Vice President Pence and three former presidents sit in the noon sunshine at the Capitol to listen as Biden recites a 35-word oath of office familiar since 1884.
The Hill’s editor-in-chief, Bob Cusack, writes that Biden, leaning on lengthy relationships with key Republicans on Capitol Hill, believes he can defy history to enact major legislation in his first year with bipartisan support. His recent predecessors in the Oval Office struggled to fulfill similar ambitions.
The 46th president will begin his term with a 50-50 Senate and the smallest House majority Democrats have experienced in nearly a century and a half (221-211). Just 65,009 votes in Arizona, Georgia, Wisconsin and Nebraska s 2nd Congressional District made Biden the Electoral College winner, even with 81 million votes overall, or 51.3 percent of the total popular vote.