President Biden began trying to put Americas pieces back together again Wednesday. Â
It wont be easy.
Biden’s inaugural address was a call to unity. But the circumstances of its delivery his words echoing across a near-empty National Mall, with his predecessor absent from the podium beside him underlined the depths of the divisions he faces.
Biden never mentioned former President TrumpDonald TrumpClinton, Bush, Obama reflect on peaceful transition of power on Biden’s Inauguration DayArizona Republican’s brothers say he is ‘at least partially to blame’ for Capitol violenceBiden reverses Trump’s freeze on .4 billion in fundsMORE by name. But in topic and tone, his address served to rebuke the 45th president, who last week became the only commander in chief to be impeached on two occasions.
Trumps second impeachment was for incitement of insurrection, culminating in the ransacking of the Capitol on Jan. 6. Â
Biden is perhaps the only president since the Civil War who truly needed to affirm in his inaugural that democracy has prevailed.
Let us start afresh, Biden said. Let us listen to one another; hear one another; see one another; show respect to one another. Politics need not be a raging fire destroying everything in its path. Every disagreement doesnt have to be a cause for total war.
Yet no president, Biden included, really gets to start afresh. He must start from the place where his predecessor left off.
In Bidens case, that is a country where 400,000 people have died of COVID-19, the pandemic has wreaked economic havoc, roughly 80 percent of Republican voters believe his election win to be illegitimate and Americas deepest wound of racism still lies open.
Biden has pledged immediate action on several of these areas. Â
He will create the position of COVID response coordinator and encourage the public at large to don masks for at least the next 100 days. He has already unveiled a $1.9 trillion package aimed at fighting the pandemic and ameliorating its worst economic impacts.
He has proposed a new immigration plan that provides an eight-year path to citizenship for people currently in the country illegally. By Wednesday night, he had issued executive orders halting new construction of the border wall and revoking Trumps travel ban, which was widely seen as targeting Muslims.
Biden also announced an immediate acceptance of the Paris climate agreement, an action that gives climate change a priority it never enjoyed under Trump and marks a shift back toward multilateralism rather than American First isolationism.
There were some early signs of comity for the new president too. Â
Several Republican senators praised Bidens address, with Sen. Mitt RomneyWillard (Mitt) Mitt RomneyBudowsky: Democracy won, Trump lost, President Biden inauguratedBiden’s inauguration marked by conflict of hope and fearRomney: Founders didn’t intend pardons to be used for ‘cronies’MORE (R-Utah) calling it very strong and Sen. Susan CollinsSusan Margaret CollinsGOP senators praise Biden’s inauguration speechLIVE INAUGURATION COVERAGE: Biden signs executive orders; press secretary holds first briefingThe Memo: Biden prepares for sea of challengesMORE (R-Maine) saying he had struck the right themes. Â
The previous day, outgoing Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnellAddison (Mitch) Mitchell McConnellBudowsky: Democracy won, Trump lost, President Biden inauguratedBiden’s inauguration marked by conflict of hope and fearMcConnell faces conservative backlash over Trump criticismMORE (R-Ky.) made his most emphatic break yet with Trump, saying that the now-former president had provoked the insurrection, adding the mob was fed lies.
Strengthening Bidens hand, two new Democratic senators representing Georgia, Jon OssoffJon OssoffThe Hill’s Morning Report – President Biden, Vice President Harris begin work todayDemocrats torn on impeachment trial timingHere’s what you need to know about Inauguration DayMORE and Raphael WarnockRaphael WarnockThe Hill’s Morning Report – President Biden, Vice President Harris begin work todayDemocrats torn on impeachment trial timingHere’s what you need to know about Inauguration DayMORE, were sworn in later Wednesday afternoon. Their arrival means a 50-50 Senate a de facto Democratic majority because Vice President Harris, the first woman to hold that office, can cast the deciding vote in the event of a tie.
Still, it will hardly be plain sailing, in Washington or beyond. Much of the GOP still marches to Trumps drum. The incentives in American politics to get media attention, raise money or stave off primary challenges continue to pull politicians toward the extremes.
Then there is Trump. He left Washington on Wednesday morning, becoming the first president in more than 100 years to so ostentatiously snub a successor. Speaking at Joint Air Force Base Andrews as he prepared to depart for Florida, Trump told supporters, We’ve left it all on the field.
While wishing the new administration great luck and great success, he also pledged that we will be back in some form.
Some of the 74 million Trump voters may be prepared to extend some leeway to Biden in his early days but many others are sure to remain implacably opposed. The media ecosystem that propelled Trump to power to begin with, fueled by grievance and outrage, is still very much in place.
But Bidens inauguration did reach for some sense of conventionality and togetherness, even amid such unusual circumstances.
The visual image of three ex-presidents Barack ObamaBarack Hussein ObamaClinton, Bush, Obama reflect on peaceful transition of power on Biden’s Inauguration DayBiden’s inauguration marked by conflict of hope and fearWhy aren’t more Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in Biden’s Cabinet?MORE, George W. Bush and Bill ClintonWilliam (Bill) Jefferson ClintonClinton, Bush, Obama reflect on peaceful transition of power on Biden’s Inauguration DayTrump’s pardons harshly criticized by legal expertsSenate confirms Biden’s intel chief, giving him first Cabinet officialMORE together on the podium restored some semblance of the political normalcy that Trump sought to upend. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts administered the oath of office, as he had done for Trump and Obama.
The ceremony sought to reach Americas different cultural camps too, even in terms of its music, which encompassed Lady Gaga, Jennifer Lopez and Garth Brooks.
For Biden supporters and for nonpartisans simply eager to put the rancor of the last four years behind them Wednesday felt like an exhalation of relief as much a celebration.
Right after Bidens speech, Amanda Gorman at 22, the youngest inaugural poet in the nations history struck a chord with her poem The Hill We Climb.
Somehow weve weathered and witnessed / a nation that isnt broken but simply unfinished, the poem ran.
The line resonated just as widely, and as emotionally, as anything in Bidens address.
The Memo is a reported column by Niall Stanage
