Vice President Kamala Harris

President Biden and Vice President Harris held a ceremony Monday night marking the grim milestone of 500,000 American deaths from COVID-19.

Analysis: As Joe Biden is inaugurated, he is hoping to bring America together. But the country's modern divisions didn't begin and end with Trump.

The 22-year-old composed a poem, "The Hill We Climb," that acknowledges the recent insurrection attempt, but turns resolutely toward hope. "The new dawn blooms," she writes.

President Biden on Wednesday spoke to bringing the nation together in his first remarks as president of the United States.

Harris officially becomes the first woman, first Black person and first Asian American to be vice president.

Joe Biden and Kamala Harris will be sworn in as president and vice president of the United States. Follow live special coverage throughout the day beginning at 11 a.m. ET.

President-elect Joe Biden's inauguration has been largely downsized because of the coronavirus pandemic and security concerns after the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.

With the country reeling from the pandemic, racial injustice and the Capitol riot, President-elect Joe Biden must transcend the "typical gauzy appeals to national unity" of past inaugural addresses.

The vice president-elect will be sworn in on Wednesday by Justice Sonia Sotomayor, both women of color who broke barriers. As vice president, Harris will tip control of the Senate to Democrats.

The president elect on Thursday evening outlined his plan for coronavirus relief — one of the core issues he hopes to tackle in his first days of office.

Republican lawmakers have been urging President Trump to condemn violence since a mob of extremists stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6. As the House moved to impeach him, Trump called for calm.

"I think you can expect to see somewhere upwards of beyond 20,000 members of the National Guard that will be here in the footprint of the District of Columbia," D.C. Police Chief Robert Contee said.