Joe Biden is officially the President of the United States of America. He and now-vice president Kamala Harris took the oath of office during the presidential inauguration ceremony Wednesday (Jan. 20) outside the U.S. Capitol in Washington D.C.
Biden becomes the 46th president of the U.S. and, at 78 years of age, the oldest president to take the oath. He is the 15th former vice president in U.S. history to become president and the sixth to be elected president (nine others took the office after their predecessor died or resigned). Harris became the first woman, Black and South Asian to become VP. She chose Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, the first Latina selected to the high court, to swear her in.
During his inaugural address, Biden talked about restoring the soul of America by uniting as a country. “Today we celebrate the triumph not of a candidate, but of a cause – the cause of democracy,” Biden said. “The people – the will of the people has been heard, and the will of the people has been heeded.”
Biden is eager to get straight to work once he reaches the White House this afternoon. He plans to sign 17 executive orders in the Oval Office. He’s already found time to send a tweet to the American people from the official @POTUS account.
“There is no time to waste when it comes to tackling the crisis we face,” Biden wrote in his first tweet as president. “That’s why today, I am heading to the Oval Office to get right to work delivering bold action and immediate relief for American families.”
