D.C. Dispatch: a most unusual inauguration
This year, The Smoky Mountain News will bring readers multiple stories from the 2025 inauguration in Washington, D.C.
Cory Vaillancourt photo
The 2017 inauguration of President Donald Trump was normal in nearly every way — the crowds of enthusiastic supporters, the chants of angry protestors, the iconic swearing-in ceremony at Capitol. But as it turns out, that inauguration will now fondly be remembered as the last “normal” inauguration in recent history.
After traveling solo to Washington, D.C. that year to do some reporting for The Smoky Mountain News, I returned in 2021 with photographer Jeffrey Delannoy for the inauguration of Joe Biden. It was two weeks after the Jan. 6 attempted insurrection and right about the peak of the Coronavirus Pandemic. Everything was shut down, most of D.C.’s major attractions were entangled in miles of fencing and the swearing-in ceremony presented but a glimpse of its usual grandeur.
This year, Delannoy and I are joined by SMN News Editor Kyle Perrotti, but once again, things are far from normal. Before we even arrived on Jan. 17, we learned that an arctic blast projected to bring plunging temperatures by Jan. 20 prompted President-elect Trump to move most ceremonies inside and cancel others. Closed roads and railway stations began to reopen. Workers all over the city hastily arranging barricades, decorations and seating paused mid-shift and began disassembling long-planned accommodations for events that, now, would never take place.
But we don’t come here for all that stuff; our little niche in the national media ecosystem does not compel us to report on the ritualistic actions and events that accompany the transfer of power from one administration to another. Instead, despite the disruptions, we’re here working on deeper stories that speak to important issues and serve our core audience — the people of North Carolina, specifically Western North Carolina. With that said, this week’s issue of the Smoky Mountain News will feature a suite of stories I hope you’ll find interesting, insightful and relevant.
You’ll read about the outsized impact North Carolina had on the nation’s current political dynamic, and how Republicans from Haywood County on up made it happen.
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You’ll read about the People’s March, a demonstration against the incoming president and his administration, from the perspective of a young Western North Carolina native who lives in Washington and participated. You’ll also hear from our Hannah McLeod about the affiliated People’s March that took place in Asheville on Jan. 18.
And, you’ll read about a group of people, including an elector from North Carolina’s 11th Congressional District who gathered outside a D.C. jail where inmates convicted of crimes connected to the attempted insurrection are being held — calling for pardons or commutations and for retribution against those who prosecuted them.
Find all that, plus our usual slate of award-winning news, outdoors and arts coverage, in our Jan. 22 issue. And maybe, just maybe, we’ll get a “normal” inauguration again in 2029.
But I’m not making any promises.
