“This is America’s day, this is democracy’s day, the day of history and hope. Today we celebrate a triumph not of a candidate but of a cause We have learned again that democracy is precious democracy is fragile. Democracy has prevailed,” Joe Biden said.

AMN WEB DESK / WASHINGTON
Democrat Joe Biden was sworn in as 46th president of the United States on Wednesday. He assmued power at time , when US is under deep political divides, a battered economy and a corona pandemic crisis that has killed more than 400,000 Americans.
With his hand on a five-inch thick heirloom Bible that has been in his family for more than a century, Biden took the presidential oath of office administered by U.S. Chief Justice John Roberts just after noon (1700 GMT), vowing to “preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.”
“Through a crucible for the ages, America has been tested anew, and America has risen to the challenge,” Biden said as he began his inaugural address. “Today we celebrate the triumph not of a candidate but of a cause: the cause of democracy…At this hour, my friends, democracy has prevailed.”
Biden, 78, became the oldest U.S. president in history at a scaled-back ceremony in Washington that was largely stripped of its usual pomp and circumstance, due both to the coronavirus and security concerns following the Jan. 6 assault on the U.S. Capitol by supporters of outgoing President Donald Trump.
The norm-defying Trump flouted one last convention on his way out of the White House when he refused to meet with Biden or attend his successor’s inauguration, breaking with a political tradition seen as affirming the peaceful transfer of power.