WASHINGTON/WILMINGTON: US President-elect Joe Biden pressed on with building his governing team on Thursday, ignoring President Donald Trump’s refusal to concede. The Democratic former vice president has shrugged off the Republican incumbent’s long-shot challenge to his victory, naming longtime adviser Ron Klain on Wednesday as White House chief of staff, his first major appointment.
New records for daily coronavirus infections and hospitalisations in the United States ensured that the presidential transition will be dominated by the response to the pandemic, which has accelerated since the November 3 election. Trump remains in office until Biden’s inauguration on January 20. Foreign allies have congratulated Biden.
A group of prominent former world leaders known as The Elders, chaired by former Irish president Mary Robinson, urged Trump to accept defeat, fearing he was “putting at risk the functioning of American democracy.” Attention is now expected to shift to Biden’s picks for Cabinet posts, though aides have so far given few clues about when announcements will be made.
On foreign policy, diplomat and longtime confidant Antony Blinken is seen as a possible choice for secretary of state or national security adviser. Whoever is chosen for treasury secretary will have to cope with a recession and joblessness, as well as serving as the fulcrum to address wealth inequality, climate change and other issues. Klain, who served as Democratic president Barack Obama’s “Ebola czar” in 2014 during an outbreak of that virus in West Africa, is expected to take a leading role in the incoming Biden administration’s response to the nationwide spike in COVID-19 cases.
In Klain, Biden brings in a trusted and experienced operative who also served as Democratic vice-president Al Gore’s top aide during Bill Clinton’s administration. “He was always highly informed and his advice was always grounded in exceptional command of the policy process, the merits of the arguments, and the political and justice context,” Gore said.
The United States again set records on Wednesday with more than 142,000 new coronavirus infections and nearly 65,000 hospitalisations, according to a Reuters tally. The death toll rose by 1,464, approaching the levels reached during a catastrophic first wave earlier this year.
BIG BIDEN LEAD
Biden has won enough of the battleground states to surpass the 270 electoral votes needed in the state-by-state Electoral College that determines the next president. He is also winning the popular vote by more than 5.2 million votes, or 3.4 percentage points, with a few states still counting ballots. Since major news organisations called the election for Biden on Saturday, Trump has maintained a minimal public schedule, preferring instead to air his grievances on Twitter, and has not addressed the climbing virus case load nationwide. — Reuters
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