VIDEO: Joe Biden sworn in as 46th US president

Gulf Today Report

Joe Biden on Wednesday became the 46th president of the United States, vowing a "new day" for the United States after four years of tumult under Donald Trump who in an extraordinary final act snubbed the inauguration.

Two weeks to the day after Trump supporters violently rampaged at the US Capitol to overturn the election results, Biden  took the oath on the same very steps alongside Kamala Harris, who was sworn in moments earlier as the first woman vice president. 

Biden, putting his hand on a family Bible, repeated after Chief Justice John Roberts the presidential oath -- that he will "preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States."

"It's a new day in America," Biden  wrote on Twitter before the inauguration as, in a sign of his push for unity, he prayed alongside congressional leaders at a Roman Catholic church.

Kamala Harris has been sworn in as the nation's first female vice president.

Joe Biden, his wife Jill Biden, Vice President-elect Kamala Harris, her husband Doug Emhoff, US Senator Roy Blunt and his wife Abigail Blunt arrive in Washington, on Wednesday. Reuters

The former US senator from California is also the first Black person and the first person of South Asian descent elected to the vice presidency and becomes the highest-ranking woman ever to serve in government.

Kamala Harris is sworn in as vice president by Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor as her husband Doug Emhoff holds the Bible  in Washington on Wednesday. AP

She was sworn in Wednesday by Justice Sonia Sotomayor, the first Latina to serve on the Supreme Court. Vice President Mike Pence, standing in for President Donald Trump, was sitting nearby as Lady Gaga sang the national anthem accompanied by the US Marine Corps band. 

Harris, 56, will be the first Black woman and first woman of South Asian descent to become vice president.

Donald Trump left Washington three hours before Biden’s swearing-in, the first president to skip the inauguration of his successor in more than 150 years.

Donald Trump left a letter to his successor Joe Biden before leaving the White House, spokesman Judd Deere told media minutes after the outgoing president's departure.

Trump, who refused to accept his defeat for more than two months, never congratulated Biden on his victory.

"We are just temporary occupants of this office," Barack Obama wrote in his own note to Trump four years ago, left in the Oval Office in line with presidential tradition.

"That makes us guardians of those democratic institutions and traditions... that our forebears fought and bled for. Regardless of the push and pull of daily politics, it's up to us to leave those instruments of our democracy at least as strong as we found them," he added.

Donald Trump and Melania are greeted by family members on the tarmac at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland on Wednesday. AFP

The letter touted as one of the classiest left by a president was written by Republican George HW Bush to Bill Clinton, who had made Bush a one-term president after defeating him in the 1992 election.

The letter, which Bush left as he departed the White House in 1993, recalled his "sense of wonder and respect" as he walked in to the Oval Office four years earlier.

"There will be very tough times ... just don't let the critics discourage you or push you off course," Bush wrote.

"You will be our president when you read this note. I wish you well. I wish your family well. Your success now is our country's success. I am rooting hard for you. Good luck," he told his opponent.

Donald Trump has left the White House for the final time as president. Meanwhile, President-elect Joe Biden is attending church ahead of his inauguration, a traditional step taken ahead of the swearing-in ceremony.

Trump emerged from the building Wednesday morning and strode across the South Lawn to board Marine One.

He said, "It’s been a great honor, the honor of a lifetime.”

Trump now heads to Joint Base Andrews in suburban Maryland, where he’ll have a military sendoff.

 Joe Biden and his wife Jill Biden attend mass at the Cathedral of St. Matthew in Washington on Wednesday. AP

A red carpet has been placed on the tarmac for Trump to walk as he boards the plane. Four US Army cannons are set up for a 21-gun salute. Trump then flies to Florida, where he’ll stay at Mar-a-Lago.

Biden and incoming first lady Jill Biden on Wednesday are attending a service at Washington’s Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle. With them are incoming Vice President Kamala Harris and her husband, Douglas Emhoff.

At Biden’s invitation, the first couple is joined by a bipartisan group of members of Congress, including all four top-ranking members of congressional leadership.