for a big march in the time i've covered wars revolutions elections i'm going to treat poolers. from the favelas of caracas to the battlefields around i would just to get to the truth and empower people through knowledge. al-jazeera. you're watching that is our life from a headquarters and. this is our extensive coverage of the inauguration of the new president of the united states of america together we shall write an american story of hope not fear joe biden rallies americans battling the pandemic and a political divide as he takes over as the $46.00 presidents'. day there are

some that are breaking barriers kaamelott becomes the 1st woman the 1st black americans a hold the office of vice president and. getting on with the job right away the new american president signs a number of executive orders reversing his predecessors policies. small crowds celebrate in washington d.c. is unprecedented security avert the possibility of armed protests and donald trump exits the white house leaving behind a legacy of chaos bitter divisions and a ravaging health crisis. well joe biden has been sworn in as the 46th us president officer one of the most acrimonious elections in american history the newly sworn in commander in chief has

pledged to united deeply divided country calling on all americans to end the quote uncivil war now while the ceremony of some traditions it was really like no other biden took oath before a small and masked audience under dual threats of a raging pandemic and security fears after a mob ransacked capitol hill 2 weeks ago or prior to biden swearing in his deputy the 1st woman vice president camila harris she was sworn in and she's the 1st woman an american of color to hold the office of thousands of flags stood in place for americans who were discouraged to attend the inauguration to stop the spread of the coronavirus the country's recorded 400000 deaths just the day before the inauguration then biden got to work immediately just in the past hour he signed several executive orders reversing his predecessors policies on things like immigration climate change as well as the coronavirus pandemic. i'm going to.

these executive actions. by keeping the promises i made. want to go. back and forth. for. the 1st order here is. to. ask for. property interstate commerce center this is the 1st time well we have 2 correspondents in washington d.c. following all the events of this momentous day heidi jocasta is keeping track of the security situation and mike hanna will have more on biden's 1st order of business 1st here is political hay and she runs up developments from a day that is hoped will be a turning point in u.s. history. they climbed the steps were just 2 weeks ago writer stormed the capitol

walked the halls where they spread fear ladies and gentlemen the president elect of the united states joseph robinette biden jr and dr jill biden and took the oath of office where they tried to overturn democracy the riot now forgotten in this u.s. presidential inauguration like no other 2 weeks ago when an angry violent mob stage an insurrection and desecrated this temple of our democracy it awakened us to our responsibilities as americans protected by tens of thousands of soldiers and police a pandemic raging the thousands of usual spectators replaced by flakes the dignitaries spaced out history was made the 1st african-american of south asian descent and the 1st woman to become vice president. and then. just before new

joe biden that became the new president of the united states oh my god congratulations mr president. the law the chaos of what happened here remember just days after rioters mom thought they could use violence to silence the will of the people to stop the work of our democracy to drive a strong this sacred ground. it did not happen or it will never happen not today not tomorrow not ever nixon hope with the dark reality of this moment he pledged to be honest with the american people and he warned of tough times ahead we face an attack on a democracy and on truth a regime virus. growing inequity. the sting of systemic racism a climate in crisis america's role in the world any one of these were enough to

challenge us in profound ways but the fact is we face them all it wants. present in this nation regard one of the greatest responsibilities we right now we're going to be tested or we're going to step up this was a rebuke of the last 4 years of president donald trump not mentioned by name trump was also not in the audience peppered with past presidents only the 4th president to refuse to attend but the very 1st to refuse to concede he left washington with only a small group to see him leave impeached twice and facing a trial in the senate for the riot he inspired he's reportedly talking about creating his own political party to mount a political comeback so just. a goodbye we love you we will be back in some form a true sign of how much has changed the biggest celebrities who shun trump's inaugural. return to washington.

was. was to celebrate a new president. and what he promises will be a new day in america claim al-jazeera washington let's not bring in mike hanna he's joining us from washington d.c. so joe biden has already started undoing some of the work by the trump administration like tell us about the executive orders he signed. well he signed an absolute flurry of executive borders over a range of matters the 1st order he signed significantly was a mosque wearing 'd a mandate in federal properties now this is just a signal of what joe biden's priority is going to be he's a center or will be sending a coronavirus relief package to congress that he's going to need congress to caucus a plate in and cooperate with him to push through but on the executive board as

well the mosque wearing mandate he's that the u.s. will now rejoin the paris climate accord it will rejoin the world health organization he's also signed an order repealing the emergency under which president trump was going ahead with building his wall with mexico so very significant steps being taken by president biden in the 1st few hours in office he's the 1st president incidentally to parse more than one executive orders on his 1st day in office he promised that he would be getting down and getting to work quickly and certainly this large number of executive orders that have already been signed a clear indication that that's exactly what he's going to do and he has a saying my carry me during his speech in the inauguration the president did speak of the importance of uniting the country but we know that more than 70000000 americans voted for trump in this election so how is it the joe biden will take this on. well it's

a very very difficult task it's an immensely divided country as that election results showed joe biden is that well know gratian speech once again a heartfelt call for unity stressing he said repeatedly that i will be the president of all americans not just those who voted for me he was those who disagree with him or didn't vote for him to judge him by what he does as president that may take time it will take an immense amount of work for president biden to be able to turn those around those tens of millions who voted against him but this is what president biden had to say. today we celebrate to try after not a candidate but a cause the cause of democracy that people will know the people has been heard and the world of people has been heeded we've learned again

that democracy is precious democracy is fragile and at this hour of our friends democracy has prevailed. now in the last couple of oz another very significant step in the senate 3 new democratic party's senate to war in all this is deeply significant because it makes the senate 5050 with the vice president having a pausing vote this means that joe biden during the supposed 100 days in office has controlled both the house and the senate this is absolutely critical for him to push through whose incredibly agenda writes mike hanna reporting from washington d.c. thank you well the inauguration so close under unprecedented security arrangements and there's been no manger incidents let's bring in castro also joining us from washington d.c. to so discuss the un press and the security arrangements that were put in place and

what it was what is the sense. like there are no. certainly a sigh of relief in the sense that those threats that the f.b.i. had found with the potential violence today in this capital and also in state capitals around the country that they have not materialized certainly that is a sense of relief for the security forces that are here the 25000 national guard troops who are deployed to d.c. for the inauguration and of course for the residents of washington who have over the last week and a half become accustomed to seeing their city under heavy fortification now just to get to this point in front of the white house where weeks ago there were thousands of people or months ago rather thousands of people who cheered when joe biden was declared the winner of the presidential election well that was not the

case today because of all the barricades that it took to get to this point the showing of identification the vehicle being searched by the national guard troops and by law. that have been deployed here and the public was warned and heeded the warnings not to attend this inauguration in person it was a dramatically different scene from inaugurations past when you would seen a sea of thousands celebrators here to greet the new president as he is sworn into office well today there was only one public entrance into the mall public area and reports are that people lined up hoping to get in because of how detailed the security procedures procedures were very few even made it in time to hear president biden speak this of course so may not go away anytime soon as the mayor of washington d.c. has warned this may be the new normal the f.b.i.

director has warned that right wing extremism. is all is the biggest threat facing the homeland at this moment and certainly although we have not seen any episodes of violence here on the inauguration day the f.b.i. and other authorities remain on high alert as chatter of the. happiness that. has now left office and that joe biden is the new president was still a fringe group of supporters believing that this election was stolen despite the fact that joe biden won by quite a significant number of votes and of course is now the president and has been inaugurated on this day that has been peaceful. thank you for the reporting from washington d.c.

on the security arrangements that were put in place let's bring in steve clemons he's the host of the bottom line is also the editor at large of the hill who join us joining us from chestertown that's in maryland hi steve thanks for joining us. thanks very much let's let's look at the executive order is the sign just about an hour or hour ago so he's basically targeted trump's policies on immigration climate change racial equality the virus so many issues so many crises. there you go i mean what you want what's most important in your opinion what are the priorities for biden. look i think right now the priorities are trying to try and return america back to you know a normality that it had and that the stright in positions of not only talking about you know immigration from our southern border as if it were a war

a national security threat and diverting funds to build the wall that the muslim band so he has you know dismantle the so-called muslim band he is immediately said stop funding any money on the wall he has basically rolled back many many different environmental i mean he wrote an executive order on environmental regulation but it covers a vast number of chemicals and you know requirements for power plants and emissions that donald trump had deregulated during this and so there are so many different areas that in the 15 executive orders that dollar trump signed today you know i was calling this the day of reset i'm now calling this the day of whiplash everything donald trump had done that that the biden team thought was most outrageous they put a stop to today and so it's like coming to a big hole to begin grounding you know getting a different grounding and moving in a different direction and i think tomorrow you're going to see of you know another set of executive orders 10 more executive orders signed you know the deal with

cohen vaccines and others to really deal with what they see is the deficit in planning and management of the trumpet ministration so it's a very robust agenda being implemented very quickly yeah and he's really talking about it save minutes in his 1st $100.00 days including i mean you just mentioned the coronavirus and vaccine so in his 1st 100 days he's saying that he wants to administer not him personally of course but 100000000 doses of the vaccine and also challenge americans to routinely wear a mask this is going to be a clear marker off has successes or failure as. well i think i think you're absolutely right i think one of the things you know i've talked and heard from the biden transition team now as many journalists have because they've invited us in very quickly to talk to us about what they're planning to do to try to achieve a standard of transparency about what they're doing and a give and take that challenges them that you know like about you know the

$100000000.00 vaccine target which to you and i may sound like a lot of other people think we need to do more in the next 100 days but you know i think it's very interesting when you look at what they're laying out in terms of a robust agenda how quickly they're trying to put it out there it does become a measuring stick on whether they succeed or fail well i get the sense very on that they are comfortable with that and they are saying we need to be transparent and as joe biden said today in his speech it was one of the you know more poignant moments he says i can't do this alone or don't trump would always say i did this i did that you know joe biden was saying i need you we can't do this unless we have a new unless we're working together so it's a much more collaborative arrangement and i think they're going to try to create a spoil of lots of players and institutions you know states and localities and you know players kind of moving along which they need as opposed to the more self

driven and self centered dimension of the last presidency and just irritates they've on the democrats' night and now taking the senate basically 3 new senator has been sworn in just in the past hour or so how significant is that. well it makes every senator on either side of the aisle really valuable and so whether you're on the republican side of the democrat side the democrats are now in control because they get 50 plus one but it's split down the middle you know one scenario is that you could get a bloc of senators they've already begun to emerge senator joe manchin is one of them senator susan collins senator lisa murkowski and others that really don't want to see the senate hijacked any more by radicals that they see either on the right or the left and so what could happen is that you get you know a period a flourish if you will of pragmatic centrist deals that's going to that's going to frustrate both adjutants on the right and adjutants on the left down the other side

of that is that you know that it all comes down to numbers that if you get defections on the right or the left that could have been but my sense is right now after the assault on the capital after we've seen 10 republicans join an impeachment void and in the house of representatives and after mitch mcconnell is keeping his powder dry on which way he might go in and impeachment conviction in the in the senate you know i think there's going to be a period of time where the 2 sides work together at least that's the way it looks to me right now so i think that's the implication in the near term and that's not a bad that's not a bad think the country the riots the clarence thank you so much thank you. now the united states southern neighbor was among the 1st to react to biden's inauguration mexico's president is calling for immigration reform. we have been proposing that our countrymen who have been working for years should be regularized contribution to the development of that great nation so i hope this

will be reaffirmed today or in the near future by president biden it is good for mexico let's go to john hone his joining us from mexico city to put the mexican president's words into context for us john because we know that building not wall was such a crucial part of the trump administration's campaign so how will biden be looking at the relationship with mexico. so far from its croce it's been a question of how president will preside over a dog has been looking at the relationship with the new president of the united states and you would think keep the welcoming him in we've really open arms because you mentioned the wall there that president trump said that mexico was going to have to pay for he didn't manage to make that happen obviously at the end even when he was in on complaint he was saying that mexican was sending rapists and criminals to the united states really insulting people from this country and when he didn't

want to get what he wanted in terms of immigration in terms of mexico he sent stopping central americans getting through the country he threatened terrorists trying to bully mexico into doing what he wanted which worked in the end so you think that a new president president lopez obrador would be thinking this is a good thing but actually mexico was one of the last countries in latin america to congratulate now president joe biden when he got into power and it's been a bit of friction in the intervening period trying to use this sort of lame duck period of president trump to do things like. the united states drug enforcement. agency's presence here in the country so there's going to have to be a bit of researching to get done now in answer to your question of what he's going to be looking for he's definitely going to be looking to look out for his countrymen this is president lopez obrador the many mexicans that are working in the united states undocumented and president joe biden has been saying that he's

going to look for a path to citizenship for some of them he's also going to be looking president lopez obrador for help with migration coming from countries to the start of mexico the central american countries of guatemala el salvador and honduras president will preside over the door says look the answer to that is more investment from the united states in those countries to try and stop the root causes of them fleeing which is poverty and which is violence now president joe biden in the united states has played $4000000000.00 to try and help with that he says he's going to try to work with governments in those countries to try and stop that migration from getting up and getting to the u.s. border so we'll have to see as this relationship develops how that's going to go but one thing is for certain this country mexico needs a good relationship with the u.s. administration 80 percent of mexican exports about do head to the united states so whatever friction there have there has been however tepid the welcome from

president will preserve the dogs president joe biden has been up to now that's going to need to improve and things going to are going to have to be smooth yeah right sounds like and john heilemann thank you for that update from mexico city and from mexico we take you back to washington d.c. there's come out santa maria he's been bringing us the coverage of the inauguration throughout the day he's joining us now to bring us up to speed with the mood at the events because you were there so from your vantage point what was it like for you and did they manage to make it into a celebration despite the crowds. definitely during definitely i must admit when we got here earlier today. it. i mean it's felt all the whole few days we've been here very quiet mostly just media and national guard troops and from this point here looking back on the capital the area where. the ceremony happened looks tiny any sort of well we're just looking in on this it's a little bit voyeuristic actually and then once things got going the sense of

occasion really did take over from here we could you know hear that we could hear the the national anthem sung by lady gaga we could hear the crowd the speeches and the smart sound all during but the occasion rose to the occasion in the end even without the big crowd here i can't imagine what it's like when there are hundreds of thousands of people here it must be quite astonishing but it was the wood is unique what we saw today it was a ceremony and inauguration befitting of our times in the middle of a pandemic and in a time when a lot of americans i think are ready to turn the page from 4 pretty chaotic ias so it was it was. going to be. over doing too much of it was a privilege to actually be able to see this in person is so come out if you had to sort of pick one highlight what would it be. amanda goldman simple as that the young 22 year old laureate poet who spoke to joe

biden and frankly upstaged him i mean no disrespect to joe biden when he's had his big day and finally to get presidents of the united states but that poem the hills we climb blew everyone away and i was reading about her early and she was you know 2 weeks ago trying to write this piece trying to capture the mood of the country at the moment it was really struggling and this was just couldn't couldn't bring it together. and then she really did she really did it was a great way to end the ceremony i think that i think we should have a little listen to something that. so let us leave behind a country but of the one we were less. with every breath of my blog's pounded chest we will raise this wounded world into a wondrous one we will by the gold limp hills of the west we will rise in the wind swept north east were our forefathers 1st realized revolution we will rise from the lake when the cities of the middle western states will rise when the sun baked

south we will rebuild reconciled and recover and every no knock over a nation in every corner called our country our people diverse and beautiful will emerge battered and beautiful one day comes we step out of the shade of flame and i'm afraid the new dawn blooms as we free it for there was always light if only were brave enough to see it if only were brave enough to be and. how good is she can you imagine that 22 years old delivering a poem at a presidential inauguration in these times and she frankly blew it out the water i was checking your twitter a little moment ago she's up to 782000 followers now after being well early in the day i checked it was about 30000 and i'm not too sure what it was before she gave her speech but she has been the downside star of the day on an extraordinarily

historic day and if i may add a very cold evening here as well i think you terrain canadians are used to this with. thank you thank you so much to stay warm out there and as you've been hearing one of by big pitches was for a new unity so he pledged to be the president for all americans regardless of who they voted for and he asked for a fresh start after a period a fixture in defense and listen we have never ever ever ever failed in america we reacted together. and so today at this time in this place let's start afresh all of us must begin to listen to one of our again hear one another see one another show respect to one another. politics don't have to be a raging fire destroying everything in its path. every disagreement

don't have to be a cause for total war lots of farha hair or who is the executive director of muslim advocates joining us from phoenix in arizona thanks very much for speaking to us just think give me your reaction to today's events and then we'll drill down on some of those specific issues today was just an amazing amazing day for the bank frankly the 1st time in 4 years i felt like i could see now when i heard the president of the united states you know after everything our country has been through 50 through the last 4 years it is reassuring to have a president who's not only competent but i'm sure stands that job that's ahead to repair the damage to our democracy who votes for it as a country and we've seen in the past few hours of joe biden already taste signing some executive order as one of which included an end to the travel ban on the

majority muslim countries the former president has put in place what is your reaction to that. it is it is absolutely stunning and heartening you know frankly with literally a stroke of a pen president biden has now wiped away the original sin of the trump administration one of the trunks very 1st acts as president was to implement this to get it in cool ban and by the actions that president biden has taken today literally tens of thousands of families can be reunited and people will be able to get those visas come to the united states and be able to visit be reunited with family never said today is a great day but i also want to say the work does not stop with the executive order this was a huge 1st stat but now we also need to take the additional stab passing legislation to prevent any future presidents from ever enacting

a discriminatory ban again and so that's why we're also very excited that president biden and now that his signature immigration bill that will be his priority immigration bill that he will send to congress also includes a key bill called the no banning active bill that was introduced by senator coons and congresswoman chu that would change federal law the federal law that trump relied on to enact this ban in the 1st place so today is a big day but we still have our work cut out for us and say well. i mean you just touched upon this briefly but give us a sense off. combat's that ban had on families wanting to come into the united states yeah absolutely so what the ban did in practice is it meant that if there was a husband it was in the united states waiting to be reunited with his wife who was from one of the listed targeted countries iran syria yemen among them that he could

not be reunited with his own.