While outgoing President Donald Trump reportedly wants to leave Washington, DC, before President-elect Joe Biden is inaugurated on January 20th, Vice president Mike Pence will attend the event. According to the New York Times, Pence called Vice President-elect Kamala Harris to offer assistance ahead of the inauguration. We’re not praising Pence for doing his job, but at least he promises a peaceful transition of power — at least from him. A pro-Trump mob stormed the Capitol last week, resulting in five deaths, destruction, and chaos, so at least Pence is going to do what he is supposed to do. And make no bones about it, the mob of insurrectionists was after him, too.
Pence congratulated Harris during the phone call, according to Zeke Miller of the Associated Press. He’s a couple of months late, but we’ll take it.
WASHINGTON (AP) — AP sources: Vice President Mike Pence calls Vice President-elect Kamala Harris to congratulate her, offer assistance.
— Zeke Miller (@ZekeJMiller) January 15, 2021
The phone call went smoothly.
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“The conversation, which was relayed by two officials briefed on the call, was described as gracious and pleasant,” the New York Times reports. “The discussion is the first time Mr. Pence and Ms. Harris have spoken since they debated each other last fall.”
“It also represents the only one-on-one conversation between elected officials in the outgoing and incoming administration: Mr. Trump has refused to call President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. and has not even fully conceded defeat in his public remarks,” the report continues.
“Mr. Pence and his wife, Karen, may have Ms. Harris and her husband, Doug Emhoff, to the vice-presidential residence before the inauguration on Wednesday, according to one official,” the newspaper reports. “But those plans remain uncertain, in part because of the security threats posed to the nation’s capital have made scheduling fluid.”
“Typically, the outgoing first family and the incoming family meet at the White House the morning of the inauguration,” the paper reports. “But Mr. Trump is planning to fly to Florida that morning, has no plans to speak to Mr. Biden, and will not attend the inauguration.”
Again, Pence is a bit late with reaching out to Harris, but the phone call will likely make Trump angry. On the other hand, everything makes Trump angry. And we shouldn’t forget that Pence helped to push Trump’s lie of widespread voter fraud that doesn’t exist, but at least he’s going through the motions of a peaceful transition of power.
You can read the full report here.
Featured image via Gage Skidmore/Flickr, under Creative Commons license 2.0
