zone know that our city and Capitol does not actually resemble a war zone,” he said, adding that he thought officials should have chosen a different name for the secure area of Washington during inauguration.

Read more of Lois Beckett’s report here: ‘This is not freedom’: a militarized US Capitol is being called a ‘war zone’

The most high profile of Donald Trump’s pardons, to his former aide Steve Bannon, may have repercussions within the Republican party, according to Josh Gerstein and Kyle Cheney at Politico.

Bannon was a key adviser in Trump’s 2016 presidential run. He was charged last year with swindling Trump supporters over an effort to raise private funds to build the president’s wall on the US-Mexico border. He has pleaded not guilty. Gerstein and Cheney write:

While Trump did not issue a self-pardon covering his own actions on 6 January, and he turned aside pardon requests from others accused of inciting or participating in the assault on Congress, Bannon was also among those who stoked anger in advance of the riots.

“All hell will break loose tomorrow. It will be quite extraordinarily different. All I can say is strap in,” Bannon said on his War Room podcast on 5 January. “Tomorrow is game day. So many people said, man, if I was in revolution I would be in Washington. Well, this is your time in history.”

Bannon frequently used similar wartime imagery to urge Trump supporters to contest the 2020 election results. He has also been a frequent antagonist of Sen. Mitch McConnell, the Republican leader, most notably when he helped propel the doomed candidacy of Republican Roy Moore — derailed by sexual assault allegations — over McConnell’s preferred candidate Luther Strange in an Alabama special election.

With Trump’s impeachment trial looming, the Bannon pardon could push some Republican senators toward convicting Trump and potentially banning him from running for president again, but will probably be seen as less provocative than would a self-pardon or pardons for his closest family members.

Read more here: Politico – Trump pardons dozens, including Steve Bannon, as he exits White House

Axios this morning have a story labelled a scoop about the extreme precautions that the Biden team are taking to prevent the president-elect being exposed to Covid. It marks a stark contrast to the laissez-faire attitude of the Trump White House to enforcing anti-Covid guidelines. Hans Nichols writes:

The incoming administration is planning extraordinary steps to protect its most prized commodity, Joe Biden, including requiring daily employee Covid tests and N95 masks at all times, according to new guidance sent to some incoming employees Tuesday.

The president-elect is 78 years old and therefore a high risk for the virus and its worst effects, despite having received the vaccine. While President Trump’s team was nonchalant about Covid protocols — leading to several super-spreader episodes — the new rules will apply to all White House aides in “high proximity to principals.”

Besides protecting Biden, he and his team want to model best practices and are insisting that West Wing officials abide by the highest standards. Biden is asking the nation to “mask up” for the first 100 days of his administration.

The guidance was sent to incoming staffers who will have “proximity” to any White House “principals,” generally defined as heads of departments like the National Security Council and the National Economic Council.

Read more here: Axios – Joe Biden’s Covid-19 bubble

Our picture desk has put together some of the most striking images as Washington DC prepares for the inauguration of Joe Biden while swamped with security after the 6 January assault on the Capitol.

You can view the gallery here: Washington on edge before Biden inauguration - in pictures

Yesterday the US recorded 168,058 new coronavirus cases, and 2,550 further deaths. According to Johns Hopkins university figures the US has now recorded a total of 24,233,738 cases and 401,443 deaths.

The Covid Tracking Project records that 123,820 were hospitalized with Covid in the US. CNN reported overnight that the Trump administration has left the incoming Biden administration with ‘confusing’ Covid-19 vaccine numbers and the states in limbo.

States across the country say they’re running low on coronavirus vaccine supply, with many officials insisting the vaccine delivery numbers reported by the Trump administration don’t align with what they are seeing on the ground.

A source close to the Biden transition team said there is enormous concern among the incoming administration about the accuracy of the numbers that have been released by the federal government. It was only within the last few days that the transition team was given access to Tiberius, the system that shows states how many doses are available to them and allows states to determine delivery locations.

Despite frustration, the source said Biden’s team has been hesitant to broadcast just how they were left in the dark out of concern that the Trump administration would stop cooperating altogether.

Joe Biden must overcome a pandemic, rebuild an economy, tackle racist insurrectionists and the ex-president who incited them, and reassert American leadership across a distrustful world. Somehow he must do all that while also confirming his senior officials in a Senate with no working majority.

So far the Biden team shows no sign of limiting its ambition in terms of what it hopes Congress will take up – and what it will push through executive action – in its first days and weeks in power. In addition to signing a flurry of executive orders, rejoining the Paris climate accords and restarting the Iran nuclear deal, Biden will also propose sweeping immigration reform that includes a path to citizenship for the undocumented.

Comprehensive reform of the nation’s broken immigration system proved beyond the capabilities of both Bush and Obama. It was Bush’s failure to enact immigration reform in 2007 that effectively marked the end of his second-term agenda, as Republicans turned towards a nativist agenda that Donald Trump placed at the heart of his campaign and presidency.

The Biden team may be marking a sharp break with the Trump years in prioritizing immigration reform. But what are their realistic prospects for legislative progress in the first year of the Biden presidency?

Obama veterans think there may be one good reason why Biden can feel more optimistic about political progress than their own experience in 2009, when Republicans obstructed their action from the outset, would dictate. That reason is the legacy of one Donald Trump.

“I think the difference between this and 2009 is that I believe there’s going to be a significant number of Republicans in Congress who think that their party needs a course correction here,” said Joel Benenson, who served as strategist and pollster to both Obama and Hillary Clinton’s campaigns. “It doesn’t mean they are suddenly going to be liberal Rockefeller Republicans, but the damage that Trump has done to the party and its image – and it has exacerbated through the events of the last two weeks – is giving them pause.

“I don’t think it’s a major shift ideologically, but they have to recognize they are losing large and important sections of the electorate, and that’s going to be problematic for them. They know for their long-term prospects they can’t just be a base party. The biggest political failure of Donald Trump is that he didn’t fundamentally understand that to win the presidency, you have to win the center.”

Read more of Richard Wolffe’s analysis here: Biden prepares ambitious agenda even as he cleans up Trump’s mess

Donald Trump will be the first outgoing sitting president not to attend his successor’s inauguration by choice for some considerable time. For most of the existence of the United States, the handover between presidents has been seen as symbolic of the peaceful transfer of power.

Other presidents not to attend their successor’s inauguration have, of course, included the four US presidents who were assassinated while in power: Abraham Lincoln (1865), James Garfield (1881), William McKinley (1901), and John F. Kennedy (1963).

In 1974, president Richard Nixon had resigned in disgrace, and did not attend the swearing in of Gerald Ford in the White House. And in 1921 Woodrow Wilson had intended to be there when Warren Harding was inaugurated, and indeed travelled with him to the Capitol for the ceremony, but was then taken ill.

It was in the 19th century that presidents decided not to show up out of grievance or animosity, as this history lesson from Jacey Fortin in the New York Times makes plain:

“It’s usually a sign that American society is in the midst of major political feud,” the presidential historian Douglas Brinkley said. “The fact that the incoming and outgoing presidents can’t shake hands and co-participate in an inauguration means that something’s off-kilter in the democracy.”

That was the case for John Adams, his son John Quincy Adams and Andrew Johnson.

When the presidency of John Adams ended in 1801, the United States was in its infancy and had never seen a head of state transfer power to a political opponent — in this case, Thomas Jefferson. On Inauguration Day, Adams left Washington quietly, before dawn, in a stagecoach bound for Baltimore.

John Quincy Adams, the sixth American president, followed in his father’s footsteps when he declined to attend the swearing-in of the man who had unseated him: the populist Andrew Jackson. Like his father, Adams had differences with his successor that were not just political. The men also disliked each other.

The next president to snub his predecessor was Johnson. The animosity between Ulysses S. Grant, who had led the Union to victory in the Civil War and won the election, and Johnson, a Southerner who opposed Reconstruction, was clear. It culminated in Johnson’s refusal to attend the inauguration in 1869 — a decision that was so last minute that contemporary reports claimed a carriage arrived to collect him on the morning of the ceremony and was turned away.

Read more here: New York Times – Trump is not the first president to snub an inauguration

Former UK prime minister Gordon Brown writes for us today, saying that Joe Biden can’t heal America without help from the rest of the world:

As the US president-elect finally takes the oath of office in Washington DC, the rest of the world desperately needs him to effect a sea change. If his first task is to reunite a divided America, his second is to end American isolationism: to show Americans that they need the world, and show the world that we still need America.

Given the intertwined triple threats of the pandemic, economic collapse and climate catastrophe, his presidency will be defined not by the previous benchmarks of 100 days, but rather by its first 10 or 20 days. The Trump impeachment trial notwithstanding, day one will see Biden delivering on his plans to roll out mass vaccination and to reboot the ailing US economy by forcing the biggest fiscal stimulus in history through Congress. Given that body’s new political makeup and Biden’s own inclinations, his multi-trillion-dollar plan will be greener than anything ever contemplated by US lawmakers.

But Biden must then go global. His presidency will be forged or broken on the anvil of those existential crises, and the internationalist in him knows that not one of these three domestic objectives – a virus-free, an economically resilient and a pollution-free US – can be fully realised without multilateral cooperation. Yet this is something that economic nationalists in both the US’s main political parties have not just rejected but scorned.

Read more here: Gordon Brown – Joe Biden can’t heal America without help from the rest of the world

Joe Biden shed a tear yesterday as he took to the stage to deliver a farewell address to a Delaware crowd ahead of his inauguration, reports David Smith. Speaking at the Major Joseph R ‘Beau’ Biden III National Guard/Reserve Center, named after Biden’s late son, who died of brain cancer in 2015, the president elect said things “can change, they can and they do”.

“I know these are dark times but there’s always light,” he said. “I’m truly honoured to be your next president and commander-in-chief and I’ll always be a proud son of the state of Delaware.”

He paraphrased James Joyce and nearly broke down with emotion as he said: “When I die, Delaware will be written on my heart.”

His one regret, he said, was the absence of his son Beau Biden, who died from brain cancer in 2015. “We should be introducing him as president,” he said.

Normally quiet streets around US state capitol buildings have looked more like battlegrounds recently, putting those who live and work there on edge and instilling a sense of foreboding, reports Andrew Selsky for Associated Press.

More than most people, these Americans will have front-row seats on whether the change of leadership in the White House will lead to a lessening of tension. They’ll be watching what the next chapter brings from storefronts and the porches and stoops of their own homes.

Some expect Joe Biden to bring a unifying tone when he’s inaugurated as president on Wednesday, but say that alone won’t be enough to bring unity. How the people react will be key.

Jonathan Jones’ front-row seat to what happens next is his restaurant that is decorated with Black Lives Matter signs and art near the Oregon State Capitol. Epilogue Kitchen and Cocktails has been vandalized by a white supremacist. One day, police showed up as Jones and his friends were being accosted by neo-fascist Proud Boys. The police at first confronted Jones’ group as if they were the threat.

“There’s not a person who stood with me that day who didn’t think that they might die,” Jones said. “And the most awful part was not knowing if it was going to come from the police or from the Proud Boys.”

Jones plans on listening to Biden’s inaugural address.
“I hope that he does not call for unity with neo-fascists, because there cannot be unity with people who want to see me dead,” Jones said.

In Washington state, a neighborhood next to the Capitol in Olympia boasts mid-century and 100-year-old homes. “It’s a very charming, calm, nice place to walk a dog and chat with the neighbors on the porch,” one woman told AP.

But in recent weeks, frequent protests involving people in tactical gear and armed with guns have created a climate of fear. People shout into megaphones, loud trucks drive down narrow streets, residents are called names or harassed, media helicopters and police planes fly overhead.

“There’s no retreat, because it’s your house, it’s where you live. It’s been a little jolting, and exhausting,” said the woman, who is so afraid for the safety of herself and her family that she spoke to a reporter only on condition she not be identified.

She said she is optimistic that Biden and vice president-elect Kamala Harris will be able to accomplish many things. “But I’m not sure that will change the real divisions we’ve all seen,” she said.

“People are behaving so differently, openly, that I don’t know moving forward as a country if we’ll be able to find each other again.”

Brian Henderson, minister of First Baptist Church of Denver that sits across an avenue from the shuttered Colorado Capitol, was so close to the upheavals of 2020 that he was struck in the left knee with a pepper ball. Henderson had been handing out water from the front steps of his small brick church as thousands battled police during riots over George Floyd’s killing.

Many neighboring businesses and state government buildings have boarded up their windows and doors in anticipation of possible violence but the church has not, to avoid giving the wrong message.

“We can’t let fear stop us from doing what we have to do,” Henderson said. Henderson said he will watch the inauguration, “take a big deep breath and go, ‘Phew! We made it. A long four years.”’

Welcome to our live coverage of US politics on a historic – and busy – Wednesday in Washington.

• Joe Biden will be inaugurated as the 46th president of the United States in a ceremony in Washington DC at noon ET – that’s 5pm GMT.
• Kamala Harris will join him as the first woman to be vice president, and with Indian and Jamaican heritage, the first woman of color to hold the office.
• Before the ceremony Biden will attend church, and then once in office he is expected to visit the tomb of the unknown soldier. He will then get to work, issuing a flurry of executive orders from rejoining the Paris climate accords to cancelling the Keystone XL pipeline.
• Harris will return to the Senate where she will preside over the swearing in of her replacement as California Seantor, Alex Padilla, as well as the two new Senators from Georgia – Jon Ossoff and Rev. Raphael Warnock. That will leave the Senate poised 50-50 between Republicans and Democrats, with Harris holding the casting vote.
• Chuck Schumer, the Democrats leader in the Senate has said it has “three important things to do at once” – the second impeachment trial of Donald Trump, the confirmation of Joe Biden’s cabinet, and to pass additional Covid relief measures.
• Yesterday there were 168,058 new Covid cases recorded, and a further 2,550 deaths. The Joe Biden administration takes over exactly a year since the first confirmed case of Covid in the US, with the total caseload at 24.2m and the death toll exceeding 400,000 Americans.
• Before Biden’s inauguration, outgoing president Donald Trump will take part in a sending off ceremony at Joint Base Andrews. That’s expected at 8am ET, which is 1pm GMT. Trump will then take a final flight on Air Force One to Florida. Breaking convention, he will not attend the inauguration.