On Inauguration Day, Joe and Jill Biden are expected to uphold the tradition of hosting the incoming president and his wife to tea, even if the couple are Donald and Melania Trump, who refused to show such courtesy to the Bidens four years ago after Trump lost the 2020 election, according to the Associated Press.
Ahead of Trump’s swearing-in at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 20, he and Melania Trump are expected to be greeted at the White House by Joe and Jill Biden, who will then bring them inside for some tea or coffee and perhaps some polite conversation.
CNN correspondent and Melania Trump biographer Kate Bennett wrote that one of “the most enduring transfer-of-power rituals” is when the outgoing president and his wife greet the new first couple on the steps of the North Portico, bring them inside for tea or coffee, then ride with them to the U.S. Capitol.
Donald and Melania Trump enjoyed such hospitality from Barack and Michelle Obama in January 2017, when they prepared to move into the White House for Trump’s first administration.
But in 2021, after Trump lost the election to Biden, he didn’t play graciously accept defeat. Instead, history will remember that the former reality TV star publicly denied losing and tried to hold onto power by falsely claiming voter fraud and encouraging a mob of his followers to march on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, to stop Congress from certifying Biden’s victory. Even members of Trump’s administration watched in horror as the march turned violent.
Two weeks later, Trump also refused to attend Biden’s inauguration, which meant he and Melania Trump perpetrated another “snub,” as Bennett said. They refused to welcome Joe and Jill Biden on the steps of the North Portico and invite them inside for refreshment. That job was handled instead by the White House’s chief usher.
Instead, Donald and Melania Trump and other family members rushed to get on Air Force One and fly to Florida. They arrived at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach about an hour before Biden took his oath of office al the Capitol, which still showed reminders of the violent siege perpetrated by the 45th president’s followers.
Two years later, Trump was indicted by a federal grand jury for conspiring to overturn the results of the 2020 election in the run-up to the Capitol riot. But after Trump won the election against Vice President Kamala Harris on Nov. 5, Special Counsel Jack Smith moved to dismiss the election-obstruction case, citing the Constitution’s prohibition on prosecuting a sitting president.
Meanwhile, the Bidens invited the Trumps to come to the White House after Trump’s victory. While Trump happily accepted Biden’s offer and sat smiling with his Democratic opponent in the Oval Office, Melania Trump declined to join Jill Biden for tea that day, a rebuke by the incoming first lady another transfer-of-power ritual.
With the Bidens preparing to welcome the Trumps during their final moments in the White House, Democrats can say that the couple are “modeling adult leadership and respect for democracy,” as the hosts of the Pod Save America podcast said on their show last week. On the other hand, Democrats may have a problem if Joe and Jill Biden look too friendly when they greet the Trumps at the White House next Monday.
On their show, the Pod Save America hosts, former speechwriters for Obama, ripped Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris for patting themselves on the back for being “good losers” to Trump, the Daily Beast said. The hosts made their “good losers” comment after Harris presided over the joint session of Congress certifying her election defeat to Trump.
That day she posted a video message vowing to uphold her “sacred obligation” to certify her loss, the Daily Beast reported. Biden also published an op-ed in the Washington Post, calling on American to never forget the Jan. 6 insurrection. But neither Harris nor Biden mentioned Trump’s name in their messages.
“We’re good losers! That’s what we are now,” host Jon Lovett said, while co-host Jon Favreau said there’s a way to accept Trump’s election victory while being honest about how he behaved after he lost in 2020.
“You could have easily said, ‘Donald Trump incited an insurrection and he tried to lie about it,’” Favreau said. “He’s tried to rewrite history. He’s wrong. He’s unfit.”
While acknowledging that Trump won the election with 49.9% of the vote, either Harris or Biden could stop pretending that “everything’s OK,” Favreau said.