As US President-elect Joe Biden arrived in Washington ahead of his inauguration, outgoing president Donald Trump released a farewell speech from the White House.
19 Jan 2021
Rabbi Michael Beals of Wilmington, Delaware, compared President-elect Joe Biden to Moses leading the Jews out of Egypt away from “an autocratic, cruel Pharaoh” in a send-off ceremony on Tuesday afternoon.
Beals was invited to give the invocation at the close of the event, marking the Biden family’s departure for the White House.
Speaking with his coronavirus mask lodged beneath his nose, Beals fawned on the President-elect and his family.
The rabbi noted that Biden’s inauguration coincided with a week in which Jewish congregations are reading as they do every year at roughly this time the portion of Exodus describing the liberation of the Israelites from slavery in Egypt.
WHEN THE ugly group of thugs stormed the U.S. Capitol last week, I wanted to immediately dash off a column underscoring how no punishment was serious enough for these traitors.
| Credit: Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc/Getty
In the latest sign of Republicans distancing themselves from Donald Trump, one of the president s most prominent allies in the Senate blamed him, in part, for inciting the deadly U.S. Capitol riot. The mob was fed lies, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said, during remarks on the Senate floor on Tuesday. They were provoked by the president and other powerful people. Get push notifications with news, features and more. + Follow
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McConnell, 78, has long been a powerful political ally for Trump, 74, during his time in office. However, in Trump s final days, he s secluded himself in the White House while support from once-loyal GOP lawmakers has dwindled. McConnell included.
President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris participated in a lighting ceremony at the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool to honor those killed by COVID-19.