Biden to meet President-elect Trump at White House on Nov 13

New Delhi (The Uttam Hindu): US President-elect Donald Trump is expected to meet President Joe Biden on Wednesday (November 13) at the White House, a senior official said on Saturday. The meeting will be held at 11 a.m., White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said. "At President Biden’s invitation, President Biden and President-elect Trump will meet in the Oval Office on Wednesday at 11:00 am. Additional details to follow," Jean-Pierre wrote on X. Such a meeting is customary between the outgoing president and the incoming president and is meant partly to mark the start of a peaceful transfer of power under America's democracy.

However, Trump did not host Biden for a sit-down after the 2020 election, when the Republican leader lost his re-election bid. Donald Trump will assume office of the President on January 20. On Tuesday, Trump won the presidential election with at least 301 electoral college votes, surpassing the threshold of 270 over Vice President Kamala Harris. Trump, who also served as the 45th president, will become the second president to serve two non-consecutive terms. The other was Grover Cleveland, who was both the 22nd and 24th president. In his first public address after the poll debacle on Thursday, President Joe Biden told fellow Democrats that everyone gets knocked down but the true test of character is ‘how quickly we get back up’.

The President also had a word for Republicans without naming them specifically. “You can't love your country only when you win. You can't love your neighbour only when you agree, something I hope we can do, no matter who you voted for, see each other, not as adversaries, but as fellow Americans, bring down the temperature,” he said. Biden said the American electoral system is sound, can be trusted and transparent, contrary to what President-elect Donald Trump and his allies have sought to drill into American voters since his 2020 election. “I also hope we can later restate the question about the integrity of the American electoral system. It is honest, it is fair, and it is transparent and it can be trusted, win or lose.”

President Biden spoke briefly from the White House, just over six minutes, with a clear message to bring down the temperature of a politically divided country. “Campaigns are contests of competing visions. A country chooses one or the other,” he said. The President said he had called President-elect Trump to congratulate him and on January 20 the transfer of power will take place peacefully as it is meant to. He did not mention, but hurt and angry by his defeat in 2020, Trump had skipped Biden’s inauguration and left straight for his Florida home. Biden also had a word of praise for Harris. “She's been a partner and a public servant. She ran an inspiring campaign, and everyone got to see something that I learned early on to respect her character so much. She has a backbone like a ram. She has great character, true character. She gave her whole heart and effort, and she and her entire team should be proud of the campaign they ran,” the President said. Harris was thrust into the presidential race in July after Biden was forced to quit following a disastrous presidential debate with Trump. She inherited the Biden campaign and funds but she had built her own campaign largely in a little over three months.