Joe Biden faces unrivaled challenges as he takes oath

When Joe Biden is sworn in as the 46th president of the United States Wednesday, he'll immediately face an unprecedented series of catastrophes.

While he's been preparing for months to address the pandemic killing 4-thousand Americans a day, as well as an economy in the crisis that's left millions jobless, the armed insurrection at the U.S. Capitol raises fresh questions about just how Biden can begin to mend a nation so deeply divided.

"Well, certainly it's a fraught moment at the very least, and virtually unprecedented," says Virginia Tech political scientist Karen Hult, who is also a member of the non-partisan White House Transition Project.

"The levels of threat that are being reported in Washington, D.C. and around the country are a great concern. There's also concern about people not only not accepting the election results, but also not accepting government as an entity that they should be able to respond to. All of those make it very difficult for a new president coming in," she says.

Add to that Donald Trump's second Senate impeachment trial beginning potentially as soon as Biden's first day in office, not to mention a vast team of Cabinet nominees who have yet to go through the Senate confirmation process.

The confluence of events amounts to one of the most politically and logistically complicated openings to a new administration in modern history.

"Joe Biden has his work cut out for him, that is a gross understatement," says University of Virginia presidential historian, Barbara Perry.

"He is probably facing the combination of 1861 and 1933.  Lincoln facing secession of states from the Union and an impending civil war, and Franklin Roosevelt facing economic collapse and a worldwide depression," Perry says.

With tensions and divisions at a near all-time high, historians say Biden will need to revive his Senate reputation as a dealmaker - and move fast - to show that bipartisan action on the multi-front challenges is not only possible but imminent.

"Biden has a chance to be a president for a majority of the country, maybe not a big majority, but a majority nonetheless," explains George Washington University political historian Matt Dallek.

"He has a chance to restore the economy, to lead the fight against the pandemic, to make people feel liberated like they can go back to school in the office again and travel. And then I think to take some steps to cool the temperature," Dallek says.

Perry says Biden's pledge to be a president for all Americans is a start. The next step, she says, is to put Donald Trump in the rearview mirror.

"Leave Donald Trump to others. Don't bash him. Don't bring him up. Let his Justice Department decide whether it will investigate him. Let Congress decide whether there are more investigations to be done and then otherwise let him go," she says.

More immediately, historians say the visual imagery of Biden's inauguration Wednesday, should it go off without a hitch, will carry particular - and crucial - symbolism this year.

"Right now it feels like just Trump-induced chaos nonstop. And so you know, I think that political symbols matter and Biden's ability to be inaugurated peacefully will well send a signal that the country is not descended into civil war," says Dallek.

(Image Credits: AP)