Biden aides say inauguration speech will look forward, won’t dwell on Trump

Two of the Biden administration’s top communications officials are describing the incoming US president’s inaugural address as a forward-looking speech that will make little to no mention of his predecessor.

Communications director Kate Bedingfield tells ABC’s “Good Morning America” this morning that US President-elect Joe Biden’s address will “speak to the moment that we are in, but it will also lay out a vision for the future.”

Biden press secretary Jen Psaki tells CNN that Biden’s inaugural address is “definitely not a speech about Donald Trump” and she “wouldn’t expect” to hear about him in it.

Bedingfield says Biden had not had any contact with the outgoing president.

Asked why Biden had invited political opponents including House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy to join him at a Mass on Wednesday morning, Psaki says it “felt important to him personally to have members of both parties… and use that as an example to the American public.”

Bedingfield says Biden will sign 15 executive orders in some of his first moves as president.