New HBO Doc Chronicles Biden's Tense First Year as President, Picking Up the Pieces of a Wounded Nation

By the time Joe Biden assumed the office of president, "unprecedented" was an adjective the world had grown tired of hearing. But peering behind the curtain in HBO's upcoming documentary Year One: A Political Odyssey, Americans are reminded that Biden's ascent to the White House can't be described any other way.

In January of 2021, the nation stood in shock watching a sea of angry Trump supporters storm the U.S. Capitol in an attempt to overturn the results of the presidential election, in which Biden overwhelmingly defeated the sitting president. Already enmeshed in a global pandemic and watching international tensions rise, the Jan. 6 insurrection set the stage for Biden to be sworn in amid domestic unrest and sounded security alarms come Inauguration Day.

"There was huge security issues that day — fears after Jan. 6 and a lot of steps and precautions that were being taken," former White House press secretary Jen Psaki says in an exclusive clip of Year One, shown below. "We couldn't even get close enough to drive here on our first day."

The pandemic-restricted inauguration, where participants wore masks and Trump was nowhere to be found, was an odd way to begin the presidency, but then Biden and his team faced the real challenge: simultaneously getting COVID-19 under control and healing a broken nation.

Year One follows the inner circle of Biden's administration from the inauguration to his first State of the Union address in March of 2022. It shows the herculean effort to get Americans vaccinated, the lead-up to U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan and the escalation of nuclear tensions around the globe.

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The documentary is directed by Emmy-winning filmmaker John Maggio and executive produced by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist David Sanger.

Year One: A Political Odyssey premieres Wednesday, Oct. 19, on HBO and will be available for streaming on HBO Max.