Published 11:19 IST, January 22nd 2021
'There’s no call planned': White House says Joe Biden has no plans to call Donald Trump
When Prez. Biden mentioned he will talk to Trump, "I wouldn’t say he’s seeking it through a phone call; he just was even trying to be respectful," Psaki said.
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US President Joe Biden has no call planned in return for the ‘very generous letter’ left for him by the former president of the US Donald Trump. On January 21, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki told a news conference that President Biden, in fact, will not hold any phone call conversation with the 45th President in regard to the letter which he insisted a day earlier that he “didn’t want to talk about it until he spoke to President Trump.” In a question asked at a presser whether President Biden and former President Trump are going to have a call, Psaki said: “There’s no call planned.”
Furthermore, the US press secretary for Biden said that when the sitting president mentioned that he plans to talk to Trump before releasing the content of the letter, he implied that he didn’t want to release a private note without having agreement from the former President. "But I wouldn’t say he’s seeking it through a phone call; he just was even trying to be respectful in that moment of a private letter that was sent,” Psaki said. Biden’s predecessor Donald Trump adhered to an Inauguration Day custom of leaving a note despite being the rare first in over several years to not attend the inauguration and welcoming the incoming president.
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Biden finds letter at resolute desk in Oval Office
As a customary, the outgoing presidents write to their successors a letter and leave it for them on the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office, as Trump did for Biden. The tradition dates back to the 1980s when Ronald Reagan transitioned the power to George HW Bush and left him a handwritten note. While Trump participated in the tradition, the details of the content inside the note weren’t disclosed by President Biden.“Because it was private I will not talk about it until I talk to him,” Biden had told reporters. Meanwhile, Trump’s spokesman Judd Deere told the press minutes after the outgoing president’s departure from the White House he adhered to the tradition of departing presidents by leaving a letter to welcome the new president Joe Biden to the Oval Office.
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Updated 11:19 IST, January 22nd 2021