a lot of the time for more dollars on world love we are the one grappling the extra mile where all the media. we go there and we give them a chance to tell their story. al-jazeera. you're watching the news hour live from headquarters and with extensive coverage of the inauguration of the new president of the united states of america i'm daddy you navigate together we shall write an american story of hope not fear of unity not joe biden rallies americans battling the pandemic and a political divide as he takes over as the $46.00 presidents. letting their son leave that breaking barriers common law becomes the 1st woman and the 1st black

american to hold the office of vice president. getting on with the job right away the new american president signs a number of executive orders reversing his predecessor as policy is. a. small crowd celebrate in washington d.c. is unprecedented security averts the possibility of armed protests. and donald trump exits the white house leaving behind a legacy of chaos bitter divisions under ravaging health crisis. all. hello joe biden has been sworn in as the 46 the us president's office or one of the most acrimonious elections in american history so the newly sworn in commander in chief has pledged to united the divided country calling on all americans to end the quote on civil war and while the ceremony did uphold some traditions it was really like no other biden took the

oath before a small and masked audience under a dual threats of a raging pandemic and security fears after a mob ransacked capitol hill 2 weeks ago well prior to biden swearing in his deputy the 1st woman vice president carla harris was sworn in she's the 1st woman american of color to hold the office thousands of flags that in place for americans were discouraged to attend the inauguration to stop the spread of the coronavirus country's recorded 400000 deaths just the day before the inauguration biden got to work immediately just in the past hour or so he signed several executive orders reversing his predecessors policies on immigration climate change as well as the coronavirus pandemic going to be. there is executive action. by promising. to go.

for. the 1st order. to. run or i have a. property promising center this is the 1st time. political hay and rounds 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 try 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 flags 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 noon joe biden became the new president of the united states oh my god congratulations mr president. the chaos of what happened here remember just days after ryder's 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 and it will never happen not

today not tomorrow not ever mixing 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 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 faced them all at once. presenting this nation woodward 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. to celebrate a new president. and what he promises will be a new day in america patty claim al-jazeera washington. for bring in mike hanna from washington take a look at the live scene that's washington as well we're just moments away from the 1st white house press briefing for the administration we're expecting. to come out

to the podium any moment soon as he does we will across back so that's let's now bring in mike is joining us from washington d.c. mike so while we wait for that press briefing to take place just talk us through the most significant executive orders that president biden signed actually apology . i'll just have to cross over to the white house briefing and we will bring you in a little later good evening everyone. thank you for joining us on this historic day it's an honor to be here with all of you. when the president asked me to serve in this role we talked about the importance of bringing truth and transparency back to the briefing room and he asked me to ensure we are communicating about the policies across the biden harris administration and the work his team is doing every single day on behalf of all american people there will be times when we see things differently in this room i mean among all of us that's ok that's part of our

democracy and rebuilding trust with the american people will be central to our focus in the press office and in the white house every single day so we had a very busy and active day today as you all know but i wanted to take a moment to go through the 15 executive actions or highlights of them i should say and some of the age the steps that the president asked agencies to take today you should have all received copies of the executive orders as well as the accompanying fact sheets but i want to take this moment to highlight them for the american public who are watching at home to combat the deadly virus the president launched his 100 day masking challenge asking americans to do their part and mask up for 100 days he's doing his part as well issuing a mask mandate that will require anyone visiting a federal building or federal land or using certain modes of public transportation to wear a mask he sent an executive order reversing trump's decision to withdraw from the

world health organization this will strengthen our own efforts to get the pandemic under control by improving global health and tomorrow we're not wasting any time dr felt she will participate remotely in the meeting of the world health organization as the u.s. head of delegation president biden also officially appointed a cove in 1000 response coordinator a position in team we had already previously announced but made it official today to create a unified national response to the pandemic and he. stablish the national security team responsible for global health security and bio defense the curve in $1000.00 pandemic has triggered an almost unprecedented housing affordability crisis he took immediate action to confront the crisis and asked relevant agencies to extend nationwide moratoriums on a fictions and foreclosures the pandemic has also increased the hardship on

millions of americans who are federal student loans in response the president asked the department of education to extend the pause on student loan payments and interest he rejoined the paris climate agreement putting the united states back in a position to exercise exercise global leadership in advancing the objectives of the ambitious if anyone wants sorry but your country there's a few who are and a 2nd brought executive order will roll back harmful regulatory reversals made by the previous administration to protect public health and the environment this order protects our nation's treasures reviewing the boundaries for several national monuments places a temporary moratorium on all oil and natural gas leasing in the arctic national wildlife refuge and reestablishes the interagency working group on the social cost of greenhouse gases he also launched a whole of government effort to advance racial equity and root out systemic racism from federal programs and institutions he directed the secretary of homeland

security in consultation with the attorney turning general to take all appropriate actions to preserve and fortify daca which provides temporary relief from deportation to dreamers young people who are brought to this country as children the president also put an end to the muslim ban of policy rooted in religious animus and xenophobia he signed a proclamation affective immediately halting further funding for construction of the previous administration's border wall and terminating the so-called national emergency use to wastefully divert billions for wall construction also today. president obama biden sent a immigration bill to congress the u.s. citizenship act modernizes our immigration system it provides hardworking people who've enrich their communities and lived here for decades an opportunity to earn citizenship the president's priority reflected in the bill are to responsibly manage the border keep families together grow our economy address the root causes

of migration from central america and ensure that america can remain a refuge for those fleeing prosecution with that i'd love to take your questions if wanted to kick this off to reduce a problem the board cuts that little bit for the one who are there you see yourself your primary role for promoting the interests of the president are you there to provide us the on guard troops that we can thank you very well let me 1st say zeke that i come to this podium having served both in the white house and at the state department as the spokesperson there and i traveled the world on trips to promote democracy where i saw the power of the united states and of course the power of this podium and the power of truth and the importance of setting an example of engagement and transparency so i will just stay because you gave me the opportunity i have deep respect for the role of a free and independent press in our democracy and for the role all of you play as i

noted earlier there will be moments when we disagree and there will certainly be days where we disagree for extensive parts of the briefing even perhaps i believe a common goal which is sharing accurate information with the american people if the president were standing here with me today he would say he works for the american people i work for him so i also work for the american people but his objective and his commitment is to bring transparency and truth back to government to share the truth even when it's hard to hear and that's something that i hope to deliver on in this role as well and i just want to support. once there were 2 and. one moved by the beginning because in part of the whole i'm going to feel the sting through transition he didn't speak with president. carter he planned to god and is he going to discuss retaliation for the dollar which is how comfortable go short let me try to get to those and i'll just note since seek mention that i know some of you have

another event this evening because we're not fully done with the day so we will have longer free things in the future but we'll try to get to as many questions as possible so his 1st call foreign leader paul will be on friday with prime minister trudeau. i expect they will certainly discuss the important relationship with canada as well as his decision on the keystone pipeline that we announced today he i don't have any plans are any plans to read out for you in terms of a call with president putin i will note for you that i would expect his early calls will be with partners and allies he feels it's important to rebuild those relationships and to address the challenges and threats we're facing in the world on solar winds that we've spoken with this about this previously a bit prior to his inauguration i should say today. we are of course we reserve the right to respond at a time in a manner of our choosing to any cyber attack but our team is of course just getting on the ground today they're just getting on to their computers so i don't have

anything to read out for you or to preview for you at this point in time peter go ahead. but you have a part of your own policy pretty good housekeeping question a short time ago the president biden said that he received a very generous letter present from work he said it was private he said it would not talk about it until i talked to him this president by trying to call our former president and is this white house working in any way to try to put the 2 in touch and i think peter that was a reflection of president biden's view and i was with him when he was reading the letter in the oval office right before he signed the executive actions. is that this is a letter that was private as he said to you all it was both generous and gracious and it was just a reflection of him not planning to release the letter unilaterally but i wouldn't take it as an indication of a pending call with but the former president let me ask you a policy if i can quickly you talk obviously your role is sort of in terms of

delivering the best information to the american people on behalf of this white house the valve for truth maybe it's time right now as is the battle against coronavirus how do you and president by plan to combat this information that in many ways led to that assault we were just 2 weeks ago today. well i think peter there are number of ways to combat misinformation one of them is accurate information and truth and data and and sharing information even when this hard to hear and even when it is not a meeting the expectations of people at home who are desperate for this crisis to be over will have more to share with you in the next few days hopefully before the weekend but what we plan to do is not just return these daily briefings monday through friday not saturdays and sundays i'm not a monster but. but also to return briefings with our health officials and public health officials we want to do those regularly in a dependable way with data shared with all of you and with the public so that they

can also track progress we're making on getting the pandemic under control place a target i think quickly you know we don't present but in the beginning without a single member of his cabinet confirmed what was your understanding of how quickly those operations will have been where should we expect additional nominations and faster shifts to be. well peter the desire to get his cabinet in place and get the his team confirmed is front and center for the president it is an issue a topic he discussed with members of congress from both the republican and democratic party today. during the course of the day in the course of events i think as we were coming out here avril haynes should be on her way to confirmation i don't know if it's officially voted happened yet but she's on her way we have prioritized getting our national security team in place given the crisis we're facing given the importance of keeping the american people safe at this time but

we're eager for those to move forward quickly in the coming days ideally tomorrow by friday we'd like to move them quickly it's something that he is raising in his conversations as we all are with members of congress and their teams you know karen as president biden embodied the progression we used to sit down and talk about the closing measure that introduced will he has been discussing the covert relief measures the entire package that has as you know on him an employment insurance that has relief and assistance for the american people it also has money to reopen schools which i know as a mother impacts all of us but he's been discussing that with democrats and republicans since long before he was sworn in today today was a day where he had conversations about working together terms of getting his team in place on his agenda moving forward but i expect he will be picking up the phone in the coming days and having more of those conversations in terms of when he will meet in person i will say soon and we hope to have more of an update on that for

you soon as well do you expect him to play his negotiations there was a lot of comments today about his military would decide how involved will he be in the process he will be quite involved there is the issue that he wakes up every day focused on is getting the pandemic under control the issue he goes to bed every night focused on is getting the pandemic under control this package is a pivotal step to doing that and it has assistance for the american people to make that bridge financially it also has essential funding for vaccine distribution he will be very involved he will not be the only one we have a whole team. we're of senior staff of course but as you noted he's not a stranger to the senate he's served there for 36 years many of these people he has many of the members on both sides of the aisle he served with over that time and i expect he will be quite involved in the process. go ahead and. so far all you've done with the relief package. senator robb he was already thing to

reporters today but he doesn't leave for another virally franken and you were kind of republican for the diversity going in trying to get. how long are you willing to try to work to get republican support before you decide to go through the budget reform. well as as you know because you all cover it and i say i've stated a couple times here today we are in the middle of an urgent crisis in this country it's not just impacting democrats it's impacting republicans it's impacting red states and blue states and this plan is intended to address the suffering of the american people so we hope and frankly we expect republicans in congress and democrats to will support assistance that will bring relief to the people they represent this is a conversation he of course gave a primetime address as you all know last week it seems like a long time ago but it wasn't to announce his specifics and he has already had a number of conversations with democrats and the republicans those will continue

his clear preference is to move forward with a bipartisan bill there's no question about it but we're also not going to take any tools off the table for how the senate house and senate can get this urgent package done so we are only less than a day has he been present in the united states but he is going to continue to work with members of both parties to get it done francesca go ahead thank you jon i do have a question about real things although i just want to pick up where she left the home that you know the republicans including lindsey graham who's expected to be the senate budget committee ranking member have already said that the for. rice tied all the president's proposal is too hard for them so is their own wiggle room on that number and he's already begun to go she is with mitch mcconnell well 1st the package wasn't designed with the number 1.9 trillion as a starting point it was designed with the components that were necessary to give

people the relief they needed so what's challenging is what are you going to cut are you going to cut funding for vaccinations are you going to cut funding for unemployment insurance are you going to cut funding for reopening schools but it was laid out as his proposal based on recommendations from economists recommendations from health experts and as you've also seen there have been also an outpouring of support from everyone from bernie sanders to the chamber of commerce for the package and the components and it but this is a discussion it's a conversation and he is no stranger to the process of bill making so we're at the beginning of the process and as we continue they'll be conversations with members of both parties of what will be in a final package and rarely does it look exactly like the initial package that is proposing regards to the routings school. level of fascination in teachers or students or a level of testing does the administration would be appropriate in order to meet the target date that the president has that. this is

a great question and as i noted at the beginning as a mom myself i want to know all the details as well we're going to have more to share from our health experts in the coming days and i will venture to get them in here to give you all a briefing on the specifics but we really want to lean into them on their expertise on that front go ahead i'm going to go so from the president biden the promise to all the oil and gas leasing on federal lands when he was a candidate the order of it you just mentioned that he signed today was much narrower than that it's a temporary moratorium and it only applies to him and there are some good. about whether he has the legal flexibility to even follow through with his book promises does the administration still have that commitment today. and the. the leases will be reviewed by our team we just have only been in office for less than a day now and i will just since you gave me the opportunity just also confirm for

all of you all over executive actions that we released today were reviewed by the career staff at the o l c we went through that process in advance of releasing them that took a great deal of work from our policy teams but that was a vital part of the process for us as well from a little bit just about the kind of the preparations for getting the the white house ready and safe for the reproach of the new president it's been reported that you did the $500000.00 worth of the planning could you talk about the measures that you took to ensure that the president is saying well the i would refer you to the general services administration who oversees any steps like that when i can speak to if it's of interest of the steps we're all taking to make sure that we are safe he is safe you are all safe those include daily testing in the white house that includes wearing and $95.00 masks i were out of course here today and will continue to do that and include stringent rules about social distancing and abiding by that

and the building that keeps us safe but we're also the president has asked us to also be models to the american people and that's vitally important to us as well so there are a number of new coded steps precautions that we've put in place as of today go ahead all the way in the back to so much of the need in a database so hurricane to be one of the different or anything out of this president brainstorm with brazil 3 because body parts of brazil in the 1st patient and then the brazilian president criticized valve a and he one of the last words of the regulation president is them. what do you think think they should more on their relationship with their feet playing to the. president. well i don't have anything to predict for you or advance for you in terms of a call or conversation what i can convey on climate change of course and addressing the climate crisis that's one of the 4 crises that he's identified will impact his

administration is impacting not just the american people but the global community is that rejoining the paris climate agreement is a vital step toward doing that the united states was one of the only countries in the world as you well know that was has not been it has not had a seat at the table in the last few years a little technical step there is we have submitted that to the u.n. secretary general and it will take approximately 30 days for that to take place but i use it as an example because that's one step but we also know that we need to be models here at home as we are addressing an issue like this the united states continues to be one of the world's largest emitters of greenhouse gases and we need to put in place policies and take steps here to address that as well but i'm sure we'll have more to discuss on brazil in the coming months go ahead right there what are the next steps when it comes to iraq and does the president have any plans to rejoin the nuclear deal. with the president has also has made

clear that he believes that through follow on diplomacy the united states seek to lengthen and strengthen nuclear constraints on iran and address other issues of concern iran must resume compliance with significant nuclear constraints under the deal in order for that to proceed i will say that as i noted are a little bit earlier we would expect that some of his earlier conversations with foreign counterparts or foreign leaders will be with partners and allies and that we would certainly anticipate that this would be part of the discussion and then you should give us some color. about what it was like for him going into the oval office he's been waiting for this for so long what was his reaction well you know i spent a little time with him earlier and he had an incredible sense of calm. and he and a sense of some joy of course and he spent the day with his family and his grandchildren and his children and that always has an impact i think but you know he also said he

felt like he was coming home remember he spent 8 years here as the vice president playing an important role as a partner to president obama and you know that was the emotion that overtook him today he's also eager to get to work he was asking questions about policy and coded and what's next so you know that also reflects his desire to roll up his sleeves and get going. let's see i'm sorry i sold us magazine just skipped over to go ahead also you know so president biden wants theme of his presidency to be unifying the country does he think that nancy pelosi chuck schumer she dropped the centrally divisive senate can you try. well he spoke today as you all saw about unity in his inaugural address and the importance of unity and bringing the

country together and the result of the american people in helping to get through this moment. you know we are confident though that just like the american people can the senate can also. multitask and they can do their constitutional duty while continuing to conduct the business of the american people and his view is that the way to bring the country together is to address the problems we're facing and so that means getting this coded relief package through having democrats and republicans take a serious look at that and have to. conversations with each other about how to move it forward and he's going to leave the mechanics the timing and the specifics of how congress missed for an impeachment to them and the follow up on president trump's inauguration day he filed paperwork to run for reelection saying that does president biden have any plans to do that today wait or in the coming days i will

say having talked to him today his his focus is not on politics it is on getting to work and solving the problems of the american people so and as he noted. on the campaign he will wait until sometime into his 1st term to speak more about his political plans moving forward but you know i think that the president picks today to repair alliances as he found his 1st foreign trip here. while we're only set 7 hours in here you're ready for the foreign trip. i'm ready to i don't have any details on a foreign trip to lay out for you at this point in time hopefully we will at some point in time go ahead all the way in the back. roads that are a new position oh and joins in with global capital that were too big concerns for pro-life americans the hyde amendment which of course. keeps tax payer dollars you know very unfortunate but it could work and.