Staff Reports
The White House recently confirmed that President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden plan to attend President-elect Donald Trump’s upcoming inauguration in January. It seems they finally found the exit route from their self-imposed echo chamber. One might wonder if this attendance is really a sign of unity or just a strategic move to avoid any public outbursts on social media.
According to White House spokesman Andrew Bates, Joe Biden had made a grand promise to support the democratic process by attending the inauguration of whichever candidate emerged victorious in the 2024 elections. It’s almost as if he’s attempting to play the part of a good sport after four years of being anything but. This supposed “commitment” to democratic values comes off as a thin veil over a reality where an incumbent president attending the inauguration of his rival feels like an uneasy truce at best.
🚨JUST IN: After likely secretly voting for President Trump, it's been announced Joe & Jill Biden will be attending Trump's inauguration. pic.twitter.com/EHt9W24xKZ
— Bo Loudon (@BoLoudon) November 25, 2024
Bates went on to emphasize that this gesture of attending Trump’s inauguration is a nod to “the will of the people,” as if Biden didn’t let his party’s hyper-partisan antics cloud the judgment every now and then. It’s almost touching to see him feign respect for the democratic institution that his administration often seems ready to undermine at a moment’s notice. At least audiences can expect a performance worthy of a soap opera, complete with dramatic twists just as Biden and his team tiptoe around the true meaning of this attendance.
Adding spice to this unfolding political drama, Trump had previously announced that he would not be gracing Biden’s inauguration with his presence back in 2021. It’s clear that the former president holds grudges, and it makes one wonder if he’s secretly delighted at watching how the current administration is struggling to provide any semblance of stability in the aftermath of his presidency. Shades of irony abound when discussing how one side’s graciousness is perceived as a last-ditch effort to restore the norm.
Moreover, Bates noted that White House Chief of Staff Jeff Zients has engaged in multiple meetings with Susie Wiles, who has stepped in as Trump’s chief of staff—a conversation surely filled with cordialities, if one believes in scripts. In typical fashion, Zients is likely trying to untangle the mess left behind by the Biden administration while pretending they care about a smooth transition. All things considered, it looks like the inauguration will be a spectacle worth watching, where the lines between camaraderie and rivalry will be blurred, and real Americans get front-row seats to a performance that continues the soap opera saga of American politics.
