In His Inaugural Address, Biden Seeks To Move Past ‘American Carnage’

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Pro-Trump protesters seeking to force Congress to overturn the election results swarm the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, two weeks before President-elect Joe Biden is scheduled to gives his inaugural address there.

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Chief Justice Warren Burger administers the oath of office to Ronald Reagan at the Capitol on Jan. 20, 1981.

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President Trump’s Inaugural Address, Annotated

Even in his dark and divisive inaugural address in 2009, remembered for his proclamation that he would stop «this American carnage faced by «the forgotten men and women of our country, President Trump endorsed the tradition.

«Every four years, we gather on these steps to carry out the orderly and peaceful transfer of power, and we are grateful to President Obama and first lady Michelle Obama for their gracious aid throughout this transition, Trump said in his speech.

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Trump has not even congratulated Biden, the transition has been rocky, and there is no way to describe this transfer as peaceful. Ongoing security threats — combined with coronavirus risks — will leave the National Mall largely empty, instead of thronged with thousands of people.

It’s all combining to give Biden an oratorical challenge unlike any any president who came before him. «There are threads of analogies that you can pull from other speeches, but there is not a boilerplate that Joe Biden can pull from to give him a sense of what to do here, said Jeff Shesol, a historian who was a speechwriter for former President Bill Clinton.

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President-elect Joe Biden takes off his mask before laying out his proposal for a $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package on Jan. 14.

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Franklin Delano Roosevelt takes the oath of office as the 32nd president of the United States from Chief Justice Charles Evans Hughes, March 4, 1933.

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George W. Bush takes the oath of office from Chief Justice William Rehnquist to become the 43rd president on Jan. 20, 2001.

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A pro-Trump rioter carries a Confederate flag outside the Senate Chamber during the insurrection at the Capitol on Jan. 6.

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President Richard M. Nixon gives his inaugural address as former President Lyndon Johnson, right, listens on Jan. 20, 1969.

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President Richard M. Nixon gives his inaugural address as former President Lyndon Johnson, right, listens on Jan. 20, 1969.

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In his 1969 speech, Nixon called on Americans to summon their better angels.

«We are caught in war, wanting peace. We are torn by division, wanting unity, Nixon said in his address. «We see around us empty lives, wanting fulfillment. We see tasks that need doing, waiting for hands to do them. To a crisis of the spirit, we need an answer of the spirit. To find that answer, we need only look within ourselves.

Though Biden’s task is uniquely challenging, inaugural addresses almost always hit notes of healing. «The founders put an awful lot of responsibility on an incoming president to unite the country when it was badly divided and hurting as it is right now, said historian Michael Beschloss.

He does have to try to draw Americans together. And yet he also has to show that he is not naive.

Jeff Shesol, presidential historian and speechwriter

Biden’s inaugural theme is «America United, but in remarks last week, he acknowledged the obvious: America is quite divided. «We’ve seen clearly what we face now, Biden said before insisting he was still optimistic.

In his address, Biden faces a tricky dilemma, said speechwriter Jeff Shesol. «He does have to try to draw Americans together. And yet he also has to show that he is not naive, he said.

«I think the typical gauzy appeals to national unity that you typically get in inaugural addresses really aren’t going to wash here, Shesol said.