President Joe Biden on Wednesday took the oath of office on a family Bible used by his late son, Beau Biden, when he was sworn in as Delaware attorney general, The Hill confirmed.
MSNBC reported that the Bible has been in the Biden family since 1893, and was also used at Biden’s swearing-in ceremonies as a U.S. senator and as vice president in the past.
In an interview last month on “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert,” then President-elect Biden said “every important date” is included in the family Bible.
“For example, every time I’ve been sworn in for anything, the date is inscribed,” he told Colbert.
The Biden inaugural committee told The Washington Post that the family heirloom is five inches thick with a “sturdy leather cover and metal clasps.”
Biden made history Wednesday by becoming the country’s second Catholic president, after former President John F. Kennedy.
The president attended church at the Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle in Washington, D.C., Wednesday morning ahead of his inauguration ceremony.
Moments before Biden took the oath of office, Vice President Harris was sworn in using a Bible that once belonged to the first African American to serve on the Supreme Court, Thurgood Marshall. Harris also chose Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, the high court’s first Latina member, to swear her into office.
Harris is the first Black American, first woman and first South Asian American to serve as the country’s vice president.
A source told The Hill last week that Harris had also planned on using an additional Bible that belonged to a woman named Regina Shelton, who was a mother figure to Harris. Harris was close to Shelton’s daughter and foster children, and Harris used the same Bible when she was sworn in as California attorney general and the U.S. Senate.