CNBC's Eamon Javers reports on the inauguration of President Joseph R. Biden, Jr. For access to live and exclusive video from CNBC subscribe to CNBC PRO: https://cnb.cx/2NGeIvi

Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. became the 46th U.S. president on Wednesday, completing the most daunting power transfer in recent American history.

Inaugurated in a fortified Washington under the shadow of the coronavirus pandemic, the 78-year-old Democrat took the oath of office at the U.S. Capitol in front of a sparse bipartisan crowd.

He enters the White House exactly two weeks after a mob inflamed by his predecessor, Donald Trump, stormed the Capitol, disrupting the transition to Biden’s administration and leaving five people dead.

Biden took the oath of office from Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts, with his left hand on a family Bible. During an inaugural address in which he called on Americans to reject efforts to sow division and pledged to work for the voters who did not support him, Biden declared, “Democracy has prevailed.”

“On this hallowed ground where, just a few days ago, violence sought to shake the Capitol’s very foundation, we come together as one nation, under God, indivisible, to carry out the peaceful transfer of power as we have for more than two centuries,” Biden said.

Biden, the oldest American president, faces swirling crises as he and Vice President Kamala Harris take power. At 56, she became the first woman, first Black American and first South Asian American to become vice president.

Biden will try to streamline the biggest vaccination effort in U.S. history to contain a virus that has claimed more than 400,000 lives nationwide. He will aim to boost an economy in which about 18 million people are receiving unemployment benefits and food banks experience demand unseen in decades.

“In the work ahead of us, we’re going to need each other. We need all of our strength to persevere through this dark winter,” the president said.

Biden will try to implement a broad agenda while navigating a country where millions of people, including members of Congress, fed disinformation by Trump question the legitimacy of his victory in the November election. In his remarks, the president said the country must “reject the culture where facts themselves are manipulated and even manufactured.” Biden called on Americans to “defend the truth and defeat the lies.”

Biden, a Democrat, won the presidency in November in his third try. His first attempt came during the 1988 presidential cycle, followed by a 2008 primary loss to his future boss Barack Obama.

Biden served two terms as Obama’s vice president from 2009 to 2017. He took the job after 36 years in the Senate representing Delaware, a state Biden has said “will be written on my heart.” Biden joined the Senate when he was 30.

This time, Biden ran as the person best equipped to defeat Trump. Concerns bubbled within his party that his record on racial justice and the social safety net left him unprepared to confront the country’s challenges. Biden pledged to “restore the soul of America,” and clinched his party’s presidential nomination after early stumbles.

Tragedy and compassion

Campaigning during the pandemic, Biden aimed to show a compassion built through tragedy. He often opened up about the deaths of his first wife, Neilia, and young daughter, Naomi, in a 1972 car crash, and his adult son Beau’s passing from brain cancer in 2015.

Biden enters office trying to curb the pain wrought by the pandemic. He paused during his remarks for a moment of silence to recognize the Americans who died from the virus, asking the country to “honor them by becoming a people and a nation we know we can and should be.”

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