President Joe Biden called Donald Trump on Wednesday to congratulate him for his dominant victory over Kamala Harris and invited him to the White House.
The 81-year-old commander-in-chief extended the olive branch to the president-elect a week after calling his supporters ‘garbage’ and just hours after he was confirmed as his successor.
The White House confirmed Biden and Trump spoke on the phone and said the President ’emphasized the importance of working to bring the country together’ as well as a ‘smooth transition’.
It was a similar tone emphasized when Kamala Harris spoke over the phone with the 78-year-old to concede the 2024 election after Trump swept the majority of the swing states.
Trump and Biden frequently exchanged very personal jabs during the campaign, with the Republican targeting the president’s decline and the Democrat saying he was the sort of person he would like to ‘smack in the a**’.
Biden will address the country on Thursday regarding the election results.
President Joe Biden called predecessor and successor Donald Trump to congratulate him for his dominant victory over Kamala Harris and invited him to the White House
The president has previously said he will go to Trump’s inauguration in January, after the president-elect skipped his in 2020 and instead flew straight to Mar-a-Lago after moving out of the White House.
Some speculated and reports emerged that Biden was holding a bitter grudge against his No. 2 after she replaced him atop the Democratic presidential ticket.
On July 21, 2024, Biden announced on X after a month of pressure from his party that he was ending his reelection bid. He followed-up with another post saying Harris would take over his campaign.
With just a few weeks until the Democratic National Convention at that point, the Party had little choice but accept the vice president as their new candidate.
Harris had a warning for the president-elect on Wednesday, lecturing him even as she congratulated him in a solid victory in the battle for the White House.
‘She discussed the importance of a peaceful transfer of power and being a president for all Americans,’ a senior Harris aide said.
The vice president, during her campaign, repeatedly vowed to a be a president ‘for all Americans.’
Harris will concede to the nation at Howard University later on Wednesday afternoon – almost 12 hours after the election was called for her Republican rival. Trump is spending the day at his home at Mar-a-Lago.
The calls came hours after Trump was declared the winner, leaving Democrats reeling and in a 2016-like state of shock.
The 81-year-old commander-in-chief extended the olive branch to the president-elect a week after calling his supporters ‘garbage’ and hours after he was confirmed as his successor
Trump and Biden met on the debate stage in June in a performance that sparked the litany that forced the Democrat to drop out of the race
Kamala Harris called Trump 78-year-old to finally concede the election on Wednesday, hours after her defeat was confirmed
Harris’s concession call, which was confirmed shortly before 2 pm ET, came after Michigan was called for the president-elect, giving him the third state in the ‘blue wall’ of states that would decide the election.
Trump’s team confirmed the Harris call and said the president-elect acknowledged Harris’ ‘professionalism’ and ‘tenacity.’
‘[B]oth leaders agreed on the importance of unifying the country,’ said Trump campaign Communications Director Steven Cheung.
‘President Donald J. Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris spoke by phone earlier today where she congratulated him on his historic victory,’ Trump communications director Steven Cheung said in a statement.
‘President Trump acknowledged Vice President Harris on her strength, professionalism, and tenacity throughout the campaign, and both leaders agreed on the importance of unifying the country.’
Trump now has 292 electoral votes to Harris’ 224. It takes 270 to win the presidency.
Harris is on track to do worse than Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential election. She could even be on pace to have the worst Electoral College result of any Democrat since the 1988 race.
Democrats were counting on the ‘blue wall’ to give Harris the White House. But Trump won the trio of states – Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania.
While swing states of Nevada and Arizona remain up in the air, Trump has plenty of Electoral College votes to sail him to the White House in January.
Any results now can only widen his victory over the vice president.
Nevada, Arizona and Alaska are the only states that remain uncalled by the Associated Press. And as of Wednesday afternoon, all three are leaning in favor of the former president.
