Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. had become the 46th U.S. president on Wednesday, completing the most daunting power transfer in recent American history.
Inaugurated in a fortified Washington under the shadow of the coronavirus pandemic, Biden took the oath of office at the U.S. Capitol in front of a sparse bipartisan crowd. He enters the White House exactly two weeks after a mob inflamed by his predecessor, Donald Trump, stormed the Capitol, disrupting the transition to Biden’s administration and leaving five people dead.
Biden, the oldest American president, faces swirling crises as he and Vice President Kamala Harris take power. At 56, she becomes the first woman, first Black American and first South Asian American to become vice president. Biden will try to streamline the biggest vaccination effort in U.S. history to contain a virus that has claimed more than 400,000 lives nationwide.
Biden will aim to boost an economy in which about 18 million people are receiving unemployment benefits and food banks experience demand unseen in decades. He will try to implement a broad agenda while navigating a country where millions of people, including members of Congress, fed disinformation by Trump question the legitimacy of his victory in the November election.
Joe Biden won the presidency in November in his third try. His first attempt came during the 1988 presidential cycle, followed by a 2008 primary loss to his future boss Barack Obama.
Biden served two terms as Obama’s vice president from 2009 to 2017. He took the job after 36 years in the Senate representing Delaware, a state Biden has said “will be written on [his] heart.” Biden joined the Senate when he was 30.
The president ran last year as the person best equipped to defeat Trump. Concerns bubbled within his party that his record on racial justice and the social safety net left him unprepared to confront the country’s challenges. Biden pledged to “restore the soul of America,” and clinched his party’s presidential nomination after early stumbles.
