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WILMINGTON, Delaware – U.S. President-elect Joe Biden on Wednesday called on Americans to take steps to stay safe as cases of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) rise on the eve of the Thanksgiving holiday. Thank you, and you pledged again to make fighting the pandemic a top priority when you take office in January.
“I think you always deserve to hear the truth from your president. We have to stop the growth of this virus. We owe it to the doctors, the nurses and the frontline workers … We owe it to our fellow citizens,” Biden said. said.
He urged people to forgo large family gatherings, wear protective masks, and maintain social distancing.
“I know we can and will beat this virus,” added Biden, acknowledging that Americans are feeling pandemic fatigue. “Life will return to normal. I promise you. This will happen. This won’t last forever.”
The former Democratic vice president vowed to make the fight against COVID-19 a top priority after taking office on January 20, after accusing Trump during the campaign of panicking and surrendering to a public health crisis.
“Looking back at our history, you see that these have been the most difficult circumstances in which the soul of our nation has been forged. And now we find ourselves once again facing a long and harsh winter,” Biden said.
Since winning the Nov.3 election, Biden has delivered a message of national reconciliation and healing after Trump’s tumultuous tenure, while the President of the Republic still refuses to budge and falsely claims the election was stolen.
Public health officials have urged Americans to stay home for Thursday’s holiday and avoid large gatherings that could spread the pathogen. More than 260,000 Americans have died from COVID-19, and Tuesday’s daily toll surpassed 2,000 for the first time since May, as infections and hospitalizations rise nationwide.
Millions of Americans have flocked to airports and highways, prompting the busiest travel period in America since the early days of the pandemic in March, albeit well below pre-pandemic holiday levels. .
Attendees said Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris planned to spend Thanksgiving with their families.
ECONOMIC APPOINTMENTS
Biden plans to name his options for key positions in his administration next week, including his economic team, communications director Kate Bedingfield said. They are expected to include former Federal Reserve chair Janet Yellen as the US Treasury secretary.
The Trump administration gave the green light Monday for formal transition efforts, even as it continues to challenge the election results by making unsubstantiated claims of voter fraud. Biden was expected to receive his first daily presidential intelligence report on Monday, Bedingfield said.
Biden’s transition advisor Jen Psaki said classified information was being shared with Biden’s senior team. Bedingfield added that Biden’s team has been encouraged by the “professional and welcoming response” from public officials, and downplayed the impact of the Trump administration’s delay in starting the transition process.
Biden introduced his foreign policy and national security team on Tuesday. Biden received belated congratulations on his election victory from Chinese President Xi Jinping on Wednesday.
China’s Foreign Ministry, though not Xi himself, congratulated Biden on November 13. In his congratulatory message to Biden on Wednesday, Xi said that healthy ties between the world’s two largest economies not only serve the fundamental interests of their two peoples, but also look forward to it. the international community, the official Xinhua news agency reported.
During the election campaign, Biden promised a hard line on China’s growing influence around the world and called Xi a “bully” for his human rights practices. A Biden transition official said: “We appreciate the congratulations from all the world leaders who have conveyed them, including President Xi.”
Trump has fought a failed legal battle to overturn the election results. Trump on Wednesday canceled a trip to accompany his personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, to a meeting of Republican state legislators in Gettysburg, where Giuliani repeated his unsubstantiated claims of voter fraud.
But Trump spoke to participants by phone and repeated his discredited claims that the election had been stolen, prompting applause from the partisan crowd.
“This election was lost by the Democrats. They cheated. It was a fraudulent election,” Trump said, offering no evidence.
In addition to beating Trump 306-232 in the Electoral College, a margin that Trump called “a landslide” when it was his in 2016, Biden won more than 80 million ballots in the popular vote, more than 6.1 million votes. about Triumph.
State and federal officials have repeatedly said that there is no evidence of any large-scale fraud.
Bedingfield called the Gettysburg event “a sideshow.”
Gettysburg is best known as the site of a pivotal 1863 battle in the United States Civil War and the famous Gettysburg Address in which President Abraham Lincoln promised that “government of the people, by the people, for the people, will not perish from the earth. ” – Reuters
