Klobuchar Drives Home Message Of Democracy Enduring At Biden, Harris Inauguration

By Ricardo Lopez, the Minnesota Reformer

January 20, 2021

Sen. Amy Klobuchar, co-chair of the Biden inaugural committee, said the rioters who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6 served as a salient reminder of the duties of Americans to defend democracy.

“Two weeks ago when an angry violent mob staged an insurrection and desecrated this temple of our democracy, it awakened us to our responsibilities as Americans,” Klobuchar said ahead of Wednesday’s swearing in ceremony for President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris.

“This is the day when our democracy picks itself up and brushes off the dust and does what America always does, goes forward as a nation.”

Klobuchar, who ran for president last year, played a prominent role in the inauguration ceremony, introducing Biden and Harris as they took their oaths of office.

During her brief remarks, she also recalled President Abraham Lincoln’s Civil War-era inaugural address before a partially finished U.S. Capitol dome.

“The dome was only partially constructed, braced by ropes of steel. He promised he would finish it,” she said, noting that he faced criticism for spending money on its construction during the war. “To those critics he replied, ‘If the people see the Capitol going on, it is a sign we intend the union shall go on.’ ”

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