Despite Donald Trump’s refusal to accept the US election
result, President-elect Joe Biden has taken the first steps towards moving 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 Vice
President-elect Kamala Harris launched a transition website,
BuildBackBetter.com, and a Twitter feed, @Transition46.
Meanwhile, Trump played golf at his course near Washington,
the same place where he was Saturday when the US television networks delivered
the news that Biden had secured enough Electoral College votes for victory.
“Since when does the Lamestream Media call who our next president will be?” Trump complained in a tweet on Sunday, forgetting the same media called his shock election four years ago.
Trump plans to file a string of lawsuits in the coming week,
according to his lawyer Rudy Giuliani, who said he had “a lot of evidence” of
fraud.
But former president George W. Bush said the “outcome is
clear” and added that he had called “President-elect” Biden and Harris to
extend his congratulations.
Bush said in a statement that “the American people can have
confidence that this election was fundamentally fair… We must come together for
the sake of our families and neighbors, and for our nation and its 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 Day
One,” 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, is 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 name a task force on Monday to tackle the
coronavirus pandemic, which has left more than 237,000 people dead in the
United States and is surging across the country.
He has also 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 country, although he may have trouble gaining approval for
more progressive appointees if Republicans retain control of the Senate — an
outcome that will depend on two runoff races in Georgia in January.
Biden, who after John F. Kennedy is just the second Catholic
to 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 1972 car
accident.
The Trump campaign has mounted legal challenges to the
results in several states, but no evidence has emerged of any widespread
irregularities that would 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 over the course of the week, we should get
it all pulled together,” Giuliani said.
First Lady Melania Trump also chipped in Sunday, tweeting:
“The American people deserve fair elections. Every legal — not illegal — vote
should be counted.”
Speaking on CNN’s “State of the Union” Sunday, senior Biden
advisor Symone Sanders dismissed the court challenges as “baseless legal
strategies.”
Biden received nearly 74.6 million votes to Trump’s 70.4
million nationwide and has a 279-214 lead in the Electoral College that
determines the presidency.
Biden also leads in Arizona, which has 11 electoral votes,
and Georgia, which has 16. If he wins both, he would 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 has a “responsibility” to help convince Trump it is
time to give up.
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 prefer to see the
world watching a more graceful departure, but that’s just not in the nature of
the man.”
Click to signup for FREE news updates, latest information and hottest gists everyday
Advertise on NigerianEye.com to reach thousands of our daily users
No comments
Post a Comment
Kindly drop a comment below.
(Comments are moderated. Clean comments will be approved immediately)
Advert Enquires - Reach out to us at NigerianEye@gmail.com