Monday, January 20, 2025

Part I

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To Preserve, to Protect, and to Defend the Constitution: Today is Inauguration Day in the United States

Going back to the ratification of the US Constitution, the office of President was held out as the union of the roles of head of government and head of state, but there was no precedent for an office like that of the President of the United States, and there was no way of anticipating exactly how someone should enter upon that office. And so the Constitution requires that an oath of office be given, and that’s about it. But as is the case in so much of the history of the American presidency, what we know as the inauguration goes back to the inauguration of the first President of the United States, George Washington. Washington was so instrumental in the nation’s founding that the office of President was basically designed around him.

What Washington did, most of his successors have emulated, and so much of it is now formalized that many people assume there is something like an inaugural ceremony in the Constitution of the United States. Now, there’s an oath of office, the ceremony was developed over time. The first presidential inauguration was held on April the 30th of 1789. George Washington was inaugurated as the first President of the United States, and as the nation has often said about itself, it represented a new order of the ages. 

But why a formal inauguration? Why doesn’t a president just somewhere in private take the oath of office and then go into the Oval Office and get on with the task? Well, it is because nationhood requires a certain formality. It is because an office of this stature requires a certain ceremony, and democracy requires dignity. Going back to 1789, there was no precedent for someone like a head of government and head of state, united in one office democratically elected by the people.

What did exist was the monarchies that of course had marked so much of human history, and would continue to for a long time, and the formality and majesty of those monarchies. And of course, when a new monarch comes to the throne, this is formalized in what is known as a coronation ceremony. Now, just recently given the death of Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II and the ascension of King Charles III, Americans, along with others in the world, got to view that coronation. A presidential inauguration is not a coronation. There is no throne. But given the dignity of the office of President of the United States, it is a massively weighty and important, even majestic ceremony. It is important to note that throughout the history of presidential inaugurations in the United States, some of them have been actually quite simple affairs. And for one thing, before the advent of television, and the ability of Americans to see an inaugural ceremony, it was basically something that was for the political class and serving the purposes of the nation.

It became a formal ceremony. People came to Washington, they were invited to ceremonial balls. It was something like the coronation ceremony and historic monarchies, but it was also something else. It was a celebration of democratic government, of self-government, of an elected chief executive of the nation. And as is often the case, as a transition not only from individual to individual, but a transition from party to party, demonstrating the continuity of America’s constitutional tradition. More on that in just a moment. But today, the 47th President of the United States, Donald J. Trump, will take the oath of office, and it’s important to recognize that the oath is actually very short. The oath of office for the President of the United States is significantly shorter than the oath of office for the Vice President of the United States. But we need to understand these very few words, fewer than 40 words.

The oath is this: “I do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States and will, to the best of my ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States.” Now, perhaps you heard what is most significant about the presidential oath of office. It is not specifically an oath to defend the union, to protect the union, or even to exercise executive responsibility. It is instead an oath that the President will, to the best of his ability, “preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States.” The Constitution is not only our nation’s governing document, it is actually the manifesto for self-government. And those who framed the Constitution believed that it was the very text of the Constitution and the meaning of the Constitution that is represented in the words and in the text that deservedly was focused upon the office of chief executive and the chief executive has the singular responsibility above all others to defend and to protect the Constitution of the United States.

Now, it can be argued that certain presidents have been more faithful in that job than others, but it is important for us to recognize that this is a constitutional responsibility undertaken by one who enters into a constitutional office. This is not a monarchy. This is not a totalitarian system of government. This is not merely a prime minister. This is President of the United States, and there has never been an office with this much power in the history of all human civilization. As you look at civilizational history, you will note that regardless of the system of governance, there has been a sense of majesty that has been invested in political leadership, in government leadership, in military leadership. In the President of the United States, those responsibilities are unified. Of course, we have a separation of powers, which is why the primary witnesses to the inauguration, and that’s beyond the American people, the primary focused witnesses are members of Congress, and thus they officially host the inaugural ceremonies for the President of the United States.

Throughout most of our nation’s history, the person administering the oath has been the Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court. That wasn’t the case in 1789 with Washington’s inauguration because at that point, there wasn’t yet a Supreme Court. It had to be peopled by those who will be nominated by George Washington as the first President of the United States. Since then, although there have been some exceptions, most presidents have received the oath of office from the Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court. The oath of office has been given to a President of the United States 73 times. It has been repeated by 45 persons. Well, you ask, “Where’s the math?” Well, the math comes down to this. Several of those presidents have served multiple terms. In most cases, that means two terms. in the case of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, it means four terms. 

But there’s another odd situation here, and that is that several presidents in a single term have had to repeat the oath of office twice. That is, because before the change that allows the moving of the inaugural ceremony from the 20th to the 21st, if the 20th is on a Sunday, some presidents privately took the oath of office on a Sunday and the formal inaugural ceremony came the next day. So within 24 hours, they had actually repeated the oath of office twice, once privately, once publicly. Inaugural ceremonies are not to be scheduled on a Sunday. 

The last situation there that raises the number of times the oath of office has been given for a President of the United States has to do with vice presidents who became President because of the removal from office generally by death of a President of the United States. And so 73 times, today will be the 74th, by 45 persons. And it’s still 45 persons because Donald Trump is actually the same person who is both the 45th and the 47th President of the United States. The same thing is true of only one other individual, that’s President Grover Cleveland, who in the 19th century served two non-consecutive terms. I find it very interesting that formal prayer has been included in presidential inaugurations only since 1937. That’s not to say that people didn’t pray during inaugural ceremonies in the past. It is to say that the formal inclusion of prayers within the inaugural ceremony goes only back to 1937 in one of the inaugurations of Franklin Delano Roosevelt. 

Something else to understand is that only since 1981 has the inaugural ceremony traditionally been held on the west front of the Capitol. That was at the suggestion of President Ronald Reagan for his first inauguration. That changed history. It also lowered the price of the inauguration when it came to the government having to create a platform because it’s more natural on the west front. It also allows a far larger crowd to observe the ceremony. But speaking of Ronald Reagan, history was also made in 1985 in Ronald Reagan’s second inauguration because it had to be moved indoors because of unprecedented cold and the danger to people if the inaugural ceremonies were to be held outdoors. And of course there you hear the ring of history in the present because given the very cold temperatures in Washington DC, along with much of the nation today, at the suggestion of President Donald J. Trump, the inaugural ceremonies have been moved inside the Capitol Rotunda. That means that only members of Congress and a few other guests will be present. Those who would’ve observed the ceremony by being there on the lawn, either seated or standing, they’re going to be moved to the Capital One arena.

It will not be exactly the same experience, but it will be a memorable moment in American history. And of course, upon taking the oath of office, the President after the Vice President, after a salute, and that includes a gun salute, the President will go on and give his inaugural address. And that also is a precedent established by our first President, George Washington. Although his addresses tend to be rather short, shorter than many of his successors.

Part II

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The Historic Legacy of Joe Biden: Joe Biden’s Long Political Career Beginning as Senator in 1972 and Ending as President in 2025

We will talk more tomorrow about the inauguration of President Trump and about President Trump’s address later today. There will be much to talk about in the first day, even the first 24 hours of the Trump administration, but that will have to wait until tomorrow. At this point, we do need to make some comments concerning the historic legacy of Joe Biden as he leaves the White House. And here it’s important to understand that we are looking at someone who’s had an extremely long career in American politics.

And just speaking of the facts, this is a man who was elected to the United States Senate in 1972. This is a man who served decades in the United States Senate and in strategic roles within the Democratic leadership, including chairing the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and even more memorably, the Senate Committee on the Judiciary. He was involved in some of the most controversial developments during the time that he served, especially as chairman or as ranking member of the Judiciary Committee, that included contentious Supreme Court nominations, most importantly, the nominations of Robert Bork and later of Clarence Thomas. But Joe Biden had created something of a centrist democratic leaning left but rather centrist reputation in the United States Senate. He decided that of course, he would set his eyes on higher office, and he first ran for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1988. He began that race for the Democratic nomination with a good deal of energy, and many people thought he had a good chance at the nomination, but he blew it.

And he blew it really with two issues. Number one, he wasn’t sure why he was running, other than he wanted to be president, and he had a massive messaging problem. But then he left the race in shame because he was caught plagiarizing a speech by a major British politician, right down to speaking of his own father as a coal miner. Well, the British politician who first gave the speech, well, his father was a coal miner, Joe Biden’s father wasn’t. That was quickly noted, and Joe Biden was soon out of the race. He went back to the Senate and he tried to cultivate that same reputation as something of a liberal centrist in the Senate, but he was aiming for the White House again and he made that race in 2008. Well, just think about 2008. Two other candidates for the Democratic nomination that year were Barack Obama, a Senator from Illinois, and Hillary Clinton, a Senator from New York.

Joe Biden didn’t stand a chance. He did not do well in the primaries, but he did do one thing. He caught the attention of Barack Obama, who did win the nomination and needed someone older and perhaps more centrist, at least in reputation as his vice president. Obama and Biden were elected. They took office in 2009 and, rather famously, Joe Biden served as Barack Obama’s vice president and he wanted to be Obama’s designated successor and to run for the presidency in 2016. But instead, Barack Obama gave the nod to Hillary Clinton, who had become his Secretary of State. And so Joe Biden never forgot that slight, and Joe Biden didn’t give up on being President of the United States, although most in his party assumed he was in the past, not the future. That changed in 2020. Hillary Clinton had lost quite unexpectedly to Donald Trump in the 2016 election.

In 2020, all kinds of Democrats were lined up to run. Joe Biden appeared to be too old, past his sell by date, as some were saying. And yet, it was very clear that Senator Bernie Sanders on the left of the Democratic Party and unelectable at the national level in the view of most Democrats, it was clear he had a real shot at the nomination. There were too many other candidates competing with Sanders in the race. And so basically a deal was made. Jim Clyburn, a Congressman from South Carolina, became a central part of making that deal. It was arranged that other candidates would drop out, Joe Biden would win the South Carolina primary and then would go on to sweep the rest of the primaries and win the nomination. Biden did not defeat Sanders in all of the primaries, but he did win the nomination, and then he went on to win the White House In the 2020 presidential election. He thought that he had put an end to the political fortunes of Donald J. Trump. He spoke of being in a post-Trump era and called for what he described as a political reset. More on that in just a moment, consider the irony. 

But also consider the fact that the Joe Biden, who was elected president in 2020, was far to the left, at least in terms of policies and positions and messaging than the Joe Biden, who for decades had served in the United States Senate. A couple of examples. As the United States Senator, Joe Biden supported the Defense of Marriage Act. He clearly defended marriage as exclusively the union of a man and a woman. By 2012, he was ready to support same-sex marriage. “Problem? What problem?” On abortion, like Mario Cuomo, like the Kennedy family and so many other liberal Democrats, they claim to be Catholic, and yet even as they’re personally opposed to abortion, they would publicly support what they described as a woman’s right to choose, according to Roe V. Wade.

In his decades in the Senate, Joe Biden had supported the Hyde Amendment. That’s a provision that prevents taxpayer money from paying for abortions. But the Democratic Party was so pro-abortion by the time the 2020 primary season came around that he had to reverse his position famously in a 24-hour period in order to gain the nomination. In other words, he basically just changed on a major moral issue because he wanted that nomination and he got it. But then Joe Biden transformed himself into someone described even at the time, as the most progressive major party candidate ever to run for president. That centrist liberal Senator Joe Biden was replaced by a nominee and later President Joe Biden, who veered far to the left. And that included giant big spending programs, much of that done under the cover of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Biden and his administration represented very repressive policies, very restrictive policies, government power grabbing policies during COVID, and they also used COVID as a justification for massive spending programs, including economic stimulus. Now, of course, the downside to that is not only the federal spending, the downside to that was all of the debt, and then the downside was all the money that flowed into the economy leading to inflation. And it was that inflation that at least in part led to the Democratic defeat in the 2024 election.

Part III

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Controversial Decisions and Cognitive Decline: President Biden’s Final Months in Office

Interestingly, at the time, Joe Biden described himself as a transitional figure. Leaders of his own party assumed that that meant pretty much an absolute pledge that he would serve only one term. But that wasn’t Joe Biden’s plan. That kind of thinking has never been a part of Joe Biden’s plan. Instead, he announced in 2023 that he would run for a second term in office, and here’s what we now know.

We now know that his cognitive decline, a very dangerous cognitive decline, was already apparent to the people working with him, including, by the way, many members of the press long before it was acknowledged. And of course, the entire nation found that out on June the 27th of 2024, in an absolutely disastrous, there’s no other word for it, an absolutely disastrous debate performance of Biden as he was facing Donald Trump. At that point, the Democrats went into sheer panic. It was very clear and, frankly, had been clear for some time, but was undeniable now that Joe Biden had to be removed as the Democratic standard-bearer for the office of President in the 2024 race. Joe Biden was eventually convinced of that, but by the way, that has led to resentments that have come very much to the fore from Biden and his family in recent days.

And Biden, finally conceding the reality, not so much of his cognitive decline, but of the fact that his party was ousting him, he anointed his Vice President, Kamala Harris, to be the standard-bearer, but she had only days to put together a major campaign, and of course she lost. And she lost not only the electoral college vote, she lost the popular vote to Donald Trump. And so even as Joe Biden had declared the end basically of the age of Trump, he actually became an interregnum between two different Trump administrations. And he also is largely responsible for the fact that his party lost control of the United States Senate and failed to gain control of the United States House. Now, Republicans have their struggles just in terms of thin margins in the House, and you have a good many Senate elections coming up in just two and especially in four years.

But nonetheless, the big fact is that Joe Biden was actually honest when he said he intended to be a transitional figure. It’s just not in the way he intended. Going out of office, there are so many other things we could talk about, but just looking at his final months and weeks in office, he notoriously did such things as to commute and pardon a good many federal sentences, and he did so lacking political courage. He was bragging just over the weekend that he had been responsible for more pardons and commutations than any previous president in American history and infamously, he commuted most who are on federal death row. But the inconsistency was that in some of the most egregious cases, he didn’t commute the sentence, which means he’s not totally opposed to the death penalty. And by the way, it was a charade because if he were genuinely opposed to the death penalty, then he had four years in which he could have pressed Congress for federal legislation along those lines. He didn’t.

All this comes out in the last few days of his administration. And of course, the worst of all in moral terms was the pardon, a general pardon, extended to his own son. And so here’s a president who uses that very exclusive power a pardon to pardon his own son, something he said publicly, he pledged he would not do it, but he did do it even after his son had been found guilty on very serious criminal charges. But all that also points back to a pattern of alleged corruption, especially during the years that Vice President Biden was in office with President Barack Obama. A pattern, let’s just say, of unusual business relationships with his own son and other members of his family are going to lead to any number of investigations you can count on taking place over the course of the next few months. That’s something you can just basically put on the calendar.

Also, in the last several days, he declared that the Equal Rights Amendment is part of the US Constitution. That’s a big story we’ll talk about later this week. It’s very important. But we need just to recognize that as Joe Biden leaves office as the 46th President of the United States, he leaves after a humiliating withdrawal of American forces from Afghanistan. He leaves after repeated scandals, and of course, he leaves after a legacy of inflation and other problems. He also leaves as Ukraine and Israel are engaged in war. Now, Israel and Hamas have reached a ceasefire, we’ll talk more about that in coming days as well, and Ukraine is still fighting against its Russian invaders. But it’s important to recognize that even though Joe Biden as President of the United States said so many of the right things about those situations and even took many right actions, he’s failed to be consistent in his position either when it comes to Ukraine or Israel.

And there are those who believe that a weakness in the American presidency, or a perceived weakness, is one of the reasons why some of these malign forces in the world decided to take action while his hand was at the helm. But in the end, it was Joe Biden’s cognitive decline that became the most marked story about his departure from the White House, and you can absolutely count on the fact that there will be any number of disclosures that are going to come out, now that Joe Biden is former President of the United States, an awful lot of stories are going to come out about what people knew and when about that cognitive decline. Joe Biden has always been very concerned about his historic legacy, and as I argue, there’s good reason for him to be quite concerned. But it’s also important to say that Joe Biden did serve as the 46th President of the United States.

Fewer than 50 men have served in that office, and every one of them has made history. Joe Biden served as President of the United States for four years, and those four years bridged a lot of history. He intended to stay longer, but did not have the opportunity. One of the things we need to recognize, and this is deeply rooted in a Christian worldview, one of the things we need to recognize is that we have to take the office and the person who holds the office as related issues, but not exactly the same issue. And of course, we have to extend respect to the presidency of the United States. And insofar as Joe Biden was president, he deserves respect for holding that office as well. But the Christian Biblical worldview also makes clear that history has a way of making revelations and of rendering judgment. That’s the case when it comes to just any form of human history.

It’s especially true when you look at someone who’s held in office as powerful as that of President of the United States. No one can take away from Joe Biden the fact that history will record he served as the 46th President of the United States. How historians fill in the meaning of those four years, that’s still to be determined, but at least the first version of that history and the judgment that comes with it is likely to come sooner rather than later.

That’s all for today, but I do want to encourage you, and especially Christian parents, Christian families, all of us, watch the ceremonies for the inauguration of Donald Trump as the 47th President of the United States. There is so much that is invested in that ceremony. There’s so much that is presented and demanded in that oath, and there is sure to be history made when President Trump gives his second inaugural address. So stay tuned. We’ll be back to talk about that tomorrow.