What Went Down During Joe Biden’s Inauguration

President-elect and Vice president-elect no more. Biden and Harris are officially sworn in today as commander-in-chief and second in command. And as we said at the outset, today was an unusual Inauguration Day in many different respects: Trump refused to attend, attendance was severely restricted due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, and thousands of National Guard troops were on hand to protect the peace.

Biden’s inaugural address centered on unity and bringing the country together as one, but as my colleagues discussed on the live blog, that will be a hard task for Biden to undertake, given how divided America is. It’s something we’ll be covering in the years ahead, too.

Here’s the crew’s headlines of today’s event, followed by their final thoughts.

Micah: Biden Inaugurated As 46th President; Harris Sworn In As First Woman Vice President

Amelia: Biden Takes Office At A Moment of National Crisis

Julia: Historic Inauguration Presents Democracy As A Work in Progress

Nathaniel: President Calls For Unity, Vice President Makes History

Kaleigh: Unity The Theme Of The Day At A Pandemic Inauguration

Seth: Biden Calls For Disagreement To Not Become Disunity, Vows To Be Everyone’s President

Geoffrey: Biden Calls For Unity And Strength In A Time Of Cascading Crises

Meredith: President Biden Commits to Unifying A Divided Nation

Galen: Do Words And Traditions Have The Power To Unite In The Midst Of An ‘Uncivil War?’ We’ll Find Out.

Meena: Extraordinary Times Require The Most Ordinary Inauguration

Shom: A Normal Inauguration In Abnormal Times Is The Coda Into An Uncertain Future

Somehow, summing up the transition from the Trump presidency to the Biden administration feels impossible. I keep coming back to the idea of Trump as both a symptom and accelerant, and thus Trumpism (and its white supremacy and antidemocratic values) predated Trump and will outlive him.

Biden and Harris are inheriting so many crises. IDK, maybe my main takeaway today is both a big deal and a pretty low bar: It’s something to be confident again that the executive branch will be focused on trying to address those crises.

Biden enters office at a time of deep national division. It will be difficult to govern without making at least a little bipartisan progress, barring substantial institutional changes such as the end of the filibuster, which seems unlikely. He took steps today to lay out a welcoming approach, but it remains to be seen whether or not we have hit the valley’s floor, or if there are further depths for our country to slide to because of its many struggles and divides.