McConnell says Trump, others ‘provoked’ attack on US Capitol

Between the still-raging pandemic and suddenly very real threat of violence, the inauguration of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris on Wednesday promises to be one of the most unusual in American history. It is the 59th presidential inauguration ceremony.

Here's what we know:

The theme of Wednesday's inauguration is "America United."

The inauguration will be streamed live on our website and will be available on all major networks, cable channels and online. The festivities begin at 11 a.m. ET with the actual swearing in of Biden and Harris starting at around noon ET.

Joe Biden, a longtime senator turned vice president under President Barack Obama, will be sworn in as the nation's 46th president. With the coronavirus raging, unemployment claims soaring and partisan divisions sharpening, Biden faces a fraught moment.

Kamala Harris will make history on Wednesday when she becomes the nation’s first female vice president — and the first Black woman and the first woman of South Asian descent to hold that office. But that’s only where her boundary-breaking role begins.

Someday, perhaps, John Roberts will swear in a new president who doesn’t wish someone else was chief justice of the United States. Wednesday won’t be that day.

Roberts will lead President-elect Joe Biden in the oath of office. It will be the fourth time that Roberts will stand across from a man who either voted against his confirmation to the Supreme Court or has made no secret of his unflattering views of the chief justice.

Vice President-elect Kamala Harris will be sworn in by Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor on Wednesday, a history-making event in which the first Black, South Asian and female vice president will take her oath of office from the first Latina justice.

Harris chose Sotomayor for the task, according to a person familiar with the decision. She’ll also use two Bibles for the swearing-in, one of which belonged to Thurgood Marshall, the first Black Supreme Court justice.

President-elect Joe Biden will take the stage for his inaugural address at perhaps the most difficult starting point for a president since Franklin Roosevelt began his first term by assuring a nation scarred by the Great Depression that “we have nothing to fear but fear itself.”

With the current mood of the country, Biden’s consistent focus on restoring “the soul of America” may be of greater value to the nation than any soaring oratory, in the view of some Democratic allies of the incoming president.

Lady Gaga will sign the national anthem at the presidential inauguration.

At age 22, poet Amanda Gorman, chosen to read at the inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden, already has a history of writing for official occasions. The Los Angeles resident has written for everything from a July 4 celebration featuring the Boston Pops Orchestra to the inauguration at Harvard University, her alma mater, of school president Larry Bacow.

When she reads Wednesday, she will be continuing a tradition — for Democratic presidents — that includes such celebrated poets as Robert Frost and Maya Angelou.

Jennifer Lopez has been tapped to perform live at the inauguration.

President Donald Trump will leave Washington on Wednesday morning just before President-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration to begin his post-presidential life in Florida.

Refusing to abide by tradition and participate in the ceremonial transfer of power, Trump will instead hold his own departure ceremony at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland before his final flight aboard Air Force One.

Vice President Mike Pence does plan to attend, representing the outgoing Trump administration.

Three former U.S. presidents, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama all will be in attendance.

The "Field of Flags" covers the grounds on the National Mall. Approximately 191,500 flags will cover part of the National Mall and will represent the American people who are unable to travel to Washington, for the inauguration.

It could be the first sunny Inauguration Day since President Bill Clinton was sworn in for his first term -- nearly three decades ago. However, a 20% chance of snow showers could keep a sunny swearing in from happening.

"Best timing for this (flurries) would be mid-morning into early afternoon," the National Weather Service said.

That falls within the time period of the inauguration ceremonies. Joe Biden is scheduled to be sworn in as President at noon.

If these snow showers don't materialize, it will be sunny. The forecast for Washington, DC on Wednesday calls for sunny skies with a noon temperature around 40 degrees. It is expected to be blustery, with sustained winds from the northwest at 10 to 20 mph, with gusts up to 38 mph.

The afternoon high temperature should warm a few more degrees, peaking at around 41. Still, wind gusts will keep the "feels like" temperatures in the upper-20s to mid-30s for most of the ceremonies.

Forget a parade with crowds of people cheering on the new president and vice president. And there will be no inaugural balls for Biden, Harris and their spouses to dance the night away.

D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser is flat-out telling people to stay home. Airbnb says it is cancelling all reservations to prevent people from coming to the capital. Local activists are calling for Bowser to close down all hotels, but she has declined to go that far. Downtown roads and metro stations will be closed and authorities are so determined to keep people away that they're considered closing all the bridges from Virginia.

Downtown Washington D.C. has been turned into an armed camp. The National Mall is sealed to the public and the Washington Monument has shut down. 21,000 National Guard troops will be on the job on Jan. 20, alongside D.C. police and multiple federal law enforcement agencies.

Joe Biden, first lady Jill Biden, Kamala Harris and second gentlemen Douglas Emhoff will later visit Arlington National Cemetery to lay a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. They will be joined by former presidents and first ladies Barack and Michelle Obama, George W. and Laura Bush, and Bill and Hillary Clinton.

Actor-playwright Lin-Manuel Miranda and rockers Jon Bon Jovi and Bruce Springsteen are among the stars who will highlight a prime-time virtual celebration televised Wednesday night after Joe Biden is inaugurated as the 46th president.

“Celebrating America,” a 90-minute event hosted by Tom Hanks, starts at 8:30 p.m. ET.

Musicians John Legend, Demi Lovato and Justin Timberlake, among others, will join Springsteen and Bon Jovi. Actresses Kerry Washington and Eva Longoria will act as hostesses, with former NBA star Kareem Abdul-Jabbar also scheduled to appear.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi appointed Raskin, a former constitutional law professor and prominent member of the House Judiciary Committee, as lead manager. In a week of dramatic events and stories, Raskin’s stands out: The day before the Capitol riots, Raskin buried his 25-year-old son, Tommy, after he killed himself on New Year’s Eve.

“You would be hard pressed to find a more beloved figure in the Congress” than Raskin, says House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, who was the lead manager during Trump’s first trial. He worked closely with Raskin on that impeachment investigation. “I know that part of what gives him strength to take on this burden that he now carries is knowing that this is something that would be enormously meaningful to his son.”

DeGette, who is serving her 13th term representing Denver, is a former civil rights attorney and one of Pelosi’s go-to allies. The speaker picked her to preside over the House during the first impeachment vote in 2019. DeGette said Pelosi trusted her to do it because she is “able to to control the passions on the floor.”

She says she was surprised when Pelosi called to offer her the prosecutorial position but quickly accepted. “The monstrosity of this offense is not lost on anybody,” she says.

Cicilline, the former mayor of Providence and public defender, is in his sixth term in Congress and is a senior member of the Judiciary panel.

He was heavily involved in Trump’s first impeachment and was one of three original authors of the article that the House approved on Wednesday. He and California Rep. Ted Lieu began writing the article together, in hiding, as the rioters were still ransacking the Capitol. He tweeted out a draft the next morning, writing that “I have prepared to remove the President from office following yesterday’s attack on the U.S. Capitol.”

Castro is a member of the House Intelligence and Foreign Affairs panels, where he has been an outspoken critic of Trump's handling of Russia. He was a litigator in private practice before he was elected to the Texas legislature and came to Congress, where he is in his fifth term.

Castro’s twin brother, Julian Castro, is the former mayor of San Antonio and served as former President Barack Obama’s secretary of housing and urban development. Julian Castro ran in the Democratic primary for president last year.

Swalwell also serves on the Intelligence and Judiciary panels and was deeply involved in congressional probes of Trump’s Russian ties. A former prosecutor, he briefly ran for president in 2019.

“The case that I think resonates the most with the American people and hopefully the Senate is that our American president incited our fellow citizens to attack our Capitol on a day where we were counting electoral votes, and that this was not a spontaneous call to action by the president at the rally,” Swalwell said.

Lieu, who authored the article of impeachment with Cicilline and Raskin, is on the Judiciary and Foreign Affairs panels.

The Los Angeles-area lawmaker is a former active-duty officer in the U.S. Air Force and military prosecutor. “We cannot begin to heal the soul of this country without first delivering swift justice to all its enemies — foreign and domestic,” he said.

Because she represents a U.S. territory, not a state, Plaskett does not have voting rights and was not able to cast a vote for impeachment. But she will bring her experience as a former district attorney in New York and senior counsel at the Justice Department.

“Donald J. Trump has been and continues to be a clear and present danger to our republic, to our Constitution, and to the people of this nation,” she said in a statement. “I will do my duty and defend our blessed country.”

Neguse, in his second term, is a rising star in the Democratic caucus who was elected to Pelosi’s leadership team his freshman year in Congress. A former litigator, he sits on the House Judiciary Committee and consulted with Raskin, Cicilline and Lieu as they drafted the article the day of the attack. At 36, he will be the youngest impeachment manager in history, according to his office.

“This armed mob did not storm the Capitol on any given day, they did so during the most solemn of proceedings that the United States Congress is engaged in,” Neguse said Thursday. “Clearly the attack was done to stop us from finishing our work.”

Like Neguse, Dean was first elected when Democrats recaptured the House in 2018. She is also a member of the House Judiciary Committee, and is a former lawyer and member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives.

She says she hopes the prosecutors can convince the Senate and the American people “to mark this moment" with a conviction.

“I think I bring to it just the simple fact that I’m a citizen, that I’m a mom and I’m a grandma," Dean said. "And I want my children, my grandchildren, to remember what we did here.”