president joe biden claimed In a December interview, President-elect Donald Trump said he was “the only president ever to avoid Inauguration Day.”
Verdict: False
Presidents John Adams, John Quincy Adams, and Andrew Johnson all missed their respective successors' inauguration ceremonies.
Fact check:
President Trump blamed Biden's “open borders” policy for two recent attacks in the United States, including the explosion of a Cybertruck in front of the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas. the hill.
In December 2024, in an interview with progressive media outlet Meidas Touch, Biden claimed that Trump was “the only president ever to avoid Inauguration Day.”
““The only president who's ever avoided an inauguration is the one who's about to be inaugurated,” Biden said when host Ben Meiselas asked if he would attend Trump's inauguration on January 20. spoke.
That claim is false. time magazine In addition to Trump, Adams, Quincy Adams, and Johnson all did not attend their successors' respective inauguration ceremonies, according to reports in January 2021. According to Time magazine, Adams missed Thomas Jefferson's inauguration in 1801, following the death of his 30-year-old son Charles, amid political tensions in the United States at the time.
Quincy Adams also missed his successor Andrew Jackson's inauguration in 1829 due to political tensions. Adams was upset that Jackson did not visit before the inauguration, and decided to leave Washington, D.C., the day before the inauguration, the paper said.
Jackson ran for president in 1828 because he believed he had been “dethroned” in 1824. In the 1824 four-way election, Jackson won the popular vote, but no candidate received a majority of electoral votes, resulting in the U.S. House of Representatives deciding the winner.
Johnson skipped the inauguration in 1869 after his political rival Ulysses S. Grant was elected president, Time magazine reported. Mr. Johnson, who had been impeached in 1868 and was at odds with Congress over how to approach Reconstruction, wanted to run for president, but “the Democratic Party did not nominate him,” the publication noted. .
Similarly, according to White House Historical Society WebsiteAdams, Quincy Adams, Van Buren, Johnson, and Trump all “did not attend their successor's inauguration.” Like other presidents, Van Buren did not attend William Henry Harrison's inauguration in 1841.
Although Van Buren and Harrison shared a warm relationship, the then-Whig-controlled Senate Inaugural Committee notified Van Buren, “We do not believe you are eligible for any office.'' and decided not to attend the ceremony. Van Buren's decision not to attend the ceremony was also influenced by the fact that his son, Martin Van Buren Jr., was seriously ill at the time.
Additionally, the same website states that Presidents Woodrow Wilson and Richard Nixon “did not participate.” [in their successors’ inauguration ceremonies] For other reasons. ” (Related: Did Biden pardon 8,000 people to cover up his administration's crimes?)
new york times Van Buren, Wilson and Nixon also did not attend their successors' inauguration ceremonies, but these instances were “not necessarily political,” the newspaper said. For example, the newspaper reported that Mr. Wilson was “not well enough” to attend the inauguration of his successor, Warren G. Harding, but accompanied him to the Capitol.
moreover, Professor David GreenbergAn American political history expert at Rutgers University labeled Biden's claims “inaccurate.”
“Biden is wrong. The incumbent president, John Adams, lost a crushing election to Thomas Jefferson in 1800 and chose not to stay in town until after Jefferson's inauguration, as did several of his successors. His son, John Quincy Adams, attended Andrew Jackson's inauguration. I'm sure he didn't. Mr. Wilson was ill when he left office, so I don't think Mr. Nixon attended Mr. Ford's inauguration. He left the White House by helicopter. There may have been others,” Greenberg said.
snoop also debunked that claim. Check Your Fact has also reached out to the White House and President Trump's press secretary for comment.
