Joe Biden uses first Presidential address to call for unity and end to domestic terrorism

'To overcome these challenges, to restore the soul and secure the future of America requires so much more than words. It requires the most elusive of all things in a democracy: unity,' Biden said.

Building upon the foundational theme of his campaign, Biden urged Americans to come together and bring down the temperature in national politics.'

'We can join forces, stop the shouting, and lower the temperature,' the president said. 'For without unity, there is no peace, only bitterness and fury. No progress, only exhausting outrage. No nation, only a state of chaos.

'This is our historic moment of crisis and challenge, and unity is the path forward. And we must meet this moment as the United States of America.'

He underscored immense challenges facing the country amid 400,000 deaths from the coronavirus, surging unemployment, and an attempted coup that left the nation’s capital under a military occupation so that the new president could be inaugurated without incident.

'So now, on this hallowed ground, where just a few days ago, violence sought to shake the Capitol’s very foundation, we come together as one nation, under God, indivisible, to carry out the peaceful transfer of power, as we have for over two centuries,' Biden said.

'At this hour, my friends, democracy has prevailed.'

Biden acknowledged in his address that 'I know speaking of unity can sound to some like a foolish fantasy these days.'

Asking the American people to bear with him, the new president laid out their common anxieties and how to overcome them.

'Look, I understand that many of my fellow Americans view the future with fear and trepidation,' Biden said. 'I understand they worry about their jobs. I understand that, like my dad, they lay awake in bed at night, staring at the ceiling wondering ‘Can I keep my health care? Can I pay my mortgage?’ Thinking about their families, about what comes next.

'I promise, I get it,' he continued.

'But the answer is not to turn inward, to retreat into competing factions, distrusting those who don’t look like you, or worship the way you do, or don’t get the news from the same sources you do.'

Biden then described the nation’s predicament as that of an 'Uncivil war” in his final rallying cry for unity.

'We must end this uncivil war that pits red against blue, rural vs. urban, conservative vs. liberal. We can do this if we open our souls instead of hardening our hearts, if we showed a little tolerance and humility, if we stand in the other person’s shoes as my mum used to say, just for a moment.'

US Youth National Poet Laureate Amanda Gorman

US Youth National Poet Laureate Amanda Gorman says America can "rebuild, reconcile and recover"

At 22, Gorman is the youngest poet in recent history to speak at a Presidential inauguration.

She was the first-ever National Youth Poet Laureate, a title she earned in 2017. She has publicly said she wants to be President one day. 

She delivered a 10-minute long spoken word poem. Here's a few excerpts: 

'When day comes, we ask ourselves - where can we find light in this never ending shade? The loss we carry, a sea we must wade. We braved the belly of the beast. We've learned that quiet isn't always peace and the norms and notions of what just is, isn't always just is.

'And yet, the dawn is ours before we knew it. Somehow, we do it. Somehow we've weathered and witnessed a nation that isn't broken. But simply unfinished. We, the successors of a country and a time, where a skinny Black girl descended from slaves and raised by a single mother can dream of becoming President. Only to find herself reciting for one.'

"Let the globe, if nothing else, say this is true: That even as we grieved, we grew. That even as we hurt, we hoped. That even as we tired, we tried.

'That will forever be tied together, victorious. Not because we will never again know defeat, but because we will never again sow division.'

'And every known nook of our nation and every corner called our country, our people diverse and beautiful. We'll emerge battered and beautiful. When day comes, we step out of the shade of flame and unafraid.'

'The new dawn blooms we free as we free it. There is new light. If only we're brave enough to see: It. If only we're brave enough to be it.'

The inauguration comes to a close

Reverend Dr Silvester Beaman, a pastor and personal friend of the Bidens, delivered the benediction to close the ceremony.

'In you, O God, we discover our humanity. And in our humanality, we discover our commonness.'

'Beyond the difference of colour, creed, origin, political party, ideology, geography and personal preferences, we will become greater stewards of your environment.'

'Preserving the land, reaping from it a sustainable harvest and securing its wonder and miracle-giving power for generations to come.'

'This is our our Benediction, that from these hallowed grounds, where slaves laboured to build this shine for liberty and democracy — let us all acknowledge, from the Indigenous native American, to those who recently received their citizenship.'

'From the African-American to those whose foreparents came from Europe and every corner of the globe.'

'From the wealthy to those struggling to make it, from every human being, regardless of their choices, that this is our country,'

And with that, the new President and Vice President leave the Capitol steps, and get to work.

Story By | PortMac.News, Yasmin Jeffery, Peter Marsh, Lucy Sweeney, Sophie Meixner, and Emily Olson in Washington DC