As President-elect Joe Biden continues his plans to transition into the White House, current Vice President Mike Pence said Monday afternoon the administration will “keep fighting until every LEGAL vote is counted.”
President Donald Trump is facing pressure to cooperate with Biden’s transition team to ensure a smooth transfer of power when the new administration takes office in January.
Trump has yet to concede the election and is continuing allegations last week’s presidential election was rife with voter fraud.
The advisory board of the nonpartisan Center for Presidential Transition is urging the Trump administration to “immediately begin the post-election transition process and the Biden team to take full advantage of the resources available under the Presidential Transition Act.”
Biden is taking steps to build a government despite questions about whether Trump will offer traditional assistance. He is focusing first on the virus, which has already killed nearly 240,000 people in the United States. Biden on Monday announced details of a task force that will create a blueprint to attempt to bring the pandemic under control that he plans to begin implementing after assuming the presidency Jan. 20.
Biden pledged Monday to work with “governors and local leaders of both parties” to craft a response to the coronavirus pandemic and called on Americans to “put aside the partisanship and the rhetoric that’s designed to demonize one another” and come together to fight the virus.
Biden was also launching agency review teams, groups of transition staffers that have access to key agencies in the current administration. They will collect and review information such as budgetary and staffing decisions, pending regulations and other work in progress from current Trump administration staff at the departments to help Biden’s team prepare to transition.
But that process can’t begin in full until the GSA recognizes Biden as president-elect. The definition of what constitutes a clear election winner for the GSA is legally murky, making next steps unclear, especially in the short term.
The GSA’s leadership is supposed to act independently and in a nonpartisan manner, and at least some elements of the federal government already have begun implementing transition plans. Aviation officials, for instance, have restricted the airspace over Biden’s lakefront home in Wilmington, Delaware, while the Secret Service has begun using agents from its presidential protective detail for the president-elect and his family.
George W. Bush, the only living Republican former president, called Biden “a good man, who has won his opportunity to lead and unify our country.”
But other Republicans, including Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, urged Trump to continue pursuing legal challenges related to the election, making a bumpy transition more likely.
Transition planning also may hinge on two Senate races in Georgia that have advanced to a Jan. 5 runoff. If Republicans hold those seats, they’ll likely retain the Senate majority and be in a position to slow confirmation of Biden’s top Cabinet choices and complicate his legislative goals, including calls for expanding access to health care and bolstering the post-pandemic economy with green jobs and infrastructure designed to combat climate change.
That could test Biden’s campaign pledge to move past the divisiveness of the Trump era and govern in a bipartisan manner.
While Biden’s aides acknowledged it would be easier for him to get his proposals enacted with Democrats controlling the Senate, Stef Feldman, the policy director on his campaign, said Biden has been known for working with Republicans to move legislation.
“The president-elect’s plan will remain the president-elect’s plans regardless of who wins the Senate majority, and he will work with colleagues across the aisle in order to get it done,” she said.
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