He didn’t have to be gracious. Few would have blamed him if he was not. He could have followed through with the obligatory meeting between an outgoing POTUS and an incoming one from the other party stiffly, coldly and as formally as possible. After all, Donald Trump had refused to extend the courtesy of such a meeting to him, when Biden won the election in 2020.
But instead of tit-for-tat, payback, bitterness or resentment, President Biden said, “Welcome back.” Never mind that this is an odd thing to say to man whom his party (and Biden himself) had pronounced a fascist and an existentialist threat to democracy. Trump, himself addicted to outrageous hyperbole as a lifestyle, knows more than most that this was just a campaign ploy, albeit a particularly divisive and unfair one. “Welcome back” is as close as President Biden could come to saying, “It’s over, you won, and no hard feelings,” even if the hard feelings are there, for how could they not be?
It is supremely ironic that Joe Biden’s most remembered quote as President will be this one, uttered as he his administration is going out not with a bang, but a whimper. (George Washington also had a famous quote acknowledging his successor: “I am fairly out and you fairly in! George said to John Adams. “See which of us will be happiest!”)
At the end of ” MacBeth”Malcolm says of vanquished Thane of Cawdor, “Nothing dignified him in this life more than his leaving it.” It may be said of Joe Biden that “Nothing so dignified his Presidency as his leaving it.” I suspect that it will be.
Ethics Alarms 
What if he had no idea he ever had a beef with Trump? What if he only knew he was supposed to be welcoming to whoever it was he was sitting across from?
It’s a distinct possibility, but let’s give Joe the benefit of the doubt.
Uh. No. Let’s not. Nor Dr. Jill.
I wouldn’t be surprised if Biden voted for Trump just to piss off those who ushered him to the door.
They reportedly talked for over an hour and a half (is that normal for a Presidential transition meeting?). I doubt the meeting would’ve lasted that long if Biden wasn’t lucid.
People in cognitive decline can have long periods of lucidity, especially at times of the day that are best for them.
Maybe Biden retold the story three times about his dog biting people.
So…where was acting POTUS Harris…taking in wash to defray her campaign markers…?
PWS
“Trump, himself addicted to outrageous hyperbole as a lifestyle, knows more than most that this was just a campaign ploy, albeit a particularly divisive and unfair one. “
And an unforgivably poisonous one as millions of Americans believe it. In fact, this person on Reddit is questioning whether it’s okay to not cut off people who voted for Trump.
https://www.reddit.com/r/AITAH/comments/1gqnbgh/aitah_for_not_writing_people_off_due_to_political/
I’ve wrote this before and I’ll write this again: They have a lot to answer for.
You are right, they do. Reading that post, I’d say the author was rather confused, but I think did do the right thing by not burning bridges with her family if at all possible.
When Clinton was elected the first time, I can remember saying “Well, we survived four years of Carter, we can survive Clinton.” Not everyone saw the humor in that.
Just in my lifetime, there have been a number of presidents who turned over the reins of power with disdain or apprehension (or both). One especially petty instance was reading that Clinton’s staff took all the “W” keys from the White House typewriters before they left.
John Adams was so dismayed he left town before Jefferson was sworn in.
However, if we can start to observe the forms — whether we actually believe them or not — perhaps it is a start to overcoming the hyperpartisanship that exists today.
By the way, what was up with the press at that meeting? I always thought it was weird and juvenile how they’d all try to talk at once at press conferences, but here it seems even worse; I couldn’t hear anyone individually, and I’m sure the president and president-elect couldn’t either. I like how they both turned it into a funny moment.
https://x.com/cspan/status/1856735906650075452
WOW! I watched that video, and the first thing that came to mind was:
“Please! Please! Can we get just 10 at a time, please?”
–Dwayne
Joe actually seemed sort of happy at the meeting. I wonder if the old coot weren’t maybe pleased that Kamala crashed and burned after the coup.
Well, the Democratic Party stabbed him in the back and humiliated him. After decades of faithful service, the party discarded him like trash. He seems to be on the outs with Harris, who banned him from campaigning for her and banned him from her watch party. It isn’t shocking to think that he is actually pleased that Harris lost and that Trump is coming in. They both are presidents that were rejected by their own party leadership.