Barack Obama walks in alone, with Michelle declining to attend — thus laying the groundwork for the 2028 New Hampshire primary.
To Jim’s point, the Democrats’ strategy against the Trump Cabinet nominees has shown how little they have learned from the past 8 years. Gaetz failed once there were four hard no votes from Republicans. The attacks on people such as Kennedy, Hegseth, and Gabbard have all been framed in terms that will fire up Democratic opposition rather than peel off wavering Republicans – and has probably accomplished the opposite. This dynamic has been especially apparent with Hegseth.
CNN’s Jake Tapper just mentioned that at this point, it doesn’t appear that any of Trump’s cabinet appointees are in danger of losing a confirmation vote. A moment later, there’s some debate about whether Tulsi Gabbard will have 50 votes. But overall, Senate Democrats’ hopes to derail some of Trump’s more controversial nominees aren’t looking great, and there are fair questions to ask about how seriously Senate Democrats have tried to change the minds of their Republican colleagues.
On the decision to move indoors @jbutler — as a young runner, it may not have felt that bad. But given that there are a lot of elderly attendees, and there is a mass crowd gathering outdoors — many lining up for hours to get a good spot — it does not strike me as completely unreasonable to have erred on the side of caution. Even if the cold itself doesn’t cause problems, there are also plenty of potentially issues — for example, the risk that with all the jostling in large crowds people could slip and fall on ice.
Bill Clinton — looking a lot older than most of us remember — and Hillary Clinton have entered the Rotunda. I wonder if Hillary Clinton feels a certain degree of relief today; she’s no longer the only woman who has lost a presidential election Donald Trump.
Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and Mark Zuckerberg all spotted in the same section of the Rotunda — approaching $1 trillion in net worth in that one camera shot.
When Joe Biden was elected, I wrote that he had beaten Trump by making himself as small as the moment demanded, allowing the focus to remain on why people were sick of Trump. Biden misunderstood his mandate, shot for a transformational presidency, and failed miserably. This morning, it seems as if he has come full circle, with a final act of misbegotten pardons that are largely about how the government pursued Trump. To the extent that Biden is remembered as something other than a trivia question about an old man who had to be yanked from the ticket while running for re-election, it will be as a supporting character in Trump’s era. Biden’s plan for a forthcoming memoir, even if completed by a ghostwriter, will likely be read only by future biographers of Trump. In the end, he was even smaller than the moment demanded.
Phil, if anything, you understate how normal D.C. seems right now versus 2021. At this time four years ago, Washington felt like an Eastern Bloc country circa 1970. An excessive security perimeter encircled almost the entirety of Capitol Hill, all the needless and spiteful Covid restrictions were still in force, and people were still barely leaving their homes. It was all so oppressive. Today is positively liberated by comparison. As a side note: Having easily survived a run this morning, I think the decision to move the inauguration ceremony indoors was unnecessary.
Former VP Dan Quayle sighted walking into the ceremonies. Not somebody you see at a public event very often.
What strikes me about the inauguration this time around is how much it looks like other presidential inaugurations. In 2017, things were a bit surreal. Nobody really knew what to expect from a Trump presidency. The passions of the “resistance” were also running high so there was more of a sense of a city on edge. In 2021, Trump refused to accept the results of the election and when Biden assumed office two weeks after the Capitol riot, Trump didn’t bother attending the inauguration. This time around, but for the decision to move ceremonies indoors, things are looking pretty normal. The protests leading up to Trump taking the oath of office are pretty subdued. The Trumps did the traditional visit to the White House, where they had tea with the Bidens, and are heading to the Capitol together in the traditional motorcade. The difference this time is that Trump can no longer be dismissed as some sort of fluke. The fact that he has now won twice, and this time around achieving a popular vote victory, has “normalized” him.