Washington:
Mike Pence will attend the upcoming inauguration of Joe Biden, various media reports stated Saturday, the vice president becoming the most up-to-date longtime loyalist to abandon an increasingly isolated President Donald Trump.
Relations in between Trump and Pence — previously 1 of the mercurial president’s staunchest defenders — have nosedived due to the fact Wednesday, when the vice president formally announced Biden’s victory in November’s election.
A mob of far-appropriate demonstrators stormed the US Capitol the exact same day in a failed bid to quit Congress from certifying Biden’s win, in a riot blamed on Trump that left 5 dead.
Multiple media reports on Saturday cited senior administration officials as saying that Pence — who was forced to take shelter from the intruders throughout the riot — had decided to attend Biden’s inauguration on January 20.
The president-elect earlier in the week stated Pence would be welcome at his formal swearing-in, due to take location in a scaled-down format due to the coronavirus.
“I think it’s important that as much as we can stick to what have been the historical precedents of how an administration changes should be maintained,” Biden told reporters.
“We’d be honored to have him there, and to move forward in the transition.”
In his final tweet prior to getting removed from Twitter on Friday, Trump stated he would not attend the inauguration.
The outgoing president has been accused of provoking Wednesday’s violence, and now faces an unprecedented second impeachment, anticipated to commence on Monday.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi warned that Democrats would launch the course of action unless Trump resigned or Pence invoked the 25th Amendment, in which the cabinet removes the president from workplace.
While Pence has not spoken publicly on the topic, the New York Times reported Thursday he was against invoking the mechanism, in no way made use of prior to in US history.
(This story has not been edited by TheSpuzz employees and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)