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In a New Year’s Eve message, Donald Trump reflected on his accomplishments in office, calling them “historic victories,” while his incoming successor, Joe Biden, took an optimistic tone as he looked ahead to 2021.
After weeks of fighting to stay in office, Trump said in a video posted on Twitter: “We have to be remembered for what has been done.”
Trump, who has yet to formally concede his defeat in the November election to his Democratic rival, returned to Washington early from his Florida resort amid a fight with Congress over a coronavirus defense and aid controls bill. .
Speaking from Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, Biden paid tribute to healthcare workers and encouraged people to get vaccinated in a brief appearance with his wife, Jill Biden, on ABC’s long-running special Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin ‘Eve featuring Ryan Seacrest 2021.
“I am absolutely confident, confident, we will come back and we will come back even stronger than before,” said Biden, who will take office on January 20.
He reiterated his call for vaccines to be distributed more quickly.
Trump, who had Covid-19 in October, frequently downplayed the severity of the pandemic and oversaw a response that many health experts have criticized as disorganized, arrogant and has sometimes ignored the science behind the transmission of the virus.
But in his New Years remarks, he noted that the United States had produced a Covid-19 vaccine in record time and that he had correctly predicted that it would arrive before the year was out.
The United States has been one of the countries hardest hit by Covid-19 and leads the world in deaths, with more than 340,000 deaths officially attributed to the virus.
Trump was originally scheduled to attend a New Years Eve party at his Mar-a-Lago resort.
The White House hasn’t given any reason why he returned to Washington early, but it coincides with Trump’s fight with Congress over his veto of a major defense bill and his demand for tighter Covid-19 stimulus controls, as well as an increase in tensions with Iran.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, the top Republican in the House, dealt a likely death blow Wednesday to Trump’s effort to increase coronavirus aid to Americans, refusing to schedule a quick vote on a bill. law to increase aid checks to $ 2,000 from the $ 600 included in a $ 892 billion aid package approved by Congress earlier this month.
Trump’s fellow Republicans in Congress have largely stuck with him for four turbulent years, but he attacked them in recent days for not fully backing up his baseless claims of voter fraud, rejecting his demand for bigger checks and moving toward cancellation of the veto.
On Thursday, McConnell again rejected a vote on a separate bill that would increase stimulus controls, calling it “socialism for the rich” and “a terrible way to get help for families who really need it.” The bill was approved by the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives on Monday.
McConnell also said there should be nothing controversial about the passage of the $ 740 billion National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which Trump vetoed because it does not repeal certain legal protections for tech companies.
“We have enacted an annual NDAA for 59 years in a row and counting,” McConnell said. “In the next few days, the easy way or the hard way, we will do our job one more time. This body will fulfill our responsibility to the men and women who protect our country ”.
The House voted to overturn Trump’s veto on Monday. The Senate will meet again Friday at noon EST for a rare New Years Day session, in which lawmakers are expected to cast the first of two procedural votes aimed at overriding the veto. If successful, the Senate is expected to hold a second procedural vote on Saturday followed by a final vote on approval.
Republican Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri has said he will oppose Biden’s victory when Congress meets to officially count electoral college votes on Jan. 6, which could spark a lengthy Senate debate, but has no chance. to void the results. CNN reported that about 140 Republicans in the House were expected to engage in similar tactics.
Some Republican senators had supported Trump’s call for an increase in stimulus payments, notably David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler, who face runoff elections in Georgia on Jan.5 that will determine which party controls the Senate under Biden.
But Perdue’s campaign suffered a setback Thursday, saying the senator was in quarantine after coming into contact with someone who had tested positive for the coronavirus.
Meanwhile, tensions between the United States and Iran have risen again.
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif on Thursday accused Washington of trying to fabricate a pretext to attack his country and said Tehran would defend itself even if it did not seek war.
Two US B-52 bombers flew over the Middle East on Wednesday in what US officials said was a deterrent message to Iran ahead of the one-year anniversary of a US drone strike that killed Iranian top general Qassem Suleimani on January 3, 2020.
