Pence expected to attend Biden inauguration

Vice President Pence is expected to attend Joe Biden’s inauguration later this month. 

A person familiar with the vice president’s thinking told The Hill that Pence is expected to attend the inauguration in some capacity. Politico first reported earlier Thursday that Pence is expected to attend the ceremony.  

Pence has not yet been formally invited to the ceremony, which will take place on Jan. 20, his office said.

“You can’t attend something you haven’t received an invitation to,” Pence spokesman Devin O’Malley tweeted Thursday amid reports that the vice president planned to attend Biden’s inauguration.  

A spokesperson for the Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies said that the outgoing president and vice president are never “formally invited” to the ceremonies and that the committee has not been told by either the president or vice president whether they plan to attend.  

Logistics for Pence’s likely attendance are expected to be worked out in the coming days between staff at the committee and White House. The Biden transition team did not respond to a request for comment about Pence’s potential attendance at the event, which will be scaled back this year due to the coronavirus pandemic. 

President Trump has not said whether he plans to attend the inauguration, but his allies do not expect him to be there. Trump has refused to concede the election to Biden and insisted that the election was stolen from him through widespread fraud, a claim that he has not supported with evidence and which has been disputed by election officials and others. 

The news comes as a chasm has opened up between Trump and Pence, one of the president’s most loyal allies, over efforts by Trump and his supporters to contest the election results. Trump grew angry after Pence rejected his calls to block the certification of the Electoral College votes by Congress – something the vice president does not have the unilateral power to do. 

Pence presided over a chaotic joint session of Congress on Wednesday to certify the election results, which was interrupted when a mob of Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol. Trump has been widely criticized for inciting the violence; the rioters marched to the Capitol after Trump delivered a speech on the Ellipse that was laced with false statements about his election loss and attacks on Republican politicians who have not supported his efforts.  

“Mike Pence didn’t have the courage to do what should have been done to protect our Country and our Constitution, giving States a chance to certify a corrected set of facts, not the fraudulent or inaccurate ones which they were asked to previously certify,” Trump tweeted Wednesday as protesters were making their way into the Capitol. “USA demands the truth!”