Inauguration Day 2021 highlights: Joe Biden and Kamala Harris take office

President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden were joined by their family on the Blue Room Balcony to watch fireworks at the end of the prime-time inauguration special "Celebrating America."

President Joe Biden's Twitter Cabinet currently includes 11 trusted aides — and Chrissy Teigen.

With hours-old control of Biden's official Twitter feed @POTUS, the new administration's first dozen follows included predicable names like Susan Rice, Kate Bedingfield and Ron Klain.

The only non-government name was Teigen, the model and outspoken critic of former President Donald Trump. Hours before Biden took the oath of office, Teigen tweeted at him: "I have been blocked by the president for four years can I get a follow plz." 

By Wednesday night, Teigen's presidentialrequest was granted and she appeared to be pleased. Her husband, John Legend, also performed during the inaugural celebration Wednesday night.

Former presidents Barack Obama, George W. Bush and Bill Clinton came together to deliver a video message not only to their successor but also to all Americans in the wake of Donald Trump's presidency. 

"I think if Americans would love their neighbor like they liked to be loved themselves, a lot of the division in our society would end," Bush said. 

"That's what this means," Clinton added. "It's a new beginning, and everybody needs to get off their high horse and reach out to their friends and neighbors."

That the three presidents, two Democrats and a Republican, could come together is a sign that Americans can overcome anything if they work together, the three said.

"As Americans we have more in common than what separates us," Obama said.

Standing in front of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, Vice President Kamala Harris took a brief departure from the theme of unity to celebrate "American aspiration."

"We not only see what has been, we see what can be," she said. "We are bold, fearless and ambitious. We are undaunted in our belief that we shall overcome, that we shall rise up. This is American aspiration."

Harris went on to invoke those who came before her, including President Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King Jr. and the women who fought for voting rights. 

"A great experiment takes great determination, the will to do the work and then the wisdom to keep refining, keep tinkering, keep perfecting," she said.

Celebrity chef José Andrés, a Washington local, called attention to food insecurity in America, saying 1 in 4 people are experiencing hunger. 

Andrés, a Spanish immigrant, has been a vocal advocate for helping those in need through his organization World Central Kitchen, which has been providing fresh meals to National Guard members sent to Washington ahead of the inauguration. He also helped deliver pizza to National Guard members and law enforcement officers stationed near the U.S. Capitol on the night of the Jan. 6 riot.

"I am a chef who believes food is not just a luxury for the lucky few — it's a basic human right to live free from hunger," he said. "But today, we have a hunger crisis in America."

President Joe Biden invoked the memory of Martin Luther King Jr., who spoke on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in 1963 during the March on Washington and delivered his famous "I Have a Dream" speech amid racial reckoning across the country.

"There are moments in our history when more is asked of us as Americans," said Biden, who also unveiled a bust of King that now sits in the Oval Office. "We are in one of those moments now."

He pointed to multiple crises facing the country, including the coronavirus pandemic, climate change and racial inequality. 

"Are we up to it?" Biden asked. "Will we meet the moment like our forebears have? I believe we must, and I believe we will."

White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki prompted some raised eyebrows in law enforcement and intelligence circles when she declined to say, in response to a question from NBC News' Peter Alexander that President Biden has confidence in FBI Director Christopher Wray.

A senior FBI official said tonight that Wray has been given no indication that Biden or his team is dissatisfied with him and that “the sentiments shared have all been positive.”

FBI directors serve 10 year terms designed to preserve a measure of independence, but as we all learned, they can be removed by the president. Wray and those around him in recent months have been very concerned he would be fired by Trump. Whether the questions swirling around the FBI’s handling of the intelligence gathered in advance of the Jan. 6 Capitol riot have imperiled Wray’s future in a Biden administration is a question that merits more reporting.

Some influential voices have been critical. David Lauffman, a senior Justice Department official in the Obama administration, has said, for example, that the FBI is supposed to thwart domestic terrorism, and “it’s not clear if FBI exercised the urgent, national leadership necessary to maximize protection of the Capitol.”

Vice President Kamala Harris will delay her move into the Naval Observatory, the traditional residence of the vice president, while repairs are done on the 128-year-old home, a Harris aide said.

The aide didn't have an estimated move-in date. The repairs will include work on the chimney and other household maintenance.

Former Vice President Mike Pence vacated the house Wednesday afternoon. Harris and her husband, Doug Emhoff, have a home in Washington. The news was first reported by CBS.

A bust of the civil and labor rights leader Cesar Chavez behind President Joe Biden stirred excitement among Latinos watching the historic moment.

"I literally jumped out of my chair and yelled: 'That's Cesar Chavez! Cesar Chavez!'" said Darryl Morin, national president of the advocacy group Forward Latino, who saw it on TV.

Chavez's bust sat on a console among family photos behind Biden as the newly inaugurated president sat at the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office and signed a slew of executive orders, including one on racial equity and another to combat the Covid-19 pandemic — which has been brutal to farmworkers whom Chavez championed.

The bust quickly attracted attention on social media — and drew praise from the Chavez family. "Placing a bust of my father in the Oval Office symbolizes the hopeful new day that is dawning for our nation," said Paul Chavez, the civil rights icon's son.

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