Nov. 13 (UPI) — President Joe Biden pledged a smooth transition as he welcomed President-elect Donald Trump to the White House on Wednesday in a reignited tradition Trump balked at in 2020.
“Well, Mr. President-elect, former president, Donald,” the outgoing Democratic president said to the incoming Republican president-elect in the Oval Office at their sit-down.
“Congratulations,” said Biden, adding, “welcome back” as the two shook hands.
The ceremonial visit marked Trump’s first return to the White House since January 2021 when he left office. Biden extended the invitation last Wednesday after Trump’s election prior to his welcome a week later by Biden and first lady Jill Biden.
“Politics is tough,” Trump said in reply. “And it’s, in many cases, not a very nice world, but it is a nice world today.”
The meeting has long been part of America’s peaceful transfer of power, demonstrating civility between outgoing and incoming administrations.
Trump told Biden, “and I appreciate it very much.”
Trump was welcomed to the White House by then-President Barack Obama two days after winning the 2016 election and spoke highly of his time spent with Obama afterward.
“This was a meeting that was going to last for maybe 10 or 15 minutes, and we were just going to get to know each other,” Trump said at the time of his Obama meeting. “We had never met each other. I have great respect. The meeting lasted for almost an hour and a half. And it could have — as far as I’m concerned, it could have gone on for a lot longer.”
However, Trump did not extend the same traditional courtesy to Biden in 2020 as he continued to make unfounded claims about the results of the 2020 election being illegitimate. And he did not attend Biden’s Jan. 20, 2021 inauguration amid the pandemic during his first term.
Biden said in October he intends to attend the inauguration ceremony regardless of the winner of the election. And on Wednesday, he told Trump he is looking forward to “a smooth transition” come January and will “make sure” of a peaceful transfer.
“The American people deserve this. They deserve a peaceful transfer of power,” White House Press secretary and senior adviser Karine Jean-Pierre said Tuesday at a press briefing. “They deserve a smooth transition. And that’s what you’re going to see.”
Biden invited Trump to reignite this tradition because the outgoing president “believes in the norms,” Jean-Pierre stated.
Before his meeting with Biden, the president-elect was on Capitol Hill with GOP lawmakers where Republicans will hold power in both the Senate and House chambers in a “trifecta” control of the executive and legislative branches of government of the three.
“Congratulations and I look forward to having a smooth transition,” Biden said Wednesday in the Oval Office in front of the fireplace sitting under portraits of George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton and centered by Franklin D. Roosevelt.
Trump says the transition ” will be as smooth as it can get,” adding, “and I very much appreciate that, Joe.”
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