The President-elect Joe Biden and Dr. Jill Biden make their way by motorcade to St. Matthews this morning to observe a service before the Inauguration.
At 0850am, the President-Elect’s motorcade took the short drive to the Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle. Mass at St. Matthews marks Biden’s only event of the day before he is to travel to the Capitol for his Inauguration.
In past years, the outgoing president has greeted the incoming one at the White House prior to the ceremony. This will be yet another tradition broken by Trump.
At the Mass at St Matthew’s Bidens will be joined by their family and bipartisan congressional leaders. Spotted: Mitch McConnell. Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer, Kevin McCarthy, Roy Blunt, Steny Hoyer among others.
Father Kevin O’Brien will deliver the homily. Violinist Patricia Treacy, soprano Renée Fleming and the St. Augustine Gospel Choir will perform.
Before Biden, presidents who have upheld this tradition include Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry S. Truman, Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama.
The Cathedral church and parish was established in 1840 and is named for Saint Matthew the Apostle, the patron saint of civil servants. The church is the seat or Cathedral of the Archbishop of Washington. Rev. Msgr. W. Ronald Jameson is the rector of St. Matthew’s.
08:53 AM President-elect Biden and Jill Biden entered St. Matthew’s after the brief motorcade ride past streets guarded by hundreds of National Guard troops and storefronts boarded over with plywood.
Biden is wearing a navy suit and navy overcoat, designed by Ralph Lauren. Dr. Jill Biden is wearing an ocean blue wool tweed coat and dress by the emerging American designer Alexandra O’Neil of Markarian.