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The Trump era is over and the new President Biden wants to fight for the unity of the nation above all. After his oath, he urged his country to reunite.
By Eckart Aretz, tagesschau.de
It was around 11:52 a.m. local time when a different stance entered the heart of Washington. Four minutes earlier, Joe Biden had been sworn in as the 46th president of the United States, and now he was beginning his inaugural address, which was intended to mark a sharp contrast to the tone that Donald Trump, who left office that day, had used in recent years. years.
Biden delivered his speech to the nation and the world under the terms of unity, trust and awakening. From the beginning, he reminded his audience of the lessons of recent weeks, when the storm on Capitol Hill had brutally demonstrated to Americans how fragile American democracy is; now the United States is celebrating the “triumph of democracy.” The response to the attack on the core of the state must be the “American way,” Biden said: “bold, optimistic and restless” to fight for a better society.
One president for all
Try even harder, work even harder, try even harder to improve: classic components of political speeches in the US shaped Biden’s speech. The common thread was the promise to fight for a united nation and to overcome divisions in the country, Biden kept coming back to this point. He promised that he would be president of all Americans, including those who had not elected him.
The new president recalled the people who had lost their lives in the crown pandemic, denounced the inequality between the country’s ethnic groups and called on his fellow citizens to rethink: “Let’s start again, all together.” Kamala Harris, the first black US vice president with Jamaican and Indian roots, who was sworn in shortly before Biden, is also said to represent this.
Absent and still there: Trump
During these and many other passages, someone like the famous white elephant stood on the balcony: Biden’s predecessor, Trump. Biden did not mention him by name, just as Trump did not mention him when he left Washington. But that Biden was about a fundamental departure from the political spirit of the last four years and from a different political culture, he spoke of almost every phrase of the new president.
He spoke out against the spread of false reports and conspiracy theories: “We have to reject the culture in which facts are manipulated and even fabricated,” he said. America must be better than that.
And he also promised US partners a new beginning: “We will go into the world again,” he said, announcing that the US would be a “strong partner for security and peace.”
At this point, the contrast to Trump’s inauguration four years ago, when he told the world from the Capitol balcony that from now on only “America first” would apply could not have been greater.
Oath of office without spectator
The outward appearance of the opening also differed significantly from the ceremony in 2017. At the time, the question was how many spectators had attended the opening; this year, the “mall” in front of the Capitol had to remain empty due to the crown. Instead of hundreds of thousands of spectators, around 200,000 small American flags represented the people in the open space between the Parliament Building and the Lincoln Memorial.
Stars like Lady Gaga, who sang the national anthem, and Jennifer Lopez gave the event some of the glamor it used to be. But the presence of 25,000 members of the National Guard in the capital always reminded visitors of the abyss that their country had recently looked at.
And all the participants in the ceremony wore masks on the balcony; this also differs from the farewell event that Trump had held that morning at a military airport near Washington.
Self-praise at the end
For the first time in 150 years, an outgoing president did not participate in the inauguration of his successor. In front of the crowd of supporters, family members and employees of “Base Andrews”, Trump once again praised the successes of his tenure and announced that he would return “in some form.”
Trump left open what he meant by that, whether he wanted to announce an attempted political comeback or some other form of public presence. The Trump family then flew to their Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida on the presidential Air Force One plane.
Decisions on the first day
In normal times, Biden’s day would have ended with attending numerous inaugural balls in Washington. But times are not later, so the new president has announced a whole series of decisions for the first day that are destined to mark a break with Trump’s policy, for example, in the fight against the corona virus, racism and climate policy.
Don’t waste your time, Biden knows he has to hurry. In the United States Senate there is a tie between Republicans and Democrats, here Harris’s vote will make the difference. That Biden will strive to reach out to Republicans in power, he made clear with a gesture that morning when he invited top party politicians to a service before the inauguration.
It remains to be seen whether this will be the beginning of a new willingness to cooperate in Washington; soon there will be a debate in the Senate on the impeachment of Trump.
