President-elect Joe Biden said Friday that it was good for President Donald Trump to skip the inauguration ceremony later this month after one of the most chaotic weeks in modern American politics.
Trump, who helped provoke Wednesday’s violent riots on Capitol Hill, said on Twitter on Friday that he would not attend the Jan. 20 event.
“When I headed over here, I was told he indicated he would not show up at the inauguration – one of the few things he and I have ever agreed to,” Biden said of Trump. “It’s good, it doesn’t show up.”
“He has overcome even my worst notions about him,” the president-elect said. “He is one of the most incompetent presidents in the history of the United States of America.”
Biden, who spoke from Wilmington, Delaware, added that he would welcome Vice President Mike Pence to the inauguration.
“I think it’s important that, as much as we can, we can stay within the historical precedents and circumstances of how an administration’s changes should be maintained,” Biden said. “So if Mike, the vice president, is welcome, he would come. I would be honored to have him there and move forward in the transition.”
Earlier in the day, Pence spokeswoman Devin O’Malley said Vice President and Second Lady Karen Pence had not decided whether to attend.
The vice president broke with Trump earlier in the week when he said he did not have the authority to cast ballots certifying Biden’s victory. Biden said he has not spoken to Pence about the vice president’s attendance at the ceremony.
Biden also offered an oblique response to his views on the Democrats’ attempt by Congress to accuse or remove Trump from office.
“I think it’s important that we continue with the business to get him out of office. The fastest way this will happen is for us to take an oath on the 20th,” Biden said. “What action happens sooner or later is a judgment that Congress must make.”