Biden to sweep away Trump policies
The president-elect will use Oval Office powers on day one to remove his predecessor’s agenda
‘It’s time to put away the harsh rhetoric, lower the temperature, see each other again, listen to each other’
JOE BIDEN is set to sweep away some of Donald Trump’s most controversial policies on his first day as US president on Jan 20, using the powers of the Oval Office to remove key planks of his predecessor’s agenda.
The president-elect is expected to use executive orders on inauguration day to return America to the Paris climate change agreement and remove Mr Trump’s travel ban on mostly Muslim countries. Other first- day priorities include restoring the rights of government workers to unionise, ordering a new push to tackle homelessness and establishing a new team of advisers to fight Covid-19.
The moves, all named during the campaign as decisions he would implement on day one of his presidency, indicate how much of Mr Biden’s early months in power will be spent unpicking Trump policies.
But they also reflect how limited Mr Biden’s political powers will be, given that he is likely to lack a majority in the US Senate, which must approve all proposed pieces of legislation.
Executive orders can be issued by a president without any approval from Congress and carry legal weight. Often they are seen as the most pain-free way for a president to implement change. However, they are not without controversy. Mr Trump bemoaned Barack Obama’s use of them as he sought the presidency, then leant on the mechanism once in the White House himself.
Mr Biden was pushing ahead with preparations for his presidency even as Mr Trump refused to concede the election, the result of which was called by US media outlets on Saturday morning.
Legal challenges also loom, but they are unlikely to change the election result as Pennsylvania, the state which secured Mr Biden the presidency, was won by tens of thousands of votes.
That is a slim margin but much more substantial than a few hundred votes, which was the gap in the deciding state of Florida during the contested 2000 presidential election which ended in the Supreme Court.
The first real insights into how Mr Biden would approach his tenure in the White House, having been named president-elect, came on Saturday evening in his victory speech.
Mr Biden jogged on to the stage in his home town of Wilmington, Delaware, to deliver a message of unity. “This is the time to heal in America,” he declared.
The 77-year- old Democrat talked about the need to heal past political differences, saying: “Let this grim era of demonisation in America begin to end, here and now.” He offered an olive branch to the more than 70 million people who voted for Mr Trump, building on his promise to be a president who represents all Americans. “For all those of you who voted for President Trump, I understand the disappointment tonight. I’ve lost a couple of times myself,” Mr Biden said. “But now let’s give each other a chance. It’s time to put away the harsh rhetoric, lower the temperature, see each other again, listen to each other again.
“And to make progress we have to stop treating our opponents as our enemies. They are not our enemies. They are Americans. They are Americans!
“The Bible tells us, to everything there is a season: a time to build, a time to reap, a time to sow and a time to heal. This is the time to heal in America.”
In the speech there was also a call for cooperation, aimed at Capitol Hill, a place where Mr Biden had spent 36 years as a senator for Delaware.
Results of the election so far have given Democrats 48 seats in the US Senate and Republicans 50. Races for the other two Senate seats are being rerun in Georgia, with results to be known in January.
“The refusal of Democrats and Republicans to cooperate with one another is not due to some mysterious force beyond our control,” said Mr Biden in his speech. “It’s a decision. It’s a choice we make. And if we can decide not to cooperate, then we can decide to cooperate. And I believe that this is part of the mandate from the American people. They want us to cooperate.”
Amid the fallout of the closer-thanexpected presidential election there has been much discussion about how the lack of a Senate majority will impact Mr Biden’s agenda.
Mr Biden made much of his ability to reach across the aisle during his successful bid for Democratic presidential nomination at the start of this year.
Should the Republicans maintain control of the Senate there will be a close focus on Mr Biden’s relationship with Mitch Mcconnell, the current Republican Senate leader from Kentucky.
Chris Coons, the Delaware senator who is close to Mr Biden, was upbeat in an interview with Politico, saying of the two men: “They have negotiated big things before.”
Mitt Romney, the Utah senator and former Republican presidential nominee, also said his party would work with Mr Biden on education and healthcare issues, including lowering drug prices.
However, he issued a warning, claiming Americans had rejected progressive Democratic policies such as the Green New Deal – a bold but expensive climate change action plan – tax rises and the end of the oil industry.
Near the end of his Saturday speech, Mr Biden, a lifelong Catholic, quoted a hymn about how God will “raise you up on eagle’s wings” and “bear you on the breath of dawn”. He added: “And now, together – on eagle’s wings – we embark on the work that God and history have called upon us to do.”