The Day Joe Biden Became President, in Photos
January 20, 2021Today was the day Joe Biden became president.
The inauguration of the 46th president of the United States was, in many respects, filled with the pomp Americans have come to expect from the ceremony: Prayers from religious leaders, copious amounts of American flags and patriotic bunting; speeches by politicians who trade their usual focus-grouped plainspokenness for language that hopes to evoke something vaguely Kennedy-esque.
But for all those comforts, this inauguration was unlike any that came before it. Coming two weeks after a violent insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, downtown Washington was locked down, unscalable fences were erected, with green zones and red zones patrolled by more than 20,000 National Guard troops. In the midst of a global pandemic that has killed more than 400,000 Americans, the National Mall was empty, void of the typical overflow crowds. The outgoing president, Donald J. Trump, decided to skip the ceremony, becoming the first incumbent in more than 150 years not to attend his successor’s swearing in. Also different: For the first time, a woman of color was being sworn in as vice president.
Witnessing all of it was POLITICO’s team of photographers, who documented everything from the pre-sunrise preparations to the oaths of office. Here, a selection of what they saw. —Zack Stanton
Source: https://www.politico.com/