In January 1981, Jimmy Carter nodded politely towards Ronald Reagan as the brand new Republican president thanked the Democrat for his administration’s assist after Reagan resoundingly defeated Carter the earlier November.
Twenty years earlier, after a a lot nearer race, Republican Richard Nixon clasped John F. Kennedy’s hand and supplied the brand new Democratic president a phrase of encouragement.
The U.S. has an extended custom of defeated presidential candidates sharing the inauguration stage with the individuals who defeated them, projecting to the world the orderly switch of energy. It is a follow that Vice President Kamala Harris will resume on Jan. 20 after an eight-year hiatus.
Solely as soon as within the tv period — with its magnifying impact on a shedding candidate’s expression — has a defeated candidate skipped the train. That candidate, former President Donald Trump, left for Florida after a failed effort to overturn his loss based mostly on false or unfounded theories of voter fraud.
With Harris watching, Trump is scheduled to face on the Capitol’s west steps and be sworn in for a second time period.
Beneath are examples of episodes which have featured a shedding candidate in a ceremony that Reagan known as “nothing short of a miracle.”
2001: Al Gore and George W. Bush
Democrat Al Gore conceded to Republican George W. Bush after 36 days of authorized battling over Florida’s ballots ended with a divided Supreme Court docket ruling to finish the recount.
However Gore, the sitting vp, would be a part of Bush on the west steps of the Capitol a month later because the Texas governor was sworn in. After Bush took the oath, he and Gore shook fingers, spoke briefly and smiled earlier than Gore returned to his seat clapping alongside to the presidential anthem, “Hail to the Chief.”
A upset Gore accepted the result and his function in demonstrating continuity of governance, former Gore marketing campaign spokeswoman Kiki McLean mentioned.
“He may have wished, ‘I wish that was me standing there,’” McLean mentioned. “But I don’t think Gore for one minute ever doubted he should be there in his capacity as vice president.”
2017: Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump
Democrat Hillary Clinton was candid about her disappointment in shedding to Trump in 2016, when — like Gore in opposition to Bush — she acquired extra votes however didn’t win an Electoral Faculty majority. “Obviously, I was crushed,” she advised Howard Stern on his radio present in 2019.
Calling Inauguration Day “one of the hardest days of my life,” Clinton mentioned she deliberate to attend Trump’s swearing-in out of a way of obligation, having been first girl throughout her husband’s presidency from 1993 to 2001. “You put on the best face possible,” Clinton mentioned on Stern’s present.
2021: Mike Pence (with Trump absent) and Joe Biden
Trump 4 years in the past claimed with out proof that his loss to President Joe Biden was marred by widespread fraud. Two weeks earlier, Trump supporters had stormed the Capitol in a violent siege geared toward halting the electoral vote certification.
As a substitute, then-Vice President Mike Pence was the face of the outgoing administration.
“Sure, it was awkward,” Pence’s former chief of workers Marc Brief mentioned.
Nonetheless, Pence and his spouse met privately with Biden and his spouse to congratulate them within the Capitol earlier than the ceremony, and escorted newly sworn-in Vice President Kamala Harris and her husband out of the Capitol afterward, as custom had prescribed, Brief mentioned.
“There was an appreciation expressed for him by members of both chambers in both parties,” he mentioned.
1993: George H.W. Bush and Invoice Clinton
Bush stood on the Capitol’s west steps thrice for his swearing-in — as vp twice and in 1989 to be inaugurated as president. He would attend once more in 1993 in defeat.
He joined Invoice Clinton, the Democrat who beat him, on the normal stroll out onto the east steps. Bush would return triumphantly to the inaugural ceremony eight years later as the daddy of Clinton’s successor, George W. Bush.
1961: Richard Nixon and John F. Kennedy
Nixon had simply misplaced the 1960 election by fewer than 120,000 votes in what was the closest presidential contest in 44 years. However the departing vp approached Kennedy with a large grin, a handshake and an audible “good luck” simply seconds after the successful Democrat’s swearing-in.
Nixon must wait eight years to be sworn in as president, whereas his shedding Democratic opponent — outgoing Vice President Hubert Humphrey — seemed on. He was inaugurated a second time after successful reelection in 1972, solely to resign after the Watergate scandal.
1933: Herbert Hoover and Franklin D. Roosevelt
Like Bush, Hoover would attend only one inauguration as a brand new president earlier than shedding to a Democrat 4 years later. However Democrat Franklin Roosevelt’s 1933 swearing-in wouldn’t be Hoover’s final.
Hoover would stay for an additional 31 years, see 4 extra presidents sworn in, and sit in locations of honor on the two inaugurations of Republican Dwight D. Eisenhower.
1897: Grover Cleveland and Benjamin Harrison
Cleveland, the sitting Democratic president, misplaced reelection in 1888 whereas successful extra fashionable votes than former Indiana Sen. Benjamin Harrison. However Cleveland nonetheless managed to carry Harrison’s umbrella whereas the Republican was sworn in throughout a wet 1889 inauguration.
Elected to a second, non-consecutive time period in 1892, Cleveland, nevertheless, would stand solemnly behind William McKinley 4 years later on the Republican’s 1897 inauguration, leaving the presidency that day after shedding the 1896 nomination of his personal get together.
Cleveland was the one president to win two non-consecutive phrases till Trump’s victory in November.
