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WASHINGTON: US President-elect Joe Biden forged ahead with his transition Wednesday despite Donald Trump’s refusal to concede defeat, and appointed a seasoned Democratic agent as chief of staff in his first public staff election. of the White House.
Biden chose his longtime aide Ron Klain, who previously served as his first chief of staff while he was vice president, recognizing that the two had a long way to go in fighting the coronavirus pandemic and in healing a nation. deeply divided.
“His deep and varied experience and ability to work with people from across the political spectrum is precisely what I need in a White House chief of staff as we face this time of crisis and bring our country together again,” Biden said.
He made the announcement after visiting the Korean War Memorial in Philadelphia earlier in the day for a solemn wreath ceremony to mark Veterans Day in the US.
President Trump attended a simultaneous and separate ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery outside Washington, in what should have been a moment of national unity, but instead highlighted the Republican’s refusal to acknowledge electoral defeat.
The president made no public comment during the gloomy crown-laying ceremony, his first official appearance since the Nov. 3 vote.
Since the media called the race four days ago, Trump has not addressed the nation other than via Twitter and a written statement issued to mark Veterans Day, and has not granted Biden, as is traditional once a winner is projected in a vote in the United States.
With Covid-19 cases breaking records across the country and states imposing new restrictions in an effort to contain the virus before winter arrives, Trump appears to have sidelined normal presidential duties.
Instead, he has remained locked inside the presidential mansion, claiming he is about to win and filing voter fraud lawsuits that have thus far been backed by the flimsiest evidence.
In the early hours of Wednesday he was tweeting new claims with no evidence of election victories and ballot tampering, despite the consensus of international observers, world leaders, local election officials and the US media that the vote was free and fair.
Some Republicans were adding their voices to growing calls for the president to back down, and experts warned that his refusal to do so was undermining the democratic process and delaying the transition to Biden, who will take office in January.
Among them was Montana Republican Secretary of State Corey Stapleton, who announced the “incredible things” that Trump accomplished in office.
“But that time is over. Tilt your hat, bite your lip and congratulate @JoeBiden, ”he tweeted.
Within your rights
Yet some of the GOP’s most powerful figures, including Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Senate Leader Mitch McConnell, have backed Trump in his attempt to undermine Biden’s victory.
“There will be a smooth transition to a second Trump administration,” Pompeo said at a sometimes irritable news conference Tuesday, while McConnell has said the president was “100% within his rights” to challenge the election in court. .
None of the lawsuits appear to have the potential to change the outcome and even a manual recount announced Wednesday in Georgia, where Biden has a paper-thin edge, is unlikely to alter fundamental math.
Nor was Trump’s victory in Alaska enough, which the US media asked him for on Wednesday, putting another three electoral votes in his column.
Honor of a lifetime
Biden’s choice of Klain received high praise from Democrats.
Senate Democrat Elizabeth Warren called Klain a “super pick” for chief of staff because he “understands the magnitude of the health and economic crisis and has the experience to lead this next administration through it.”
In the same statement released by Biden’s transition team, Klain, 59, said it was “the honor of a lifetime” to be appointed to the position.
Since his projected victory was announced on Saturday, Biden has addressed the nation, established a task force on coronavirus, spoke with world leaders, including Trump allies, began vetting potential Cabinet members and delivered political speeches.
On Wednesday he received congratulatory phone calls from Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison, Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga and South Korean President Moon Jae-in.
Meanwhile, Trump’s only known activities outside the White House prior to Wednesday had been playing golf twice over the weekend.
Typically, routine presidential intelligence briefings have been off the daily schedule. He has not mentioned the dramatic spike in the Covid-19 pandemic across the country.
Trump’s only significant presidential action has been the abrupt firing of Defense Secretary Mark Esper on Monday, which he announced on Twitter.
His inability to compromise has no legal force in and of itself, but the General Services Administration, the generally low-key agency that runs Washington’s bureaucracy, has refused to approve the transition, delaying funding and security reporting.
Biden’s inauguration is January 20.
