Health care workers risked it all to help as the virus spread across the nation. They were supported by everyday folks who helped ensure they had the necessary supplies. Teachers also never gave up.
When Joe Biden is sworn-in Wednesday as the 46th president of the United States, his inauguration will look strikingly different than any other. Tens of thousands of American flags -- rather than massive crowds of people -- will stand on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. The Presidential Inaugural Committee has installed some 191,500 U.S. flags of varying sizes on a swath of the long, grassy park to represent the American people who cannot attend Biden's inauguration.
President-elect Joe Biden will send to Congress an extensive immigration reform bill that includes an eight-year pathway to citizenship on Wednesday, following through on a long-standing campaign pledge to move on immigration on day one of a Biden presidency. The new details of Biden’s legislation were first reported by The Washington Post, and confirmed by Biden transition officials. Biden will send to Congress on Wednesday a policy that will include an eight-year pathway to citizenship for immigrants without legal status, and expand admissions for refugees to the country.
President Donald Trump is not a beacon of truth. In the best light, Trump was seen as occasionally struggling with the truth. As someone who espoused "truthful hyperbole," Trump's supporters viewed him as a showman who sometimes exaggerated, but ultimately fulfilled his most important promises, such as filling the Supreme Court with conservative judges.
As Joe Biden pledges to unite a fractured nation, the incoming president faces deep divisions on the national front and widening fissures within the Democratic Party. "His ability to maneuver between a rock and a hard place will be the test of his presidency," Thomas Edsall, a veteran political journalist and professor at the Columbia School of Journalism, told ABC News. In the wake of President Donald Trump's false claims that the election was stolen from him, a recent poll shows that roughly three-quarters (77%) of Trump backers say Biden’s win was due to fraud, despite there being no evidence to back this up.
Kamala Harris, the groundbreaking former senator from California, is set to make history again -- as the first female vice president and woman of color in the White House. Harris, 56, the daughter of immigrants, will take her oath of office at Wednesday's inauguration, marking Day One of the Biden-Harris administration. Leading up to her first day in office during this unprecedented time, Harris said she was "filled with a sense of purpose and hope."
At noon Wednesday, Joe Biden will take his oath of office to become the 46th president of the United States, a culminating moment for his nearly 50-year career in politics and lifetime of tragedy and triumph. Following the attacks in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017 that saw a deadly clash between white supremacy groups and counter-protesters, Biden was compelled to take on the “battle for the soul of the nation” with his third run for president. After running on a platform of bipartisanship and unity, Biden will now launch his presidency once again dealing with division in the fallout of the Trump presidency.
When Joe Biden takes office as the 46th president, it's clear his agenda will focus on the challenges at home. From Latin America to East Africa, nuclear-capable rogue states to revanchist regional powers, the Biden administration is sure to face foreign policy crises as it tries to address those domestic issues.
Amanda Gorman will make history Wednesday as the youngest poet in recent history to read a poem at a presidential inauguration. Gorman, 22, will read her own poem at the inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris, according to The Associated Press. The Los Angeles native told NPR she finished writing the poem, titled "The Hill We Climb," on the night of Jan. 6, hours after rioters took part in a siege on Capitol Hill.
Former California Sen. Kamala Harris is making history Wednesday as the first woman and first woman of color to serve as vice president. A former prosecutor and ground-breaking attorney general in California, Harris broke barriers throughout her career. One of the factors that drew Joe Biden to her as a running mate was her strong friendship with his late son Beau.
Former Vice President Joe Biden is set to make history on Wednesday as the 46th president of the United States, taking over from Donald Trump after a tumultuous four years. Biden comes into office during an uncertain time for the country on many fronts -- a raging coronavirus pandemic, months of protests over racial injustice and a bitterly fought election that ended in the siege of the U.S. Capitol just days ago. Biden will be the first president in more than a century not to be greeted by the outgoing president -- Donald Trump is set to depart to his residence in Florida earlier in the day.
In the waning hours of his time in office, President Donald Trump late Tuesday issued a final batch of pardons and commutations to a group that included former White House strategist Steve Bannon and two other longtime political allies, Elliott Broidy and Paul Erickson, in a move that will further solidify Trump's legacy of using his sweeping presidential powers to benefit his inner circle. The latest batch of names, released by the White House on Trump's final night as president, granted 73 pardons and commuted all or part of the sentence of 70 additional individuals, after Trump had already issued several dozen such directives in recent months.
To say this is an exponentially tough time for Black people in America would be an understatement -- and that's why protecting the mental health of this community is vital. The deaths of Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, George Floyd and now, Jacob Blake, among countless lives lost at the hands of police brutality -- in addition to simultaneously experiencing a disproportionate rate of deaths from COVID-19 -- have left many people of color fighting through psychological warfare. "Another viral video surfaced the internet last night of an unarmed Black man named Jacob Blake being shot multiple times in the back by police officers of Kenosha, Wisconsin," @r29unbothered wrote in a post.
Incoming First Lady Jill Biden will make history as the country's first first lady to hold a paid job outside the White House. Biden -- who worked full-time as a community college English professor during her eight years as second lady -- has said she plans to continue teaching during her time in the White House.
With President Donald Trump set to leave the White House in less than a day, the fired ex-director of the Department of Homeland Security's cybersecurity agency expressed concern for the lasting impacts of the disinformation spread by the outgoing president and called for consequences following the attack on the U.S. Capitol. Christopher Krebs, a longtime Republican and former head of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, was fired by Trump over Twitter on Nov. 17.
An abiding sense of loyalty to the fringe online conspiracy movement known as QAnon is emerging as a common thread among scores of the men and women from around the country arrested for their participation in the deadly U.S. Capitol insurrection, court records reveal. The FBI first labeled QAnon and its fluid online community of supporters as a "dangerous extremist group" in August 2019, and over the past two weeks it has featured prominently in criminal indictments filed against many of those alleged to have participated in the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, including a number accused of egregious crimes. Among them is Douglas Jensen, the bearded man seen in a viral video wearing a distinctive "Q" T-shirt, menacing a lone black U.S. Capitol Police officer as he led rioters through the halls and pushed the mob deeper into the Capitol building.
It's January now, but the problems of 2020 have followed Melanie Adams into the new year. Last March, Adams was working in the only grocery store in Missouri Valley, Iowa. A town with fewer than 3,000 people, Adams, 28, said it was a place where "you know everybody, and everybody knows you."
Lawmakers evaluated Alejandro Mayorkas to lead the Department of Homeland Security on Tuesday and grilled the hopeful future secretary on a range of issues focused on immigration enforcement and his time at the highest ranks of the department in 2015. Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, asked about the caravan of migrants reportedly heading north from the southern border of Guatemala. In 2019, immigration authorities at the border were overwhelmed by an influx of migrant families fleeing dangerous conditions of Central America's Northern Triangle -- Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador.
Federal authorities are continuing to charge rioters who took part in the siege on Capitol Hill. The Justice Department has filed its first conspiracy charges from the Capitol riot against a Virginia man who they allege was an apparent leader of a group of militia members who were part of the mob that stormed the building. Thomas Edward Caldwell is identified in an FBI affidavit as a member of the Oath Keepers.
A dozen Army National Guard members have been removed from the inauguration security mission, including two who were sent home after vetting for extremist links found an "inappropriate" text and comment, the Pentagon said oTuesday. Each of the 25,000 National Guardsmen now in Washington assisting with security at Wednesday's presidential inauguration is being vetted by the FBI. Each of the dozen Guard members has been sent back to his or her home state for later investigation either by their chain of command or law enforcement, officials said.
Janet Yellen, President-elect Joe Biden's history-making pick for treasury secretary, stressed the need for "big" relief efforts amid the COVID-19-induced recession during her confirmation hearing Tuesday before the Senate Finance Committee. Yellen, 74, is the former chair of the Federal Reserve and, if confirmed by the Senate, would become the first woman to lead the Treasury. "When economists look back on the pandemic, I expect they'll conclude that Congress' actions averted a lot of suffering," Yellen, who appeared remotely, said at the hearing.
