U.S. President-elect Joe Biden greets a supporter at an event at the Major Joseph R. Beau Biden III National Guard/Reserve Center in New Castle Airport on Jan. 19, 2021, before departing for Washington, DC.JIM WATSON/AFP/Getty Images
Joe Biden paused on what might have been his triumphal entrance to Washington on Tuesday evening ahead of his inauguration to mark instead the national tragedy of the coronavirus pandemic with a moment of collective grief for Americans lost.
His arrival coincided with the awful news that the U.S. death toll had surpassed 400,000 in the worst public-health crisis in more than a century – a crisis Mr. Biden will now be charged with controlling.
“To heal we must remember,” the incoming president told the country at a sunset ceremony at the Lincoln Memorial. Four hundred lights representing the pandemic’s victims were illuminated behind him around the monument’s Reflecting Pool.
“Between sundown and dusk, let us shine the lights into the darkness ... and remember all who we lost,” Mr. Biden said.
The sober moment on the eve of Mr. Biden’s inauguration – typically a celebratory time in Washington when the country marks the democratic tradition of a peaceful transfer of power – was a measure of the enormity of loss for the country.
During his brief remarks, Mr. Biden faced the larger-than-life statue of Abraham Lincoln, the Civil War president who served as more than 600,000 Americans died. As he turned to walk away at the conclusion of the vigil, he faced the black granite wall listing the 58,000-plus Americans who perished in Vietnam.
Mr. Biden was joined by vice-president-elect Kamala Harris, who spoke of the collective anguish of the country, a not-so-subtle admonishment of outgoing President Donald Trump, who has spoken sparingly about the pandemic in recent months.
“For many months we have grieved by ourselves,” said Ms. Harris, who will make history as the first woman to serve as vice-president when she’s sworn in. “Tonight, we grieve and begin healing together.”
Joe Biden plans to block Keystone XL pipeline as one of first acts in White House
Biden picks Rohit Chopra, Gary Gensler for financial oversight roles
Beyond the pandemic, Mr. Biden faces no shortage of problems when he takes the reins at the White House. The country is also on its economic heels because of soaring unemployment, there is deep political division and immediate concern about more violence following the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.
Mr. Biden, an avid fan of Amtrak who took the train thousands of times between his home in Delaware and Washington during his decades in the Senate, had planned to take a train into Washington ahead of Wednesday’s Inauguration Day but scratched that plan in the aftermath of the Capitol riot.
He instead flew into Joint Base Andrews just outside the capital and then motorcaded into fortress D.C. – a city that’s been flooded by some 25,000 National Guard troops guarding a Capitol, White House and National Mall that are wrapped in a maze of barricades and tall fencing.
“These are dark times,” Mr. Biden told supporters in an emotional sendoff in Delaware. “But there’s always light.”
Mr. Biden, who ran for the presidency as a cool head who could get things done, plans to issue a series of executive orders on Day One – including reversing Mr. Trump’s effort to leave the Paris climate accord, cancelling Mr. Trump’s travel ban on visitors from several predominantly Muslim countries, and extending pandemic-era limits on evictions and student loan payments.
Mr. Trump won’t be on hand as Mr. Biden is sworn in, the first outgoing President to entirely skip inaugural festivities since Andrew Johnson more than a century and a half ago.
The White House released a farewell video from Mr. Trump just as Mr. Biden landed at Joint Base Andrews. Mr. Trump, who has repeatedly and falsely claimed widespread fraud led to his election loss, extended “best wishes” to the incoming administration in his nearly 20-minute address but did not utter Mr. Biden’s name.
Mr. Biden at his Delaware farewell, held at the National Guard/Reserve Center named after his late son Beau Biden, paid tribute to his home state. After his remarks, he stopped and chatted with friends and well-wishers in the crowd, much as he had at Iowa rope lines at the start of his long campaign journey.
“I’ll always be a proud son of the state of Delaware,” said Mr. Biden, who struggled to hold back tears as he delivered brief remarks.
Inaugural organizers this week finished installing some 200,000 U.S., state and territorial flags on the National Mall, a display representing the American people who couldn’t come to the inauguration, which is tightly limited under security and COVID-19 restrictions.
The display was also a reminder of all the president-elect faces as he looks to steer the country through the pandemic with infections and deaths soaring.
Out of the starting gate, Mr. Biden and his team are intent on moving quickly to speed distribution of vaccinations to anxious Americans and pass his US$1.9-trillion virus relief package, which includes quick payments to many people and an increase in the minimum wage to US$15 an hour.
Mr. Biden also plans to unveil a sweeping immigration bill on the first day of his administration, hoping to provide an eight-year path to citizenship for an estimated 11 million people living in the U.S. without legal status. That would be a major reversal from the Trump administration’s tight immigration policies.
Many of Mr. Biden’s legislative ambitions could be tempered by the hard numbers he faces on Capitol Hill, where Democrats hold narrow majorities in both the Senate and House. His hopes to press forward with an avalanche of legislation in his first 100 days could also be slowed by an impeachment trial of Mr. Trump.
Our Morning Update and Evening Update newsletters are written by Globe editors, giving you a concise summary of the day’s most important headlines. Sign up today.