TIME Marks Day One of Biden’s Presidency With Cover of Him Standing in the Oval Office Trashed by Trump
TIME’s new cover: Day one https://t.co/VazxGDJzZf pic.twitter.com/R6jVrzXXZc
— TIME (@TIME) January 21, 2021
TIME Magazine has released their commemorative cover for the start of Joe Biden’s administration, and the clear message is that the new president must pick up the pieces left behind by former president Donald Trump.
The cover shows Biden looking out of the Oval Office as fiery-looking smoke gathers outside the window. Inside the office, the room is a graffitied, ruined mess as a testament to Trump’s failings.
The cover comes after Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris were both named as TIME’s Person of the Year in recognition for prevailing over Trump with a record-breaking 81 million votes. The magazine’s cover story, written by Charlotte Alter, delves into the context of Biden’s inauguration and the depth of the challenge he faces in his promise to unite the country.
“Biden now leads a country divided between Americans who believe in facts and Americans who distrust them,” Alter writes. “Between those who want a multiracial Republic and those who seek to invalidate nonwhite votes, between those with faith in democratic institutions and those who put faith only in Trump.”
Since Biden’s inauguration comes just after Trump’s supporters invaded the U.S. Capitol in a violent attempt to overthrow the results of the 2020 Election, Alter writes that Biden’s legacy will be shaped by how he pulls the country past this moment.
While Biden might be confident that he can heal where Trump sought to divide, the fact remains that the ex-president and his allies have flooded the zone with lies and delusions, and it’s hard to say what unity even means for the country anymore.
From TIME:
Joe Biden may never unify America. That may not even be possible in a nation so riven by disinformation and delusion. But if he can get Americans who disagree on everything else to agree on the democratic process, if he can help restore political debate to the realm of truth, if he can deliver enough solutions to restore some small faith in government, that would be a start. America still won’t be united, but it could be united enough.
