R&I – FS
(CNN) On November 10, 2016, President Barack Obama invited Donald Trump, then President-elect, to the White House.
No such invitation has been extended to President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris.
The meeting between sitting presidents and vice presidents and their successors is a time-honored tradition that represents the peaceful transfer of power. But CNN’s White House team has reported there are no plans for President Trump to invite Biden to the White House in the coming days. The Trump administration has refused to concede the election or recognize the results as legitimate.
That means Biden can’t access additional funds for his transition team, and he hasn’t been cleared to receive intelligence briefings, both touchstones of the formal transition process.
It was a different scene in 2016.
That year, President Obama met with Trump in the Oval Office for 90 minutes, just two days after Election Day. Obama told Trump he wanted him to succeed and would support him in a smooth transition.
Trump, who for years falsely claimed Obama was not American and even accused the president of founding ISIS on the campaign trail, called Obama a “very good man” in their meeting and said he would heed Obama’s counsel.
Biden, then the vice president, spoke with Mike Pence in the VP’s West Wing office the same day Obama and Trump met.
Enterprise7
Article URL : https://www.cnn.com/2020/11/10/politics/obama-trump-biden-white-house-meeting-2016-trnd/index.html