US President Donald Trump has said that he will skip President-elect Joe Biden's inauguration, refusing to fulfill the outgoing president's traditional role in the peaceful transition of power and undercutting his own message just one day earlier on the need for "national healing and unity."
President-elect Joe Biden welcomed Trump's announcement that he won't attend the 20 January inauguration, calling it a "good thing."
"I was told on the way over here that he indicated he wasn't going to show up at the inauguration," Biden said while speaking to reporters in Wilmington, Delaware.
"One of the few things he and I have ever agreed on," Biden said, adding, "It's a good thing, him not showing up."
"He's been an embarrassment to the country," Biden added.
'Trump not fit to serve'
"He's not fit to serve," the president-elect added of Trump, who is already facing mounting calls to step down or risk impeachment, for inciting his supporters to storm the US Capitol.
"He exceeded even my worst notions about him," Biden said. "He's one of the most incompetent presidents in the history of the United States of America."
Biden said Vice President Mike Pence would be welcome at his inauguration.
Biden's remarks came after Trump tweeted earlier Friday that he would not attend the inauguration.
"To all of those who have asked, I will not be going to the Inauguration on January 20th," Trump tweeted.
Traditionally, the incoming and outgoing presidents ride to the US Capitol together on Inauguration Day for the ceremony, a visible manifestation of the smooth change of leadership.
Joe Biden will become president at noon on 20 January regardless of Trump’s plans. But Trump's absence represents one final act of defiance of the norms and traditions of Washington that he has flouted for four years.
While Trump stays away, former Presidents Barack Obama, George W. Bush and Bill Clinton will be there to stand witness to the rite of democracy. The only other living president, 96-year-old Jimmy Carter, who has spent the pandemic largely at home in Georgia, will not attend but has extended “best wishes" to Biden.
