Category: Joe Biden

Challenges persist for Biden after delayed transition start

The Hill logo

Former Obama administration officials and outside groups say a growing list of challenges in the transition process are likely to impede President-elect Joe Biden‘s entry into office.

The transition itself started later than usual after the General Services Administration waited for weeks to authorize it. Since then, there have been reports of political appointees sitting in on Biden transition meetings with career staff, blocking of information and reports to Biden’s team, and other unusual involvement by political officials.

Biden’s transition officials haven’t been vocal about the issues, and some say his team doesn’t want to exacerbate matters by publicizing them. Continue reading.

Time’s Person of the Year is Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, a ticket that ‘represents something historic’

Washington Post logo

Nearly every president elected since the 1930s has been named Time magazine’s Person of the Year, often just weeks after they won a race for the White House.

On Thursday evening, the publication announced that President-elect Joe Biden continues the trend — with a twist. He is the first to receive the title alongside his running-mate, Vice President-elect Kamala D. Harris.

“The Biden-Harris ticket represents something historic,” the magazine’s editor in chief, Edward Felsenthal, said in a video announcing the pick. “Person of the Year is not just about the year that was but about where we’re headed.” Continue reading.

The White House is making big changes at the Pentagon — but Biden can reverse them

The Trump administration is using its last weeks in office to carry out a slew of changes at the Pentagon. The new president can cancel all of them on Day One.

Troop drawdowns. Advisory board firings. Navy budget overhauls.

The Trump administration is using its last weeks in office to carry out a slew of changes at the Pentagon. But they all have one thing in common: The new president can cancel them on Day One.

Under acting Defense Secretary Chris Miller, whom President Donald Trump appointed to the job after firing his predecessor, Mark Esper, in November, the Pentagon has announced plans to draw down troops in Iraq, Afghanistan and Somalia, and has elevated the senior civilian overseeing special operations. Then the White House abruptly fired longtime members of the Defense Policy and Defense Business Boards, replacing them with Trump loyalists. Continue reading.

Biden taps Susan Rice to steer domestic policy

Axios logo

President-elect Biden will name former National Security Adviser Susan Rice to head the Domestic Policy Council, the Biden transition team confirmed Thursday — a significant change from her previous roles that would put her in charge of major portions of his “Build Back Better”plan.

Between the lines: Rice was previously considered for Cabinet positions including Secretary of State, but she would have faced steep confirmation odds given her history of clashes with some GOP senators and as a flashpoint over Benghazi. The DPC role does not require Senate confirmation.

  • She’ll coordinate closely with the president-elect’s top national security and economic advisers, Jake Sullivan and Brian Deese.
  • This reflects Biden’s desire for more interconnected management of foreign, economic and domestic policy. Continue reading.

Most Trump voters live in states won by Biden

Washington Post logo

A colleague posed an interesting question to me Wednesday morning: What was the largest city that supported President Trump over President-elect Joe Biden in last month’s election?

I won’t make you read any further to learn the answer. It was Oklahoma City, the nation’s 25th-largest city.

The answer itself undersells the nuances that a look at the country’s most populous places can reveal. We tend to think of cities as heavily Democratic, and with good reason. They are. There are a lot of reasons for that, which we’ve explored before, including that cities are less densely White than suburban or rural areas and that they have in recent decades been a magnet for younger, college-educated people, who tend to be more liberal. So we aren’t surprised when we hear that the top 24 largest cities backed Biden. It’s what we’d expect. Continue reading.

How Biden aims to Covid-proof his administration

Avoiding superspreader events, requiring masks and encouraging remote work are all part of the transition’s effort to keep its staff safe.

Small and infrequent public events. Repeated testing of staff, reporters and the president-elect. Aides debating policies and Cabinet picks without ever meeting face-to-face. Preparations for a pared-down, mostly virtual inauguration.

Joe Biden’s team has meticulously carried the virus safety practices of his campaign over to the transition. And his staff plans to take that approach to the White House on move-in day — intent on setting a good example for the country and avoiding the dangerous and embarrassing outbreaks of Covid-19 that have infected dozens in President Donald Trump’s inner circle, most recently sickening his personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani.

“It’s a dynamic situation with the pandemic, but I think you’ll see the exact same adherence to and commitment to the science of keeping the team safe that you saw during the campaign and transition, you’ll see that as we enter the physical space,” said Yohannes Abraham, the executive director of the transition. Continue reading.

Two Presidents, Two Messages, One Killer Virus

New York Times logo

In split-screen assessments of the coronavirus pandemic, President Trump focused on the “medical miracle” of vaccines and President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. warned of a “very dark winter.”

WASHINGTON — One president all but declared victory over the pandemic, hailing new vaccines as a “medical miracle” and congratulating himself for doing what “nobody has ever seen before.” The next president declared the pandemic deadlier than ever, calling it a “mass casualty” event that is leaving “a gaping hole” in America with more misery to come.

“We’re here to discuss a monumental national achievement,” President Trump boasted on one screen. “From the instant the coronavirus invaded our shores, we raced into action.”

“We’re in a very dark winter,” President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. said minutes later in his own speech on another screen. “Things may well get worse before they get better.” Continue reading.

Biden picks Vilsack for agriculture secretary and Rep. Fudge for HUD

Washington Post logo

President-elect Joe Biden on Tuesday pledged to “change the course” of the coronavirus pandemic as he introduced key members of his health team at an event in Wilmington, Del. As he continues to build his administration, Biden has said he will announce his nominations for two other marquee jobs — including attorney general — by the end of the week. Meanwhile, according to people familiar with the transition plans, Biden is expected to name former agriculture secretary Tom Vilsack for the position again, and pick Rep. Marcia L. Fudge (D-Ohio) to head the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

President Trump, who continues to insist he won the election, appeared at a White House “vaccine summit” to tout his administration’s efforts to combat the pandemic. He also expressed hope that he would have a second term. Continue reading.

Inauguration planning the latest thing to enter the controversy zone

Republicans oppose recognizing Biden will be inaugurated

A meeting of the Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies turned sour Tuesday, when Republican leaders on the typically uncontroversial panel rejected a resolution that would assert that Joe Biden is president-elect.

Republicans on Capitol Hill have been slow to acknowledge the election results, in deference to President Donald Trump, who continues to deny his clear defeat despite recounts affirming them, states certifying electors and loss after loss in court cases challenging Biden’s win.

House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer, D-Md., offered a motion recognizing that the group was preparing for the inauguration of Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris, a member of the Senate, during a closed-door meeting of the JCCIC in Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer’s office. Continue reading.

No, Biden’s win wasn’t ‘statistically impossible’

Washington Post logo

It was very possible, as evidenced in large part by the fact that it happened

Since Joe Biden won the 2020 presidential election, there’s been a lot of analysis aimed at somehow proving that his victory was a result of fraud or illegal voting. None of that analysis has offered credible proof of fraud, as dozens of judges in various courts and any number of independent observers have determined. But the goal is often less to prove the case than to suggest the case, to continue to present the well-settled issue as unsettled and thereby to present President Trump as having not yet lost his reelection bid instead of having clearly lost it a month ago.

In service of this objective, Trump’s supporters and the president himself have taken to declaring that Biden’s win was not just unlikely but “statistically impossible,” a term they generally use to mean something like “not possible — to the extreme.” But Biden’s win was possible, as made clear both through a detailed consideration of the claims of statistical impossibility and, more directly, by Biden’s having won the 2020 presidential contest.

Before we parse the claims of impossibility that have been floating out there, it’s worth pointing out that the term “statistically impossible” doesn’t really mean much. If something’s impossible, it’s impossible, and Biden winning the 2020 election was never impossible in any legitimate sense of the word. What people generally mean is that something is very, very unlikely, implying a sort of finality by using “statistically impossible” even when things have nothing to do with statistics. Continue reading.