A former White House social secretary shares how an inauguration should look behind the scenes

Capehart

The Washington Post

News Commentary, Politics, News

4.6 • 1.4K Ratings

🗓️ 19 January 2021

⏱️ 44 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Capricia Penavic Marshall knows presidential transitions — at least in years anything close to normal. This hand-off is certainly not that, but let Marshall explain how it ought to unfold in all its process and pageantry.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	I'm Jonathan Cape Art and this is Cape Up. We won't have a traditional inauguration day.
0:10.0	No North Portico arrival at the White House, no limousine ride down Pennsylvania Avenue to the
0:15.2	capital with the outgoing and incoming presidents.
0:18.4	None of that pageantry and tradition that marks the peaceful transfer of power.
0:23.0	But in this episode, I want to pretend that we will.
0:26.0	Ambassador Capricia Pennevik Marshall
0:28.0	was the United States Chief of Protocol
0:30.0	in the Obama administration.
0:31.5	She was the White House Social Secretary in the Clinton administration. She was the White House Social Secretary in the Clinton
0:34.1	administration and was there 20 years ago on January 20th 2001 when President
0:40.9	Clinton greeted President-elect George W Bush on the front steps of the White House.
0:46.0	After the pleasantries are exchanged, what happens when the couples enter the White House?
0:51.0	Who's there? What do they talk about? What happens and who's left behind
0:56.4	when the President and their families head to the Capitol? Ambassador Marshall takes us behind
1:02.0	the scenes on what should be a day of high ceremony right now. Ambassador Capriia Marshall, thank you very much for coming to the podcast.
1:18.0	Oh, it's an absolute pleasure to join you, Jonathan. Thank you.
1:22.0	Okay, so normally on January 20th,
1:25.9	we would see one of the, to my mind, grandest ceremonies
1:35.0	that our country does, the peaceful transfer of power.
1:41.2	And it's not just the hand on the Bible and the oath to me. It's when the incoming president arrives at the North Portico, and the two families are there
1:49.2	and meeting. And that, to me, is the start of the peaceful transfer of power.
1:55.0	But we're not going to see that.
	...

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