The NPR Politics Podcast - What We Know About The Inauguration And Joe Biden's First Day

Episode Date: January 18, 2021

President-elect Joe Biden's inaugural plans have been reshaped by COVID-19 and concerns over security after the insurrection at the Capitol. Biden is slated to enact a diverse array of policies by way of executive action on his first day as president. This episode: White House correspondent Tamara Keith, White House reporter Rascoe, and national justice correspondent Carrie Johnson.Connect:Subscribe to the NPR Politics Podcast here.Email the show at [e-mail] the NPR Politics Podcast Facebook Group.Listen to our playlist The NPR Politics Daily Workout.Subscribe to the NPR Politics Newsletter.Find and support your local public radio station.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Hi, Politics Podcast. This is Chris from the city of Port Angeles, Washington State, seat of Clallam County, the reigning bellwether county in the U.S., picking presidential winners since 1980. This podcast was recorded at 1.30 p.m. on Monday, the 18th of January. Enjoy the show. I can hardly wait for the race in 2024. Not. All right, dude. Hey there, it's the NPR Politics Podcast. I'm Tamara Keith.

I cover the White House. I'm Aisha Roscoe. I also cover the White House. And I'm Keri Johnson, cover the White House. I'm Ayesha Roscoe. I also cover the White House. And I'm Carrie Johnson, national justice correspondent. Joe Biden will be inaugurated as the nation's 46th president in just two days. It's already clear that it won't look anything like what we've seen before, though it will be happening in the same place on the west front of the Capitol, which also happens to be the same place where there was an insurrection two weeks ago. Aisha, what can we expect from this?

Well, as you said, it's not going to be the normal, you know, routine that we've had all these other years. But you will have, you know, the ceremonies will begin with a national anthem, an invocation around 1130 and then kamala harris vice president-elect kamala harris will be sworn in by supreme court justice sonia sotomayor shortly before noon and then you will have president-elect biden sworn in by chief justice john roberts at noon as you said on the Capitol's West Front, where there were all those pictures of all those rioters, you know, those wild pictures of them standing up there. They were like all over the platform.

They were all over the platform there. It looked like fires and stuff. It was just all lit up with people who were not supposed to be there. There will be about a thousand guests in attendance. And most of those will be members of Congress and their guests. So very stripped down. You're not going to have, and when I say stripped down, I mean, as far as people,

not as far as what they're wearing, I'm talking about. It's cold out there. I just realized when I said it, it kind of sounded a little weird. So there, you won't have the, the big inaugural balls. It's cold out there. people gather, you know, in large groups. In fact, they've they've set up a bunch of tiny American flags. Actually, I don't know how tiny they are. I've only seen pictures, but a bunch of American flags in the shape of the United States on the National Mall. As I understand it, the mall is closed. So much is closed. And just like the convention, Biden has taken this thing virtual, huh?

You know, I was looking back to the inauguration with President Trump. And, you know, there were all these parties and I had pictures of, you know, the night before the inauguration, obviously on inauguration night, they have all these big balls. And this is what all presidents have done, modern presidents have done. You're not going to get that. But you'll have some performers like J-Lo, Lady Gaga. I think Tom Hanks is going to host something. And just news today, Garth Brooks. Also, they will all be at the inaugural ceremony proper. There's also a virtual parade. There's all kinds of stuff. He's got friends in low places, I guess. And high places too now, supposedly. Yeah, apparently he's got some friends in very high places.

In terms of President Trump, the tradition, which we know is not being kept, is that the outgoing president will sit there on that freezing cold platform and the incoming president will thank him for ensuring a peaceful transfer of power. That is not happening. Do we know what President Trump is going to be doing? Well, he will be leaving. You know, we don't have the exact time. It will be before noon, obviously. He'll be leaving in the morning. And there will be a send off ceremony at Andrews Air Force Base, which is where presidents, you know, typically fly out. know, friends and supporters. I'm just kind of saying goodbye. Obviously, Trump has not done anything traditionally or kept with norms, but he is having some type of ceremony at Andrews on inauguration morning. Carrie, you're here because there's also a big security question involved. And as we mentioned, there was that insurrection and ongoing threats.

So what can you tell us about security preparations around this most unusual inauguration? Yeah, the Secret Service is taking the lead, but it's being assisted by a number of federal partners and local partners here in law enforcement too over the weekend. Many street closures, closing of many metro or subway stops around the city, and barricades, checkpoints if you live closer to the White House or the Capitol. Lots of troops in camo around, including at a park near my house this morning. As many as 25,000 National Guard troops in the city. There is a very intense security presence here trying to prevent what we saw happen at the Capitol just a short

time ago. And it's been almost two weeks. I feel like every few minutes there's a story about someone else being arrested. Yeah. It's been a while since you've given us an update. What are the numbers up to? What are these? I mean, it just it seems like it just keeps coming and coming and coming. Yeah, Sam, this is changing it just keeps coming and coming and coming. Yeah, Tam, this is changing by the hour because people in the U.S. Attorney's Office at the Justice Department and in the FBI have been working, some of them nonstop since January 6. We are now up to more than 300 open cases, more than 125 arrests. And some of the notable people who have been arrested in recent days in charge have ties to militia groups, far-right militia groups like the Oath Keepers or the Three Percenters or the

Proud Boys, we all know from President Trump's comments at one of those presidential debates. Authorities, though, are still looking for people who may have committed violence against U.S. law enforcement, including people involved in the death of Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick. We're also looking at people who may have made threats to Vice President Pence and Speaker Pelosi. And of course, very importantly, whoever put those pipe bombs at the Republican National Committee and the Democratic National Committee that the Capitol Police say diverted their attention somewhat from the Capitol that day. The U.S. attorney, the acting U.S. attorney here in D.C. has said there are some breadcrumbs with respect to organization and planning, but they're investigating this like they would in an international terrorism probe. That means looking at travel, financing, communications, all of that stuff. It's going to take a while.

Wow. Wow. All right. Well, It's going to take a while. Wow. Wow. All right. Well, we are going to take a quick break. And when we get back, a look at President-elect Biden's first 10 days strategy. If what's going on in America has you on edge, check out No Compromise. It's NPR's podcast about fringe groups on social media shaping the real world. And see what the others like to do is say, well, y'all are terrorists. No, you're the ones initiating the violence. We're just going to stop you. That's it. Are you concerned that we're close to that point?

Yes. I think it's a call to action for people to use violence. How'd we get here? What's next? Listen to No Compromise wherever you get your podcasts. And we're back. And over the weekend, Ron Klain, the incoming chief of staff to President-elect Joe Biden, put out a memo describing a bunch of executive actions and other items on Joe Biden's agenda for the first 10 days of his presidency. Aisha, a lot of these are things that he campaigned on. He said he was going to take

these actions. What's he focusing on? Well, there are these kind of big buckets of things that they're looking at, you know, when it's the coronavirus, economics, you know, racial justice, and he's going to start taking action on all of these things. A big thing that I think people will be very interested in knowing about is he's expected to take action on extending the deferral of student loan payments. Obviously, because of the coronavirus, because of the pandemic, the federal government has put a hold on people having to make these payments. And Joe Biden is going to extend that. One of the other big crisis areas that Klain mentioned was climate change. And on day one, he says that President-elect Biden will rejoin the Paris Climate Agreement.

You know, a lot of these things ultimately are reversing things that President Trump did. Another area where Biden will be establishing that he is a very different president is he will on his first day issue a 100 day masking challenge, urging everyone in America to wear masks outside of the home or when they're around other people. That is very different from the current president who has willfully refused to wear a mask and sort of questioned their value. Biden will also be issuing a mandate for federal property and interstate travel requiring them there. And Carrie, there's another item that also goes into the category of reversing President Trump.

Oh, you got that right, Sam. We've got the travel ban, what came to be known as the Muslim travel ban that President Trump instituted within a week, I think, of his inauguration. He later had to tweak it and the Supreme Court ultimately upheld that travel ban. But we understand now that President-elect Joe Biden is going to issue an executive order, making that thing go away, responding to Muslim voters and Muslim advocates who had reached out to him in the campaign. You know, that had a tremendous impact on people's lives. It separated families. And now the question is going to be moving forward, whether some of those people who have been stuck in the pipeline can get their cases reviewed rather quickly and whether some of those harms can be undone. You know, obviously, that would always it would have always been a big deal to undo the travel ban. But it is, especially now, you know, Trump came into office, you know, talking about getting rid of terrorism and linking all of these countries to terrorism, and we got to protect

all of these things. And then he leaves office. And as we just talked about, we have federal investigators looking into basically an insurrection and homegrown terrorism, treating it as a terrorist investigation. And so I think that that disconnect, how much things in this environment has changed over the past four years. And I think, you know, when Biden makes that change in policy, that will sort of drive that home. How much things have changed? Whenever there's a new president of a new party, it's like a game of ping pong with policy, where the incoming president signs a bunch of executive orders and presidential memoranda and takes other executive action to undo what their predecessor did in office. It sort of leaves you wondering what policy is stable, what stands. Yeah, that's a really interesting point. I mean, part of it seems to be because the legislative branch just can't seem to work together and accomplish any major victories in terms of legislation, any major bipartisan victories. But I'd also argue that, you know, in the Obama years,

Mitch McConnell made it a point to stop Obama's legislative agenda and largely did. And in the Trump years, Mitch McConnell's legislative agenda was judges, which he got done. So we're going to see if the Senate works differently under incoming Majority Leader Chuck Schumer. But Mitch McConnell will still be around. so I'm not sure what's going to happen. As we have often said, and as the outgoing president has often said, we'll see. We'll see what happens. We will see what happens. We are going to leave it there for now, but to follow live coverage of the inauguration online and get the latest updates and our analysis, please subscribe to the NPR Politics newsletter at npr.org slash politics newsletter. I'm Tamara Keith. I cover the White House.

I'm Ayesha Roscoe. I also cover the White House. And I'm Keri Johnson, national justice correspondent. And thank you for listening to the NPR Politics Podcast.