Highlights of the speech via The New York Times:
- “In my first act as president, I’d like you to join me in a moment of silent prayer, to remember all those we lost in the pandemic,” Mr. Biden said of the more than 400,000 Americans who have died. He mentioned that “we have much to do in this winter of peril and significant possibilities.”
- He stated that “a cry for racial justice, some 400 years in the making, moves us,” and promised that “the dream of justice for all will be deferred no longer.” He noted the threats posed by white supremacy and domestic terrorism, saying that the country “must confront” those threats, and “we will defeat” it.
- “My whole soul is in this,” Mr. Biden said. “Bringing America together, uniting our people, uniting our nation, and I ask every American to join me in this cause.” He added, “With unity, we can do great things, important things.”
- Mr. Biden also alluded to the threat of disinformation, stating that “we must reject the culture in which facts themselves are manipulated, and even manufactured.”