White House quiet in hour after Biden became President-elect

It’s very quiet here at the White House in the hour after Joe Biden became President-elect. President Trump is out golfing at his Sterling, Virginia, club. On the North Lawn, where a small fraction of the election night press are assembled doing live shots, cheers and honking are very audible.

In the briefing room, a press aide is giving a tour.

At 17th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue NW, an access point for press and staff to the currently fenced-in White House, cars are honking, with one parked and blasting Kool and the Gang’s “Celebration” at the intersection. Pedestrians are cheering every time the honking starts. Waves of cheering from the nearby Black Lives Matter Plaza are also audible. 

A Secret Service agent observing the scene joked that the honking was bad, but better than the alternative: “I had my riot gear.”