The band was playing, the audience stood as the Color Guard brought out our nations colors. It was an occasion met with solidarity and conformity. The silence of the men carrying our flags, and the audience was almost deafening.
Then they introduced previous presidents and their wives. When they got to former President Bill Clinton, and Hillary, you could hear the audience cheering so hard. Suddenly you hear a mans voice scream "Hillary, we are here for you!" and the screams and the cheers got louder. There was booing in the crowd, but that was no match for the number of people screaming "We love you!" The sad part is, people are screaming, cheering, and wanting for a President who was not-to-be, at a different President's inauguration. The cheering for Trump's children wasn't nearly as powerful.
In between the silence you could hear a chanting of "USA" that seemed to come out of the woodwork. It was distant and hollow.
I was watching it on the NBC 360 video, where you can see every aspect of people coming and going. There were a lot of people coming and going. Sure, some of them were press, but you could see people physically getting up and walking out. The audience wasn't still, they were a constant mass of fidgeting, and looking around. When Michelle Obama came out, there was raucous cheering from the crowd.
Meanwhile, protesters were smashing windows around Washington.
I switched to a different live stream. This one was close up, and only showed the front of the audience. On the audio you could hear cheering, but their faces said otherwise. One of the comments said "This music is trying SO hard to make this acceptable." The number of angry reactions poured across the Facebook live stream overpowered the likes and the hearts.
When Trump is announced, he walks out and fist pumps the crowd.
People come up to the stand, to talk about this ceremony as a whole, and to read from the scripture.
In the audience, people are wearing Make America Great Again hats at this formal event. Comments on the live stream lean towards being homophobic, racist,
Mike Pence takes his oath of office, and everything seems normal. People cheer, music is played, and a man records on hid cellphone from behind. President Obama shakes his hand as he walks back to his seat.
A choir sang the national anthem.
As Donald was being sworn in, you could hear the booing and cheering in the background. The two mending together creates a sound that is haunting. In the background, Trump speaks and still has the same voice and vibrato he has always had. He says he is grateful for the Obamas for the transition, but not for running the country. He says that the power is transferring from Washington to the people. That Washington has been suppressing the people, that their jobs were taken away, and the establishment protected themselves but not the people of America. He says that this is our day and our country.
He speaks of government being controlled by the people:
"January 20th, 2017 will be the day that will be remembered as the day the people became the rulers of this nation again."
He spoke with conviction.
