ABC News Special Inauguration Coverage

1/20/2021

[after poet Amanda Gorman’s speech]

GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: Wow. How's that for a national debut? Most of us will remember where we were when we heard Joe Biden take the oath of office, give his inaugural address. We will all remember when we heard Amanda Gorman speak to the world as America's first national youth poet laureate.

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[after reverend speaks]

STEPHANOPOULOS: Echoes of Martin Luther King Jr., there, with a prayer and plea for unity in this country so deeply divided right now. Cecilia Vega, unity the theme of the day, the theme of this inaugural ceremony, the theme of Joe Biden's presidential campaign, clearly going to be the early theme of his presidency. He said, my whole soul is in this, bringing America together. 

VEGA: George, this was an inaugural speech aimed at uniting the country. But so much of this was speaking directly to Donald Trump's supporters or those who may be doubting Joe Biden's legitimacy. He said, we won this, this is democracy, you are seeing it in action. It's not about a candidate, democracy has prevailed. But he also used this moment to attempt to reclaim truth. We just saw an outgoing president who by counts issued more than 33 some odd thousand assaults on the truth, mistruths. And this was about taking truth and reclaiming facts, George.

STEPHANOPOULOS: And Mary Bruce, you're at the Capitol today, he did not shy away from mentioning the siege of the Capitol two weeks ago, told the country, told the world what we saw there will not prevail.

MARY BRUCE: It was a fierce rejection of that kind of hate, of that kind of violence, as he made this call for unity. George, I have to say, I've listened to a lot of Joe Biden's speeches, he talks about the unity a lot. What always strikes me is Biden is not a man of hyperbole. He views unity not as a lofty goal but as a practical necessity. You heard that today, to tackle the pandemic, racial injustice, the country will have to come together, put aside your differences and work towards common goals. He said without unity there is no progress. And of course without mentioning president Trump's name, it was a clear rejection of Trumpism. I kept thinking of that famous line that Donald Trump said, "I alone can fix it." The message from Joe Biden today was "We alone can fix it." If this country has any hope of moving forward, it will take everybody coming together. As Cecilia mentioned, that message to the more than 70 million Americans who voted for Trump, Joe Biden is essentially saying give me a chance.

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JON KARL: So when he came out and said that line, again, that simple line, there is truth and there are lies, if he can convince us, if he can convince Americans of that once again, it will go a long way to accomplishing what he needs to accomplish.

STEPHANOPOULOS: That would be a monumental victory for Joe Biden, as 46th president of the United States. Mark Updegrove, presidential historian."We must not be enemies, we must not make friends of our enemies [sic]," as Jon Karl was just talking about, echoes of Abe Lincoln right there. 

MARK UPDEGROVE:  Echoes of Lincoln on the eve of Civil War in 1861, the worst domestic crisis that we've ever faced as a nation. We of course faced one two weeks ago, George. But I think what President Biden said at the top of his speech most resonated with me which is ‘this is democracy's day, democracy has prevailed.’ Despite what we saw from President Trump, his trying to sabotage this election, calling on insurrectionists to seize the Capitol, to try to overturn the results, to try to overthrow our country, democracy triumphed. This, today, was a triumph of democracy. 

STEPHANOPOULOS: Martha Raddatz, thank you Mark, that was clearly the message the president, the new president had worth the world. He said America has been tested but we've come out stronger.

RADDATZ: Exactly the message he was portraying, we will repair our alliances, lead not by power but the power of our example and our leadership, a strong message to the world. Of course there are congratulations coming in from all over the world, as would be expected. Look, the world has to deal with whoever is president. And I know foreign leaders around the world during the Trump administration were just holding their breath. I also look, and I'm looking there at the chairman of the joint chiefs, Mark Milley who was among the crowd there today. He will remain chairman of the joint chiefs. But he had a very tough balancing act during this period. I know there's probably a sigh of relief over at the Pentagon that Iran didn't act up in the last couple of weeks because there were certainly plans to respond to any attack from Iran….

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BYRON PITTS: Watching this moment, today's inauguration felt more like a church service, right? And we see there, right after the sermon, the congregation doesn't want to go home. People are hugging, shaking hands. I thought from Joe Biden today, certainly he was commander in chief, but he was also papa in chief. He gave a speech to comfort the nation. He said in part, to those who did not vote for me, if you still disagree, so be it, disagreement must not lead to disunion. It was a unifying speech. If you think about it, It's a 4 1/2 hour drive from Scranton, Pennsylvania where Biden is from to the White House. It took Joe Biden 78 years from the shy side of blue collar to become the most powerful person on Earth. That remains only possible in America. We are not a perfect nation, as he reminded us today, but the nation, the promise of America, remains today like no other on Earth. And I think Joe Biden, this ceremony, even the presence of Mike Pence, they remind us of what is so unique about this nation.