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US President-elect Joe Biden took the first steps Sunday to seize control of the White House within 73 days, but Donald Trump showed no signs of readiness to admit defeat and continued to cast doubt on the results of the the elections.
As congratulations from world leaders and supporters fueled the hangover after a day of raucous celebrations, Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris launched a transition website, BuildBackBetter.com, and a Twitter feed, @ Transition46.
As Trump refuses to concede Tuesday’s election and most Republican lawmakers are adopting studied silence, former President George W. Bush said “the outcome is clear.”
Bush, 74, the only living former Republican president, said he had called “President-elect” Biden and Harris to extend his “warm congratulations.”
While Trump has the right to request a recount and file legal challenges, Bush said “the American people can be confident that this election was fundamentally fair, its integrity will be maintained, and its outcome is clear.”
“Although 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 in a statement. “We must come together for the good of our families and neighbors, and for our nation and its future.”
The transition website lists four priorities for an administration led by former Barack Obama vice president: Covid-19, economic recovery, racial equity, and climate change.
“The team that is meeting will face these challenges on day one,” he said in a reference to January 20, 2021, when Biden will be sworn in as the 46th president of the United States.
Biden, who will turn 78 on November 20, is the oldest elected to the White House. Harris, 56, the junior senator from California, is the first woman and the first black person to be elected vice president.
Biden plans to appoint a task force Monday to address the coronavirus pandemic that has left more than 237,000 people dead in the United States and is increasing across the country.
It has also announced plans to rejoin the Paris climate accord and will reportedly issue an executive order on its first day to reverse Trump’s travel ban to mostly Muslim countries.
Biden has promised to appoint a cabinet that reflects the diversity of the country, though he may have some trouble getting Senate approval for more progressive appointments if Republicans retain control of the Senate, an outcome that will hinge on two runoff elections in Georgia in January.
– ‘Accept the inevitable’ –
Biden, after John F. Kennedy, the second Catholic to be elected president of the United States, attended church Sunday morning in his hometown of Wilmington, Delaware, and visited the graves of his son, Beau Biden, who died of brain cancer in 2015, and his first wife and daughter, who died in a car accident in 1972.
Trump, 74, was playing golf Sunday at his field near Washington, the same place he was on Saturday when US television networks broke the news that Biden had obtained enough Electoral College votes for victory.
“Since when does Lamestream Media say who will be our next president?” Trump complained in a tweet on Sunday.
First Lady Melania Trump also chimed in, tweeting: “The American people deserve fair elections. Every legal vote, not illegal, must be counted.”
The Trump campaign has raised legal challenges to the results in several states, but so far no evidence has emerged of widespread wrongdoing that could affect the results.
Speaking on CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday, Symone Sanders, a senior adviser to Biden, dismissed the court challenges as “unfounded legal strategies.”
Biden received nearly 74.6 million votes to Trump’s 70.4 million nationwide and has a 279-214 lead in the Electoral College that determines the presidency.
Biden also leads in Arizona, which has 11 electoral votes, and Georgia, which has 16, and if he wins both he would end up with 306 electoral votes, the same total that Trump won in 2016 when he displeased Hillary Clinton.
Only two Republican senators, Mitt Romney and Lisa Murkowski, congratulated Biden, and Democratic Rep. James Clyburn of South Carolina said the Republican Party has a “responsibility” to help convince Trump that it is time to surrender.
Romney, who voted to convict Trump at his impeachment, said the president will eventually “accept the inevitable.”
The Utah senator added that “I would rather see the world watching a more elegant exit, but that is not in the nature of man.”
– ‘Don’t concede, Mr. President’ –
But Trump’s ally, Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, said the president should keep fighting.
“We will work with Biden if he wins, but Trump hasn’t lost,” Graham said on Fox News’ Sunday Morning Futures. “Don’t give in, Mr. President. Fight hard.”
Another Trump ally, House minority leader Kevin McCarthy, said on the same show that it was too early to call an election.
“What we need in the presidential race is to make sure that every legal vote is counted, that every recount is completed and that every legal challenge is heard,” McCarthy said.
In a victory speech Saturday, Biden vowed to unify the bitterly divided nation and reached out to Trump supporters, saying they “are not our enemies, they are Americans.”
“Let’s give ourselves a chance,” he said.
While only a handful of Republican lawmakers have congratulated Biden, the leaders of Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and other European countries have done so along with Australia, Canada, India, Indonesia, Israel, Japan and South Korea. .
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