Joe Biden hosts Donald Trump at the White House after president-elect jokes about third term – live
Trump, Biden meet at White House
Donald Trump and Joe Biden are meeting in the Oval Office, according to reporters at the White House.
The press was only let into the room for about a minute, but could hear Trump say something about how politics is tough, and thank Biden for a smooth transition of power. “You’re welcome,” the president replied.
Key events
Senate Republicans elect South Dakota’s John Thune as leader
Republican senators have elected John Thune of South Dakota as their new leader, replacing Mitch McConnell, the Associated Press reports.
Thune, who serves as the minority whip, the second-highest-ranking position among Republicans, will become the chamber’s majority leader in January, once newly elected GOP lawmakers take their seats and give the party control of the Senate.
McConnell has led Senate Republicans since 2007, spearheading the opposition to Barack Obama and assisting Donald Trump during his first term in office. The Kentucky senator played a decisive role in creating the supreme court’s conservative supermajority by blocking Obama from appointing a justice, then presiding over the confirmation of three of Trump’s appointees.
McConnell opted not to stand again as Senate leader, but holds his seat through 2026.
From what reporters were able to see, there was a degree of comity between Joe Biden and Donald Trump when they met in the Oval Office.
But Reuters reports that the formal arrangements of the presidential transition have seen delays:
Trump’s team, which has already announced some members of the incoming president’s cabinet, has yet to sign agreements that would lead to office space and government equipment as well as access to government officials, facilities and information, according to the White House.
“The Trump-Vance transition lawyers continue to constructively engage with the Biden-Harris Administration lawyers regarding all agreements contemplated by the Presidential Transition Act,” said Brian Vance, a spokesperson for the Trump transition, referring to the law that governs the transfer of power.
Valerie Smith Boyd, director of the Partnership for Public Service’s Center for Presidential Transition, a non-profit that advises incoming administrations, said the agreement underscores that the United States only has one president at a time and includes pledges to sign ethics pacts not to profit off information provided in the transition.
“That needs to be signed for interaction to begin with federal agencies,” she said. “Everything is hinging on that.”
It does not appear that Melania Trump, the incoming first lady, joined her husband during his visit to Washington today.
But the White House said that Jill Biden greeted Donald Trump when he arrived, and gave him a “handwritten letter of congratulations” for his wife, while saying her team was ready to help with their transition.
Here is a full transcript of the few words Joe Biden and Donald Trump said to each other while reporters were present in the Oval Office.
Biden:
We’re looking forward to having, like we said, a smooth transition, do everything we can make sure you’re accommodated, what you need, and we’re going to get a chance to talk about some of that today. Welcome, welcome back.
Trump:
Thank you very much. And politics is tough, and it’s, many cases, not a very nice world, but it is a nice world today, and I appreciate very much a transition that’s so smooth, it’ll be as smooth as it can get. And I very much appreciate that, Joe.
Biden:
You’re welcome. Thank you all.
At that point, reporters were asked to leave. Some shouted questions at the two leaders, but they did not answer.
Trump says ‘it is a nice world today’ in White House meeting with Biden
Reporters were let into the Oval Office for Donald Trump and Joe Biden’s meeting for a short period of time, and heard the two men say little.
“Politics is tough and in many cases it’s not a nice world, but it is a nice world today,” Trump said, in one of the few comments either made.
Video of their encounter shows Trump and Biden sitting in chairs by the fireplace and smiling as reporters shout questions. Neither man answers, though Trump appears to mouth “thank you” at one point.
The scene as Trump and Biden meet in Oval Office
Press photographers were allowed into the room at the beginning of Donald Trump’s meeting with Joe Biden in the Oval Office. Here’s what they saw:
Trump, Biden meet at White House
Donald Trump and Joe Biden are meeting in the Oval Office, according to reporters at the White House.
The press was only let into the room for about a minute, but could hear Trump say something about how politics is tough, and thank Biden for a smooth transition of power. “You’re welcome,” the president replied.
As House Republicans cheer Donald Trump’s victory, Axios reports that Hakeem Jeffries, the Democratic House minority leader, has acknowledged to his lawmakers that they are unlikely to become the majority.
Ballot counting is ongoing in races that will determine which party controls the chamber, but Jeffries said in a private meeting with his lawmakers that it was increasingly unlikely Democrats would win back control. “There is a mathematical ‘possibility’ we could still take the majority, but not a ‘probability’,” Jeffries said, according to a Democratic member quoted by Axio.
The New York lawmaker also said that “the buck stops with me” when it comes to the failure to take the House.
Trump to meet Biden at White House
Donald Trump is scheduled to at 11am sit for a meeting with Joe Biden at the White House to discuss the transition between their administrations.
No such meeting happened after Biden won election in 2020, because Trump refused to acknowledge his victory, and instead tried to prevent him from taking office.
Biden and Trump have spent the past four years denouncing each other, but the president quickly reached out to set up a meeting with the Republican after he won last Tuesday’s election.
Reporters are scheduled to be allowed into the Oval Office, where Biden and Trump are meeting, for a few minutes when it begins. We’ll let you know what the two leaders have to say.
Here’s what it looked like when Donald Trump stopped by Capitol Hill to greet House Republicans:
Trump jokes about running for third term in meeting with House Republicans
Donald Trump joked about running for a third term as president, during an address to House Republicans in Washington DC.
“I suspect I won’t be running again, unless you say, he’s good, we got to figure something else,” Trump said.
The constitution prohibits Trump from running for re-election, since he previously served one term in office that lasted from 2017 till 2021.
Trump mulling ex-Democratic congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard for top intelligence job – report
Donald Trump is considering appointing Tulsi Gabbard, a former Democratic congresswoman who left the party and endorsed his candidacy, as his director of national intelligence, Punchbowl News reports.
Gabbard represented Hawaii from 2013 through 2021, and made a failed attempt to win the Democratic presidential nomination in 2020.
As a congresswoman, she made an unusual trip to government-controlled areas of Syria during its civil war, met with its president, Bashar al-Assad, and later publicly doubted his responsibility in a well-documented chemical weapons attack. Should Trump nominate her for the job overseeing US intelligence agencies, you can expect that episode to come up at her confirmation hearings. Here’s more about her, from when she made her bid for president:
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