Transition in the US as Joe Biden replaces Trump as 46th POTUS

Joseph R. Biden was sworn as the 46th President on 20th January 2021 at midday officially taking over the reigns of power as his predecessor President Donald J Trump was landing in Florida. Trump who had opted to forego the swearing in ceremony of his successor flee the prestigious Airforce One with his family for the last time and had a brief farewell address with hundreds of his ardent supporters at the James Base Andrews Airport as curtains closed on his controversial reign marred by the 6th January insurrection that saw a mob cause havoc at the Capitol Hill leading to his 2nd impeachment.

First to be sworn in was Vice President Devi Kamala Harris accompanied by her husband Doug Emhoff who officially became United State’s 2nd Gentleman at the Whitehouse. The 56 year old Harris was sworn in by Supreme Court Justice Sotomayor and thus made history as the 1st female, first black and first Asian-American US Vice president.

Joe Biden was sworn by Chief Justice Roberts using a Bible that has been in his family since 1893 and was used during his swearing in as vice president in 2009 and 2013 and every time he was sworn in as US Senator. The bible which has a Celtic cross on its cover and was also used by his late son, Beau, for his own swearing-in ceremony as attorney general of Delaware.

Speaking after being sworn in, President Joe Biden asked every American to join him in the cause of fighting the common foes namely anger, resentment, hatred, Extremism, Lawlessness, Violence, Disease, Joblessness, and Hopelessness and pledged to be the President of All Americans including those who didnt vote for him.

The President urged respect to one another saying “Politics need not be a raging fire destroying everything in its path. Every disagreement doesn’t have to be a cause for total war.  And, we must reject a culture in which facts themselves are manipulated and even manufactured.”

After the Swearing, President Biden received gifts from Congressional leaders at Capitol Hill, inspected troops and then traveled from the U.S. Capitol across the Potomac River to Arlington National Cemetery to lay a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier alongside Vice President Harris as well as former Presidents Barack Obama, George W. Bush and Bill Clinton and and members of their families.

Both Biden and Kamala were chauffeured in armored limousines popularly known as the Beast. The President’s car had the number plate 46 – a nod to the fact that he has now become the 46th president of the United States. The Vice President’s car had the plate 49, as she has just become America’s 49th vice president.