Pence, his relationship with Trump all but severed now because he refused to abet the President’s efforts to overturn the election result, confirmed earlier in the week that he plans to attend Biden’s inauguration. Trump, in one of his final tweets last week, made it clear he would not be going.
Previously, Trump had floated the idea of leaving town early to avoid having to host Biden at the White House before the inauguration ceremonies at the Capitol, as has long been traditional – to provide the time-honoured photo of the outgoing and incoming presidents that gives visual definition to America’s peaceful transfer of power. Though he now might stay until Inauguration Day, Trump still has no plans to meet with the President-elect.
Finally forced to acknowledge the “new administration” – if not his defeat – Trump has withdrawn almost completely from the duties of the job he fought so hard to keep. Aides and friends who have spoken with him this week say he’s been sobered somewhat by warnings from his lawyers about his potential legal liability for inciting last week’s deadly riot.
Since the moment the pro-Trump mob smashed through the Capitol doors and into the House and Senate chambers to stop Congress’ count of the electoral votes, Pence has effectively taken over the responsibilities of the Presidency. With Trump mesmerised by live television coverage of his supporters fighting for him, it fell to Pence – who’d been presiding over the count, and had to be rushed into hiding – to authorise the deployment of the National Guard in the District of Columbia to quell the mob.
The President is confident the Senate will again fail to convict him, according to one person who speaks with him regularly, and last Wednesday focused his ire on the 10 House Republicans who voted in favour of impeachment, peppering aides with questions about who some of the lawmakers were and what he could do to exact revenge.
Trump has instructed aides to knock down reports of his frustration with Rudolph Giuliani, one of the few lawyers still willing to defend him. That afternoon, while Trump took farewell photos with staffers, Pence visited the headquarters of the Federal Emergency Management Agency for a briefing about security preparations for the inauguration ceremony.
After the meeting, Pence told reporters that the government would “ensure that we have a safe inauguration, that President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris are sworn in … in a manner consistent with our history and traditions”.
Vice President Mike Pence elbow bumps with a member of the National Guard as he speaks to troops outside the Capitol on Thursday evening.Credit:AP
On his way home, Pence stopped to greet some of the 20,000 National Guards posted outside the Capitol, thanking them for their service.
By Friday (Saturday AEDT), Trump still had not addressed the nation about reports from the FBI and other law enforcement agencies that domestic terrorists, emboldened by the breach of the Capitol that left at least five dead, threatened not only the inauguration but all 50 state capitals.
My Pillow Chief Executive Mike Lindell, one of Trump’s staunchest defenders in arguing that fraud cost the President reelection, was spotted around an otherwise quiet White House. As Lindell left the West Wing, a photographer captured an image showing that the notes he was holding referred to “martial law” and the “Insurrection Act”.
Pence is also scheduled to deliver an address Saturday, local time, on the administration’s “foreign policy accomplishments” at California’s Naval Air Station Lemoore, and then to the 10th Mountain Division, in Fort Drum, New York.
Typically, outgoing Presidents take part in an official farewell ceremony with members of the armed forces. Trump, however, isn’t bothering. The White House emailed a brief statement to reporters from Trump that could mark a final, 67-word valedictory.
“United States military troops in Afghanistan are at a 19-year low. Likewise, Iraq and Syria are also at the lowest point in many years,” the President said. “I will always be committed to stopping the endless wars. It has been a great honour to rebuild our military and support our brave men and women in uniform. $2.5 trillion invested, including in beautiful new equipment – all made in the USA.”
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Spending his final days almost entirely out of view, Trump is said to be readying a number of pardons and weighing whether to give one to himself. A self-pardon would be an act of untested and dubious constitutionality.
Those who have been in contact with the President are loath to predict whether he will go through with the brazen move. His calculations now must be weighed against the unsettled matter of his impeachment trial in the Senate; a conviction could bar him from ever seeking office again.
Los Angeles Times
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