U.S. President-elect Joe Biden delivers remarks on national security and foreign policy at his transition headquarters in Wilmington, Delaware, December 28, 2020.
Jonathan Ernst | Reuters
President-elect Joe Biden will on Wednesday deliver an inauguration speech centered on unity as the United States faces one of its most chaotic transfers of power in the modern era.
Biden, who departed for Washington on Tuesday afternoon, will speak about the need to bring the country together on the heels of a violent riot on Capitol Hill and amid extreme partisanship in Congress, according to the president-elect’s advisors.
His speech will also come in the wake of an outgoing president whose refusal to attend the inauguration ceremony was heralded by his successor as a victory for security.
Though Biden is expected to acknowledge the turmoil of the past month, he is projected to strike an optimistic tone about overcoming the challenges ahead if Americans can put aside their differences and work together, the advisors said.
A person familiar with the speech told CNBC on Tuesday that Biden is expected to speak for approximately 20 to 30 minutes.
The call for unity will come in stark contrast to — and exactly 14 days after — a violent, pro-Trump mob stormed the Capitol Building in what historians described as an unprecedented riot at one of the nation’s most-sacred sites.
The riot, which was quelled only after the National Guard and state forces responded, led to the deaths of at least five people.
Thousands of National Guard personnel have been mobilized to the District of Columbia in recent weeks to help keep peace before, during and after Biden’s inauguration. The troops are monitoring traffic control points and providing support to law enforcement as authorities work to secure national landmarks and the inaugural site.
Biden will succeed President Donald Trump as the 46th president of the United States shortly after noon ET in a ceremony that promises to maintain all the pomp and ceremony of prior inaugurations but look unlike anything in recent memory.
Though Trump went to great lengths to stress the physical size of his inaugural audience, Biden’s will be far smaller by design as the vast majority of viewers watch the ceremony virtually on television or online.
The smaller ceremony is designed to prevent the spread of Covid-19, the contagious virus that has killed more than 400,000 Americans in the course of one year.
In addition to its incalculable humanitarian and public health toll, the coronavirus has led to the shutdown of thousands of U.S. businesses and a spike in unemployment as consumer change their habits and governments impose restrictions designed to slow the disease.
Adding to the drama of this inauguration is that Trump for weeks after the Nov. 3 election refused to admit his defeat and peddled unfounded conspiracy theories about widespread voter fraud.
He also may have tried to snub Biden in a tweet dated Jan. 8, just before Twitter opted to…
Read More: Biden’s inauguration speech to stress unity amid a national crisis