“Bigly” indeed.
Joe Biden’s presidential inauguration proved more popular with viewers thanDonald Trump’s in 2017. Multiple outlets, includingThe New York TimesandVariety, report that preliminary Nielsen ratings show close to 40 million people tuned in to watch Biden, 78,take the oath of office in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday, as opposed to about 38.3 million for Trump, 74 — an audience increase of about 4 percent.
According toVariety, CNN nabbed the most viewers (9.9 million) forthe half-hour swearing-in portionof the broadcast, while ABC News came in second with 7.66 million.
Rounding out the networks at the top were NBC News (6.89 million), MSNBC (about 6.53 million), CBS news (close to 6.07 million) and Fox News (2.74 million).
Ratings and crowd size have been anenduring fixationfor now-former President Trump, who began his term in office in 2017 insisting that he drew far more inaugural attendees than he did.
A White House spokesman likewise attacked the media soon after Trump was sworn in, claiming the size of his crowd was misrepresented. (Itwas not.)
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President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump.Patrick Semansky/AP/Shutterstock; Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty
From left: President Joe and First Lady Dr. Jill Biden.Drew Angerer/Getty
In an inaugural address on Wednesday that blended hope and certainty — at the same place where, just two weeks previous, a mob of pro-Trump riotersinvaded the U.S. Capitolin an attack that left five people dead in an attempt to stop the certification of his election victory over Trump — Biden declared, “This is America’s day. This is democracy’s day.”
“This is a great nation … we are good people,” he continued, repeatedly urging unity as he has since first launching his presidential campaign in 2019. “Let’s start afresh — all of us.”
“We come together as one nation, under God, indivisible, to carry out the peaceful transfer of power as we have or more than two centuries,” Bidensaid later in his impassioned speech. “As we look ahead in our uniquely American way, restless, bold, optimistic and set our sights on a nation we know we can be and must be.”
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Trumpdid not attend the inauguration, as he confirmed in a tweet prior to the event. (Since the Capitol riots, the 45th president has beenpermanently suspended from Twitter.) Departing Vice PresidentMike Pencedid attend, however.
While not naming Trump, during his speech Biden said to applause, “We must reject the culture in which facts themselves are manipulated and even manufactured” — an apparent reference to the former president’svoluminous false and misleading claimsover the course of his administration.
Biden told reporters last week that he was"not afraid" to take the oath of office outside, despite some officials expressing security concerns surrounding the event. Some 25,000 National Guardsman were on hand Wednesday in D.C., as a precaution.
source: people.com
