For A Splintered Nation, A Delicate Moment Of Continuity

INAUGURATION OF JOE BIDEN

The Associated Press

When it gazes into the mirror, the United States does not generally see a land of process and procedure. It sees what it has wanted to see since the beginning - a place of action and results and volume. The bold, splashy storylines that Americans crave, and have used to construct their nation, don't always play well with repetition and routine.

Then comes a day like Wednesday. Two weeks after the peaceful transfer of power was so nearly upended, ritual took center stage. And it turned out, after four years of a loud and splashy presidency, that there can be comfort - inspiration, even - in the performance of process and procedure that sends a resounding message to the idealistic and the disaffected alike: The United States continues. The republic still stands.

And so a moment of intricately scripted pomp - albeit one that unfolded against the jittery backdrop of a locked-down landscape and thousands of armed military personnel guarding against mayhem - became, once more, a national glue as Joe Biden assumed the presidency.

More pictures on Page 8

Below: President Donald Trump departs the White House, hours before the inauguration.

ANNA MONEYMAKER THE NEWYORK TIMES

INAUGURATION OF JOE BIDEN