The unreported conversation apparently happened during the Thanksgiving holidays
US President Joe Biden and his soon-to-be replacement spoke on the phone last week during the Thanksgiving holiday, NBC has reported, citing two people familiar with the call. It was their first direct communication since Donald Trump’s visit to the White House on November 13.
According to NBC, the Republican president-elect reached out to wish Biden a happy Thanksgiving. The reported exchange was apparently brief and “not substantive.”
Biden abandoned his plans to run for a second term in office over the summer following his poor debate performance against Trump. The Republican then resoundingly defeated Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris in the November election.
After the election, the two men ceremonially met in the White House and shook hands in front of the cameras. Biden told Trump he looked forward to a “peaceful transition.” The transition would be “smooth as you can get,” the president-elect responded.
Both Democrats and Republicans have frequently accused each other of hateful rhetoric and demonization. Trump has previously called Biden an “enemy of the state,” a weak leader who is not respected by his foreign counterparts, and someone who lacks the competence to be president.
Biden, meanwhile, suggested that Trump supporters were “garbage,” and had accused Trump of seeking to take power through “political violence,” likening his predecessor’s rhetoric to that used in “Nazi Germany” and deeming him a threat to American democracy itself.
After his defeat in the 2020 US elections, Trump dropped the customary invitation to the White House. He also refused to attend Biden’s inauguration in January 2021, making him the first outgoing US president to skip the swearing-in ceremony of his successor in a century and a half.
The upcoming Trump inauguration is scheduled for January 20. Before the election, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said that Biden plans to attend the ceremony regardless of who the winner is.
Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden spent this Thanksgiving in Nantucket, Massachusetts, with family, including the president’s son Hunter and the couple’s daughter Ashley. Biden recently pardoned Hunter for the federal crimes he was convicted of, but also for anything he may have done since 2014. The unusually broad scope has drawn harsh criticism from Trump and even from the president’s own party.
