Biden all set for busy 1st week
As swearing-in ceremony nears, security increased in Washington
Washington, Jan. 18: President-elect Joe Biden’s top advisors on Sunday outlined his plans to tackle the nation’s multiple crises while balancing the impeachment trial of Donald Trump, as an historic inauguration week opens in the United States.
Washington was under the watch of thousands of National Guard troops and ringed with security barriers ahead of Biden’s swearing in on Wednesday, in a nation still rattled by the January 6 attack on the Capitol.
Pro-Trump protests planned at state capitols nationwide got off to a quiet start with only small groups of armed demonstrators gathering in states including Ohio, Texas, Oregon and Michigan.
“The events of the past few weeks have proven just how damaged the soul of America has been and how important is to restore it. That work starts on Wednesday,” Biden’s incoming chief of staff Ron Klain said.
“We’re inheriting a huge mess here, but we have a plan to fix it.” As the president-elect prepares to take power in a city where only two weeks earlier Trump supporters launched a violent
attempt to overturn the election, Biden faces overlapping crises: not only the pandemic but a struggling economy, climate change and racial tensions.
Biden wants the Congress to act quickly on a massive, $1.9-trillion stimulus package to revive the economy, and he plans a blitz to accelerate America’s stumbling Covid vaccine rollout.
His target of seeing
100
million doses of Coronavirus vaccine injected within his first 100 days in office is “absolutely” achievable, top US scientist Anthony Fauci said on Sunday.
“The feasibility of his goal is absolutely clear, there’s no doubt about it,” said Fauci, who will be Biden’s chief advisor on the virus, as he was Trump’s.
But the coming Senate impeachment trial — an unprecedented second for Trump — casts a shadow over Biden’s path forward.
Democratic congressional leaders Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer have yet to say when the trial will begin.
“I don’t think there’s any promised date when Speaker Pelosi is going to present the articles of impeachment,” Dick Durbin, a Democratic leader in the Senate, said.
—