Trump to skip Biden inaugural; president-elect fine with that
WASHINGTON » President Donald Trump said Friday he will skip Presidentelect Joe Biden’s inauguration, refusing to fulfill the outgoing president’s traditional role in the peaceful transition of power, and undercutting his own message just one day earlier on the need for “national healing and unity.”
Trump, who has not appeared in public since the violent mob of his supporters besieged the Capitol on Wednesday and tried to halt the transfer of power, will be the first incumbent president since Andrew Johnson not to attend his successor’s inauguration.
Biden said he was fine with that, calling it “one of the few things we have ever agreed on.”
“It’s a good thing him not showing up,” he added, calling the president an “embarrassment” to the nation, and unworthy of the office.
Traditionally, the incoming and outgoing presidents ride to the U.S. Capitol together on Inauguration Day for the ceremony, a visible manifestation of the smooth change of leadership.
Biden will become president at noon on Jan. 20, regardless of Trump’s plans. But Trump’s absence represents one final act of defiance of the norms and traditions of Washington that he has flouted for four years.
Historian Douglas Brinkley said that while attending the inauguration “would be a wonderful olive branch to the country,” he wasn’t surprised by the decision.
“Donald Trump doesn’t want to be in Washington as the second-fiddle loser
standing on stage with Joe Biden,” he said.
While Trump stays away, former presidents Barack Obama, George W. Bush and Bill Clinton and their wives will be there to stand witness to the rite of democracy. The only other living president, 96-yearold Jimmy Carter, who has spent the pandemic largely at home in Georgia, will not attend, but has extended “best wishes” to Biden.
Trump on Friday holed up in the White House with his dwindling coterie of aides, and as momentum grew on Capitol Hill to subject him to impeachment for a second time.
“To all of those who have asked, I will not be going to the Inauguration on January 20th,” Trump tweeted.
It was not a surprise: Trump for more than two months has falsely claimed he won reelection, and advanced baseless claims of widespread voter fraud, even though his administration has said the election
was fairly run.
Sen. Rick Scott, a Florida Republican, urged Trump to reconsider.
“He is, of course, not constitutionally required to attend and I can imagine losing an election is very hard, but I believe he should attend,” Scott said in a statement. The senator said he planned to attend, and called the rite “an important tradition that demonstrates the peaceful transfer of power to our people and to the world.”
Vice President Mike Pence, who defied Trump on Wednesday when he refused to intervene in the congressional process to certify Biden’s win, was expected to attend the inauguration, according to one person close to him and one familiar with inauguration planning. But Pence spokesman Devin O’Malley said in a statement Friday that the vice president and the second lady “have yet to make a decision regarding their attendance.”