Biden’s team getting started on transition
But Trump still moving to contest election results
WILMINGTON, Del. — As President Donald Trump continued to contest the results of the presidential election, former Vice President Joe Biden signaled on Sunday that he plans to move quickly to build out his government, focusing first on the coronavirus pandemic.
Biden named a former surgeon general, Dr. Vivek Murthy, and a former Food and Drug Administration commissioner, David Kessler, as co-chairs of a coronavirus working group that’s set to get started, with other members expected to be announced today.
Transition team officials said Biden this week will launch his agency review teams, the groups of transition staffers who have access to key agencies in the current administration to ease the transfer of power. The teams will collect and review information such as budgetary and staffing decisions, pending regulations and other work in progress from current staffs at the departments to help Biden’s
team prepare to transition.
“People want the country to move forward,” said Kate Bedingfield, Biden’s deputy campaign manager, in an interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press. She said Americans want to see Biden and his running mate, Sen. Kamala Harris of California, “have the opportunity to do the work, to get the virus under control and to get our economy back together.”
It’s unclear whether Trump and his administration will cooperate with Biden’s transition team. The president has pledged to mount legal challenges in several closely contested states.
Biden adviser Jen Psaki pressed for the Trump-appointed head of the General Services Administration to recognize Biden as the president-elect, which would free up money for the transition and clear the way for Biden’s team to begin putting in place the transition process at agencies.
“America’s national security and economic interests depend on the federal government signaling clearly and swiftly that the United States government will respect the will of the American people and engage in a smooth and peaceful transfer of power,” Psaki said in a Twitter post.
A General Services Administration official said Sunday that such a step had not been taken yet.
A bipartisan group of officials from the Barack Obama, George W. Bush, and Bill Clinton administrations on Sunday called for the Trump administration to move forward “to immediately begin the post-election transition process.”
“This was a hard-fought campaign, but history is replete with examples of presidents who emerged from such campaigns to graciously assist their successors,” members of the Center for Presidential Transition advisory board said in a statement.
The statement was signed by Bush White House Chief of Staff Josh Bolten and Health and Human Services Secretary Michael Leavitt as well as Clinton-era Chief of Staff Thomas McLarty and Obama Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker.
BIDEN’S PICKS
Biden said in a speech Saturday that he would announce a task force of scientists and experts today to develop a “blueprint” to begin beating back the virus by the time he assumes the presidency. He said his plan would be “built on bedrock science” and “constructed out of compassion, empathy and concern.”
Murthy, who had advised Biden during the campaign, was named to a four-year term as surgeon general in 2014 by Obama. Murthy was asked to resign by Trump months into the Republican’s term. Kessler was appointed as FDA commissioner by President George H.W. Bush and served in the position through Clinton’s first term in the White House.
Biden senior adviser Ted Kaufman said the transition team will focus on the “nuts and bolts” of building the new administration in coming days.
Biden may not make top Cabinet choices for weeks. But he built his presidential run around bipartisanship, and he has spent the days since Tuesday’s election pledging to be a president for all Americans. That suggests he could be willing to appoint some Republicans to high-profile administration positions.
Many former Republican officeholders broke with Trump to endorse Biden’s campaign. Biden’s selection of some of them could appease Senate Republicans, who may have to confirm many of Biden’s choices for top jobs. The GOP could retain control of the chamber after two special elections in Georgia on Jan. 5.
Still, too much across-the-aisle cooperation could draw the ire of progressives. Some already worry that uncooperative Senate Republicans could force Biden to scale back his ambitious campaign promises to expand access to health care and lead a post-pandemic economic recovery that relies on federal investment in green technology and jobs to help combat climate change.
“I think there will be a huge misuse of the word ‘unity’ to imply that we need to water down the ideas that Joe Biden just campaigned on,” said Adam Green, co-founder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee. He said the country was more united around bold solutions to big problems than around small-scale efforts.
TRUMP’S PLANS
Biden’s efforts at bipartisan reconciliation could still be derailed by Trump’s push to challenge election results in the courts.
Trump has given no indication that he’s preparing to concede. His closest aide, sonin-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner, has recommended the president ask courts to ensure transparency around ongoing counts of ballots in several contested states, according to people familiar with the matter.
The president is falling further behind Biden in three pivotal states — Pennsylvania, Georgia and Nevada — and has not made up enough ground in Arizona to make it likely that he will win the state. He now trails Biden by about 101,000 votes combined across the four states, with the largest deficits in Pennsylvania and Nevada.
But the president plans to explore all options to ensure legal votes are counted and that votes the campaign contends are illegal are not, one person said.
The president’s team plans to make additional legal moves starting today, according to one person, who declined to elaborate.
“Trump has not lost,” declared Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., in an appearance on Fox News Channel’s “Sunday Morning Futures.” “Do not concede, Mr. President. Fight hard,” he urged.
Trump’s adult sons, Donald Jr. and Eric, have also urged their father to keep fighting and challenged Republicans to stand with them.
“At this point, we do not know who has prevailed in the election,” said Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, telling Fox News that he believes Trump “still has a path to victory.”
While some of his Republican allies were supporting his move to contest the election results, others were giving him space to process.
“I look forward to the president dealing with this however he needs to deal with it,” Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., said Sunday on ABC’s “This Week.” Still, he said it was time for Trump “to turn this discussion over to his lawyers, time for the lawyers to make the case that they have, both in court and to the American people, and then we’re going to have to deal with those facts as they’re presented. That has to happen, and then we move forward.”
On NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, said it was legitimate for Trump to pursue any irregularities in the Nov. 3 vote. “But if, as expected, those things don’t change the outcome, why, he will accept the inevitable,” Romney added.
“I’m more concerned about the language that’s used” in describing those challenges, since inflammatory rhetoric can be seized upon by authoritarians around the world, he said.
“It’s important to not use language that could encourage a course of history that’s very, very unfortunate,” Romney said.
NETANYAHU, BUSH
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, one of Trump’s closest allies, opened a Cabinet meeting on Sunday by congratulating Biden.
“I have a long and warm personal connection with Joe Biden for nearly 40 years, and I know him as a great friend of the state of Israel,” Netanyahu said. “I am certain that we will continue to work with both of them in order to further strengthen the special alliance between Israel and the U.S.”
George W. Bush, the sole living Republican former president, also wished Biden well.
“I extended my warm congratulations and thanked him for the patriotic message he delivered last night,” Bush said in a statement released after he spoke with Biden by phone. “I also called Kamala Harris to congratulate her on her historic election to the vice presidency. Though we have political differences, I know Joe Biden to be a good man who has won his opportunity to lead and unify our country.”
He added: “I want to congratulate President Trump and his supporters on a hardfought campaign. He earned the votes of more than 70 million Americans — an extraordinary political achievement. They have spoken, and their voices will continue to be heard through elected Republicans at every level of government.”
Information for this article was contributed by Will Weissert, Alexandra Jaffe, Aamer Madhani, Zeke Miller, Steve Peoples, Jill Colvin, and Jonathan Lemire of The Associated Press; by Ros Krasny, Shawn Donnan, Jennifer Jacobs and Jordan Fabian of Bloomberg News; and by Peter Baker of The New York Times.