President Joe Biden will meet the president-elect Donald Trump at 11 a.m. ET Wednesday in the oval office. This will be only the second time the two men have met since Biden’s election in 2020. The first was the debate held in Junewhich led to BidenIt is renounce his candidacy for re-election. Expect this one to go a little better for the president.

Although this meeting will likely be brief and visibly tense, look at Biden as the patriot he has proven to be time and time again. For the sake of the country, he will be gracious, congratulate Trump on his victory in a fair election, and, most importantly, emphasize the importance of a peaceful transfer of power.

Biden has often been referred to as chief comforter for his ability to interact with people who have suffered great loss, after having experienced great loss himself. He surely sees parts of the nation feeling grief after the election and will seek to reassure them.

Trump will likely be polite and will likely bring up Biden’s call after the first assassination attempt in July – a call he really seemed to appreciate. Trump will have the cameras on him, and he’s on the brink of victory, so he’ll be on his best behavior, relatively speaking.

This meeting probably won’t last 90 minutes, as Trump’s post-election meeting with President Barack Obama in 2016. But it will also be different in that we can expect a much more confident President-elect Trump. This won’t be, as they say, his first rodeo, and Trump has never been one to seek advice.

This is not to say that Trump will be dismissive, at least publicly. But don’t be surprised if he drops some sort of joke on his way out, making a joke about Biden’s age or that he was wronged in 2020 and should never have gone to era.

Expect Biden to use some humor – not only is it in his nature, but it’s a disarming technique. But perhaps Biden’s biggest ask is that the president-elect look at Ukraine with fresh eyes. Biden could go so far as to suggest that continued aid to Ukraine, as it approaches its third year of resisting a brutal Russian military invasion, could cement its name in the history books as fervent defender of democracy. (Ironic, I know.)

It will likely end with Biden assuring Trump, and the public, that he will do everything possible to make this transition go smoothly and promising to help the president-elect in any way necessary.

Now, it’s not entirely out of the question that some White House staffers refuse to follow their boss’ elegant and patriotic example, perhaps in the vein of the prank disgruntled outgoing Clinton staffers pulled done when they would have removed the letter W from some. of the White House keyboards during the transition in early 2001. But let’s hope that won’t be the case. The message Biden wants to send, and one the country could use, is that while Democrats are disappointed and hurt right now, disrespect for their office only demeans them and contributes to a seemingly unbridgeable partisan divide.

Regardless of how the meeting goes, performative political moments like this actually matter. They remind us that we are a country built on democratic values.

Watch the meeting stream live on MSNBC at 11 a.m. ET.