Trump Won’t Attend Biden Inauguration
WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump took to his favorite medium — Twitter — Friday morning to announce he won’t attend President-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration on Jan. 20.
“To all of those who have asked, I will not be going to the Inauguration on January 20th,” Trump tweeted.
The announcement means Trump will be the first incumbent president since Andrew Johnson — who was also impeached during his presidency — to skip his successor’s swearing-in.
The brief post also seemed at odds with his statement on video last night, that he would work to ensure a “smooth, orderly and seamless transition of power.”
Trump has said nothing publicly about how he would spend his final hours in office. One thing he won’t do, we now know, is ride with incoming President Joe Biden to the U.S. Capitol, a long-standing symbol of the nation’s peaceful transition of power.
As for his post-presidency, Trump said that “The 75,000,000 great American Patriots who voted for me, AMERICA FIRST, and MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN, will have a GIANT VOICE long into the future. They will not be disrespected or treated unfairly in any way, shape or form!!!”
Trump’s comments come two days after a violent mob of his supporters occupied the Capitol for several hours as lawmakers were tallying the electoral votes that certified Biden’s victory.
His decision to bypass the inauguration was widely expected. Last month, Jen Psaki, the president-elect’s incoming White House press secretary, said whether Trump attended the inauguration was not top of mind for Biden.
Vice President Mike Pence is still expected to attend the inauguration.
In The News
Health
Voting
Political News
California Secretary of State Shirley Weber has released the final list of 46 candidates who qualified for the upcoming gubernatorial recall election. The recall election seeking to remove Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom will take place on Sept. 14, 2021. Among the candidates that qualified were nine... Read More
New Jersey Supreme Court Chief Justice Stuart Rabner has asked Democrats and Republicans to reconvene the state’s redistricting commission and come up with a consensus candidate to act as the tiebreaker in upcoming districting decisions. Rabner first made his desire for a consensus candidate known in... Read More
Voters in Texas’ 6th Congressional District will decide which Republican candidate will fill the vacancy left by Rep. Ronald Wright, R-Texas, who died of COVID-19 related complications on Feb. 7. On the ballot Tuesday are Susan Wright, the representative’s widow and a longtime player in GOP... Read More
WASHINGTON - As a select committee prepares to open its investigation Tuesday into the events leading up to and during the Jan. 6 insurrection on Capitol Hill, a trio of House Republican wonder what might have been. Everyone expected some controversy when House Minority Leader Kevin... Read More
Electric utility company FirstEnergy Corp. agreed to settle a Justice Department complaint Thursday by paying $230 million to avoid a federal wire fraud conspiracy charge. Company officials admitted they conspired with former Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder to pay millions of dollars to his political nonprofit... Read More
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Democrat Abby Finkenauer, a former congresswoman, is running for Republican Chuck Grassley's U.S. Senate seat, hoping her blue-collar credentials will propel her forward in a state that has grown more conservative over the years. The 32-year-old former state lawmaker, who announced... Read More
