President Joe Biden and President-elect Donald Trump will meet at the White House on Wednesday morning, officials announced Saturday.
The two will meet at 11 a.m. that day in the Oval Office, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in a statement.
The announcement comes four days after Trump was expected to win the presidential election and defeat Vice President Kamala Harris.
Trump’s transition team did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
In the days following her loss, both Biden and Harris promised a peaceful transition of power.
During her concession speech at Howard University in Washington DC, the vice president told supporters on Wednesday: “Earlier today, I spoke with President-elect Trump and congratulated him on his victory. I also told him that we will assist him and his team in their transition and that we will achieve a peaceful transition of power.”
In a phone call with NBC News on Thursday, Trump praised Harris for her commitment to a smooth transition between administrations, saying that during a phone call, Harris “talked about the transition, and she said she would like it to be as smooth as possible. , which I obviously agree with.”
In a separate speech on Thursday, Biden echoed the same sentiment, telling reporters at the White House: “I will do my duty as president: I will fulfill my oath of office and I will honor the Constitution. On January 20th, we will have a peaceful transition of power here in America.”
In 2020, after Trump’s loss to Biden, the previous Trump administration stalled the transition between administrations, denying for weeks that Trump lost and fighting the Biden team’s efforts to begin transition work.
Only in early January, hours after a violent mob of Trump supporters stormed the Capitol in an attempt to stop Congress from certifying Biden’s victory, did then-President Trump agree to an orderly and peaceful transfer of power.
Trump explicitly did not invite Biden to a meeting at the White House in 2020, abandoning a practice that Trump participated in in 2016 with then-President Barack Obama.
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
