Ex-presidents except Donald Trump join Joe Biden, VP Kamala Harris to honor the Unknown Soldier
President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris took part in a wreath-laying ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Arlington soon after their inauguration on Wednesday, January 20, along with living former presidents and their spouses with the notable exception of Donald Trump and his wife Melania. The duo left the White House hours before the Biden-Harris duo stepped in to head to the businessman-politician’s luxury resort in Mar-a-Lago, Florida.
The new Democratic top leadership was accompanied by former first couples Barack Obama and Michelle Obama (2009-17), George W Bush and Laura Bush (2001-09) and Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton (1993-2001).
Traditionally, new presidents and vice presidents travel to Arlington after taking oath but the 59th inauguration saw the former presidents coming together to salute the fallen to convey the message of unity in a country that stands sharply divided at the moment. Jimmy Carter, the oldest living president (1977-81) at 96, did not attend the inauguration with his wife Rosalynn because of Covid-19 concerns but sent a message to Biden congratulating him.
The absence of Trump, who has just become another former president, also suggested that he might remain away from the bipartisan ‘presidents’ club’ in the future. The maverick Republican did not care about having good relations with his predecessors. While his frequent attacks against Barack Obama have been well-known, his cordial relationship with Bill Clinton was shattered following the bitter campaign ahead of the 2016 presidential election in which he targeted Hillary. He also dismissed Bush, another former GOP president, by calling him a “dummy” privately. Carter also made his displeasure with Trump public by suggesting him to be an illegitimate president once.
Past presidents have shared good terms between them
While Trump’s relationship with his predecessors never took a turn for the better, the case has not been so with other former presidents. For example, Obama was extremely critical of Bush Junior during his campaign for the 2008 presidential election, yet Bush and Michelle Obama are known for their camaraderie. Bush’s father George H W Bush, who lost to Clinton in the 1992 election and served a single term (1989-93), developed a close relationship with the Democrat even after his defeat.
That the latest inauguration had ‘unity’ as its main theme became evident when Biden called for harmony and pledged to govern for “all Americans”, eyeing for stability in a deeply polarized nation post the Trump presidency. Life in America has gone through one of its worst phases in recent times owing to the Covid-19 pandemic and its effects on the health sector and economy, race riots fuelled by the murder of some Black individuals at the hands of the police and relentless political partisanship. In an address lasting 22 minutes after he was sworn in by Chief Justice John Roberts, Biden said: “My whole soul is in this. I’ll keep everything I do in your service, thinking not of power but of possibilities, not of personal injuries but the public good.”
Biden did not directly talk about his immediate predecessor but made it amply evident that he was here to reverse the pattern that America’s public life has witnessed over the last four years. He criticized “lies told for power and for profit”, said “there are truth and there are lies” and acknowledged the bitter polarization in the country as an “uncivil war” and targeted the mob attack at the Capitol two weeks ago to say: “Democracy prevailed”.
The inauguration ceremony of the 46th president was a unique affair on many counts. While the crowd attending the event was restricted because of the pandemic, security was tightened to unprecedented levels because of the January 6 riot and for the first time since 1869, a president’s inauguration was not attended by his predecessor.