Liveblog: Biden Sworn in as the 46th President of the United States

Here’s the latest.

Anthony Behar/AP

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.

Happy Wednesday and welcome to the inauguration of Joe Biden.

Today’s ceremony looked starkly different from previous inaugurations in light of the pandemic. Unprecedented security measures are in place following the murderous attack on the Capitol exactly two weeks ago. Today, 25,000 National Guard troops—roughly five times the number of service members currently stationed in Iraq and Afghanistan—are patrolling the area.

Donald Trump is, of course, snubbing the festivities. Instead, he spent his final hours in office with a military-style send-off that reportedly failed to attract even Mike Pence. John Kelly, Don McGahn, and Anthony Scaramucci were also among the former White House officials who declined invites to Trump’s farewell.

Follow along below for the latest:

3:45 p.m. ET: Biden gave Al Roker a fist bump, but I was disappointed not to see Roker hand over his bag of snacks.

3:30 p.m. ET: Biden is setting off on his inaugural parade, albeit without civilian spectators. Drum lines from the University of Delaware and Howard University—the president’s and vice president’s alma maters, respectively—will join the procession.

In other news, NBC’s Al Roker is trying to get the first and second families to speak with him by luring them with their favorite snacks.

1:10 p.m. ET: Take in today’s sweet feeling of relief by mainlining these wonderful memes and reactions:

12:30 p.m. ET: A new whitehouse.gov with normal, non-horrifying policy priorities has finally been installed. One big change: the removal of the Trump administration’s 1776 Commission.

12:15 p.m. ET:

11:50 a.m. ET: It’s official. Biden has been sworn in as the 46th president.

11:45 a.m ET: Take in this historic moment: Sonia Sotomayor, the country’s first Latina Supreme Court justice, administering the oath of office to Vice President Kamala Harris, the first Black and South Asian woman to hold the office.

11:40 a.m. ET: Lady Gaga is performing the National Anthem and she is killing it.

11:30 a.m. ET: 

11:15 a.m. ET: 

10:30 a.m. ET: They’re here!

Joe Biden and Kamala Harris are being escorted by Eugene Goodman, the Capitol police officer who guided the pro-Trump insurrectionists away from senators during the Jan. 6 attack.

10:20 a.m. ET: While we wait for guests to start taking their seats, my colleague Russ Choma has a guide to the mounting financial problems that await Trump as he crosses into civilian life:

Trump will return to a faltering business empire, its troubles magnified by the insurrection at the Capitol that he provoked. His bankers don’t want his business. Business partners are cutting ties. He’s facing looming deadlines to repay hundreds of millions in debt, with few good options for coming up with the cash or refinancing. Meanwhile, the threat of post-presidency legal problems, civil and criminal, has proliferated.

In short, the walls are closing in.

Sounds scary!

10:00 a.m. ET: More arrivals and a tweet-congrats from Barack Obama:

9:20 a.m. ET: Our DC Bureau Chief David Corn is live at the ceremony where guests are starting to arrive.

8:35 a.m. ET: Trump is now speaking at his farewell event at Joint Base Andrews, where he organized a 21-gun salute for himself:

8:00 a.m. ET: Bye.

8:00 a.m. ET: A small crowd has gathered outside for Trump’s final White House exit.

7:40 a.m. ET: Before the events of the day overtake us,  let’s take a look at the flurry of executive orders Biden is expected to sign after getting sworn in. Those include immediate orders to rejoin the Paris Climate Accord and the World Health Organization, extending key coronavirus financial relief measures such as eviction and foreclosure moratoriums, and ending the Trump’s administration’s Muslim ban. 

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with the Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

Let’s do this. If you can right now, please support Mother Jones and investigative journalism with an urgently needed donation today.

payment methods

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with the Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

Let’s do this. If you can right now, please support Mother Jones and investigative journalism with an urgently needed donation today.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate