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.