As President-elect Joe Biden prepares to take office facing more crisis than any other president in modern-American history, the stakes for his inaugural address could not be higher.
A transition official tells NBC News Biden has been working on the speech this weekend with family and his senior adviser Mike Donilon and it will emphasize familiar themes from his campaign: unity, healing and a vision for the many crises the country is facing.
Advisers also say the address will echo some of Biden’s recent speeches, which have doubled as opportunities to test inaugural themes. As he unveiled his $1.9 trillion economic package last week Biden cast bipartisanship as essential to addressing the economy and the Covid-19 pandemic: “Unity is not some pie in the sky dream — it’s a practical step to getting the things we have to get done as a country, get done together,” he said.
Still, we are told not to expect Biden’s speech to be filled with soaring rhetoric. Biden believes he connects with people more effectively by taking a plain-spoken approach.
As one Democratic source noted, while some of the most famous lines in American political history are from inaugural addresses — Lincoln’s "malice toward none, charity toward all," FDR’s “only thing we have to fear is fear itself,” Kennedy’s “ask not what your country can do for you” — most Americans likely couldn’t recall major lines from most of the rest.
There is pressure on speechwriters to “write for history.” But Biden’s allies believe that the speech offers an opportunity to continue in the leadership role he has been playing already throughout the transition — at a moment of crisis, demonstrating to the much wider audience that will be tuning in that someone is firmly in charge. That’s why Biden’s speeches throughout the transition have often included a simple line: “Help is on the way,” according to this Democratic source.
“People are just yearning for a little bit of normalcy, and someone who knows what they’re doing and has their hand on the wheel. He’s really good at that,” the Democratic source said. The speech is “going to be Joe Biden” because “unity is part of who Joe Biden is. That’s what he believes.”
Donilon is a chief architect, as he has been of Biden’s message not just in this campaign but most of his previous campaigns. He’s working alongside Vinay Reddy, Biden’s director of speechwriting, who worked for Biden when he was vice president.
Biden’s challenge will be reaching the voters who are still staunchly behind President Donald Trump. He told NBC's Kristen Welker during the last presidential debate that, if elected, he would use his address to say, "I’m an American President. I represent all of you, whether you voted for me or against me, and I’m going to make sure that you’re represented."
Aides say Biden will likely end on a similar note that he has highlighted in almost every speech he has given for the past six months: there is nothing Americans cannot do in spite of these challenges if Americans do it together.
In an interview on Sunday with ABC’s "This Week," incoming White House Communications Director Kate Bedingfield said the speech "will be a reflection of a lot of what you heard from him on the campaign trail, which is that he believes we can bring this country together. He believes that we have to bring this country together, that a unified America is the only way that we're going to be able to tackle the massive crises that we're grappling with."
She added, "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 way — lay out a path forward that really calls on all of us to work together."
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January 18, 2021 at 03:47AM
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The stakes are high for Biden's inaugural address. Here's what to expect. - NBC News
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