Kamala Harris becomes first female, person of color Vice President of the US
Joe Biden is inaugurated as the 46th President of the U.S. by Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts Wednesday on the U.S. Capitol’s West Front.
The ceremony saw the smallest crowds in modern-day — a precautionary measure due to COVID-19.
Supreme Court Justice Sonya Sotomayor swore in Kamala Harris as the 49th Vice President of the U.S. who makes history as the first female and person-of-color elected vice president.
The historic ceremony comes just two weeks after rioters stormed the Capitol in an insurrection bringing a joint session of Congress certifying votes for Biden and Harris to a halt.
Sen. Amy Klobuchar spoke to the intimate crowd about how the deadly Capitol riots awakened the responsibility of being American.
“This is the day when our democracy picks itself up, brushes off the dust and does what America always does,” she says. “Goes forward as a nation, under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all.”
Chair of the Joint Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Missouri, explained the history of presidential inaugurations through historic moments.
“Americans have celebrated this moment during war, during depression and now during pandemic,” Blunt says.
Blunt says the ceremony marks a time when all three branches come together to renew a commitment to determined democracy — the working towards a more perfect union.
“The founders did not say to form a perfect union,” he says. “They did not claim that in our new country nothing would not need to be improved. Fortunately, they understood that always working to be better would be a hallmark of our democracy.”
Biden’s inaugural address offered Americans a prospect of hope and healing and called on Americans to unite.
“For without unity, there is no peace,” he says. “Only bitterness and fury. No progress, only exhausting outrage. No nation, only a state of chaos. This is our historic moment of crisis and challenge and unity is the path forward and we must meet this moment as the UNITED States of America.”
He asks for Americans to start fresh and listen to others.
“Let’s begin to listen to one another again,” Biden says. “Hear one another, see one another. Show respect to one another. Politics doesn’t have to be a raging fire destroying everything in its path. Every disagreement doesn’t have to lead to war.”
The ceremony also had major star power. Lady Gaga performed the “Star-Spangled Banner” in an extravagant red ball gown and black suit jacket adorned with a large gold dove holding an olive branch — a universal sign of peace. Jennifer Lopez belted “America, the Beautiful”, reciting the end of the Pledge of Allegiance in spanish and country music legend Garth Brooks sang “Amazing Grace”.
For Vaquero News, I’m Justin Elizalde.
