Wilmington, Dale. (AP) – President Donald Trump is facing pressure to cooperate with President-elect Joe Biden’s team. To ensure a smooth transfer of power when the new administration takes over in January.
General Services Administration Biden has been tasked with giving formal formal recognition as president-elect, beginning the transition. But the agency’s Trump-appointed administrator, Emily Murphy, has not initiated the process and has given no guidance on when it will do so.
Lack of clarity raises questions about Trump, who has not publicly acknowledged Biden’s victory. And falsely claiming that the election was rigged, the Democrats will stand in the way when they try to establish a government.
There are very few examples in the modern age where the President has created such obstacles for his successor. This year in particular the stakes are high as Biden will take office amid an acute epidemic that will require a comprehensive response from the government.
“America’s national security and economic interests are a clear and swift signal to the federal government that the United States government will respect the will of the American people and engage in a smooth and peaceful transfer of power,” Biden transition assistant Jane Sasaki tweeted Sunday.
The advisory board of the Non-Partisan Center for Presidential Transition also urged the Trump administration to “immediately begin the post-election transition process and allow the Biden team to take full advantage of the resources available under the Presidential Transition Act.”
Biden Trump, who was elected the 46th president on Saturday, is taking steps to form a government despite questions about whether he will provide traditional assistance.
It is focusing on the first virus, which has killed about 240,000 people In America. Biden on Monday announced the details of a task force that will draw up a blueprint to try to control the epidemic, which it plans to begin implementing after taking office on January 20.
Former Surgeon General, Dr. Vivek Murthy, Former Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Dr. David. David Castle and Dr. Marcella Nunez-Smith, a professor and associate dean at Yale University, whose research focuses on promoting health care equality for a focused population, are co. -Chair.
“Dealing with the coronavirus epidemic is one of the most important battles facing our administration, and I will be informed by science and experts,” Biden said in a statement. “The advisory body will help shape my approach to additional management of reported infections; Ensure that vaccines are distributed safely, effectively and efficiently, appropriately and for free; And protection of endangered populations. “
There are also 10 members, including two former Trump administration officials: Rick Bright, who said he was fired. After criticizing the federal government’s response to the coronavirus, as head of the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, and Luciana Borio, who until last year was a biosecurity expert at the National Security Council.
The rest of the panel includes experts with expertise in a number of fields, including Eric Gossby, then President Barack Obama’s global AIDS coordinator.
The Biden Agency review teams were also launching groups of transition employees who have access to key agencies in the current administration. To help Biden’s team prepare for the transition, they will collect and review information from existing Trump administration staff in departments, such as budget and staff decisions, pending rules, and other work in progress.
But that process cannot begin until the GSA recognizes Biden as president-elect. The definition of a clear election winner formation for the GSA is legally weak, which obscures the next step, especially in the short term.
The GSA is supposed to act independently and non-partisanly, and at least some elements of the federal government have begun implementing transition plans. For example, aviation authorities have banned airspace at Biden’s Lakefront home in Wilmington, Delaware, while the Secret Service has begun using agents with the president’s protective details for the president-elect and his family.
There were other indications that some leaders were preparing for the new administration.
Biden aides said the president-elect and the transition team are in contact with Republican lawmakers. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu began the cabinet meeting on Sunday, congratulating former Vice President and longtime Senator Biden, one of Trump’s closest allies.
“I have had a long and warm personal relationship with Biden for almost 40 years, and I recognize him as a great friend of the state of Israel,” Netanyahu said.
The only surviving Republican is former President George W. Bush. Bush called Biden “a good man” who has won the opportunity to lead and unify our country. ”
But Sen. of South Carolina. Other Republicans, including Lindsay Graham, urged Trump to take up election-related legal challenges to make a possible transition possible.
Biden began his first day as president by attending church at St. Joseph’s on Brandwine near his home in Wilmington on Sunday, as he does almost every week. After the service, he visited the church cemetery, where his family members, including his son Bau, are laid to rest.
Otherwise he would have spent most of the day indoors while some of his staff would have spent hours on conference calls focusing on transition planning.
Those plans could also survive two Senate races in Georgia that went ahead on Jan. 5. If Republicans do hold those seats, they could potentially retain a Senate majority and slowly reaffirm Biden’s top cabinet choices and further complicate their legislative goals, including calls to increase access to health care and boost the post-epidemic economy. Green jobs and infrastructure are designed to combat climate change.
It could test Biden’s campaign pledge to advance the Trump era’s divisiveness and govern bilaterally.
While Biden’s allies acknowledged that it would be easier for Democrats to get their proposals to control the Senate, his campaign policy director Steve Feldman said Biden has been known to work with Republicans in the past to legislate.
“The president-elect’s plans will be presidential election plans regardless of who wins the Senate majority, and he will work with wing-side colleagues to accomplish that,” he said.
During his victory speech on Saturday, he vowed to become a president who “wants to unite, not divide,” and appealed to Trump supporters to “give each other a chance.”
People close to Biden say he will explore the next period by drawing on his sense of empathy that became the trademark of his campaign. Biden often spoke of the grief he felt after the deaths of his wife and young daughter in a 1972 car accident, and of Bunny’s 2015 death from brain cancer.
“My brother knows how to feel,” said Baden’s sister and longtime top adviser, Valerie Biden Owens. “J’s strength has been resilience and recovery and that’s what we want as a country.”
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The report was contributed by Associated Press writers Zac Miller and Amar Madhani in Washington, DC.
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