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By Reuters 
20h ago
Trevor Hunnicutt and Steve Holland
Wimington, Delaware / Washington – Democrat Joe Biden began preparing Sunday to deal with the coronavirus and other problems he will face as president of a divided United States, while President Donald Trump planned campaign-style rallies to contest the election.
A day after Biden secured enough states to win the presidency, Trump showed no sign of budging, and many of his Republican allies in Congress also did not acknowledge Biden’s victory in last Tuesday’s election.
Instead, Trump will hold a series of rallies to build support for legal struggles challenging the outcome, campaign spokesman Tim Murtaugh confirmed Sunday.
Trump also announced teams to conduct recount in various states and will seek to back up his baseless allegations of voter fraud by highlighting obituaries of deceased people the campaign said voted in the election.
Murtaugh did not say when the rallies, a Trump campaign signature, would resume.
State election officials say there were no significant voting irregularities and that the Trump campaign has yet to come forward with any evidence of illegal activity.
Biden had more than 4.1 million votes than Trump nationwide, and the former vice president could end up with more than 300 votes in the Electoral College, well above the 270 needed to secure the presidency.
After delivering a message of unity and conciliation in a speech in his home state of Delaware on Saturday, Biden’s team was making plans to address the economic and health crises that will await him when he takes office on January 20.
Deputy Campaign Director Kate Bedingfield said she would launch a coronavirus task force on Monday, led by former Surgeon General Vivek Murthy and former Food and Drug Administration Commissioner David Kessler.
More than 237,000 Americans have died from Covid-19 and coronavirus cases have soared to record highs in recent days. Roughly 10 million Americans who were left without work during the coronavirus lockdowns remain inactive and federal relief programs have expired.
Bedingfield said Biden “would address a mandate to unite the country: unify, lower the temperature, put aside the harsh rhetoric of the campaign and dedicate himself to the hard work of governing.”
Biden and his advisers will also move forward with the job of electing officials to serve in his administration.
Two former top US intelligence officials, Michael Morell and Avril Haines, have become top contenders to serve as director of national intelligence or head the CIA under Biden, several current and former intelligence officials said.
A nonpartisan governance group called on the Trump administration to cooperate in the transition from one president to another, a hallmark of American democracy since the 18th century.
“History is replete with examples of presidents who came out of such campaigns to graciously assist their successors,” said the Center for Presidential Transition of the Association for Public Service.
Trump is the first US president to lose a re-election bid in 28 years. Wearing his red “Make America Great Again” baseball cap, he played golf at his Sterling, Virginia, course for the second day in a row.
“Since when does Lamestream Media say who will be our next president?” Trump wrote on Twitter after playing golf.
The Trump campaign said it had appointed U.S. Rep. Doug Collins, a prominent ally, to oversee the campaign’s recount efforts in Georgia, where Biden leads by 10,353 votes out of nearly 5 million cast. The campaign also plans to seek counts in Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Arizona.
Experts say those accounts are unlikely to change the outcome. Legal analysts said the cases presented by the Trump campaign were limited in scope and not likely to affect the election results.
Yet many of Trump’s supporters have refused to accept defeat. Outside the Pennsylvania state capitol in Harrisburg, Lynn Nester, 53, said she was suspicious of the record number of votes cast by mail this year. “I don’t think the mailing process is legal,” he said.
Pennsylvania has no excuse for absentee voting, allowing any voter to choose the mail-in ballot.
Early voting by mail or in person set a record this year due to voter concerns about the coronavirus pandemic.
Kevin McCarthy, the top Republican in the House of Representatives, said the legal challenges should be allowed to resolve. “Then, and only then, will the United States decide who won the race,” he said on Fox News.
But Senator Mitt Romney, the 2012 Republican presidential nominee, said on CNN’s “State of the Union” that Trump’s unsubstantiated fraud claims were damaging democracy.
“I’d rather see the world seeing a more elegant game, but that’s not in the nature of man,” Romney said.
Former Republican President George W. Bush said in a statement that he spoke with Biden and congratulated him on his victory.
“Even though we have political differences, I know that Joe Biden is a good man, who has earned the opportunity to lead and unify our country,” Bush said.
Biden has spent half a century in public life as a United States Senator and Vice President. He will be 78 when he enters the White House, the oldest person to take office. Her running mate, US Senator Kamala Harris, will be the first woman, the first African American and the first American of Asian descent to serve as vice president, the second office in the country.
After attending church Sunday in Wilmington, Delaware, Biden and his family visited the church cemetery, where his son Beau and other relatives are buried, as he did on Election Day morning Tuesday.
President-elect Joe Biden attended mass and visited the grave of his son Beau Biden in Wilmington, Delaware, the day after winning the US election. https://t.co/gCFYTttbDL pic.twitter.com/OibtZokBzQ
– The New York Times (@nytimes) November 8, 2020
According to an adviser, Biden plans to repeal the ban on travelers from several Muslim-majority nations, rejoin an international climate agreement, reverse Trump’s withdrawal from the World Health Organization, and bolster a program that shields US citizens from deportation. dreamers “illegally brought to the United States. Like kids.
Biden’s advisers have told reporters that if Republicans retain control of the United States Senate, he may have to appoint cabinet officials with a more centrist bent to secure confirmation in the chamber.
Control of the Senate could hinge on the outcome of four undecided Senate elections, including two in Georgia that will not be resolved until the January election.
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