With a promise to ‘heal’ America, which in recent months witnessed a chaotic election and messy transition of power, Joseph R Biden will take the oath to become the 46th president of the United States today.
Biden, who is known around the world for his stint as the vice president during the Obama administration, will be the oldest person ever sworn in as president of the country. He turned 78 in November 2020.
President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris will be sworn in at the West Front of the US capitol during the 59th Presidential Inauguration ceremony.
Biden’s inauguration is taking place under the shadow of the unprecedented health crisis and protests in the US.
The security in the capital has been beefed up amid a high level of security concerns following the January 6 Capitol riots.
In his victory speech in his hometown, Wilmington, Delaware in November, Biden pledged to unite the country as he called it ‘a time to heal in America’. “I pledge to be a president who seeks not to divide, but to unify; who doesn’t see red states and blue states, only sees the United States,” Biden said.
Biden served as vice president in the former President Barack Obama administration for two terms from 2008 to 2016. Biden and Obama developed a close friendship from what had initially been a more strategic pairing, with Biden credited for using his working-class roots, folksy flourishes, and experience to help shore up support for the country’s first Black president from older white Americans in key northern swing states said Al Jazeera.