NO GO-SLOW FOR JOE
New president Biden moves quickly to sign raft of executive orders
JOE Biden wasted no time getting down to work after he was sworn in, moving quickly to sign an unprecedented series of executive orders to put his stamp on his administration and begin unravelling Donald Trump’s legacy.
“I thought there’s no time to wait; get to work immediately,” a masked Mr Biden told reporters as he sat down to sign 15 executive orders and two executive actions just hours after his inauguration — more than any other president in modern history.
Covering everything from the wearing of face coverings on federal property to halting construction of the wall with Mexico, his first actions as president suggest he is making an early play for members of the progressive wing of his party, many of whom have thought him too centrist and moderate a player.
The orders, which are allowed by a sometimes controversial interpretation of the US Constitution that allows the president to make calls about the function of government without needing authorisation by Congress, ranged from the symbolic to the substantial.
While Mr Biden’s order for masks to be worn on federal property is really more about style — much of America is already governed by mask mandates — everything from economics to diplomacy to the future composition of America are up for grabs.
A return to globalism was signified by his orders to halt the Trump administration’s withdrawal from the World Health Organisation and to reenter the Paris climate accords.
This environmental focus was backed up by what will likely be the first of a series of Biden administration attacks on the fossil fuel industry, namely the revoking of a licence for the Keystone XL oil pipeline from Canada.
Although he has not yet gone the full Green New Deal, it’s an early indicator that the worst fears of voters who depended on the oil and natural gas industry, which boomed under the Trump administration, will soon be realised.
Other concessions to the progressive wing of his party were seen in a plan to reverse a Trump administration order excluding illegal aliens from the 2020 US Census, which could have serious consequences for US democracy.
Add to this orders to halt deportations and the construction of Trump’s southern border wall, as well as a scheme to potentially hand out citizenship to roughly 11 million people in the country illegally, and Mr Biden’s immigration program becomes one of the most radical in recent history.
None of this was popular with Republicans.
US President Joe Biden stormed through a marathon first day, capped off by the signing of a flurry of new executive orders to overturn some of predecessor Donald Trump’s key policies.
Seeking to cast himself in every way the opposite of his predecessor, Mr Biden had earlier delivered a rousing call for unity in a speech that contrasted sharply with the dark Inauguration Day address that began Mr Trump’s tumultuous four years in office.
He was cheered by a sparse and socially-distant crowd at the US Capitol when he acknowledged the profound nature of the challenges facing the country but maintained the American spirit could “rise to the occasion … and master this rare and difficult hour”.
“We face a time of testing. We face an attack on our democracy and on truth. A raging virus, growing inequity. The sting of systemic racism. A climate in crisis. America’s role in the world,” he said.
“Any one of these will be up to challenge us in profound ways. But the fact is, we face them all at once. Presenting this nation with one of the gravest responsibilities we’ve ever had.”
Declaring an end to the
“uncivil war” that “pits red against blue, rural versus urban, conservative versus liberal”, he called for unity as the “path forward”.
“Our history has been a constant struggle between the American ideal that we’re all created equal and the harsh ugly reality that racism, nativism, fear, demonisation, have long torn us apart,” he said.
But it was Mr Biden’s day, former Mr Trump was never far from the public consciousness along with his upcoming impeachment trial over the Capitol siege.
A despondent looking Mr Trump began his morning with a historic snub by neither attending his successor’s swearing-in nor personally greeting him at the White House before retreating to his new base in Florida.
With a brief speech to supporters and emotional members of his family before boarding Air Force One, he hinted at a political return.
“We will be back in some form,” he said, adding his administration left behind a “foundation to do something really spectacular”.
Mr Trump did follow one transition convention, leaving behind a letter for Mr Biden on the Resolute Desk.
Its contents would remain private, Mr Biden said, until Mr Trump agreed they could be revealed.
“The president wrote a
very generous letter,” Biden said. “Because it was private, I won’t talk about it until I talk to him. But it was generous.”
In his inaugural address, Mr Biden said it was “a day of history and hope, of renewal and resolve” and pledged his “whole soul” was ready to fight for America’s future.
Reflecting on the Washington siege where “just a few days ago, violence sought to shake the very Capitol’s foundation, we come together as one nation, under God, indivisible, to carry out the peaceful transfer of power, as we have for more than two centuries”.
“Today, we celebrate the triumph not of a candidate, but of a cause, a cause of democracy,” he said.
Mr Biden thanked his “predecessors of both parties, for their presence here today”, including Barack Obama, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, who attended the address and a later wreath-laying at Arlington military cemetery with their
wives. It was followed by a “virtual” parade in which Mr
Biden and wife Jill, his two children and some of their five grandchildren walked into the White House.
They were followed by Kamala Harris, the first female Vice President, and her husband and stepchildren.
Later, during his first Oval Office appearance and welcoming of the new executive staff, he emphasised his plan to govern with decency.
“I’m not joking when I say this, if you’re ever working with me and I hear you treat another with disrespect … I promise you I will fire you on the spot,” he said to his staff.