Inauguration Special

Inauguration Day definitely looked different this year. A smaller crowd, a distanced ceremony, no luncheon, and no parade. However, in far from normal times, the ceremony delivered some sense of normalcy to many Americans. Let's talk about today.

Episode Transcript

Unknown (00:00):
Inauguration Day definitely look different this
year, a smaller crowd, adistance ceremony, no luncheon
and no parade. However, in farfrom normal times, the ceremony
delivered some sense of normalcyto many Americans. I'm Joe
Maronski. And this is thepolitical informant, your place
for fact first politics.

(00:33):
So let's go through the day thismorning, President Trump
delivered one last addressbehind the presidential seal
from Joint Base Andrews duringhis farewell ceremony. Now upon
his arrival from the WhiteHouse, President Trump delivered
a brief speech in which he spokeabout his record and the future.
staffers for former PresidentTrump say that he did have a
speech written in which sheacknowledged President Biden by

(00:56):
name. However, Trump decided togo off script and speak from his
heart instead. In it he said,quote, they have the foundation
to do something reallyspectacular, referring to the
Biden administration. FormerPresident Trump also said that,
quote, We will be back in someform. Trump has not ruled out a
run in 2024, and many on theright believe that this was his

(01:19):
way of saying he'll be runningagain.
While President Trump exited thestage, President Biden and Dr.
Jill Biden exited the BlairHouse, which is the white house
guest house right across thestreet. It's tradition for the
president elect to stay therethe night before the
inauguration. But we've seen alot of things break with
tradition this year. PresidentTrump then boarded Air Force One

(01:42):
and headed to his Mar a Lagoresort a new residence.
Prior to the inauguration,President Biden and Dr. Jill
Biden attended mass at theCathedral of St. Matthew the
apostle along with VicePresident Harris, second man
emhoff and members of Congress.
President Biden is actually thesecond ever Roman Catholic
president and john F. Kennedywas the first nearly 60 years

(02:03):
ago.
Alright, so let's hop into theevent in traditional fashion
living presidents did attend theinauguration. Former President
Jimmy Carter did not attendHowever, because of his
inability to travel during thepandemic, being that he is 96

(02:26):
years old. President Biden saidhe spoke to President Carter via
phone last night however,President Trump also did not
attend however, Vice PresidentPence and Second Lady Karen
pence were in attendance. Nowshortly before the event began,
the Supreme Court building wasactually examined but not
evacuated after it received abomb threat. Once officials did

(02:48):
examine the building, it wasdeemed safe and no bomb was
found.
While taking their seats vicepresident Kamala Harris and
second man emhoff were escortedby officer Eugene Goodman, the
man seen on video divertingrioters away from the Senate
chambers during the January 6riots. Officer Goodman was
promoted to the Acting Deputysenate Sergeant at Arms, making

(03:10):
him the second in command forinaugural event security. This
is definitely something thatofficer Goodman deserves. And
after further evaluation, it wasactually made aware that had
officer Goodman not divertedthese writers away from the
Senate chamber when he did theywould have ran directly into
senators. It was a mere seconddifference between seeing the

(03:33):
senators and missing them. Andthat's all thanks to officer
Goodman.
Supreme Court justices StephenBreyer, Samuel Alito and
clarence thomas didn't attendthe ceremony due to health
concerns regarding the covid 19pandemic and their age but all
other justices attended. VicePresident Harris was sworn in on
two Bibles one belonging toRegina Shelton, a family friend

(03:55):
who the vice president viewed asa mother figure and the other
belonging to Justice ThurgoodMarshall, who was the first
black member of the SupremeCourt and Harris's political
role model. She was actuallysworn in by Justice Sonia SOTA
Meyer, who was the first Latinaperson to serve on the court.

(04:16):
President Biden was sworn in ona family Bible that's 130 years
old and he was sworn in by ChiefJustice john G. Roberts. In his
speech, President Biden calledfor unity saying, quote, without
unity, there is no peace, onlybitterness and fury. No
progress, only exhaustingoutrage, no national only a

(04:36):
state of chaos. He also said,quote, politics doesn't have to
be a raging fire destroyingeverything in its path. Every
disagreement doesn't have to bea cause for total war, and we
must reject a culture in whichfacts themselves are manipulated
and even manufactured. Nownotably, Biden did not mention

(04:56):
Trump by name in his speech andWhite House press.
attari jen pisac He said it wasbecause he thought the speech
should be about the Americanpeople, not politics. She said,
quote, as you saw in his speech,it was about forward looking,
not looking back. Now, someRepublicans disagree with this
based on the actions thatPresident Biden has taken so

(05:17):
far, but we'll get into that alittle bit later. After his
speech, Amanda Gorman, theUnited States Poet Laureate,
became the youngest inauguralpoet ever. Gorman quickly began
to trend on Twitter and Googleas she clearly stole the show.
Another 22 year old had twoquotes that stuck with many,

(05:38):
many people. The first being,quote, The well democracy can be
periodically delayed, it cannever be permanently defeated.
And the second quote was, quote,not because we will never again
no defeat, but because we willnever again so division.

(06:00):
After the ceremony, the newpresident wasted no time getting
to work signing three documentsin the President's room at the
Capitol. These three documentswere in inauguration
declaration, cabinetnominations, and subcabinet
nominations, all of whichPresident bided wanted to get
submitted to the Senate as soonas possible. Congressional
leaders then presented giftsfollowing tradition to the

(06:22):
president and vice president. Asthese gifts included Linux
raises flags were flown over theevent, and photos from earlier
in the morning, which actuallywas amazing to see.
These photos were taken,printed, framed, and given as
gifts within hours, definitely atestament to the advancement of

(06:43):
technology. First and Biden andvice president Harris then left
the Capitol and headed to theArlington National Cemetery to
lay a wreath at the Tomb of theUnknown Soldier well being
joined by the former presidentswho attended the inauguration.
At that point, the presidentheaded to the White House and
the vice president headed tonumber one observatory circle on

(07:03):
the US Naval Observatorygrounds, which is the residence
of the vice president. PresidentBiden was welcomed by White
House ushers after walking tothe White House along
Pennsylvania Avenue. VicePresident Harris was actually
escorted by the HowardUniversity drumline, which is
her alma mater, and wasdefinitely a nod to HBCUs
everywhere.

(07:28):
Shortly after arriving at theWhite House, President Biden got
right to work along with VicePresident Harris. Former
President Trump former VicePresident Pence and many other
former White House staffers aresaid to have left notes for
their predecessors. VicePresident Harris been sworn in
senators ossoff, Warnock andpodia the swearing in of these

(07:51):
three senators means that theSenate is officially a 5050
split with Vice President Harrisserving as the tie breaking vote
if needed. Now, the last timethis happened was actually 2001.
And leaders from both partiesdecided not to put anything on
the floor without bipartisansupport, but it appears that
senate majority leaderChuck Schumer won't be doing

(08:13):
that, as he clearly claimed thathe is the senate majority
leader, but is still workingclosely with Mitch McConnell.
President Biden ended up signing15 executive orders. Now these
executive orders included thingsthat ended construction of the
border wall, rejoined the WorldHealth Organization, rejoin the

(08:36):
Paris accord reverse the travelban from predominantly Muslim
countries which many refer to asthe Muslim ban ended
construction on the Keystonepipeline which brought gas from
Canada to the Gulf of Mexico.
reimplemented diversity trainingfor federal employees along with
requesting reviews of diversityand offices extended the pause
and student loan paymentsextended the moratorium on

(08:58):
evictions rescinded Trump's 1776commission revoked Trump's plan
to exclude non citizens from thecensus prohibited discrimination
based on sexual orientation andgender identity in the
workplace, appointed a COVID-19response coordinator revoke
Trump's 2017 interiorenforcement executive order

(09:19):
which brought in deportationguidelines and implemented a
mask mandate on federalproperties. President Biden also
sent a COVID-19 relief packageto Congress, but it had a hefty
price tag of $2 trillion. Andrepublicans are not too happy
about that. Now, I mentionedearlier that people have been
talking about his actions as itrelates to him saying he was

(09:41):
looking forward and not back.
Many republican commentators areactually saying that by
reversing all of these Trump erapolicies, President Biden is
clearly looking back at whathappened. But supporters on the
left say that he can't lookforward without
Addressing the wrongs that weredone in the past, it'll be very

(10:03):
interesting to see how thatconversation plays out because
it really is a valid point weare looking back every time we
undo something, but at the sametime, are there things that he
needs to undo? Only time willtell.
Now the inaugural ball willoccur, although looking a little

(10:26):
different than usual, it'll belargely virtual similar to the
Democratic National Convention.
Today was historic. No matterwhat side of the political
spectrum you're on, we can allbe proud to have a female to
have a black person and to havea South Asian American in the
vice presidency. I'm JoeMaronski. And you've been

(10:47):
listening to the politicalinformant.