Josh Haner/The New York Times Vice President Joseph R. Biden, Jr. took the oath of office from Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor on Sunday morning.Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. was sworn in for a second term at 8:21 a.m. on Sunday, in a private ceremony that suggested he might indeed want to be President Obama‘s successor in four years.
The governor of New Hampshire, which is the first presidential primary state, was among the few people to join Mr. Biden, his family and close political associates at the vice president’s residence. On Saturday night, Mr. Biden attended a pre-inaugural party of Democrats from Iowa, the first presidential caucus state, at the National Museum of Women in the Arts.
Mr. Biden’s swearing-in, and Mr. Obama’s later at the White House, was arranged in advance of Monday’s traditional public inauguration because of the rare occurrence of Jan. 20 falling on a Sunday.
Before Justice Sonia Sotomayor of the Supreme Court administered the oath in the foyer of the white mansion on northwest Washington’s Naval Observatory grounds that has been home! to vice presidents since the late 1970s, the Biden party attended a private Mass there. Seen entering to join the expected 120 guests - about a dozen of them members of Mr. Biden’s family - was Gov. Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire, and her husband and daughter.
By contrast, Mr. Obama’s swearing-in, to be administered by Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. just before noon in the Blue Room of the White House, will be a smaller affair, attended only by Mr. Obama’s family and a small pool of reporters and cameras to record the event.
Other attendees at Mr. Biden’s event included former Senators hris Dodd, Ted Kaufman (who had been Mr. Biden’s chief of staff) and Chuck Hagel, the Republican who is Mr. Obama’s nominee for secretary of defense; current Senators Bob Casey of Pennsylvania and Tim Kaine of Virginia; the House Democratic leader, Representative Nancy Pelosi, the assistant leader, Representative James E. Clyburn of South Carolina, and Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz, the chairman of the Democratic Party.
Cabinet members included Attorney General Eric Holder and outgoing Interior Secretary Ken Salazar. Mr. Obama’s national security adviser, Tom Donilon, the longtime Obama strategist David Axelrod and former White House Chief of Staff William M. Daley were there, along with the union leader Richard Trumka and two prominent Democratic mayors, Michael Nutter of Philadelphia and Antonio Villaraigosa of Los Angeles.
Mr. Biden stood on a small riser for the quick oath surrounded by his wife, Jill, his two sons, his daughter and their spouses and children. Other invitees were seated in chairs that spilled into two rooms adjoining the foyer through wide archways â€" a blue-and-white dining room and an airy yellow sitting room.
For the oath, the vice president used the same five-inch-thick Bible that has been in his family for 120 years and that he has had with him for every swearing-in since his first as a senator from Delaware in 1973.
Just for the occasion, two pieces of art were hung on the walls - N.C. Wyeth’s “Lincoln Delivering His Second Inaugural Address†and Victor Letonoff’s “So Proudly We Hailed 1815,†a work depicting an early American flag that is from a gallery in Mr. Biden’s home state. The flag from his vice presidential office hung behind the stage.
A statement from Mr. Biden’s office said that he “personally selected Associate Justice Sotomayor, who will be the first Hispanic and fourth female judge to administer an oath of office.†Justice Sotomayor, who was appointed by Mr. Obama, is the fourth woman to swear in a president or vice president; the first was a Texas judge, Sarah T. Hughes, who swore in President Lyndon B. Johnson after President John F. Kennedy’s assassination in Dallas nearly 50 years ago.
