President-elect Joe Biden sought to start soothing a nation that has suffered 400,000 coronavirus-related deaths during a sunset ceremony on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial just hours before he will be sworn in as President Trump’s successor.
As what had been a blue Washington, D.C., sky turned pink then faded into night, Biden’s inaugural committee turned on 400 lights set up around the memorial reflecting pool, symbolizing the country’s COVID-19 death toll.
“To heal, we must remember. And it’s hard sometimes to remember. But that’s how we heal. It’s important to do that as a nation. That’s why we’re here today,” Biden said with his back to the body of water, standing in front of a clear, U.S. Secret Service bulletproof barrier amid a locked-down Washington guarded by tens of thousands of National Guard and law enforcement personnel just two weeks after the deadly Capitol riot.
The candidate, who campaigned, in part, to become consoler in chief, then turned around to face the lights display as gospel singer Yolanda Adams sang “Hallelujah.”
Vice President-elect Kamala Harris spoke before Biden. She introduced Lori Marie Key, a registered nurse from Michigan, who performed “Amazing Grace.”
“For many months, we have grieved by ourselves. Tonight, we grieve and begin healing together,” Harris said.
Biden arrived in Washington a short time before the Tuesday COVID-19 service ahead of his inauguration. The service was his first stop before he takes his oath of office on the West Front of the U.S. Capitol building at noon on Wednesday amid the pandemic.
On the campaign trail, Biden often brought up the deaths of his first wife Neilia and infant daughter Naomi in a 1972 Christmas car crash as a way to relate to other people’s hardships. He lost his son Beau in 2015 from brain cancer when he was 46.
Earlier Tuesday, he grew emotional as he said goodbye to supporters in his hometown of Wilmington, Delaware.
“I’ll always be a proud son of the state of Delaware,” he said. “Excuse the emotion, but when I die, Delaware will be written on my heart.”
