Gov. Malloy At Inauguration: Everybody Is Talking About Newtown

Gov. Dannel Malloy checked in while riding a bus from the Capitol Monday afternoon, where he was on his way to an post-inauguration reception.

“It’s a pretty jam-packed day,” said Malloy, who has had a couple of meetings with Vice President Biden and dinners with the Secretary of the Navy and cabinet secretaries since he arrived Friday.

“Clearly the president and vice president are excited about the onset of the term,” Malloy said. “The president is anxious to fight these battles and at the same he is looking for partners … He made it clear what he believes modern America is made of.”

Since his arrival in Washington, Malloy said he is been inundated with comments and concerns about the Newtown tragedy, from senators, governors, cabinet members “and people walking around.”

“It is amazing how different Newtown is and how profoundly Newtown has impacted the country,” Malloy said, noting the comments from both President Obama and in Richard Blanco’s inaugural poem. “There is a different sense about this one.”

Malloy said he had a few receptions and two balls on his agenda for Monday evening. He returns to Connecticut Tuesday morning.

Here is the line about Newtown from Obama’s speech:

Our journey is not complete until all our children, from the streets of Detroit to the hills of Appalachia, to the quiet lanes of Newtown, know that they are cared for and cherished and always safe from harm.

Sen. Richard Blumenthal said some families from Sandy Hook Elementary School were at the ceremony. His office had invited families to attend, he said.

“I was sitting up on the podium within a stone’s throw of the President,” Blumenthal said. “I think the inaugural address was extraordinarily powerful and even poetic in invoking a vision for America’s future. I was struck particularly with the reference to Newtown as a symbol of how America needs to do better.”

“He has made Newtown a larger symbol of what America’s obligation is to its children,” said Blumenthal, who returned Sunday from a trip to Egypt, Jordan and Afghanistan. Blumenthal said he and his colleagues would be “moving ahead immediatly and very aggressively” on gun control legislation.

Check out the NYT interactive graphic (see above) that allows you to see where people were sitting.

 –Inauguration pictures from Sen. Chris Murphy, Rep. Jim Himes, via Twitter