Tag: President-Elect Biden

How Biden’s Team Is Building Back Government, Better

With the Biden-Harris transition in full gear, I can’t help but be reminded of my time working on the Obama-Biden transition in late 2008 and early 2009. A quote from the mega-hit musical “Hamilton” keeps popping into my head. There’s a scene in which Alexander Hamilton and George Washington are going back and forth during a Cabinet meeting, and Washington says to Hamilton, “Ah, winning was easy, young man. Governing’s harder.”

President Barack Obama had just won a decisive electoral victory, but we were now faced with governing a country that was experiencing the greatest recession in 100 years, two wars abroad, a broken health care system, and a Republican Party whose No. 1 priority was making sure we failed.

As head of personnel for the transition, it was my job to make sure we had qualified people ready to go on Day 1. It was no easy task then, and now, with a pandemic raging, it’s an even harder job. Continue reading.

Senate GOP brushes off long-shot attempt to fight Biden win

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Senate Republicans are shooting down a long shot effort to challenge the Electoral College vote early next year. 

Rep. Mo Brooks (R-Ala.), a member of the conservative Freedom Caucus, grabbed headlines when he announced that he would challenge the votes when Congress officially certifies President-elect Joe Biden‘s victory on Jan. 6.

But GOP senators are dismissing the effort, even as President Trump publicly praised Brooks. Continue reading.

Rachel Maddow offers a terrifying theory that explains Trump’s Pentagon moves

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The host of “The Rachel Maddow Show” on Friday offered her audience a theory that may explain some of President Donald Trump’s actions concerning the Pentagon in his final months in office.

Maddow built her case off of a new Washington Post story titled, “Pentagon blocks visits to military spy agencies by Biden transition team.”

“The Trump administration has refused to allow members of President-elect Joe Biden’s transition team to meet with officials at U.S. intelligence agencies that are controlled by the Pentagon, undermining prospects for a smooth transfer of power,” the newspaper reported, citing “current and former U.S. officials.” Continue reading.

Pentagon blocks visits to military spy agencies by Biden transition team

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The Trump administration has refused to allow members of President-elect Joe Biden’s transition team to meet with officials at U.S. intelligence agencies that are controlled by the Pentagon, undermining prospects for a smooth transfer of power, current and former U.S. officials said.

The officials said the Biden team has not been able to engage with leaders at the National Security Agency, the Defense Intelligence Agency and other military-run spy services with classified budgets and global espionage platforms.

The Defense Department rejected or did not approve requests from the Biden team this week, the officials said, despite a General Services Administration decision Nov. 23 clearing the way for federal agencies to meet with representatives of the incoming administration. Continue reading.

Biden officially secures enough electors to become president

California certified its presidential election Friday and appointed 55 electors pledged to vote for Democrat Joe Biden, officially handing him the Electoral College majority needed to win the White House.

Secretary of State Alex Padilla’s formal approval of Biden’s win in the state brought his tally of pledged electors so far to 279, according to a tally by The Associated Press. That’s just over the 270 threshold for victory.

These steps in the election are often ignored formalities. But the hidden mechanics of electing a U.S. president have drawn new scrutiny this year as President Donald Trump continues to deny Biden’s victory and pursues increasingly specious legal strategies aimed at overturning the results before they are finalized. Continue reading.

Biden backs $900B compromise coronavirus stimulus bill

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President-elect Joe Biden on Thursday described the $900 billion congressional stimulus proposal as a “good start” and said he believed Congress should pass it.

“That would be a good start. It’s not enough,” Biden said during a Thursday interview with CNN host Jake Tapper.

“I think it should be passed,” Biden continued. “I’m going to ask for more … when we get there to get things done.” Continue reading.

A Focus on Workers, Not Wall Street

The president-elect’s economic team is filled with people who are familiar with the issues of unemployment and economic inequality.

IN RECOUNTING HER childhood, Neera Tanden likes to cite the role the government played in keeping her and her mother on track following the divorce of her parents at the age of 5. 

“My father left for a time, and my mother had to be on welfare,” Tanden said during an address to the 2016 Democratic convention in Philadelphia. “She worked hard to support me and my brother. We used lunch vouchers at school and food stamps at the supermarket.”

“It wasn’t easy, but we eventually got back on our feet because of the investment Democrats have made in struggling families like mine,” she told delegates and party leaders in attendance. Continue reading.

Biden asked Fauci to serve as chief medical adviser

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President-elect Joe Biden on Thursday asked Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious diseases expert, to serve as his chief medical adviser. 

Biden told CNN’s Jake Tapper in an interview that he asked Fauci to serve in the position in addition to staying on in his longtime role as the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. 

“I asked him to stay on the exact same role he’s had for the past several presidents, and I asked him to be a chief medical adviser for me as well, and be part of the COVID team,” Biden told the network in his first joint interview with Vice President-elect Kamala Harris since the election.  Continue reading.

List of Republicans breaking with Trump grows longer

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The list of Republicans who are breaking with President Trump over his wild assertions about widespread voter fraud and acknowledging the reality of President-elect Joe Biden’s election win is growing longer.

So is the list of the president’s targets as he refuses to concede and rages against allies who, in his eyes, have shown insufficient loyalty.

The developments have divided Trump and some of his allies in the final weeks of his administration and raised concerns about the negative impact his attacks on the electoral process could have on the Senate runoff elections in Georgia that will decide if Republicans hold the majority. Continue reading.

Biden plans to spurn Trump immigration restrictions, but risk of new border crisis looms

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President-elect Joe Biden will take office under pressure to repudiate and rescind many, if not most, of the more than 400 executive actions President Trump has used to tighten the U.S. immigration system. But Biden also will start his term in a bind that could make such changes difficult to accomplish in short order.

Biden’s administration will inherit an enforcement system cracking under the strains of the coronavirus pandemic, a crippling immigration court backlog and a demoralized workforce at the Department of Homeland Security, where leadership instability and administrative chaos have been signatures of Trump’s tenure.

At the U.S.-Mexico border, tens of thousands of migrants with pending asylum claims are waiting to enter the United States, some in squalid tent cities that resemble refugee camps. U.S. border agents have been making arrests at a soaring rate — more than 2,000 per day in recent weeks — as the economic fallout from the pandemic and devastating hurricanes in Central America threaten to trigger a new wave of illegal migration to the United States. Continue reading.