November 16, 2020, US President-elect Joe Biden answers questions
from the press in Wilmington, Delaware. – Biden turned 78 on
November 20, 2020, exactly two months before he is to succeed
Donald Trump in the White House. The former Vice President is to be
sworn in on January 20, becoming the oldest president in US
history. (Photo by ROBERTO SCHMIDT / AFP)
US President-elect Joe Biden will name his first cabinet
picks on Tuesday, his chief of staff said, even as Donald Trump
clung to unsubstantiated claims of fraud despite growing dissent
from within his own party.
Biden has pushed ahead with preparations to assume the
presidency on January 20, regardless of Trump’s bid to undo the
results of the November vote.
“You are going to see the first of the president-elect’s cabinet
picks on Tuesday,” Biden’s chief of staff, Ron Klain, told ABC’s
“This Week” on Sunday.
Several US news organizations, including Bloomberg and The New
York Times, reported that the president-elect will nominate
seasoned diplomat and long-time aide Antony Blinken as secretary of
state.
Biden also said last week he had already decided his pick for
the key position of Treasury Secretary.
US media also widely reported he will name Linda
Thomas-Greenfield, who served as assistant secretary of state for
Africa under President Barack Obama, as his UN ambassador.
A growing number of Republicans have either recognized Biden’s
victory or at least urged the General Services Administration — the
usually low-profile agency that manages the federal bureaucracy —
to release federal funds for the Biden transition.
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With Trump refusing to acknowledge the election outcome, Biden
and his top aides have been denied briefings on sensitive domestic
and foreign policy issues — most urgently the coronavirus pandemic
battering the country.
Former New Jersey governor Chris Christie, who in 2016 advised
the Trump transition, said on ABC that the president’s legal team
was a “national embarrassment.”
Maryland Governor Larry Hogan, another prominent Republican,
told CNN that Trump was making the country look like a “banana
republic,” later tweeting the president should “stop golfing and
concede.”
Trump has golfed on every weekend day since the election, though
he took part virtually in the conference of the G20 leading
economies this weekend — skipping a Saturday session on the
pandemic.
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And even Representative Devin Nunes, an ardent Trump loyalist,
conceded backhandedly on Fox News that Biden had “run a successful
campaign from a basement.”
– ‘Without merit’ – Trump again tweeted on
Sunday about “massive numbers of fraudulent ballots,” a claim
dismissed by a long list of judges in several states.
Appearances by Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani have drawn
mockery, as have claims by another former member of his legal team,
Sidney Powell.
Powell has alleged baseless conspiracy theories involving a
possible hack of the election, earning her widespread derision but
also praise from some of Trump’s most ardent supporters.
Giuliani announced Sunday that Powell had been dropped from the
team.
Trump’s latest legal setback came Saturday, when Pennsylvania
judge Matthew Brann threw out the president’s fraud claims in a
scathing judgment.
Pennsylvania was a must-win state, and flipped to Biden after
backing Trump in 2016.
Brann’s ruling paved the way for Pennsylvania to certify Biden’s
victory in the state.
Biden won the state-by-state Electoral College votes that
ultimately decide who takes the White House by 306 to 232.
The Electoral College is due to formally vote on December 14,
with state certifications to take place beforehand.
– ‘Incredibly damaging’ – State certification
of popular vote results in presidential elections is usually
routine.
But Trump’s refusal to concede has raised concerns that he could
cause long-term damage to public trust in the voting system that
underlies US democracy.
The judgment in Pennsylvania came hours after Republicans also
requested a delay in certification in Michigan, another
battleground state won by Biden.
They requested a two-week delay to allow a full audit of results
in Wayne County — home to majority-black Detroit, which
overwhelmingly voted for Biden.
Michigan’s board of canvassers, which includes two Democrats and
two Republicans, is due to meet Monday to certify the results.
There were reports that a Republican member of the board was
considering voting against certification.
Biden has so far moderated his criticism of Trump’s actions,
though he has spoken of “incredibly damaging messages being sent to
the rest of the world about how democracy functions.”
AFP
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