Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV) released a statement calling for the presidential transition to begin.
Said Capito: “While some irregularities and fraud have been found and should be punished, there is no indication that these are widespread enough to call into question the outcome of the election.”
Washington Post: “At the heart of this optimism is the belief that politicians on both sides of the aisle get more accomplished when they like each other. And the other business of Washington — the cultural institutions, the diplomatic corps, the gala fundraisers, the hundreds of historical traditions — need bipartisanship to really thrive. They struggled during the Trump administration, when everything became a test of loyalty and the notion that good people could disagree without being disagreeable was laughable.”
“Back to normal will mean more state dinners, a prestigious and glamorous way of reestablishing global ties. And it means that Washington events traditionally attended by the president and first lady for the better part of five decades — the Honors, the Alfalfa dinner, the Gridiron, Ford’s Theatre gala and the correspondents’ dinner — will likely return to their former glory.”
Asked if he expects Republican roadblocks to his nominees, Joe Biden told reporters, “Are you kidding me?”
He then laughed.
“President-elect Joe Biden plans to nominate former Federal Reserve Chairwoman Janet Yellen, an economist at the forefront of policy-making for three decades, to become the next Treasury secretary,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“If confirmed by the Senate, Ms. Yellen would become the first woman to hold the job.”
CNBC: “Yellen is widely seen as a politically “safe” pick for the role, likely to garner support from Senate Republicans as someone capable of pursing bipartisan compromise during an otherwise fragile time for the economy.”
President-elect Joe Biden’s transition team denied a Bloomberg report that it has asked Federal Reserve governor Lael Brainard to stay at the central bank rather than becoming Treasury Secretary.
Bloomberg said Brainard “emerged as a top contender to become the first female Treasury secretary before the election, but in recent weeks liberal figures in the Democratic party have pushed Biden to choose former Fed chair Janet Yellen for the post.”
“On its way out the door, the Trump administration is enacting new rules, regulations and orders that it hopes will box in President-elect Joe Biden’s administration on numerous foreign policy matters and cement President Trump’s ‘America First’ legacy in international affairs,” the AP reports.
“Yet, the push may not work, as many of these decisions can be withdrawn or significantly amended by the incoming president when he takes office on Jan. 20.”
President-elect Joe Biden on Monday unveiled his nominations for top national security positions in his administration:
New York Times: “The emerging team reunites a group of former senior officials from the Obama administration, most of whom worked closely together at the State Department and the White House and in several cases have close ties to Mr. Biden dating back years. They are well known to foreign diplomats around the world and share a belief in the core principles of the Democratic foreign policy establishment — international cooperation, strong U.S. alliances and leadership but a wariness of foreign interventions after the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.”
Axios: “The list, set to be announced at an event in Delaware on Monday, is a deliberate effort to package nominees in a way that suggests diversity — a ‘first’ for women and Latinos, a Black woman, and a white man.”
“The most remarkable part of President-elect Biden’s campaign and early picks for positions of true power is the unremarkable — and predictable — nature of his big moves,” Axios reports.
“Biden is obsessed with bringing stability and conventional sanity back to governance.”
Said one source familiar with his thinking: “He is approaching this — in part — like an experienced mechanic intent on repairing something that’s been badly broken.”
“Democrats close to President-elect Biden expect him to name Linda Thomas-Greenfield as ambassador to the United Nations, looking to a Black woman and respected diplomat to restore morale,” Axios reports.
President-elect Joe Biden intends to name his longtime adviser Antony Blinken as Secretary of State, Bloomberg reports.
Blinken was staff director on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in the 2000s when Biden was the top Democrat on the panel.
In addition, Jake Sullivan is likely to be Biden’s national security adviser.
Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) called on President Trump begin the transition process to a Joe Biden administration and decried what she called a “pressure campaign” mounted on state legislators by allies of the president to stop the results from being certified, The Hill reports.
“Republicans are making plans to torpedo some of President-elect Biden’s prospective Cabinet, agency and judicial nominees if the GOP keeps its majority,” Axios reports.
“Top targets include political names and civil servants who spoke out loudest against President Trump, forced out his appointees or became stars in the impeachment hearings — like Sally Yates and Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman — as well as longtime targets of conservative media, like Susan Rice.”
“Targets also include more obscure potential nominees for federal judgeships, solicitor general and the Supreme Court. Republicans worry these nominees could blunt conservative moves on deregulation or social policy.”
“Vice President-elect Kamala Harris took part in a classified briefing of the Senate Intelligence Committee this week and emerged in a strange position — being more informed about current threats than President-elect Joe Biden but bound by congressional rules to keep that information from him,” CNN reports.
Dan Balz: “Judging by his actions, Trump appears to have a motive other than overturning the election. He is determined to cripple Biden’s presidency even before it becomes official. No defeated president has ever undertaken such an audacious and anti-democratic act. There are short-term and longer-term consequences that could deeply affect Biden’s ability to govern.”
“This is a mean-spirited effort on the part of the president to gum up what should be an orderly, nonpartisan process.”
Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-ND) told NBC News that the Trump administration should begin cooperating with President-elect Joe Biden’s transition team, even as he repeatedly defended President Trump’s attempts to challenge the results of the presidential election with unproven allegations of widespread fraud.
Said Cramer: “It’s past time to start a transition, to at least cooperate with a transition.”
President-elect Joe Biden’s incoming chief of staff, Ronald Klain, said that some of Biden’s first Cabinet picks will be revealed Tuesday, although he declined to say who or what positions will be announced, the Washington Post reports.
“Joe Biden spent months of his presidential campaign safely ensconced in his basement, communicating to the country via a television camera. His convention speech was delivered to a near-empty room in Delaware. His remarks after being declared the 46th president were given before a distanced parking lot full of honking cars,” the Washington Post reports.
“And now, as candidate Biden transitions to President Biden, he is planning an inauguration ceremony that, like his campaign, will look like no other in recent American history.”
President Trump tweets:
“Why is Joe Biden so quickly forming a Cabinet when my investigators have found hundreds of thousands of fraudulent votes, enough to ‘flip’ at least four States, which in turn is more than enough to win the Election?”
Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites. He also runs Political Job Hunt, Electoral Vote Map and the Political Dictionary.
Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.
Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country.
Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.
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