Liana Mistretta
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by Liana Mistretta (@LianaMistretta)
Washington January 21, 2021Let us forget something?
This is the question we always ask ourselves when we are about to leave a place where we have lived or even just stayed for some time.
When we get to the White House, it's 6:30 in the morning.
It's Inauguration Day. The windows are already lit up.
In a few hours the Trump will leave.
As I prepare for the first live broadcast for Rainews24 together with Andrea Vaccarella and our producer Manuela Cavalieri, I try to imagine the last hours of Donald and Melania Trump in the White House.
Surely their staff will have thought about organizing the move to Florida.
Will they have taken everything?
After 4 years, what will they feel?
Getting to the White House was not easy for us.
It's raining, it's cold.
Our path is a gymnastics, on foot.
Getting around by car would be impossible.
Up and down the deserted streets of Washington DC.
A military checkpoint every 50 meters.
Sometimes you can go beyond it, sometimes you have to go back, proceed by trial and error until you find an accessible passage.
The city is divided into a green zone and a red zone.
The latter armored.
The very idea really makes an impression.
The fear of violent protests, of attacks, is real.
After the attack on Congress on 6 January, the alert level is very high.
25,000 men and women of the National Guard guard the city.
They are mostly young, in recent days we have often met them on the street, in the hotel, in moments of break in front of an Italian pizzeria, in souvenir shops.
They come from all over the USA, many speak Spanish.
Their faces best express the diversity of this country.
Shortly after 8, the Trumps leave the White House.
The Marine One helicopter awaits them on the south side lawn.
Did the president, I wonder, have left a message for Joe Biden in the resolute desk drawer, the nineteenth-century desk of the oval office?
Usually the outgoing president does this with his successor.
But Trump has decided not to attend Biden's inauguration ceremony, he hasn't even mentioned him in his greeting, he hasn't received him at the White House in recent days.
He has long denied his victory by trying to overturn the results of the vote.
Who knows.
The helicopter takes off, flies over downtown Washington DC, passes overhead.
Joint Base Andrews, Maryland is not far, a 10 minute flight.
Donald Trump's farewell ceremony there.
"Somehow I will return," he says.
Air Force One is ready, it will bring the Trumps on board for the last time.
Destination Florida.
Turn the page, the Biden era begins.
4 new years, maybe 8, to tell.
But first, let's move to Capitol Hill.
The sun is shining, an icy wind blows, at times a light sleet.
The streets are still deserted, they will be for the whole day.
The coronavirus pandemic has already claimed 400,000 lives.
Stopping it, defeating it, will be Biden's priority, who urged the Americans not to come to Washington DC for Inauguration Day. 200,000 flags have been placed in their place on the Mall in front of the Capitol.
Flags instead of people.
I remember well the festive atmosphere of the other times.
I was also here on January 20, 2017 for Trump's inauguration, and I will never forget Obama's: 2 million Americans on the street.
Now there is silence, there is fear, the city is armored.
The ceremony is best watched on TV, many have thought.
We remain outside the Capitol, ready to follow any protests.
Like us, many colleagues from all over the world.
A few words in various languages, smiles hidden by masks, we are all careful to keep our distance and to catch the slightest suspicious sign.
Everyone has arrived inside Capitol Hill.
Vice President Kamala Harris and her husband also arrive.
She, the first black woman to hold this position.
Him, the first second gentleman in American history.
Then it's Joe and Jill Biden's turn.
The women are all wearing colorful dresses.
Even the former first ladies.
I will find out later that they wanted to represent all the colors of the country which contains all the colors of the world.
The diversity of the USA is once again a value.
The national anthem is sung by Lady Gaga.
Kamala Harris' oath is the first big emotion of this day.
She swears before Sonia Sotomayor, first Hispanic judge of the Supreme Court and former colleague as a prosecutor.
Then it's time for Joe Biden, before Chief Justice of the Supreme Court John Roberts.
It's noon, Biden is the 46th president of the USA.
"Democracy has prevailed" he will say shortly after in his inaugural address.
A speech that opens the doors to a new America in the name of unity, truth and equality.
A return to normal tells me a girl who approaches our station.
She is already looking to the future, on her sweatshirt the inscription: Biden Harris 2024.
Capitol Hill slowly empties.
The fort built around the house of American democracy worked.
No protest.
Maximum tranquility.
We will follow from our PCs the ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery, Biden and Harris' homage to the unknown soldier.
With them the former American presidents.
All but one.
We get back on the road.
We are waiting for them near Pennsylvania Avenue.
Back in front of the White House.
It's afternoon.
The military parade is in reduced form.
The presidential couple arrives by car, walking only a short distance accompanied by the whole family.
Some luckier colleague has managed to get close to the entrance to the White House, ask President Biden: "Mr President what do you feel about entering here?"
"I feel like I'm going home".