Snow, hail and rain were present in Washington, D.C., Sunday, but that didn’t stop Southern Illinois residents from making the trek to the nation’s capital for President-elect Donald Trump’s second inauguration. While Trump hosted a rally inside of Capital One Arena, Illinois Congressman Mike Bost held a “Welcome Southern Illinois” Reception in the House Committee of Veterans’ Affairs Hearing Room.
“Bringing as many people as we brought from my district in Illinois…we thought this would be a good stop off…Inaugural’s tomorrow so a lot of receptions are held all over the place,” Bost told the Daily Egyptian.
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Jackie Cox, who used to teach at SIU’s School of Education, left Carbondale Thursday evening with her husband, Richard Cox, to drive to Washington, D.C. This is the second inauguration they’ve attended, and it will probably be the last due to their age, they said. But as supporters of Trump, they wanted to make the journey.
“I absolutely adore Trump more than any president we have because I feel he loves America,” Richard Cox said. “Yeah I know there’s a controversy that 50% we know love him, and I adore him. And I’ve met him a couple times in business deals, which was great, and I think that he’s very egocentric. He loves himself, and the only thing he’s gaining is helping us, because he wants to go out – ‘cause I’ve read all his books of his family from grandpa on – and he wants to be the best and he wants to change America to love the people. ‘Cause he’s only been successful because the people have chose him in business.”
Robb Bute, who is an instructor of auto collision technology, said he felt it was “a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity” to be a part of the event. He drove from Harrisburg to St. Louis to catch a flight to Washington, D.C. While his group had tickets for the Inaugural Ceremony prior to the event moving indoors, he said attending didn’t matter to them. “We wanted to be here regardless. Just being here, a part of it, it’s enough,” he said.
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As a resident of Illinois, Bute said he felt it was important to show up in support of not just Trump, but his state and representative as well.
“Mike (Bost) does a very good job in what he does with veterans and everything from southern Illinois so we support him and this is just our way of being here to be a part of that,” he said.
Bost serves as chairman of the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs. The position allowed him to host the event in their new room, which is two years old, he said.
“It also gave us an opportunity to reach out to those people not only with southern Illinois, but there’s people from all over Illinois and some from all over the nation that actually have things that are involved with the VA,” he said.
René Mallender, who is a resident of Ellis Grove, Illinois, also attended the reception in support of Bost. “I’ve known Mike Bost since the late ‘90s when he first started running, and I’m a big supporter,” she said. “I’m actually a widow of a disabled veteran through the VA, so I realize more than anybody what he does for the veterans in our area.”
At the reception, guests were provided with refreshments and television screens broadcasting Trump’s Make America Great Again rally. Several SIU students were in the crowd, including Kylie Martin, an exercise science major who said the opportunity was something she and her group thought they had to jump on. Since the swearing-in ceremony was closed to the public due to inclement weather, her plans for Monday remain uncertain.
“We went to a ball last night, and that was like the only guaranteed thing that we could go to since everything’s been moved indoors, so we’re not really sure what’s going to happen tomorrow, we’ll probably be here watching it in Mike’s office,” she said.
Halfway through the event, Bost announced only he and his wife would be able to enter the Capitol Rotunda for the inauguration, and offered alternatives for those who were looking to attend the ceremony. “I know many of you have heard about the stadium that will be open if you want to go there. But if you don’t want to go there, and you’re looking for a good place to watch it, come back here, okay? We’ll have all the screens on, so we’ll watch it in here. It will be nice.”
Phillip Hartke and Samuel Faciano, industrial management and applied engineering majors at SIU, flew out of Chicago to the capital Monday morning. Hartke said a member of their fraternity had received a few spare tickets from a friend and offered them out at a meeting, allowing them to attend their first inauguration.
“It was super late notice, so it happened that just me and (Faciano) were able to make it,” he said. “And since we were able to make it, I mean we said, this is something that’s just historic, we’ll be able to tell our kids about it, and, you know, maybe, I don’t know what to expect. And then they canceled it and did all this crazy stuff but we came anyway.”
Faciano said their plans following the inauguration include visiting a cathedral and the Washington Monument. Hartke said that on Inauguration Day, he is looking forward to seeing “the interaction between the different crowds of people – the protestors, counter protestors, and just kind of observe the huge crowds and the cultural impact of everything that’s gone on.”
“I mean, starting in 2014, 2015 when Trump first started doing stuff, I’m a guy who really likes to look at history and study things and it’s crazy to see how much it has developed and changed and how kind of powerful it is,” he said. “It’s a moment in history to witness.”
Hartke said he used to intern with Bost, which is how they found out about the ceremony. “It’s like, small world, you know? I didn’t expect to see anybody I recognize when I walked in here, and it’s just cool.”
Illinois Sen. Terri Bryant, who lives in Murphysboro, was also present at the reception. While she has visited the capital before, this is her first presidential inauguration, and she said the southern Illinois turnout is “fantastic.”
“We went to the Midwest Ball last night. Great representation there from Illinois in general but definitely from southern Illinois,” she said. “There’s a big group here from Randolph County, so basically Chester area, and I had breakfast with them yesterday morning, so they came over to the hotel we’re staying in, and for a lot of them it was their first trip to D.C., and so it’s just been super exciting to see. I mean, you know, most of the people who are here…they’re not uber wealthy…In other countries, those are the only people that have access to something like this. Here, we all get to have access and we get to watch the transfer of power.”
In addition to accessibility, Bryant praised the United States for another reason: She said she feels it is the only country to consistently have a peaceful transfer of government.
“So maybe it’s the same person two cycles in a row but there is a handoff – no matter what anybody says about Jan. 6 – we still had a peaceful transfer of government on Inauguration Day,” she said. “And to get to be here, and whether we’re actually standing in the room where it happens or not, whether we’re watching it on TV, the vibe here in D.C. is just awesome.”
News editor Carly Gist can be reached by email at [email protected] or on Instagram @gistofthestory. To stay up to date on all your southern Illinois news, be sure to follow The Daily Egyptian on Facebook and on X @dailyegyptian.
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