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WILMINGTON, Delaware: Joe Biden met with governors of both parties on Thursday (November 19) and criticized President Donald Trump’s unprecedented attempt to block the peaceful transition of power, saying he was hampering the flow of information about programs to develop a vitally important vaccine against coronavirus. .
He also said he looked forward to bipartisan cooperation that can bolster efforts to curb the pandemic after he takes office.
The president-elect reiterated his previous promises not to institute a national lockdown to slow the spread of the virus, repeating that more states instituting mask-wearing mandates could save tens of thousands of lives.
“Unfortunately, my administration has not been able to get everything we need,” Biden said during a video conference with the leadership team of the National Association of Governors, which consists of five Republicans and four Democrats.
He specifically cited Operation Warp Speed, the federal government’s partnership with private pharmaceutical companies to develop a COVID-19 vaccine.
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“We have not been able to get into Operation Warp Speed, but we will take what we learned today and integrate it into our plan,” Biden said in comments after the meeting, which included Republicans Larry Hogan of Maryland, Asa Hutchinson of Arkansas. , Kay Ivey from Alabama, Charlie Baker from Massachusetts and Gary Herbert from Utah.
Afterward, Biden spoke about distributing a vaccine once one is ready, saying, “There has to be a prioritization.”
“So I would like to know exactly what this administration has in mind in terms of their Operation Warp Speed and how they plan it,” he said of the Trump White House. “And we are talking about that today with the governors. They all mentioned the need to focus on the communities that have been left behind ”.
Biden participated from a theater in Wilmington, Delaware, with Vice President-elect Kamala Harris. The leaders of his virus working group also appeared online.
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He also responded to journalists’ questions and revealed that he had decided on a Treasury secretary nomination for his new administration. Biden declined to provide further details, except to say that it was an option that would satisfy Democrats across the political spectrum, presumably including outspoken progressives who were concerned that Biden might go for a safer and more moderate selection.
Among the Democrats on Thursday’s video conference was Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan, which has been one of the states Trump has targeted over unsubstantiated allegations of voter fraud. Biden told participants that the virus does not care about political divisions.
“There is a real desire for a real partnership between the states and the federal government,” Biden said.
The president-elect also promised state leaders that he would “make sure they get the resources they need … to defeat this virus” and said he would frequently hold similar meetings with governors in the future.
Biden promised to waive a national lockdown “because every region, every area, every community can be different,” and said imposing a national mandate would be “counterproductive.”
Instead, Biden noted that 10 governors had imposed mask mandates across the state to combat the virus, calling it a “patriotic duty.” He previously pledged to ask all governors to enforce such rules and bypass the hurdles for county and local officials to cover as many of …
Ivey told participants that both parties in Congress must come together to provide more coronavirus response funding, according to a reading provided by his office. He did not mention that the Alabama governor recognized Biden as president-elect.
Vice President-elect Kamala Harris participates in a meeting with the executive committee of the National Governors Association at The Queen Theater on November 19, 2020, in Wilmington, Delaware. (Photo: AP / Andrew Harnik)
Hogan, by contrast, recently told the Associated Press that Trump’s wild and unsubstantiated claims of widespread electoral fraud were “dangerous” and “disgraceful.”
“As I said the day the president-elect was declared the winner, his election has provided a mandate for cooperation,” Hogan said after the video conference with Biden. “We look forward to working closely with the Biden-Harris administration as we continue to face this unprecedented global pandemic.”
Trump, meanwhile, came out on Thursday with a new round of false claims of voter fraud in key states, even as the courts continue to reject his challenges.
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Beyond being a pillar of democracy, the orderly transfer of power after an election is especially critical this year given the extraordinary governance challenges that Biden will inherit in just nine weeks.
The pandemic is the nation’s worst public health crisis in a century, state and local governments face huge budget deficits, and millions of Americans remain out of work.
Hutchison said over the weekend that Biden would be the next president. He also asked the Trump administration to give Biden access to the intelligence briefings he needs to be fully prepared to lead the country on Inauguration Day January 20.
Still, more than two weeks after the November 3 election, the Trump administration refuses to allow Biden to receive detailed reports on national security and planning for a pandemic.
With Trump entrenched and Republicans on Capitol Hill largely reluctant to challenge him, Biden has been forced to turn to a diverse collection of outside allies to increase pressure on Trump to give in.
The CEOs of America’s largest companies have issued a statement recognizing Biden and Harris as the clear winners. The heads of the American Hospital Association, the American Medical Association and the American Nurses Association issued a joint statement Tuesday urging the Trump administration to share “all critical information related to COVID-19” with Biden. Failure to do so, they warned, would endanger the lives of Americans.
Trump, meanwhile, has gotten nowhere in court, and his scattered effort to overturn Biden’s victory is shifting to shadowy electoral councils that certify the vote. The battle centers on the states that sealed Biden’s victory. In Michigan, two Republican election officials in the state’s largest county initially refused to certify the results even though there was no evidence of fraud.
Officials then backtracked and voted in favor of certification before changing again on Wednesday and saying they “continue to oppose certification.”
Biden said Thursday that Trump’s refusal to accept the election results has left Americans “witnessing incredible irresponsibility.”
“Incredibly damaging messages are being sent to the rest of the world about how democracy works,” Biden said, adding that Trump’s actions in Michigan were particularly concerning.
“What the president is doing now is going to be another incident in which he will go down in history as one of the most irresponsible presidents,” said the president-elect.
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