Biden is 46th US President TRUMP SKIPS CEREMONY, SAYS WILL PRAY FOR BIDEN’S SUCCESS
WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump hailed his administration’s record as he left the White House for the last time on Wednesday before Presidentelect Joe Biden assumed the helm of a country beset by deep political divides and battered by a raging coronavirus pandemic.
Biden, 78, was being sworn in on Wednesday at a scaled-back ceremony in Washington that was largely stripped of its usual pomp and circumstance, due both to the coronavirus as well as security concerns following the January 6 assault on the US Capitol by Trump supporters.
Trump left the White House with his wife Melania just after 8am (1300 GMT) by helicopter on his way to a sendoff event at Joint Air Force Base Andrews, where he promised supporters “we’ll be back in some form” and listed his administration’s accomplishments before flying off to Florida.
Trump’s refusal to greet his successor and attend the inauguration represented a break with more than a century and a half of political tradition, seen as a way to affirm the peaceful transfer of power.
Biden’s running mate, Kamala Harris, the daughter of immigrants
US President
from Jamaica and India, is the first Black person, first woman and first Asian American to serve as vice president after being sworn in by US Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, the court’s first Latina member.
Wednesday’s ceremony was unfolding in front of a heavily fortified US Capitol, where a mob of Trump supporters stormed the building two weeks ago, enraged by his false claims that November’s election was stolen with millions of fraudulent votes.
The violence prompted the Democratic-controlled US House of Representatives to impeach Trump last week for an unprecedented second time.
WASHINGTON: Outgoing US President Donald Trump on Tuesday wished the incoming administration of Joe Biden “luck” and said he would be praying for its success.
But Trump could still not bring himself around to name Biden as president and congratulate him directly.
Trump and first lady Melania Trump left the White House on Wednesday morning for their Florida resort, with a stopover for a farewell at a military base outside Washington, DC.
They did attend Biden’s inauguration or receive him and his wife at the White House as has been a transfer-of-power ritual.
Trump, in a recorded video farewell address, said: “We extend our best wishes, and we also want them to have luck — a very important word.” Hours before he left, Trump granted clemency to dozens of people, including his former strategist Steve Bannon, in one of his final official acts as president.