(Headline USA) Fueled by newly-elected President Donald Trump himself, Democrats in the mainstream media made much over claims that Trump’s inauguration had fallen far short of the prior Obama-era inaugurations.
Those claims may, in fact, have been an early warning sign about the four years of media/deep-state gaslighting that was to follow. Official footage of Trump’s attendance showing a partially empty National Mall was taken early in the day—when many of the spectators to the event were still stuck in long security lines to enter.
Either way, the incoming Biden administration (barring any dramatic reversals for Trump’s campaign) will not have to worry about its own false attendance comparisons.
That’s because, much like his entire campaign, the Jan. 20 event is expected to be a sparsely-attended, socially distanced affair.
A day after Biden’s own organizing committee announced that the swearing-in would take place, according to custom, outside the Capitol Building, the Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies announced that permitted attendance at the event will be drastically reduced due to COVID-19 precautions.
Instead of the usual 200,000 tickets distributed to members of Congress and passed out to their constituents, organizers will allow just over 1,000 tickets—one for each of the 535 members of Congress and one guest each.
Despite this week’s rollout of the new coronavirus vaccine, its availability to the general public is still months away.
Committee Chairman Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., said in a statement that concerns about spiraling virus numbers around the country “warranted a difficult decision to limit attendance at the 59th Inaugural Ceremonies to a live audience that resembles a State of the Union.”
In a way, it’s a fitting culmination for a campaign that was conducted almost entirely under pandemic conditions with a candidate who generated low enthusiasm among his own party.
Biden’s own inaugural committee, which works with the congressional committee, claimed it had already asked supporters to stay away from Washington and plan safe inaugural celebrations at home.
“We know that many Americans would have wanted to attend the Inauguration in-person,” claimed Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., in the statement.
“At the same time, safety must be our top priority,” she insisted. “While the pandemic has forced us to limit in-person attendance, it also brings opportunities to honor our democracy in innovative ways so that Americans across the country can experience Inauguration Day from home.”
Biden’s team has turned to the same production team that handled the largely virtual Democratic National Convention. Features of that convention, such as the virtual roll call from every state, may be incorporated into a virtual inauguration experience.
Blunt said planners were developing “enhanced opportunities to watch the ceremonies online, in addition to the traditional televised national broadcast.”
Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press
