Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar said she has high hopes for President-elect Joe Biden's inauguration ceremony - even if the day still carries the physical marks of the Jan. 6 breach of the U.S. Capitol.
Klobuchar sat down Tuesday for a virtual one-on-one with KARE 11's Lauren Leamanczyk, discussing the pandemic, the U.S. Capitol riot and the inauguration.
"We are going to assemble on a platform that, only two weeks ago, was mobbed by an angry, angry group of insurrectionists," Klobuchar said. "You literally are going to see the spray paint on the bottoms of the columns."
However, Klobuchar said she expected the ceremony to be "beautiful" - with Vice President Pence, former President Obama, former President Bush and former President Clinton attending to welcome President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris.
Leamanczyk asked what Klobuchar hopes the nation and world will take from the ceremony.
"I hope they take the sense that our country always finds a way to move forward," Klobuchar said. "Even through the pandemic, even through the security nightmare that we experienced two weeks ago, that our country is bigger than that, and our hearts are bigger than that."
As for security at the inauguration, Klobuchar said she trusts the Secret Service and the military - especially since COVID-19 concerns will keep the event a fraction of its usual size.
"As in past inaugurations, this is run by the Secret Service, so it's a whole different thing than what was going on at the Capitol," she said.
President Donald Trump has announced that he will not attend Biden's inauguration. He did, however, release a "farewell address" video that did not mention Biden by name.
“This week, we inaugurate a new administration and pray for its success in keeping America safe and prosperous," Trump said in the video. "We extend our best wishes and we also want them to have luck, a very important word."
He also spoke on the breach of the Capitol building by his supporters after he directed them to “fight” the election results, saying that “all Americans were horrified by the assault on our Capitol." He added that political violence “can never be tolerated.”