>> you are watching "france 24" live from paris with live coverage of events on inauguration day in d.c. democracy has prevailed, those were the words of joe biden as he became the 46th president of the united states after the most tense transition in living memory. the last few moments he walked up pennsylvania avenue greeting crowds and into the white house. just moments ago, joe biden along with his whife jill entering the white house. more on that, coming up.

it was inauguration day that took place without his predecessor, donald trump, just how fractured the united states is. joe biden has now taken over at the helm. covid-19 considerations meant that the public did not witness events as they ordinarily would and the capitol riots two weeks ago. 25,000 groups guarded washington, d.c., against further violence. despite the buildup, joe biden delivered a message of peace, hope and unity and a return to democratic norms. let's take a listen. >> my distinguished guests and fellow americans, this is

america's day. this is democracy's day. the day of history and hope of renewal and resolve. through a crucible for the ages and america has risen to the challenge. today, we celebrate the triumph not of a candidate, but of a cause, the cause of democracy. >> we are in washington, d.c.,. on inauguration day like no other. can you talk us through the key moments from your perspective in washington. >> the key moments began earlier in the day, james, with then president-elect joe biden attending a mass. one of the unwritten traditions, if you will. he is catholic and it was a

catholic mass and did so in the company of the leadership of congress. the vice president-elect kamala harris and nancy pelosi, speaker of the house, chuck schumer and the republicans, mitch mcconnell for the senate and kevin mc cargetty for the house of representatives. and to see them all together at mass that sent a signal that perhaps the denying of the result, definitely the page was definitely turning, we heard marine 1 leave washington with donald trump aboard. he did not state the name of joe biden but he struck a tone than in the past saying he would be back at some form or another. and the ceremony with that excerpt you played, is a telling one. democracy is fragile, this is

240-year-old democracy in the united states. every four years there is a peaceful transition of power. it has been a given and it always has been since january 6. >> we are smecting a flurry of executive orders that will undo more of donald trump's departures from the previous norm. what can we expect with a little more detail. how is he going to do this and what time frame? >> there are a entrepreneury of executive orders on day one with any u.s. president. in this particular case they will be momentous returning to the paris climate change accords and lifting of that muslim ban, undoing policies of his previous predecessor and this is where we

are going to see a lot of the new vice president, the first ever woman, first ever woman of color to be vice president of the united states. that's because we have a 50-50 senate in that build over there. and kamala harris as her role as vice president is president of the senate. she may be casting some crucial deciding votes. in a congress where much needs to be done starting with, of course, before you can restore, it goes hand in hand with restoring faith in institutions, starting with the filling of these vake cans cyst and addressing the covid pandemic with joe biden's $1.9 trillion stimulus plan he has unveiled and more measures that are going to be needed on the health care side of this. the united states, which has

passed the 400,000 mark. >> do you think unity can be restored to the united states in the current context after the disruption of four years of donald trump? it's a more divided country than ever. do you think unity can be restored by joe biden's administration? >> it's going to depend not just on joe biden, of course, he has presented himself as the healer in chief. he could have taken one of two tasks in that speech he gave on the west steps of the capitol earlier. he could have talked about unity and glossed over. he addressed it head on, those entering that building were white supremacists. the democratic party and the

progressive wing wants him to push further, like climate change and police reform and moderates like he is. on the republican side, well, the elephant in the room is donald trump, who even though he has departed, he is going to grab headlines and senate impeachment trial could be 24 hours, several days away, we don't know when the democrats are going to hand up that article of impeachment to the upper chamber and he will continue to grab headlines and will divide the nation and divide his republican party. we heard the leadership distance themselves. but 70% of the republicans back the u.s. president saying there was mass fraud in the election even though there is no proof and many of the legislators in congress might go against that leadership.

too early to say how much steam donald trump will have now that he is no longer in office. >> we were just talking about unity, the attempts to unify the united states, what does that mean in america that it is still fractured? is it rhetoric? >> biden used this word a lot and didn't say what it meant. for conservatives in america, it's very clear to them what this means. this means they have to agree with left language, with the left world view and if they challenge terms like systemic racism which joe biden used too today, they are getting in the way of healing. when he says unity, that's what conservatives hear. and we have heard a lot about white spremsy but nothing on the

looting or burning in american cities last summer. i think for the right, today's proceedings have shown a very selective view of recent u.s. history. i think the problem is that, james, in theory listening should go both ways, but trump supporters haven't tried to understand the multi ethnic urban voters and vice versa. katherine interviewed someone in d.c. who said i can't believe that 74 million people voted for trump. if the attitude is after four years they shouldn't be voting for trump or in a democracy, you shouldn't vote for something or someone, then unfortunately united states is going anywhere. they have to really listening and getting to know each other and hasn't happened during

trump's term. >> 74 million voters versus 81 million voters, one of the most polla rised voters. joe biden is going to be pulled in different directions within his own party. just to look at the democratic party, he is at odds with bernie sanders on a whole host of issues. he is aiming to hold the center. can he fly the flag to the left and to the left of the left. >> he adopted some of their language, hence the reference to quite systemic racism in his speech today and we can see the influence of the left wing of the party in the whole diversity agenda and see it in biden's cabinet picks that he hopes to get confirmed, the native american secretary and to name.

what clues us in is the whole culture war over identity politics is about to get more intense and this is going to happen outside the traditional halls of power such as the u.s. congress. in congress, joe biden has a razor-thin majority and has to rely on centrist democrats to get legislation through. some of the biggest struggles are social media, in universities, in schools, in colleges, deep platforming and so forth. that is where the left of the democratic party does have power and will be trying to promote the whole agenda surrounding racial issues, white privilege. all of this is going to be ramped up and will be interesting to watch that battle that is happening but probably going to intensify outside the

traditional halls of power in washington, d.c.,. >> we are going to atlanta. good afternoon. you are in georgia, which saw an awful lot of activity and conflict treaty since the november election and got caught up in the allegations of voter fraud and seen two elections that swung over to the democrats and kamala harris having a casting vote there. tell us about the situation in georgia and how you have assessed it going up to today. >> i just want to point out that a lot of the security that was surrounding the capitol building here in georgia has officially left the building, so to speak. they are no longer camped

outside. there are a couple of the national guards out here. so all of the anticipation for potential violence for atlanta-right groups to be potentiay mow testing, armed and bring violence to the exols all over america. that did not happen. today was a peaceful transition of power here in atlanta. the streets were closed for most of the day. there were helicopters sclling and aot of security and it has changed and very quiet on the streets of atlanta in front of the capitol building. georgia is a particularly ten state. biden won by 11,000 ves. 11,870 because of former president trump's infamous call to the secretary of state here in georgia to try and find extra votes so he could win in this very, very close state. now on top of that, we have the

senate race, and because in georgia, if the candidates on election day did not get 50% of any vote, they go to a runoff election and that happened on january 5 and both democrats won. both going to the senate and will turn the senate blue because kamala harris has the tie-breaking vote. 50-50 senate. biden has the house, the senate and the executive office at this point. >> thank you for that in atlanta, georgia. now joe biden has taken over an extremely polarized country. on the world stage, too, donald trump bulldozed through protocols and norms. he faces key challenges to bring the united states on the international stage. we take a closer look.

>> joe biden is taking the helm of the nation wrestling with political fissures. his predecessor's foreign policy had a major impact of how the world sees the u.s. relations between washington and beijing reached historic low. the asian country dismissed allegations that it was committing genocide against uighurs. china hopes that these tensions are temporary. >> i hope china and the united states will meet halfway in the state of mutual respect, policy and benefit to get their relationships back on a healthy track. >> biden is against the nuclear arms race. russia has been sending positive signals. the kremlin remains committed to

salvaging a landmark as new start. that is abouto expire in new days. will be taking a line on moscow including human rights. iran has called on the u.s. to return to the jcpoa and left sanctions onehran by the trump administration but time is running out. tehran is facing elections in june. >> the ball is in america's court. ful they return to their commitments, we will do the same. the trump era is over. his political career has ended. but the jcpoa continues to live. >> as for the european union, the diplomat called for a

revival of the transatlantic partnership, however this will not be easy. a long list of issues is waiting biden's attention. >> we should work first boosting. second, combatting covid-19. third, tackling climate change. fourth rebuilding and fifth joining forces on security and peace. >> over the coming months all eyes will be on the u.s. administration one that will have a palpable change. there are concerns that joe biden could full into stale patterns such as president xi and vladimir putin. >> talk about some of president biden's immediate.

>> he will be signing executive order tackling, climate change, immigration and economic aid for millions of americans. one of these will be extending a moratorium on foreclosures and evictions. that was brought in at the beginning of the pandemic but on the verge of expiring. another order will be extending a pause of repayment of federal student debt until the end of seember, which was due to expire at the end of this month. and the speed with which he is getting to these issues shows the dire straits that millions of americans have found themselves in as a direct result of the coronavirus pandemic. >> next will be the coronavirus relief and stimulus plan, also highly urgent in the minds of many. take us through the main points. >> $1.9 trillion is the huge sum

he outlined last week even with a slim democratic majority in both houses of congress, this is only a starting point for negotiations. some of the elements including that first issue of more stimulus payments, $1400 in addition to $600 that was approved. this one will only have a fairly short-term impact. there will be additional benefits and $400 per week through the month of september. there will be money for schools to help reopen and support local governments and most controversial proposal outlined in his stimulus package would double the u.s. federal minimum wage to $15 per hour hour. that is a move that would help front line workers. one economist that i have been

speaking to said the u.s. economy as a whole would be ok even without this massive stimulus plan. he said it will grow again and labor market will get back on track. it will reduce human suffering and will limit the number of people losing their homes and afford the very basics of life for themselves and their families. >> millions of people out of work because of the pandemic, what do can be done at this stage? >> joe biden will be tackling this possibly for the years, for the entire four years that he will be in the oval office. there are 10 more fewer people at work today than there were ago before the pandemic struck. in december of 2019, the unemployment rate had been

record low at 3.5% and skyrocketed to 14% in april. it has fallen to just under 7% this past december. but there are pretty worrying signs there as well that people are out of work and a lot of people claiming unemployment benefits for more than the six months. u.s. employers cut 140,000 jobs in the month of december and reversing a trend we have seen in previous months of adding more jobs there and there is the question of who is being impacted by these job cuts. they are affecting minorities and women. of those 140,000 jobs cut in december, all of them were women. women saw a drop. the service industry is where the most jobs have been lost. the unemployment rate for hispanic americans and african americans is over 9% and white

americans it's closer to 6%. >> how is joe biden's approach to international trade going to differ? >> he is going to ease some of those international tensions. they have said they want to work with allies. this is something we didn't hear much -- >> america first. >> joe biden does want to prioritize jobs and manufacturing in the united states, but he is still open to this approach, something we haven't seen much of in the past four years. trying to get back in washington's good graces is the european yunnan could see him maybe rolling back of the tariffs on airplane parts. that was part of a transatlantic spat over airbus and boeing. he is expected to go back to the international table to tax

digital giants. one president told us that the new administration is on the same page as brussels. so that could ease tensions with france which has been pushing ahead with its own tax. trump threaten more taxes and we could see movement in the weeks to come. where we don't expect much change is on china. janet yellen, former head of the federal reserve spoke about china during his confirmation hearing on tuesday. listen to what she had to say. >> we need to take china's abusive unfair and illegal practices. china is undercutting american companies by dumping products, erecting trade barriers and giving illegal subsidies to corporations and it has been stealing intellectual property

and engaging in practices that give it an unfair technological advantage including forced technology transfers. >> pretty strong words from janet yellen. we are not expecting a u-turn. those tariffs on chinese goods are likely to remain in place for a little while where we are expecting a different approach and perhaps bringing in the world trade organization, one of those international buddies that trump shunned. >> how about the stock markets, how did they fare on inauguration day? they did like trump as well. >> sharp rise of the stock markets throughout his presidency but they did rise as he left the white house. closing figures for wall street and saw no record highs, the dow jones breaking to 250 points.

s&p 500 racking up a new cloudy skies and nasdaq closed up 2%. pretty warm welcome from wall street from president biden despite the concerns for his longer term policies. >> thanks for that. economic angles to this. quick break for the weather and back with more the headline and news from washington today.

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01/20/21 01/20/21 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from new york, this is democracy now! mr. biden: i am truly honored to be our next president, commander in chief. i will always be a proud son of the state of delaware. amy: joe biden and kamala harris are being inaugurated today as the trump presidency comes to an end. we will speak to professor michael eric dyson and waleed shahid of justice democrats, who