WASHINGTON (AP) – Vice President Mike Pence called his future successor, Kamala Harris, to congratulate him, according to two people familiar with the conversation.
It is the first known contact between the elected members of the outgoing and incoming administrations. President Donald Trump has not contacted President-elect Joe Biden and has repeatedly questioned the legitimacy of Biden’s victory.
But Pence became an unexpected supporter of Biden. The vice president resisted pressure from Trump to oppose the Democrat’s victory in the elections while presiding over Congressional certification of electoral vote counts last week.
Pence will also attend Biden’s opening on January 20, which Trump refuses to attend.
One of the people familiar with the Thursday afternoon conversation described it as a “good call”, with Pence congratulating his successor and offering help. They spoke on condition of anonymity to describe the private conversation.
The call came less than a week before Biden and Harris took office, and just over a week after Trump’s supporters invaded the Capitol.
While Trump has remained largely behind closed doors furious since his loss, Pence has stepped up and fulfilled many of the presidential ceremonial duties, including greeting the members of the National Guard who now protect the Capitol building on Thursday night.
The call to his successor is a continuation of the traditional show of courtesy between leaders who are leaving and those who are coming in, which Trump, by contrast, despises. In 2008, then Vice President Dick Cheney called Biden to congratulate him on the night of his victory and invited Biden and his wife Jill to visit the Vice President’s residence on the grounds of the U.S. Naval Observatory shortly before the 2009 inauguration. .
It is not clear whether Pence will do the same for Harris. Much of Washington is under increased security following last week’s violent Capitol insurrection, with police officers warning of more potential for violence before Biden’s inauguration.
Although Biden said that he welcomed Trump’s decision to avoid his inauguration, he also said that he would be “honored” to have Pence present, and that it was important to maintain a “historic precedent” regarding a peaceful transfer of power as much as possible .