Trump plans to use Air Force One for FINAL time on Biden's Inauguration Day to host grand opposing rally in Florida
President Donald Trump is reportedly considering a dramatic departure from the White House that includes a final Air Force One flight to Florida where he will host an opposing rally during President-elect Joe Biden's inauguration, according to a new Axios report. The outlet's Alayna Treene wrote: "The Trump talk could create a split-screen moment: the outgoing president addressing a roaring crowd in an airport hangar while the incoming leader is sworn in before a socially distanced audience outside the Capitol."
Trump is also reportedly planning to give Biden's swearing-in ceremony a miss in January and has proposed the idea of a Florida rally to announce his 2024 bid to reclaim the presidency, people familiar with the discussion told NBC News. The update comes days after the Republican, in November, had stated that he would leave the White House if the Electoral College votes for Biden. President Trump has still not conceded to Biden in the 2020 presidential elections and has alleged "massive fraud" in the vote count, without providing any evidence to support his claim. Trump, previously, when asked whether he would consider running again on the Republican ticket in 2024 had said: "I don’t want to talk to 2024 yet."
The news comes days after Biden, in an interview with CNN, had stated that he wanted Trump to attend his inauguration on January 20, shake his hand and let the country move on. "I think it would be important only in one sense - not in a personal sense important - in the sense that we are able to demonstrate at the end of this chaos that he's created that there is peaceful transfer of power, with the competing parties, standing there, shaking hands, and moving on. I really worry about the image we're presenting to the rest of the world," the Democrat told CNN’s Jake Tapper.
The president-elect added that Trump's attendance at the inauguration ceremony would be important for the United States. "I think is important but it is totally his decision, and it's no personal consequence to me. But I do think it is in the country," the Democrat leader said. President Trump, over a month after Election Day, has still refused to concede in the 2020 presidential election to Biden, the winner of the electoral college and the popular vote.
When Trump was asked on Thanksgiving whether he would be attending the inauguration ceremony, he had said that although he knew the answer to the question, he would not yet share it with the press. He told reporters: "I don't want to say that yet. I mean I know the answer, I'll be honest, I know the answer, but I just don't want to say it yet."
As Trump continues his effort to overturn the results of the presidential election, some Republican lawmakers on Capitol Hill have not yet publicly acknowledged Biden's victory in the race. Biden, while remarking on this said, that he understands their position, but has already conversed with several of his former Senate colleagues privately. "There have been more than several sitting Republican senators who privately call me and congratulate me," he said. "And I understand the situation they find themselves in."
But according to a Washington Post survey released on Saturday, only 27 Republican lawmakers in Congress acknowledged Biden’s win over Trump in the presidential election. Roughly 88% -- or 220 lawmakers -- would not say who won the election, and two lawmakers said Trump won, the survey found.