Stephen Colbert
After a safe and peaceful swearing ceremony for Joe Biden, a thorough cleansing of the White House and a virtual celebration filled with celebrities, Stephen Colbert felt “a huge relief” for the United States, he said on a live Late Show after the day of the inauguration. “It’s like we’re on a ship that has been through a storm for four years and we just set foot on dry land.”
Biden’s inauguration, replete with an emotional performance by the young poet laureate, Amanda Gorman, and a presidential speech based on facts, represented a “return to normality”, Colbert continued, although marked by the still surreal calamity of the pandemic. But “even though it is abnormal, at least we understand why it was abnormal,” he said.
A year after the first U.S. patient was hospitalized with Covid, the new administration structured the day around Covid’s clear safety protocols. “So many times during the past four years, we’ve all thought, ‘What the hell is going on? Why is this happening? ‘”Colbert said of the previous administration. “And they didn’t tell us. They didn’t tell us the real reasons, because it was all a sales job. And the strangest feeling in the world is when something is clearly abnormal and someone tries to say it isn’t.
“What we saw today was the opposite of gas lighting,” he added. “Today we were confronted with reality and I am here for that.”
Colbert also celebrated the historic inauguration of America’s first female vice president, Kamala Harris. “It’s a time when future generations will look back and say, ‘wow, it took too long,'” he said. Harris becomes not only the first woman, the first black woman and the first South Asian American vice president, but also “the first vice president in four years who doesn’t find yogurt too spicy,” he joked.
Trevor Noah
“Despite the pandemic, this inauguration had everything,” said Trevor Noah on the Daily Show. The highlights were: ex-president; the youngest inaugural poet in Gorman; “An amazing singer wearing her own Etsy store” with Lady Gaga in her Hunger Games style; “An old man on his way to the post office” in Bernie Sanders, with his daddy’s chic gloves in Vermont; and “even a lady whose outfit called me a broke bitch” with Michelle Obama in a fuchsia, wide-legged suit.
Immediately after the ceremony, Biden signed 15 executive orders, including measures to return to the Paris climate agreement, close the Keystone XL pipeline, reverse the travel and immigration ban in several Muslim-majority countries, wear masks on federal land for 100 days and extend the pause in student debt collection.
“Let’s just say that White House bathrooms are not the only place Biden is looking to remove any traces of Donald Trump,” explained Noah, calling the flood of requests a “major reversal of Trump’s legacy.”
“Although with America’s Covid rates at the moment, I really don’t think the latter will make much of a difference,” he added of the infamous ban on Muslims.
Samantha Bee
Despite Biden’s inaugural call for unity, “Republicans are furious because Joe Biden chose to divide America by becoming president,” joked Samantha Bee at Full Frontal. “And if that weren’t divisive enough, he is openly conspiring to get things done.”
With control of the White House, Senate and House, “Democrats are in an unimaginable position: we can finally do things that help people!” Bee said. “For the next two years, we can confirm liberal judges and pass legislation that is not shit.”
Bee anticipated possible Democratic achievements in paid family leave, universal preschool, debt-free community college and some form of student debt forgiveness. Its small majority in the Senate, however, does not allow all Biden-Harris ideas; if the new administration wants to restore the Voting Rights Act, pass immigration reform or seek a state for DC and Puerto Rico, which will require votes from the Republican Party Senate, Biden “will end up facing the Klan Gambit,” joked Bee on an image of Republican Senators Mitch McConnell, Josh Hawley, Ted Cruz and Lindsey Graham, all complicit in Trump’s unfounded allegations of electoral fraud.
Seth Meyers
Wednesday’s opening was “a bit like getting rid of the last guy at a party,” joked Seth Meyers at Late Night. “We spent four years yawning, stretching and suggesting he should leave, and then, when he finally leaves, it’s a relief until you remember that you need to clean up all his vomit, and he, like, vomited everywhere. . ”
The celebrity-packed affair included performances by Jennifer Lopez and Lady Gaga – “a good break from the Trump era, when the only musical acts that would associate with the president were 3 Doors Down and the kids who went crazy over Trump,” he added. , referring to USA Freedom Kids, who performed at Trump’s rallies and later sued him for non-payment.
Meyers also turned to Biden’s touching inaugural speech, in which he urged Americans to overcome partisanship and face the challenges of the pandemic, systemic racism and inequality together. “Republicans incited an uprising and then complained that Democrats are not trying to unify the nation,” said Meyers. “In the meantime, Biden talked more about marriage than a marriage counselor who is only paid if the couple stays together.”
Jimmy Kimmel
And in Los Angeles, Jimmy Kimmel recalled Donald Trump’s inauguration four years ago, a “terrible day” during which he asked himself, “Will our country survive years of this?”
“And now we know the answer: not really,” he said. “Just a little. But we did it. “
Kimmel also reflected on the story of two Wednesdays in January 2021: “Two weeks ago, a bunch of dangerous assholes with Donald Trump flags tried to overthrow the government. Today, in that same place, we had the national anthem sung by Lady Gaga. To paraphrase Michelle Obama, when they fall, we go J Lo. “
“And while Joe Biden was being sworn in in Mar-a-Lago, Florida, an omelet bar attendant was being sworn in,” added Kimmel, when Trump snuck onto his golf course in Florida after a morning drive with little participation in Washington. Trump’s children Eric and Don Jr. dismissed their father with visible tears – “it is painful to see children separated from their parents, isn’t it?” Kimmel reflected with a final blow to Trump’s legacy on immigration and family separation.