US vice-prez Mike Pence will attend Biden inauguration

Washington: US vice-president Mike Pence will attend the inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris on January 20, an event the outgoing President Donald Trump has decided to skip. According to US media outlets, word of Mr Pence’s intention to watch Mr Biden take his oath of office in person spread after the first major break between him and Mr Trump — when the vice-president defied the Presi-dent by performing his constitutional duty to certify the November 3 poll results.

Washington, Jan. 10: Mike Pence will attend the upcoming inauguration of Joe Biden, multiple media reports said Saturday, the vice president becoming the latest longtime loyalist to abandon an increasingly isolated President Donald Trump.

Relations between Trump and Pence — previously one of the mercurial president’s staunchest defenders —have nosedived since Wednesday, when the vice president formally announced Biden’s victory in November's election.

A mob of far-right demonstrators stormed the US Capitol the same day in a failed bid to stop Congress from certifying Biden’s win, in a riot blamed on Trump that left five dead.

Multiple media reports on Saturday cited senior administration officials as saying that Pence —who was forced to take shelter from the intruders during the riot — had decided to attend Biden’s inauguration on January 20.

The president-elect earlier in the week said Pence would be welcome at his formal swearing-in, due to take place in a scaleddown format due to the Covid-19.

“I think that as much as we can stick to what have been the historical precedents of how an administration changes should be maintained,” Biden told reporters.

“We’d be honored to have him there, and to move forward in the transition.” In his final tweet before being removed from Twitter on Friday, Trump said he would not attend the inauguration. — AFP