WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump and President-elect Joe Biden attended separate Veterans Day events Wednesday in a stark illustration of the chasm between the incoming and outgoing administrations.

Trump attended a wreath-laying ceremony in rainy weather at Arlington National Cemetery across the Potomac River from Washington.

He made no public remarks. In a written statement released earlier in the day he said: “We enjoy the privileges of peace, prosperity, and freedom because of our veterans, and we are forever indebted to them beyond measure.”

Biden attended an event at a Korean War memorial in Philadelphia.

He also released a statement in which he also noted the debt owed to the armed forces, and said the nation’s “one truly sacred obligation” was “to prepare and equip our troops we send into harm’s way, and to care for them and their families when they return home.”

Trump has refused to concede defeat in the November 3 election won by Biden, and is also refusing to cooperate in the transition to a new administration in January.—AFP