Biden begins transition as Trump won't concede
Donald Trump still refusing the defeat and tried to show doubt about the election results, where President-elect Joe Biden took the first steps on Sunday to move into the White House in 73 days.
With congratulations pouring in from world leaders and supporters nursing hangovers after a night of celebrations, Biden and VicePresident-elect Kamala Harris launched a transition website,BuildBackBetter.com, and a Twitter feed, @Transition46.
“Because when does the Lamestream Media call who our next president will be?” Trump complained in a tweet on Sunday.
Trump plans to file a string of lawsuits in the coming week, according to his lawyer Rudy Giuliani, who said he previously “a whole lot of evidence” of fraud.
But former president George W. Bush said the “outcome is clear” and added that he previously called “President-elect” Biden and Harris to extend his congratulations.
Bush said in a statement that “the American persons can have confidence that election was fundamentally fair… We must come together for the sake of our families and neighbors, and for our nation and its own future.”
Biden’s transition website lists four priorities: Covid-19, economic recovery, racial equity and climate change.
“The team being assembled will meet these challenges on DayOne,” it said in a reference to January 20, 2021, when Biden will be sworn in as the 46th President of the United States.
Biden, who turns 78 on November 20, maybe the oldest person ever elected to the White House. Harris, 56, a senator from California, is the first woman, first Black person and first South Asian person to be elected vice-president.
Biden plans to mention an activity force on Monday to tackle the coronavirus pandemic, which includes left a lot more than 237,000 persons dead in theUnited States and is surging in the united states.
He in addition has announced plans to rejoin the Paris climate accord and will reportedly issue an executive order on his first day in office reversing Trump’s travel ban on mostly Muslim countries.
Biden has vowed to name a cabinet that reflects the diversity of the united states, although he may have trouble gaining approval for more progressive appointees if Republicans retain control of the Senate - an outcome which will be based upon two runoff races in Georgia in January.
- ‘Accept the inevitable’ -
Biden, who after John F. Kennedy is merely the next Catholic be elected US president, attended church Sunday morning in his hometown of Wilmington, Delaware.
He also visited the graves of his son, Beau Biden, who died of brain cancer in 2015, and his first wife and daughter, who died in a 1972car accident.
The Trump campaign has mounted legal challenges to the results in several states, but no evidence has emerged of any widespread irregularities that could affect the results.
Giuliani told the Fox News show “Sunday Morning Futures” that Trump’s team would file a lawsuit in Pennsylvania on Monday against officials “for violating civil rights, for conducting an unfair election (and)for violating the law of the state.”
“The first lawsuit will be Pennsylvania. The second will either be Michigan or Georgia. And during the period of the week, we have to get it all pulled together,” Giuliani said.
First Lady Melania Trump also chipped in Sunday, tweeting:“The American persons deserve fair elections. Every legal - not unlawful - vote should be counted.”
Speaking on CNN’s “State of the Union” Sunday, senior Bidenadvisor Symone Sanders dismissed the court challenges as “baseless legal strategies.”
Biden received practically 74.6 million votes to Trump’s 70.4million nationwide and includes a 279-214 lead in the Electoral College that determines the presidency.
Biden also leads in Arizona, which includes 11 electoral votes, and Georgia, which has 16. If he wins both, he'd finish with 306 electoral votes - the same total won by Trump in 2016 when he upset Hillary Clinton.
Only two Republicans senators, Mitt Romney and Lisa Murkowski, have congratulated Biden.
Democratic Representative James Clyburn of South Carolina said the Republican Party includes a “responsibility” to help convince Trump it is time to stop.
Romney, who voted to convict Trump at his impeachment trial, said the president will eventually “accept the inevitable.”
The Utah senator added that he “would like to see the world watching a far more graceful departure, but that’s just not in the type of the man.”
- ‘Do not concede, Mr. President’ -
But Trump ally Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina said the 74-year-old president should keep fighting.
“We will continue to work with Biden if he wins, but Trump has not lost,” Graham said on Fox News. “Do not concede, Mr. President. Fight hard.”
In a victory speech on Saturday, Biden promised to unify the bitterly divided nation and reached out to Trump supporters, saying, “They're not our enemies, they’re Americans.”
“Let’s give the other person a chance,” he said. “Let this grimera of demonization in the US begin to get rid of, here and today.”
Financial markets welcomed Biden’s victory, with shares up in Tokyo and Hong Kong, and US futures up on Wall Street on Sunday evening.
The leaders of Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and other Europe sent congratulations to Biden, along with Australia, Canada, India, Indonesia, Israel, Japan and South Korea.
Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said he would wait until all legal challenges are resolved, while Trump ally President JairBolsonaro of Brazil had yet to make any official comment.
