The President asks, "are you trying to tell me Freemasons don't like me?" to which Charlie responds, "not a huge demo for you, no.". While it's true that the Freemasons of Saint John's Lodge No. 1 do own the Washington Bible and most of the rules surrounding the lending of the Bible as stated are generally correct, the Freemasons would not deny any President of any stripe the use of the Bible for political reasons. Freemasons are not only devoutly apolitical, they are also intensely patriotic and as part of their oaths even swear to be peaceable citizens of the state where they reside and to never countenance rebellion. The reality is that the Washington Bible has been used in 5 Presidential Inaugurals for member of both political parties and the Freemasons have always supported the use of this Bible, happily incurring the transportation expenses without reimbursement from the government.
In the beginning, when Danny Timothy Busfield is in C.J.'s Allison Janney office, Gail's fishbowl contains a lectern/podium.
CJ (Allison Janney) refers to "Zaire" at a press conference, but the country changed its name to "Democratic Republic of the Congo" in 1997.
As guests are assembling for the inauguration, the Marine Corps Band can be heard playing "Columbia, the Gem of the Ocean." This is the same musical work performed by the Columbia High School band at Bartlet's second term campaign announcement event in the Season 3 opener "Manchester."
Besides the series always being in the off-years from the real presidential elections (the series' presidential elections are held in 2002 and 2006), the inauguration ceremony/address/parade/balls are held on a Sunday. In reality, if January 20th falls on a Sunday, the president takes the oath of office as constitutionally required, but the ceremonies are held the next day. This happened in reality in 2013 with Barack Obama's second inaugural.