Inauguration Day: Live Updates

The presidential inauguration ceremony on Wednesday looked a lot different than in previous years. Masks were a reminder of a pandemic still raging. The ceremonial parade was canceled and some customs went virtual. In a historically rare snub, a sitting President Trump was absent for the swearing-in ceremony of his successor, Joe Biden.

But, at least for the sartorially minded, an abundance of strategically selected outfits helped elevate an unusual and scaled-back ceremony.

There were repurposed woolen mittens, elaborate face masks and dramatic collars. Over on social media, amateur fashion sleuths looked on, attaching symbolism and pronouncing the emergence of new clothing aesthetics. Bright color choices told their own stories and paid tribute to leaders past.

There was Amanda Gorman, the youngest inaugural poet in history, who captivated the country with the reading of her poem, "The Hill We Climb." In a vibrant canary yellow Miuccia Prada coat, a red satin Prada headband and a red mask to match, the 22-year-old stood out in a sea of muted tones and indistinguishable suits.

The yellow, Gorman told Vogue, was her way of paying homage to first lady Jill Biden. The first lady asked Gorman to recite an original poem at her husband's swearing-in last month after she was moved by Gorman's reading of her poem, "In This Place: An American Lyric," in 2017 at the Library of Congress.

Gorman told the magazine: [Jill Biden] said, "I saw this video of you and you were wearing yellow and I loved it."

The poet also wore gold hoops and a ring in the shape of a caged bird, a present from Oprah Winfrey as a tribute to Maya Angelou and her poem, "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings."

Lady Gaga, a pop star synonymous with drama, belted out the national anthem in custom Schiaparelli haute couture: a fitted navy jacket and a billowy red silk skirt. Washington Post humor columnist Alexandra Petri thought Gaga's severe attire might as well have been plucked from a Hunger Games movie. With an unmissable golden dove brooch pinned to her chest, though, the avant-garde shapeshifter insists she was sending a message of peace to a divided nation: "A dove carrying an olive branch," Gaga tweeted. "May we all make peace with each other."

Jennifer Lopez followed co-headliner Lady Gaga in a Victorian chic look (Pride and Prejudice, but make it glam). J.Lo's all-white Chanel ensemble featured a ruffled blouse buttoned to the top of her neck. Her pants, loose and sequined, contrasted with the rigidity of her tweed coat. Looks aside, Twitter users collectively lost their minds when the performer summoned a sampling of her 1999 hit, "Let's Get Loud," during her rendition of "This Land Is Your Land."

Ella Emhoff, stepdaughter to Vice President Harris, turned out in full 20-something art-student-from-Brooklyn glory (or so some social media users observed). She arrived at the Capitol wearing a dramatic tweed coat from Miu Miu adorned with a frilly oversized collar. Underneath was a Batsheva dress — reminiscent of the prairie-chic style dominating Instagram Explore pages. Emhoff's stylists, Jill Lincoln and Jordan Johnson, completed the look with chunky black boots and a thin hairband.

Appearing to hold down his socially distanced 6-foot perimeter, Bernie Sanders gave onlookers an unobstructed view of his take on "grumpy chic."

The Vermont senator's understated look stood out among the formal-clad masses. Staying loyal to his Green Mountain State roots, he wore a hefty parka from Burton, a Vermont-based snowboarding brand. As astute Tweeters noted, Sanders wore the same coat in a now famous "I am once again asking" meme that originated from a video in which he asks for donations back when he was on the campaign trail. Burton Snowboards took it as an opportunity to offer fans a Bernie-inspired budget-friendly look.

It was also hard to overlook the senator's repurposed sweater-wool mittens — gifted to him a couple of years ago by Jen Ellis, a teacher in Vermont, a backstory noted by Buzzfeed reporter Ruby Cramer.

Despite all appearances, his inauguration presence was not a pit stop on an errand run, as some on Twitter suggested. Where Sanders comes from, he told CBS in an interview following the ceremony, "We're not so concerned about good fashion — we want to keep warm. And that's what I did today."

Similarly, Janet Yellen prioritized comfort over fashion in freezing-cold temps. The former chair of the Federal Reserve, and Biden's pick for Treasury secretary, was nestled inside of her black puffer jacket. She draped a blue blanket over her knees for added toastiness.

Biden's granddaughters arrived at the Capitol looking like an all-woman supergroup, according to several Twitter users who said they thought the pop rock-band Haim arrived to perform at the inauguration. They were decked out in monochromatic outfits, down to their masks and gloves. Plus, the combination of pink, camel and white struck some as the human embodiment of Neapolitan ice cream.

Not least of all, Vice President Harris made history while outfitted in a bold purple coat and matching dress by Christopher John Rogers, a young Black designer who hails from Louisiana.

CNN journalist Abby Phillip remarked that purple is a special color to Harris as a "nod to Shirley Chisholm," the first Black woman elected to Congress and whom the vice president has cited as inspiration for her political career. It's also a color of the women's suffrage movement, as NPR reported.

Opting for a plum pantsuit, former first lady Michelle Obama, too, stuck to the color theme that, as a blend of colors red and blue, has also traditionally signaled bipartisanship or unity.

Farah Eltohamy is an intern on NPR's Digital News desk.

A maskless President Biden addressed the nation Wednesday night standing at the feet of Abraham Lincoln Memorial during a televised and star-studded celebration of the historic inauguration.

"We're good people," he reassured viewers, before picking up the theme of his earlier speech on the steps of the Capitol.

"Unity forces us to come together in common love that defines us as Americans," Biden said.

The 46th president urged the public to come together, saying it's "the only way we'll get through the darkness around us."

He noted that the obstacles facing the nation — including the pandemic currently ravaging communities across the country, racial injustices and the climate crisis — are "threats to our very democracy."

"Will we meet the moment like our forbearers have?" Biden asked.

"I believe we must and I believe we will," he said. "You, the American people are the reason why I have never been more optimistic about America than I am this very day."

He added: "America is built of decency and dignity of love and healing of greatness and goodness. Of possibility."

The inaugural program, called Celebrating America, featured several tributes to the extraordinary efforts by nurses, doctors, teachers and other frontline workers who have stepped up throughout the coronavirus pandemic.

In her first remarks to the nation as vice president, Kamala Harris echoed the president's call to unite in the days ahead.

"In many ways this moment embodies our character as nation," she said in a brief address to the audience.

"Even in dark times, we not only dream, we do. We shoot for the moon and then we plant our flag on it," Harris said. "We are bold, we are fearless and ambitious. We are undaunted in our believe that we shall overcome that we will rise up."

She added: "A great experiment takes great determination. The will to do the work and then the wisdom to keep refining, keep tinkering, keep perfecting."

Although much of the program hit several somber notes, the two-hour show was interspersed with several performances by a variety of singers, musicians, artists and actors. Among them, John Legend sang Nina Simone's Feeling Good.

Justin Timberlake and Ant Clemons performed Better Days.

Puerto Rican singers Ozuna and Luis Fonsi sang their respective mega-hits, Taki Taki and Despacito, in Spanish.

And Katy Perry's Firework, served as the soundtrack to a stunning firework show over the White House and the National Mall that capped off the celebration.

The Senate has voted to confirm Avril Haines to be director of national intelligence, making her President Biden's first Cabinet-level official to receive Senate confirmation. The vote was 84-10.

Her confirmation comes after Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., briefly held up the process, asking for a written response from her about a question during her confirmation hearing a day earlier.

"I no longer object," Cotton said Wednesday evening, noting that Haines had provided him with a response.

"In her open session yesterday, she gave an answer in response to Sen. [Ron] Wyden that suggested the intelligence community might reopen investigations into detention interrogation programs from 2001 to 2006," Cotton said. "She clarified in the private setting that she had no intention to open up those investigations and expose operations officers inside the CIA to criminal prosecution, or adverse employment action, or even holding it against them in potential future promotions or placements."

Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., had tweeted earlier Wednesday that he wasn't attending Biden's inauguration to work to expedite a vote on Haines' nomination.

"It's important we do this as soon as possible," he wrote.

Haines' confirmation prevents a situation where Biden would begin his presidency with no members of his national security team firmly in place, as is customary.

During her Tuesday confirmation hearing, Haines began her opening statement with tacit criticism of President Trump.

"When it comes to intelligence, there is simply no place for politics, ever," she said.

She pledged to declassify an intelligence report about the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi and promised an "aggressive response" to China to counter its "illegal and unfair practices."

Haines, 51, previously was deputy national security adviser. She also was deputy chief counsel to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in 2007-2008 when Biden was chairman.

In 2013, President Barack Obama named her deputy CIA director, the first woman to hold the job.

She now makes history again as the first woman to hold the top job in U.S. intelligence.

When Biden announced Haines in November as his pick to lead the intelligence community, she vowed to "speak truth to power."

"I've worked for you for a long time, and I accept this nomination knowing that you would never want me to do otherwise and that you value the perspective of the intelligence community," she said at the time. "And that you will do so even when what I have to say may be inconvenient or difficult, and I assure you, there will be those times."

President Biden's initial wave of planned executive actions includes an order to reexamine one controversial, but widely used, pesticide called chlorpyrifos. The Trump administration had stepped in to keep the chemical on the market after Obama-era officials tried to ban it.

It's just one in a long list of science-related Trump administration actions that the incoming Biden team will now revisit. In a statement, Biden promised to take a close look at all policies "that were harmful to public health, damaging to the environment, unsupported by the best available science, or otherwise not in the national interest."

Farmers use chlorpyrifos to control insects on a wide variety of crops, including corn, apples, and vegetables. It is among the most toxic pesticides. Workers exposed to it can experience dizziness, headaches, and nausea. Most indoor uses of the pesticide were halted in 2001.

More recently, however, researchers at Columbia University studied health records from women who'd been exposed to this chemical before that ban, and found evidence that exposure to tiny amounts of chlorpyrifos harmed the brains of their developing fetuses and young children. Those studies, along with lawsuits filed by environmental advocates, convinced the Environmental Protection Agency to move ahead with a ban during the final months of the Obama administration.

When the Trump administration took office in 2017, the new EPA leadership put that decision on hold and later reversed it. This was due in large part to the agency's decision to exclude evidence from the Columbia University studies, because university researchers refused to turn over raw data from those studies. The researchers maintain that this would violate the confidentiality of the women whom they'd studied.

California, meanwhile, moved ahead with its own regulations. It banned sales of chlorpyrifos in the state in early 2020. Starting this year, California's farmers no longer can spray the chemical.

The Biden administration now will take a fresh look at chlorpyrifos, as well as the EPA's rules that justified excluding the Columbia University studies. In addition, the incoming administration will revisit a Trump administration decision to shrink the buffer zones around fields that have to be free of people when pesticides are applied. Farmworker advocates have challenged that decision in court.

Updated at 8:23 p.m. ET

The Dow, the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq all hit new records as markets closed on Wednesday afternoon.

The achievement was notched right in the middle of Inauguration Day celebrations, as the Biden administration played a montage of dancing and singing across America. There just may have been some celebratory shimmies on Wall Street, too.

The Dow rose nearly 1% to 31,188. The tech-heavy NASDAQ closing nearly 2% higher at 13,457, while the broader S&P 500 rose 1.39% to end the day at about 3,852.

The stock market has been surging for months, despite the economic anguish caused by the coronavirus pandemic. The Nasdaq has more than doubled since its pandemic low point back in March.

Overall, stock market performance was very strong during the Trump presidency — annualized returns were almost as high as they were during the Obama administration. (Under President Bill Clinton, stock values soared even more.)

More than any other president, Trump pointed to stock markets gains as his own personal success, although he did not seem to consider stock market losses in the same light.

He repeatedly warned that a Biden win would cause markets to crash.

A market crash is never out of the question, and some analysts worry we're in or approaching a bubble.

But so far, Biden's win has not sent investors into a tailspin. Instead, many on Wall Street seem to believe that the veteran politician, famous for striking legislative deals, can work with Congress to push significantly more stimulus spending, which could boost stocks even higher.

Of course, stock markets respond to many forces outside a chief executive's control, and neither Trump nor Biden can take full credit for the stock markets recent rise.

Updated 5:45pm Eastern Time

In one of his first acts in the Oval Office, President Joe Biden signed an executive order to have the United States rejoin the Paris climate agreement, the largest international effort to curb global warming.

The U.S. officially withdrew from the accord to limit climate-warming greenhouse gas emissions late last year, after President Donald Trump began the process in 2017. It is the only country of the nearly 200 signatories that has withdrawn. Biden vowed to sign on Inauguration Day the documents needed to rejoin the agreement.

The U.S. played a large role in creating the 2015 agreement. It aims to avoid the most catastrophic climate change scenarios by keeping average global temperatures from rising no more than 2 degrees Celsius, and preferably less than 1.5 degrees Celsius by 2100, compared to pre-industrial times. Global temperatures have already increased by a little more than one degree Celsius.

"The window for meaningful action is now very narrow – we have no time to waste," said Dr. M. Sanjayan, chief executive of Conservation International, an environmental advocacy group. "President Biden's action today is certainly a step in the right direction."

It will take 30 days for the U.S. to officially rejoin the agreement, but meeting its targets is going to be a taller order. The U.S. is the second-largest producer of carbon emissions, behind China, and has contributed more to global climate change over time than any other country.

As a candidate, Biden made a bold pledge to cut all greenhouse gas emissions from the nation's electric sector by 2035 and to make the country carbon-neutral by 2050. Carbon emissions have been decreasing from the country's electricity sector as coal plants have been retired over the last decade and utilities ramp up their reliance on renewable energy sources like wind and solar.

Industrial and transportation sources of carbon emissions are going to be harder to curtail. In 2017, transportation overtook electricity generation as the largest source of greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S.

Biden is expected to stiffen auto emissions standards, but writing new rules takes time.

Still, Biden's move to rejoin the Paris Climate Agreement signals to the world that the U.S. is serious about addressing climate change again, and that it will have a seat at the table when world leaders meet in Glasgow to make new climate pledges later this year.

United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres welcomed the American re-entry into the climate agreement. In an emailed statement, he wrote: "We look forward to the leadership of United States in accelerating global efforts towards net zero."

Former President Donald Trump did not declare martial law in his final minutes in office; nor did he reveal a secret plan to remain in power forever. President Biden and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi were not sent to Guantánamo Bay. The military did not rise up and arrest Democratic leaders en masse.

Instead, Biden took the oath of office and became the 46th U.S. president on Wednesday.

For some supporters of QAnon, this was an earth-shattering turn of events. Or rather, nonevents.

QAnon is less a baseless conspiracy theory than an umbrella of many baseless conspiracy theories, but it centers on a belief that there is a shadowy cabal of pedophilic, satanic world leaders. For years, a mysterious figure called Q has issued promises that this cabal is on the verge of being exposed and defeated by Trump in a cataclysmic event that QAnon calls "the Storm."

The baseless, often bizarre claims have gained a shocking amount of traction with the public. A recent NPR/Ipsos poll found that 17% of Americans believe that a group of Satan-worshipping, child-enslaving elites is trying to control the world, and another 37% aren't sure about the false allegation. And two women who have expressed some support for QAnon, Lauren Boebert and Marjorie Taylor Greene, are now sitting members of Congress.

Now that Trump has left office, some QAnon supporters are baffled — or even giving up.

New York Times tech columnist Kevin Roose tweeted out screenshots from groups on Telegram — a popular messaging service for QAnon supporters — on Wednesday, after the transfer of power was officially complete. "Been played like fools," one wrote.

Roose noted that one particularly prominent QAnon figure publicly announced that supporters need to "go back to our lives as best we are able," rather than continue trying to overthrow Biden's presidency.

Will Sommer, who tracks conservative media and is working on a book about QAnon, wrote in the Daily Beast that even late on Wednesday morning, QAnon groups were still hopeful that the mass arrests would materialize. But after noon, "the mood changed quickly," Sommer wrote, with supporters saying they felt fooled by Trump and felt sick.

Feeling fooled may not lead to a return to normalcy. One researcher told NBC News that frustrated, disappointed Q followers could be prime targets for radicalization by other extremist groups, like neo-Nazis.

And, of course, not every Q follower is giving up the faith (an appropriate word — some argue that Q is best understood as a religious movement).

The Times' Roose noted Q fans arguing with each other, with some declaring the movement over while others insisting the Storm was still coming. NBC's Ben Collins and Brandy Zadrozny took a look at one of the largest QAnon Telegram groups, which briefly shut down on Wednesday and reopened with "a range of reactions: confusion and realization that QAnon was in fact a hoax, as well as renewed commitment to the conspiracy theory, despite its unreliability."

Researcher Travis View told The Washington Post that it was only a "minority ... facing reality," while others are simply shifting their expectations.

It's a process they're familiar with, after all: A multitude of Q predictions has failed to materialize, and that has never stopped the conspiracies from spreading.

Like apocalyptic cults that persist despite a noteworthy lack of apocalypse, QAnon may survive the failed prophecies around the inauguration just like it has survived other failed prophecies before.

President Biden is moving quickly on climate change on his first day in office, saying he plans to sign a sweeping executive order to undo many of the Trump administration's environmental rollbacks.

Biden's pledge to rejoin the international Paris climate accord tops his list of immediate steps. Former President Donald Trump announced the U.S. withdrawal from the landmark agreement in 2017, which was completed in November. The Trump administration also weakened or undid other, lesser-known climate and environmental policies that Biden has vowed to restore.

Biden will instruct federal agencies to review more than 100 policies, many crucial to curbing heat-trapping emissions, including fuel economy standards for cars and pollution limits on the oil and gas industry.

"A cry for survival comes from the planet itself, a cry that can't be any more desperate or any more clear," Biden said in his inaugural address Wednesday.

The Trump administration systematically loosened Obama-era environmental standards that range from energy-efficiency standards for appliances and buildings to air quality standards designed to protect public health.

Some of those rollbacks, such as fuel economy standards for cars and trucks, went further than the industry wanted. Under President Barack Obama, automakers had negotiated efficiency standards that gradually became tougher year after year. Federal agencies under Trump instead froze the standards, leading some automakers to agree voluntarily to continue with the tougher rules.

Fuel efficiency of cars and trucks in the U.S. fell for the first time in five years in 2019, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. Transportation is the country's largest source of greenhouse gas emissions.

The Biden administration will also instruct the federal government to consider the long-term economic impacts of climate change when making new regulations, what's known as the "social cost" of carbon. Under Obama, those costs were weighed against the immediate cost a new regulation might pose to an industry, given that climate impacts are increasingly costing billions across many economic sectors. The Trump administration did away with that practice in 2017. Biden is reestablishing the working group to issue those guidelines, including weighing "environmental justice and intergenerational equity" considerations.

The planned moves were applauded by environmental groups, who warn the U.S. has little time to act to cut emissions. Scientists say the world is on track to exceed 1.5 Celsius degrees of warming, which will lead to higher sea level rise and more extreme heat waves and hurricanes.

"The sweeping nature of these executive orders are an important down payment in addressing the tatters left behind by President Trump," Kathleen Rest, executive director at the Union of Concerned Scientists, said in a statement. "They seek to reverse policies that fly in the face of science, harm public health and degrade the environment."

Updated at 9:37 p.m. ET

Michael Pack resigned Wednesday as the CEO of the federal agency over the Voice of America and other federally funded international broadcasters after a turbulent seven-month tenure. He leaves the U.S. Agency for Global Media with a Trumpian legacy of ideological strife, lawsuits and scandal, his departure effective just two hours after the swearing-in of President Biden, who requested him to leave.

Biden has named senior VOA news executive Kelu Chao as acting CEO.

Pack came to lead the U.S. Agency for Global Media with the support of former President Donald Trump; his appointment was delayed more than two years in the U.S. Senate by lawmakers who feared he was too ideological and also who questioned his finances. The soft-spoken conservative documentary maker proved to be an ideological warrior in the mold of his patron, taking to one conservative news outlet after another to denounce his own staff, all in the name of fairness.

In his resignation letter, Pack said he was "solely focused upon reorienting the agency toward its missions." And he attacked the request for his resignation as "a partisan act," saying the leadership of the agency and its networks "is meant to be non-partisan, untethered to alternations in the political regime."

He added, "I had no political agenda coming into USAGM, and I still do not have one."

NPR conducted scores of interviews over the controversies Pack's actions engendered. And few at the agency or its broadcasters agreed with Pack's characterization of his mission or performance, instead characterizing him as seeking political control over their coverage. Just last week, a VOA reporter's insistent questions to then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and VOA Director Robert R. Reilly over the siege on Congress after a public event led to her demotion and an investigation.

Pack routinely accused journalists of anti-Trump bias, sought to fire top executives as part of a "deep state," ominously accused the networks of being receptive to foreign spies and denied requests for visa extensions from his own staffers who are foreign nationals.

He initiated investigations over the bias claims, reaching into Voice of America's newsroom in ways a federal judge said broke the law and the First Amendment. Pack hired a Richmond, Va., law firm to investigate top U.S. Agency for Global Media executives after already seeking to oust them; new allegations, backed by correspondence reviewed by NPR, suggest he paid more than $2 million to that firm to conduct such reviews. (The lead partner on the investigation, John D. Adams, was a law clerk to U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, the subject of a sympathetic 2020 documentary by Pack.) Pack even fired White House aides assigned to help him by the Trump administration, suspecting them of disloyalty.

Throughout, he kept all but a small circle of advisers in the dark as to what he was doing. Former U.S. Agency for Global Media general counsel David Kligerman said the agency would have to work hard to put a "terrible chapter" behind it. Kligerman, who resigned late last month, had been suspended by Pack in August, along with other senior executives after Pack was unable to fire them more immediately.

"Pack seemed only to know how to destroy," Kligerman wrote in a statement to NPR, citing the CEO's record of "firing or otherwise pushing out so many talented journalists, network heads, grantee board members, and civil servants."

"It was wanton destruction, and shocking disregard for the most basic civility or norms," Kligerman wrote. "Political staff targeted and terrorized career staff and others. It is hard to overstate the climate of fear and dread that existed at the Agency. It is then particularly ironic that in his letter of resignation Pack warns of future politicalization of the Agency: it is hard to see how one could have attempted to do more to politicize the Agency than Pack."

Pack sought to ensure his influence endured after his departure by forcing the networks the agency funds but does not own to accept new boards of directors stocked with conservative activists and writers. The networks include Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Radio Free Asia and the Middle East Broadcasting Networks. (VOA and Radio/TV Marti are owned by the federal government.)

The new board members, announced this month, include Roger L. Simon, a columnist for the pro-Trump and conspiracy-theory recycling newspaper The Epoch Times who has written he believes the Jan. 6 attack on Congress by a pro-Trump mob was actually done by leftists in disguise, and Christian Whiton, a conservative foreign policy expert who has defended Russia's annexation of Crimea from Ukraine.

According to three people with knowledge, the new Biden team appears poised to bring suspended executives back into the agency fold, replace the network chiefs appointed by Pack last month and to appoint new boards. The Biden administration did not immediately comment on Pack's departure. A permanent CEO for the U.S. Agency for Global Media will require approval by the Senate, now led by Democrats rather than Republicans, though Pack inspired an outcry on both sides of the aisle.

Disclosure: This story was reported by NPR media correspondent David Folkenflik and edited by NPR media and technology editor Emily Kopp. Because of NPR CEO John Lansing's prior role as CEO of the U.S. Agency for Global Media, no senior news executive or corporate executive at NPR reviewed this story before it was published.

Updated at 5:06 p.m. ET

Democrats officially took control of the Senate as Georgia's two new Democratic senators-elect were sworn in Wednesday afternoon, cementing a 50-50 split, with Vice President Harris serving as the tiebreaking vote in her new role as president of the the Senate.

Harris administered the oath of office to Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff hours after her own swearing-in.

The pair of Democratic victories in the Jan. 5 Senate runoff elections gave the party control of both the White House and Congress, with the thinnest of majorities in the upper chamber.

Harris also swore in Democrat Alex Padilla, the former California secretary of state, to fill Harris' own Senate seat. He was appointed by California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat.

"The chair lays before the Senate ... a certificate of appointment to fill the vacancy created by the resignation of former Sen. Kamala D. Harris of California," she said, laughing, before adding, "Yeah, that was very weird."

With the new senators' swearing-in complete, Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., becomes the Senate majority leader and Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., the minority leader. Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt. , became the new president pro tempore of the Senate, placing him third in the line of succession to the presidency. He previously held this position from 2012 to 2015.

Details of a power-sharing agreement are still being developed by Schumer and McConnell to lay out practical issues about the chamber's operations going forward.

A Democratic majority, however narrow, will enable the party to set the chamber's legislative agenda and make it easier to confirm President Biden's Cabinet picks.

Georgia's Secretary of State's office certified the results of the runoff elections the day before Biden's inauguration.

Biden was the first Democratic presidential candidate to win Georgia since 1992. Ossoff and Warnock's wins were also history-making. Ossoff is the state's first Jewish senator and Warnock is Georgia's first Black senator and the first Black Democratic senator from the South.

Padilla's appointment is also historic: He is the first Latino to represent California in the U.S. Senate.

President Joe Biden has picked a slate of nearly two dozen acting officials to temporarily lead agencies as he waits for Congress to confirm his Cabinet.

According to a list of officials issued by the White House on Wednesday, most of the temporary leaders are career civil servants.

Still, the 46th president entered the White House on Inauguration Day with no Cabinet members yet confirmed by the Senate, making him the first president in recent history to take charge of the nation without key advisors in place.

Here's a full list of those who will be assisting in the next phase of the transition of government:

• Central Intelligence Agency, David Cohen
• Department of Defense, David Norquist
• Department of Energy, David Huizenga
• Department of Health and Human Services, Norris Cochran
• Department of Homeland Security, David Pekoske
• Department of Justice, Monty Wilkinson
• Department of Labor, Al Stewart
• Department of State, Dan Smith
• Department of Treasury, Andy Baukol
• Office of the Director of National Intelligence, Lora Shiao
• General Services Administration, Katy Kale
• National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Steve Jurczyk
• National Endowment for the Arts, Ann Eilers
• National Endowment for the Humanities, Adam Wolfson
• Office of Management and Budget, Rob Fairweather
• Office of National Drug Control Policy, Regina LaBelle
• Office of Personnel Management, Kathy McGettigan
• Small Business Administration, Tami Perriello
• Social Security Administration, Andrew Saul
• U.S. Agency for International Development, Gloria Steele
• U.S. International Development Finance Corporation, Dev Jagadesan
• U.S. Mission to the United Nations, Rich Mills
• Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, Maria Pagan

Five of Biden's Cabinet nominees faced Senate panels on Tuesday in the first step of the confirmation process.

Among them were Janet Yellen, selected to lead the Treasury Department; Alejandro Mayorkas, Biden's choice to head the Department of Homeland Security; Antony Blinken to helm the State Department; retired Gen. Lloyd Austin for Secretary of Defense; and Avril Haines, to lead the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.

Prior to his swearing in, Biden pledged he'd hit the ground running on a number of his top priorities, ranging from reversing former President Trump's travel ban on Muslim-majority nations to rejoining the Paris Climate Accord, and taking the reigns on plans to curb the COVID-19 pandemic ravaging the nation.

Biden is expected to sign 17 executive actions within the first few hours of his presidency.

President Biden, Vice President Harris and their families received a presidential escort to the White House on Wednesday afternoon, hours after the new administration was officially sworn into office.

Biden's ride to the White House came as part of a day of inauguration activities, including the swearing in ceremony at the Capitol and a wreath-laying event at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery.

Biden's motorcade was met by a military procession as he made his way to his new home at the White House. Joining in with supporters and a marching band, the new president got out of his vehicle just outside of the executive mansion to greet well-wishers and the media, including Washington, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser and famed weatherman Al Roker. He completed the rest of the trip to the White House on foot.

Biden plans to get an early start on his presidential duties, including the planned signing of 17 executive orders aimed at tackling the coronavirus pandemic, the climate crisis, racial justice and the economy, among other issues.

The president is expected to hold events well into the evening, including virtually swearing in presidential appointees and an appearance on the Blue Room Balcony.

Inauguration Day wouldn't be complete without a meme or two to mark the occasion.

The creation of memes on the day when past presidents and lawmakers watch as a new president takes the oath of office has become somewhat of a hallmark in recent years.

Who can forget, for example, former President George W. Bush's trials with a rain poncho during former President Trump's inauguration?

Wednesday offered several viable contenders for the most celebrated meme of the day.

There's several dedicated to former First Lady Michelle Obama's stunning burgundy Sergio Hudson ensemble, and the change in expression on her face from the last time she attended a presidential inauguration.

And Lady Gaga, who sang the national anthem, had fans comparing her outfit with that of the character Katniss Everdeen from The Hunger Games.

No doubt, Jennifer Lopez, who also performed during the inaugural ceremony, and her fiancé Alex Rodriguez' elaborate U.S. Capitol photo shoot will lead to some promising memes as well.

But it was Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., a former presidential contender himself, whose expression and cozy coat stole the show.

Some had praise for his choice of mittens.

Still others were amused at the senator's outfit selection and curmudgeonly expression.

Others appreciated the sensible choice of outerwear on a chilly day in D.C.

Some pointed out that the jacket, which appears to be from Burton, a snowboarding company based in his home state of Vermont, is the same one Sanders wore in his now-famous "I am once again asking" video.

Still more speculated at what was in the envelope the 79-year-old senator was carrying.

And others lifted the image of the senator and placed him in various locations.

President Biden invoked what he called seven "common objects we, as Americans, love" in Wednesday's inaugural address. Biden's embrace of the seventh — "the truth" — offered a pointed critique of his predecessor (though never by name), the media and the nation itself.

"Recent weeks and months have taught us a painful lesson," Biden said in an event carried by every major broadcast news outlet in the country and many abroad. "There is truth and there are lies. Lies told for power and for profit. And each of us has a duty and a responsibility, as citizens, as Americans, and especially as leaders, leaders who have pledged to honor our Constitution and protect our nation, to defend the truth and defeat the lies."

Biden was overlooking the National Mall from the balcony of Congress as he made his remarks. And the "painful lesson" he referred to came from the role of lies and false claims amplified, in part, by conservative media outlets in inspiring the deadly and destructive assault on the U.S. Capitol building two weeks ago.

Fox News hosts, commentators and guests were among those most prominently and falsely claiming that former President Donald Trump had been cheated of victory in the November election. And many of them also inflamed passions ahead of the Jan. 6 demonstration that turned into a riot, calling for a physical response to show Congress and then-Vice President Pence that they would not accept the certification of Biden's win.

"Look, I understand that many of my fellow Americans view the future with fear and trepidation. I understand they worry about their jobs," Biden said in his speech Wednesday, invoking his own father's fears about paying for mortgage and medical costs. "I promise you, I get it. But 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. Or don't get their news from the same sources you do."

Fox's coverage on Wednesday was largely affirming and laudatory of the new president's oratory and performance. The network has not publicly accounted for its own role in the divisions and wild conspiracy theories of the past five years, often circulated by Trump's associates and given true flight on Fox.

Yet Fox News Sunday host Chris Wallace declared Biden's inaugural address the best he had ever heard. And Wallace had a caution for his colleagues and rivals.

"I think that it was a call to all of us," Wallace told viewers, "whether it's us on the air on cable or broadcast, whether it's us in social media, on our Twitter accounts, understanding that we have to deal from facts, from the truth, to hear each other out, as he said. A right to disagree, but not a right to violence."

Several Republican lawmakers reacted Wednesday to President Biden's inaugural address with optimism that both parties will be able to work together and find common ground as the new administration begins.

Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, said the speech was "very well-done."

"I thought it's what we needed," she told Capitol Hill reporters following the address.

Murkowski said that "everything is possible" when it comes to the Republican Party working with the Biden administration.

"We're going to have some issues that we just fundamentally disagree with. But I think, to the president's words, you can still disagree from a policy perspective and you can do so in ways that are still respectful and allow you to continue to work toward other goals."

Murkowski was the first Republican senator to call on former President Donald Trump to resign in the wake of the deadly Jan. 6 insurrection on the U.S. Capitol.

Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah, another Republican critic of Trump, called Biden's words "strong" and "very much needed."

"We as a nation come together if we are told the truth and if we have leaders who stand for enduring American principles," he said.

Romney's statement about telling the truth echoes comments he made the night of Jan. 6 after a violent mob of pro-Trump extremists breached the Capitol and forced lawmakers to delay by several hours their task of tallying the Electoral College votes.

Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine., told reporters Biden's speech "struck the right themes of unity, a call for us to come together, to stop viewing one another as adversaries but rather as fellow Americans."

Regarding working with the Biden administration going forward, Collins expressed optimism.

"Many of us have long-standing relationships with him," she said. "I served with him for many years as fellow senators, and I worked with him when he was vice president. So I stand ready to work with him to advance common goals. We'll see what his agenda is."

Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., also tweeted his support for Biden, writing, "I commend President Biden for his call for national unity, and his assurance to those who did not support him that he will nevertheless be president for all Americans."

With a razor-thin Democratic majority in the Senate, Biden will likely need some Republican support for his legislative agenda.

Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., told reporters he thinks it's "important to unite the country," but that he has reservations over some of Biden's impending executive orders.

"My concern is, of course, some of the executive orders that are coming, specifically in regard to the Keystone XL pipeline," he told reporters Wednesday afternoon.

Biden is revoking a cross-border presidential permit needed to finish the Keystone XL pipeline, which likely means the end of the $8 billion project.

The traditional inaugural parade was not an option this year, given security fears and the coronavirus pandemic.

So instead, the Biden Inaugural Committee is throwing a "Parade Across America" — a virtual celebration involving dancers, drum lines, singers and athletes from across the United States.

It might sound like a stretch. But the Democratic Party had a surprise hit on its hands when it convened a remote roll call during the Democratic National Convention, which turned out to be more popular than you might have guessed.

The University of Delaware and Howard University, the alma maters of President Biden and Vice President Harris, respectively, did send drum lines that are physically in Washington, D.C., and will perform live. Otherwise, the parade will be remote.

The Parade Across America will be hosted by Tony Goldwyn, and the names in the lineup include Jon Stewart, the reunited New Radicals (of "You Get What You Give" fame), Earth, Wind & Fire and, as the Biden Inaugural Committee puts it, "everyday Americans."

It will also feature figure skaters, Olympians, at least one skateboarder, representatives of every branch of the military, a wheelchair basketball program, a doctor who's big on TikTok, an 80-year-old performer from Idaho, a 12-year-old trumpeter from Georgia, marching bands, flag twirlers, a clogging group, Boy Scouts and a Dance Across America led by Kenny Ortega.

You can view the full lineup here.

President Biden traveled from the U.S. Capitol across the Potomac River to Arlington National Cemetery after his inauguration ceremony Wednesday afternoon to lay a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

He was joined by Vice President Harris as well as former Presidents Barack Obama, George W. Bush and Bill Clinton, along with their spouses and members of their families.

Biden and Harris each touched the wreath, and Biden made the sign of the cross before saluting. A military bugler then played taps.

The nation's 46th president arrived at the ceremony in an armored presidential limousine with the license plate reading "46" after driving along the security fence-lined streets of Washington, D.C.

Updated at 5:40 p.m. ET

As President Joe Biden took the oath of office on Jan. 20 with his history-making vice president, Kamala Harris, people across the nation seemed cautiously optimistic.

Biden and Harris take office in the wake of a violent and deadly attempt by supporters of President Donald Trump to block Congress from certifying Electoral College votes on Jan. 6. In the two weeks since the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, federal law enforcement officers have made arrests and charged people from across the nation with participation in the riot.

On Wednesday, as Biden told Americans that democracy had prevailed and called for a day of renewal and resolve, people across the country talked about a return to normalcy.

"I'm happy if he can do his agenda," Kay, a 57-year-old Trump supporter told KCUR reporter Frank Morris. "I mean, he seems like he's a level-headed guy, and I hope that's the truth. I hope that that's what he follows. Cause then America would be better, but I'm worried that it's gonna swing too far left."

Kay, who lives in the suburbs of Kansas City, Mo., and declined to share her last name, said she hoped that the Biden administration would reunite Americans.

"That's all I want. I want America first," she said. "I just want our country back to normal."

Sherry Webster, a 71-year-old from Kansas City, Mo., told Morris she thought the United States had turned a corner, but there was still a lot of work needed to bring the country together.

"We've got a steep road ahead, [a] really steep road ahead, but I think Biden through all his tragedy in his life, has gained a lot of wisdom," Webster said. "I think he's somebody that can reach out to both sides and it really speaks to people. So I think we're headed in a good direction."

New York City was quiet during the inauguration Wednesday. Outside Trump Tower, where so many demonstrations have been held over the past four years, there were notably few people. One couple stopped by with their signs and hats from the first Women's March in 2017.

"It wasn't even a conscious feeling I woke up feeling energized. I feel the relief of not having to monitor second by second terrible decisions," 53-year-old Wendy Brandes told WNYC's Stephen Nessen.

Nearby, 21-year-old Diana Hernandez who works in Times Square said that during Trump's term, tourists often felt emboldened to yell anti-immigrant slurs at her. She hopes that era is over now.

"I feel better ... knowing that there's a better president and a female co-president in the White House," Hernandez said. "I have a good feeling for the future and the generation to come, because it shows that we have more opportunities for women."

Even some Trump supporters in the city said they would give Biden a chance to show what he can do to improve the country.

Reaction to the inauguration was also muted in more conservative parts of the country.

Jason Smith stood in line at a DMV in rural Southwest Idaho as Biden was sworn in. Not that he would have probably watched the new president's address anyway.

More than 60 court cases challenging the election results in swing states were thrown out because the Trump campaign couldn't provide evidence of widespread fraud, but Smith doesn't think Biden was fairly elected.

"We just want to be left alone in this country," Smith told NPR's Kirk Siegler. "Trump was our president, and for most of us, he still is our president. We still follow him."

Matt Gnojek of Denver usually wears his Capt. America outfit when he travels the country to raise money for pediatric cancer. But he was outside the Colorado State Capitol on Wednesday urging Americans to come together and believe in democracy.

"I just decided that a little more love, a little more smiles might be useful to more than just the kids, but maybe to some of the adults out there facing hardship as well," he told reporter Bente Birkeland of Colorado Public Radio.

Gnojek thinks democracy is thriving rather than failing.

"But we have to trust it. You have to trust each other," he said. "The claims of widespread voter fraud, it's a big beast to tackle. But if I had to venture a guess, I would say that the reason that they feel the way that they do about voter fraud is because their love for country, their love for each other was in fact manipulated by forces that wanted to see us divided."

Outside the state Capitol building in Harrisburg, Pa., one Trump supporter seemed ready to let go of the false claims of election fraud.

"It's over. There is nothing they can do about it. It is what it is. I accept that," Ryan Stevenson of Carlisle, Pa., told WITF's Sam Dunklau. "I am not interested in finding out what the facts were, the truth was. It doesn't matter to me. It's over."

For Matt Conberry, a Biden supporter from Wallingford, Pa., moving on sounds like a good idea.

"It's a very simple message. A lot of this country thinks the election might have been stolen. Or that democracy doesn't work," he said. "You know, it's the best we got. You know what I mean? If you don't trust the results of the election, I don't know what else we will do as a country."

President Biden plans to extend a nationwide pause on evictions through the end of March.

The federal eviction moratorium, implemented through the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, is intended to help tenants who have been battered economically by the pandemic.

"Without this action by President Joe Biden, millions of renters could have lost their homes during this surge in COVID-19," says Diane Yentel, president of the National Low Income Housing Coalition. But, she adds, the moratorium itself is insufficient and allows some landlords to evict tenants despite the protections.

For example, she notes that no federal agency is enforcing the order's penalties for unlawful evictions.

NPR has reported on families getting evicted despite the CDC order, which, in spirit, directs landlords not to put people out in the street for nonpayment of rent and into living situations where they can catch and spread the coronavirus.

Already, one study has attributed thousands of deaths in the U.S. to evictions during the pandemic because displaced families have been forced into more crowded living conditions.

Housing advocates say the CDC order is not an automatic eviction ban. Many renters don't know how to take advantage of it. Tenants must sign a CDC declaration and provide it to landlords and, in some cases, to local housing courts.

The recent COVID-19 relief bill passed by Congress provides billions of dollars to pay landlords for back rent and future rent payments as millions of Americans remain unemployed and struggling to pay their bills. The hope is that too will prevent evictions since landlords only get compensated if tenants remain in place on the property.

Biden is also expected to extend deadlines for moratoriums aimed at protecting homeowners from foreclosure.

Updated Jan. 21 at 3:10 p.m. ET

Following President Biden's executive action signed Wednesday, the Education Department extended pandemic relief for about 41 million federal student loan borrowers through Sept. 30.

"Too many Americans are struggling to pay for basic necessities and to provide for their families," the Education Department said in a statement. "They should not be forced to choose between paying their student loans and putting food on the table."

In March 2020, borrowers were granted a reprieve on their loan payments — interest was set to 0% and collections of defaulted federal student loans were paused. Congress initiated this relief in the CARES Act. Both President Donald Trump and, later, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, extended it.

Before Biden's executive action, the relief was set to expire on Jan. 31.

The back and forth on deadlines has been a challenge for borrowers. Research from the Pew Charitable Trusts conducted in August and September found that, among borrowers who said the relief applied to them, about 40% did not know when their loan payments were set to resume. That research also found that borrowers are struggling financially due to the pandemic: Almost 6 in 10 borrowers with paused payments reported to Pew that it would be difficult to begin making their payments if they had to do so in the next month.

With the extension for the next eight months, borrowers and loan servicers now have a longer runway to prepare for when repayment starts.

"The extension of the payment pauses provides much needed relief to borrowers during the pandemic in the short-term," says Sarah Sattelmeyer, director of the Pew Charitable Trust's Student Borrower Success project. The big question now is what happens next.

Many hope that temporary pandemic relief for borrowers will open the door to more permanent loan forgiveness. But it's unclear to what extent the Biden administration would do that. On Jan. 8, David Kamin, the incoming deputy director of Biden's National Economic Council, repeated Biden's support of Congress canceling up to $10,000 in federal student loans per borrower in response to the pandemic. But many Democrats want him to go further.

In September, Democratic Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Chuck Schumer unveiled a plan calling for the next president to cancel up to $50,000 of outstanding federal student loans per borrower. Biden has yet to signal interest in this plan. In his campaign proposal, he outlined a number of changes to paying back loans, including canceling $10,000 in debt for students who work in national or community service.

As part of his ambitious plan to address climate change, President Biden is revoking a key cross-border presidential permit needed to finish the controversial Keystone XL pipeline

This likely means the end of the $8 billion pipeline, a years-long project that would have carried oil sands crude from Alberta, Canada, to the American Gulf Coast. The pipeline has come to signify the debate over whether fossil fuels should be left in the ground in order to rein in greenhouse gas emissions and avoid the worst damage from climate change.

President Barack Obama rejected the project in 2015. President Donald Trump revived it as one of his first actions in office.

Construction on Keystone XL began last year, and the company says about 300 miles of the pipeline has been built so far. TC Energy says in a statement that "advancement of the project will be suspended" and that the company likely will take a hit to its first quarter earnings.

While the company's announcement was straightforward, oil industry groups that supported the project decried the Biden decision.

"Killing 10,000 jobs and taking $2.2 billion in payroll out of workers' pockets is not what Americans need or want right now," said Andy Black, president and CEO of the Association of Oil Pipe Lines.

Those jobs were temporary construction jobs and included workers from an Oklahoma union being sued by its Black members for discrimination.

Environmentalists opposed the pipeline because of the oil sands crude it would have carried. Producing that oil requires extra processing that emits more of the greenhouse gases that contribute to climate change. Those groups praised Biden's decision along with his vow to rejoin the Paris climate agreement after Trump withdrew.

"It makes the United States once more part of the global climate solution — not the problem," responded Mitchell Bernard, president of the Natural Resources Defense Council.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has said the pipeline was a key priority for him. The province of Alberta, which is an investor in the project, has said it will work with the company to pursue legal remedies.