U.S. President Donald Trump listens as Vice President Mike Pence speaks during a press conference in the James Brady Press Room of the White House on February 29, 2020 in Washington, DC.
Alex Wong | Getty Images
WASHINGTON – Vice President Mike Pence will attend the inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden, a well-known person told NBC News.
Pence’s decision to see Biden’s swearing-in ceremony at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 20 is a new public breakup with President Donald Trump since the riots that rocked Washington. On Friday, Trump said he would skip Biden’s inauguration, a move that seemed to undermine the president’s message of national “healing and reconciliation,” a day earlier.
Biden, who spoke from Wilmington, Delaware, on Friday, welcomed Trump’s decision, calling it “one of the few things we’ve ever agreed on.”
Suggesting Pence’s potential presence, Biden said he would be “honored to have him there and move forward in the transition.”
“I think it’s important that, as much as we can, we can stay within the historical precedents and circumstances of how an administration changes,” Biden said.
U.S. President-elect Joe Biden attends a briefing on comments on the U.S. response to the coronavirus disease epidemic (COVID-19) at its Transitional Headquarters in Wilmington, Delaware. on December 29, 2020.
Jonathan Ernst | Reuters
Traditionally, incoming and outgoing presidents travel together from the White House to the United States Capitol for the inauguration ceremony.
Trump is not the first outgoing president to skip his successor’s inauguration. The others were Presidents John Adams, John Quincy Adams and Andrew Johnson, according to the White House Historical Association. Like Trump, Johnson was also charged.
Prior to the inauguration, which is in less than two weeks, more than 6,200 National Guard troops will be deployed in the country’s capital and will remain in the region for at least 30 days.
The mobilization ensures that members of the National Guard will be at your disposal for the inauguration of Biden at the Capitol.