Team Biden is taking the Trumpist white supremacist domestic terrorist threat seriously, assuring America that they are preparing for the worst and hoping for a smooth transition of power.
President-elect Joe Biden is still planning to take his oath of office on the west side of the U.S. Capitol Wednesday despite growing concerns over safety for the event, incoming White House Communication Director Kate Bedingfield said Sunday on ABC's "This Week."
“Well, that is certainly our plan,” Bedingfield said when asked by ABC News Chief Anchor George Stephanopoulos if she was certain the ceremony would go forward as planned.
"I think that will send an incredibly important visual image to the world about the resilience of American democracy. And so our plan and our expectation is that President-elect Biden will put his hand on the Bible with his family outside on the West side of the Capitol on the 20th," Bedingfield said.
Authorities have been tracking an array of potential threats ahead of the inauguration, following the deadly riots at the Capitol. They have led to changes to Biden's inaugural plans -- already altered by the pandemic.
While the oath of office is moving forward as planned, Bedingfield said Sunday that the incoming White House staffers are preparing for any threats that should arise.
"We're in volatile times, and so we are making preparations," she said. "We'll begin meeting tomorrow, daily meetings with the outgoing leadership in national security and law enforcement to ensure that we're preparing for any scenario that should arise after noon on January the 20th."
Despite the increased threats, Biden told reporters on Friday that he felt safe with the inauguration plans, which include an outdoor ceremony where Biden is expected to deliver his inaugural address.
“What can Americans expect to hear on Wednesday? What is the major goal of this address?” Stephanopoulos asked Bedingfield.
"I think you can expect that this will be a moment where President-elect Biden will really work to try to turn the page on the divisiveness and the hatred over the last four years and really lay out a positive, optimistic vision for the country, and ... lay out a path forward that really calls on all of us to work together," Bedingfield said previewing the speech.
Biden's inaugural address will be historic for it merely being a public even held outside the US Capitol. I know I've seen people on social media, pundits, and columnists all argue that Biden should be taking the oath inside the Capitol, if not inside an undisclosed location.
But America needs this ceremony. It needs this to happen, for a couple of reasons, number one being We do not negotiate with terrorists, and number two, Biden's address will be one for the history books if only for the conditions under which Biden will be delivering them, to a nation divided almost as badly as it was in 1861, some 160 years ago, when Abraham Lincoln first addressed the country as President.
“With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation's wounds; to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan -- to do all which may achieve and cherish a just, and lasting peace, among ourselves, and with all nations.”
Our wounds are deep and still open. Let us hope, and help, Joe Biden close them and bring America together. Biden has to do this like every other President did after being elected, he has to do this in front of America and the world. This is the tough call to make, this is the right call to make, but in the end we have to have it.
But to solve the bigger problem, the problem of Trump, his cultists, his enablers, his terror squads willing to harm and even kill, we have to face up to it. We can't hide from these assholes any more. We need to take them on in order to heal the country, but to do that, we will need true reconciliation, and that only comes after real justice.
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