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Joe Biden Inaugurated as the 46th President — Live Updates
Live coverage of Joe Biden’s first days as president.
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Jan. 21, 2021 at 11:14 PM EST
President Biden Unveils Coronavirus Road Map, Signs Executive Actions
Joe Biden was sworn in as the 46th president of the U.S. shortly before noon ET on Wednesday. Minutes earlier, Kamala Harris was sworn in as vice president, the first woman to hold that role. Mr. Biden emphasized themes of unity and recovery in his inaugural address, saying, “We must end this uncivil war that pits red against blue.”
Now that President Biden has taken office, he faces the reality of governing in the middle of a pandemic with narrow majorities in Congress and a lengthy list of policy goals.
Mr. Biden unveiled a coronavirus road map on Thursday with 10 executive orders that focus on boosting vaccinations, wearing masks, testing and treatments.
Mr. Biden signed a range of executive orders on Wednesday that include revoking a permit for the Keystone XL oil pipeline, reversing a travel ban from several largely Muslim and African countries, and rejoining the Paris climate accord.
Biden Will Keep Christopher Wray as FBI Director
Biden Pauses Deportations for Next 100 Days
Biden Puts Freeze on Trump's Last-Minute Rules
Biden Moves to Set Covid-19 Workplace-Safety Rules
What’s on Biden’s Business, Economic To-Do List
Harris Balances Dual Roles as Vice President
Latest Updates
Jan. 21, 2021 at 11:44 PM
Former U.S. Attorney Byung J. Pak in Atlanta. (Ron Harris/Associated Press)
The former top federal prosecutor in Atlanta, whom White House officials pushed to resign earlier this month because then-President Donald Trump was upset he wasn’t doing enough to investigate unproven claims of election fraud, is rejoining his former law firm.
The Atlanta-based firm Alston & Bird announced Thursday that Byung J. Pak will be a partner in its litigation and trial practice group. The firm is where Mr. Pak began his career in private practice in 2000, well before Mr. Trump appointed him to serve as U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Georgia in 2017.
Mr. Pak abruptly resigned Jan. 4, the day before Georgia’s runoff election, after a senior Justice Department official, at the behest of the White House, called him late the night before, The Wall Street Journal reported. In that call the official said Mr. Trump was furious there was no investigation related to election fraud and that the president wanted to fire Mr. Pak, people familiar with the matter said.
Mr. Pak had already lined up his law firm job and planned to leave by the end of the administration, people familiar with his plans said. On Jan. 3 he considered leaving early after the public release of a call from the day before between Mr. Trump and Georgia’s secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger, in which the president pushed the official to overturn the November election results, one of the people said. When Mr. Pak communicated that on the Sunday call, the White House indicated he should leave immediately, the person said.
Mr. Trump then called the prosecutor he wanted to replace Mr. Pak, Savannah’s U.S. Attorney Bobby Christine, and told him he was putting him in the job, the person said.
The pressure on Mr. Pak was part of Mr. Trump’s weekslong push to try to alter presidential election results favoring Joe Biden, who was inaugurated on Wednesday.
Senior Justice Department officials including former Attorney General William Barr have said the Justice Department hadn’t found evidence of widespread voter fraud that could reverse Mr. Biden’s victory, including claims of fraud, ballot destruction and voting-machine manipulation.
Jan. 21, 2021 at 11:39 PM
Jaime Harrison speaks at a watch party in Columbia, S.C., on Nov. 3, 2020 (Richard Shiro/Associated Press)
President Biden’s pick to lead the Democratic National Committee was formally elected to the post Thursday and used his first speech in the role to call for the party to boost its efforts into traditionally Republican parts of the nation.
“We are done looking at the map, ignoring the red, while we focus on a few purple areas,” said Jaime Harrison, a former South Carolina party chairman and an unsuccessful 2020 U.S. Senate candidate. “We are done with just focusing on our cities, while forgetting those on dirt roads.”
Mr. Harrison, speaking to a virtual meeting of the DNC, said the party needs to plan for the long term. He pointed to Stacey Abrams, the former Georgia House minority leader who narrowly lost a 2018 bid for governor, as a role model for the party’s organizing efforts.
“Instead of just planning for the next cycle, let’s plan for the next 10 years,” he said. “Let’s learn from the successes for organizers like Stacey Abrams and maintain a constant presence in communities, not just leading up an election.”
Mr. Harrison succeeds Tom Perez, who won the post in 2017 when the Democrats did not control Congress or the White House as they do now. Mr. Perez noted the gains the party has made during his tenure in a departure speech.“We were in a ditch, folks,” he said. “We had to rebuild our infrastructure and rebuild trust.”
Vice President Harris, who briefly joined the meeting, thanked the committee and praised its work over the last four years. “The president and I would not be here without you,” she said.
Mr. Biden also provided a recorded video thanking the committee and praising the selection of Mr. Harrison. The president has long maintained strong ties to Mr. Harrison’s home state and that paid off for him in a huge way during the 2020 primaries.
Following poor performances in the other states with early nominating contests, Mr. Biden won the state by almost 30 percentage points following a key endorsement from Democrat Jim Clyburn of South Carolina. That win helped boost him heading into Super Tuesday and put him on the path to win the nomination.
The Republican National Committee re-elected Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel on Jan. 8, just days after the GOP lost two Senate seats in Georgia and supporters of former President Donald Trump attacked the Capitol as lawmakers were certifying his election loss.
On Thursday, Ms. McDaniel called for unity from the GOP that has shown division since November’s election as she looked forward to the 2022 midterm congressional elections. “We are only going to win back the majority if we unite,” she told Fox News. “Let's just make sure we are extending a hand to every American and talking about cutting taxes and deregulation and the promise of this country and freedoms we enjoy.''
Ms. McDaniel, who is close to Mr. Trump, also called on Republicans in the Senate to oppose his conviction in an impeachment trial. “The first step is to make sure we don't engage in this conviction of the president and not go along with this action of trying to impeach a president who is already out of office,” she said. “I hope Republicans will absolutely not go along with what the Democrats are doing.”
Jan. 21, 2021 at 11:18 PM
Headquarters of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission in Washington. (Stephen Voss for The Wall Street Journal)
President Biden named Rostin Behnam as acting chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, the latest in a string of interim appointments to head federal regulatory agencies.
Mr. Biden hasn't said whom he plans to nominate as permanent head of the CFTC, which regulates vast markets for complex financial instruments known as derivatives.
Mr. Behnam has served as one of two Democrats on the five-member commission since 2017 and was among the candidates being considered for the nomination in recent weeks, according to people tracking the presidential transition. Also in the mix were fellow Democratic CFTC commissioner Dan Berkovitz and Georgetown University law professor Chris Brummer.
Reuters reported Thursday that Mr. Brummer was the lead candidate for the permanent job. The White House declined to comment on that report.
Jan. 21, 2021 at 10:33 PM
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.) and former Secretary of Transportation Elaine Chao on Jan. 20. (Melina Mara/Press Pool)
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell told Republicans he would propose starting former President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial in two weeks to give his legal team time to prepare, GOP aides said Thursday.
Mr. McConnell (R., Ky.) said in a statement Thursday that he had proposed a timeline for beginning Mr. Trump's trial that would give both sides "modest and reasonable" additional time to prepare.
Mr. Trump told associates he has picked Butch Bowers, a South Carolina attorney, to represent him in his Senate impeachment trial, according to a person familiar with the matter.
The House voted last week to impeach Mr. Trump, alleging he incited a mob that stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 as part of his effort to overturn his election loss.
Mr. Bowers served as a special counsel for voting matters in the Justice Department under former President George W. Bush. He also served as chairman of the South Carolina State Election Commission and as counsel to former Govs. Mark Sanford and Nikki Haley.
Jan. 21, 2021 at 9:45 PM
Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, speaking at the White House on Thursday. (Alex Brandon/Associated Press)
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the government’s top infectious-disease expert, said he expected existing vaccines to protect the public against new variants of the coronavirus.
“It appears that the vaccines will still be effective against them,” said Dr. Fauci, President Biden’s chief medical adviser on Covid-19, citing early studies in medical journals.
He added, however, that the Biden administration is paying close attention to new strains that have emerged in the U.K., Brazil and South Africa. “There are alternative plans if we ever have to modify the vaccine,” he said.
Dr. Fauci said the U.K. strain of the virus, which is thought to be more transmissible than other strains, has been found in 20 states in the U.S. He said he didn't think the South African strain has been found in the U.S.
Thursday marked a return to the briefing room for Dr. Fauci, who often drew the ire of former President Donald Trump. In the early days of the pandemic, Mr. Trump held regular coronavirus briefings featuring Dr. Fauci before largely ended those briefings, prompting criticism from public-health officials.
Dr. Fauci said Thursday he was sometimes made uncomfortable by Mr. Trump’s false statements about the coronavirus because they “were not based in scientific fact.”
"You didn’t feel that you could actually say something and there wouldn’t be repercussions about it,” Dr. Fauci said, adding that working for the Biden administration “is somewhat of a liberating feeling.”
He said the Biden administration would hold regular briefings with health officials and pushed back on reports that the new administration would have to build their coronavirus vaccine distribution operation from the ground up.
“We certainly are not starting from scratch because there is activity going on in the distribution,” he said.