WASHINGTON: A day after clinching the US presidency, Democrat Joe Biden and his advisers were working yesterday on how to address the nation’s coronavirus crisis while reinforcing his intention to bridge America’s gaping political divisions.
Republican Donald Trump, the first incumbent US president to lose a re-election bid in 28 years, gave no sign of conceding as his campaign pressed ahead with legal fights against the outcome.
Illustrating the uphill battle Biden faces after taking office on January 20 in working with legislators from Trump’s party, the top Republicans in Congress still had not acknowledged the former vice president as the winner.
In a speech in his home state of Delaware on Saturday, Biden delivered a message of unity and conciliation, declaring that it is “time to heal” the nation and reaching out to Americans who voted for Trump and to congressional Republicans.
“The work starts right away,” Biden deputy campaign manager Kate Bedingfield said yesterday on NBC’s Meet the Press programme.
Biden has made clear that tackling the pandemic is a top priority. Bedingfield said Biden planned to launch a coronavirus task force to plot the way forward, led by former surgeon general Vivek Murthy and former Food and Drug Administration commissioner David Kessler.
More than 237,000 Americans have died of Covid-19 and coronavirus cases have spiked to record numbers in recent days. Biden made his criticism of Trump’s disjointed response to the pandemic a centrepiece of his campaign.
Biden has promised to improve access to coronavirus testing and, unlike Trump, to heed the advice of leading public health officials and scientists. Some 10 million Americans thrown out of work during coronavirus lockdowns remain idle, and federal relief programmes have expired.
Biden and his advisers also will move forward with the work of choosing officials to serve in his administration.
Bedingfield added that Biden will “address a mandate to bring the country together – to unify, to lower the temperature, to set aside the harsh rhetoric of the campaign and get to the hard work of governing.”
Two former senior US intelligence officials – Michael Morell and Avril Haines – have emerged as leading contenders to serve as director of national intelligence or run the CIA under Biden, several current and former intelligence officials said.
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