Biden and Harris Interview: President-Elect Says He Will Ask Americans To Wear Masks For First 100 Days After Taking Office

“I asked him to stay in exactly the same position that he had during the past presidents, and I asked him to also be my chief medical adviser and to be part of the Covid team,” Biden told Tapper.

In the interview, Biden said he supported Congress passing a coronavirus relief pledge package before taking office, noting that a handful of Republican senators came forward to congratulate him, despite many not publicly acknowledging his victory. Both Biden and Harris also re-emphasized their transition commitment to a diverse cabinet, as a variety of advocacy groups and lawmakers have begun pressuring them to follow through on their commitment.

But, like the campaign that brought them to the White House, it was the coronavirus that commanded the conversation.

Biden and Trump have long taken diametrically different approaches to the virus, an issue that came to define the presidential election. Trump has fought many of the coronavirus recommendations set by his own administration, including wearing masks, while Biden vigorously followed coronavirus guidelines during the campaign.

Trump’s fight against coronavirus recommendations often puts him at odds with Fauci, one of the more outspoken members of the president’s task force. Those clashes have brought Fauci into the public spotlight, often viewed as a hero on the left for his commitment to science in the face of Trump’s comments and a villain on the right, especially among Trump loyalists.

Biden described his plans for the coronavirus as a balance between making sure Americans believe the vaccine is safe and instituting a series of plans that will slow the spread of the virus without shutting down the economy.

Biden also said during the interview that he will be “happy” to receive a coronavirus vaccine once Fauci says it is safe and that he will receive the injection publicly to show his confidence in her. Harris also said he would get the vaccine.

“That is the moment when I will appear before the public” and receive the vaccine, Biden said. “People have lost faith in the vaccine’s ability to work. Already the numbers are staggeringly low, and what the president and vice president do is important.”

“I think my three predecessors have set the blueprint for what to do, saying, once it’s declared safe … then obviously we take it and it’s important to communicate with the American people,” Biden said.

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“I think it should be passed, and I think we’re actually going to need more,” Biden said. “I’m going to have to ask for more help.”

The transition from Trump to Biden has been a complicated affair, defined in large part by the president’s denial of the election results, something that most Republicans on Capitol Hill have been pleased with despite the Trump team not. provided no credible evidence to support the claim.

Biden, a Democrat who has long enjoyed strong relations with Republicans in the Senate after serving decades in the legislative body, said that despite his public silence, “several sitting Republican senators” have called him privately. to congratulate him.

It gave those senators some leeway to keep quiet.

“I understand the situation they are in. And until the election is clearly decided in mind when the Electoral College votes, they put themselves in a very difficult position,” Biden said, adding that he believes that once the Electoral College officially decide the election, a “significant part of the (Republican) leadership” will recognize the obvious.

Biden laughed at a question about whether it is important for Trump to attend his presidential inauguration in January. Biden said attending was Trump’s decision and “had no personal consequence for me,” but added that it did matter symbolically.

It is “important in the sense that we can demonstrate an end to this chaos that he has created, that there is a peaceful transfer of power with the competing parties standing there, shaking hands and moving forward,” Biden said. “What worries me, Jake, more than the impact on national politics, really worries me about the image we present to the rest of the world.”

“The bottom line is that we cannot allow Iran to obtain nuclear weapons,” Biden said before criticizing Trump’s dealings with Iran, including his 2018 decision to withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal. “It has retired to get something tougher, and what have they done? They have increased the capacity to have nuclear material. They are getting closer to the ability to have enough material for a nuclear weapon. And there are the missile problems.”

Biden added: “I think all of those things are going to be very difficult. But I know one thing: we can’t do this alone. And that’s why we have to be part of a larger group, dealing not just with Iran, but with Russia. , with China and a wide range of other issues. “

Concern about possible pardons

Biden said the potential pardons worry him about the “kind of precedent he sets and how the rest of the world sees us as a nation of law and justice,” adding that his Justice Department “will operate independently on those issues.” and how to respond to Trump’s pardons.

“I’m not going to tell you what to do and what not to do,” Biden said. “I’m not going to say, ‘Go prosecute A, B or C.’ I’m not going to tell you. That’s not the role. It’s not my Justice Department, it’s the people’s Justice Department. So the people or the person you choose to run that department will be the people who are going to have the independence capacity. to decide who is prosecuted and who is not. “

Biden concluded that his administration would not approach pardons in the same way as Trump, adding, “It’s going to be a totally different way that we approach the justice system.”

Biden has yet to select an attorney general and is considering a variety of names, including former deputy attorney general Sally Yates; Doug Jones, the future former senator from Alabama who was defeated in November; and Jeh Johnson, Obama’s Secretary of Homeland Security.

Harris echoed the sentiment of Biden’s comments about the Justice Department.

“We will not tell the Justice Department how to do its job,” Harris said. “And we are going to assume, and I say this as a former attorney general-elect in California … that any decision that comes out of the Department of Justice … must be based on facts, it must be based on law, it should not be influenced by politics, point “.

Biden chimed in: “And I guarantee you it will.”

Biden says he will keep diverse Cabinet engagement

A wide range of advocacy groups and Democratic organizations have been lobbying Biden’s transition team for weeks to uphold its commitment to nominate a diverse roster of cabinet secretaries, especially for the remaining top positions of secretary of defense and attorney general. The effort has been led by the NAACP, a group Biden and Harris said they would meet next week, and the Congressional Hispanic Caucus.

Biden said Thursday that he would honor the commitment.

“I’m going to keep my commitment that the administration, both in the White House and outside the Cabinet, will look like the country,” Biden said.

When pressed about racial and ideological diversity, Harris said, “We are not done yet … We are not even half done.”

Biden said he understands that groups like the NAACP and the Congressional Hispanic Caucus want to “pressure me” on committing to diversity, adding that their job is to “keep my commitment.”

There were also a number of lighter moments in the interview.

Biden laughed at the small fracture in his foot that left him in a walking boot, remembering how it happened when he was playing with his dog Major.

“The little puppy dropped the ball in front of me for me to catch … and I caught the ball like that, and he ran, and I was joking running after him to catch his tail. And what happened was that he I slipped on a carpet and tripped on the carpet he slipped on. That’s what happened, “Biden said with a smile. “This is not a very exciting story.”

Harris, meanwhile, joked about how some of her husband’s friends have started calling him “the second guy,” even as Doug Emhoff is expected to be referred to as the “second gentleman.”

“The second gentleman will call him,” Tapper asked.

“No,” Harris replied, “I’ll call him honey.”