The News
When US President Joe Biden hosts President-elect Donald Trump in the Oval Office on Wednesday, he’ll try to assure the US public there will be a peaceful transfer of power.
“He wants to show the American people that the system works,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said, declining to offer details about the agenda.
But the process is already behind schedule: the Trump team has yet to sign the routine paperwork to kickstart the transition (the documents carry requirements about ethics and disclosing transition donations).
“It is hard to do this thoroughly and the biggest challenge is lack of time, and so loss of time is consequential,” Max Stier, president of the nonprofit Partnership for Public Service, told Semafor.
Wednesday’s encounter will be mostly private, though Jean-Pierre said reporters would be allowed in briefly to capture it.
Trump’s team stonewalled the Biden transition team as the outgoing president contested his 2020 election loss that year.