President Joe Biden will host President-elect Donald Trump at the White House on Wednesday for their first post-election meeting, launching the transition of power in the United States that will be completed in January.
They will meet in the Oval Office at 11 a.m. at Biden’s invitationWhite House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in a statement.
Biden pledged Thursday to help ensure a peaceful transfer of power in January and called for healing divisions in a politically polarized nation.
“I hope that we can, no matter who you voted for, see each other not as adversaries, but as fellow Americans, and lower the temperatureBiden said. “Also I hope we can put aside the question of the integrity of the American electoral system. It is honest, fair and transparent. And you can trust him, win or lose.”
In the formal transition process, Trump has yet to sign the US General Services Administration memorandum of understanding that would grant him access to federal government resources to help with the transfer of power after the Republican’s victory in the November 5 elections.
In 2020, Trump fought for weeks against the election result with false accusations of voter fraud and did not invite Biden to the White House as part of the transition. Instead, Barack Obama invited Trump to the White House after the 2016 race.
This year, Trump won key states to win a second term as presidentand Republicans won control of the Senate in an election that most polls had called too close to produce a winner.
Vice President Kamala Harris, Trump’s defeated opponent in the presidential election, will oversee Congress’ certification of his election victory in January. In 2021, a mob of Trump supporters attacked the US Capitol to disrupt those proceedings after Biden won the 2020 election.
