Trump meets Biden at the White House on return to Washington

WASHINGTON President-elect Donald Trump returned to the nation's capital Wednesday for the first time since winning the election, meeting with congressional leaders, sitting in the Oval Office with President Biden and announcing a wave of nominations from high level for his office.

The visit to the White House and Capitol offered a visual glimpse into Trump's emboldened second term, in which pro-Trump Republicans are expected to have full control of Congress to carry out his wishes.

Senate Republicans on Wednesday chose a new leader, John Thune of South Dakota, who pledged to align the chamber more closely with Trump than his predecessor, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, who sometimes bristled at Trump's attempts to bend the rules. Among Thunes' promises: agreeing to Trump's request to suspend Cabinet nominations, which would bypass the Senate confirmation process.

Trump's latest nominations include Florida Sen. Marco Rubio for secretary of state; Rep. Matt Gaetz, also of Florida, for attorney general; and former Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard as director of national intelligence.

Gaetz has long been considered a fringe member of the Republican Party, who helped oust former Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Bakersfield) and was himself the subject of a Justice Department investigation, which he he is now responsible for leading.

Although the department has not charged him, Gaetz was as of Wednesday the subject of an investigation by the House Ethics Committee that included a review of whether he engaged in sexual misconduct and illegal drug use, accepted inappropriate gifts, granted special privileges and favors to people with whom he had a personal relationship, and sought to obstruct government investigations into his conduct, according to a June statement. by the bipartisan committee.

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) announced Wednesday that Gaetz had resigned from Congress, ending the investigation.

The most recent nomination announcements came on a day when Biden welcomed Trump to the White House, a routine part of the transition Biden had planned to emphasize the need to strengthen democratic norms as the nation prepares for a presidency Trump.

Republicans took control of the Senate in last week's elections and are expected to retain control of the House. That would help Trump implement a broad policy agenda, but the narrow majorities in both chambers would fall short of the two-thirds required to amend the Constitution, which would also require ratification by three-quarters of state legislatures.

Biden and Trump met in the Oval Office, sitting in front of a roaring fire, less than an hour after Trump met with House Republican leaders. The two spoke little for a brief period in front of the media when they shook hands and appeared cordial, despite their rancorous history.

Congratulations and I look forward to a smooth transition, Biden said.

Trump responded that politics is tough and in many cases the world is not a nice world, but it's a nice world today while ensuring the transition is as smooth as possible.

The full meeting lasted nearly two hours and was attended by Biden's chief of staff, Jeff Zients, and Trump's new chief, Susie Wiles. They discussed homeland and national security issues, including Biden's desire for Congress to provide disaster relief in the coming weeks and for America to continue supporting Ukraine as it fights an invasion Russian, according to their collaborators.

Biden again tried to persuade Trump, who has been skeptical about sending money and weapons to Ukraine, that doing so is vital to U.S. interests.

This is in the interests of our national security because a strong Europe, a stable Europe, standing up to aggressors and dictators and repelling their aggression is vital to ensure that we don't end up being dragged directly into a war, Jake Sullivan, Biden's national security adviser. , told reporters, summarizing Biden's case.

Before the leaders sat down, first lady Jill Biden helped welcome Trump, whose wife, Melania, did not attend the meeting. Jill Biden handed Trump a handwritten note for his wife, congratulating the former and future first lady and offering to help with the transition.

Trump was gracious and came with a detailed list of questions, according to White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre.

Nearly two hours says a lot about how the meeting went, she said.

Sullivan said he thinks the biggest challenge for Trump will be competition with China, which he sees as defining what the world will look like over the next 10, 20 and 30 years.

Biden will meet Chinese President Xi Jinping for the final time on Saturday in Peru, as the two men attend the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum. Sullivan said Biden will make it clear to Xi that we must maintain stability, clarity and predictability throughout this transition between the United States and China.

Trump did not invite Biden to the White House in 2020, hampering the transition because he refused to admit that Biden won that election. Trump's stubbornness never relented, culminating on January 6, 2021, when he urged an angry mob to storm the Capitol in an attempt to stop the certification of the election. To date, he has not acknowledged his electoral defeat.

Since Trump won the presidency last week, Biden and his team have been keen to highlight their cooperation, which they view as a teachable moment in a public lesson in civics. Vice President Kamala Harris, who became the Democratic presidential nominee after Biden withdrew in July, argued throughout her campaign that Trump posed a threat to democracy.

Did the elections go as we wanted? Absolutely not. Are we disappointed? Yes, said Jean-Pierre. But again, there was an election that the American people decided, and what the president wants to focus on is what it looks like, what it looks like moving forward, prioritizing at home, put the American people first and move forward. in a respectful manner.

Trump's transition process was hampered in part because he failed to meet deadlines to sign documents promising to avoid conflicts of interest while in office.

But in another way, he will enter office more aware than his predecessors of the inner workings, because he is the only president, besides Grover Cleveland, to win nonconsecutive terms.

After being elected in 2016, Trump met with President Obama in the Oval Office for 90 minutes, a meeting that Obama advisers described at the time as less awkward than expected. Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner met with Obama's chief of staff, Denis McDonough, a sign of the influential role Kushner would play during Trump's first term. Kushner is not expected to hold a position with Trump in the next term.

Trump's failure to sign an ethics pledge has held back some crucial aspects of the transition, including access to agency and national security briefings and documents for his team.

Brian Hughes, a spokesperson for the Trump transition team, said in a statement that the team's lawyers continue to engage constructively with lawyers for the Biden-Harris administration regarding all agreements considered by the presidential transition law, the law governing the transition, and that they will announce later if they intend to do so. to sign the documents.

Max Stier, president of the Partnership for Public Service, a nonpartisan group that seeks to improve the way the federal government works, said the delay in the process puts the nation at risk.

Taking over the government of the United States is, in my opinion, the largest, most complex and most important operation, not only in our country, but in the entire world, he said.

The transition is a particularly vulnerable time for the country's security, he said, noting that the failure to prevent the September 11, 2001, attacks was partly blamed on a truncated process following the disputed 2000 elections. Trump's team needs to review the documents and meet with current federal government leaders to make sure they are prepared to deal with any sort of crisis, he said.

You prepare by having access to critical information and critical people, to know what's going on, he said.

The president-elect has made progress in assembling his advisory team in recent days, selecting a chief of staff, Wiles, as well as his deputy, Stephen Miller, whose position was announced Wednesday along with other members of the senior leadership.

The lack of experience running large organizations among Trump's first picks for top jobs is also concerning, even though Trump has pledged to improve efficiency with help from Elon Musk, said Stier.

The best way to have effective government is to choose people who are good at leading organizations, he said. They don't choose these people yet.

During his meeting with congressional Republicans on Wednesday, Trump hinted at his desire to run for a third term. I don't think I'll run again unless you do something, he said.

A third term for Trump would require a constitutional amendment meaning a supermajority in Congress and states would have to approve changing the 22nd Amendment, which limits presidents to two terms. Trump, 78, is already the oldest person to be elected president.

Trump may have been partly joking. But the president-elect, who often praises dictators, tried to overturn the 2020 election and has often made comments that have raised concerns about his strongman tendencies, including threatening to be a dictator from day one and to use the army to avenge the enemy from within. .

Although Trump's rhetoric and behavior have worried democracy experts, his comments Wednesday suggest an appreciation of the role Congress should play in amending the Constitution.

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