President-elect Joe Biden, his wife Jill Biden, Vice President-elect Kamala Harris, and her husband Douglas Emhoff attended a church service on Inauguration Day.
The quartet were joined at the Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle by the leaders of the House of Representatives and the Senate, Reps. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Sens. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.).
The cathedral is the seat of the Archbishop of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Washington.
Biden and Harris are scheduled to be sworn in around noon. He is supposed to give an inaugural speech to the small crowd attending the ceremony, as some 25,000 National Guard troops are stationed in the nation’s capital in a bid to prevent a repeat of the Jan. 6 Capitol breach.
Incoming White House press secretary Jen Psaki said on CNN earlier Wednesday that Biden’s inaugural speech would be “forward-looking.”
“So he’s going to talk about the problems we’re facing, the resolve of the public to come together, the power of coming together and unifying,” she said.
Afterwards, Biden and Harris will review the troops outside the U.S. Capitol and visit Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia. Biden also plans on signing a flurry of executive orders before the end of the day.
President Donald Trump departed Washington on Wednesday morning. He predicted the success of Biden’s administration, saying, “They have the foundation to do something really spectacular.” While Trump did not join the inauguration ceremonies, Vice President Mike Pence took part.