All Things Inauguration Part I 🥳
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Description
🇺🇸 What actually happens on Inauguration Day? 🥳 How does the White House prepare for the new President? Former White House Social Secretary Deesha Dyer joins The Ten News to discuss what Inauguration Day looks like inside the White House! 🐕 Learn about a special ceremony that will celebrate Joe Biden's German Shepherd, Major. 👖 Get Five Fast Facts about Inauguration Day, including Why the *sixth* President was the first one to wear pants to the Inauguration. Plus! Can you guess the answer to the Trivia Question of the Day: Why is there a limit on the number of marchers that can be in the inaugural parade?
Dwight Eisenhower’s Inauguration
The virtual Indoguration
Links
🇺🇸 Discover how Joe Biden's inauguration will be different from others of the past
🐕 Learn how an animal shelter will celebrate Joe Biden's German Shepherd with an 'Indoguration'
🥳 Do a deeper dive into these fascinating facts about Inauguration Day
🎇 Join us on Instagram
💌 We love email! Email us at hello@thetennews.com
Transcript
Bethany Van Delft: [00:00:00] What happens on Inauguration Day? How does the White House get ready for the new President? And why was the sixth President, the first one to wear pants to the Inauguration? I'm Bethany Van Delft, and we'll get into all this and more, on today's The Ten News. The first of two episodes this week, where we find out what's up with the Presidential Inauguration.
[00:00:27] Okay, let's get into The Ten News.
Various Voices: [00:00:29] Ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one.
Bethany Van Delft: [00:00:36] January 20th is Inauguration Day - the day the new President, and Vice-president take the oath of office and their administration officially begins. This year's inauguration, like, so many other things is going to look different. Joe Biden and Kamala Harris will be sworn in on the steps of the Capitol building, which is where the [00:01:00] ceremony normally takes place but in order to keep people safe from the coronavirus, there won't be the usual crowds, parade, and inaugural balls that traditionally mark the day. It's been announced that Lady Gaga will sing the National Anthem and Jennifer Lopez, AKA J-Lo, will also perform, but many Inauguration events will take place virtually. The Inaugural Committee’s theme for the day is “America United,” which it says reflects the beginning of a new national journey that restores the soul of America, brings the country together, and creates a path to a brighter future.
[00:01:43] What is Inauguration Day typically like inside the White House? Our correspondent Pamela Kirkland spoke with Deesha Dyer, a former White House Social Secretary to find out.
Pamela Kirkland: [00:01:56] Deesha Dyer is founder and CEO of social [00:02:00] impact firm Hook and Fasten and Executive Director of non-profit B-girl World. Also, she was the White House Social Secretary under President Obama.
[00:02:09] Deesha thanks so much for talking to The Ten.
Deesha Dyer: [00:02:12] Oh, it's wonderful to be here. Thanks for having me.
Pamela Kirkland: So I guess first question, tell us, what does the White House Social Secretary do?
Deesha Dyer: Sure. So the White House Social Secretary is the person that puts on all of the events in the actual mansion. So things from dinners with world leaders, we do birthday parties for Malia and Sasha, we did there.
[00:02:38] Um, we do concerts. We do different educational events, things on the South lawn, like July 4th celebrations or different kinds of picnics out there so that the Social Secretary’s job is in charge of basically helping the First Lady carry out her vision of hosting different events at the White House.
Pamela Kirkland: It's a busy day to say the least. The White House staff only has five or six hours to completely change over everything for the next President. What's going on behind the scenes at the White House on Inauguration Day?
Deesha Dyer: It really a changing over the house. Just like anybody, when you move somebody in and you move somebody out, there's a lot that has to be done.
There's furniture, there's paintings. Um, so really the outgoing President at that point by Inauguration Day, mostly has already moved most of their stuff out. You know, the White House itself has furniture that is, you know, belongs to the White House, but the President and First Lady of every White House always bring their own, uh, their own, uh, you know, style to the White House.
[00:03:42] So maybe, you know, somebody brought a chair that they really loved from their place and maybe they brought one in their paintings and their family photos. So all of that's basically already moved out by January 20th and then the new President, then as soon as the morning hits, um, the moving truck comes in with all the new President's stuff. So all of that really happens, but also the resident staff, the chef and the butlers and the cooks, everybody is getting also ready for any kind of parties or any kind of, uh, you know, ceremonies that will take place at the White House after the president has been sworn in.
Pamela Kirkland: Man. That's a lot to happen in such a short span of time.
Deesha Dyer: It really is. Yes.
Pamela Kirkland: What will you be watching for during the Inauguration. What will you be looking for when we watch the ceremony?
Deesha Dyer: I'll probably be on the phone or my computer, maybe helping out some of the teams that are working on the Inauguration. Um, I probably see myself, you know, volunteering in a, in a distant capacity. Um, just making sure that, you know, I'm available for any staff member or anybody who kind of needs help on the backend, whether it's calling someone emailing, you know, typing something up. What I will be watching for. It's just really the change of power and how it will play out, um, at a time where so much is going on. Um, you know, and really also on the fun side, looking for some of my friends that, uh, that are, you know, on the, uh, the President-elect and VP-elect’s teams, just kind of checking them out and, you know, thinking to myself that was me four years ago.
Pamela Kirkland: Deesha, thank you so much for joining us. We really appreciate it.
Deesha Dyer: Thank you for having me here. It was really great.
Owen: I'm Owen and I'm eight years old. And I have a doggy fact for you today. Joe Biden and Kamala Harris aren't the only ones getting a special Inauguration Day ceremony. One of Joe Biden's dogs, a rescue named Major got his own virtual Inauguration ceremony. Pretty cute, huh? It was hosted by the Delaware shelter he was adopted from, to celebrate, the first ever shelter dog in the White House. Visit thetennews.com for a cute picture.
Bethany Van Delft: This year's Inauguration will be the 59th to take place, so there's a whole lot of history behind Inauguration Day. Here are five fascinating facts about Inauguration’s past.
[00:06:23] Number one - For his second term on March 4th, 1793, George Washington gave the shortest inauguration speech to date. How short you ask. Try a whopping 135 words. That's like a big old “thanks for electing me President. I'll do my best. Goodnight.”
Number two - In case you're wondering, who gave the longest speech? Well, that record belongs to William Henry Harrison, who on March 4th, 1841 delivered a doozy of a speech coming in at 8,445 words that lasted almost two hours. Talk about long-winded.
Number three - John Quincy Adams became the first President to wear long pants to an Inauguration on March 4th, 1825. Prior to his bold fashion choice, it was standard for Presidents to wear knee breeches, which were typically cut off just below the knees. I thought he was showing up like you, the boots, no pants at all. There is some pants there.
Number four - Even though George Washington owns more than 50,000 acres of land, he really didn't have much cash on hand when he was first elected President. So in order to travel to New York City for his first Inauguration, he actually had to borrow money to get there.
And number five, President Barack Obama holds the crown for the largest attendance in Inauguration history. So how many people showed up to watch the first Black President of the United States? Drumroll please. Try, 1.8 million people, oh baby. But get this, that's not only a record for Inaugurations. It's also estimated to be the most people ever gathered on the National Mall at any point, for any reason, head over to thetennews.com to see a picture of Obama's Inauguration crowd.
[00:08:46] Guess what time it is, it's time for your trivia question of the day!
[00:08:48] Which of the following actually happens during a Presidential Inauguration parade? A) a President was slapped by a monkey, B) a President was showered by a glitter cannon, C) a President was lassoed by a cowboy on horseback.
Did you guess it, the answer is C? In 1953, Dwight D. Eisenhower’s wild inaugural parade lasted over four hours and included 25,000 marchers along with 73 bands, 59 floats and some horses and elephants.
There's a photo of the President being lassoed by a cowboy on horseback while watching the parade over atThe TenNews.com, check it out.
[00:09:40] Time's up. That's the end of The Ten for today. Our Inauguration week coverage will continue into our next episode. You can always catch new episodes on Tuesdays and Thursdays. The Ten News is a co-production of Small But Mighty Media in collaboration with Next Chapter Podcasts and distributed by iHeart Radio.
The Ten News writing team is led by Editorial Director Tracy Crooks. With contributions from Steven Tompkins and Pamela Kirkland. The creative producer is Jenner Pasqua. Marketing is led by Jacob Bronstein with social media and web support by Steven Tompkins and Adam Pharr. Editing and sound design by Pete Musto under the production direction of Jeremiah Tittle. Executive producer Donald Albright and show creator Tracy Leeds Kaplan round out the team.
If you have any questions about the show, a story idea or fun fact, or just want to tell us how you're feeling about things. Email us@helloatthetennews.com. And don't forget to subscribe, rate and review, The Ten News on Apple podcasts, iHeart Radio, Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts.
[00:10:13] I'm Bethany Van Delft. And thanks for listening to The Ten News. Now go check out that virtual “Indoguration,” and look for all the good doggies there.
