So far, just one president has RSVP'd "yes" to Trump's inauguration
So far, just one former president has said he’ll definitely be at the inauguration of Donald Trump.
Democrat Jimmy Carter, 92, said he’s RSVP’d for Mr. Trump’s inauguration, which is scheduled for Jan. 20.
Carter, who backed Hillary Clinton during the campaign season, made the announcement at the start of teaching a Sunday school class in Plains, Georgia, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
The most recent Republican president, George W. Bush, has not publicly announced whether he will be at the inauguration of Mr. Trump, whom he declined to endorse in the primary or general election.
“We simply don’t discuss his schedule this far in advance,” Bush spokesperson Freddy Ford told CBS News.
President George H. W. Bush, who is 92, will not be attending the inauguration, spokesperson Jim McGrath confirmed to CBS.
Neither Bush voted for the president-elect.
Bill Clinton’s plans have also not been confirmed. Clinton spokesperson Angel Ureña told CBS News that the president has not yet decided whether he will attend the inauguration.
This week, Mr. Trump has criticized Clinton over Twitter and taunted him over his wife’s voter turnout efforts during the presidential campaign. His tweets came after a Westchester newspaper published an editorial in which Clinton was quoted saying of the president-elect, “He doesn’t know much. One thing he does know is how to get angry, white men to vote for him.” In the editorial, Clinton also said that he had received a phone call from Mr. Trump after the election, a point that Mr. Trump disputed, and that Clinton later conceded was correct.
It’s not unusual for former presidents to skip out on their successor’s induction into the White House, despite all former presidents getting an invite to the ceremony.
All four living presidents went to President Obama’s inauguration in 2009, but the Bushes did not attend the event in 2013 because of Bush 41’s health.
Republican Gerald Ford, 91 missed George W. Bush’s second inauguration in 2005 for health reasons.