Clinton’s archival photographs highlighted customary first-lady transition gestures as the 2020 presidential handoff remained contested.
Hillary Clinton posted two transition-era photographs to Instagram on November 12, 2020. The first showed Clinton with Barbara Bush in November 1992, after Bill Clinton defeated incumbent President George H. W. Bush. The second showed Clinton holding hands with incoming first lady Laura Bush in December 2000, as the Clinton administration prepared to leave office. ([honey.nine.com.au](https://honey.nine.com.au/latest/hillary-clinton-melania-trump-jill-biden/ff0f12fe-383c-44ee-9c10-fc2bcc731fc0?utm_source=openai))
“Barbara welcoming me, November 1992; me welcoming Laura, December 2000.”
View Clinton’s original Instagram post.
The photographs offered a contrast with contemporaneous reporting about the 2020 handoff. On November 10, CNN’s Kate Bennett reported that a source familiar with the matter said Melania Trump had not contacted incoming first lady Jill Biden. CNN described a meeting between outgoing and incoming first ladies as customary and reported that the East Wing transition process had not begun. ([wral.com](https://www.wral.com/archive/19379778/))
Four years earlier, Michelle Obama hosted Melania Trump for tea and a tour of the White House’s private residence and State Floor. The women also discussed raising children in the White House, according to a November 10, 2016, White House press briefing. ([obamawhitehouse.archives.gov](https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/the-press-office/2016/11/10/press-briefing-press-secretary-josh-earnest-11102016/))
Anita McBride, who served as Laura Bush’s chief of staff, told CNN:
“I’m not sure it’s fair for anyone to expect them to start transitioning when the president has not yet conceded.”
A separate source familiar with Melania Trump’s thinking told CNN:
“If the president concedes, I’m sure the East Wing will be gracious and professional to the incoming administration, that’s just how they work.”
The earlier transitions included gestures toward incoming first families as well. During the 2008 transition, Laura Bush said her daughters, Barbara Bush and Jenna Bush Hager, showed Malia and Sasha Obama the White House’s private family rooms. Bush Hager shared photographs from that visit again in November 2020. ([georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov](https://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2008/11/20081126.html))