It’s less than ten days before the US inaugurates its first convicted felon as its president in Donald Trump, as he takes his second term, and our very own Penny Wong will be there. Why?
She was invited.
The Foreign Minister and Ambassador to the US Kevin Rudd were both invited to attend Inauguration Day on January 20 (January 21 AEDT), and they have accepted. During their visit, they will meet with individuals in Trump’s administration and congress.
“I am honoured to be invited to attend President Donald Trump’s inauguration,” Senator Wong said in a statement. “It is a demonstration of the steadfast alliance between Australia and the United States. This early visit will be an important opportunity to discuss how we can advance the benefits of our strong economic and security partnership and expand our cooperation.”
Senator Wong also plans to meet her counterparts of the Quad nations (Australia, the US, India and Japan) in Washington following the swearing-in ceremony. She will be in talks with Japanese Foreign Minister Takeshi Iwaya, Indian External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar and Senator Marco Rubio, Trump’s pick for Secretary of State. The group issued a statement last December reiterating its commitment to humanitarian assistance and disaster relief in the Indo-Pacific region and to deliver positive outcomes for citizens of South Asia.
Last week, Trump appeared virtually at his criminal sentencing from his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, when he received an “unconditional discharge.”
The trial judge, Juan M. Merchan, who has been dealing with the case for the past two years, said, “Never before has this court been presented with such a unique and remarkable set of circumstances. This has been a truly extraordinary case,” adding that an unconditional discharge was the only way to abstain from “encroaching on the highest office of the land.”
“It is the legal protections afforded to the office of the president of the United States that are extraordinary, not the occupant of the office,” he said.
The president-elect continued to proclaim his innocence, replying with his own statement: “This has been a very terrible experience…The fact is, I’m totally innocent,” he said, adding that the case against him has been “an injustice of justice.”