WASHINGTON — Sen. Amy Klobuchar took the stage Monday to call to order the inauguration of incoming President Donald Trump and incoming Vice President JD Vance.

The Minnesota Democrat chairs the bipartisan Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies, which is tasked with planning Inauguration Day. She had planned to speak at the event regardless of who won the election.

“This ceremony truly is the peaceful transition of power, and it is on me, even though I did not support the president-elect, to make sure that this ceremony is worthy of our country and worthy of our leadership in the world,” Klobuchar said in an interview ahead of the ceremony.

Klobuchar is the only Democrat who spoke during the ceremony, noting that it marks what will soon be 250 years of the nation’s democracy.

“It is the moment when leaders, elevated by the will of the people, promise to be faithful to our Constitution, to cherish and defend it,” she said. “It is the moment when they become, as we all should be, the guardians of our country.”

Klobuchar also spoke at the 2021 inauguration ceremony and introduced President Joe Biden, just two weeks after rioters descended on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, causing destruction as lawmakers were certifying his 2020 victory.

Her 2021 speech was celebratory and she talked about how the riots had “awakened us to our responsibilities as Americans.”

“This is the day when our democracy picks itself up, brushes off the dust and does what America always does — goes forward as a nation, under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all,” she said in 2021.

Her speech this year struck a different tone.

“With that responsibility of leadership comes an obligation to stand our ground when we must and find common ground when we can,” Klobuchar said. “With everything swirling around us — the hot mess of division — it is on all of us, to quote an incredible songwriter who just happened to be born in my state, to ensure that our nation’s democracy is our ‘shelter from the storm.’”

With extreme cold temperatures in the nation’s capital Monday, Trump decided to move most of the ceremony indoors, including the address, prayers and speeches. It took place in the Capitol rotunda, similar to President Ronald Reagan’s 1985 inauguration.

“The weather forecast for Washington, D.C., with the windchill factor, could take temperatures into severe record lows,” Trump said on Truth Social. “There is an Arctic blast sweeping the Country. I don’t want to see people hurt, or injured, in any way.”

Minnesota’s four Republican members of Congress, who backed Trump for president, attended the inauguration.

But not all Minnesota Democrats did. Initially on the fence, Sen. Tina Smith attended, along with Rep. Angie Craig and the delegation’s newest member, Rep. Kelly Morrison.

Reps. Ilhan Omar and Betty McCollum stayed in Minnesota to attend Monday events tied to Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

“The Presidential inauguration will take place on MLK Day, which is a day I’ve always spent at community gatherings,” McCollum said in a statement in December. “My time would be better spent with my constituents rather than traveling back and forth between Minnesota and Washington to attend the inauguration for just a few hours.”

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