U.S. President Donald Trump urged prayers for the new administration in a farewell address, as he leaves office with nearly 400,000 Americans dead of the coronavirus whose risk he downplayed, an economy struggling from the pandemic, and relationships strained with key U.S. allies.
This report produced by Chris Dignam.
TRUMP: "I go from this majestic place with a loyal and joyful heart and optimistic spirit and a supreme confidence that, for our country and for our children, the best is yet to come." Outgoing President Donald Trump bid farewell in a video address released on Tuesday, but suggested his "MAGA" movement would go on as he wished the incoming administration luck, declining to acknowledge his successor by name.
TRUMP: "This week, we inaugurate a new administration... We extend our best wishes, and we also want them to have luck - a very important word." The defiant 45th president has refused to formally concede to President-elect Joe Biden, who won the election.
And despite leaving office, Trump still has an impeachment trial on the horizon to determine whether he incited an insurrection when his supporters attacked the U.S. Capitol, after hearing him repeat his false allegations of election fraud.
MITCH MCCONNELL: "Tomorrow, President-elect Biden and Vice President-elect Harris will be sworn in." On senators' first day back since the riot at the Capitol, the Senate's top Republican Mitch McConnell, who will soon relinquish his role as the chamber's majority leader, accused President Donald Trump of provoking the deadly assault on Congress, heightening speculation over how he and his fellow Republican senators might vote in Trump's second impeachment trial.
MCCONNELL: "The mob was fed lies.
They were provoked by the president and other powerful people." The House of Representatives impeached Trump last week, making him the first president in U.S. history to be impeached twice, but the Senate has yet to schedule a trial.
McConnell last week said he would listen to the arguments presented during the Senate trial before deciding how to vote on the impeachment charge of inciting an insurrection that resulted in the siege of the Capitol.
CHUCK SCHUMER: "President Trump invented the lie that motivated these criminals." The Senate's top Democrat Chuck Schumer, who will take over as the majority leader, said if Trump is convicted, the Senate will vote on barring him from running again for president.
SCHUMER: "President Trump is a threat to our constitutional order whether he is in or out of office." Trump's one term as president ends on Wednesday at noon when Joe Biden is sworn in.
With the National Mall closed to the public, Inauguration Day will be starkly different than previous ones - including Trump's - when he celebrated the peaceful transition of power.
But on Wednesday, the outgoing president will become the first to skip the swearing-in ceremony in more than 150 years.
The last president to snub his predecessor was Andrew Johnson, who skipped the inauguration of Ulysses S.
Grant in 1869, almost a year after Johnson became the first U.S. president to be impeached.
