Joe Biden

US President Joe Biden delivers his inauguration speech on January 20, 2021, at the US Capitol in Washington, DC. Biden was sworn in as the 46th president of the US.
ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS / AFP

President Joe Biden: Five major quotes from his inauguration speech

Joe Biden has officially been sworn in as the 46th president of the United States, here’s what he had to say on Wednesday.

Joe Biden

US President Joe Biden delivers his inauguration speech on January 20, 2021, at the US Capitol in Washington, DC. Biden was sworn in as the 46th president of the US.
ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS / AFP

The moment many have been waiting for has finally arrived. President Joe Biden, 78, has officially been sworn in as the 46th President of the United States of America, succeeding Donald Trump. 

Kamala Harris was also sworn in on Wednesday 20 January and is now the first African and Asian American woman to take up office as the vice president of the United States. During the inauguration ceremony, it was said that little boys and girls all over the world will now know that everything and anything is possible. 

While this year’s inauguration was extremely different due to a pandemic and dramatic developments which unfolded in recent weeks such as the storming of Capitol Hill, Joe Biden took to the podium and delivered a historic inauguration speech that will be remembered for many years to come. 

MAJOR QUOTES FROM PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN’S SPEECH  

If you’re looking for the highlights of President Joe Biden’s speech, you’ve come to the right place. 

  1. “I will be a president for all Americans and I will fight as hard for those who did not support me as for those who did”
  2. “To all those who did not support me, let me say this, hear me out as we move forward, take a measure of me and my heart and if you still disagree so be it, that’s democracy”
  3. “There is truth and there are lies, lies told for power and profit and each of us has a duty and a responsibility as citizens and Americans as especially as leaders, leaders who have pledged to honour our constitution, to defend the truth and defeat the lies”
  4. “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 and don’t get their news from the same source as you do, we must end this uncivil war that puts red against blue”
  5. “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. If we do that, I guarantee you we will not fail.”

PLANS FOR THE NEW AMERICA

According to AFP, President Joe Biden, who was vice president under Barack Obama and first ran for president in 1987, plans to kick off his tenure with a flurry of 17 orders to turn the page on Trump’s divisive reign.

Officials said Biden will immediately rejoin the Paris climate accord and stop the US exit from the World Health Organization and set new paths on immigration, the environment, COVID-19 and the economy.

He will also end Trump’s much-assailed ban on visitors from several majority-Muslim countries and halt construction of the wall that Trump ordered on the US-Mexico border to stem illegal immigration, the aides said.

Additional reporting by AFP