This article is part of The D.C. Brief, TIME’s politics newsletter. Sign up here to get stories like this sent to your inbox. As far as scripted set pieces of American politics go, the first photo-op in the hand-off of power between one White House and the next is up there. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] There are moments of cringe, as was the case in 1980 when Ronald Reagan peppered Jimmy Carter with seemingly ancillary questions to the job they were trading, even as the incumbent rightly suspected someone in Reagan’s camp had worked to extend the Iranian hostage crisis so it would end as soon as Reagan took power.