was dark and foreboding.
- "My fellow Americans, we have to be different than this. America has to be better than this. "
- "For without unity, there is no peace – only bitterness and fury," he said. "No nation – only a state of chaos."
- Biden warned that the U.S. is facing "an attack on democracy and on truth," as well as the "raging" coronavirus, "growing inequity," "systemic racism" and "a climate in crisis."
- A nation suffering from "deep" political divisions and a pandemic that has crippled the country.
- The novel coronavirus, which he said "silently stalks the country," and has claimed more than 400,000 American lives since its inception.
- Biden, on Wednesday, addressed "a rise of political extremism, of White supremacy and domestic terrorism."
- "Speaking of unity can sound like a fantasy," Biden said.
- Biden said that "the forces that divide us are deep and they are real," but said "they are not new."